Ok, I am the only one who asked that question. Honestly, I don’t know where the time went. I posted at the beginning of July and then, before I knew it, it was 6 weeks later. Sorry guys.

Well, in the beginning of July (2 days after the pictures for the July post were taken) Ashlynn was placed in some Orthopedic shoes that will eventually correct her club foot. The shoes are normal looking shoes that tie up REALLY tight. They are bolted to a brass rail that makes the whole contraption look like a funny snow board. In fact, the doctors call it a snow board. She will be in the contraption for 12 weeks straight! That’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She can be liberated for an hour a day, but for the most part, it’s a permanent attachment. It is actually like a handle. Makes changing diapers very easy because it goes on both of her feet. About a week ago, she had a doctor’s appointment where the doctor looked at her, and told us she can graduate from 24/7 to night times on September 30, so she’ll be liberated during the day and shod up at night. Sounds kinda backwards, huh.

Emeryism: 4 weeks ago (3 and a half actually) I was really hot. Now, I don’t have much hair, even though I am only 26, so I decided I would shave my head. I guess I have a pretty nicely shaped head that shaved off and polished, I look pretty good. I went into the bathroom and shaved as I have done before, and my little girl, Emery, came in and looked at me and looked at me and said, “where your hair go?” I told her I cut it off and she stood there, looking and finally she said – “You look like a construction worker!” Wha– Where did that come from? I laughed pretty dang hard.

Last weekend, I had an interview/test with Convergys for a position as a router maintenance tech with Juniper Networks. The interview was in Ogden, so I drove the 45 miles from SLC to Ogden to take a test for this company. The deal was that this was a hardware position rather than a software position, so I felt pretty good. Well, I got up there and we filled out this paperwork and the lady gave me these tests, multiple choice – 15 questions each. They were all about OSI Levels and what the contents of packages are, how bits are set when a packet gets routed — software configurations stuff. There were a couple questions about Linux that I answered without problem, Along with some Windows Server 2003 questions – Those were cake, but the router SW questions got me. I can setup a router, I know how to configure enterprise networks, but the internal workings of a network, that’s the stuff for the router PROGRAMMERS, not the hardware techs. So I took these tests and failed miserably. I even told the lady that this is way above and beyond the knowledge I have. Now, I am making a pretty good salary where I am. I am approximately around $40K, but she said that the starting pay for the positions was between $12 and $15 an hour. That work out to be only $31K. I told her that Juniper was NOT going to get a qualified technician along these lines (based on the test questions) for that kind of salary. Someone working on our network would be paid approximately $30 an hour for such a position. I wasted a good 3 hours of my day on that little trip, and to make things worse, I wasted the better part of a tank of gas. grrr. What’s worse, We were supposed to go to the Zoo that day with both my girls.

So we went to the zoo last Saturday. It was OK. The Hogle zoo in SLC pales in comparison to the nationally renowned Denver Zoo. I took my family there last year and we spent and entire day there and still didn’t get to see everything. it was awesome. The Hogle zoo – we scheduled an entire day, and the only thing worth seeing was the bird show. That was awesome. They had all these hawks, falcons, doves, owls and eagles. So, it began with a toucan unclasping a sign for the beginning of the show. A flock of morning doves flew down and swooped all over the audience. cool stuff. The guy came out to do the show, and showed a few birds. He introduced us to a couple hawks from North America. He had these hawks fly down from atop a pole on the other side of the zoo. That was neat. We had the Great Horned Owl fly down and he made it hoot for us. He tried to bring down a falcon, but the falcon wouldn’t fly. He told us as he was coaxing the falcon to fly that he had ran away earlier this year, and might fly away again. Then he brought out the barn owl and showed us it’s ability to hear, and then had it screech for us. Then he brought out a Golden Eagle and I learned that the falcon (remember, he didn’t fly) doesn’t like the Eagle and attacks when given the chance. Well, no attacking happened, but it was exciting. He brought out a couple endangered birds. I learned that the common Pigeon is a member of the Dove family (it is a European Dove). And finally he told us that one of the most spectacular birds in North America has made a complete recovery and is no longer on the endangered species list – the American Bald Eagle. He brought one out and I got all emotional – I guess I am too patriotic.

So we left the bird show and walked all around the zoo. Emery wanted to see the tigers, but they don’t have any?!?! They are building a new feline exhibit, so they have trucked out all their big cats and all you can see are construction workers. We went to the giraffes instead, and Emery thought they were pretty cool from far away, but once we got into the Giraffe house, one giraffe wanted to see what an Emery looks like and swooped his head down to get a better look. I have never seen that little girl move so fast. He scared her quite a bit. I held out my hand and patted the giraffe’s head to show her that he is friendly, but she wasn’t going to have it. We went to the monkey house and saw a newborn Orangutan. he was cute. and that was about it.

so, it seems you are all caught up as to what happened over the last few weeks. Hope I didn’t bore you to sleep.