A Day On, Not a Day Off, Part Duh
I thought it was the chocolate chip pancakes making me queasy Sunday morning, but it turned out to be an intestinal fortitude. It was just my turn. You'd think we all drank from the same water bowl in this house.
Dad came over and dutifully walked his son and grandson, but my stomach was tight all through it -- then the aches and pains joined up during lunch, making me a barrel of monkey to be around. Had to study, though, so while Dad even more dutifully put Ryan to bed, I hit the library for four hours, arched over in pain. Not a great way to study.
While everyone else got to honor their favorite Thomas, Polk, and Harry, I drove in to work (got a great parking spot!) to finish the paper on Innovation and study some more. I was pleased with how it turned out, particularly with my coined phrase, "Innovation is not just thinking outside the box; it's turning the box into a dodecahedron," until the Public Affairs guy came back and said they try to reach a broad level, namely, the 6th-to-8th grade reading level, so could I please use a different word. I grumbled about it the whole next day, asking the room at a VTC if anyone knew what one was.
LTC Predmore: "12-sided object?"
Me: "Thank you, sir."
Mr. Nelson: "I thought it was ten. Really?"
LTC Sweetser: "How many sides on each ... side?"
Me: "...one?"
He meant 'edges' of course, and I had to look that up, too. But what good does it do 6th and 8th graders if they don't have to bust out the dictionary and look up a word from time to time?
Wednesday I read a few hundred more pages at the library (on leave), watching a rare snow fall outside. Stinks that I have to burn leave to study, but if I'd timed this better, I would have had all this stuff read while I was in Russia. Still kicking myself. Thursday I left early to go up to Howard University in D.C. to participate in an ROTC career day and chat with the cadets there about what a Space & Missile guy does for a living. At least a few of them had been following the news about the satellite shoot-down, so we had things to talk about. I seemed to be the only one to bring a laptop, and had color brochures to hand out, too. I don't faff about with the advertising. Hard to fathom that the oldest of these cadets may have been born when I graduated from high school.
As it turns out, we were supposed to get a whopper of a snow/ice storm Friday, so the Air War College testing facility called me to reschedule to Monday. Though the storm fizzled, I'm glad I didn't have to spend all Thursday night cramming for the short-answer (essay!) exam. No I can just do that all day tomorrow. Helps that for the first time in years, I could give half a hoot about the Oscars, since I've seen all of 3 movies in the past twelve months.
Well, I hope Ratatouille wins. I'll give you that.
Dad came over and dutifully walked his son and grandson, but my stomach was tight all through it -- then the aches and pains joined up during lunch, making me a barrel of monkey to be around. Had to study, though, so while Dad even more dutifully put Ryan to bed, I hit the library for four hours, arched over in pain. Not a great way to study.
While everyone else got to honor their favorite Thomas, Polk, and Harry, I drove in to work (got a great parking spot!) to finish the paper on Innovation and study some more. I was pleased with how it turned out, particularly with my coined phrase, "Innovation is not just thinking outside the box; it's turning the box into a dodecahedron," until the Public Affairs guy came back and said they try to reach a broad level, namely, the 6th-to-8th grade reading level, so could I please use a different word. I grumbled about it the whole next day, asking the room at a VTC if anyone knew what one was.
LTC Predmore: "12-sided object?"
Me: "Thank you, sir."
Mr. Nelson: "I thought it was ten. Really?"
LTC Sweetser: "How many sides on each ... side?"
Me: "...one?"
He meant 'edges' of course, and I had to look that up, too. But what good does it do 6th and 8th graders if they don't have to bust out the dictionary and look up a word from time to time?
Wednesday I read a few hundred more pages at the library (on leave), watching a rare snow fall outside. Stinks that I have to burn leave to study, but if I'd timed this better, I would have had all this stuff read while I was in Russia. Still kicking myself. Thursday I left early to go up to Howard University in D.C. to participate in an ROTC career day and chat with the cadets there about what a Space & Missile guy does for a living. At least a few of them had been following the news about the satellite shoot-down, so we had things to talk about. I seemed to be the only one to bring a laptop, and had color brochures to hand out, too. I don't faff about with the advertising. Hard to fathom that the oldest of these cadets may have been born when I graduated from high school.
As it turns out, we were supposed to get a whopper of a snow/ice storm Friday, so the Air War College testing facility called me to reschedule to Monday. Though the storm fizzled, I'm glad I didn't have to spend all Thursday night cramming for the short-answer (essay!) exam. No I can just do that all day tomorrow. Helps that for the first time in years, I could give half a hoot about the Oscars, since I've seen all of 3 movies in the past twelve months.
Well, I hope Ratatouille wins. I'll give you that.
posted by Dan at 9:30 PM
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