Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Redistricting Meeting

Well, it looks as if Ali will for certain be going to a different school next year, the only question is going to be the exact boundaries of the redistrcting. They said that right now the map of the new districts is just a draft, but that the final version won't be much different, it will only vary by a couple of blocks here and there.

The one question I want to know is whether or not Alison will still be bussed. We live on the edge of the district right now and from what I have heard, the only reason she is bussed right now is because she has to cross a major roadway (Both Pilgrim Rd. and Appleton Ave.) to get to school. I believe the policy is that anyone who is within a (2) mile radius from school can be bussed, but it isn't mandated. We'd have to pay something like an extra $400 a year to have her get bussed. Now I don't know if that rule applies to all students, or just middle and high school students.

I wasn't able to ask the question because the meeting was dominated by Ben Franklin parents. They were all crying that their kids would be moved and they wanted them to stay at BF (the proposal has about 230 kids from BF being distributed to other schools). I had to laugh. These were the same parents who could have given a rip last spring when they were going to close our school (Riverside) and one other to merge into one large elementary school. The Superintendent (who I actually like very much) distributed questions from a previous information meeting the week before at Ben Franklin. In reading thru the questions I really hope they do redistrict just the way they are saying they will and move the kids from BF. The a-holes at BF were slamming RS, the students and staff saying they didn't want their kids going to a school that was as "troublesome" as Riverside. They also referenced state test scores. Apparently RS was something like the 75% while BF was 90% on that state testing scale. Well one reason could be that they stopped taking 220 kids and BF and sent them all to RS. Ben Franklin isn't a private school as much as they want to believe that it is, and if you don't like it there is always private school.

I have come to the realization that Ali is going to be moved, and that is fine. I'll miss the staff at Riverside, but there will be a lot of families moving from Riverside with us, so Ali will still have friends and I am sure we'll get used to Shady Lane.

Still Pulling A Paycheck

Well it looks like I'll at least be pulling a paycheck for a while longer. I guess that is one of the good things about being the head of my department. Our office has done a bit of restructuring and moving around responsibilities. I end up having to go into daily meetings at 8:00 to report on projects, problems, etc. as well as having to sit in on meetings with a consultant who is trying to help the company implement lean manufacturing philosophy. On top of that I have a few other new projects that my boss has tasked me with, so I suppose that means my job is safe for now. *phew*. I think I'll get things updated however, just in case.

School Board Meeting Tonight

On top of all the other things we have going on (Sarah has practice for her dance team tryout, and Alison has dance class) we have the “informational school board meeting” on the redistricting plans. It’s going to be a busy evening. Details of the meeting to be posted later tonight.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Bad News At Work

Things are slowing way down at work. This week our office had a meeting where the CFO laid out was happening with the company. About two weeks ago, we had to lay off about 10 people out in the shop in an attempt to cut costs. We are also cutting out our third shift and moving those people to second shift. There will only be a skeleton crew (2 or 3 machinists) working third shift. This is the first time in the 39 year history of the company that they have had to lay off employees, so it was a particularly hard ting to have to do.

After going over all of this, we still have to cut more, and that is going to entail layoffs in the office. We only have (18) office personnel so I don’t know how many people will get cut, but I do know that certain people are safe, such as the CFO, President, etc. Hopefully, being the head of the QA Dept. And the fact that I just got a couple of new assignments/projects yesterday, that means my job is safe for now. The reorganization/restructuring of responsibilities n the office will be happening next week, so I hope by next Friday I can still say I am collecting a paycheck. In any event, I believe it is time to make sure my resume is updated and start sending out some feelers for other opportunities that are more stable.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

North JH Open House

Tonight was the North Jr. High open house. We got to go and see Sarah's classrooms and hear the pitches from her teachers about class rules, grades, parent involvement expectations, etc. I wasn't wild about it, mainly because of the size of the school. I like her grade school. They had about 300 kids total. Sarah's 6th grade class has about 400 kids. But we did get to meet a lot of her friends. What a difference from her first day of Kindergarten. Kris and I were talking about how shy she was and how scared she was going to school. Tonight she was waving to girls and saying hi to everyone. What a littel social butterfly. So far she is enjoying school, let's hope it stays that way.

First Cold of the Year

Friday when Sarah got home from school she was complaining that her throat hurt, her nose was running her eyes were all watery and she just generally wasn't feeling well. I told her to go to bed early and get some rest if she wanted to cheer at her game on Saturday. Well Saturday she woke up while Kris was getting ready for work @ 5:30. an hour later she was throwing up, and her temperature was almost 101. No game for her. She stayed in bed all day Saturday and half of Sunday (Good thing because I didn't want her to miss any school). The bad thing is that by Tuesday, I had the same thing going... headache, sinus pressure, etc. The good thing is that I think I headed it off. I never spiked a fever or anything, just a lot of head cold stuff. NOw I'm down to just a nagging cough. Good thing it didn't turn out to be pig flu.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Redistricting

Last Friday Alison brought home a notice of an upcoming school board meeting having to do with redistricting. Kris was talking to the neighbor who told her that there was something in the Menomonee Falls News about kids from Riverside being moved. So we went to the school district website... nothing. then we searched the paper's website and there was a story about the school district voting to have a K4 center at one of the schools and in order to accommodate it, they would be redistricting. The story said 43 kids from Riverside would be moved to Shady Land School next year. Kris and I are mad! We lobby and fight to keep our school open and when we win, the school board turns around and says, yeah, by the way, the school will stay open but you won't be going there. There'll be another board meeting next week that we'll be going to to find out what is going to happen exactly, so stay tuned to see where Alison will go to school next year.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

More Chipmunks

We caught our third chipmunk Thursday. Wednesday when we got home from letting the second one loose I thought I would reset the trap, almost as an afterthought. The last time we had chipmunks living under and around the house I only caught two. But I set it anyway. Thursday morning after Sarah left for school I thought I should just take a look at the trap quickly, and yep, it was tripped. Unfortunately, I had to get Ali to school, so it sat in the trap until I got home around 6:00. I sort of felt bad, but eh... it's a chipmunk right? I think I'll give it a few days before resetting it.

Friday, September 11, 2009

9/11 Eight Years Later

I am going to take a break from posting things only about our lives for just a minute. In my surfing around the worldwide interweb, I cam across a blog that had linked to a site started by Dale Challener Roe (or DC Roe) called Project 2,996. It is a network of bloggers who have decided to annually on 9/11 to remember one (or two) of the victims of the 9/11 attacks. I thought it was a great idea because the farther away we get from that day, the more people forget. Sure you hear about it on the news, or you hear people talk about it, or even see images of the WTC on fire, but unless you watched it and lived it while it was happening, I don’t think you can ever truly appreciate the impact it had on people’s lives. And while the victims will always have their immediate friends and family to remember them, I think that they need to be remembered by more than just their loved ones in order to realize the impact of what happened that day and to never forget why we fight terrorism.

I picked two people off of the list to remember, Sara Elizabeth Low and Richard D. “Richie” Allen. I chose Sarah Elizabeth Low because it is the my oldest daughter's name, Sarah Elisabeth. I still remember her watching the TV with us on 9/11/2001 and looking at me asking why those buildings were falling down. I thought that because of the name it would be a good choice, since I would always remember it. Second, Richie Allen was an NYC fire fighter. I have, over the years, developed a special appreciation for fire fighters. My father was a fire fighter for 25 years and it wasn’t really until 9/11 that I realized the extent of what he did for a living. Every day he went into work he was essentially putting his life on the line. He never knew when there was going to be a fire, never knew what the extent of that fire would be when he went on a call. Just like members of the armed forces, police and firefighters put their lives on the line with every call and do it willingly never knowing if the next run they go on will be the last run they go on. They are lifesavers, and true everyday heroes, and I'm proud to tell people that my father was a firefighter.

This is Sara Elizabeth Low.

Sara Elizabeth Low was a flight attendant and a resident of Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up in Batesville, Arkansas and graduated from Batesville High School in 1991. Sara was a track athlete in high school, and her team won a state title in 1989. In honor of her memory, Batesville has annually held the Sara Low Memorial 5K Run and Walk.

Sara died at the age of 28 in the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She was one of nine flight attendants onboard. Sara and the rest of her flight crew, being on the first hijacked plane, could have no inkling of what lay in store, unlike on United Airlines Flight 93, where the crew and passengers learned of the earlier attacks and mounted a pre-emptive counterattack that stopped the hijackers from succeeding in their suicide mission. The last recorded information that we have about Sara Low is that on the highjacked American Airlines Flight 11, she gave to another flight attendant, Amy Sweeney, "her father's calling card, which allowed [Sweeney] . . . to pretend to be a passenger and use an AirFone to call Logan Airport and relay the vital information." Even a small act like that took presence of mind and some degree of courage in terrible circumstances that the vast majority of us will never face.

Despite having earned advanced degrees in banking and finance from the University of Arkansas, Sara E. Low was dedicated to her career with American Airlines. And the 29-year-old flight attendant was stationed along the eastern seaboard--a part of the nation she adored. For Sara Elizabeth Low, a career as a flight attendant was a birthright. Family vacations meant piling in the back of her father's small plane and heading from Batesville, Ark., to the Gulf Coast or Rocky Mountains. "Sara didn't think there was too much difference between being in the plane and being in a car," said her mother, Bobbie Low.

Poised, collected, yet prone to sudden streaks of silliness — a personality to calm even the most enraged traveler. And her job sated her wanderlust, her need for cosmopolitan glamor.

"She would call us from the different destinations and give us a hard time," said her older sister, Alyson, a teacher in Fayetteville, Ark. "In the summer she'd phone from San Francisco or Vancouver because she loved that she had to wear a sweater, rubbing it in about how hot and humid it is in Arkansas."

Yet one aspect of the itinerant life wore on Sara: in her first two years as a flight attendant she had about two dozen roommates. So at age 28 she had finally found a place of her own in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, the city from which she boarded Flight 11. "It had a fireplace and wooden floors," Alyson said. "Our mother went to Boston in the summer to help her clean it up, and it was going to be a real home."

"She absolutely loved the airlines and helping people," her father, Mike, said. Sara is survived by her parents, Mike and Bobbie Low of Batesville, and her sister, Alyson Low of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The second person I remember is Richard D. Allen, know to family and friends as "Richie".

Richie was 31 on Sept. 11, 2001. He was a life-long resident of Rockaway Beach. He became a victim of this tragedy as he heroically saved lives in the line of duty.

Richie loved the beach and worked Rockaway’s beaches as a lifeguard for many years and he treasured it. The beach was a peaceful place for Richie and brought him comfort; it was Richie’s Heaven on Earth. He loved the ocean, which is where he surfed, fished, swam and paddled.

Before becoming a fireman and when not lifeguarding on the beach in the summer, Richie spent his winters as a New York City Public School teacher. He quickly and easily gained the admiration and respect of his students as they could tell that he was not like their other teachers. To his students, Richie was someone they could relate to and they described him as “laid back” and “cool”.

People become firemen for many reasons. Richie’s family believes that he became a fireman because saving people and helping is what gave him life. During his short life, he saved many people; some he saved as a fireman, some he saved while lifeguarding and some he saved from themselves. His family believes that this is what God put him on this earth for. Once people met Richie, their lives were changed forever.

On September 11th, Richie was doing what he loved to do: he was helping others. Richie was a probationary New York City firefighter with Engine 4/Ladder 15 in Manhattan. While he was on the fire department for only a short time, he fulfilled a life-long dream. Prior to becoming a fireman, Richie held several other jobs with NYC, which he loved. He worked for the sanitation department, he was a teacher for the Board of Ed and spent his summers working as a lifeguard in Rockaway. All of Richie's jobs entailed serving the people of NYC and making a difference in other people's lives.

Richie is survived by his very proud and loving family, which includes his parents, Richie Sr. and Gail; two brothers, Luke and Mathew; three sisters, Maggie, Lynn, Judy and her husband Mark; close family relatives, Kathy, Charlie Sr., Charlie Jr. and Katie Marquardt, as well as many other dear friends and relatives.

Thanks to www.livingtribute.com, www.legacy.com, www.sep11memories.org, & gypsyscholarship.blogsot.com for the information on these victims.

Community Organizing

Wednesday night I watched President Obama address Congress and once it was done, I was in a sufficiently bad mood. So as I was putting Alison to bed, I got a call from MU soliciting donations. Now while I understand the need to hit up alumni for money, I really hate having them cold calling me asking to donate hundreds of dollars. If I had it, I am sure that I would give them something, but I don’t, especially now.

So now I am in a doubly bad mood. No sooner have I hung up with MU than the doorbell rings, and it is some 20 year old kid from a “Community Organizing” group called Wisconsin Citizen Action. Think of it as Wisconsin’s version of ACORN. He starts trying to get me to sign his petition for health care reform and as I have had people from this group stop at my house before for other things, I knew he was going to ask me for money. Big mistake. So I stopped him about 15 seconds into his pitch and told him to just stop. While I agree that the health care system needs to be fixed, I am not about to give the government a blank check. I told him I am totally not on board with this plan the Dems are pushing as it is the first step toward a complete take over. And make no mistake, as soon as they get their foot in the door so to speak, it is only going to be a short time until they have their meat hooks in everything. Remember, Obama didn’t want to run a car company, but yet the government still owns OMC (Obama Motor Corp., formerly GM). But back to the story...

The kid has been trained well because he isn’t taking no for an answer. I got the pitch of “since you agree health care needs to be reformed, why not speak up with 100,000 other people so your voice is louder?” Well junior, it’s because you don’t speak for me. If your group believed the same thing I do, I’d be fine with it. But just because I want to see improvements in the health care system doesn’t mean I want the government to take it over, which is what you and your lib friends want. Putting my name on your petition would imply that I want to have the Government run the show. Sorry, I don’t. I am in touch with my Congressman (Sensenbrenner) and make my positions known to him. That is who counts. He is the one voting for me, not your fringe, kook group. I then tell him that I am completely 180 degrees from the point of view of everything Wisconsin Citizen Action is and does, trying to push a left wing agenda. So he asks me why. I proceed to tell him of my previous run ins with Wisconsin Citizen Action. I had some greenie kook trying to get me to sign a petition to stop the Crandon mine about 7 or 8 years ago, something I had no problems with going in. Then I had a run in with someone trying to get me to support a ban on handguns and concealed carry laws. Again, an issue where I amon the opposite side. So I told him, every time you people come around you are pushing these left wing, nanny state causes. Sorry, count me out.

That finally did him in and he left my porch. I could have been much more rude, and engaged him point by point, but I was in no mood and Ali needed to be tucked in, so i just let it go. Man, I am really worried about the direction this country is heading.

Parent Meeting and New Dance Claass

Tuesday night we had a lot going on. Sarah had cheer practice and Alison's teacher held her "parent orientation" meeting. Since Ali is in the multi-age class Kris and I already know her teacher and we're pretty familiar with how she runs her classroom, but we thought we should go anyway and we could meet some of the parents from some of the new kids in the class. There is one girl (a first grader) who Alison was friends with in pre-school so we were happy that she would have at least one new friend that she was familiar with. Most of her friends from last year were a year older so they have all moved on.

After the meeting with her teacher we had to make the choice between going to the first PTA meeting of the year or to wait with her outside her dance class. We chose dance. Since she had issues over the summer with her dance class, we pulled her out of the studio she was at (We actually also had some concerns about the costs as well with the classes and her costumes and tickets for her recital so we didn’t have much of a problem taking her out). Ali loves to dance though and we wanted to make sure that she kept up with at least the basic skills, so we registered her thru the Falls Rec Dept. So after her first class, at least it seems as if she likes it.

I’m not too sure what she’ll learn, and Kris and I are sort of questioning things since Ali came home and showed us what she learned. We looked at each other and thought the same thing.... That doesn’t look like any dance move I’ve ever seen. Hopefully since it was the first class and they spent half the class introducing people, getting to know everyone, and going over the rules and requirements for the class it was just something fun that they were doing. Ali did say that next week they’ll be doing more work. At the very least she did make a new friend and there are two other girls from Riverside in her class so hopefully it will help her be more comfortable.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Chipmunks

Last week on Wednesday before we left for Kris’ uncle’s funeral, we were standing out front with Ali waiting for her school bus. All of a sudden, a little chipmunk comes cruising across the front yard and ducks in a hole behind our front porch. Then five minutes later it comes darting out and across the driveway into the neighbor’s yard an under their porch. Then over the weekend while I was working on the driveway we saw the chipmunk running back and forth between our yard and the neighbor’s. So Monday afternoon I finally pulled the trap out and we went to get some peanuts to bait it. I had the trap for only about an hour when it tripped. Unfortunately I forget to lock the doors, so the chipmunk got away. I fixed the doors and reset it, and again, it was only set for about an hour when I checked it and there was a chipmunk inside.

Since I am not allowed to kill any rodents, we put the trap in the back of the car, piled in, and drove to let it loose along the Bugline Trail.

When we got home I thought I had better reset the trap because where there is one chipmunk, there are usually more. When I got home from work yesterday I was informed that there was another chipmunk inside and had been there since at least 8:00 AM. Once again, we drove over to the Bugline to let it loose.

I have taken a day off since we didn’t get home until dark last night, but I will be resetting it shortly to see what else I end up catching. Maybe I should have used it earlier in the year to catch some of the rabbits that were living in Kris’s flowers this summer.

Proud of Myself

Since I finished the driveway Sunday night, I actually had free time yesterday. I spent it doing little “to do” items around the house. I fixed a shade in Alison’s room since the drawstring had broken. I have only been meaning to do it since May. I also bought an electronic timer switch for the lights on the garage. We had just some electric eye timers screwed into the fixtures but it was driving me nuts because one light was more in the shade of the house and was coming on sooner than the other one. And consequently, one was staying on later. After a lot of searching I found a timer switch that I could wire in and control both lights at the same time. Anyone who knows me knows that electrical wiring is the one thing I absolutely hate! I consider myself pretty mechanically inclined and able to figure things out pretty easily, but one thing I have never quite managed has been electrical wiring, so I was hoping that I could rewire the switches without causing an electrical fire. The problem is that the switches were all wired in series and with the jumble of wires in the switch box I couldn’t find which wire was the hot one. I really need to get myself a multimeter.

After about a half an hour I had it wired in, but only one light was working. After some thinking and trial and error, I figured out that I had the wire for one of the lights connected to the hot wire, and one not. What a pain. I finally figured it out and got the timer set, and everything is working fine (crossed fingers). Hopefully I won’t end up coming home one day to the garage on fire.

More Bad News

I found out through some of the guys in the shop that we are cutting jobs/laying off at work. I don’t get informed of personnel decisions for some reason, but what I learned is that the third shift may be completely eliminated and the guys from third shift moved to second shift. Then there will be selective layoffs of shop employees. In fact they have already begun. Last week when I came in early, there were only (3) guys from third shift working, the rest of the building was empty. Things are getting slow right now, and I don’t know if it is the crummy economy finally catching up with us, or if GE has cut back because of the problems we have been having with their parts. I hope it is the former rather than the latter, but either way, it might not be a bad time to make sure my resume is updated. After all, if I do come across something that would require me working fewer hours for the same amount of money, I’d be all over it!

It Must Be Fall

I know that autumn is near when I end up having to reseal the driveway, which is what I spent all day Saturday and Sunday doing. What a way to waste a beautiful weekend (about the best weekend of the year BTW, good thing it happened before school started.... Oh wait. Nevermind).

Once I got home from work, Saturday was spent patching the huge cracks in the blacktop in an effort to make the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle known as my driveway stick together for another year. Actually, after the bobcats and dump trucks that moved up and down the driveway last year while replacing the garage, I don’t believe it stayed together as well as it has.

Once I finished patching Sunday morning, I spent the afternoon putting down (2) coats of sealer. Man, did my back ache with all the stooping over and reaching trying to spread the tar evenly. What I wouldn’t give for a body about 10 years younger, either that or some heavy duty ibuprofen.

Working OT

After Jr. Indians night, I ended up going into work Saturday morning to make up some hours that I had to take off during the week for our various activities as well as trying to get a couple of things done that I wasn’t able to during the week. I was planning in only working for a few hours so I could get home in time to get the driveway done. Well I ended up working almost a full 8 hours helping to get the parts that are going to Hong Kong next week complete and inspected. So the good news is that it looks like we finally have nailed these, all the dimensions/features fall within drawing tolerance. The bad news is that it took getting the parts pulled from us in order to get serious about making them right.

Jr. Indians Night

Friday night was Jr. Indians night at the Falls HS football game. At half time the 5th thru 8th grade Falls football teams were announced as well as the 5th thru 8th grade Jr. Indians cheer squads. The cheerleaders were supposed to have performed a cheer and dance routine. Their cheer went very well, however when it came time for their dance routine, they ran into a production snag. The CD that they were supposed to perform to wouldn’t work, so they did their routine with the high school cheerleaders counting out the time for them. It went pretty good, but the music would have been better.

Sarah had a fun time. We let her pretty much hang out with the rest of her friends from cheer most of the night, but that sort of lead to a little bit of attitude toward Kris & me. As a result, she lost her cell phone for the weekend.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Crummy Week

What a crummy week we (I) have. Kris's uncle died on Sunday, so we have the funeral tomorrow (Wednesday). I was supposed to have today off but I had to cancel my vacation day because we have some important stuff happening at work this week. We have an order for GE that HAS to ship out by the end of the week. We all pretty much feel that the future of our relationship with GE rests on these (4) particular parts. They are going to Hong Kong and HAVE to be on site for an outage on 9/13, which means that we have to have them shipped overnight by Tuesday, 9/8. We had some work to do finishing them yet and they were supposed to go out today to a third party inspection house for verifying but we were/are behind and only (2) went today, the other two are going out tomorrow. I need to be there to see that everything goes off smoothly, so I really can't afford to be gone for half the day tomorrow.

So as a compromise, I am going in at 3:30 tomorrow morning so i can be home by about 8:00, then we'll go to the funeral (wake starts at 9:15, funeral mass at 11:00). After the mass I have to go with Kris to a luncheon, and then when that is over I go back to work. Hopefully I'll be home by 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. Then it looks like another long day on Thursday, and Friday is Jr. Indians night at the High School. I was hoping to get the driveway sealed on Saturday, but now who knows? I really need about two more days this week to get everything done!

Hawk vs. Squirrel

We got to see a rare treat this morning. As we were getting ready to go outside and take the traditional first day of school picture, Alison points out the kitchen window and asks me "Is that a hawk?". I ask where and she points to the top of their playset. I look out the window just in time to see it swoop down after a squirrel running across the grass. The squirrel manages to make it the tree behind the house (the one closest to the house) and the hawk starts going in circles around the tree as the squirrel is running for its life tryin gto keep the tree between itself and the hawk.

After three times around, Kris opened the back door and scared off the hawk. Funny that she would save the squirrel, the one that is always digging up her flowers. I was actually hoping to see the hawk swoop down and fly away with the squirrel in its talons. That would have been cool.

First Day of School

Sarah started Jr. High today! She has to leave the house by about 7:10 to get to school. Class starts at 7:35. Today she dragged her butt out of bed just past 6:00 and had to be rushed out the door since her friends called at 7:05 and said they were ready to go. Then we had a little tantrum (she didn't get much sleep the night before) when I told her I was taking her picture before she left.

Not a great picture (note the bags under her eyes), but we have taken a photo of Sarah (and Alison) on the first day of school since the day she started Kindergarten.

Apparently she had a really good day. She has lots of people that she knows in her classes either from Sunday School, Scouts, Cheerleading, or Riverside, so she is really comfortable getting around. Hopefully the good mood lasts.


Alison's first day went pretty well also.


She has been worried about school all summer but she had a really good time today. I even got treated to a new song she learned in music class today when I got home. Just like Sarah, we are hoping that things continue like they did today.