I just spent an hour reviewing my diary entries for the past year, and thinking of how I would characterize this year.  In a word, difficult.  Or perhaps the year of the incomplete project.  I’ve had better years.  There have been some bright spots.  The addition of Charlie to our family in July ranks right up there in the highlights, as does my successful completion of the Waco Wild West Century.  Beyond that, not much positive stands out.  Nothing much negative stands out, either.  Mostly the year has just been a wash.  Looking back, I’d say it’s the most depressing 12 months that I can remember.

So I’ll put it behind me and work to make 2003 more memorable.  Here’s to a great new year.

I started coming down with something on Sunday, and by Tuesday evening I was totally out of it.  Coughing, sneezing, headache, and congestion.  Strangely enough, this time it didn’t turn into a chest cold, which is usually what happens when I get my annual case of the creeping crawling crud.  It usually puts me down for a week or so.  Needless to say, I’ve not been much in the mood to write or do much of anything else.

This evening was the annual Catapult Systems Holiday party at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin.  Every year the invitation says that dress is semi-formal, but many of us take the opportunity to go formal.  This year I added a red bowtie and cummerbund set to my tuxedo.  Debra was dazzling, as always, in her formal gown.  How did I get so lucky?

This is the fourth Holiday party I’ve celebrated with Catapult Systems, and I realized today that three and a half years is the longest I’ve worked for any company in the computer industry.  It’s not that I’m a job hopper, but rather the companies I’m working for seem to go out of business or get swallowed up by some bigger company that then decides to “downsize.”  At any rate, I’m happy to be at Catapult, and doubly happy to be married to a caring and beautiful woman like Debra.

My brother Jerry graduated from the University of Texas today with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Public Relations, and Minors in Business Foundations (whatever that is) and Mechanical Engineering.  After the ceremony (an amazingly short one hour, start to finish), we all headed back to our place to celebrate, accompanied by the excellent food that Debra prepared and my PR Porter, which also was excellent.  My older brother arrived from Arkansas, my sister from Wisconsin, Uncle Ken and Aunt Amy from San Diego, cousin Marty from Denver, and a handful of Jerry’s friends from the University.  Most people took off for 6th Street at about 10:00, leaving Debra, my sister, and me here to clean up and crash.  Parties are fun, but I’m glad we don’t do them too often.

My sister sent me this puzzle today.

A jailer has a large number of prisoners to guard and has to seat them at a number of tables at mealtimes. The regulations state the following seating arrangements:

1. Each table is to seat the same number of prisoners.
2. The number at each table is to be an odd number.

The jailer finds that when he seats the prisoners:

3 per table, he has 2 prisoners left over;
5 per table, he has 4 prisoners left over;
7 per table, he has 6 prisoners left over;
9 per table, he has 8 prisoners left over;

but when he seats them 11 per table there are none left over.

How many prisoners are there?

I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to find 6 unknowns with a system of 5 equations before I realized that I was looking for a common multiple of 5, 7, and 9 (call it CM) that was one more than the number of prisoners.  That is, CM is divisible by 5, 7, and 9, and CM-1 (the number of prisoners) is divisible by 11.  The first such number is 2,520 (there are infinitely many), which is 5*7*9*8 (i.e. the 8th common multiple of 5, 7, and 9).

I think the key insight to the puzzle is that you’re looking for a common multiple.  But given that insight, is there some way (other than trial and error) to know that the answer can be found at the 8th common multiple?