Subject: Weekend Update: July 13-15, 2001
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 15:34:48 -0400
From: Mark Metcalfe <metcalfe>
Organization: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

I took another vacation day last Friday because my father-in-law came
to Pepperell to visit us for a while.  By the by, we decided to take the
snow blower we bought from him to the John Deere dealer so that they could
service it whenever things got slow.  To my surprise, they wouldn't take
it and said that they wouldn't until at least October.  I replied that it
was just a machine that needed a tune-up like any other machine but they
were unmoved and I was purturbed.  My father-in-law asked about parts to
do the tune-up ourselves.  He said we could do it together.  I said,
"do you mean you could do it while I watch?"  He said, no; we could
dissassemble and reassemble it.  And if not, we'd have the parts already.
Oi.  We did get one father-in-law/son-in-law project done: we put
lattice up underneath the spa room.  One project leads to another;
now I have to move rocks (like Sisyphus!) (Sp).

Putting the barter system back on the map, I exchanged a DVD that I
purchased at the behest of Rich Gonzalez for an oil change for our van.
A good trade, in my estimation because it might not have been done since
my nephew Tom visited me last.  (Just kidding!  I had the engine replaced
last winter! ;-) )  Rich said that the oil on the stick should be clear,
but I complained that I couldn't see whether it was full or not unless it
was black!  I put the Eclipse in for its 6000-mile maintenance at 6800
miles.  They cost me a whole lot more than Rich did and for what!?

Meanwhile, I repaired Ol' Lazarus by taping the left front directional
lens in place with movers clear tape.  It looks great... for Ol' Lazarus.
I helped to write the accident report for the insurance company.  Frankly,
I am not optimistic, but the other driver is claiming personal injury so
I'm hoping that fraud (on his part) works in our favor because of the
(true) side of the story that Jessica has.  I haven't yet learned to
put the digital pictures online yet so you can't see the pic I took
of the minimal damage.  I won't go into gory details about the hassle
this has been.  (Not as bad as some people on this list recently, I
hear.  I'll leave you nameless for your own protection but you know
who you are.)

We packed Emily and Andrew off to Junior Camp (as counsellor in training
and kitchen crew).  That means Joy is doing the paper route.  She says
that she can use the money.  Andrew and I can now share shoes (size 9.5,
American, male), but I am not sure we will.

I've made a couple "backup CDs" for my father-in-law and taught the
children how to make backups of their own.  That means the stack of
writable CDs is going like hotcakes on a Saturday morning.  I'd like
to get some time to flip a few flapjacks of my own.  However, I have
the Cadence documentation professionals coming for luncheon tomorrow
at the Manor and I need to ensure that we cater to that crowd first.

I hope your summer is going well.  I can't complain, but I do anyway,
from time to time, just to keep in practice.  ;-)

Mark
--
+---_-----------+ Mark Metcalfe, metcalfe@cadence.com
| c a d e n c e | Cadence Design Systems, Inc.    Phone: (978) 446-6451
+---------------+ PCB Systems Division, Technical Communications Manager