High Bid, Low Bid.

I know, I know. It may be shocking to see two posts go up within one day of each other. Try not to get too worried; it won't happen too often. :-)

I went to an auction yesterday. The auction lasted about 4 hours, though I didn't stay the whole time. It is a weekly event, but there isn't much I'm interested in at the moment. It's mostly glassware, furniture, pictures, silverware, tables, and anything else that could be seen as an ornament for a house. 45 seconds per auction, $30 average price, lasting four hours.... = ((60 * 4) * 30)/ (3/4) = $9266.66 dollars spent that evening. It is just an estimate. We were only there during the early hours, where they spent a lot of time getting rid of the small bookends, glassware.... The final number could be a lot higher.

Hmmm. Redoing the math again in my head... $9600. Which is right? Are either right? I'll leave it up to someone else to do the double check.

Last night I stumbled across gidol, where videos people put online compete against each other to be "The Best". I've seen it before, but I've never really looked through the videos much. Of what I saw, nothing was outstanding. My favorite section was the webcam competition, where people mouth the words to popular songs. The expressions on people's faces are extreme. The people who make the best videos are the people with the best and most variety of facial expressions. The high bandwidth required does mean I can't watch (aka skip) through them as fast as I might like, but I still enjoy browsing it. If you do look at the webcam section, vote for Lynne & Tessa!

Same Old, Same Old

One definite improvement over last week is the heavy rain. About every other day, we get a strong show, and there are two big windows by my workstation. Every time I look up or to someone else, my eyes pass over and out the windows. At the moment, I'm looking out the window to my left, looking at the at the garage roof. All along the top of the roof it's like a blurry whiteness from the rain hitting it. The window ahead of me is right in front where water tends to drain off the roof, so I have a heavy sheet of drops. The only downside is that there isn't much lightning... but that really should be a plus, since lightning isn't safe for human contact. :-)

Dan and I will try to go play racquetball again today. We've found a place that has 2 courts, and we'll go and see how full they are. As it turns out, neither one of us called the YMCA, so it is possible there will be courts there when we call, if this place doesn't work out.

I spent most of last week learning about threads and implementing them. Although this exact implementation of threads may not be useful when I get another job, it will definitely help me on any big projects with which I'll work. Ah, my time has run out. I had to clean and rebuild the project... and it took as long to compile as it did to type this. It's no small program at this point

Doing some work in Florida

The sun is shining, the humidity isn't too bad, and the temperature isn't as hot as it could be. I couldn't ask for a much better climate.

The plane arrived at Orlando's airport around 10:00. Everything went smoothly. We got our bags... except one of mine. Apparently one of my suitcases was left in Pittsburgh and I had to fill out a form. The traveling bag was sent to me the next day and I received it around 3:00.

Things have started settling into a rhythm. I aim to start working around 8:30 and try to end around 5:00. Some mornings I sleep past my wake up time and don't get down until 9:15. Allan and Judy have been pretty understanding so far, but I don't think I'll try for a 10:00 arrival. :-)

Two days ago, Judy walked us around the neighborhood for 2-3 miles, showing us the local fauna and where to see the alligators if we feel like getting up at 6:00. Yesterday, they took us to their aerobic workout gym and it's challenging enough that I will be becoming a member for the next 2 1/2 months.

There is not much else to say. I and my workmates are still settling in and haven't done or planned any major activities. I'll try to keep updates coming though. We're not too far out of Orlando, so there should be lots of activities to do in the evening... hopefully a shuttle launch in July - assuming it doesn't get delayed again.

Everying is Going (almost) Great

As I sit here, my mom and dad are sleeping. My nephew is sleeping. Even the Victoria is sleeping. But yet I sit here and blog - I need a life.

The weekend has gone well. I just came home from the family reunion (future blog - I promise) and a day and a half later, I'm off to help my parents at a craft show. All and all it is a wonderful way to spend the weekend - except for one little problem. I have a bad cold. The headaches aren't too bad (except at this moment) and the sore throat isn't too dreadfully painfull, and I'm not increadibly tired, and I'm not too low on energy, and the sunburn doesn't hurt too badly... :-) Add it all together, and it makes for a hard way to spend the days, even with family and friends.

Check out Victorias blog in the link on the left. She is due to have a baby girl or boy any day now! Go Vic!

Here is one picture from the reunion. We'll call this one a picture of "Cousin It".