Today, January 2, 2015, is a very special day.

It isn't because on this day, 80 years ago, the trial for the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby started on this day.

It isn't because in 1935, airplanes are banned from flying over the White House.

It isn't because in 1935, Porky Pig made his debut as the first major Looney Tune character (he was such a ham).

It isn't because in 1935, the world's first parking meters were installed in Oklahoma City.

It isn't because in 1935, Dudley Moore, Herb Alpert and Donald Sutherland were born.

It is because my father, Lee Ogden, is celebrating his 80th birthday.

So join with me in wishing my Dad a very happy birthday!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Jim and Vine Smith joined Arlyn and I for a day trip to Napa Valley.

We made the quick drive to the valley and had lunch a the R + D Kitchen.

After lunch, we continued north through the Napa Valley to Castello di Amorosa.

The start of a new year usually signals the start of a new gig at Claraview. And this year did not disappoint. The Hertz Corporation, also known as Hertz, needs some help with their Asset-Backed Securitization, or ABS, system to ensure that regulations are met. So...on this day, I started with them.

What makes this contract unique is the location of where I will be working from. Hertz is headquartered in Naples, FL. This would be quite the trek for me since I live all the way in Sacramento. Fortunately, this client does not require our team's presence in Florida. They insist on contract workers to work from their home locations. Therefore, I am to remain here in Sacramento.

Both Arlyn and Dad are tickled about the prospect of me remaining home. And I am very happy with the thought of remaining home with my asawa. There will be no more time wasted at airports and rental car counters.

The only downside about taking on this contract are the working hours. The working hours are 8 AM to 5 PM (Eastern). That means that I am logged into the network by 5:00 AM (Pacific) every morning. By 2:00 PM...I am done.

This contract is supposed to last for 12 months.

It was time to start giving Elyse the education she needed to better understand California and her history. That history would not be complete without a trip to Coloma, CA (wiki), the location where gold was discovered by James W. Marshall on January 28, 1848.

After I completed my work duties for the day, Arlyn, Elyse and I jumped in our car and headed up to Placerville. From there, we hopped on CA 49 and made the 8 mile drive north to Coloma. We arrived there around 11:30 AM.

We first went to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park to pay our $7.00 (per car), tour the small museum and gift shop (and yes...we bought some gold) and received our receipt and map for the day. We ventured to the site of the replica mill and river. After dipping our feet into the frigid water and attempting to skip stones into the American River, we used our car to cool off from the 98 degree temps and drove up to the monument. After a couple more pictures, the heat became intolerable. We headed home.

We left our Sacramento home at around 9:45 AM. We were heading to the Napa Valley. Our first stop was lunch at the R + D Kitchen. Arlyn had the Tuna Poke while I enjoyed the Carnitas Sandwich, a favorite of mine. Elyse said the cheeseburger was the best she ever had. We ended the meal by sharing a two-scoop hot fudge sundae.

After lunch, we headed further north along CA 29 to St. Helena. I had read that the Long Meadow Ranch was a great place to go for adults and teens alike. Upon arriving, we found out that reservations are not only recommended, but required. It was a busy place with people bustling about. So we stayed for about an hour, took some pictures around their well manicured gardens and home grown herbs.

Long Meadow Ranch was a disappointment. So we hopped on CA 29 and continued further north. Eventually, we hit Sterling Vineyards in Calistoga. This is a vineyard that I have visited many times since the 1980s. And it did not disappoint.

Gigi Swan hosted a pool party at her apartment complex, Harbor Oaks.

Jeff, Carrie, Miranda and Kati drove down from Dunsmuir to meet up with Arlyn, Elyse and I at Casa Ramos in Corning.

Virgie and Evelyn arrived at our house early in the afternoon. At around 7:00 PM, we left our Sacramento home for Cal Expo. Traffic at that time was unusually light. When we arrived, we paid our $10 to park in the Cal Expo lot and hauled three folding chairs. The fireworks started promptly at 9:30 PM (on time). However, the show unexpectedly ended 20 minutes later. We learned later there was a mortar failure at the launch point and the Sacramento fire department shut the show down. There was also a rumor that there was a small grass fire.

Cameron Ogden, our nephew, was going to celebrate his 4th birthday on July 11 in Oakland. Arlyn, Elyse and I traveled to San Francisco the day before to spend the night there and enjoy some of the sites and sounds of the wharf. I used some of my Marriott Reward points to book a room at the Courtyard Hotel located right on the Wharf. After checking into the hotel, we headed over to Cioppino's for dinner. After dinner, we walked to the beach which was located just west of the Hyde Street Pier (near the Powell-Hyde cable car turntable). We took some pictures and enjoyed the unusually clear evening as freighters passed under the Golden Gate Bridge.

After chasing the waves and having our sand script washed away, we walked the short distance to Ghirardelli Square. We quickly located the Ghirardelli Chocolate Manufactory. We put away some ice cream sundaes as the sun retreated behind into the western hills. We found some souvenirs at Lola of North Beach. We walked back to the hotel and relaxed as we watch The Island.

The next day, Saturday, found us having breakfast in the Courtyard hotel.

We visited the Hyde Street Pier, a National Park that include floating museums (ships) that are a part of California's maritime history. We were quickly running out of time, so we had lunch at Alioto's.

It was almost time to retrieve our truck at the hotel, but we had one more thing to do. Arlyn made sure I did not forget our need to purchase some Dungeness crab before leaving the Wharf. With all of the vendors located along Jefferson Street and Taylor Street, it did not take long to find someone that was willing to part with some crab.

I have been working with Hertz during the last eight months on their asset-backed system. However, my time with them has come to an abrupt end. The Hertz Corporation poached two other resources from Teradata ranks and hired them on. At the same time, Hertz no longer needed my services and released me from my responsibilities. This was a good engagement because I was not required to travel to the client site. This allowed me to spend more time at home with Arlyn and Dad. And although this was a challenging engagement, I learned a tremendous amount about they way vehicles are valued and what it means to maintain an asset-backed security system.

BevMo was in the process of setting up a new Teradata appliance that would house their existing ETL processes. They needed someone to 'forklift' data from a current ETL server to the new server. The data that was to be copied needed to maintain their attributes (i.e. owner, create date, et al.) on the new server. This part time task was offered to me.

The two servers in question were both running SUSE Linux. I will be the first to admit that my Linux skills were seriously lacking. Most of my operating system experience lies within MVS and Windows. With the power of the Internet and namely YouTube, I quickly learned the skills that I needed to perform the tasks that BevMo! required. The point I am making here is that the Internet can be a great source of information to pick up skills quickly.

The BevMo! engagement is only part-time (only 60 hours maximum) and does not require travel. The 60 hours I was allocated would be used over a four week period. I still need to find my next engagement.

I was pleased that I remained at home during this time. My current responsibilities to Claraview did not require me to travel. I was able to celebrate my wife's birthday with her.

Through word of mouth, we had heard of a good seafood restaurant that served, well, good seafood. We have been challenged over the years to find such a place that was local to the Sacramento area and was relatively inexpensive. Scott's Seafood Grill and Bar was able to meet one of those. It is located along the east shore of the Sacramento River, just south of the Sacramento River and American River confluence. They serve a large variety of seafood and offer daily catch-of-day specials. The service was very good and the food was excellent. Arlyn ordered some seafood sampler that come out on some towering, multi-leveled service that included raw, BBQ and smoked oysters. Arlyn loved most of the items and was not too keen on others. But she enjoyed the variety and the chance to try a multitude of different items. I was very adventuresome and had the grilled chicken.

At the end of the meal, our server surprised Arlyn with a free dessert and a bottle of sparkling white wine. It was a quiet and intimate way to spend the evening with Arlyn on her special day.

As we have been doing over the last three or four years, it was time to celebrate the birthdays of Arlyn, Jim Smith and Luz Guay. This year, we toned it down quite a bit when you compare it to the year before. We had the party at our home and had tons of people and loads of food.

I posted a video on YouTube using the pictures that were taken to capture the moments of this celebration.

Time Warner Cable has a Netezza server that was barely limping along. It was an older model that was about to lose its support from IBM. But this machine housed many of TWC's data analytics. They approached Teradata to determine the cost of purchasing a Teradata appliance. They also wanted an estimate to forklift the data and scripts from the Netezza database to Teradata. This was to be a quick two week assessment in Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA.

While I was busily examining the Netezza catalog, another Teradata group that was working on a related engagement needed help with converting Netezza DDL and scripts to Teradata. Since I was already there and had working knowledge of BTEQ and TPT, they enlisted my help for a week with conversions. So I worked an additional week converting stuff. This could be done from home.

I had just wrapped up my involvement with Time Warner Cable when I received a call from Claraview. Another engagement was starting in Washington, D.C. with the USDA FSIS organization. This is a four month roadmap assessment that will require some travel.

During the previous week, Dad had to be rushed to the hospital. He was having difficulty breathing. As a result, he got a quick trip to U.C. Davis Medical Center. He was admitted to the hospital.

This event is significant, not only from the standpoint that Dad's health was becoming more difficult to manage, but by highlighting the fact that Arlyn and I could no longer care for Dad, especially while I am traveling for work. After some difficult discussions, Scott, Dad and I decided to move Dad to a facility that is known as Boarding Care Facility.

Scott arrived the night before with Cameron in tow. Arlyn volunteered to watch over Cameron while Scott packed up some of Dad's stuff. Since I had to work, I could not get started until after I completed my USDA activities. When done, I assisted Scott with the move. It took three carloads of Dad's gear to get him settled in.

That evening, our house was a little quieter.

The Smiths (Jim and Vine) moved to their new home in April of this year. So our annual Halloween party that we have attended for the last several years was no longer in Antelope. We picked up Ate Nida (the nun) and drove out to Carmichael. We remained there while the ladies journeyed outside.

As an observation, there were very few kids in the neighborhood. I don't know if this is normal or not since I don't have anything to compare this to. But it did seem strange.

With Dad now resting in a Skilled Nursing Facility in Roseville, Arlyn and I found ourselves alone for Thanksgiving. We picked up a cajun turkey from Honey Baked Hams, some fixings from Mimi's and popped open a bottle of champagne. We had a nice, quiet evening to ourselves.

Later that evening, Dad had to be transported to Sutter hospital in Roseville for a Gall Bladder infection.