Scooter Chronicles

Pointless, But Interesting Trivia
Yesterday, June 21, a famous TV actress and a famous TV actor both celebrated their 60th birthdays. They were Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross. I thought that was rather interesting given that they played Mr. and Mrs. Keaton on “Family Ties”

Lack of Songwriting Talent
Yesterday on my way home from work, the CD I was playing started skipping. So I took it out and started scanning the radio stations. Like usual when doing this, I ended up landing on Lehigh University’s radio station where they were playing some pretty good tunes from some new releases by well established musicians. Eventually they got to another song that they didn’t introduce. It started off really well musically, a little heavy, but cool. Then the lyrics started. The fifth line of the first verse was, “C’mon baby, show my your (rhymes with “hits”)!”

::: sarcasm ::: Poetry. Pure poetry. ::: sarcasm :::

I just turned off the radio at that point.

Classic American Literature
After reading a Hemingway novella recently, I have gotten an itch to read more of some classic American literature. Just yesterday at BookMooch I sent requests out for “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Unvanquished” by William Faulkner. I also want to read a Hemingway novel but can’t decide which won to go after. (Any suggestions?)

Though not fitting classic “American” literature, I also sent a request to mooch a copy of “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak. I have had a desire now for a long time to read that book. Of course I may not read any of these anytime soon (who knows how long it will take for them to show up), but at least I have copies of them when the urge strikes.

New Hockey Threads
So with the advent of the new Reebok hockey system that will have more sleek, tighter fitting sweaters (jerseys), many teams are changing designs. I have seen a few pictures floating around of two of the changes.

The Washington Capitals are going back to red, white, and blue, and also resurrecting their original logo with a modern make-over to it. The sweaters however are outrageous! The road sweater is mostly red, with some white vertical stripes under the arms. It looks like something you would see in a bad sci-fi movie of events that take place 50 years in the future. I am amazed they chose the design they did. (Though I like the idea of them using an update on the old logo.)

The other I saw was the Boston Bruins. They have gone the opposite direction. Even with the new sleeker sweater design, the Bruins new threads will look like their early 70’s duds. It’s a nice choice, and a good look, but not sure how it will translate with the new style sweater.

Once more official pictures come out I will post them. (For those that don’t know, I have collection of hockey sweaters. It was an obsession of mine once-upon-a-time.)

First Week on the New Job
It’s actually been boring. I haven’t had much to do at all. Part of the problem was that my supervisor was on vacation the first two days, and needed time to catch up. Also, there wasn’t a whole lot going on at this time. We will be starting a new project soon however.

Even with the slow schedule right now, I will be already making a business trip. They have a training and information/technique exchange meeting every two years that happens to take place the last half of next week. Thankfully we will be driving since the plant is rather close.

One thing that is very nice about my new job is my desk. It is in a large cubicle, about twice the size that I had at CHL. And I have my own window. It overlooks the front of the building and the main road off the Interstate. I can see if traffic is backed up or not (though it hasn’t been yet), and I have a nice view of the Cracker Barrel’s parking lot across the street.

I also was given a polo shirt and a nice fleece zip up. I haven’t received shirts with company logos on it since I worked at Forward Planning (which I left in 2000). Every other company I have worked for had that kind of stuff, but you had to buy it from them.

Nigel’s Big Head
I know what you are saying. “Not this subject again!” But the last time Nigel visited the doctor, we brought up the fact that we were worried about the opening in his skull (soft spot) on his head. I was under the impression that it was supposed to close up by the time a child reaches 18 months. The doctor informed Marcia that it’s usually the 2 year old mark, however he did think that Nigel’s opening was bigger then normal.

This, of course, led to more tests. The most important test was to see if he had an under active thyroid, which could cause the soft spot to close slower. Given his normal growth, the doctor thought it was unlikely, but it should be checked.

Marcia finally heard something back today. The results were negative, and the doctor is figuring, as he kind of did before the test, that it is probably bigger then normal since his head is bigger then normal. (Like we didn’t see that coming.)