A–Attached or single: Very much attached. In fact, at this very moment, I'm madly, passionately, and wildly in love with my wife.

B–Best Friend: Look at the answer to A and you have the answer to B.

C–Cake or Pie: If I HAVE to choose, I'll pick pie, but I really like both. I made a homemade apple pie a couple of weeks ago that turned out WONDERFULLY.

D–Day of Choice: I love Saturday date nights with my love, and I love Sundays that I don't have tons of meetings.

E–Essential Item: Usually a computer. It's a source of both income and recreation for me.

F–Favorite Color: Blue

G–Gummi Bears or Worms: I enjoy worms more than bears of the gummi variety.

H–Hometown: I was born and raised in Billings, MT, but I now consider Pleasant Grove, UT my home. I've lived in Utah Valley since 1991 and in Pleasant Grove since 1998.

I–Indulgence(s): Food, food, and more food. I love cooking new foods and savoring every bite.

J–January or July: July. There are more paid vacation days to look forward to in July than in January. In January, they're in the too-recent past.

K–Kids: Two. I have the two most wonderful sons a person could ask for.

L–Life is incomplete without: a way to be the center of attention. I teach and do theatre for that particular purpose. :)

M–Marriage Date: June 7, 1991.

N–Number of Siblings: 4 brothers. All of our names begin with the letter D. Dad sometimes called us Big D, Big Middle D, Middle D, Little Middle D, and Little D.

O–Oranges or Apples: If the orange isn't bitter or off-tasting, I'll take it over an apple...unless the apple is grainy. I'd settle for clementines. They're ALWAYS juicy and tasty.

P–Phobias or Fears: Heights. Well, not so much heights as falling from them. Well, not so much the fall as the sudden deceleration at the bottom.

Q–Quote(s): "The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be." --Douglas Adams

R–Reason To Smile: I'm in a play with my older son.

S–Season: Spring.

T–Tag Six: If you read this, you've been tagged.
U–Unknown Fact about Me: Another one of these?? Hmmm. You didn't know that I had Marshmallow Mateys and milk for breakfast today.

V–Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: If we weren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat? I LOVE a well-aged, properly prepared steak. I watched animal activist videos of meat slaughterhouses. It made me HUNGRY. It's been a while since I've had a good steak. But I also like Heidi's substitution of this question, so I'll answer that one too!

V–Venice or Florence: Can my wife and I come along on the trip to Venice first, THEN Florence. Then Venice again, with a side trip to Murano?

W–Worst Habit: Tuning people out when I concentrate on something.

X–X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I've had many x-rays. The only broken bone ever found was a cracked rib. I've had an ultrasound that diagnosed my gall bladder disease and made it necessary to have abdominal surgery. I also had an ultrasound on the Plantar Fascia of my right foot.

Y–Your Favorite Food: As I mentioned above, I love a properly aged, well-prepared steak. I wish I could afford Ruth's Chris.

Z–Zodiac: Virgo. But I haven't read a horoscope in years and years and years.

If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged.

My friend, Miss Giggles, (I'll bet your CURRENT students don't call you that) blogged about how many of the films she had seen that had won the "Best Picture" Oscar. I was curious as to how many I have seen.

So here is the list with my comments:

1928 - Wings, Sunrise (one for best production, other for unique and artistic)
1929 - The Broadway Melody of 1929 - Own it on DVD
1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front - Saw it
1931 - Cimmaron
1932 - Grand Hotel - Saw it
1933 - Cavalcade
1934 - It Happened One Night
1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty - Saw It
1936 - The Great Ziegfeld - Saw It
1937 - The Life of Emile Zola
1938 - You Can't Take It With You - Saw It
1939 - Gone With the Wind - Own it on DVD
1940 - Rebecca
1941 - How Green Was My Valley
1942 - Mrs. Miniver
1943 - Casablanca - Own it on DVD
1944 - Going My Way - Saw it
1945 - The Lost Weekend
1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives
1947 - Gentleman's Agreement
1948 - Hamlet - Saw it
1949 - All The King's Men - Saw it
1950 - All About Eve
1951 - An American in Paris - Own it on DVD
1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth - Saw it
1953 - From Here to Eternity - Saw it
1954 - On the Waterfront
1955 - Marty
1956 - Around the World in Eighty Days - Saw it
1957 - The Bridge on the River Kwai - Saw it
1958 - Gigi -Saw it
1959 - Ben-Hur - Saw it
1960 - The Apartment
1961 - West Side Story - Own it on VHS and DVD
1962 - Lawrence of Arabia - Saw it
1963 - Tom Jones
1964 - My Fair Lady - Own it on DVD
1965 - The Sound of Music - Own it on DVD
1966 - A Man For All Seasons
1967 - In the Heat of the Night
1968 - Oliver! - Saw it
1969 - Midnight Cowboy
1970 - Patton
1971 - The French Connection - Saw it
1972 - The Godfather
1973 - The Sting - Own it on DVD
1974 - The Godfather Part II
1975 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Saw it
1976 - Rocky - Saw it in the theater
1977 - Annie Hall
1978 - The Deer Hunter
1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer
1980 - Ordinary People
1981 - Chariots of Fire - Saw it in the theater
1982 - Ghandi - Saw it
1983 - Terms of Endearment - Saw it on television
1984 - Amadeus - Saw it in the theater
1985 - Out of Africa - Saw it on television
1986 - Platoon - Saw it in the theater
1987 - The Last Emperor
1988 - Rain Man
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy - Own it on DVD
1990 - Dances With Wolves - Saw it in the theater on one of my first dates with my wife
1991 - The Silence of the Lambs - Saw it on television
1992 - Unforgiven
1993 - Schindler's List
1994 - Forrest Gump - Saw it
1995 - Braveheart - Saw it on television
1996 - The English Patient
1997 - Titanic - Saw it in the theater
1998 - Shakespeare in Love
1999 - American Beauty
2000 - Gladiator
2001 - A Beautiful Mind - Own it on DVD
2002 - Chicago - Saw it
2003 - Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - Saw it in the theater, own it on DVD
2004 - Million Dollar Baby
2005 - Crash
2006 - The Departed
2007 - No Country for Old Men

So here are my totals:

Total number of films: 81
Total I've seen: 42 (52%)
Total I saw in the theater: 7 (9%)
Total I own: 11 (14%)

If my fever doesn't go away in the next little while, I'm going to go have a strep test done.  I currently have a deep chest cough, a 102-degree fever, and all of the associated congestion, headaches, etc.

Sucks to be me right now.

I just have to keep reminding myself that things could be SO much worse.  It's JUST a cold, right?  I don't have to have surgery or chemotherapy or may many other MUCH more unpleasant things.

Still...  I'm sick of being sick.

Last night I taught my class about Cartesian coordinates and how to graph linear equations. The Cartesian coordinate system was invented by the French philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes.

That, of course, led me to this joke:

There was this magnificent mathematical horse. You could teach it arithmetic, which it learned with no difficulty, algebra was a breeze, it could even prove theorems in euclidean geometry, but when you tried to teach it analytic geometry, it would rear back on its hind legs, kick ferociously neigh loudly and make violent head motions in resistance.

The moral of this story is that you can't put Descartes before the horse.

What am I dealing with?

Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam;

Yes, the spambots are getting feisty these days.

...or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam.

It's getting ridiculous. About half the mail I get right now is telling me that I have comments to moderate.

Could you do the egg bacon spam and sausage without the spam then?

Urgghh!

What do you mean 'Urgghh'? I don't like spam!

Fortunately, most of it is still caught by Akismet, but REALLY. It's driving me just a little bit crazy.

Sshh, dear, don't cause a fuss. I'll have your spam. I love it. I'm having spam spam spam spam spam spam spam beaked beans spam spam spam and spam!

Baked beans are off.

Yes, the only thing spam was EVER good for was a Monty Python skit.

7:00 am - Alarm clock wakes me up. Roll over and remember that my wife is already at work.

7:10 am - Check to make sure that older son is up. Start making breakfast

7:15 am - Add some red food coloring to the waffle batter. The kids will get a kick out of that.

7:20 am - Wake up younger son and remind him to play his violin before school.

7:25 am - Remind older son to dress up for the music festival he'll be attending. Spend a couple of minutes grading quizzes that I'll have to return today.

7:35 am - Remind older son that we have to leave in 5 minutes.

7:40 am - Find out what older son is doing. He's not ready yet due to extra time needed to get dressed up.

7:45 am - Tell older son that we're already late.

7:50 am - Finally get out the door. Walk to car and realize that I don't have the keys. Rush back inside, grab them brush snow off of car.

8:00 am - Drop older son off at school.

8:10 am - Make breakfast for younger son. While he's eating it, improvise a couple of little packages of conversation hearts for younger son to tape to valentine cards since he was a couple of packages short.

8:25 am - Younger son asks if he can go to the Space Center for his school's overnight trip. Tell him that he can go, but realize that I don't have the checkbook, so I can't write out a check.

8:30 am - Try to take a quick shower, but get interrupted several times.

8:40 am - Finally get in the shower. Younger son is finishing getting ready for school.

8:47 am - Rush out the door with younger son. Drop him off at school about a minute before the bell rings.

9:12 am - Arrive at work. Walk inside. Answer cellular phone. Younger son forgot his Space Center form as well as the red vine licorice that is crucial to his class Valentines Day party.

9:13 am - Leave work to go home and get the stuff younger son forgot.

9:35 am - Drop missing stuff off at younger son's school.

10:05 am - Arrive at work AGAIN. Work frantically to catch up on stuff.

12:00 pm - Realize that during the frantic morning, I forgot to make a lunck.

1:00 pm - Meetings that last altogether too long

2:30 pm - Go back to desk and continue to work frantically.

4:30 pm - Leave work and go to school to do an exam review for my class.

4:50 pm - Get to my classroom and realize that the quizzes I graded that morning aren't in my school bag. Ugh.

5:00 pm - Teach my class.

6:25 pm - Class lets out. There are a hundred billion questions and issues.

6:40 pm - FINALLY head for home.

7:00 pm - Arrive home and heat up leftovers from yesterday's dinner.

7:30 pm - Try to spend a minute or two with my wife amid constant interruptions from both sons.

8:00 pm - Decide to get the boys ready to do whatever they need to for the rest of the night so I can watch a movie with my wife.

8:01 pm - Older son needs to talk with us. He's (understandably) stressed because of having been sick recently and has so much make-up work to do.

8:25 pm - Older son feeling better about things. Heads off to play his violin. Younger son now needs to talk.

8:50 pm - Younger son feeling better about things. Send him off to get ready for bed.

8:55 pm - Movie isn't going to happen. Put on an episode of M*A*S*H and watch it with only 3 or 4 interruptions.

9:25 pm - Watch one more episode of M*A*S*H while my wife falls asleep.

9:45 pm - Realize that I've spent all of about 15 waking minutes alone with my wife on Valentines Day. Get up to blog and play my guitar.

Happy Valentines Day.

My product has officially (as of a few minutes ago) gone Beta.

What does that mean? Well, we're a step closer to release, but the next while will be full of very intense 2-week bug fixing cycles.

It's always nice to reach a milestone though.

On Friday afternoon, I started having some pain in my stomach area.  It was "lower right quadrant" pain, so I was suspecting the worst: appendicitis.

The pain didn't get any better, so on Saturday, I went into the instacare.  Fortunately, my doctor's office has an all-day urgent care clinic.

I was happy to find out that I DON'T have appendicitis.  Almost 10 years ago, I had my gall bladder out.  The pain was probably caused by adhesions of scar tissue from that previous abdominal surgery.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that if this pain doesn't go away, there's not much else they can do other than go back in and cut the adhesions, but that's another surgery, causing more scar tissue, which could then cause problems like this in the future.  Ugh.

Fortunately, I'm feeling somewhat better today.  I can stand up straight without being in pain.  Hopefully, the pain will be gone in the next couple of days.

On Thursday night I taught my class the Pythagorean Theorem. This formula, used for calculating lengths of sides of a right triangle, can be summed up by stating that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.

And here's a REAL groaner:

An Indian chief befriended a white man who had done much to help out his tribe.  This white man had used his education to help the tribe build better wigwams,  make more accurate bows, preserve food for longer periods of time, and  find peaceful coexistence with the white settlers moving through their lands.

The chief esteemed this white man so much that he decided to let the white man take one of his three daughters as his wife.  He told him that he could marry the daughter of his choice.

He brought his friend to a wigwam and opened the door.  Inside, sitting on a cougar skin was the most beautiful Indian maiden that the white man had ever seen.  He then took him to a second wigwam and opened the door.  The white man was astonished to see a woman even MORE beautiful, sitting on a bear skin.  In the third wigwam, sitting on a hippopotamus hide sat the ugliest woman this man had ever seen.

The chief then asked his friend who he wished to marry.

"The third," replied the white man.

"No, really.  I will take no offense," replied the chief.  "Choose ANY of my three daughters.

"I choose the third," maintained the white man.

"May I ask why?" questioned the confused chief.

"It's simple," replied the white man.  "Everyone knows that the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sum of the squaws of the other two hides."

Last night, I finally had some time to help my younger son with his iPod. He wanted to put some more movies on it. I didn't think that would be such a big deal.

When we connected his iPod to iTunes, it told us that there was a software update available. We decided to update his iPod software from 1.0.3 to 1.1. No big deal.

My son watched patiently as the update downloaded (we have a pretty darned slow DSL connection here) and it said that it was installing.

That's when his iPod died.

DEAD. Bricked. No response to anything. We tried the 5 r's on Apple's support site. It didn't respond AT ALL. Nothing.

The poor boy was in tears. I could only hug him and wipe away the tears and tell him that he did NOTHING wrong.

After he went to bed, I Googled and searched around on Apple's support site and put in a trouble ticket and almost made an appointment at the Genius Bar at the Gatweay. I fiddled and tried to reset it over and over and over. I got nothing but a small flash of something on the screen, then more blackness. I played with it until almost 1:00 in the morning. I woke up the next morning fretting about it and feeling terrible for him.

This afternoon, I looked a little closer at some discussion threads on Apple's support forums. It turns out that others were having the same problem directly after updating to version 1.1. Some of these "bricked" iPods actually seemed to "reset" themselves when left alone and unplugged. They finally ran completely out of battery and went through a cold boot process which woke them up again.

I put the "dead" iPod to my ear and heard a high-pitched sound coming from it. It was apparently still "on," just completely unresponsive. I told my son what I had read and we decided to just let it sit for 24 hours and see if it would come back.

A few minutes after he went to bed, he came running downstairs to tell me that his iPod had suddenly lit up in the blackness of his bedroom! We went up and got it and it was telling us to connect it to a power supply. After we connected it, the much-hoped-for Apple logo appeared, the update status bar came up, we watched the update happen, and his iPod came back from the brink. It's working perfectly again. My son is, understandably, having a hard time getting back to sleep because he's so excited and happy.

Lessons learned:

1. Sometimes, patience pays off.
2. Sometimes, it sucks to be a kid and feel things so deeply.
3. Sometimes, it's awesome to be a kid and feel things so deeply.
4. Sometimes, I wish I could be a kid again.