Nothing in particular

Nothing big or really exciting has happened to me in the last week, but I was reading in the MBA Student Voice/Newsletter and it said that blogs are more enjoyable if they are updated regularly, even if just the little stuff is put on there. That made sense to me.
Yesterday was Dad's birthday party. He turned 65 today. We all went over to the Smith's and ate chicken divan, peaches, a yummy salad, and pies. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately for Dad, his gifts keep seem to be getting more boring the older he gets. He didn't have a single package to unwrap this year. Maybe when he retires and can ramp up his hobbies a bit we'll have better things to get him. In our defense, he is getting a few things in the mail this week, and the money given him was also for him to buy something fun at Cabelas.
We made a quick stop off at Grandma W.'s house earlier in the day. Grandpa was not doing particularly well, but he did get up and try to converse with us. His breathing is very labored though and when he talks it is so quiet that you really have to strain to listen or he has to have a particularly clear moment. He said a few funny things that had nothing to do with reality while we were there, but for the most part he was pretty cogent. One thing he said to Grandma was, "There'll be no smoking in my house!" Grandma told him to go ahead and find someone that was. He also told me how tired he was of them having meetings in his house until midnight. They're keeping him up. I asked who and he said it was the missionaries, church members, and civic leaders. I'm not sure where he's getting his info, but not too many meetings are going on there, I'm sure of it. :-) Grandma seems quite well and is doing a great job of being patient with him and keeping herself sane at the same time.
As far as the job hunt for me goes, I have spent considerable time searching corporate career websites looking for decent options. I am about to the point where I will apply for anything that looks like I might be somewhat qualified and that interests me. I think I have applied for 27 jobs at Boeing and about half of that at Lockheed and Northrop in the last two months. Many of them are still open for more applicants, so I'm not sure that I'll hear back from them soon. In the meantime, I've been interviewing on campus with people from Raytheon, a company I can't name here, Lockheed, Honeywell, and next week with Avery Dennison. I have a phone interview with someone from Boeing in two weeks. The position is in St. Louis. Most of them are looking for supply chain people, which I'd consider, but I'm more interested in doing something in the manufacturing arm of things. While I look for jobs, I'm trying my best to balance my time with Autumn, school, and the outdoors/exercise. School seems to be winning right now, I'm afraid.
It is looking warmer here and I have been getting the itch to learn a new hobby. To do so, I have decided to get out of the model helicopter business. I just have too many things I like to do and can't be very good at any of them if I'm spread so thing. Anyway, once I sell the chopper I want to buy a trainer traction kite. What is this, you ask? It is a steerable kite use to pull people around on the water or land. The trainer is still strong enough to pull you on a snowboard or landboard, board, but not enough for kiteboarding in the water. I think it will be something fun without too much upkeep cost beyond purchase price. Also, I've heard that kiteboarding is really great at the Outer Banks, so maybe we'll get the chance to rent and use one there this summer. I'd really like that.
Back to grading papers...
Dan-o