Help Desk Confessionals

Too much going on, which push blogging further and further down the list of my priorities.

We are selling our house, and in the process of buying another one. So Lori and I (mostly Lori) have been spending a lot of time cleaning up the house in order to attract buyers. We have probably had 20 or more prospective buyers stopped by, and have two competing offers on the table. So far so good. The house we are buying is in the High Desert area, between L.A. and Vegas. The house is new (not built yet) and big (2400 sq ft), two storeys, with an attached guest house.

Work has been crazy too. Today I was in two meetings that took up most of the day, which means that the tech support stuff are piling up, not to mention I'm running data for upcoming contract RFP, plus getting involved with a conversion project dealing with fund disbursement.

Above: Looking out from the kitchen to the living room.

Below: View from my backyard

Our house is for sale.

We have recently decided that we are going to outgrow our house - with Kid #2 on the way and #3 some time in the future. I am also getting tired to repairing and replacing things in our house that's getting old (like the $2,000 I spent on the HVAC compressor.)

It's a great house, however, with an awesome view from the backyard, and not too far from my work (only 35 miles).

It was my first house, and I'm gonna miss it.

I was asked to design a flyer for the Thanksgiving Day classes and came across this picture on Google search. Gotta use it!

Raising a toddler opened up a whole wide world that was unknown to me. It's called the Disney Channel.

In this new world I found my favorite TV show "The Wiggles".

When The Wiggles appeared on "Today", Katie Couric called them a cross between The Monkees and The Teletubbies. My 15-month old (and I) will stop whatever we are doing when The Wiggles come on.

These guys are funnier than anybody on "Must See TV".

From a website:

"The Wiggles are performers that have rewritten the book on how children can be entertained by song and dance. After 12 years of success in Australia, The Wiggles are increasingly popular all over the world, recently selling out 12 shows at Madison Square Garden in New York.

It is estimated that one in every two toddlers in Australia has sung and danced to The Wiggles through either one of their albums, videos or live concerts. With television shows, numerous APRA and ARIA awards, as well as Gold and Platinum status albums, it is little wonder that The Wiggles are firmly embedded in the hearts and minds of children and adults alike."

Selling out 12 shows at Madison Square Garden!!?? Damn!

All others aside, here are some of my observations when I worked at the polls near my house yesterday.

• Most poll workers were inexperienced, but by 9 a.m., we knew everything.
• Technology did not always translate into efficiency. We (L.A. County) used good ol' reliable paper ballots and moved people in and out - we rarely had lines, whereas the O.C. used touchscreen and people waited in lines for an hour and a half.
• Our registry listed voters and their party affiliations. By the end of the day I could spot a Republican or a Democrat before they reached our table.
• There are a lot of households with split party affiliations (and I thought mine was rare.)
• Republicans came early, Democrats came later (and the Undecideds came at the very end - at least that's what were were joking about.)
• We doubled as child care when necessary.

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