Back To School

Today was my first day at Saint Leo University. My first class is an orientation class. The class is progressing fairly smoothly; I’ve already completed my second (out of eight) week of assignments. Of course, I doubt that all of my classes will be as easy. My next class will be an English class. In my fourth week of my orientation class, I’ll take my English and Math placement tests. Then I’ll know which English class I can take.

Apparently, it was also the first day of school for the kids in my neighborhood. I had forgotten that the normal school year starts around this time, so I was shocked to see our street lined with cars. Fortunately, the cars are only there between two thirty and three thirty.

Speaking of school, we’ll be starting advanced training at PETsMART for Kelly and Kara. We’ve been trying to reinforce the commands that they learned during basic training, though it’s tough at times so I’m not sure how well they’ll do in advanced training. Once we have a fistful of treats in our hands, I’m sure the dogs will come through in fine fashion.

I’ve been having more fun wardriving around the neighborhood. So far, I’ve found about thirty different access points. Of course, only one of them is for public use. The rest of them are most likely for private use only. Unfortunately for the owners of the wireless access points, if they don’t secure their connections anyone can use them.

I was finally able to transfer the video of our Kentucky trip from the camcorder to the computer. I made a couple of CDs to send out to people. Also, I made a couple of web-friendly (smaller size, lower resolution) versions. So, if you’d like to see them, please drop me a line.

Lately, we’ve been having problems with our satellite dish. We’ve been continually losing our signal. I had been thinking the problem was with the surrounding trees (though we didn’t have the same problem last year). I eventually found the source of the problem: one of the adjustment bolts on the dish had sheared off. Ugh. I decided to just replace the dish instead of fixing it. Besides, I could mount the dish in a new (maybe better) location.

Rachel and I went down to the nearest Best Buy to pick up a new (larger) dish. The dish selection was rather easy as they only carried one dish. Ah well. At least it is a better model than the one I currently have. Also, whenever I get around to upgrading my TV to support HD-TV, at least the satellite dish will already support it.

Rather than installing the dish myself (again), I decided to have Best Buy do it for me. This, unfortunately, turned out to be more trouble than I had suspected. Apparently they didn’t ring me up correctly. I had to call Best Buy and the installer a few times. Finally, after making a trip to the store, I think everything’s all straightened out. Now, I’m just waiting on the installer. Hopefully they come out soon. I’m running out of things to watch on my Tivo.

Tagline for today: “My school colors were clear. ‘I’m not naked, I’m in the band.’” - Steven Wright