June 19, 2007

Sleepy Eyed Updates

Posted by Scott at 09:39 PM

Ah, bleary eyed blogging. Who knows what typos I'll need to correct in the morning...

Some quick highlights of the day:

Claire - Claire's grade had a day at Keyes Park, playing games, relaxing, followed by an ice cream social. It's all in anticipation and celebration of their moving to middle school next fall.

Abby - Abby got a certificate about having perfect spelling. We're trying to interpret by the wording whether Abby had perfect spelling in the third semester or for the third semester in a row. I'm thinking they mean the former.

Boys - Michelle took all three boys to another Taekwondo lesson. Yesterday she took Timothy to one and the twins to a later class. Having all three go at once today caused a bad synergy, as the boys paid more attention to each other and lost focus on what they were supposed to do. Michelle will take them again on Friday, but isn't sure whether their misbehavior will become a habit if they continue to go at the same time.

Work - Today we had a mandatory briefing on US export control restrictions. I haven't had one of those since my DoD days. It's a bit funny that our processors can be shipped to certain countries (who shall remain nameless) but the design work behind them could not be. I did learn a term I had not heard: antiboycott. A customer in another country cannot cause us to join in their boycott of a third country, unless of course, the US is already boycotting them.

Home - Today we had a repairman come to fix a broken dryer. Sometime Friday afternoon it stopped producing heat. That's fine if all you want to do is air fluff, but otherwise... Having no dryer in a household of seven?! Michelle and I double checked that the exhaust vent was clear. At that point I suspected it was either the ignitor, the valve that controls the gas flow, or a thermocouple sensor that cuts the gas if it doesn't ignite. When the repairman came today, after some testing he determined that the gas valve was flakey. When he initially tried it, things worked fine. It was after about 15-20 minutes of testing that he saw the valve stick.

School - Thursday is the last day of school. I'll either work from home or take that day off. Michelle has a bunch of appointments that day and my car goes in for its 30K service.

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