I’ve gotten a bit behind again, some cause I have been busy, some cause I haven’t wanted to make it real. Unfortunately, I’ve been there and it is quite real. My mom passed on last Thursday morning, March 22nd. I was sleeping late (about 7) when the house phone rang. Susan brought it in and said something about it being Debbie’s nurse and that it was important. I knew right then, and then had it confirmed, she was gone. I was angry at myself for cutting our conversation so short the day before when she wasn’t doing so well. I was angry that I hadn’t been out there to see her since Thanksgiving and that I was planning on going out in a just a few days over spring break. And I was at peace, knowing that she was no longer in pain – she can now be happy in a better place.

The next few hours were pretty hectic with the normal business day starting, a show getting ready to go out and all the extra phone calls with questions about what to do and the decisions that had to be made. I am thankful that I was already planning on spending the morning working from home because I was going to cut dance music after lunch. My mom had already arranged to have her body donated to Life Legacy, which thankfully someone had figured out cause I knew nothing about it, but had thought she wanted to be a donor. I was thankful to have grandma there, but I can only imagine how hard it must have been for her.

My dad and I went out to Tucson on Monday morning to size things up and figure out what needs to be done. It was pretty hard walking into the house and her not being there. I think it was the first time I had been in her house without her there. It was even harder looking at the dogs and seeing how lost they looked. They wanted to know where their mommy was and when she was coming back.

Fortunately, we knew it was coming, and my mom had prepared by getting most of her affairs in order already. We still looked through all the loose papers, mail and such for bills that needed to be taken care of or accounts that needed to be dealt with. We brought back with us a stack of things to deal with, of which I was able to get through two-thirds of this afternoon.

The real question is what to do with grandma. She can’t afford to live in the house alone, and I can’t afford to make up the difference to keep her there. We may have found her a place today that would work. One of my mom’s friends, Wanda, has been so helpful in taking care of things in Tucson. She has called and take care of so much, including finding this place possibly for grandma. She has even offered to try and look after her. The other loose end is with the dogs – Charlie Brown and Snoopy. We are looking for a good home for them to go to, hopefully together. They really are good dogs; I would bring them back here, but it’s not my house.

Moving onto some better news, last week Kristy & Noah got married. Connie and family came down Wednesday, and Grandma Esther flew out as well. We actually all got together for dinner Wednesday night between my classes. (I had a test and got out early from stress management.) I got to see the new edition to the family, Melanie Jo, and catch up on all the other happenings. Thursday night we got together again at BJ’s for the rehearsal dinner and Friday was the wedding and reception. It was a pretty good evening.

Earlier in the week, I did get my meeting with President Mattson, learned a lot and got my paper written for leadership class. I even officially had my records transferred to the Murrieta branch. I got the case formatted for management class, other stayed up all night working on parts and then class was cancelled on Tuesday!

I got my oil changed Friday, but I’ve already done my rant about that.

Thursday morning I figured out that we really need to cut back the border patrols budget. As I was approaching the check point, they had the cars running a break and slowing us down so that they could check us for illegals. We sat there for a while before they decided to open the lanes up and let us all through! I was pretty aggravated.

I got Brand’s domain server installed and mostly operational Thursday evening. I’m sure there are still a few things I need to fine tune, but we are getting there.

I somehow managed to get the entire weekend off. I booked Duffy for the weddings this weekend, and gave Chad a hard time about working church o’ bob, so he got Bouse to do it. I was grateful today to sleep in, take some time to “kick back”, watch the first session of General Conference and get some things done. I didn’t get any homework done last week, so I’ve got a few things to tackle before class next week. Today may not have been as productive as I was hoping in that arena, but I got some other important things done.

Can’t come up with something good to do tomorrow? Maybe this list of ten notable ones will help you. I think the Taco Liberty Bell is the best, mainly because of the response from the white house. That guy must have been fast on his feet, or in on the fool to begin with!

Charlie Brown and Snoopy are looking for a good home. From what I know, they are brother and sister and are about six years old. I believe they are a shepard mix. Have only had one home since being adopted and have been inside most of their lives with only minimal suburbia backyard time. They should be up to date with all shots and such and are currently registered in Tucson. They are fairly quiet and friendly, but kind of camera shy.

We are looking for a good loving home for the two of them. We only ask that they be kept together.

As my car was getting close to needing an oil change about two week ago, I made some calls to find out what it would cost. Originally, I was trying to find out what an express lube type place was going to charge, but was appalled when they told me the price. I then found out that the Camry hybrid needs some kind of “premium” oil. I called a few other places, and found that the local dealership would be the cheapest place.

Chris from Toyota of Temecula originally told me that it would be an hour or two to get the oil changed and that I didn’t need an appointment. I tried to get it changed Thursday afternoon, but they told me they were too backlogged and to come in Friday morning. When I came in Friday morning at around 10, I was told it would be about 3 before it was done. I explained I needed to be on the road by 3. I got a ride to the office and got some stuff done before calling them at 2 asking for a ride back. When I got back, they still hadn’t finished up. I waited to remind them I needed to be on the road, while they were trying to contact me to let me know my car was done. I went to pay for the oil change and after waiting for a few more minutes, the cashier told me that it was going to be another ten minutes because they were just starting to wash it. I told her I was late and needed to go and to have them bring the car out. She didn’t quite get it, so I told her to have them bring the car out wet so that I could go. A minute later I saw my car come flying around the corner and the driver hopped out and I was on the road.

I immediately noticed that something seemed different, aside from them moving my seat and rear view mirror. I realized last night that they had put the wrong oil in the car! Toyota recommends 0w20 or 5w20 for the Camry Hybrid. They had put in 5w30 according to the receipt!

I called toyota of temecula this morning, waited for them to figure out after a few minutes that the manager was out on a road test. The guy I talked to in his place, Rex, said that they only use 5w30 because that’s what the factory recommends and is the only thing they use in all of their vehicles. As I started to drive up to Temecula to meet with the manager in person, I called Toyota of Carlsbad and Escondido who both quoted me the normal price and said that they would only use what Toyota recommends, which is 5w20 or 0w20, no questions asked.
Jiffy Lube even came up with the same thing!

I told the manager this when I got here and he tried to give me the it doesn’t get cold enough here story. I explained to him that two other area dealerships wouldn’t put anything other 0w20 in the car. When I showed him I wasn’t giving up, he went to parts to determine if they had the oil and we got it setup.

They told me in the future that I will need to specifically request for them to put 0w20 in when I come in the future. So apparently, they are still going to try to rip everyone off by putting in the wrong oil because it is cheapest for them.

They are going to try to get it done within a half hour as a priority for me.

In the future, I will probably go to Jiffy Lube! If you live in the Temecula area, avoid Toyota of Temecula Valley. So far, they only thing they have been good at is the shuttle service.

I just got this message from CSU Fullerton:

The CSU Board of Trustees today deferred a decision on fact-finding recommendations.   The contract has been extended until April 6, 2007 to allow the parties to use the fact-finding panel’s report as a basis for settlement.  There will be no concerted strike activity during this period.

I’m glad to hear that the teachers have agreed not to strike during spring break, that would have been pretty stupid on everyone’s part! I guess it would have been OK to do it the week after to make a longer break, but I don’t know if I would give teachers that much credit. They’ll probably wait now to strike until the week before finals or during final exams.

I had a fairly long day at work. I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning, so I didn’t make it to the office until after 9 and started working through the list of to do’s. Richie came by and we spent some time talking between phone calls and other tasks. We had a free lunch at Rosa’s Cafe & Tortilla Factory today courtesy of Ameriprise Financial. I will certainly give them credit for their marketing. It sure sounds like a good way to get customers to me. I just don’t know if it would work with our industry. But who knows, maybe we should try offering free lunches.

I spent this afternoon cleaning up after this morning and trying to work through some things from the last couple days that I had fallen behind on. I was at the office till close to 7 before deciding it was time to quit for the day. Really, I just came home to work some more, but at least there was a change of scenery along the way I guess.

Well a few days have passed, so let’s see what’s happened.

I worked late on Monday and then went to FHE before coming home and trying to get ready for school on Tuesday. We gout our group case back in strategic management; we got an 8 out of 10. I was happy, but we probably could have done better. In Leadership we rehearsed a meeting with role play and did some mock group counseling. It was interesting to see the group dynamics, especially with the participants role playing different parts. For example, there was a follower, reinforcer, negative leader, summarizer, etc. It made me think of some of the meetings I’ve been in before where one can’t actually get accomplished what was set out to be done. I think the test in government went well. It was 40 questions that all seemed fair and fairly easy. It was mainly figuring out journal entries. I guess we’ll find out next week how we did.

Wednesday morning I kept working through getting the books closed for 2006 and got through most of the hard stuff. Fortunately it was fairly quiet, so I was able to get a lot done. In my stress management class we reviewed for the midterm by making up test questions in groups and then putting the group work together and producing a practice test. I will give her credit for an interesting activity, but it was kind of weird. Our professor says that she is going to take one question from each chapter of our sample test and put it on the real exam, so we should be able to get 10% right! In tax we actually finished chapter 15, even though Kortney and I didn’t think it was going to happen. We got off on all sorts of tangents – or maybe rather long side stories – but I guess it keeps class interesting.

I was actually able to get the corporate taxes done and mailed today. I was planning on getting into the office early this morning, but I really only made it there basically on time. I tried to keep the interruptions to a minimum and got the taxes to the post office at 4:50! I wasn’t able to get the reconciliation to balance, so I’m going to attempt that later and file an amended return if I can figure it out! All in all, it wasn’t horrible, but it is never fun giving money away either. I guess that means we just need to spend more of it next year. We actually bought more equipment this year than California would allow us to expense under 179, so that was a first, but it probably won’t be the last.

Aimee came by the office to get some videos done. She looked a little confused at my car and couldn’t believe I got rid of the truck. I still haven’t seen the kid, but I’m sure I’ll have enough time to teach him to be a troublemaker later in life!

Ryan was trying to convince me this morning that I need to plan on participating in graduation ceremonies. I really haven’t been planning on it and don’t see the need or the desire to waste another day of my life at that stupid school. Plus, I’m sure they’ll charge me another $200 for something or other. How about I just get my receipt and get on with my life?

Now you can finally read some info about behind the scenes at Wicked.

grandMA Turns Wicked in Los Angeles

Even us non lighting types might find it interesting.

Now where is all the cool audio specs?

I must admit that while I’m not a fan of daylight savings, or any of this time change bologna, I think it went over fairly well this morning. I changed my clocks when I got home last night, so I actually got to bed somewhat early. I got up extra early since you can only have two digits and no decimal in the alarm field on the Treo, and I needed to add an extra hour to it, but it gave me some time to get some reading done and get prepared for Church.

Church o’ Bob went well this morning. Batch was out playing hooky or something, so I got the pleasure of doing sound. Aside from setting up the drum mics and the drummer deciding not to play drums, it all went well. We got soundcheck done and out of the way quickly and the whole thing went fairly well. OK, so I forgot to pause the recording CD once the sermon started, but oh well!

I got to play with SBS some more today, got Exchange running and migrated some user settings. The wizards are pretty cool, and I was really happy with the way it joined computers to the domain and copied the settings over. It even added the Exchange account to Outlook (after installing it automatically) and kept a copy of the old personal folders in the new Outlook! This could make for a real simple installation at GT, and I’m thinking that Exchange could solve Brand’s problems as well.

Real church went well also. We talked about miracles in Sunday School. A line from the Bible Dictionary has sat with me since then: “Christianity is founded on the greatest of all miracles, the resurrection of our Lord. If that be admitted, other miracles cease to be improbable.” It also makes me think about the song, Simple Miracles, by Emerson Drive.

(Richard Marx/Gary Harrison)

When I got up this morning, you were still asleep
Then the rain tapped on my window, if reminding me
To make out a list of every single gift
That you give me everyday

(Chorus:)
It’s a dream that never dies
It’s the wonder if your eyes
It’s the magic in your touch
Every star and every wish
I wake each day and live
A life that’s filled with simple miracles

Sometimes in the madness, I tend to forget
And I take your love for granted
I should hold you close instead
Let me say right now, so there’s no doubt
All the things you are to me

(Chorus)

And as time goes by the more that I find
That my life is in much bigger hands than mine

(Chorus)

(cowboylyrics.com)

I’ve spent most of this week dealing with trying to setup a domain for GT. Batch has been tugging along with me as well. We got Mac Server running and got the domain up on Monday. We got the basics working, but found that users really wanted to be able to travel with their setup, so spent a good amount of time making sure that everything, including their backgrounds would travel with them. Finally on Wednesday, we pretty much had everything going. I was going around to machines and inspecting to make sure everything was working and I was cleaning up the installed printers. All of sudden, one of the computers I had just removed some printers from, would no longer pull network profiles. We tried some things, but couldn’t figure it out. I continued on my trek and we started having the same problems with the next computer. We struggled with it for a while, and I finally decided that after 3 days of working to get the domain setup and working, it was time to admit defeat for now. I don’t know where the problems were coming from, but I know they weren’t fun.

I ordered a copy of Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 today. While I don’t necessarily think the Mac was the total cause of the problems, it probably isn’t helping in some areas. Hopefully this will fix the problems and the domain will work out there like it is supposed to. If not, it looks like we’ll be using the RIS services to reformat a handful of computers! The other cool thing that SBS could offer will be an Exchange server, which could make a lot of our emails problems much easier. I’ll just have to figure out how to make Exchange work for them – which may mean they need to get a static IP for the DSL. I think I can configure it to just check their existing accounts and then hold the mail locally, but it should make roaming easier and would allow them to share contacts and calendars, so it could be a big asset.

Other than that fun, I’m not sure what else has been going on. The computer troubles had kept me out of the office until today, and even kept me from my stress management class yesterday. We got through our first group case analysis for management on Monday, but I still think it was a stupid waste of time. I’m not sure what else to report, so I think I’m going to leave it here and get some sleep!

From AppleInsider:

Meanwhile, a tipster notes that the Apple Store Fashion Valley in San Diego, Calif. will be closing for approximately three weeks in the middle of March for remodeling.

As the tipster notes, the store is often ranked among the top 10 Apple retail stores in sales volume. Therefore, it would seem unlikely that the Cupertino-based company would plan any hefty product launches around the same time.

According to the same tipster, the store will open in limited fashion after the three-week partial renovation, then close down once again six weeks later for a final round of renovations (which will also last three weeks).

I wonder what this means to us locals. Maybe they are just going to give it a face lift, or maybe it will be something brand new…

Nothing really too exciting to report today. I made it back up to the Murrieta Branch today, but only for Fast & Testimony meeting as I had (still have) tons of homework to do. I actually was able to get a good dent done so far this weekend, but it looks like we still have quite a bit to go on the JetBlue case and I still have a few other things to do before Tuesday and Wednesday roll around.

Batch and I were able to get the new domain controller up and running this morning for GT. We’re going to take it over there and see if it does the job. It certainly should be able to handle it, and I for one will be happy that they have some better security in place. Maybe we can finally check that off the list and work on the next thing!

I’m hoping this week is fairly quiet so that I can get the taxes done. Of course, I hope we are busy making sales and all that, I just hope that there is enough time to get everything done so that I can actually fill out the tax forms.

Keep praying for Pyro – I haven’t heard or seen anything from him, so he must be out good.

It’s nothing special, but in case you haven’t seen it yet, here is a picture of the new (well it was new in November/December), shoffice and my new Camry. Kelly (Chad’s wife) came up with the name shoffice as we sometimes call it the shop, and sometimes call it the office. If you haven’t seen the inside yet, come on by (but not this week as I’ll be busy doing the corporate taxes).

I know how important it is, and I realize you might not be able to see it in the pictures, so I’ll confirm for you that it is there. The Apple sticker is on the top left corner of the rear window. And there is a BYU-Idaho stick on the bottom left/middle.

This comic was posted by the CIO of the Church, so I figure it’s safe to repost. I certainly got a good laugh out of it, hopefully you will too.

Today was fairly quiet. I was able to get the driveway blown off, my car washed and vacuumed, the vacuum cleaned out, my hair cut and some other cleaning done this morning. I even had some time to work on the JetBlue case and had some time to read for my leadership class. And all of that before I went to GT for a wedding early this afternoon! I was seriously impressed with myself.

The wedding went well, other than the clergy was a little long winded and the bride and groom wouldn’t face each other for their vows. I came home and got working on more homework. I actually made it through my government accounting homework and got everything to balance! Unfortunately, I still have a lot of homework to do tomorrow evening, but I’m happy to have gotten some out of the way.

What an exciting life I lead huh? I tried to track down my valentine to see what she was doing and find out if we were still on for our breakfast date tomorrow morning, but my Lauren must be lost.