Boss’s Day Gift
Posted on October 16, 2008 by Ching under Life.
I got a gift card to Beau Monde from my work group. I have the best team ever!
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Over Six Years of Photos
Posted on October 15, 2008 by Ching under Flickr, Life.
Because I’m a nerd who likes to take lots and lots of pictures…
| 2002: | July (39) August (70) December (19) |
| 2003: | January (4) March (63) April (6) May (10) June (98) July (5) September (1) November (14) December (20) |
| 2004: | January (18) February (31) March (6) April (4) May (101) June (7) July (19) August (107) September (211) October (391) November (178) December (60) |
| 2005: | January (75) February (74) March (43) April (136) May (120) June (368) July (160) August (172) September (33) October (55) November (51) December (166) |
| 2006: | January (152) February (192) March (178) April (132) May (340) June (330) July (286) August (164) September (91) October (238) November (79) December (290) |
| 2007: | January (79) February (44) March (165) April (82) May (312) June (439) July (781) August (247) September (342) October (186) November (354) December (463) |
| 2008: | January (248) February (102) March (99) April (611) May (520) June (1049) July (919) August (672) September (199) October (1478) |
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Don’t Panic, They Say
Posted on October 13, 2008 by Ching under Life.
It’s hard not to panic when your “current value” line starts dipping below your “net investment” line. Around this time last year, I was still pretty calm. My 401k had a pretty good rate of return until last year when growth slowed to almost nothing. At least the “current value” was still above the “net investment” line and I hadn’t lost money… yet. Now that the blue line is below the yellow, the reality of the crappy economy is sinking in.
Every time I start to freak out, I just remind myself that I’m not retiring tomorrow. I’ve got another 40 years or so to go before retirement (depressing as that might sound, it’s actually good news in a market like this). This recession will be a mere blip on the graph looking back 40 years from now. Or so, I hope.
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People and Pooches Came Out for Unity Walk
Posted on October 12, 2008 by Ching under Flickr, Life.
We had a really good turn out at the Walk for Unity 2008 held at Central Riverside Park today. There were a couple thousand participants, easy. And that’s just counting people. If we count all the canines in attendance, we could probably add another hundred to that tally.
When we first arrived, Brian immediate noticed all the dogs. He said we should have brought Molly. He was really tempted to go back home and get her so she can socialize with the other pooches. Then we thought against it. It would have been sensory overload for her. She probably would have gone berzerk and we wouldn’t be able to control her. That, and we would have to pick up her poopies. LOL.
Anyway, we had several people from work participate in the event. Nothing like Cessna, though. They had over a thousand participants. They must have asked every single employee to attend. Everyone had their own team shirts and all of us were mere blips in the sea of Cessna shirts. Brian and I got to chat with a couple of people from Cessna and one of the Cessna guys joked that it was amazing how they were able to get the employees to show up for this event because they couldn’t get them to show up for work. Hmmm… I wonder if they have FMLA woes there, too. I suppose that it’s a plague that most companies suffer.
Even though we didn’t have as many participants as Cessna, we did win the prize for best shirt design. And, after the work fundraisers that got divided up among the various participants, I had collected almost $300 ($294 and change) in donations. Thank you so much to everyone who made a contribution. I really appreciate it.
Brian had pretty much told everyone how I forced him to walk with me so I decided to go the short route (instead of the long route) this time. I didn’t want to hear any more whining from him. It actually worked out better because we got to eat a small cup of frozen custard from Freddy’s and a little bit of chocolate chip cookie from Panera. By the time everyone else got back from the long route there were no more cookies left. I’m not sure if there was any frozen custard left, but there were a lot of participants so I’m guessing not everyone got some. The cookies went really fast, though.
Anyway, Angie found out that the massages performed by the Butler County Community College massage therapy students were free so we lined up to receive one. There was a short wait, but it was worth it. Hey, I won’t turn down a free chair massage. Although, Brian did get a much longer chair massage than I did. Beggars can’t be choosers, though. I was just grateful I got one.
I was telling Brian that if it were up to me, I would have given the massages for free but asked for donations. That would have been additional money raised to go toward Diversity Kansas. Brian thought it was a good thing that I wasn’t the one running the free massage area because we never would have gotten one as he left his wallet in the car.
We took ofter shortly after so that we could pick up a new optical mouse at Wal-Mart for Brian’s grandma. We went to see them before meeting Chad for dinner at Tsunami. Today is Brian’s grandfather Clark’s birthday and his grandparents’ 67th wedding anniversary. We went over to greet them and also bring them their gift, a digital photo frame that we had purchased a few weeks ago at Sam’s Club. I went ahead and loaded the internal memory with pictures, but it also accepts memory cards. Brian put it together for them. I think the remote is too small for either of them to use, though. We might return another time and help them figure out how to make the most of the digital photo frame, and maybe bring a memory card full of music so they can play music out of it also.
Anyway, we are doing our big multi-celebration on Sunday at Carrabba’s. It’s my most favorite restaurant right now. Since Brian and I are going to be away for week, we figured that we would celebrate my birthday early and do a combination celebration with the grandparents. Basically, we will celebrate grandpa’s birthday, grandma and grandpa’s wedding anniversary, and my birthday simultaneously. It should be fun. Chad said he will join us also.
Please comment on this entry if you’d also like to join us. This will help us get a head count for reservations. Hopefully, Carrabba’s allows reserverations. If not, we can just call ahead. We’re looking at being there around 11-ish next Sunday.
I hope everyone has a fantastic week. Thanks again for the donations.
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More About the Festival of Speed
Posted on October 12, 2008 by Ching under Family, Life, Travel.
The volunteers controlling the flow of traffic were a little bit confused about where people belonged so we got to drive around the parking lot inside the race track. I guess that worked to our advantage. It was really cool seeing all of the race cars on display. After driving around once, we proceeded to ask where the handicapped parking was. David and Donna remembered to bring their tag and it worked out great. Instead of making us go back out to the disabled parking section with shuttle pick up and drop off, we got park in the special reserved section just by turn 10 and next to the beer garden. We were right there where everything was and didn’t have to walk far at all.
What I found funny was that the beer garden was located right next to the family fair area. They also had a gigantic display screen that showed the races as they went on. I suppose this way dad can enjoy a beer while watching the races, as mom and the kids play in the amusement rides nearby. LOL. I wanted to do some rides, but I was denied. Brian said they are for kids only. I bet if I had a kid I’d be able to do it. =P They always let mommies and daddies ride with their little children. Mental note: rent a child next time. [I’m kidding!]
We had a lot of fun walking around the lot, checking out parked race cars, taking pictures, and talking to various racing teams. We also drooled over the Ferrari tent. It was more like a palace, actually, because they had large tent rooms extending from either side of the rig. It looked to me like they had an open bar and expensive catering with real china, utensils, and glassware. Only VIPs were allowed in so we just looked from a distance.
It was funny because these four scantily clad girls dressed in “Booble” camisoles drove by in their golf cart a couple of times as we were walking by the Ferrari section. We were thinking that they were probably trying to figure out how to get invited in. LOL. By the way, I didn’t know this until today (but I promised Brian and David that I would find out), “Booble” is a porn search engine. I guess you could say it’s like Google except for adult web sites. Pretty catchy, huh? I bet they’re making a killing.
While we were there we got to watch several races: F500 (which was in progress when we arrive), T1 (this was probably the most exciting one; it had two Ferrari entries), HP, and FF. I’m not sure what of these mean, but it was sure fun watching the cars go round and round the race track. I told Brian I would look them up because it helps to know what you’re watching. I did find a really good informational page about the various car classifications on the SCCA web site. Feel free to check it out if you’d like to learn more about these cars.
We got to watch the races from a couple of vantage points. Work had a tent by turn 12 and it was a great place to watch the cars go by while remaining in the shade. The flyer they handed out at Heartland Park mentioned berms, but I’m not sure what those are. Supposedly, they’re right by the grandstand. Speaking of the grandstand, watching from the top-most level is the best. You get to see almost the entire race track that way. It was awesome. The only downside is that you’re in the sun the entire time, so be sure to wear sunblock. I would have liked to have walked over to turn 8 and watched from there. According to the article in the flyer, that’s probably the most exciting place to watch because you are closest to the cars. It was a long walk, though, so we didn’t get a chance to check it out. I guess we could have driven the car down there. We didn’t think of that, though.
Anyway, we left right as the FF race was winding down. I think Brian wanted to stay for the last two races of the day, the GTL and the S2, but Donna was pooped so we all agreed to head back home. It worked out, though, because then we didn’t have to drive home in the dark.
When we got back into town, we stopped by The Diner. David and Donna bought us dinner. Thank you, guys! That was the perfect end to a fun-filled day at the races.
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