Knee surgery

Today I finally had my knee surgery to fix it up after getting rear-ended by an Arrowhead water truck.

Now that I am back home and the drugs have worn off I am in a huge amount of pain. I hope the Norco kicks in soon because this is really bad.

Wish me luck!

Birthday gift ideas

My birthday is coming up and if anyone is looking for gift ideas, this would be lovely.

Custom Brochure

A Study, if you will

The Christians and The Pagans

This time of year is always a bit odd for me. My Father is an Atheist. My Mother is a Catholic.

For years I was also an Atheist, but the world around me just seemed more magical than that and in my teens I choose to be a Pagan. With a name like Gardner how could I not be a Wiccan. LOL.

This song by Dar Williams is one of my favorite songs this time of year because it's about people of different beliefs sitting together and enjoying the season. With so much bile being slung around these days, whether it's Faux New's "War on Christmas" or the Family Research Council working at a feverish pace to legalize inequality this song makes you think, "What's the fighting all about?" We are all family. We are all different. Being different doesn't make someone evil. Grow up people.





Lyrics & Chords:

Amber called her uncle, said "We're up here for the holiday

Jane and I were having Solstice, now we need a place to stay"

And her Christ-loving uncle watched his wife hang Mary on a tree

He watched his son hang candy canes all made with red dye number three

He told his niece, "It's Christmas eve, I know our life is not your style"

She said, "Christmas is like Solstice, and we miss you and it's been awhile"

/ G C Am D / / Em C Am D / / G C Am D / /

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table

Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able

And just before the meal was served, hands were held and prayers were said

Sending hope for peace on earth to all their gods and goddesses

/ G C Em D / / Em C Am D / Em C Am D G - /

The food was great, the tree plugged in, the meal had gone without a hitch

Till Timmy turned to Amber and said, "Is it true that you're a witch?"

His mom jumped up and said, "The pies are burning," and she hit the kitchen

And it was Jane who spoke, she said, "It's true, your cousin's not a Christian"

"But we love trees, we love the snow, the friends we have, the world we share

And you find magic from your God, and we find magic everywhere"

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table

Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able

And where does magic come from, I think magic's in the learning

Cause now when Christians sit with Pagans only pumpkin pies are burning

When Amber tried to do the dishes, her aunt said, "Really, no, don't bother"

Amber's uncle saw how Amber looked like Tim and like her father

He thought about his brother, how they hadn't spoken in a year

He thought he'd call him up and say, "It's Christmas and your daughter's here"

He thought of fathers, sons and brothers, saw his own son tug his sleeve saying

"Can I be a Pagan?" Dad said, "We'll discuss it when they leave"

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table

Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able

Lighting trees in darkness, learning new ways from the old, and

Making sense of history and drawing warmth out of the cold

Dance of The Sugar Plum Lesbians

I am an avid reader of Joe.My.God. Each year at this time he posts a seasonal favorite, Dance of the Sugar Plum Lesbians, that fills my heart with insurmountable joy and I can't help but cry. I know the story but each year I read it I cry anew.

As a native NYer I love this story and have many Grand Central Station stories of my own, like back in the 80's when ticket windows used to be let out to small businesses and I worked for one of them and installed the phone system and created a CG video to advertise their business. It played on a loop and I had to go there daily to clean and degauss the large TV it was displayed on.

I've rambled on long enough, so, without further ado I'd like to share the story of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Lesbians.

Grand Central Terminal functions as the mechanical heart of midtown New York City, pumping out several thousand workers and tourists on one beat, then sucking in several thousand more on the next.

The rhythms of the terminal are fascinating.

Beat. Four thousand, inbound from New Haven.

Beat. Three thousand, outbound to Westchester.

Worlds collide on the main floor.

The tourists gawk up at the gloriously ornate ceiling and uselessly flash their digital cameras at objects hundreds of feet away.

The commuters rush up to the track displays to determine their track number, then dart across the terminal floor, dodging the milling tourists, heads down, like running backs heading for the end zone.

It's mesmerizing. It's majestic.

And sometimes, like tonight, it's magical.

I'm walking through the massive main room just as the holiday laser show begins on the ceiling. To the tune of Take The "A" Train, the laser depicts two trains arriving from different directions. The trains stop opposite each other and a reindeer leaps out of each one and crosses over to the opposite train.

The laser traces the outline of one of the zodiac constellations painted on the ceiling. The Cancer crab leaps to life and becomes the Crab Conductor, waddling down the center aisle of the car, punching the reindeers' ticket stubs with his claws.

I move over to the edge of the room, near the entrance for Track 25, so I can watch the reaction to the show. As usual, I'm more entertained by watching the audience than by watching the actual show.

At the ticket windows, standing in front of signs that say "Harlem Line" or "Hudson Line", commuters tilt their heads painfully back to view the show directly overhead. The tourists cluster in delighted circles, holding each others' elbows for balance as they nearly bend over backwards.

Some people move to the edges of the great hall, as I have, to remove themselves from the traffic flow while they watch. Among those that come to join me on the perimeter of the room is a lesbian couple. They stand quite close to me, the taller woman behind the shorter one, with her arms wrapped around her, supporting her a bit as they both lean back on the marble wall.

The shorter woman is stout with a large firm chest. Her hair is short and brushed back into what might have once been called a ducktail. She has an ornate tattoo on her left forearm and she has a leather wallet protruding from the rear pocket of her jeans, attached to her leather belt by a short silver chain. She has more than a passing resemblence to Tony Danza, her big boobs notwithstanding, so naturally (in my head) I name her Toni.

Toni's girlfriend is blond and her short ponytail dangles just above her collar. She is wearing long Christmas tree earrings which nearly brush her shoulders. Her lanky, sinewy limbs are bound in a tight running outfit, over which she is wearing a school athletic jacket. I imagine that she might be a coach at Yale or Harvard, perhaps a girls lacrosse coach, or maybe track and field.

Coach is squeezing Toni tightly and they bounce together to the music a bit. Coach looks over at me and catches me smiling. She nudges Toni, who looks over at me too, and we all grin goofily at each other for a moment.

Overhead, a new show begins. The familiar opening notes of Tchaikovsky's Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairies ring out as the Empire State and the Chrysler buildings sprout arms, bow to each other, and begin waltzing across the ceiling.

I look around the room and it's as if time was frozen for just a second, every person stopped in mid-stride, eyes cast upward, mouths open in silent joy.

Toni pushes away from Coach, turns around and delivers her a bow as deep and as elegant as the one just depicted overheard.

"Madame, may I please have this dance?" she asks Coach.

Coach looks around a bit awkwardly. "You are TOO much!" And she giggles.

"Madame, I must insist!" says Toni, as she takes Coach's hands into hers.

Coach relents and she and Toni begin a beautful, slow waltz, moving in half-time to the music. As you might have guessed already, Toni leads.

As they dance, their eyes remain locked on each other. Toni is giving Coach an intense look, her lips tightly curled into a satisfied smile. Coach is grinning from ear to ear and again, she giggles.

All around Coach and Toni, the tourists, the businessmen, the students, the conductors, even the guy with a broom...they're all watching. Some are expressionless, but more are smiling, and some of them...some of them are frantically fussing with their cameras, eager to capture this magical New York Moment.

Serendipity prevails, the tune ends, and Toni dips Coach backwards with a dramatic upsweep of her free arm as a firestorm of camera flashes erupt around them. Toni pulls Coach up and close to her and they hug. There's another camera flash and the crowd begins to move along.

Then.

"Hey, look!"

The laser show is being concluded with giant sprigs of mistletoe appearing over our heads. This time it's Coach who bends down and plants a long tender kiss on Toni's non-lipsticked mouth. There's another flash of cameras from the delighted audience.

Toni takes Coach's hand and they begin to move off towards the exit.

"Oh, don't stop!" says a disappointed woman, still rummaging for her camera.

Toni looks back over her shoulder and says, "I never will."

Grand Central Terminal, the mechanical heart of New York City, beats again. But this time I hear a different rhythm. This time I hear a double beat.

Thank You Joe for posting this each year and to all, Happy Holidays!

AOP, DI and TDD

No, I haven't lost my mind.

AOP is Aspect Oriented Programming,
DI is Dependency Injection and
TDD is Test-Driven Development.

I am a total geekette, my friends and readers know that. However, these three things are making my life really exciting.

I'm building new classes to support the new Architecture of my company's Applications. I am setting things up so the code our team creates is perfect and test driven. Moreover, with dependency injection we can push, compile, build and test in a state independent environment.

If you're not a Software Engineer you'll have no idea what I'm talking about, but if you are you will understand why I am so excited and having way too much fun at work.

This development, combined with Maven, will also make integration with our parent corp's Java code go that much smoother and seamless.

Cool beyond words.

An Emotional Day

Today one of the oldest and dearest friends of my life found me on facebook. As a child I lived on a tiny street in New York with only three homes. The three homes had three families. The three families were like one family. Us kids were so close that we all felt like family to each other. Our parents moved to a magical block, and us kids were the beneficiaries.

Every year we had an enormous block party that lasted all weekend and us kids earned prizes at games, there was tons of food and everyone, at one point, got thrown into the pool at my house.

Today, my childhood babysitter who was always a big sister to my sister and me and still is today contacted me on facebook. Without hesitation I accepted the friend request.

Then, her youngest daughter contacted me and asked to friend me. WOW! Am I really that old? Little Stephanie used to be my shadow and she would sit on my lap and color in her coloring book. Little Stephie was, I must admit, my favorite of the three children of my friend.

Today I saw her on facebook and she is a beautiful, mature, grown woman about to get married. We've exchanged some emails and she's quite the amazing woman.

I am so happy for her, but WOW I feel old.