"9 to 5 The Musical", Solilquy Bar, Preparing for KBBF, and Summary of Prior Week

Sleepy Oliver

It was a busy week for me with a conference I attended in Kansas City Monday - Wednesday. I made the decision to drive in each day instead of getting a hotel room in Kansas City for the conference. Made for long days the first part of this week, but it was a good conference with good connections being made. Tuesday night when I got home from the conference, Oliver was very sleepy and plopped down in his bed to do some serious sleeping. I decided to head to bed early that night too and went to bed at 9:30.

The rest of the week flew by and was catch up for me at work after attending the conference. Short week next week for me as I will be taking personal leave to head to Helena, AR for the King Biscuit Blues Festival. I leave Wednesday and then back the following Sunday. Looking forward to another KBBF and seeing everyone at the festival. Carrie was planning to go but decided she would not make it this year. Javier will be there and we will work the main stage at the KBBF.

Saturday night, Carrie and I went to see 9 to 5 The Musical at Topeka Civic Theater. We had a fun time joining Greg and Erin for the play. Prior to the play, we met at The Pennant for a quick dinner and drinks before heading to the play. It was a fun evening. The musical was good and it was the first play we had been to in a while. It was good to be back at Topeka Civic Theater.

Drink at Solilquy Bar

Following the play, Carrie and I decided to stop by Soliloquy Bar where we sat on the patio and had a few drinks. One of the drinks I ordered came out and was lit on fire. Another drink Carrie and I shared had liquid nitrogen that cooled down the glass, they then threw out the nitrogen which was cool to see the nitrogen hit on the ground. Our server was one of the owners, so we chatted with him for a bit and talked about the cool places to get drinks in Topeka and Lawrence.

On the Patio at Solilquy Bar

Beautiful evening Saturday night to sit on the patio which was nice. The patio was busy when we arrived around 10:30 and then by the time I took the picture to the left, it had cleared out. The owner told us that they have a soft close of midnight which was something Carrie and I were wondering about as we sat on the patio listening to music and how the neighbors next door react to the traffic, music, etc.

It is now Sunday as I finish up this update and I am sitting here watching football. Both of my fantasy football teams are not off to very good starts. Hoping to get two wins this week with my two teams and bounce back. Also out there are my fantasy baseball teams which are not doing well either. Still, it is fun to follow players and make changes to try and win each week.

That is about all for today. Have a great week and I will talk to you next time.

Spent April 9 and 10 Cutting down a Honeysuckle Tree in our Back Yard Which was a Mess

Last weekend I spent both Saturday and Sunday cutting down and cleaning up a volunter tree that started in our back yard by our family room a few years ago. Ok, it has been there a while as it was huge towering above the roof of our family room. The tree was a honeysuckle tree and it was huge! I did not take any pictures prior to cutting it down, but it was probably as tall as our second story house. Thus, I spent the all of Saturday cutting down the tree and most of Sunday morning and afternoon cutting up the limbs. 

 

I knew it was going to be a job and had put it off the past few springs, but decided for some reason last Saturday I would head out and begin cutting it down. I was concerned a few times I was going to blow out a window, but luckily the windows survived limbs coming down. Not that there were a few that were close, but no damage was done.

 

You can see in the picture to the left that part of the tree from this Saturday picture still shows some of the tree still up by the back corner of the family room. It was the process! Carrie came out to help with organizing limbs and snipping off the small portions of the limbs. She came out to help for a bit on Sunday too.

 

The stump of where I cut down the tree was fairly large. I have heard that honeysuckle trees are basically like weeds and that’s what I dealt with last weekend. It was a mess and had me spending the whole weekend cutting up limbs. At one point on Saturday, the chainsaw (electric) I was using stopped working where the chain would come off as I started to cut a limb. So, that required a trip out to hardware store for chain oil. Of course by the time I found a hardware store with the chain oil, it was too late to keep going, so basically I got home with the chain oil, a case of beer, and put the oil in the chainsaw, did a test, and called it a day. There were more work to be done on Sunday.

 

It was a good lesson to get rid of small trees when I see them coming up in the yard or around the house. I usually do so around the fence to get rid of anything that does not look good or might cause issues. In this case, the honeysuckle tree looked like it would be a good fit where it was growing, but it was a mess! The tree was hanging over the family room roof, rubbing against our drains, and generally causing havoc with the house. Who knows what it is doing to the already degrading cement floor in the family room, but I am sure it was not good. 

 

Good to have the tree out and basically cut up. I need to do more work to cut up some more of the small junk that came out of the top of the tree, but a lot of that is kindling for back yard fires and future camping sites. I felt pretty good following the finishing up from Sunday. My body was telling me I had worked both days as I was sore in my back and legs. It was a long two days, but felt good to finish it up and see the final results of the tree stump opening up our southeast corner of our family room.

The final result is to the picture to the left with a pile of cut up limbs and then more junk from the top of the tree. Going to work well for kindling to get fires going, but still a lot of it to go through. There might be a branch or two waiting to be cut up over there too as I was exhausted the end of Sunday last week and decided to put it all in the corner and cut it up as I am out in the back yard grilling or doing the fire pit.

 

It felt good to finally get the tree cut down and somewhat cut up. It was a large task and I am glad that Carrie helped with the process. Overall, it went well and it looks much better where that tree was coming through. Now to focus on other areas of the yard such as the front yard, that is my next goal to do some pruning and cleaning up of trees in the front up by the house. Going to be a lot of work, but I think we can get through it and improve how our home looks.

 

Here a week later and my back has recovered for the most part. See what I can do on Saturday to get after it again and begin another project that hopefully can be limited to only the one day (Saturday) of yard work. Still have a ton of gumballs to pick up in the front yeard, so that will be fun. 

 

New CIO for Washburn University as of October 2021

Many of you already know, but I have a new job at Washburn University. As of October 2021, I am the Chief Information Officer (CIO). In July 2021, our CIO announced he would be leaving Washburn to return to the east coast to work. I asked about being interim CIO and in the middle of July it was announced that I would be the interim CIO for Information Technology Services (ITS). 

I learned a lot in the few months while I was interim CIO. I wanted to make sure that by being interim CIO that I could still apply for the CIO position and I was told that was not an issue. So, I started working on updating my resume. Carrie put me in touch with a company she had heard great things from others about helping with their resume, so I reached out to Grammar Chic, Inc to start the process.

I already had some vacation scheduled at the end of July, so by the time I was able to connect with Grammar Chic to discuss my resume, I was on vacation and already doing the interim CIO stent. I had sent them copies of my resume which I had been using for for whole career and I thought it was good. After going through the process with Grammar Chic, my resume was completely reformed and it is so much better! I would highly recommend Grammar Chic to help with your resume and cover letter.

I could not be more excited then to be the CIO for Washburn University. I am learning new things everyday and dealing with new challenges each day too. On October 5, 2021, I was announced to the campus as the new CIO.

While I do not post a lot about work on my blog, I wanted to post an update to document and share the news with those I have not been able to talk to about my recent career change. I want to thank my family and friends who helped me with this change along with the encouragement. I would also like to thank the ITS staff I work with and those that gave me advice on the process. 

Yesterday, Carrie helped me clean out my old office in Bennett Computer Center to throw out old items and move paperwork to my new office. While I had been working out of Morgan Hall room 215B since the first part of August, I am now completely out of Bennett Computer Center and it feels good to be done with the move. Carrie is encouraging me to have my new office painted, we are buying pictures for the new office, and once it is painted, we will go back to hang the newly acquired art work. 

I do plan to keep at least an annual update to this space on my job and progress. I look forward to providing my expertise and passion for Washburn University in this new role. I could not be more grateful for the opportunity.

Things Out of our Control

As we progress through life and our every day tasks we come across many different things that we have absolutely no control over. A couple of items come to mind right now.

We are trying to sell our house. We think it is a hot item on the market and we had a lot of traffic from people when it first went on the market over a month ago. Now the traffic has dwindled to one or two people a week... if that! We have a limited ability to get people into look at our house, but ultimately it is up to advertising and word-of-mouth to get them in our house. To get a offer on our house that is a completely different story. So far the planets and stars have not lined up for us to get that offer on our house. Will it come eventually? Sure! Will it come soon.... we do not know nor do we have control over that fact.

The Kansas City Royals had a horrible season last year... one of the worst in MLB history. While they have not started off bad this year they did lose a game against New York yesterday afternoon that they should not have let slip away. Just as I pull for the Royals I also pull for Kansas basketball, Washburn sports and anything else that is relevant to a sport I follow or a event I am dedicated to. Do I have control over the outcome of the Royals or whether Kansas wins the National Championship? Of course not! No matter how I feel that wearing my "lucky" shirt or doing the same routine will help MY team advance to the ultimate goal of a title... You and I both know it does no good but make me feel good when they do succeed. Again, completely out of my control no matter how hard I cheer... no matter what I wear... or how distraught I am with the team... no changes.

The last item that while I feel I have control over I ultimately do not have control. That is major decisions at work. Purchases, leave time and other related items. These may be simply for employees that work for me or for ISS. I am certainly not in a vacuum and I do feel I should check with others before making decisions. It simply feels like making decisions at work requires many hoopes to jump through instead of simply making the decision. Instead of taking a day or two to make a decision it takes weeks or even months to make a decision. I am all for gathering the facts and basing the decision off of those facts... This can be frustrating not only for the person waiting on the decision, but also for me who has to relay the information to who ever asked for that process.

The joys of selling a house, cheering for a sporting team and being in a work environment. It can be a lot of fun for all areas and it can also be frustrating.