You Can Hear A Pin Drop

I wish I had taken my digital camera. These photos are from the web. As with most photos, it’s just not the same as in person.

Went to the Mozart concert at the NC Symphony Sunday afternoon (Mozart’s 250th birthday this weekend). The music selection was geared toward a well versed audience. Showcased violin pieces for the guest violinist, Joseph Silverstein. Not a rousing ‘greatest hits’ concert, but a subtle versatile program.

The Meymandi Concert Hall opened in 2001. I went over there and poked around a couple of times during construction, but this was my first ever concert in the new symphony hall.

Beautiful hall. But the most astounding feature is the acoustics. When the hall first opened, there were a flurry of news reports about how great the hall is, and that it features design and construction that allows the hall to be ‘tuned’ as time goes on.

I’m no music expert. But I have been to my fair share of concerts in many venues. And, I think I’ve got a pretty good ear. The Meymandi Hall acoustics are World Class.

We sat on the third level, right, middle box. Not the best location for music clarity. It was awesome. The concert was open (non-reserved) matinee seating and we got there just in time. All the orchestra and balcony seats were taken. The box seats along the side were all that was left. Which shows that the Triangle music audience has matured. People know to go for the seats with the best location for music, not the ‘perceived’ better ‘box seats’.

The sound clarity was phenomenal. Absolutely no mechanical noise (such as HVAC) – damped closers on doors (with double entries to help further isolate the hall) – no ambient noise (however faint) whatsoever. The reflection of the music off the surfaces is perfect. Meymandi Hall really is a World Class symphony hall.

The Rest of the Orchestra was Strings

I had noted the orchestra was mostly strings. I counted 10 horns / winds plus bass drums. The rest, 30+, were strings.

JN informed me as follows:

The oboe player was getting red faced. JN’s assessment was the oboe player was struggling to compete with the strings.

Per JN there were 10 non-strings: 2 French horns, 2 clarinets, 1 oboe, 1 horn, and 4 other winds that I cannot recall plus kettle drums.

The rest (30+/-) were strings.

A Lot of strings!

Other Weekend Stuff

Not much went on this weekend.

I took the truck to the Ford Dealer Saturday morning for an alignment, oil change, tire rotation and balance. Afterwards, went by nephew and niece’s to borrow their, correction – MIH’s, telescope (Mead ETX 70).

I’ve been thinking about getting a scope, but I want to use theirs for a while first to see if I’ll really use a scope enough to spend the money on one. My plan is to spend this week familiarizing myself with how to operate the scope, tracking mechanisms, tripod, etc. With a little luck, I might be ready to try it out next Friday or Saturday night.

Nephew and niece said they’d call me if they decided to go to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences for Astronomy Days – which was this weekend. I could meet them there if they went. They never called so I guess they didn’t go.

JN came out from Durham and hung around for the weekend – which was nice to have the company. We grilled steaks Saturday evening. JN and I went to the Mozart Concert, a last minute decision. Got there about 10 minutes before the start and were fortunate to get tickets – there were very few empty seats.

Listened to the first half of the State at Clemson game on the way to the concert. State won in double overtime. We needed the win – especially after the Seton Hall debacle on Wednesday.

I also did the usual cleaning, laundry and some household chores. For some reason, it seemed like I didn’t do a lot, but looking back, it was a pretty full weekend.

Pack Folds Up

My sister MH) and brother-in-law (CH) are in town helping their daughter-in-law (MIH) look at preschools for EH.

MH and CH's son, my nephew, (ADH) works weekdays in New York City and isn't available to help his wife (MIH) do some of these things. (ADH's entertaining web log can be found at http://blogs.havill.com/cc)

MH likes doing this sort of thing anyway, so it's not a job or errand for her but more like fun. Plus, they love any opportunity to spend time with their granddaughter (EH).

Yesterday, CH took EH to a magic show and afterwards we met for lunch. EH is a real sweetheart and it's fun to watch her with 'papa' CH.

I gave my basketball tickets to MH and CH for last night's game against Seton Hall. What an abysmal game.

It was State's only home loss this season - and - it was State's worst game by far. Seton Hall came in and just demolished the Wolfpack. They jumped out to a 16 point lead early in the game and never relented. State just couldn't mount a come back. Seaton Hall won by 19 points. It really was a blow out. The early key was rebounding. Seton Hall at one point had out rebounded the Pack by 22 to 8. I never would have expected such a dismal game by the Pack this year. Talk about having an off night - we just didn't show up at all.

Today I again met CH and EH for lunch. They had been to Barnes and Noble doing some sort of story time and crafts. EH made a mitten out of paper with thick yarn for thread and decorated it. Then they checked out the Toys R Us going out of business sale and then met me for lunch at Dunderbak at Crabtree Valley Mall. MH and MIH showed up around 1300 just as I was leaving to go back to the office. MH and MIH found some promising preschools during this morning's outings. I think they have one more appointment for tomorrow morning - afterwich MH and CH will head back to Reston VA.

Let's see - what else on the home front?

Since JN has left the Army and moved back to his house, it's been really quit at home. I like having company, but I also like having the house all to myself.

In fact, MH and CH usually stay with me with they visit, but since there's such a full schedule with MIH looking at preschools, they are staying at MIH's in Cary this visit.

JN is not the tidiest person on the planet. Actually, that's a huge understatement. I've spent evenings thus far this week getting the house straightened up and back to normal.

Work

We, the State Construction Office, held our annual State Construction Conference Monday and Tuesday. The annual conference is the major gathering for businesses that do construction work for the State, including higher education. It's also of interest to firms that work for local governments as State statutes and regulations also apply to local governments.

North Carolina made the jump into allowing Construction Manager at Risk projects in 2002/3. There was a lot of anguish and worry when CMR was first proposed in the legislature. The tried and true single and multi-prime low bid process has worked well for public projects and there were a lot of unknowns with trying the CMR approach.

Projects have now progressed to where we're getting some measurable results. The CMR process works extremely well. Contract defaults are well below the averages experienced with traditional bid contracts. Budgets and schedules are being met at a rate better than bid contracts. The real stunner is Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUB) participation. Formally known as MWBE (Minority and Women Business Enterprises), HUB is the outreach and goal of trying to help disadvantaged (i.e. small minority) firms get public work. The early results under CMR is a stunning 17% participation by HUBs. That number is getting darn close to the overall minority population percentage in North Carolina. And it's about 3 times the percentage of HUB participation under the traditional bidding process.

The key is flexibility. With traditional public bidding, contractors and sub-contractors must secure performance bonds and sureties. HUB's, traditionally small and undercapitalized, can't secure bonds. CMRs however, can assume sub-contractor risk and use methods such as dual party check payments to allow work by HUB firms that otherwise wouldn't qualify under traditional methods.

That's not to say you just give out work to a HUB because it makes you feel good. These companies must have a track record; good reputation; proven results in order to work on publicly funded projects. But it is a method to give HUBs an opportunity to work. The idea is that HUBs can grow, become more financially stable, and eventually able to compete without special assistance. And, of course, expanding their businesses employs more people in disadvantaged communities and so on.

As HUBs become established and mature as businesses, they will be better able to compete in the private sector. And as HUBs grow - employees will gain experience and strike out on their own to establish new businesses. Increased opportunities beget more and better competition.

With any luck, the concept of HUB will become moot. A diversity of construction companies and trades will be established - background will become irrelevant. Best work at the best price will always be the bottom line - we'll just have a greater diversity of companies to choose from.

It really does work under the CMR process and with the added plus of fewer defaults and on-time and on-budget performance, CMR seems to be a winner all the way around.

As the use of CMR projects becomes more common with State projects, eventually local governments (counties, municipalities) will begin to try it out. The same authorization statutes that apply to State government projects also apply / enable local governments to use this contracting method. This will have a further, and potentially greater, effect on HUB opportunities around North Carolina. Plus the early indicator that CMR seems to work better overall anyway for larger, more intensive and complex construction projects will lead to wider use.

Here's my anecdotal indicator of the success of the CMR process and greater utilization of HUBs.

The first day of this year's conference was focused on the CMR process, how it's working so far, refinements, new projects coming up, etc. Let's talk business kind of stuff. Lot's of HUBs and first and second tier contractors in attendance.

Just a couple years ago the focus / discussion was on pleading for opportunities to get work. HUBs wanted the chance to prove themselves - basic opportunity and survival was the issue. This year, the discussion / issues were the traditional, routine, mundane complaints about process, breaking out bids into individual components, processing pay requests and such.

In other words, the issue of breaking into the business is done. The opportunity to get jobs is a given. Competition and a more level playing field is happening.

This year the complaints are what you would have from any contractor, regardless of background. The difference is, instead of complaints from a room full of middle age white guys, the complaints were from all different sorts of people. And the complaints had nothing to do with race, background, or opportunity. The complaints were about processing pay requests, coordination among trades, value engineering, equivalent specifications, time to prepare bids and proposals, gripes about the designers, drawings, plans, technical specs. All the usual stuff. The difference is the accents and make up of the people doing the complaining.

I was sitting over to the side listening to bitching and moaning, and actually being glad to hear it.
The photo isn't really representative of the Conference. The real action is taking place beyond the doors in the back of the room. The McKimmon Center lobby was packed with just as many people as in the meeting room. That's where networking was taking place. I wish I had a photo of that space - the lobby is where you would have seen a great diversity of contractors, all talking with each other about ongoing and upcoming projects, what work was around the corner, etc. In fact, we had anticipated about 1,000 people. It turned out to be about 1,800. The boost came when we added the half day on Monday with the topic of CMR. That's what contractors wanted to talk about - projects, contracts, work!

Speaking as a middle age Southern white guy Civil Engineer - I'd have never predicted the North Carolina construction industry as being progressive in cultural issues.

Heck, the words Southern, North Carolina, construction, progressive, and cultural just being in the same sentence . . . . .

My, my, my . . .

AdSense

I have been seriously thinking about adding AdSense to my on line journal.

I don't need the money.

Besides, my blog is only visited by family and friends (except for some regular visitors from Japan and Spain) so revenue potential is minimal to nonexistent.

So Why?

I figure that the web cost money to maintain. If I can be part of a grassroots effort to help generate revenue to maintain the web - then why not?

Even pennies can add up with time and volume.

Although advertisers will make almost nothing from my blog - every little bit can help.

I guess the bottom line is that I'll feel like I'm contributing in at least a small way - and the only way I can - to help maintain the web.

I'd really like your comments on this.

What a Great Game

Way to go Pack!

Congratulations Duke.

NC State played at Cameron Indoor Stadium last night. Without a doubt, the most intimidating basketball court in America. Make that – the World!

Both teams play awesome defense. The final score was determined by foul shots, which Duke made. As should be expected from the Number 1 team in the nation.

State played super, but Duke came up with the key play, a blocked shot, with a minute left.

State and Duke will likely meet again. Either the ACC Tournament or the NCAA Tournament.

Since Julius Hodge graduated last year, State hasn’t had a ‘star’ player to rely on. Our team has truly had to play as a ‘team’ with everyone contributing. Our bench could be the starting lineup just about anywhere. We are deep.

I’ve been expecting sophomore Cedric Simmons to have a breakout game. It was just a matter of time. Last night was the night.

Even though Duke won, State will be confident in every game we play from here on out. It was one of those games where even though it was a loss, you leave knowing you can legitimately win against any team we’ll play.

Bottom Line

We went nose-to-nose with the Number 1 team in the country - in their barn.

And damn near won.

Win or lose, it’s really really fun watching these guys play.

Thanks Herb.

The Hard Drive Died

The hard drive on my laptop died over the weekend. Even though they are portable, laptops can’t be abused. I believe my nephew has replaced both his and his wife’s laptops since it’s difficult to child proof them from a 4 year old.

JN insisted that we (i.e. he) could reload the needed software from the discs that I still had when I originally bought the laptop. So, Monday morning, I went to PC Warehouse in Cary, got a replacement drive and away we went.

It’s actually easy to reinstall the basic operating system – the confusion comes when trying to figure out which of the many drivers and applications to install. Often, there were multiple choices for the same task (such as wireless controls) and it’s a case of either you know what to install or you don’t and have to guess. JN actually did the vast majority of the installations.

I've been installing other items, such as printer drivers, setting up the email client, re-establishing links to things such as RadioParadise and Rhapsody, etc.

So far, so good.

I wasn’t able to retrieve files from the old drive – but then again, I don’t have any experience salvaging files so that loss was user derived.

It will be time consuming and a pain to reassemble certain files, such as financial records and addresses / contact information – but – not insurmountable.

Other Weekend Stuff

When an area has a successful sports team – it can energize the fans and create a sort of euphoria. That’s not happening in the Triangle. We’re suffering from sensory overload. Kind of a ‘too much of a good thing’ situation.

The Panther’s won Sunday and will play Seattle for the NFC Championship next weekend.

Duke is Number 1 in basketball (actually, not that rare). With NC State and Carolina (past season NCAA Champion) having great records so far and in the top 20.

And the Hurricanes Hockey team is in first place in the NHL.

If it were just one team – the whole area would be energized and excited. But with 5 teams playing so well – the fan excitement is sort of spread out.

It wasn’t that long ago that college basketball and NASCAR were the only sports that mattered in NC. Now with pro basketball, football and hockey – there’s a lot more teams to follow. And, the ACC is gaining ground in college football, which is where I’ve got my fingers crossed.

I enjoy it all.

Watched Ray (very good), We Were Soldiers Once (very very good) and The Village (disappointment) over the long weekend.

I can't believe I'm such a Dumb Arse!

Went to breakfast at the local restaurant this morning. Then to the Moncure Post Office to mail a package for anysoldier.com.

Back to the house where JN and I then left for the NCSU vs GA Tech game. Got to the RBC Center and . . . . .

I had the wrong parking pass!

and then –

We had the WRONG tickets!!!!!

We being ME!

Colorful language on my part. I hate being a dumb arse. Spend lots of $ on season tickets on Wolfpack games. This is the first time I’ve ever went to a game and had the wrong tickets!!!

Gave up and drove back home – watched the game on TV.

State won.

JN packed his car up with his stuff. He gets out of the Army next Wednesday, so he’s moving back to his house in Durham.

I installed a new light fixture in the dinning room after the State game. I really didn’t like the light that was in there – it was the original – very ordinary.

Been on the look out for a good light fixture for 2 years now – found one this week on line. Took a chance and bought it. It looks good – but it’s a little bit too large. I may send it back for the smaller version which is a few inches smaller in diameter.

Just finished watching the Washington – Seattle game.

Hope the Panthers win tomorrow.

Boston College Basketball

Watched the last half of Angels in America last night. Average in my opinion. The acting was awesome but the plot became strained and meandering. Too bad, it could have been a very good movie.

After the movie, switched over to basketball. NCSU won last night at Boston College. This was BC’s very first men’s ACC home conference game.

The BC home crowd was very quiet and didn’t seem involved in the game. It appears as though BC puts the donors near the court and the students away from the court.

Listen up BC big $ daddies – you gotta give up courtside and let the students sit there and in the immediate end zones. The kids make the noise and get your team fired up. Even though you donate the money, you have to let the kids sit next to the floor to cheer on your team and to harass the opponent.

That’s the way it’s done in the ACC.

Yes, you spend money to help recruit the team and to provide a great place to play and you want good seats in return. But, having the students provide the noise and excitement is just as important. Seriously – it really is important and effective to have your college rug rats courtside.

I’ve been a member of the Wolfpack Club for over 20 years; buy season tickets every year; early contributor to get our new Arena built; got my name on the wall plaque in the main lobby; and my seats are in the lowest level close to the home bench. But – the students sit in front of me! Same thing at football – club seats – with students sitting in front!

That’s the way it’s gotta be. You have to get the kids and their excitement courtside. It will make a difference. Trust me on this.

Welcome to the ACC; best of luck - especially against Carolina.

Monday, January 9

Pretty routine weekend. I did some house cleaning. JN went to his house in Durham and took care of some of his household chores. Watched some basketball and football.

Just a normal weekend: no fires, no trees falling on the house. Boring routine can be good!

State lost to UNC Saturday. Watching the game, I felt that State was the better team, but UNC would play really well in spurts and they got on a roll at the end. Even though they lost, State was impressive. I think we could go far in the NCAA Tournament if the guys stay healthy and play like they're capable of.

Sunday, the Panthers beat the Giants in the Wild Card game. The Panther's defense was awesome. The Giants helped beat themselves as well. Many errors on the Giant's part. Carolina plays at Chicago next Sunday. Should be a good game.

Watched a couple of movies this weekend. The Aviator was mediocre. The part of Howard Hughes was seriously miscast. If they had the right actor for the part, it could have been a very good movie.

Also saw the first 3 chapters of Angels in America. I had decided not to finish watching it after the first chapter, but an acquaintancence encouraged me to keep on with it. Said that it really was worth putting in the effort. After JN got back from Durham, we watched all 3 hours of disc 1 in one sitting. At the end of Chapter 3, it looks like it's going to really pick up.

Living out in the country, it's easier to use a service such as Netflix. I had dropped 2 dvd's into the mailbox on Friday and Angles in America was my third disc. JN was incredulous that I only had disc 1 at the house and that we'd have to wait for disc 2 to arrive this week! "You know, if a movie is in two parts, some people would have the sense to get both of them." More or less . . . .

lol

Work this week should be pretty good. Everybody is scheduled to be out in the field all week so I've got the office to myself. Today was very productive without any distractions. I expect the rest of the week will be just as good.

Chimney is OK

Chimney sweep / inspection this afternoon. Good news - every thing is A - OK.

Chimney service I use is Chimneys Plus (chimneysplusgutters.com) out of Pittsboro. I had already scheduled the cleaning for January 23rd. But, as regular readers of this Journal know, we had a 'flue combustion incident' over New Years Weekend. I called Chimney's Plus (actually, left a message on their voice mail Monday) and inquired about possibly getting out here before then. They called and we set up an appointment for today.

CQ is the owner. The first time CQ cleaned the chimney, he was just starting out as a one man operation and brought his small children with him. Today, his company has crews, professional signage, lots of high tech equipment (video inspection, etc.) and a web site.

Sometimes things work out. The official verdict from the 'almost serious chimney fire' is that my fireplace and flue all check out.

New Years 2006

Outside of going to a friend’s house for a New Years Eve party, the weekend was pretty much a typical weekend. A tree was close to falling onto the house Saturday and there was a chimney fire Sunday, but really, it was just the usual weekend.

Well, maybe a little bit of hyperbole.

There is, or rather was, a large hickory tree just behind the house that was struck by lightening back in August. It was an impressive strike. I was on the porch when it hit and it was loud! The strike split a large section off the back of the tree. Saturday, JN decided to tackle taking the tree down. Which, frankly, was a bad idea. He’s been obsessed about the tree, and I hadn’t called a professional to take care of it, so he decided it was time to take it down. Good intentions, but not a good idea. It’s one thing to get the chain saw out and take down an 8-inch small tree; it’s a whole ‘nother ball game when you’re talking about a 30-inch diameter, 80-foot tall tree.

Despite ropes and making some pretty good headway, it was evident that professionals were needed so I called a local tree guy.

Phil S and his dad (dba White Hill Tree Service) came right over. You can tell the difference when someone knows what they’re doing.

Phil’s a real card. Every time I asked him how much he was going to charge me, he’d ask me how much tax return I was expecting to get. Plus mentioning the fact his 6 children run up a big grocery bill. Finally, Phil gave me a price and headed back to his shop to get his equipment and to “wake up the old man, if he’s just sleeping and ain’t dead yet,” to help him.

Phil does the climbing, limb removal and ‘steers’ the tree on its way down. His dad does the main trunk cutting. They’re fun to watch since they joke a lot and obviously have a good time working together. After the tree came down, we cut it up into 18-inch segments which JN and I will have to split into fire place size. I estimate there’s at least 2 cords of wood. And, I’ll piece up some hickory chips for use in the grill / smoker.

It was interesting to look inside the tree. The lightening bolt went down the center of the tree, which was beginning to hollow. You could trace the complete path from about halfway up the tree, from an old branch stub, to the tap root – right down the center.

Phil is also in the National Guard and just got back from Iraq. His unit is also on rotation for Afghanistan deployment later this year or early next. He and JN had a pretty good time talking about Army life.

Saturday night, went to a low key New Year’s Eve party. I’m usually in bed by 9 or 10 PM so it was a struggle for me to stay up till midnight. Since it is a good 30 minute drive from my house, I decided to sleep on the sofa in the living room. Even with the noise, music, etc. of the other guests in the rest of the house, once I had a pillow and blanket, I was out like a light. Got up around 6 AM.

Sunday I didn’t do much. Finished putting together a couple of packages to mail out, watched some football, ran some errands and went to bed early (8 PM?) since I had been up the night before.

JN has a roaring fire going every evening. He likes to sit in the recliner chair next to the fireplace listening to music and works on his laptop. Sunday evening was no exception.

Around midnight, he hears a sudden rumbling sound, goes outside and sees flaming sparks coming out the top of the chimney. He runs back to my room, yells at me to “WAKE UP – THERE”S A FIRE – CALL 911!!” and takes off back to the living room.

I’m outside in an instant (on the way – the fire in the fireplace looks ‘normal’) but outside I see the same flaming sparks coming out the chimney. I quickly get the hose connected up and aim water at the top opening of the chimney. (FYI – Having your yard hoses on wall mounted reels are very convenient for day to day yard work. It’s also very convenient when you need to start spraying down the roof and chimney in about 30-seconds flat!). I’m also dialing 911 once I get the water stream started.

JN, meanwhile, grabs pots of water from the kitchen and douses the firebox and closes the damper (using a fireplace tool) to cut off the oxygen flow.

It’s all over within 2 or 3 minutes.

The 911 operator stays on the line until we’re sure the situation is under control. As a further precaution and to continue to cool things down, I get out a ladder for a better angle and adjust the spray to more of a wide finer spray (to lessen sudden contraction in the flue) and continue to spray water over the chimney opening grate.

I finally go back to bed. JN decides to sit up all night ‘just in case’ and is sitting on the sofa when I get up at 8 AM.

We clean out the ashes and half burnt wood and clean up the back wash from the hearth. Surprisingly, there’s very little mess. Then, we get the lights out and examine the flue. It’s darn near perfectly clean looking!

There’s a couple of interesting observations.

Always be awake if you have a fire in the fireplace. JN does this as he’s the one who builds the fires and stays up later then I do. If he hadn’t been sitting next to the fireplace, we very easily could have had the opportunity to see if the smoke detectors would have woken us.

Have the chimney cleaned on a regular basis. I do that and ironically, had called the local chimney sweep the week before last and made an appointment for him to come out mid-January. Usually I get him to come out in August or September but had neglected to do so this year. Darn near paid a heavy price for procrastinating.

Even with a regular yearly cleaning, you can still get build up so keep alert.

Avoid building fires that are too large. That is where we (JN and I) have been remiss. Modern fireplaces are not designed to heat a house. They’re more for enjoying a warm cozy room. If the fire is too large and hot to stand in front of – it’s just simply too large and hot.

On the plus side – both JN and I reacted quickly and instinctively. When JN woke me up I grabbed the phone – took off for the living room to assess – heard JN in the kitchen and water running – and immediately headed outside for the hose while dialing 911. No panic, no discussion, no “huh?” “What?” “duh” moments – just instant, quick but deliberate, action. In fact, in retrospect, we were both completely calm. Just a bit of adrenalin rush – but that’s about it. We both instantly knew what to do and just did it. (Take notes Michael Brown – if confronted with an emergency again in the future – like the ad says – Just Do It!)

In fact, while I was on the phone with 911, I was simultaneously deciding it would take the fire department too long to get there and the only things to grab would be shoes, wallet (for ID and credit cards), keys (get the truck and car out of the garage for transportation in the aftermath), pull on some long pants, and that’s it. The rest would be history. The only decision to make would be how long to fight the fire to leave us enough time to safely pull back and get the hell out. I was actually thinking it would almost be kind of pointless for 911 to wake up the Volunteer Fire Department because by the time they got there it would all be over but dousing the ashes.

Attacking the situation from both directions, chimney and firebox, quickly got things under control. The combination of water spray from above (killing the sparks and creating a vapor barrier), dousing the firebox (creating steam and cutting off the heat source) and closing the damper (cutting off oxygen) put out the flames almost instantly. Plus – the flue build up could not have been much. When we examined the flue on Monday, it looked as though it had been cleaned!

In retrospect, one lesson we were reminded of is to keep fires a reasonable size. We never leave a fire unattended – which alerted JN to the situation. Keep the flue cleaned and maintained. Even still, accidents can happen. When an emergency happens, stay calm. Well, that’s either going to happen or not. That’s more of an intrinsic personality trait you either have or don’t. In an emergency, when in doubt, get the hell out. Possessions are nothing.

Let’s see – what else did I do Monday besides clean up a little?

I ran errands, went out for lunch, and watched bowl games all afternoon and evening. I went to the Post Office to mail a couple packages for anysoldier.com but forgot they were closed for New Years Monday (mailed packages today during lunch). PBS had the Vienna Philharmonic New Years Concert (tape delay) that was great. Pulled up the North Carolina Symphony web site and found a couple of concerts to go see. A Mozart 250th birthday celebration and another program featuring Beethoven’s 5th. Individual tickets are on sale now so I’d better get them this week.

JN slept during the day as he had stayed up all night to watch for ‘hot spots’. Once he got up he went grocery shopping, cooked dinner and then griped about having to watch football. I don’t think he realizes there’s a bowl game tonight and tomorrow night! LOL

Other than about 30 minutes of excitement Sunday night, all in all, it was a pretty routine weekend.

Work today was routine. Everybody seems to have weathered the Holidays well. Last week it was very quite since a lot of people took the week off to bridge between Christmas and New Years. You can get a lot of work caught up when the office is empty.

Overall, since the house didn’t burn down and no one’s died (as of yet), I’d have to say the New Year is off to a promising start.

:-)