Thinking diagonally with multiplication grids. Fun way to teach multiplication to kids.
Mandy and I have been busy lately. The last weekend in August we went to Jason's cookout at the ski lake. Labor Day weekend we had a massive ski club cookout at our ski site. Lloyd did a great job making chicken wings, pork chops, and homemade french fries in the turkey frier. Yummy! I even had time for a "2 hour" air chair set.
I dropped my Audi off at Autobahn Service Center in Norton Ohio the following Friday. They did a great job on the timing belt kit (timing belt, drive belt, tensioner, hydraulic tensioner, tensioning rollers, relay lever, thermostat, water pump, and new coolant. I also had them replace the front crankshaft seal while everything was disassembled and that fixed the very small oil leak. My Audi is ready for another fun 106,000 miles.
That weekend we visited Mark (my roomate of two years at Miami) and saw him perform at the Clague Playhouse in Dangerous Obsession. Afterward, he took us to an awesome martini bar in downtown Cleveland and they had a great Frank Sinatra cover band. Mark was friends with the members of the band and we had a few drinks with them after their performance. Mandy and I also had fun playing games at Dave & Busters.
The following weekend we went to Cincinati to visit Brian and Mary. We stopped at Jungle Jims and enjoyed lots of samples. We purchased lots of interesting food and drink. I even purchased a bottle of Jager for the freezer, since Brian and I finished the bottle I brought back from Germany. I even bought a sample size bottle of lychee liquor. Mandy discovered that I will be able to buy fresh lychees (when in season). Woo hoo! Next, we all went to Octoberfest and had a great time! Spaten Octoberfest on tap!
We stayed the night just outside of Oxford at Mary's house. The following morning we did a quick drive through Oxford and saw several new buildings part of the large capital improvement campaign. I can't wait to skate and see a hockey game in the new Goggin. We made a quick stop at Bagel and Deli, then we were off to Chrissy's birthday party in Sidney.
This week I was in Louisiana for work. I went to a lot of great restaurants: Ruth's Chris (steakhouse), Mike Anderson's (seafood restaurant), Sullivan's (steakhouse & seafood restaurant), and of course Noble's for thin Basa style catfish. I enjoyed several delicious bowls of seafood gumbo. It was a good thing that the hotel I was staying at had a huge fitness facility.
This weekend we attend Mandy's class reunion and I will function as Mandy's arm candy. Chris Hicks has some sort of initiation planned for me. I am sure that I can hang with anything that he has up his sleave.
I have been using more open source software (Ubuntu, ruby on rails, rsync, etc.) lately. I am impressed at how open source just works! Many of the commercial closed source software applications that I use at work don't come close to the same level of quality. These software applications don't just work and require vast amounts of patience and persistence.