July 14, 2004

I got back from vacation yesterday to find this at work:

We'd been warned that they were gonna replace the elevators so it wasn't too much of a shock. They're working on them one at a time. The other elevator still functions. More or less. When you're on the ground floor, the elevator resolutely refuses to come down for you unless you tell it you want to go down to the basement. Then, it comes down. And, you say "Ha!" to the elevator when it arrives and push one of the buttons for the upper floors. And, it's forced to carry you upward.

We just had plain ol' plywood yesterday. Today, the laminated yellow sign was added:

Apparently, they didn't think the plywood on its own was enough. I guess the elevator folks started to worry that the engineers in the building might take it upon themselves to try to use the elevator despite the plywood barrier. One more thing: they attached the sign with tape and a screw for good measure.

July 1, 2004

From today's Campus Watch crime report:

Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol by a Minor / Consumption of Alcohol by a Minor (2500 Robert Dedman)
A UT student, who was under the age of 21, was stopped after driving a BMW in excess of 50 MPH in a 15 MPH zone, swerving into and out of the on-coming lane of traffic and disregarding a stop sign. The UT student was found to be under the influence of an alcoholic beverage. Occurred on 6-30-04 at 10:50 pm.

In excess of 50 mph?? On campus???? Yikes! That's just plain scary.

June 22, 2004

SPAM email subject of the day:

Joanna, your Girlfriend will thank you BIG TIME!

Hmmm...I rather doubt that! It had a junk rating of 94 (out of a possible 100). 'Guess the spam filter is mostly working just fine, eh?

June 21, 2004

Since yesterday was Father's Day, I went out to Bastrop with plans to watch the College World Series games and hang out with Dad and the rest of the gang. 'Turns out they'd made some additional plans of their own. They decided that since I'll be out of town on my birthday, we should celebrate my birthday a couple of weeks early along with Father's Day. We had a great day. The Horns won their CWS game to cap things off just right for the both of us. One really cool thing. Mom hand painted my card:

Beautiful, doncha think? I do love them watercolors.

June 16, 2004

I was driving home this evening and noticed that I needed to stop and get gas. Usually, I'll notice the price dropping 5 cents or so over the span of a few days but, by the time I actually need gas, the price will have jumped back up 6 cents overnight. Not so this evening. I was happy to note that prices did not rebound overnight and were the lowest I'd seen in 5 or 6 weeks.

This sign gave me a good chuckle. The thing is...all the signs at the station had backwards 6's. All of them. Was it on purpose? Were the folks at the station trying to catch the eyes of passing drivers by writing backwards? Was it simply a mistake...made by someone suffering from dyslexia or some such? Or, was the person who set the sign up just screwing with us? The other thing I wondered as I pulled up: was it a screwed-up 6 or was it a screwed-up 9? 'Turns out it was, in fact, a 6. Three cents less at the pump is always good in my book!

June 14, 2004

From today's Campus Watch crime report:

Driving While Intoxicated (1900 Comal)
A non-UT subject was seen driving erratically after leaving a tailgate party, almost striking several vehicles. When a UTPD officer stopped the subject, the subject became argumentative. The subject stated that he was only "trying to get home" and that he had only had "a couple of beers". When asked how many beers the subject had, the subject stated: "Ten." Occurred on 6-11-04 at 10:00 pm.

Hmmm...1900 Comal at 10pm. That couldn't have been after the first Super Regional game, could it? And...say...when did "10" become the new "couple"? I didn't get that memo.

June 8, 2004

'Been kinda busy lately. Mostly I've been hanging out at Disch-Falk Field watching lots and lots (yes, lots!) of baseball. We've also been incredibly busy at work. I don't know how that happens but it does. There have been all kinds of things I've needed to get done that just keep getting pushed back.

One of the things I kept meaning to do was post this picture of Cole. This is one of my all-time favorite "people" photos. I took it 11 or 12 years ago at a family reunion in Albuquerque. One of my cousins' kids (which would make him Cole's second cousin, I guess) took that skateboard to the shindig. And, all the kids had a blast riding it. So, why post it now? Well, Cole up and graduated from high school last week. I don't have any idea how that can possibly be. But there you have it. All grown up. And, moving on to college. What a great kid. Ahem. Excuse me. What a great young man. Congratulations, Cole. Ya done good!

June 1, 2004

In honor of Memorial Day: The Name in the Stone by Gerard Van der Leun

May 25, 2004

I started to write about a new logo I had to create for a web page I'm putting together at work and then realized it was really too much for this space so I created a new Notebook entry instead. Have at it.

May 15, 2004

I had to stop at the credit union and deposit a check this afternoon after today's miserable baseball games. I thought about going to the branch at 46th and Guadalupe but then remembered the ATM machines outside the Co-op near the Law School. So, I headed over there. As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a car parked all caddy-wompus in front of the ATMs. It was blocking all three of the spaces directly in front of the ATMs. So, I pulled into the fourth spot, got my ATM card and the check, and headed to the machines. The driver of the car was standing tensely in front of the machine on the left. Thankfully, it was the machine on the right that I needed...the one that had a deposit slot. So, I put my card in and the woman starts talking a hundred miles a minute:

"I've been driving around trying to find a parking space for about 30 minutes and there's no parking anywhere! My daughter's race is right now! I don't know what I'm going to do!"

I realized she was talking about the track meet. Things were rather frantic around campus today. The baseball team was playing a double-header, students were taking finals, the University of Texas Press was having their big annual sale, and the UIL State Track and Field Championships were being held at Myers Stadium. Which meant that parking was at more of a premium than usual on any given Saturday.

So, I offered some sympathy and continued with my transaction. She continued:

"I finally found a spot but some miserable man behind me grabbed the space. He just backed into the space even though I found it first! I was so furious. I am having real road rage! I just couldn't believe he would do that to me. And, I'm not from around here and don't know where to park. And, my daughter's race is right now! I don't know how I'm going to make it. Do you think it's okay if I park here? Do you know what the fine is if I get a ticket?"

I noted that the sign said it was a tow-away zone and that it might be best to go ahead and park on the other side of IH-35 and walk to the stadium. I said as how it was pretty far from the track but that I really couldn't think of a better idea. Then, I offered to follow her there in my car and give her a ride back to Myers Stadium. She'd still have a rather long walk to the car after the meet but might get to see her daughter's race.

She seized on that idea and asked if I was sure...if it wouldn't be too far out of my way. I told her it wouldn't be a problem and then she told me to go first and she'd follow. So, I got in my car, pulled out, and headed back toward Disch-Falk. She followed. We turned east on 26th and I spied a nice parking spot about 1/2 block down the road on the right side of the street. I slowed down and pointed it out to her. She was so flustered, it took her a couple of tries to get the parallel parking thing right even though the spot was big enough for two cars. Poor thing! Anyway, she got parked, grabbed her stuff and we took off toward Myers Stadium. She thanked me profusely for helping her out:

"I really can't get over this. You are being so kind to me! And, when I get excited my Jamaican accent get so bad! What is your name?"

"Joanna."

"It's very nice to meet you. My name is Heather. I live in San Marcos. I really appreciate you giving me a ride. I really don't know what I would have done!"

So, I got to within about 1/2 block of the entrance to Myers Stadium and she said she hoped we'd run into each other again some day, jumped out of the car, and went flying off down the hill to the gate...her mood much improved from when I'd run into her 5 minutes earlier. I'm so glad I was able to help her out and I hope she got there in time to watch her daughter race. I have to say...I loved the name Heather. It was so improbable. What with the Jamaican accent and all.

May 12, 2004

I saw that Aengus Finnan was coming to town so dropped everything (okay...not much to drop on a Tuesday evening with no home game on the schedule!) and made sure I got to the Cactus in plenty of time. 'Met my folks and we settled in at a prime table next to the stage. Alas...it was a "dead day" Tuesday at UT so there were few students to be found anywhere near campus. So, not much of a crowd. The folks that did show up were enthusiastic, though, and the show was great. Aengus started with a couple of new songs, then did a few tried-and-true favorites, and then opened up to requests. And, I think he played every request he got. He also sang quite a few songs by other song writers. His songs tend toward the melancholy. It never fails to amaze me that you can have such a good time listening to such sad songs. Make sure you check out his tour schedule and catch a show if you possibly can. You will not be disappointed. I promise.

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joanna@joanna.org
URL: http://www.joanna.org/archive/May2004-Jul2004.html
Last updated: July 14, 2004

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