This week was an interesting week in terms of work. Monday was the 4th so we got that off. I came into work on Tuesday and took Wednesday and Thursday off so that I could spend time with my parents as they were passing through the area to check out retirement locations in North Carolina. I cam back to work on Friday and now am working the weekend. Basically, the two day break I had with my parents was like a weekend before a 9 day work week. I felt bad as I did not have anything for the family to do while they were here. On Wednesday night we had hamburgers and played putt putt which was fun, but the course wasn’t that intense (no waterfalls or clowns or windmills). I think you have to go to Myrtle Beach for action like that these days. Thursday was nice as my dad and I went golfing while my mom went shopping. I did not know of any local courses to go to so I searched the internet and found one that was 20 minutes away. Lin Rick is an amazing course for the price we paid. For 31 bucks we played 18 holes with cart, and the course was in spectacular condition. The fairways held the ball up for the perfect irons and the roughs were pretty well tended. The greens were bent grass and were not too fast or slow. The best part was that we did not have any pressure or hold ups through the entire 18 holes. So if anyone stops by for a day I now have a “local” course to play on.
After the golf we went home and discovered that the final part to the wireless network I am assembling had arrived. I bought a wireless router kit on buy.com for 50 bucks with a 20 dollar rebate and a desktop PC card for 40 bucks with a 10 dollar rebate. It is a netgear 54 Mbps system and was pretty easy to connect and get going. The PC card in the bundle will be used when Lauren turns in her desktop for a laptop later this year. We will have an extra desktop then but I might install a minimal system computer downstairs near the kitchen or something later on so it may come in handy. The only problem was that the router did not have a USB connection on the for the local computer. As my motherboard did not have a ethernet connection I had to dig through my computer box. Luckily I had an ethernet card stashed from college in my bin-o-computer stuff. We had 3 computers running on the network this weekend with minimal delays. The only problem I am having now is trying to get the SSID changed for the router and system. Although netgear claims to be double firewalled the network locator on the wireless connection states that there is not security on the line. I don’t think anyone is/will hijack the system but when I brought up the desktop in the office, the computer found 2 more wireless points other than mine in the area. I do not feel like paying for the cable and have someone leeching off my lines so security is a must. I already have firewalls on all the computers so I don’t have to worry about people getting into the computers themselves. Better safe than sorry!
Back to the week in review. Thursday evening we used some coupons that my mom got off the internet and went to a nice Italian restaurant in downtown Columbia. I would have to agree with my mom that they did have the best eggplant parmesan that I had ever had; very light breading and fresh eggplant. I had the vodka penne, which was very good as well but a bit too al dente. Overall the visit was nice but I felt that I should have had stuff lined up for my family to do. We are a working bunch that shows our appreciation by helping around the place, so my parents were continuously trying to find some small home improvement projects to help out on. My mom and Lauren did some reorganizing in the house while my dad and I discussed yard work and things to do in the house to save energy and such. Now all I have to do is wait for the fall so I can start to get the master plan in order for the yard. I also showed him the monster tomato plants that I have been growing. These things are 3 feet tal and wide but aren’t producing fruit….until this week, a few blooms started to become tomatos. Basically it’s a waiting game now, I hope to have homegrown tomatoes at some point though!

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