Super Bowl L

I did not watch this year's Super Bowl.

For what it's worth, I have not watched a Super Bowl since the Chicago Bears humiliated, dominated, and destroyed the cheating, the Clam-bakes..., er... New England pre-Deflate-gate Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.

If the Bears are not there to win, or the Packers are not there to lose, the Super Bowl is unimportant to me.

In a way, I am a true sports fan. Not in the way that most folks would define a sports fan. I am a fan and a follower of teams that are MY teams. Da Cubs. Da Bears. Da Hawks. Ferrari. Subaru. I could care less about all other sports or teams. And, if you don't know what sports the previously mentioned teams are players in, that's okay.

So, you might be wondering how I spent "Super Bowl" Sunday? For starters, Mr. T. and I had a little adventure.  We made a pilgrimage to the Central Continental Bakery, where we procured some exquisite pączki. The interesting thing about Central Continental Bakery is this- when you step through the door, a part of you steps into Europe. Mr. T had enjoyed pączki before, but they were from a different bakery. Once he had experienced "the real deal", though, his taste buds were forever tuned to the "real deal"

That's all for now- the next post is #200. It should  be special.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Happy e Day

This was originally going to be Potpurri #3.

I changed my mind about the title when I found about e.

Now, I consider myself to be fairly well read as far as English Literature goes (vs the general population). I've read all of the "required" high school reading- Shakespeare, various classic and modern poets, and a few plays, as well as having read a substantial amount of both fiction and nonfiction outside of the classroom. Granted, the "classroom" list might be a bit old, but so are the classics of literature. Math, though... that's another story.

For those of us (and I include myself in this list) who are relatively clueless about the "higher" functions of math, I'd like to introduce a new player- new to me, at least.

Last year, I made a big deal about pi Day, as it was a centennial pi Day (3.14.15). This year is not a special e Day, but 2018 will be (2.7.18).

I should back up here a bit and mention that math and I did not get along well in high school. In fact, if a subject could have been personified, math would have been my scholastic bully... for all four years of high school- even though I had math subjects for only two years. My first year, I studied geometry, and did so poorly at it I nearly went to summer school.

I survived that, though, and had algebra as a sophomore. Although in algebra, I didn't get close to being banned to summer school (remedial education), I never really quite "got it". At this point in life, I was so turned off by math that I dropped a philosophy class later in college when I figured out that the class was actually (sort of) math: symbolic logic.

Flash forward a few decades to today. I'm integrating much of what I used to hate and misunderstand into everyday life. My current challenge is to embrace what was formerly despised.

Which brings me to today. It's a tradition where I work for 3rd shift to produce a short email detailing what was done overnight.  These emails are fairly short and to the point. Somewhere in the past year I started adding factoids about the current month at the bottom of each email. To be honest, I'm not sure how many folks in my department read these emails, but I try to keep them at least a little interesting. That's how I learned about "e" Day.

So, let me explain the little I know about e. This is wikipedia's definition. As I've mentioned, my mathematical foundation is shaky at best, but I think I finally have an understanding of irrational numbers! That's my explanation. :) Another e-day note: Many celebrate e-Day as Euler’s constant day on February 7 (2/7) in the month/day date format. It is a day where people recognize the significance of the number e, which is approximately 2.71828. Although this is the most commonly recognized holiday for e-Day, there are other worldwide events that are observed that have nothing to do with the e number constant.

Euro day occurred in European countries that simultaneously adopted the Euro on January 1, 2002. In New Zealand, eDay is a day where people can get rid of e-waste or old electronics such as computers and old appliances, so they can be recycled rather than being placed in a landfill. Engineer’s Day is observed in Paducah, Kentucky on February 21 where many have an egg drop contest, create edible cars and tape people to walls. Eday is also an island in Northern Scotland.

And, for those who are interested in sports in the United States, e Day coincides with Superbowl Sunday. I could care less, as the Packers will not be there to lose, nor will the Bears be there to win.

That's all for now. We will be celebrating e Day with pączki, purchased from Central Continental Bakery, a lovely European-style bakery in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. These pączki are incredible- stepping into this bakery is like stepping into Europe!As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

No plan of battle survives first contact with the enemy

Well, that's how I learned this particular truism. According to von Moltke the Elder, "No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength" (or "no plan survives contact with the enemy"). His idea of warfare seemed to be plan, plan and then make some more plans- maybe not too bad an idea for business? Such has been my experience with the first day of Mr. T's and my grandiose plan to bring Order and Balance to the Chaos which is currently the Secret Underground Lair (SUL) in only seven days. Monday is done, and quite honestly, our chances for success are looking rather bleak.

Still, I'm an optimist.

We've decided to tackle the project in fairly easily manageable stages. The first stage involved the relocating of a small bookcase and its base from the east wall (next to Mr. T) to the west wall. Not a big deal, but Jennifer is also moving things outside of the SUL. What she is doing is important in our little world and needs to be done, but our home is not large (by American standards) so my progress was greatly hindered, but in a good way. I ended up tackling another area in the SUL, which needs to be tackled and will help out with the upcoming work of the next few days. Still, at the end of the first day, I had hope for more progress. But, as Vivien Leigh (as Scarlett O'Hara) said in "Gone With the Wind", "After all, tomorrow is another day". And Tuesday is done.

It's Wednesday evening, and this is my last SUL update for this entry. Jennifer and I got up early today and took our trusty Subaru Outback, Meerkat, for a Springtime checkup. We drove down to Grand Subaru for an oil change, tire rotation and a surprise complimentary wash- which included our epically salt-encrusted floor mats. On the way home, Jennifer heard about a special sale a local bakery was having, and although we knew of them both by their reputation and having sampled their products, we had never been there before. We decided to check the sale out, as it was not too far out of our way home.

Chicago's National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, the Blackhawks, is in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup- the League championship. So, Central Continental Bakery is having a merchandise promotion: when the Hawks win, Continental Bakery will have a special discount on one of their items the following day. The Hawks won last night, so today's special was a 20% discount on eclairs. Let me state firmly and without reservation that I love eclairs. As a family, we seldom have desserts, and when we do they are generally something Jennifer has made.  So, to go out of the way to actually purchase a dessert is nearly unheard of.

The bakery is commonly known as Continental Bakery, and features a dizzying variety of what seems to be primarily pastries of central European origin (Danish, German, Polish, Austrian, Slovak, Moravian, Czech, Swiss). When we first walked in, our experience was this: we were smacked upside the head with EUROPE. It was like walking into Dr. Who's Tardis in Chicago and stepping out in Hochspeyer, Echternach or Tønder. The bakery's customer area is laid out in an L shape, and not a bit of space is wasted- even the decor drew us into a happier time across the Atlantic... had I looked out the window, I would not have been surprised to see a German vendor selling Itälienisch Eis from his little truck or a Citroën 2CV idling at the stoplight.

I said I had tried their wares before. Continental Bakery is famous throughout Chicagoland as THE baker and purveyor of pączki. The interesting thing about this pastry is that it is only available on one day each year at Continental Bakery: the day before the Catholic feast of Ash Wednesday, or "Fat Tuesday". On this day, the bakery is open and operating for twenty-four hours, cranking out pączki. This event is often featured on local television news.

So, we walked into the bakery with very high expectations and were not disappointed. The eclairs were beyond my words to describe, and we also picked up some soft cheesy garlic breadsticks, as well as sampling a few of their butter cookies. To quote Arnold; "I'll be back".

This is a bit lengthier than my usual posts, so I'm calling this a wrap- data next time! 

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.