Whisper

This has been a rough week. Mia got a cold, then Wilson got it. I guess Max felt that being the oldest he would have to do better. I don't know what that kid has but it's made him just pathetic. Monday he didn't feel real good and had a raspy voice. Tuesday started the fever that lasted until yesterday, coughing until throwing up and having a hard time breathing because of the swollen throat. And the poor kid has completely lost his voice, he just walks around whispering. The doctor tested him for strep and he doesn't have that. Basically we just have to wait it out.

Beth had her first day back to work today and he was just to puny to go to camp. So, I had to stay home this morning with him (kids can't get sick during the three months Beth stayed home or anything)and Kate the sitter came this afternoon so I could go to a meeting at work. Even she said he was pathetic.

Awww....

I really enjoy talking to people about adoption, and I've done a lot of support for all sorts of folks. But for the first time, I've been supporting somebody that I know and work with. He and his wife have been trying to adopt from the foster care system for years and just found out earlier this week that they are getting a placement. On Tuesday he came and talked to me for over half an hour about the situation. They get to meet the boy for the first time tonight, get to do some stuff with him this weekend and next weekend he stays overnight with them. The poor guy has so many emotions and thoughts that he can hardly think straight. He was so relieved to know that it was ok to feel excitement and dread at the same time. He ended up crying in my cubicle and made me tear up too. I'm so excited for them all!

Why so serious?

So, we got a sitter and went to a movie last night. We were having a hard time deciding which movie, Mamma Mia!, The X-Files or The Dark Night. We already know the story to Mamma Mia and I was afraid the X-Files would disappoint me, that left the Dark Night.

Now, I love Batman but I really don't care for the "new" Batman. I wasn't a big fan of Batman Begins, primarily because I don't like Christian Bale's version of Batman. He speaks all bulldoggie, raspy and lispy and it drives me nuts. I was also leery of all the hype about how great Heath Ledger plays the Joker and assumed it was probably because the guy died before the movie came out. I knew this going into the movie and the fact that at two and half hours long, I might be in for a painful experience.

I'm still not sure what all the hype is about, if you want to know the truth. I felt that the storyline was a bit dull and rambling. But the excitement over Ledger's Joker is total deserving. He saved this movie as far as I'm concerned. I enjoyed every scene that he was in and got bored when he wasn't around. He was totally in character and added a whole new element of creepy. The movie seriously needs a good editing and probably could have had benefited from cutting out 30-45 minutes.

Something else that surprised me, the PG-13 rating. I felt that this movie was really too violent for that rating, but since I wasn't bringing any kids with me I guess it didn't matter.

Overall, Ledger's performance is worth seeing and I would recommend it for that alone.

Free Time

We finished up the audit early this afternoon. Unfortunately, there were no flights that would work for us to get out a day early. So, we decided to head to "downtown" Bartlesville and see what we could find.

I annoyed everyone until they took me to the Price Tower, the Frank Lloyd Wright skyscraper. We missed the last tour of the tower but we did get to poke around on the first floor. All the rooms in the building are triangles, pointed to the middle and are cantilevered, which seems a bit dangerous for a place that's regularly hit by tornadoes.


All of the green on the building is copper. There is a lot of copper on the building and the restaurant is named Copper.
Triangles everywhere, even the lights and built in seating. The triangle thing did make for some very odd angles inside. I found an elevator stuck in a corner that only had about 3 feet of clearance in front of it and the opposite wall.

A very intricate sun dial outside that none of us could figure out how to read. It was still neat.
The community center next door to the Price Tower. They were selling tickets for "Broadway in Bartlesville".

The side entrance of the Phillip's House.

The front entrance.

We took the tour of the house, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside. The house still has all the original furniture, books, paintings, and even china and silverware, which is pretty neat.

I had to take a picture of the "air conditioning unit" for the house. It cascaded water down it to cool it off and then piped the cooler water back into the radiators. I thought it was cool, no pun intended.

Entertainment

I'm pretty bored here in the evenings, but fortunately I picked up an awesome Nintendo DS game, The World Ends With You. It's an anime RPG that sounds and looks great and is so hard to describe in a way that makes any sense. But if you have a DS and are looking for something new, I can't recommend this enough. In fact, I can hardly put it down long enough to post this!

Route 66

Today we drove out to Vinita, Oklahoma to look at the tiny little service center there. It's about an hour away from Bartlesville, and it's not an interesting drive. Vinita is home to the largest McDonalds in the world. It stretches across the Roy Rogers Highway, which is kinda cool. Dr. Phil was born here, it is the second oldest city in Oklahoma and the first one to get electricity. It's also best know for the old insane asylum. Apparently, at one point the patients in the asylum were the largest population in the city!

Route 66 runs through it, which is kinda cool.

We ate at a diner located on on Route 66 called Clanton's Cafe, which has been featured on the food network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. When we walked in everyone stopped and stared out at us. It's pretty obvious that they don't get too many strangers there. The first thing the waitress asked us was, "Where ya'll from?". It did have a big EAT sign, which I love.

Back in Bartlesville I noticed a cool sign at the end of the street that the service center is on and took a picture. It's like I've been in a timewarp all week.

Picks of the service center

The distribution dock area

I put this picture in just so Max might think his Mama has a cool job!

A sea of transformers

Oil and solvents in secondary containment. This is the kind of stuff we're looking at.

Our lovely work area. They shoved us into a conference room for a week.

Too Confining!

My flight was scheduled to take off at 6:55 am. So, I was up very early this morning. Poor Beth wasn't feeling well last night, so I tried to take care of all the kids so she could sleep. It kinda worked. That Wilson kid just won't let me put him to sleep at night and demands his mommy. But anyway, I was up a lot last night and 4:45 am came very early.

I staggered in to the airport and got on a very tiny plane. I had a foriegn exchange student sitting next to me. She had a very large spongebob square pants pillow that spilled over half into my seat and was armed with a digital camera. She was taking pictures of everything, random shots of the wing, pictures of me reading my magazine, a picture of the "Tray must be in the upright and locked position" sign on the tray in front of me. It was amusing.

Then in the row in front of me and on the other side of the isle was a very elderly man. He looked very nervous and held the flight safety booklet, following along as the stewardess explained what to do in the event of an emergency. A few minutes after take off, I became aware of music. It was him playing a very large harmonica. He played it the whole flight, but it was pretty quiet. I thought it was cute.

We had to change planes at St. Lois. This time we had to walk outside to get to the plane. As we were walking, my travel buddy kicked a bolt. We were hopeful that it hadn't fallen off of the plane we were getting on!

Finally, we made it to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Apparently this is home to Frank Lloyd Wright's only skyscraper and there is a museum to Frank Phillips, of Phillips Petroleum. Besides that, there appears to be nothing else. I'm afraid this is going to be a long week!

OOOOOO-klahoma

All next week I will be in Oklahoma in our Public Service Company of Oklahoma territory. I will be spending the time with our auditing team as they conduct an environmental audit of a couple of service centers. I'm just observing and learning their wiley ways and hopefully won't be bored out of my mind! Although, even the auditors make it sound like that is an eventuality.

It's radioactive!

In a week I get to go to an uranium enrichment plant, American Centrifuge in Piketon, Ohio. Assuming that I pass the security clearance that is. As you might guess, enriching uranium takes a lot of electricity. There are a couple of dedicated stations located on the property which have some transformers that we would like to remove and dispose. It's been a bit of an ordeal since they have some lengthy process to make sure that they aren't radioactive first.

While poking around on the USEC website, I was intrigued by the megatons to megawats link. Check it out and see what's coming out of the decommissioning of the USSR warheads.

Internet hijinx

Coming soon to a computer near you... The story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to. Featuring Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, Felicia Day as Penny and a cast of dozens.

I'm so looking forward to this. It's a mini-series for the internet by the fellow who brought us Firefly. The first episode goes on-line July 15th with two more following a couple days apart. Watch 'em fast, they are removed from the site on midnight July 20th! Click the banner to go to the site.

You're going to drink that?

So, making beer, volume 2.


On Monday I moved the beer from the primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter. This is done for two reasons. One, the yeast on the bottom of the primary, and there is a lot, is starting to die. That can leave a yucky taste. Second, the secondary fermenter helps to clarify the beer. Since this is a fruit beer, I actually have a third reason. Get the fruit product into the beer and let it ferment.


I don't have a lot of pictures of the process because I have to worry about contamination and have to hurry along. It's a shame really. The grossness that is inside the primary would probably cure an alcoholic! Anyway.....


I need to move the beer from primary to secondary. Anytime we move the beer into something new, it is called racking. I have some pretty fancy racking equipment: flexible tubing and a racking cane. I set the primary on top of a high table and take off the lid. I have filled the flexible tubing with water and clamped it closed, then into the beer goes the racking cane. I need to use gravity to help me get the beer out, so I open the clamp and run out the water until I draw the beer in. I will then put the tubing into the secondary and let the beer in. I am trying to do this while introducing as little air as possible. Air at this point does not make for a good taste.






Now, the secondary had been sterilized and a gallon or so of sweet cherry juice added to it before I put the beer in. I could have used frozen cherries, but I didn't want to deal with the mess and I was worried about contamination from the berries. Whole Foods has an awesome organic, not from concentrate, unsweetened and pasteurized cherry juice that I opted for.


After the beer goes in, I put a stopper in and the airlock. Or I would have added the airlock if it hadn't snapped in two! I had a moment of panic and then decided that I would use the blow off tube set up that I used earlier. Only the tubing is so stiff that when I bent it to put it into the pot of water, it slowly pulled out the stopper enough to let air in. Grrrr.... I shoved the stopper in all the way and duct taped it in place. So far, so good.





In a week I will be bottling!