mr. mom... shitsuke the gains...

the wife continues on 'quasi-bed rest'. lots of drugs and contractions (oh, yeah, for her, too)... get by another week or two, and then... let er rip. so, i've been the cookie, the dust bunny, the laundress, the grocer, the dishwasher, the be all end all (not beat all... and it's off the beaten path, not beat and path... who knew?). so, w/ the new sheriff in town (or at least in the kitchen) has performed some lean six sigma process improvements... streamlined the supply chain (3 kinds of bread to buy? bah! got it down to one single source). get a cup of laundry soap, walk it over to the wash machine? bah! get a huge vat of the stuff, put it hovering over the wash machine, and just squeeze 8-mississippis into the open door. no muss, no fuss... boy needs new clothes everyday? bah! quick smell test, and off to school for him. chips in bowls? bah, bags work. shared glasses, paper towels for everything, one-toy-away-for-one-toy-out rules enforced. the biggest take away for me has been the 'unsatisfaction'. can have perfectly clean kitchen, clean toy free floors, no dirty laundry, full fridge, and bam... damn... day later, it's all undone. unmerciless. even when using kaizen processes.

Kaizen (pronounced ki-zen) is a Japanese word constructed from two ideographs,
the first of which represents change and the second goodness or virtue. Kaizen
is commonly used to indicate the long-term betterment of something or someone
(continuous improvement) as in the phrase Seikatsu o kaizen suru which means to
“better one’s life.”
As we use the term, it is a method that strives toward
perfection by eliminating waste. It eliminates waste by empowering people with
tools and a methodology for uncovering improvement opportunities and making
change. Kaizen understands waste to be any activity that is not value-adding
from the perspective of the customer. By value-adding, we mean any work done
right the first time that materially changes a product or service in ways for
which a well-informed and reasonable customer is willing to pay.

ahhh.... i love six sigma... lots of 5S projects underway at the ol' mcpuff household...

5S is the Japanese concept for House Keeping.1.) Sort (Seiri)2.) Straighten
(Seiton)3.) Shine (Seiso)4.) Standardize (Seiketsu)5.) Sustain (Shitsuke)

who knew it works so well for mr. mom stuff, too? that top pic is me in the midst of a lean six sigma project... ironing capes for the birthday kids... where's my apron?

the lake detective... borrowing his 15 minutes...

http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/s18801.html

so, paul s (coworker extraordinairre, buyer of old camry, water skiier who no longer invites me along, epcra god(dess), spill king) saw the lake detective on channel 5 news last nite... why do i have to hear about the bro on tv from a coworker? if I were the LD (yes, the cap i is for emphasis, and not because it 'should be' big i), i'd rename my company from blue water science to 'lake detective agency', and capitalize on the pub that radio and tv is getting for me... oh, well... check out am1500.com for pix and audio of the LD on garage logic on am1500. until then, hit the 'video' link at the link above, and watch the genius that IS the my bro... and tell him he needs to be more 'out there' and self-advertise his lake shtuff... until then, i'll be his foil.

http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/s18801.html < see the video...

crikey... a good hearted guy... wysiwyg

wysiwyg... as in... "what you see is what you get" for you young-uns out there who wouldn't understand (ne can't comprehend) a computer world that wasn't wysiwyg... i still remember fondly, my first wysiwyg moment... when i installed that addin to lotus 123, v3.1... and voila... my spreadsheet looked so professional, and more importantly, it looked when printed out just like it did on the monitor... true magic, back in '89... that's how steve irvin was... pretty much could figure him out pretty quick. no (hidden) agendas... one of those 'nice guys'