An open note on organization

This is the after picture, the before picture is not provided in hopes that I never see this again. I don't really want to embarrass anyone in specific about this, so I won't be mentioning my rooommate's name by his name.

Imagine what life would be like if this cupboard could stay like this. World peace, an end to disease, the Cubs winning the World Series...

I Can't Make This Stuff Up

This sign was on the drive through menu at the 36th Street and 370 Bellevue, NE McDonald's at 0545 this morning.

In case you can't read the sign, it says "Sorry, we are sold out of boy toys! Mgmt"

Haunted Saturday

Last Saturday Troy planned a surprise for Merinda, a trip to the Halloween Haunt at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. Since it was a surprise, Troy hadn't told Merinda what it was or that anyone else was going. We were all going to meet up at the Ponderosa near Worlds of Fun, surprise her there and then go to the park, the best laid plans...

Steve, Ben, and I piled in my car with Ben's talking GPS, and headed off to Kansas City. Troy wanted us to leave at 1230, and we left much closer to 1304, so I figured we were a half hour behind them, so no chance of randomly running into them, right? We pulled into the I-29 rest stop by Mound City, MO, did our resting, and we were just hanging out in the beautiful weather when I looked up and sure enough, here comes Troy's car towards us. RUN!!! Ben and I ran, Steve tried a more stealthy approach, but it was too late, Merinda spotted my car...

I'd figure just one more cranberry red sedan shouldn't be that easy to spot, so what gave it away?


Oh, yeah, my car is kind of obvious.


So what do you do when you are busted? Play Frisbee of course.


Once back on the road, there was opportunity to test out my camera's shutter speed capabilities with the beginnings of fall colors.

We got down to Kansas City following directions and to where the Ponderosa was supposed to be ... only it's not ... it's now the Golden Buffet ... and that has a for sale sign on it too. It looks like a good location to me, darn mismanagement. So we traveled 180 miles to dine at Wendy's, you'd have thought we could have found a closer one than that. Becky and Gabe met up with us there. After we ate, we dropped Becky's car off in Liberty and headed to the park.

*Somebody* was very excited to visit a big Halloweenapalooza.


The place was full of overpriced shops, Ben really wanted to go here, but we wouldn't let him.


Troy, Merinda, and Ben wait to go on a ride that would make me throw up ... and don't believe Troy's shirt.


Does this pole make me look fat? (credit Becky for the line)


Don't touch that, you don't know where it's been.


Why is Ben scared and in shock? We just told him he has to ride a roller coaster. I'm the one in the second picture with my hands up.


Piratey Ben rules the floating in midair seas! Arg!


Poor Troy, he is stuck this life with friends who think they are funny. Better luck next time Troy.


The haunt part of the park had everything, thick fog...


...odd scenery...


...and costumed employees.


I really got into the spirit of it all.


The weather was awesome, but it also made for the only bad part, the lines...




...they just seemed to dragon forever.

We ended up leaving about midnight, we made it home by 0330, with 3/4 gallons of gas left in the car and no major sleeping at the wheel incidents. Just one more picture from the trip...

...yep, I knew that.

Politicians

What do Biden, McCain, Obama, and Palin all have in common? They are politicians!!!

All of you, regardless of which one you are talking about, stop gushing like an over-caffeinated preteen girl about the lead singer in her favorite boy band. It's embarrassing.

As politicians, everyone of them is a conniving liar who will take all wallet, give it back to you with no money, and tell you what a favor they did you. My work supervisor is holding out hope that there is one honest, upright politician, I'm not convinced. CNN FactCheck takes an entertaining look at what the candidates say and if it actually is true or not.

Choose your politicians like you pick a cough syrup, they all taste bad, so pick the one that is best for you.

Dancing and Metrics and Giggling

I was talking with a friend last night, and I was trying to explain why dance contests are important to me. I explained that to me, measurables are the only way to gauge how you are doing, and that as far as my experience goes the only measurable of how well you are dancing is contests. As I have said before, the judging process is fraught with issues, but it's all we got. Two business quality improvement ideas came up in the course of the conversation that made me giggle.

1. Getting feedback on dance contests. Go to the judges after the contest and ask them what I could do to improve my placing next time. Not a bad idea, although it lends itself to some very funny answers depending who the judge is, and how honest they are.

2. There is a second possible metric, and this one might be the one I should be using. A customer satisfaction survey of the people I dance with. Let's see how this one might go, at the end of the dance I would say "Thank you for dancing with me, if you could just minutes to fill this survey out and drop in the box on that table over there, it would be much appreciated. Don't worry, it's completely anonymous."

My friend seemed to think that idea number 2 is the better one for me. I agree. Although I want to improve my dancing, doing so in a manner that highlights the enjoyment of my partners fits very well into my personality ... much more so than a 'win at any price' attitude. I am also unsure if my style of dancing fits well into dance contests, so this kind of measurable might work really well.

Now to design the survey, put together a web site, and send it out.

It just makes me laugh.