more on eBay item 4146756343 - SIZE 12 WEDDING DRESS/GOWN NO RESERVE

Here is some more on eBay item 4146756343 - SIZE 12 WEDDING DRESS/GOWN NO RESERVE. Although it is hard to believe, the counter suggests that the page has taken over 11.7 million hits as of 8:00 p.m. Pacific time.

The seller has created a web site at: http://www.ebayweddingguy.com/

The video segment from the today show is on the web at the MSN Video site.

The video is worth checking out!

Kings Win!

Jack, Sharon, Tim (Sharon's brother) and I went to game five of the first round NBA play-off game between the Sacramento Kings and the Dallas Mavericks. Jack and I got a chance to sit in the fifth row in the end zone right above the Kings bench; these were great seats. We had a blast and the Kings closed out the series with a 119 to 118 win!

eBay item 4146756343 - SIZE 12 WEDDING DRESS/GOWN NO RESERVE

I spent the day winding my way back from Atlanta. I flew AmericaWest from Altanta to Las Vegas and then Las Vegas to Sacramento. Although I have had some bad experiences with AmericaWest in the past, the trip was very uneventful. AmericaWest is doing something different; the only meals offered are the flight were for sale. They offered a couple of three different meals for $5 to $7. I have never seen this before.

Wednesday night, Jack played in his sixth baseball game of the season.

Larkin sent me a link to an eBay item: SIZE 12 WEDDING DRESS/GOWN NO RESERVE. It is worth taking a second and reading the item's description. As of tonight, the page has had over 6 million hits. The seller was on the Today Show on Monday talking about the eBay sale.

Second day at Lawson CUE

I spent a second day at the Lawson Conference and User Exchange. The conference sessions I attended included: Caltholic Healthcare West: Optimize Your Supply Chain Management Implementation; Planning for 8.1 ProcessFlow: Differences from 8.x ProcessFlow; and, a Lawson Reporting Suite for Healthcare Demonstration.

After a 10k run on the treadmill, a group of us headed to Turner Field for the evening event. There was a healthcare industry reception at the 755 Club. We had dinner and drinks overlooking the field. To end the evening, the Little River Band played in the Monument Grove Plaza at the stadium.

Lawson CUE

I spent the day at the Lawson Conference and User Exchange in Atlanta, George. The conference is being held at the Georgia World Congress Center. The opening session included a presentation by Jerry Linenger, an astronaut who spent 5 months aboard the Muir Space Station. His presentation was titled Embracing Challenges and Change: My 132 Days off the Planet. He had some amazing stories; it sounded like they kept the Muir going with baling wire and chewing gum. His story about fighting a fire in the Muir space station was particularly incredible.

I attend three break-outs sessions, including What's New in Human Resources Version 8.1, Becoming a Power User of the Lawson Portal, and What's new in Procurement Version 8.1.

After a 10k on the treadmill, Donna and I joined the Lawson Account representative and a group of other major customers for a dinner at a restaurant called Spice.

Winding my way to Atlanta

Although Bibby did not look any worst for his supposed injury in practice, the Sacramento Kings team that showed up in Dallas on Saturday afternoon was the Kings team that I watched the last six weeks of the season. I was hoping that team was lost and gone, but apparently not...

I spent the day winding my way from Sacramento to Atlanta via Phoenix. When I boarded the flight in Sacramento for the short trip to Phoenix, there was a woman with a baby in the middle seat. Initially, I assumed that the guy on the window was her husband. Shortly after take-off, I realized that he was not her husband, but just some dude. Over the course of the flight, I ended up talking to her.

She was a very normal looking woman in her late thirties or early forties. The baby was an eight month boy who was great during the flight. The baby was her seventh kid. She was married for fifteen years and had six kids, ages 4 to 18, with her first husband. She got divorced and married a guy who lives in Grass Valley that she met on the internet. Yes, the internet...

Her new husband has two kids by his previous two wives, ages 8 and 16. Yes, this is his third marriage and he has three kids by three wives. Together, the two of them have nine kids. Their ex-spouses (his two ex-wives and her ex-husband) have not remarried and are very combative. According to her, all three of the ex-spouses are constantly working to poison the kids against her and her husband.

She can not get permission from the court to move to California with her six other kids and her new husband can not find a job in Phoenix. As a result, one weekend a month she flies to Sacramento and one weekend a month, he flies to Phoenix. They spent vacations and holidays together. She is in court to try to get permission to move to California.

I am constantly amazed how complicated we can make our lives.

This Blog is one year's old today!

This Blog is one year's old today. The initial entry was Shopping Colleges and Kindergartens.

Early Saturday morning, Jack played in his fifth baseball game of the season. Afterwards, Jack and I went and signed him up to play in the Elk Grove youth soccer league. Sharon spent a big part of Saturday with her nephew Kevin. She is serving as his confirmation sponsor and there was a rehearsal for Sunday.

Friday morning, Sharon worked at T0wer. Although the woman Sharon filled in for while she was on maternity leave is back, T0wer is still having her work on some projects.

Friday afternoon, Sharon was one of the art docent's for the afternoon kindergarten class. The lesson revolved around artists who paints flowers, including Vincent Van Gogh's Vase with Irises [shown below], Claude Monet's Waterlillies II, Vase of Flowers by Odilon Redon, and Petit Fleurs by Pablo Picasso.



Friday night, Sharon and Janie met for drinks at the Virgin Sturgeon.

sacbee.com -- Kings -- Bibby injured during Kings practice

urrrgghhh.... Bibby injured during Kings practice

Waffles

Brun sent me another g00gle b0mb. If you do a Google Search for "Waffles," the first item in the list is the web site for John Kerry for President. I previously pointed out that if you do a Google Search for "miserable failure" the first item in the list is the biography of George W. Bush on the official White House web site.

sacbee.com -- Business -- Tech upgrade at Sutter

Sutter Health has moved aggressively to deploy technology over the last six years to cut costs and improve patient safety. Plans for the next ten years are even more ambitious. The short article in today's Sacramento Bee titled Tech upgrade at Sutter notes that Sutter Health will spend $1.2 billion over the next 10 years to improve medical and administrative technologies at its hospitals.

There is a longer article in today's Contra Costa Times titled Sutter Health sets $1.2 billion plan for IT which quotes the Sutter Health CIO and provides more details about the plans that we have underway.

Will India price itself out of offshore market?

Part of the subplot of Wednesday's episode of West Wing included the export of technology jobs to India. This is probably a story that they should have done several years ago. I have had several opportunities in the last couple months [see 12/21/2003 and 3/6/2004] to deal with help desks outsourced to India and have been less than impressed.

Within Sutter Health, I have been fairly vocal about my negative experiences with India help desks. As a result, people are always forwarding me articles about India outsourcing. One of the Regional CIOs forwarded a link to Will India price itself out of offshore market? The article notes that:

The U.S. technology industry's demand for offshore services is apparently beginning to drive up pay rates in India, raising questions about the long-term benefits of outsourcing work to that country.

Indeed, even some Indian companies have begun offshoring their own work to China.

The article points out that salaries in India have grown at a double digit rate in the last year. In contrast, the mid-points and salary ranges for our technology jobs have not changed for three straight years.

Wine Tasting!

Sharon and Liz spent the day wine tasting in Somona. They went to the Buena Vista and Artesa Wineries and had lunch at the Martini House.

Wednesday night, Jack played in his fourth baseball game of the season.

River Cats Game

As a team building exercise, we took Donna Gainsley's Business Systems team to a River Cats Baseball game; 55 of the 58 members of the team attended. The event included a barbecue in the right field outfield before the game.

The game had a very early 11:35 a.m. first pitch. The Salt Utah Stingers beat the Sacramento River Cats by a score of 11 to 2. Salt Lake was ahead 3 to 2 in the top of the seventh inning when they got a home run and a grand slam to blow the game open.

While Sharon went to a mandatory training session for eucharistic ministers, Jack and I watched the Kings post an ugly win (there were 114 missed shots in the game!) over the Mavericks in game two of the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Veritas Executive Briefing

Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Marvericks NBA basketball team, publishes the Blog Maverick.

I spent the day in Mountain View at an Executive Briefing with Veritas. The agenda included: a VERITAS overview; Application Availability technology; Application Performance tools; Storage and Server Automation; Data Protection, and; Disaster Recovery.

Kings Win!

Sharon, Jack, Joe Larkin and I went to the first game of round one of the NBA play-offs. The Sacramento Kings pulled away from the Dallas Mavericks in the fourth quarter to win by a score of 116 to 105. Peja had 28 points, including 5 for 10 from three point range.

All day at kids' birthday parties...

We spent all day taking Jack to birthday parties. In the morning, we took him to Jeffery's party at the Laguna Skates. This was the first time that Jack had ever been on roller skates. We had a little bit of a rocky start, but by the end of the party was he having a great time.

Launch in external player

I took this short video with my Canon PowerShot S330 digital camera rather than with the DV camcorder. It was primarily an experiment to see if I could manipulate the video and actually put it on a web page.

In the afternoon, we took Jack to Anton's birthday at Laser Force. The kids played laser tag in a castle setting with theatrical fog, black lights, dark dungeons, towers and owls. I was a little worried that he was going to be intimidated by the situation and some of the bigger kids, but he enjoyed it. The group did two separate sessions and Jack wanted to dive right back in again after the second session.

Liz Deuso

We had Liz Deuso over for dinner. Sharon made her often requested, world famous Corn Flake Chicken.


I was a little surprised to see that the Kings left Tony Massenburg off the play-off roster. Petrie said that he didn't expect Massenburg, who reportedly packed boxes before he left the practice facility, to be with the team during the playoffs.

Mark Kreidler: Lack of focus shows this team won't get beyond first round

The Kings have lost eight of the last twelve games. As a King's fan and season ticket holder over the last nineteen years, watching these games over the last three weeks has not been good for my blood pressure. I agree completely with Mark Kreidler's article titled Lack of focus shows this team won't get beyond first round in today's Sacramento Bee.

My personal prediction is that Dallas will win the first round series against Sacramento in six games.

Larkin and I will be at the first Dallas versus Sacramento playoff game on Sunday afternoon.

Dealing with rebellious wives?

I spent the day in San Francisco for a couple of meetings, including a Kronos Implementation Executive Steering Committee.

Continuing to ponder the intersection of Middle Eastern and American culture and the our goals in Iraq, I ran across an article in the last couple of weeks that talks about dealing with a rebellious wife. While the source of the article appears to be suspect, it still makes me wonder if we really understand the role that religion plays in most of Middle Eastern society. Trying to impose American political institutions in 14 months (Bush's June 30 deadline) on a society with 1,400 years tradition of religion playing a major role in politics and everyday life seems wrought with danger.

Wednesday night, Jack had his third baseball game of the season.

Wrapping up at T0wer...

Since December 22, 2003, Sharon has been working at T0wer Records as in-house counsel filling in for a woman who went out on maternity leave. The woman came back to work on Monday and today is Sharon's last day. Sharon has done very well in short time that she has been there; a number of people have been extremely pleased with her work. It is possible that she will continue to do some part-time work for them in the future.

Running on the treadmill and listening to Bush's speech and the following press conference, I could not stop wondering about trying to impose Western [American?] structures and values on a millenniums old Middle Eastern culture. Although it may seem like an odd connection, I keep thinking about this article I ran across recently: Qatar trials robot substitute for child camel jockeys. Do we really understand the beliefs and value structure of their society? Can a western style democracy work?

Further reading:

Hooves of thunder
Camel races (State of Quatar, Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Camel races (Doha Online network)
Camel races in the Middle East - the camel jockeys are child slaves
Kidnapped children sold into slavery as camel racers
Death in the desert for Pakistan's camel children
Father fights to keep son out of hands of camel jockeys