Back in Ruston

Well we all made it back to Ruston without too much trouble. Pittsburgh turned out to be a pretty cool place. We were staying downtown so we walked to the convention center and such. One minute you would be walking past a modern skyscraper and the next you would pass a 200 year old stone building. It was a pretty cool place. The conference was interesting, we made our presentations and generally impressed the crowd. We won a second place award for Best Paper in one of the divisions and I have a nice plaque to hang on the wall.

I also got to watch the Pirates play the Yankees - Pirates won easily. It was a sold out crowd which was really fun to experience. I hope I can say the same thing when MSU comes to Ruston to play the Dawgs in August. There are lots of cool bridges around Pittsburgh, as there are three rivers that converge right at the city. I didn't get pictures of all of them but they were interesting at least. I should have taken some pictures to use in class - I teach one class where the students analyze bridges (trusses actually) and see how strong they are. We also took a ride on one of the inclines they have there. It is sort of like a ski lift to get you up the mountain face (really a big hill I guess.) The only problem with the trip was that on the way back to Ruston we were stuck in Houston from rain delays. Other than that, it was a good trip. Next up is Saratoga in the Fall - never been there either.

News from the front . . .

So the first day of the conference went well. I listened to a few presentations including on from Tech. The were ok, but in my opinion the Tech one was the best - and I am trying to be unbiased. Honestly though Tech can hang with any of these colleges. We have two presentations tomorrow so we will see if they are just as good as today.

The picture is one of the new truss demos from some company. It is sort of neat, but something we are already ahead of at Tech. I am telling you, we are on the front lines with a lot of the stuff we are doing. In one if the presentations earlier today, a school was describing their new program and it is pretty much University Seminar that we have had for a while now. Another was describing something we started doing 12 years ago.

Now it is time for my "woe is me story of the day." We went to eat at some famous sandwich shop where the sandwiches have french fries and cold slaw on the sandwich. I know that I tend to get stuff all over me when I eat messy food so I was being very careful not to drop food on me since I was going back to the conference. I actually made it through the whole meal without incident and felt quite proud of the accomplishment. Well a lady from across the room drops a bottle of tobasco and it splatters on me jsu as I am about to get up and leave. So I guess it really just doesn't matter what I do or how careful I am, I will leave any restaurant with food on me.

Made it to Pitt!

Well I made it to Pittsburgh with no troubles. The plane from Monroe was a little late, but no big deal. This is my first time in Pennsylvania and it is a nice place so far. We are getting ready to go eat, but everything is closed on Sunday - at least all the good places. I got registered for the conference and will attend a few sessions tomorrow. I don't have to present my papers until Wednesday so I have some time to actually get the PowerPoints ready. It looks like it is about to rain so I am hoping that the group makes a choice on where to eat soon. Maybe tomorrow I will have some inside information on the latest in engineering education - if you are lucky. ;)

Is it a conspiracy?

I am beginning to wonder if there is a conspiracy or something against me. I got a letter from the IRS yesterday stating that I owed them $1300 for some unreported income from back in 2006. Apparently, Louisiana Tech paid me some money, but not as a regular employee and the IRS thinks I should pay some (and by some I mean 50%) tax on this money. First of all, why would Tech pay me money as a non-employee? Second, the source of the money is not the same as my normal pay check, it is some type of foundation account. Finally, why did I receive this money in the first place? The only thing I can think of is that there was some sort of reimbursement (which would not be income by the way) that was paid to me through this foundation account. I looked into it briefly this morning, but so far no one knows anything about it. I will continue my investigation. Oh and even though this occurred way back in 2006, the IRS suddenly wants all "their" money in less than a month!

I also sent in my formal appeal to the City of Ruston today:

I, Kelly Crittenden,. . . am filing an appeal of the decision to deny my previous appeal for case #08-62. This case is concerning the City of Ruston Abandoned/Nuisance Vehicle ordinance. My 1965 Mustang . . . was determined by the City to be in violation of this ordinance. I am formally filing an appeal of this decision.

Basically, I am just buying time to get more work done so that I have the car up to code before the appeal date (July 21). It is a bit of a pain though because I am supposed to have to pay for "advertising" costs because apparently you have to advertise in the paper that you are making this appeal. The thing is that they don't even know how much these costs are. I have been good about biting my tongue with these people for quite some time now, but I am not sure how much longer I am going to be able to hold out. I think the City is trying to get rid of me . . .

Oh, I thought I would add a picture of my nuisance car just so everyone was on the same page with what we are talking about here.

To top it all off, this morning was trash pickup day and I had one cardboard box that was just a little too big to fit in the full-to-the-rim garbage can. So I set the box beside the garbage can thinking that the garbage men would just pick it up and put in on the truck. But what do I find this morning? I find that the garbage can was emptied and the cardboard box was neatly propped next to the can just the way I left it. Really?!? Whatever - I am seriously ready to move out to the country where I belong.

Denied!

I had my appeal hearing for my Mustang this morning, and I was denied. Actually, I sort of expected that and it is an ok thing - not a good thing, but ok. In the end what will happen is that I will file another appeal and in the meantime I will get my car "legal." It just means that I have a lot of work to do and a lot of money to spend.

I am trying to do as much of the work as I can in order to keep expenses down, but I am going to have to farm out some of the work so that I can get it done in time. Mainly, I will get some of the engine work done at a local place. I don't have the necessary equipment for the machining work that the engine block will probably need so I am going to have to have that done for me. I really don't like that, I would much rather do it all myself, but drastic times call for drastic measures. Also, it is not going to be cheap, we are talking in the $1000 to $1500 range. Why would I spend that much on an old car you ask. Well, this isn't just any old car, it is the car that daddy and I built for me to drive and there is no way that I will let someone just haul it away because it doesn't suit their fancy.

More to come soon, at least I hope so.

At the ole ballpark . . .

So we made it to the game and it isn't raining so all is well. So far there is no score, but it just started. I have to say it is pretty fun, not basketball or football mind you but fun none the less. The weather is great too, nice breeze.

Mobile blogging . . .

so after much pressure to blog, i am experimenting with mobile blogging. if this works I can blog from anywhere at anytime.

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