If you are ever in Edina, Minnesota…

I had an opportunity to travel to Minnesota for a class recently and found a great little restaurant called Salut. It wasn’t just that the food was outstanding, but the staff was really pleasant to talk to. A number of times when I go into restaurants by myself, I am just a single person to rush through so that the table could be used for a bigger (and more lucrative) party; this was not the style of Salut. Actually my experience was quite the opposite. Instead of trying to rush me through my dinner, the waiter stayed and talked to me about different things that we both shared (the love of fine tequila in one case). The manager stopped by at another point and was also very friendly as we talked about the chances that the Twins had of making the playoffs (sorry Chris, I was rooting for them). All in all it was a wonderful experience.

So if you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Edina, Minnesota and you are lucky enough to have some free time at dinner, I highly recommend stopping in to see Chris, Cynthia and Raoul and the rest of the staff at Salut. If it is a Tuesday night, you have to get the short-ribs; they are the best that I ever had (including my own).

A pirate looks at 47

So I borrowed a bit from Mr. Buffet, but when I die I want to come back as Jimmy.

Later on this month I am going to turn 47 and I just wanted to jot down a few thoughts for posterity (and because my memory is going).

First off, now that summer is coming to a close, I wonder what happened to it. During the heat and humidity, it seemed like it would last forever, but now that we are on the downward slope towards winter, it was like only yesterday that the first Robins appeared in the area.

Maybe this is another product of getting older. The funny thing is that I don’t really feel older; I sure don’t think that I ACT any older, but I do remember as a kid thinking that summers were forever. There is the first sign of being an old man…fondly reminiscing of days gone past…alright time to move on.

Another thing that I have noticed about getting older is that people just don’t seem to be as nice as they were when I was younger. Maybe that was just a case of youthful optimism, but I always remember doing things with other families and friends during the summer. Now everyone is so busy (including me) and there are so many other distractions that there just doesn’t seem to be time just to sit down and enjoy the company of others.

Looking back over this I see that I have picked up the old man’s habit of rambling from one subject to the next. At least I have something to blame it on…I can wait to see what my blogs look like when I am about to turn 48.

It’s been a while

My god! During the winter I could not wait for the summer to get here. You know the warm weather, the relaxation all of those things that come with the lazy days of summer. Well I feel like I am being gypped, there has been NO relaxation at all this summer. All that summer has brought so far is the added chore of cutting the grass (remind me, why did I have kids if not for the slave labor that they bring). Work has been an absolute nightmare; new classes to teach, big projects to finish in too little time, tests to study for…when will it all end?

Okay I did get to go to a concert with my daughter last week and that was pretty awesome. I found a number of new bands to like and the crowd watching was great (I would hate to be one of those Emo kids wearing the heavy black clothes when it is 90+ degrees with 98% humidity, but I guess one must suffer for their art). This was the first concert for my daughter and she did pretty well. She did get hit by a thrown can (a real hazard at concerts), but took it all in stride. Maybe next year she can go on the pilgrimage to Bamboozle if her grades are good (bribery…I hope that it works on her…doesn’t seem to work with her brother).

Well another email just came in with something else for me to do, so I guess I will go back to enjoying my summer…

I don’t really understand (maybe I’m not supposed to)

I teach computer classes for a living (beats living in my parent’s basement) and I am always amazed that people will not ask questions in class…even if they have them. Most of the students just sit there with a blank stare and you know that they want to ask a question, but still they sit there. As soon as we get to a break, they come running to ask questions…why can’t they do that in front of all of the other students? Believe me, the other students probably have the same questions, but even if they don’t they may have the example that makes it clear for you. Ask the question!

I am not really sure why people act this way. Are they afraid of admitting that they don’t know something (then why the heck are in the class in the first place if they know everything?!?!). I normally start my classes by admitting that I don’t know everything, but am willing to learn hoping that will break the ice a little, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. If you are unwilling to admit you need help, you will never learn (that is either very Zen or part of my 12 step program, I am not sure which).

The other benefit from the student’s asking question is that I as their fearless instructor also learn something new. As I mentioned above, I don’t know everything and it is the questions from the student that make me go out and look things up.

So if any of you out there sit one of my classes, please join in on the conversation…You never know, we might all learn something.

I got my first hate mail

I write for a couple of other blogs and one of them concerns education, specifically technical education and today I got my first comment about something I wrote. Instead of the expected words of encouragement, what I got was some rant about me advocating the burning of books and how could I compare a high school education against a training class for Microsoft certifications (the article is at http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/29418 if you want to read my blasphemy).

I understand that not everyone is going to agree with everything that I write, but geez, this guy (or girl possibly…they didn’t have the guts to leave any type of name) basically said that the only way that people should be taught is by reading a book, taking a multiple choice test and that’s it. They got bent all out of shape by the mere suggestion that there maybe another way.

I am torn between being happy that someone is actually reading the blog in question and wanting to defend myself in some way. I guess this is the downside of publishing your thoughts and opinions in the public forum that is the Internet.

The summer migration has begun

There are a number of great migrations that have occurred since time began…the Monarch Butterfly’s migration to and from Mexico, the great Wildebeest migration through the Serengeti, but none can hold a candle to the annual orange barrel migration from who knows where to the highways and byways of the land that time forgot.

Now each season has its harbingers, spring has baseball, fall has high school football, but it is the summer influx of orange barrels and the minions that stand around them doing nothing that really says summer with a capital ‘S’.

Now I know that this is an important part of keeping our countries infrastructure strong, but why does it need to take so long? Another thing, why is it that after years of driving behind them that people still do not understand how to drive through construction areas efficiently. Instead it’s almost like they have never seen construction equipment along the side of the road so they have to slow done to 20 miles an hour to get a better look.

We all know what happens next; the idiots yapping on their cell phones don’t see that traffic has slowed down and decide to play bumper cars. Now traffic comes to a complete stop….thanks guys.

I guess the good news is that with gas prices the way that they are, sitting still in traffic is really doing wonders for my gas mileage.

Change in direction

Not that this blog has aged enough to have a change in direction be very noticeable, but I am going to do it anyway. I have begun writing a couple other technical blogs, so I am going to keep this one less technical and more observational. I still plan on adding some recipes that I am working on, but I always forget to take pictures of the food before I (or my extended family) eat it. I will try to do better in the future.

It is kind of a rainy Saturday in the land that time forgot and I am at work. Well actually we are holding an open house, but it is not going over very well. We started at 10:00am and it is about 11:00 and no one has shown up. This is a bad omen when it comes time for any of these people who may start classes here if they can’t show up for a free something on time.

I will write again when I have something more fun to say….