Status For 12/30/11

Last week I said everything was on schedule, and last week everything was on schedule.

This week . . . not so much.

But to be fair, that’s only because one of my consultants brought an unexpected possibility to my attention today; it’s not a sure thing, but it’s still not a bad bet since it’ll only cost me a delay of two weeks to see if this possibility opens up.  It’ll be worth the delay if it does, and if it doesn’t . . . well . . . you place your bets, and you takes your chances.

Which is why I’m only betting something I know I can afford to lose.

What Can I Say? The Man Knew What He Liked.

Now that I think about it, to the best of my knowledge something else my grandfather (paternal) never said was, “I think I’m in the mood to have something other than meat and potatoes for dinner tonight.”

Something Else My Grandfather Never Said

With enough pretty frosting on the surface, you can make even a pile of dung look appetizing . . . but once you’re past the frosting, that dung still isn’t going to taste sweet.

(And since I labeled this as “Something Else My Grandfather Never Said,” here’s a link to another one of the things he never said.)

Tales From Christmas 2011 (Part Two)

Since this was L’s second Christmas, the good news was that this year he was big enough to get his own Christmas stocking.  The bad news was he wasn’t big enough to have anything really good in it . . . a couple of types of dry cereal he likes and a whole apple being the bulk of it.

While he didn’t seem to mind, I was suitably horrified, and I made a public promise (that I am repeating here) to ensure that he got a better Christmas stocking next year.

Overall he seemed to enjoy Christmas even though he’s still a little unclear on the whole “gift” concept, but he likes new things and he likes playing with paper, so it all worked out.  As always with small children, he latched onto one thing from all his loot as his favorite, and that one thing took up the lion’s share of his attention.

Three guesses what it was.

Yep . . . it was the apple.

Tales From Christmas 2011 (Part One)

L. being as young as he is, there aren’t that many tales to tell from this past Christmas (two come to mind as I type this), but I think trying to put them all into one post would run too long, so I’m splitting the stories up.

First off, let me say that I received a traditional Christmas morning greeting by being woken up by bouncing on the bed and an excited voice trumpeting, “It’s Christmas!  It’s Christmas!  Time to open presents!”

Have I mentioned how much I loathe being woken up early?

Even so, one look at that adorable face and those bright excited eyes evaporated my irritation like morning mist under a blazing sun, so I chuckled and rolled out of bed.

I just hope your mother woke you up gentler than she did me, son.

Status For 12/23/11

Like I said last week, the last couple weeks of this year are my best chance for making an idea into reality and seeing how well it works in practice.  This project is still on schedule, with the bulk of the work deliberately scheduled after Christmas because that’s when my main source of help will be most free.

(And, yes, I’m still going to keep being cagey about the exact details of this project for a little while longer.)

So in the meantime, I’m officially shifting my gears . . . now into “enjoying the holidays” mode for the next few days.

Happy Holidays, one and all!

Not Foreshadowing, Just A Personal Reminder

It is a bad plan that cannot be changed.

– Publilius Syrus

Either Way, It’s Time To Pick Up The Pace

Last night while out eating a late dinner, I overheard something that made me feel impelled to now give a bit of friendly advice to an anonymous gentlemen, much as I once did for an anonymous doctor.

Sir, when your girlfriend who is seated across the table from you announces to the server in a voice loud enough to carry the length and breadth of the restaurant that she “expects a ring on her finger” from you “no later than next year,” you really only have two practical options at that point:

1.  Accept that your remaining time is about to be measured in terms of “Till death do you part.”

OR

2.  Accept that your remaining time is about to be measured in terms of “Length of your head start.”

For Want Of A King

Even though it hasn’t been opened yet and I have no idea what it is, I have already picked my favorite present that L. has received this year.  Now you might think this would be an odd thing to pick given what I know about this present is largely limited to the givers, the shape of the box (rectangular), and that’s it’s not heavy enough to be a brick . . . but bear with me.   It’s the wrapping paper, you see, it’s red, with the words “NO Peeking” and “Santa is watching” running in alternating bands all around it.

But that alone isn’t why it’s my favorite.  Remember that I said the box was rectangular?

There’s a point on this present where the warning that “Santa is watching” is almost perfectly framed on one side, but the admonition above it of “NO Peeking” is chopped off sharply, cutting off the last four letters, giving a very different message in the process.

You can call my amusement at this juvenile if you like, but I remember wondering if I should be concerned about exactly that same thing when I was child, thank you very much.

“Don’t Think I Haven’t Heard The Lyrics To ‘Minnie The Moocher!'”(1)

Anybody who bemoans the lost “innocence” of “the good old days”(2) really should spend some time listening to the lyrics of some early jazz songs.

______

(1)  Good on you if you recognize the source of the quote used in this title.

(2)  An indeterminate period of time that is always just far enough in the past that most people don’t remember it clearly anymore.