Senior Design Project
2006-05-03, 5:00 p.m.

Day 617 Son #1's Senior Design Project

Had a nice trip to Syracuse to see son #1. He and his team did a great job with their design project presentation. In my very unbiased opinion, their presentation was the best of the three we saw, from both a completeness aspect and the performance of the individuals. There was an audience of 100+ folks in attendance, many of them students families. I�ve always been positively impressed with how well families support their children (children? Shit, they�re 21 for pete�s sake!) at this school.

The only unfortunate thing about the presentation was the timing. Scheduled to start at 12:30. kinda tough to plan a lunch before that, especially if your options are limited by having to drive for 90 minutes just to get to the school. We missed the boat on lunch. After the presentations (2 hours total) there was a small ceremony where the kids were inducted into �The Order of the Engineer�. They swore some Hippocratic kind of oath, shook some hands, signed a certificate suitable for framing and were presented with a ring. Stainless Steel. How engineer geeky is that? I�m envious. We didn�t get the opportunity where I went to school.

Anyhow � after the ceremony, about 4pm, the department provided light refreshments � cheese trays, fruit salads, cookies, petit fours (are those the teeny, crustless sammiches? � that�s what we had.) That was not cutting it for lunch. Also wasn�t acting as much of an appetizer for dinner. The gaping maws of our combined hunger wasn�t going to be satisfied with a cookie & a grape. Zach had a place he wanted us to try for dinner. So we trotted off to his apartment so he could get out of his suit, then headed off to this place called Smokey Bones. (yes, way up in Clay. We also looped around by way of 481 because that how he knows how to get there. I am SO sending him a map).

Nice restaurant, good food, reasonable prices. Because of what we ordered, we (I) got to fill out a survey. They asked for comments. So I mentioned that we�d like to have one over in Rochester. Turns out there�s two approved for building in our area. Guess I�m pretty influential. I no sooner than THINK of getting some of these places back home and they have two on the drawing board. Pretty cool.

Moving home from school dates are all set with both kids. Worked out so that I still get to run in that 5K on the 13th (eeek, next Saturday!) with no mad scheming on my part.. Somehow have to come up with an extra driver (son #2 maybe) to come to Syracuse with me the 19th. #1 is getting a Uhaul and needs someone to drive his car back for him. Only thing is son #2 might be working by then, and I�d hate to ask him to miss a day of work during his first week.

Have updates for mileage accumulation, but I left my notes at home. No additions till Friday I guess.

Big corporate village meeting thing Thursday morning, 7am for our entire division. Maybe all those rumors about our division being bought by GE or Siemans are true! Funny how they plan to make an announcement to us at the same moment the corporate 1st quarter financials are announced. Wonder what they don�t want us to learn from the press release? Oh, the Chief Technical Officer for our division also retired this week. Curiouser and curiouser. Worst part of the 7am meeting? � No morning work out. Sux mightily.

Off to the zoo.

Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight 195.00 on 5/2/06
Target: 180 by 7/1/06
Next �official� weigh in: 5/6/06

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 5/1/06: 325.44
Miles with cooldown: 358.55
Target for 2006: 1000 miles

Might have to add a little something for the 5K training too.

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