Chain Factor

It's a little web-based game. Nice and addictive. It's tetris-like, but turn based rather than timed, which makes it easy to leave in the background.

Compact Calendar

This is my favorite calendar for year-at-a-glance on my cubicle wall. I actually modify mine in Excel and print it out anew periodically. Basically, I shade in days when the office is closed in one color, and vacation/floating days in another, and bold the dates for events I won't be missing work for, but may need to schedule around. Then on the side, I count down remaining vacation/floating/sick days. (This is what my current one looks like.)

Oh, hey, see that bottom line, where it says "1 floating, 0 vacation"? That means I still have one floating day I need to pin down...
 

(There's a poll below)

I figure asking for tomorrow is kind of cruel short notice, so I'm starting the poll for the day after tomorrow. Listed are all of the possible dates. I'm already taking Monday the 18th because it's the last full day Dad'll be in NJ. I've also already put in for all off Christmas week and the Monday before New Year's (I am so surprised they didn't just put Dec 31 on the 2008 holiday schedule, but, hey, I have the vacation time to use up anyway.)

Friday the 14th would make a nice long weekend, but it's also the day of our free holiday hot breakfast. Friday the 21st would make for a longer break, but I bet it's going to be a short day anyway. I probably should not take Wednesday the 12th, because we have an after-work dinner thingy that day. Hm.
 

Christmas Gifts

I'll bite the bullet for the adults on my list, but now I need to get gifts for a 3-year old (male), a 3-and-a-half-year-old (female), and a 5-and-a-half year old (male). Both boys are in the same household, and will have their stuff mailed to them. Ideas?

When should I take my last floating day?

When I got home yesterday, I had a package from my brother (the one in MI). In it was a quick note and a pair of unfingered gloves, knitted by my sister-in-law. Yay!

They look like this:

(These are fuzzy cameraphone pics, so I used the eentsy size - you can still see what they are...)

I have them at work now, as it's often cold at the office, but I can't type with gloves on. They work ok.

That's a funny thing, as I am only online for an hour or so every other day. I have to make it up to town to get online at the bookstore. This is probably good though.

We had the first bit of our family gathering last night. The big one is today. We celebrate my great aunt's passing, and Dad's 70th, and just being family. I am now exactly half of Dad's age. Scary. N is going out and buying all manner of seafood for tonight. It will be all sorts of much.

It's been cold and rainy, so I've not been in the lake yet. I might go in anyway after I go back down.

So far, still looks like we'll be driving back Tues and Dad will be heading back to NM on Wed. No cell service here at all, forgot to bring the charger, and battery is low. Not sure how I will call aiskon to let her know when I'll be in. Suppose email is possble. How sad is it that I do not know my own house number? I'll have to hope my battery lasts long enough for me to look it up and call another way. Or maybe she'll read this...

Drove up to new Hampshire yesterday with Dad. Brother, wife, and baby were already up here. It's nice.

There's no cell reception at the camp, and no landline. We came up to town for breakfast and we've dropped in to the Country Bookseller to check email.

Sadly, there will not be pictures. I pulled out my camera and found the screen was cracked. Still, I am appreciating the cool, and the quiet, and the family. More family will be trickling in over the next few days.

Long term readers may recall that last year my brother shaved his head for charity.

Well, he's up to it again.

This is how he looked after last year's event. You can click on the photo to donate. He also says that if he reach $5000 in contributions he'll shave off half the beard and wear it like that through Monday at work and at the Council meeting that evening (He's on the Town Council). Now who doesn't want to see an elected official looking stupid in public?

You can also donate for my baby neice instead (Don't worry, she is perfectly healthy, but she is getting her first haircut at this year's St' Baldrick's event.)

1971_collage
Originally uploaded by Kit Kendrick.

I think this collage was done for a Christmas card we sent out in 1971 (well, the date isn't a guess - it's pretty obvious there!). The fading at the edges is on the original photo - not much I could do about it.

The adult man and woman are, of course, Mom and Dad. And yes, the funny face in the lower left is rather typical of him.

That's my oldest brother in the top middle and the middle brother in the top right. I am, as you might guess, the baby.

I also found a larger print of one of the middle images of mom and me. I suspect I could find all 11 in the box if I look hard enough, but the box is unsorted, so it might be a bit of a hunt.

Eat Dirt
Originally uploaded by Kit Kendrick.

When I was in my early teens, I went to a Christmas party at my father's office. I discovered my father had a lovely enlargement of this picture posted in his office. I made him take it down.

I think the lighting on this one came out a bit better, although the dirt-eating was less pronounced.

I found this going through some old photos that were among the stuff I moved to the new house. I must have picked it up from when Dad was staying in Livingston. There are other pictures I would love to scan and archive, but either I'll have to get the scanner set up at home or gently ferry them to work.

My brother sent this out a little while ago. Go. Donate.

Dear Friends ...

I'm getting my head shaved, and I want you to give some money to help me do it.

On Friday, March 18 members of the North Plainfield Fire Department, Police Department and now the Borough Council will be shaving their heads for St. Baldrick's Day to raise money to research cures for kids with cancer.

I've agreed to get 100 percent shorn and need to raise $5000 to do it. Please donate at the St. Baldrick's web site to help me get to my goal. Every $5 is more money going to cure childhood cancer, the leading killer of children in the United States.

Most of the money raised goes to the CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation which includes 200 member institutions, representing every pediatric cancer program in North America, treating over 90 percent of children with cancer in North America.

You can also help raise money by joining my team, The Council, and getting your own hair cut! Rob Beattie, who has organized the event, of the North Plainfield Fire Department promises me that you can just get a buzz cut and not go all the way bald.

But I am going completely bald. And here's a kicker. If I can get twenty $100 contributions I will also shave off my beard. I have not been without hair anywhere on my head since I was an infant, so let's see the money!

Thanks for your help. It's very important.

Nathan Rudy
Council President, North Plainfield, NJ

My brother N did not win this fall's election, but he was made president of his town's town council today. I went to the swearing in and held baby K during the ceremony, where she fell asleep on me.

My magic touch was, well, less magic at the Vermuele house reception later, when she was a little overwhelmed by all the people. The caretaker asked me when Distant Mirror would be back. Seems they like us or something.

We stopped by N's place after so I could get my belated Christmas present from my father. He sent me one of the books I gave him last year (that I had not read myself, it was just recommended to me) and a recipe book. You see, my mother had a ratty old brown binder with recipes in it that we misplaces for a while (Actually, I have it now). Dad found a little green binder I made were I typed (and handwrote) some of them for myself. He sent it to me with the gift. Boy I have bad handwriting.

I called my other brother, A, who apparently had my phone number wrong. My new nephew was born 5:30 pm on Dec 30. His name is Shea Everett Donham Rudy (any Mets reference purely accidental, A tells me). It would have been interesting if he's waited a day. Dec 31 could have used a new omen for out family (it's the anniversary of my mother's death.)

Still, it's good to welcome a new life into the family, and I shall have to find my way to Michigan in time to see him.