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Enough about bad stuff -- here's the latest scoop on what has been happening with Ben this last week.
Since last Monday was a holiday, I asked Sara if she wanted to take advantage of my day off from work and take Ben to Seaworld. She thought it was a marvelous idea, and she was particularly looking forward to seeing how it had changed. The last time she went there was as a teenager, and the park has roughly doulbed in size since then.
We arrived at the park and Ben seemed very happy to be there as we walked in from the parking lot and then bought our season passes. Once we got isside the park gates, however, he became increasingly agitated and just did not want to be there. He didn't care about the dolpin tanks or the manta rays that you can reach in and touch. He wasn't interested in any of the other exhibits we walked by, he just plain started to melt down. We found a quiet corner and got him some french fries, and he gradually calmed down. We decided to take him to the Shamu killer whale show, and that turned out to be the golden ticket. Sitting up near the back row, he watched with fascination as the whales and their trainers performed jumps and dives. I'm talkin' *big* smiles, as he took it all in. You can look at the pictures here. After that we went to another show, this one featuring seals, an otter, and a sea lion. Again he was fascinated by the whole thing. By then it was starting to get late, especially being a school night, so we left on an up note and called the day a success.
The next morning I took Ben into school, and then went inside to talk to the principal about the bus situation. He saw me right away, and once I introduced myself he knew exaxtly what the situation was. When I filled him in on all of the details and what exactly our frustrations were, he was sincerely apalled by the entire situation. He brought in the woman responsible on the school's end of things, who was also very frustrated. It all comes down to the indifferent beurocracy of the Transportation department. The principal got on the phone with transportation and made his displeasure known, and definitely moved things along.
The upshot is that as of Friday morning Ben started riding the bus again. He is on a different route and is picked up much earlier than he used to be, but that's ok. He enjoys the bus ride and it provides a good transition time for him.
In other news:
This next week I am attending a five day Visual Studion conference here in Orlando. I am really looking forward to it, it's been over three years since I got to go to one of these. Lots of good information, tons of free stuff... it should be a good time.
Also, there has been a bit of a re-organization at work. As of yesterday I am now the lead developer on the maintenance team. That encompasses both bug fixes and feature requests. It makes good sense to me, given that that kind of work requires less one-on-one interaction with stakeholders. Most of the the existing dev team will then be freed up to focus entirely on new functionality in the site. As part of the change I now have a different direct supervisor, although I have known him for years now and like him quite a bit. He wants me to come up to the Seattle office for a couple of days to help get the team established, so It looks like I may be coming up to Seattle in the near future. I'll know more early this week, but the most likely scenario is for me to fly up a week from tomorrow in the evening and then work out of the Seattle office on that Monday and Tuesday, flying back home on Wednesday. I know there might be one or two people who will want to see me while I am in town, so the best I can say is tenatively keep your schedules clear on the 15th and 16th in the evening. I'll let you know when I know more.
Since last Monday was a holiday, I asked Sara if she wanted to take advantage of my day off from work and take Ben to Seaworld. She thought it was a marvelous idea, and she was particularly looking forward to seeing how it had changed. The last time she went there was as a teenager, and the park has roughly doulbed in size since then.
We arrived at the park and Ben seemed very happy to be there as we walked in from the parking lot and then bought our season passes. Once we got isside the park gates, however, he became increasingly agitated and just did not want to be there. He didn't care about the dolpin tanks or the manta rays that you can reach in and touch. He wasn't interested in any of the other exhibits we walked by, he just plain started to melt down. We found a quiet corner and got him some french fries, and he gradually calmed down. We decided to take him to the Shamu killer whale show, and that turned out to be the golden ticket. Sitting up near the back row, he watched with fascination as the whales and their trainers performed jumps and dives. I'm talkin' *big* smiles, as he took it all in. You can look at the pictures here. After that we went to another show, this one featuring seals, an otter, and a sea lion. Again he was fascinated by the whole thing. By then it was starting to get late, especially being a school night, so we left on an up note and called the day a success.
The next morning I took Ben into school, and then went inside to talk to the principal about the bus situation. He saw me right away, and once I introduced myself he knew exaxtly what the situation was. When I filled him in on all of the details and what exactly our frustrations were, he was sincerely apalled by the entire situation. He brought in the woman responsible on the school's end of things, who was also very frustrated. It all comes down to the indifferent beurocracy of the Transportation department. The principal got on the phone with transportation and made his displeasure known, and definitely moved things along.
The upshot is that as of Friday morning Ben started riding the bus again. He is on a different route and is picked up much earlier than he used to be, but that's ok. He enjoys the bus ride and it provides a good transition time for him.
In other news:
This next week I am attending a five day Visual Studion conference here in Orlando. I am really looking forward to it, it's been over three years since I got to go to one of these. Lots of good information, tons of free stuff... it should be a good time.
Also, there has been a bit of a re-organization at work. As of yesterday I am now the lead developer on the maintenance team. That encompasses both bug fixes and feature requests. It makes good sense to me, given that that kind of work requires less one-on-one interaction with stakeholders. Most of the the existing dev team will then be freed up to focus entirely on new functionality in the site. As part of the change I now have a different direct supervisor, although I have known him for years now and like him quite a bit. He wants me to come up to the Seattle office for a couple of days to help get the team established, so It looks like I may be coming up to Seattle in the near future. I'll know more early this week, but the most likely scenario is for me to fly up a week from tomorrow in the evening and then work out of the Seattle office on that Monday and Tuesday, flying back home on Wednesday. I know there might be one or two people who will want to see me while I am in town, so the best I can say is tenatively keep your schedules clear on the 15th and 16th in the evening. I'll let you know when I know more.
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