Almaden doesn’t formally participate in “Take Your Child to Work Day”; instead, the lab policy is that you’re welcome to bring your children any time, but that they’re your responsibility to keep safe (not much of a problem for a programmer like me, but somewhat harder for someone who works in a cleanroom or laser lab) and entertained (this could be a problem). Jeffrey wants to come and see what I do next week, and that sounds like a good idea — but I bet he gets bored watching me do e-mail and make phone calls (and if I’m lucky, do a little programming!).
I spent much of the morning in the Extreme Blue lab as the guest speaker — I talked about standards and their importance to IBM. My talk was titled “Confessions of an ex-standards weenie” (thanks to Carl Cargill of Sun for coining the term), and I think it was helpful — if nothing else, none of the interns fell asleep while I was talking, and given the hours some of them are putting in, that’s a vote of confidence in my presenting style.
When we came home, there was a message on the answering machine from back East. Diane’s father had come back from a tour of the Maritimes a few days ago, and apparently there was a case of pneumonia being passed around on the tour bus; both he and his girlfriend have it and have been visiting doctors. But today, he was feeling really hot and then discovered he had a 105-degree temperature, so he got a neighbor to take him to the hospital. He’s in stable condition and will be transferred from ER to a regular room in an hour or so, which is about as good as can be expected, but it’s still unsettling news. Al, I hope your colleagues at Franklin General Hospital are in good form!