Mike Ball » Home Life

Cold Weather

Mike — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:17:57 +0000

This has been a weird winter, the warmest on record, but after some very spring-like weather that coaxed the blossoms out we had a hard freeze and snow. For example, we had a small snowstorm today. In the valley, it was mixed with rain, and it didn’t stick here, but it’s got the growers worried.

Personally I [...]

Our New House in Southern Oregon

Mike — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:26:44 +0000

As I said in the last post, we’ve just acquired a house in Southern Oregon. At the moment we have a contractor doing some repairs before we move in. We’re planning on moving sometime during the first couple of weeks in June.

We set out to buy a house in Ashland, which is a small university town [...]

Settled Down

Mike — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 05:42:36 +0000

We’re finally settled down in a house (not an apartment) and have the rest of our stuff out of storage. I haven’t written anything because I just didn’t feel like it. I haven’t even been reading much, including other blogs. We’ve gotten stuff unpacked, and have even gone on a couple of day trips when the [...]

Getting to a new normal

Mike — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 05:26:59 +0000

I’d say that things were getting back to normal, but everything is different, so it’s really getting to a new normal. Oh, did I mention that while I was gone to Washington, they moved my office? I have a nice window, looking out at the parking lot and the freeway. It’s actually not bad. The parking [...]

It’s Been a Long Dry Spell

Mike — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 14:15:57 +0000

I realize that I haven’t been keeping up my end of this blogging deal, but I have an excuse. This moving stuff is distracting, especially when combined with a new job where I’m trying to learn what’s going on. I’m supposed to initiate a new area using an established framework, so I have to learn [...]

What an Introduction to California

Mike — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 17:51:28 +0000

My brother Charlie and his wife Donna came out to visit us in San Diego last week. It started out well, with the usual trips around the coast and mountains. We were trying to get a glimpse of the recent burn, but never did. Then, while Charlie and Donna took in Balboa Park and the [...]

I’ll see your heatwave and raise you an alltime high

Mike — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 01:44:38 +0000

Talk about heat waves! We had lots of all time highs around here. In La Mesa, where we live, it was 113 today. Oh yeah, we’re having a monsoon, too, so the humidity was 58% instead our our usual 15-20% when we get hot.

Naturally, this put all time record stress on the power supplies, too, [...]

Moving on

Mike — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 23:03:52 +0000

It’s all signed and sealed, and I’ve called most of my colleagues whom I wanted to inform personally.

I just accepted an offer from MicroSoft to work for them in the Bay Area. They are starting a new operation there with a focus on multi-threading compilers and tools, and it seems like it’s just made to order [...]

An enjoyable mystery show

Mike — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 17:52:43 +0000

I read this article in the paper today when the title caught my eye.

We’ve been watching a fair number of “Midsomer Murders” on DVD from Netflix recently, and we really enjoy them. We sort of space them out, because too much at once is definitely cloying, but they are worth checking out.

This is a rare [...]

A Quiet Couple of Weeks

Mike — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 05:01:20 +0000

The last couple of weeks have been mostly quiet and boring. The most interesting thing was Andy’s return from a trip to England with his choir. He had some nice pictures and some good stories, but those are his to tell, not mine. I spent a week flat on my back with some kind of GI [...]