Sunday, our day of rest. We did not have Sunday School, so I did not have to be at church until 10:30. I drove since my wife's van was packed to run errands. It was kind of nice to drive today. First it was to church and after church it was off to Taco Cabana for some quality Mexican fast food. I had the Carne Guisada Plate, which is a spicy Mexican beef stew. It was not the first time I had it, but I did not remember having it before until I saw and tasted it. Very tasty.
After lunch we drove to Sam's Club to get a memory foam topper for our new mattress that we bought yesterday (ours is 3 inches thick). My wife was not 100% happy with the comfort level of the new mattress and memory foam is what she really wanted. I did not want a 100% memory foam mattress and neither was she, however the 3 inches of memory foam on top of the mattress meets our needs rather well.
We got home and my wife took care of the dogs while I stripped the bed (for the third time in three days) and placed the memory foam on top and place the cover on top of it. After I made the bed, my wife came in and laid on it...she was in heaven. I let her rest on it and she fell asleep...yeah, she was happy. While she was out, I watched most of "Ronin", staring Robert DeNiro, again...one of my favorite movies of all time.
Speaking of movies, my wife and I watched "Road to Perdition" last night. Good film, in my opinion. I had no idea what the word "perdition" meant until I looked it up. I guess calling the movie, "Road to Hell" would not sound as impressive...only more offensive.
Well, I am actually talking to my mom while I am typing this (she talks, I listen) and I need to walk the dogs before we head back to church for a New Years Eve party. It may not be much or it really could be something big...you never know.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Shopping, Chores, And A Movie
That pretty much sums up my Friday night and all day Saturday. Not a bad mix, really. I did spend some time tweaking my Linux server...I am trying to push the limits of 500 mhz and 384 megs of RAM.
I logged off work and watched Star Trek - Insurrection. I can can this about it. It was better (not by a lot, but better) than Nemesis. I guess it is really hard to top, "The Wrath of Khan". That my friends, is a Star Trek movie.
After the movie was over, I went and read some of the book my wife gave me, "Wrath and Glory". I have not really gotten into any real meat yet, but I can tell it is coming up soon. Dr. Reagan (who attends our church) is a very intelligent man that has a lot to say about bible prophecy and I cannot wait to read about it.
I got pretty tired so I went to be and slept pretty well. My wife decided to walk the dogs for me (Thank you, beautiful!) so when I got up I did not have much to do except drink my coffee and wake up. I read my e-mail, checked on some downloads the server was handling, and then washed the dishes and read my bible. I only have about 4 more chapters to read in Revelations and I will be done with the New Testament (second time reading that, 1 time for the Old Testament). My wife was going to go run some errands and work out at the fitness center while I folded the clothes and vacuumed the house. I got all that done and ate lunch just before she came back.
After she got back we decided to go take our first trip to Ikea. I jumped in the shower and got cleaned up and we were ready to go by 1:15 PM. It is only abut a 20 minute drive to Ikea in Frisco, but the traffic on a Saturday after Christmas is unreal. We made it, but it was a test of my patience and my wife's. She was getting a bit frustrated as well.
If you have never been to Ikea before, you are missing a treat. It has a little of every thing and you can easily spend the whole day in the store and not run out of things to see, IF you are housewares type of person. One of my favorite parts is the show rooms upstairs. They show you how you can fit a complete living area in less than 40o sq ft, including kitchens, bath, beds and living area. We were a bit overwhelmed and decided we need to go back when it is not as busy.
We had lunch (salad for my wife, meatballs and new potatoes for me with a Daim Torte for dessert with water to drink) and after enjoying the food, we bought a few things, the biggest being a queen size Sultan Evje mattress. We also picked up a mattress pad, a tea light holder, and some Japanese soup spoons. The whole shopping experience was interesting and I will go back, but I need to go when I have more time. I like housewares...say what you will about it. I guess since I am not great at home or car repair, I can enjoy kitchen and home accessories.
I forgot to mention that our soldier has been pretty good about sending us e-mails. We have gotten several this week. Hooah!
Well, I plan on watching some DVD's tonight, if my wife is up to it. She looks pretty tired. I guess I can go ask...what is the worst she can say? No? If so, I can watch them myself...I usually do.
Speaking of video, I am dying to see who are the winners of UFC 66. The card is great: Chuck Liddell Vs. Tito Ortiz, Keith Jardine Vs. Forrest Griffin, Andrei Arlovski Vs. Marcio Cruz, Jason MacDonald Vs. Chris Leben, and a few under cards that may or may not be so great. If you have never seen a UFC fight you can download individual ones from the UFC web site for 1.99 each. A good way to see some great fights at a low cost.
I logged off work and watched Star Trek - Insurrection. I can can this about it. It was better (not by a lot, but better) than Nemesis. I guess it is really hard to top, "The Wrath of Khan". That my friends, is a Star Trek movie.
After the movie was over, I went and read some of the book my wife gave me, "Wrath and Glory". I have not really gotten into any real meat yet, but I can tell it is coming up soon. Dr. Reagan (who attends our church) is a very intelligent man that has a lot to say about bible prophecy and I cannot wait to read about it.
I got pretty tired so I went to be and slept pretty well. My wife decided to walk the dogs for me (Thank you, beautiful!) so when I got up I did not have much to do except drink my coffee and wake up. I read my e-mail, checked on some downloads the server was handling, and then washed the dishes and read my bible. I only have about 4 more chapters to read in Revelations and I will be done with the New Testament (second time reading that, 1 time for the Old Testament). My wife was going to go run some errands and work out at the fitness center while I folded the clothes and vacuumed the house. I got all that done and ate lunch just before she came back.
After she got back we decided to go take our first trip to Ikea. I jumped in the shower and got cleaned up and we were ready to go by 1:15 PM. It is only abut a 20 minute drive to Ikea in Frisco, but the traffic on a Saturday after Christmas is unreal. We made it, but it was a test of my patience and my wife's. She was getting a bit frustrated as well.
If you have never been to Ikea before, you are missing a treat. It has a little of every thing and you can easily spend the whole day in the store and not run out of things to see, IF you are housewares type of person. One of my favorite parts is the show rooms upstairs. They show you how you can fit a complete living area in less than 40o sq ft, including kitchens, bath, beds and living area. We were a bit overwhelmed and decided we need to go back when it is not as busy.
We had lunch (salad for my wife, meatballs and new potatoes for me with a Daim Torte for dessert with water to drink) and after enjoying the food, we bought a few things, the biggest being a queen size Sultan Evje mattress. We also picked up a mattress pad, a tea light holder, and some Japanese soup spoons. The whole shopping experience was interesting and I will go back, but I need to go when I have more time. I like housewares...say what you will about it. I guess since I am not great at home or car repair, I can enjoy kitchen and home accessories.
I forgot to mention that our soldier has been pretty good about sending us e-mails. We have gotten several this week. Hooah!
Well, I plan on watching some DVD's tonight, if my wife is up to it. She looks pretty tired. I guess I can go ask...what is the worst she can say? No? If so, I can watch them myself...I usually do.
Speaking of video, I am dying to see who are the winners of UFC 66. The card is great: Chuck Liddell Vs. Tito Ortiz, Keith Jardine Vs. Forrest Griffin, Andrei Arlovski Vs. Marcio Cruz, Jason MacDonald Vs. Chris Leben, and a few under cards that may or may not be so great. If you have never seen a UFC fight you can download individual ones from the UFC web site for 1.99 each. A good way to see some great fights at a low cost.
Death Of A Tyrant
If you have not heard, Saddam Hussein was executed, hanged until death, so reports almost every major news agency in the world. He was executed on Saturday at 6:10 AM Iraqi time. My son, who is in Kuwait, told me that they were preparing for possible insurgent uprisings in retaliation.
I am not going to celebrate his death, because he is just one of many that have caused the mess in the middle east. That region of the world will be in constant turmoil until Armageddon, and learned Christians know what will happen then. If you subscribe to biblical prophecy as I do, you may be aware that "Babylon" will rise. Babylon is an ancient name for an area in Iraq. Prophecy says that a world leader will make rebuild Babylon and make it powerful.
Saddam always reminded me of Don Vito Corleone in the Godfather movie. A violent man who deserved a violent ending. He ruled his country with an iron fist, invading (or attempting to invade) whomever he wished. Some say he was insane, some say he was a religious zealot. Who he was is not for me to say. He was a human who had committed (even acknowledged by his own supporters) terrible acts of inhumanity and violence. While it has been proven he was a corrupt leader, he did hold several warring factions in check, something that the current fledgling government has not been able to do. The country is at the brink of a civil war with local warlords and remnants of the Ba'ath party jockeying for power and the US is in the middle.
I believe in the death penalty for certain crimes. I believe Saddam deserved his punishment and as a Christian, I believe he will suffer an eternity in Hell. We all have to answer for what we have done in this life.
Link
Link
Link
I am not going to celebrate his death, because he is just one of many that have caused the mess in the middle east. That region of the world will be in constant turmoil until Armageddon, and learned Christians know what will happen then. If you subscribe to biblical prophecy as I do, you may be aware that "Babylon" will rise. Babylon is an ancient name for an area in Iraq. Prophecy says that a world leader will make rebuild Babylon and make it powerful.
Saddam always reminded me of Don Vito Corleone in the Godfather movie. A violent man who deserved a violent ending. He ruled his country with an iron fist, invading (or attempting to invade) whomever he wished. Some say he was insane, some say he was a religious zealot. Who he was is not for me to say. He was a human who had committed (even acknowledged by his own supporters) terrible acts of inhumanity and violence. While it has been proven he was a corrupt leader, he did hold several warring factions in check, something that the current fledgling government has not been able to do. The country is at the brink of a civil war with local warlords and remnants of the Ba'ath party jockeying for power and the US is in the middle.
I believe in the death penalty for certain crimes. I believe Saddam deserved his punishment and as a Christian, I believe he will suffer an eternity in Hell. We all have to answer for what we have done in this life.
Link
Link
Link
Friday, December 29, 2006
Gully Washer
I am working from home today. I did not plan to, but since nothing looked pressing, I decided to monitor things remotely, keeping my IM agent running and my mobile phone on. I have 2.5 hours left on my FtS shift (Follow the Sun) and so far things are okay. There was one issue that evolved into another but they both have been solved. The ticket queue has been quiet and the only e-mails were FYI's that were CC'd to me, so nothing important.
During my lunch my wife asked me to go to Scotty P's and grab some burgers...we are both tired of chicken, turkey, and salmon. That is all we have eaten over the past week or so and I needed BEEF. The drive is short to Scotty P's but at lunch it can get busy, so it took me 45 minutes to go there, get my order and drive back. Oh well, 15 minutes for lunch... :)
It is raining hard (okay it was, it has slacked off now. I need to get the dogs out) and lightning. I really hope we do not lose power...I mean the rain is okay...we need it, but man, I hate losing power. Darn, it is picking back up again...my dogs are gonna start doing the pee-pee dance here soon...
While listening to some Celtic music and browsing thinkgeek.com, I found this. NEAT-O! That is exactly what I want. Perfect for me and my wife for the living room. Wireless! Most audio and video formats.
I WANT ONE!
During my lunch my wife asked me to go to Scotty P's and grab some burgers...we are both tired of chicken, turkey, and salmon. That is all we have eaten over the past week or so and I needed BEEF. The drive is short to Scotty P's but at lunch it can get busy, so it took me 45 minutes to go there, get my order and drive back. Oh well, 15 minutes for lunch... :)
It is raining hard (okay it was, it has slacked off now. I need to get the dogs out) and lightning. I really hope we do not lose power...I mean the rain is okay...we need it, but man, I hate losing power. Darn, it is picking back up again...my dogs are gonna start doing the pee-pee dance here soon...
While listening to some Celtic music and browsing thinkgeek.com, I found this. NEAT-O! That is exactly what I want. Perfect for me and my wife for the living room. Wireless! Most audio and video formats.
I WANT ONE!
Ya Think?
From CNN.com:
The prosecutor in the Duke University lacrosse rape case violated ethics standards in statements to the media about the case, North Carolina's bar complained Thursday.
Wow, this is a total shock. [smirk]
Now, on the work front, we have people (end users) wondering why the SAP system that is used by them is slow. Lessee:
1) End of month reporting
2) End of quarter reporting
3) End of year reporting
4) The systems were not designed for this heavy of a load from every location at once.
All of these transactions are being done by customers from every country nearly at the same time. Huge requests are being queued up and the buffers are not able to handle the load. Top that off with the fact that failed transactions will back the system up even further until those transactions are recalled, canceled, or corrected...the submitters rarely ever do this. The mindset is to submit, wait, complain. No forethought is used to help the system. We are talking about BILLIONS of dollars in transactions.
The techs keep telling the customers, "Schedule smaller jobs. Bigger jobs are slowing down the system." The system has a wizard that will help a user do this, but most of them never use it.
The really bad thing is 2-fold:
1) We own IT, even though our customers have several vendors that provide it. We supply the biggest part as well managing the entire process. Now consider that most, if not all the vendors compete globally with each other, we are in a precarious situation.
2) With all the attempts to trim costs, our customer has gotten rid of a lot of the redundancy that used to exist. Yes, it was expensive, but was it more expensive than the lost revenue caused by a system that is down without that redundancy?
Our customer's upper mgmt seems to understand the trade off, but they average Joe/Jane end user does not. They still are mad at us because in their eyes, we are IT. And we are, but it can be difficult when you have 2-3 competing companies working on an issue and the problem appears to be with one group but they will not do anything unless the other group jumps through all the formality hoops first. Sigh.
Needless to say, this next 5-7 days will be very nerve wracking. Today will be the day that most of the transactions are pushed and the system is already heavily ladened.
Lord, I am really gonna need your help the next 7 days.
The prosecutor in the Duke University lacrosse rape case violated ethics standards in statements to the media about the case, North Carolina's bar complained Thursday.
Wow, this is a total shock. [smirk]
Now, on the work front, we have people (end users) wondering why the SAP system that is used by them is slow. Lessee:
1) End of month reporting
2) End of quarter reporting
3) End of year reporting
4) The systems were not designed for this heavy of a load from every location at once.
All of these transactions are being done by customers from every country nearly at the same time. Huge requests are being queued up and the buffers are not able to handle the load. Top that off with the fact that failed transactions will back the system up even further until those transactions are recalled, canceled, or corrected...the submitters rarely ever do this. The mindset is to submit, wait, complain. No forethought is used to help the system. We are talking about BILLIONS of dollars in transactions.
The techs keep telling the customers, "Schedule smaller jobs. Bigger jobs are slowing down the system." The system has a wizard that will help a user do this, but most of them never use it.
The really bad thing is 2-fold:
1) We own IT, even though our customers have several vendors that provide it. We supply the biggest part as well managing the entire process. Now consider that most, if not all the vendors compete globally with each other, we are in a precarious situation.
2) With all the attempts to trim costs, our customer has gotten rid of a lot of the redundancy that used to exist. Yes, it was expensive, but was it more expensive than the lost revenue caused by a system that is down without that redundancy?
Our customer's upper mgmt seems to understand the trade off, but they average Joe/Jane end user does not. They still are mad at us because in their eyes, we are IT. And we are, but it can be difficult when you have 2-3 competing companies working on an issue and the problem appears to be with one group but they will not do anything unless the other group jumps through all the formality hoops first. Sigh.
Needless to say, this next 5-7 days will be very nerve wracking. Today will be the day that most of the transactions are pushed and the system is already heavily ladened.
Lord, I am really gonna need your help the next 7 days.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Anti-Climactic
Came home and worked from home until about 6 PM The wife went to visit some friends and left me to my own devices for a while. Since I am not a bad guy, I washed some dishes and put up the shower curtain in the guest bathroom. I looked for things to do but could not find much, so I looked for free videos on he web and found a listing for a few. Fun site. While some of it is old, others are pretty good. I got to watch Metallica and Iron Maiden...
As The Week Rolls On...
Today has been busier than yesterday, which was busier than the day before. I had the typical cases that needed to be assigned, reports to run, and questions to be answered...the sort of thing that I do every day. i then received an e-mail asking me to take care of approximately 20 tickets in the old system that had not been closed out. Curious, I ran the report on the old system and there were 19 tickets, all for Canadian customers, still open or pending in the old system. I exported the report to Excel and sent it back to the mgr, CC'ing those who had the tickets assigned to them. I informed the mgr that this report is ran every week and has been since we started the new system and if he would like to be on the distribution list, I would be happy to add him. He replied with a simple, "Thank you", nothing more.
After than, my dotted line mgr in Europe asked me to work on something with a mgr in the US. He was on the west coast and I am in Texas, so there wasa 2 hour time difference to deal with. She had already called him and left him a message, but he had not responded. I did the same (she had already e-mailed him) and left him a message. Still waiting. I am sure I will be since my company in the US has this week off. What manager is going to be working unless they have to this week?
Right about my lunch time I got a call from a frantic mgr in Europe who was concerned with an issue that seemed to be lagging. The mgr said that the issue was not only affecting Spain, but the Netherlands as well and would most likely affect the Americas. I did some quick checking and found no such issue in the Americas and when I followed up on the original issue, there was no mention of the Netherlands. I chatted with the Incident Mgr and she told me the issue had been mostly resolved and they were just waiting on the customer to confirm (which they did 1 hour later). After performing about 30 minutes of research, I called the mgr in Europe back and left her a message on her mobile phone. I then went to the break room to heat up my lunch. While it was heating, my cell phone rang and I ran towards the door to get better reception, but the caller hung up before I could answer. I called the number in the caller ID, but it was not a valid number. Spoofing? I then checked the voice mail of the hotline but there were no messages. It was not the European mgr.
I ate my lunch at my desk, thinking that the woman may call back. As I was eating, I notice a new car in the far side of our parking lot all by itself. There was glare on the glass so I could not see in, and the car was taking up two spaces. Odd since the parkign lot was empty sans mine and the security guards vehicles. After I was done eating, I walked outside and noticed the driver had the seat reclined and was laying down, snoozing. Not long after I passed by the car, the driver sat up, finger combed his hair and drove away.
Weird.
Anyhoo, I hope to go home early, working from home if I can. This here is boring.
After than, my dotted line mgr in Europe asked me to work on something with a mgr in the US. He was on the west coast and I am in Texas, so there wasa 2 hour time difference to deal with. She had already called him and left him a message, but he had not responded. I did the same (she had already e-mailed him) and left him a message. Still waiting. I am sure I will be since my company in the US has this week off. What manager is going to be working unless they have to this week?
Right about my lunch time I got a call from a frantic mgr in Europe who was concerned with an issue that seemed to be lagging. The mgr said that the issue was not only affecting Spain, but the Netherlands as well and would most likely affect the Americas. I did some quick checking and found no such issue in the Americas and when I followed up on the original issue, there was no mention of the Netherlands. I chatted with the Incident Mgr and she told me the issue had been mostly resolved and they were just waiting on the customer to confirm (which they did 1 hour later). After performing about 30 minutes of research, I called the mgr in Europe back and left her a message on her mobile phone. I then went to the break room to heat up my lunch. While it was heating, my cell phone rang and I ran towards the door to get better reception, but the caller hung up before I could answer. I called the number in the caller ID, but it was not a valid number. Spoofing? I then checked the voice mail of the hotline but there were no messages. It was not the European mgr.
I ate my lunch at my desk, thinking that the woman may call back. As I was eating, I notice a new car in the far side of our parking lot all by itself. There was glare on the glass so I could not see in, and the car was taking up two spaces. Odd since the parkign lot was empty sans mine and the security guards vehicles. After I was done eating, I walked outside and noticed the driver had the seat reclined and was laying down, snoozing. Not long after I passed by the car, the driver sat up, finger combed his hair and drove away.
Weird.
Anyhoo, I hope to go home early, working from home if I can. This here is boring.
Return To Sender
Day 3 of turkey leftovers.
The rest of my "work" day went rather uneventful. I understand 1-2 more people showed up at the office, but it was mainly empty. I guess I did not miss anything. I got a few (4-5) R&D site tickets that I dispatched to the tech but he did not return my phone call or e-mail. Not sure if he was off or not. He normally picks up but not yesterday. His partner in crime was on vacation, so I just figured he was covering.
About 4 PM or so, I got a call telling me that my truck was ready. I thought my wife would be happier about it, but she did not seem so thrilled. I told the guy that I would be there at 5:30 PM or so. He called back to remind me that I had to pay my $250 deductible. I already knew about that but at least he was being thorough.
We got there and I have to admit the truck looked pretty good. They cleaned it inside and out, detailing it mostly. There were a few spots (near the door jambs and the corners of the glass) , but it is much cleaner now than when I dropped it off. I tested the remote locks and the power windows. All worked. I turned on the stereo and popped in an mp3 cd (w00t!) and it worked. the darn thing has a ton of features and I was a little intimidated by it. My only complaint was a scuff on the removable face plate. Not that it means much. It looks better than the last one did and has more features.
I drove it home jamming on the Christian rock CD I made. It sounded good, but it took a little while to get used to the controls. It has a very busy screen that I needed to make many adjustments to just to make it viewable. Why anyone would want that much activity on a radio display is beyond me. it was like watching WinAmp or WiMP displays on steroids.
I got ready to go to care group, but my wife was not feeling well, so I went over by myself. When I got to Collette and Jimmy's house, their daughter, Sandra, was dancing with her iPod just like in the commercials. I had to laugh. Later they informed me everyone got a Nano for Christmas. Wow.
We chatted for a while and realized no one else had showed up so we just talked about the "bad old days"...where we were before we accepted Christ. it was funny to see how much we had all changed for the better. Not to say we still do not have areas we can improve upon...Christians are not perfect, but we are forgiven if was ask and accept.
I got home and after walking the dogs and watching a Law and Order I missed a few weeks ago, went to bed. I slept like a baby, no pain, no upset stomach. I got up feeling pretty good and actually enjoyed my walk with little man. I got back, fed him, made coffee and read my news and e-mail. While I was doing this, my wife walked the Golden since she had not been walked in a few days. Both of them came back in a good mood.
After my daily bible reading (Revelations 1-5), shower, and breakfast, I washed last nights/this mornings dishes, packed a lunch and headed to work, where I sit with a couple of things to do (it is busier than yesterday at least) in a mostly empty building, sans the maintenance crew (light bulb's and painting) and security. If the building is empty but I have things I can do at work, that is okay with me. Music will help the hours pass more quickly.
Next movie to watch, "Rocky Balboa".
The rest of my "work" day went rather uneventful. I understand 1-2 more people showed up at the office, but it was mainly empty. I guess I did not miss anything. I got a few (4-5) R&D site tickets that I dispatched to the tech but he did not return my phone call or e-mail. Not sure if he was off or not. He normally picks up but not yesterday. His partner in crime was on vacation, so I just figured he was covering.
About 4 PM or so, I got a call telling me that my truck was ready. I thought my wife would be happier about it, but she did not seem so thrilled. I told the guy that I would be there at 5:30 PM or so. He called back to remind me that I had to pay my $250 deductible. I already knew about that but at least he was being thorough.
We got there and I have to admit the truck looked pretty good. They cleaned it inside and out, detailing it mostly. There were a few spots (near the door jambs and the corners of the glass) , but it is much cleaner now than when I dropped it off. I tested the remote locks and the power windows. All worked. I turned on the stereo and popped in an mp3 cd (w00t!) and it worked. the darn thing has a ton of features and I was a little intimidated by it. My only complaint was a scuff on the removable face plate. Not that it means much. It looks better than the last one did and has more features.
I drove it home jamming on the Christian rock CD I made. It sounded good, but it took a little while to get used to the controls. It has a very busy screen that I needed to make many adjustments to just to make it viewable. Why anyone would want that much activity on a radio display is beyond me. it was like watching WinAmp or WiMP displays on steroids.
I got ready to go to care group, but my wife was not feeling well, so I went over by myself. When I got to Collette and Jimmy's house, their daughter, Sandra, was dancing with her iPod just like in the commercials. I had to laugh. Later they informed me everyone got a Nano for Christmas. Wow.
We chatted for a while and realized no one else had showed up so we just talked about the "bad old days"...where we were before we accepted Christ. it was funny to see how much we had all changed for the better. Not to say we still do not have areas we can improve upon...Christians are not perfect, but we are forgiven if was ask and accept.
I got home and after walking the dogs and watching a Law and Order I missed a few weeks ago, went to bed. I slept like a baby, no pain, no upset stomach. I got up feeling pretty good and actually enjoyed my walk with little man. I got back, fed him, made coffee and read my news and e-mail. While I was doing this, my wife walked the Golden since she had not been walked in a few days. Both of them came back in a good mood.
After my daily bible reading (Revelations 1-5), shower, and breakfast, I washed last nights/this mornings dishes, packed a lunch and headed to work, where I sit with a couple of things to do (it is busier than yesterday at least) in a mostly empty building, sans the maintenance crew (light bulb's and painting) and security. If the building is empty but I have things I can do at work, that is okay with me. Music will help the hours pass more quickly.
Next movie to watch, "Rocky Balboa".
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
WFH
The acronym used on Jabber when we "Work From Home". Slow day...not much going on. I have had a little to do, but not much. I had a few cases to assign but I did not run my normal reports...the guys working them are not in the office!
We had one high severity case so far for a VMS server that only one guy in our office knows anything about and he was out this week. Well, he got called in to work on it. No status updates yet...
During my "lunch hour", I watched "Lady in the Water". It was a lot different than I expected it to be. It was a fairy tale, but darker. If you have not seen it you may want to give it a look. Not violent, no language, no nudity, but it is suspenseful in spots. I liked it.
Tonight is care group night. The group plans on having left overs from Christmas. Not that I mind leftovers...not at all. Some of the best meals I have ever eaten were "left over". However, I have been eating turkey and the sides that we had with it for 3 days and I do not want any more. Really. I most likely will not even eat before I go over...I bet I will still be full from lunch.
We had one high severity case so far for a VMS server that only one guy in our office knows anything about and he was out this week. Well, he got called in to work on it. No status updates yet...
During my "lunch hour", I watched "Lady in the Water". It was a lot different than I expected it to be. It was a fairy tale, but darker. If you have not seen it you may want to give it a look. Not violent, no language, no nudity, but it is suspenseful in spots. I liked it.
Tonight is care group night. The group plans on having left overs from Christmas. Not that I mind leftovers...not at all. Some of the best meals I have ever eaten were "left over". However, I have been eating turkey and the sides that we had with it for 3 days and I do not want any more. Really. I most likely will not even eat before I go over...I bet I will still be full from lunch.
Soldier Shots
Just a couple of pics from our soldier serving in Kuwait. Needless to say we miss him, especially this time of the year, but he is doing what he needs to do and we support him.I hope he gets to post more photos soon. We love seeing where he has been.
We love you!
We also received in the mail today a couple of dog tags that have been customized for me and my wife. COOL!
Tidbits
Wow...
James Brown dies.
Gerald Ford dies.
Communications in Asia disrupted due to an earthquake.
Saddam Hussein to be hanged before the end of January and his Ba'ath Party responds (BIG surprise here...).
Massive explosion in Nigeria. The death toll climbs.
I guess retail is not the only thing busy this time of year.
James Brown dies.
Gerald Ford dies.
Communications in Asia disrupted due to an earthquake.
Saddam Hussein to be hanged before the end of January and his Ba'ath Party responds (BIG surprise here...).
Massive explosion in Nigeria. The death toll climbs.
I guess retail is not the only thing busy this time of year.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Well, That Was Entertaining...
The rest of my day at work was as eventful as my morning. So eventful that I left at 2 PM, came home and worked. There were 3 people in the building when I left, counting me: The LAN guy, me, and a security guard. My boss was there but left around noon.
I stopped off at the grocery store to pick up a couple of things for my wife. I was gun shy about leaving my laptop in the van, but the windows are tinted and hard to see in. I tucked it under the seat just to be sure it was out of sight.
I got home, unloaded the few items I purchased and logged the laptop onto the corporate LAN via VPN. It ran well for a few hours but began to disconnect near "quitting" time. No major worries there.
My wife prepped a salmon steak (huge) for the grill. I fired up the grill and waited until it was up to temp before putting the marinated game fish on the grill. 10 minutes later, it was perfect.
After dinner, I watched "Ultraviolet". What a waste. Hard to follow, poor acting, but at least the CGI was passable. Save your quarters, kids. That one was almost a snoozer.
I called the shop where my truck is being worked on and they told me they were hoping I could get it back tomorrow, but he would know more by noon. My wife is getting twitchy about getting the truck back. Not sure why...I am the one who is being put out by all of this.
Needless to say, I am going to work from home tomorrow if I can. Driving in to sit in my office is not worth it at all unless there is a lot to do.
I stopped off at the grocery store to pick up a couple of things for my wife. I was gun shy about leaving my laptop in the van, but the windows are tinted and hard to see in. I tucked it under the seat just to be sure it was out of sight.
I got home, unloaded the few items I purchased and logged the laptop onto the corporate LAN via VPN. It ran well for a few hours but began to disconnect near "quitting" time. No major worries there.
My wife prepped a salmon steak (huge) for the grill. I fired up the grill and waited until it was up to temp before putting the marinated game fish on the grill. 10 minutes later, it was perfect.
After dinner, I watched "Ultraviolet". What a waste. Hard to follow, poor acting, but at least the CGI was passable. Save your quarters, kids. That one was almost a snoozer.
I called the shop where my truck is being worked on and they told me they were hoping I could get it back tomorrow, but he would know more by noon. My wife is getting twitchy about getting the truck back. Not sure why...I am the one who is being put out by all of this.
Needless to say, I am going to work from home tomorrow if I can. Driving in to sit in my office is not worth it at all unless there is a lot to do.
I Wonder What The Week Will Bring
It is Tuesday, which is really my Monday since Monday was a national holiday. While 90% of my company is taking the week off, I am at work. While this is saving me 4 vacation days, I am not being overly productive. You see, the new job role I have does not offer me the option to take any real time off. At best I would be on call and would need to be near a broadband connection (wired, preferably) so I could do my job (Escalation Management) if required. If I were to "work from home" this week, I would just be in the house and in the way since my wife is off this week. She would most likely be cleaning and as much as I love to clean (smirk) it would just not work out. So I decided to work at the office most of the week.
I brought our old monitor with me to dispose of properly. Lugging a 19 inch CRT was not fun (my make has been a tad sore the past few days. Aleve has helped some) but I made it to the recycle pallet without blowing out my back (I hope). I fired up my laptop and connected to the corporate network and nothing had changed since I logged off Friday at 4:35 Central time. There were a few more open high severity issues, but none that concerned me with the exception of one and that had not been updated since Saturday. Not sure why, but as long as I am not being called by the customer, I have nothing to worry about.
Actually the list of open cases was much smaller than it was Friday. It appears that the Incident team closed them off the web board and now only a few remain and none of them appear super critical.
I ran my morning reports, checked the status of a few tickets and then updated my time sheet. I know the later in the week it becomes, the more likely an issue will arise that I might have to help manage. We will be having end of year closing of reports on all the major systems and the systems that our customer uses have been acting flaky lately. Not a good sign at all.
I called my mom on Christmas Eve to see how she was doing. Not much ever changes there. I know that she would have enjoyed having her family all together on Christmas but that was not going to be possible this year.
With less than one week of 2006 left, I began reflecting on all the things that have happened during the year. 2006 was eventful and was eye opening in many aspects. I know that as the years march on things will get a bit more difficult for us. The job market, while improving, has yet to afford me a job that equals what I am accustomed to. The contract that I work on has consistently trimmed headcount and moved people here an there to fill gaps. The ability to "grow" is stifled as we go plugging holes in the dam. Most of my colleagues are pretty busy trying to fix the things that our outsourced help has broken in the process of trying to fix something. Off-shoring is definitely an interesting game.
I have been at work 1.5 hours so far and if nothing major changes, I am going to work from home this afternoon. My wife will appreciate that, I hope.
I brought our old monitor with me to dispose of properly. Lugging a 19 inch CRT was not fun (my make has been a tad sore the past few days. Aleve has helped some) but I made it to the recycle pallet without blowing out my back (I hope). I fired up my laptop and connected to the corporate network and nothing had changed since I logged off Friday at 4:35 Central time. There were a few more open high severity issues, but none that concerned me with the exception of one and that had not been updated since Saturday. Not sure why, but as long as I am not being called by the customer, I have nothing to worry about.
Actually the list of open cases was much smaller than it was Friday. It appears that the Incident team closed them off the web board and now only a few remain and none of them appear super critical.
I ran my morning reports, checked the status of a few tickets and then updated my time sheet. I know the later in the week it becomes, the more likely an issue will arise that I might have to help manage. We will be having end of year closing of reports on all the major systems and the systems that our customer uses have been acting flaky lately. Not a good sign at all.
I called my mom on Christmas Eve to see how she was doing. Not much ever changes there. I know that she would have enjoyed having her family all together on Christmas but that was not going to be possible this year.
With less than one week of 2006 left, I began reflecting on all the things that have happened during the year. 2006 was eventful and was eye opening in many aspects. I know that as the years march on things will get a bit more difficult for us. The job market, while improving, has yet to afford me a job that equals what I am accustomed to. The contract that I work on has consistently trimmed headcount and moved people here an there to fill gaps. The ability to "grow" is stifled as we go plugging holes in the dam. Most of my colleagues are pretty busy trying to fix the things that our outsourced help has broken in the process of trying to fix something. Off-shoring is definitely an interesting game.
I have been at work 1.5 hours so far and if nothing major changes, I am going to work from home this afternoon. My wife will appreciate that, I hope.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Oh Boy...
I did not realized how much I had for lunch. We had a pretty good spread:
* turkey
* mashed potatoes
* stuffing
* gravy
* green bean casserole
* rolls
* cider
* pecan pie
I only had one plate, but I guess it was a big one. After the meal my wife cut me a huge slab of pie with whipped cream and a second glass of cider.
After lunch, we packed up the leftovers into plates and Tupperware (to graze on later), loaded the dishwasher, and then hand washed the pots and pans. I guess we were done by about 3 PM or so. My wife then asked me if we could go to the movies, so after we got cleaned up we went to go see "The Nativity Story". We arrived lated because of two things. 1) We went to the new theater and we did not know exactly were it was, and 2) my wife never leaves early for anything. She gives herself exactly enough time to get some place. I am not sure how much of the movie we missed. We showed up about 20 minutes after the scheduled starting time, but there is normally 15-20 of trailers. Best guess we missed about 5 minutes of the movie.
We just got home and my wife fixed a plate for herself. I am still not hungry, so I do not plan on getting anything until maybe 9 PM or so.
* turkey
* mashed potatoes
* stuffing
* gravy
* green bean casserole
* rolls
* cider
* pecan pie
I only had one plate, but I guess it was a big one. After the meal my wife cut me a huge slab of pie with whipped cream and a second glass of cider.
After lunch, we packed up the leftovers into plates and Tupperware (to graze on later), loaded the dishwasher, and then hand washed the pots and pans. I guess we were done by about 3 PM or so. My wife then asked me if we could go to the movies, so after we got cleaned up we went to go see "The Nativity Story". We arrived lated because of two things. 1) We went to the new theater and we did not know exactly were it was, and 2) my wife never leaves early for anything. She gives herself exactly enough time to get some place. I am not sure how much of the movie we missed. We showed up about 20 minutes after the scheduled starting time, but there is normally 15-20 of trailers. Best guess we missed about 5 minutes of the movie.
We just got home and my wife fixed a plate for herself. I am still not hungry, so I do not plan on getting anything until maybe 9 PM or so.
Better Than Expected / Merry Christmas
My testimony at church (one of four: Courage, Faith, Hope, Love) went better than expected. While my voice always tends to fail me when I read or speak publicly, I did not do badly. My wife (who will not lie to me even if her life depended on it) said that mine was better than all the others. I am not bragging on that. I practiced and I made sure that the emotion that I was intending to convey was there and I believe that it was. I was told by more than one person that they teared up as I read it.
We got home and it was still raining but I needed to walk little man, so I changed into wet weather gear and headed out. He acted a bit weird the entire walk and did not do his business until right before we went in. We have been watching him lately and my wife and I think he may have had a stroke. He walks leaning to one side, he sits and stares at blank while walls and if we do not pay enough attention to him, he will go off and lick his feet until he develops sores. Because of this behavior, he has to wear an e-collar, but he can still lick his paws if he tries hard enough. It is sad to see him behave this way. He has been my little buddy for a long time. It is going to be a very sad day when it is his time to go.
Little man is 12.5 years old and has been with us most of the time that my wife and I have been married. We did not know much about dogs when we got him and did not train or treat him the correct way, so we think that some of his other behaviors (territorial and fearful aggression mainly) are our fault. We did better with our other dog, the Golden and for that I am thankful.
We watched a bit of TV before heading to bed. I was a lot more tired than I thought. My wife ended up falling asleep on the couch (how, I will never figure out. That that thing is not comfortable at all) and came to bed at midnight or so.
I slept well until my alarm got me up at 5 AM (my normal weekday wake up time). I quickly turned it off and got about 1.5 more hours of sleep before getting up to walk little man in the cold and wet. I got him back and dried him when the Golden decided she wanted to do her thing. I let her out then when she was finished, I dried her off and let her in.
My wife was prepping the turkey for dinner so I fed both dogs and brewed a small pot of coffee to help wake me up. Once all that was taken care of and the dogs received their vitamins and meds, we retired to the living room to open gifts. I let my wif go first and she ended up opening the last gift I bought first. When she saw that it was a crock pot cookbook that was laminated, she was actually very happy and for that, I was happy.
We continued trading gifts until they were all opened. She then told me I did a great job in selecting gifts. I was happy that she was happy, although I would have liked to do more for her. However, she will be looking at a new bed at Ikea after the holiday season is over and that will be about $1000 or so. I have the cash thanks to a bonus at work and although I could have spent some of that on me (I actually did not get myself a gift this year...odd), I will feel better if she can get the bed she wants. The bonuses have been good this year, increasing my gross pay almost 10%. God is GOOD!. Of course I made sure that we tithed that bonus. If God is going to bless us, then we need to be obedient to him and give the 10% he asks for.
After the gifts and light breakfast, I popped in the CD I got her (WOW 2007 Christian hits) and she was very happy. Like most compilations, it has some songs she likes and some she does not, but so far the ration has been 5-1 in favor of the ones she likes.
The turkey is in the oven with Cajun spices and the rest of the longer cooking things are being prepped. I took the time to check e-mail and then decided to update my blog. The Christmas season has been good, God has been good and I am just happy that things are okay. Our soldier son spent his Christmas in Qatar with other troops and he sent some pics of the area. It is hard to be away from him, but I know what he is doing is important.
I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I am not going to be PC and wish you and happy $Holiday...I am a Christian and this is Christmas to me. If you are a Christian, then may your family be blessed in the upcoming year as you remember the "reason for the season". Merry Christmas.
Peace in Christ,
El Gee.
We got home and it was still raining but I needed to walk little man, so I changed into wet weather gear and headed out. He acted a bit weird the entire walk and did not do his business until right before we went in. We have been watching him lately and my wife and I think he may have had a stroke. He walks leaning to one side, he sits and stares at blank while walls and if we do not pay enough attention to him, he will go off and lick his feet until he develops sores. Because of this behavior, he has to wear an e-collar, but he can still lick his paws if he tries hard enough. It is sad to see him behave this way. He has been my little buddy for a long time. It is going to be a very sad day when it is his time to go.
Little man is 12.5 years old and has been with us most of the time that my wife and I have been married. We did not know much about dogs when we got him and did not train or treat him the correct way, so we think that some of his other behaviors (territorial and fearful aggression mainly) are our fault. We did better with our other dog, the Golden and for that I am thankful.
We watched a bit of TV before heading to bed. I was a lot more tired than I thought. My wife ended up falling asleep on the couch (how, I will never figure out. That that thing is not comfortable at all) and came to bed at midnight or so.
I slept well until my alarm got me up at 5 AM (my normal weekday wake up time). I quickly turned it off and got about 1.5 more hours of sleep before getting up to walk little man in the cold and wet. I got him back and dried him when the Golden decided she wanted to do her thing. I let her out then when she was finished, I dried her off and let her in.
My wife was prepping the turkey for dinner so I fed both dogs and brewed a small pot of coffee to help wake me up. Once all that was taken care of and the dogs received their vitamins and meds, we retired to the living room to open gifts. I let my wif go first and she ended up opening the last gift I bought first. When she saw that it was a crock pot cookbook that was laminated, she was actually very happy and for that, I was happy.
We continued trading gifts until they were all opened. She then told me I did a great job in selecting gifts. I was happy that she was happy, although I would have liked to do more for her. However, she will be looking at a new bed at Ikea after the holiday season is over and that will be about $1000 or so. I have the cash thanks to a bonus at work and although I could have spent some of that on me (I actually did not get myself a gift this year...odd), I will feel better if she can get the bed she wants. The bonuses have been good this year, increasing my gross pay almost 10%. God is GOOD!. Of course I made sure that we tithed that bonus. If God is going to bless us, then we need to be obedient to him and give the 10% he asks for.
After the gifts and light breakfast, I popped in the CD I got her (WOW 2007 Christian hits) and she was very happy. Like most compilations, it has some songs she likes and some she does not, but so far the ration has been 5-1 in favor of the ones she likes.
The turkey is in the oven with Cajun spices and the rest of the longer cooking things are being prepped. I took the time to check e-mail and then decided to update my blog. The Christmas season has been good, God has been good and I am just happy that things are okay. Our soldier son spent his Christmas in Qatar with other troops and he sent some pics of the area. It is hard to be away from him, but I know what he is doing is important.
I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I am not going to be PC and wish you and happy $Holiday...I am a Christian and this is Christmas to me. If you are a Christian, then may your family be blessed in the upcoming year as you remember the "reason for the season". Merry Christmas.
Peace in Christ,
El Gee.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
A Cold Rain's Gonna Fall...
And it is. It was not forecast last I checked, but it is raining outside and it is a cold rain. Wake up and do the morning ritual, go to church, and by the time church lets out at noon, it is raining. I hate a cold rain. Makes for a miserable day.
My wife invited one of the ladies (older, divorced) from church to lunch with us. We went to Genghis Grill in McKinney which is bigger and better arranged that the one in Plano. We enjoyed our bowls of grilled meat, spices, veggies, and sauces and had some pretty good conversation. It had been a while since we had been to GG, since normally it is packed at lunch time.
We came back home and I began working on my testimony that I have to deliver at church. I really do not like speaking in front of a group of people, but I was asked and I want to try to overcome my fear of speaking to groups of people. Ironically enough, this testimony is on courage. Go figure.
The associate pastor is picking me up since my wife will not be ready when they need me and I am still without my truck (completion date is scheduled for Wednesday). I wrote the rough draft Monday and have not looked at it since, so I decided I needed to polish it since I knew it was pretty rough. I spent about an hour on it and decided it would be good enough. I am gonna flub it up anyway :-) .
My wife invited one of the ladies (older, divorced) from church to lunch with us. We went to Genghis Grill in McKinney which is bigger and better arranged that the one in Plano. We enjoyed our bowls of grilled meat, spices, veggies, and sauces and had some pretty good conversation. It had been a while since we had been to GG, since normally it is packed at lunch time.
We came back home and I began working on my testimony that I have to deliver at church. I really do not like speaking in front of a group of people, but I was asked and I want to try to overcome my fear of speaking to groups of people. Ironically enough, this testimony is on courage. Go figure.
The associate pastor is picking me up since my wife will not be ready when they need me and I am still without my truck (completion date is scheduled for Wednesday). I wrote the rough draft Monday and have not looked at it since, so I decided I needed to polish it since I knew it was pretty rough. I spent about an hour on it and decided it would be good enough. I am gonna flub it up anyway :-) .
Saturday, December 23, 2006
That Was Nice
I went to bed last night at midnight because I was not tired when my wife went at 10:30...I stayed up watching vids on www.youtube.com (lots of 80's hair metal!!). I got up at 8:00 am and found out I did not have to walk the dogs because my wife took care of that for me. After coffee and an e-mail/web check I started on my chores...
After a couple of hours of chores, it was time for lunch, so I ate some leftover baked raspberry chipotle chicken, lima beans and rice and a couple of pieces of Hershey's dark chocolate (I like my chocolate like my college Sven likes his women...dark and not very sweet). I had no sooner sat down when the doorbell rang and the dogs began barking. Thinking it was UPS or the FedEx, I ran to the door and was greeted by a family from down the street passing out gifts of fresh baked cookies and fudge. I realized after answering the door I was still in my jammies but they did not seem to mind...I was just glad I had a hat on to cover my bed head.
We chatted for a few minutes but the barking of the dogs was not conducive to keeping a 3 year old happy (he burst into tears and ran towards his dad). I went in to correct the dogs and came back out to finish our chat. We had to introduce oourselves to each other because we had forgotten first names (although we knew each others last names). I thanked them for their kindness and when my wife got home I gave her the Reader's Digest version of what happened. I hope to be able to invite them over for coffee and dessert very soon. They seem like very nice people.
Just about an hour ago I finished wrapping my wife's gifts. I had been folding clothes off and on for the past 2 hours or so and now we are about done. We only have 1 more task on our list and that is to get showered and head to a wedding reception for a couple at our church. They are such sweet dear people who have overcome so much adversity that I am moved when I think of the trials they have faced.
After the reception we will come home and rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day with church and I need to touch up my testimony and practice it.
After a couple of hours of chores, it was time for lunch, so I ate some leftover baked raspberry chipotle chicken, lima beans and rice and a couple of pieces of Hershey's dark chocolate (I like my chocolate like my college Sven likes his women...dark and not very sweet). I had no sooner sat down when the doorbell rang and the dogs began barking. Thinking it was UPS or the FedEx, I ran to the door and was greeted by a family from down the street passing out gifts of fresh baked cookies and fudge. I realized after answering the door I was still in my jammies but they did not seem to mind...I was just glad I had a hat on to cover my bed head.
We chatted for a few minutes but the barking of the dogs was not conducive to keeping a 3 year old happy (he burst into tears and ran towards his dad). I went in to correct the dogs and came back out to finish our chat. We had to introduce oourselves to each other because we had forgotten first names (although we knew each others last names). I thanked them for their kindness and when my wife got home I gave her the Reader's Digest version of what happened. I hope to be able to invite them over for coffee and dessert very soon. They seem like very nice people.
Just about an hour ago I finished wrapping my wife's gifts. I had been folding clothes off and on for the past 2 hours or so and now we are about done. We only have 1 more task on our list and that is to get showered and head to a wedding reception for a couple at our church. They are such sweet dear people who have overcome so much adversity that I am moved when I think of the trials they have faced.
After the reception we will come home and rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day with church and I need to touch up my testimony and practice it.
A Couple Of Points
First, The rape charges are being dropped against the Duke lacrosse players, however the other charges are still pending. Methinks Nifong is on a sinking ship. Way too much to go into, so you can read it yourself. however the accuser has now stated, "...no longer certain whether she was penetrated vaginally with the men's penises...".
As I said before, as a former North Carolina (and hopefully a future one as well) resident, I have a concern for law and order. While I am no Duke fan (Go Tarheels!), I hate seeing the law used to sway the emotions and prejudices of my fellow humans.
And second, this post is a very good read. I found it linked to another blog I read once in a while and was very much intrigued by it. I may have to go back to this blog again and poke around.
As I said before, as a former North Carolina (and hopefully a future one as well) resident, I have a concern for law and order. While I am no Duke fan (Go Tarheels!), I hate seeing the law used to sway the emotions and prejudices of my fellow humans.
And second, this post is a very good read. I found it linked to another blog I read once in a while and was very much intrigued by it. I may have to go back to this blog again and poke around.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Wasn't That A Party...
My wife and I were invited over to one our neighbor's house for a little Christmas get together this evening. I haven't felt so out of place in a *long* time. Normally I pride myself with being able to blend in at any event. I have gone to gatherings in simple country homes and I have sipped champaign with the well off, but tonight, well I just could not pull it off. Maybe I am getting to old to hang with the drinkers or maybe I just cannot stand being around "Dallas women" (high maintenance gals who have a very high opinion of themselves). Whatever it is, this party had it. Had a certain person not shown up when he did (with his girlfriend), my wife and I would have left after 30 minutes.
When we got there, there was a group of 6 or so people chatting together, 3 "Dallas women" and their husbands who paid attention to each other and no one else. I counted 3 other couples who were pretty much ignored. Shortly after we arrived the 3 couples started doing shots of tequila. It was good tequila, but still, it was tequila. After the tequila was gone, they started drinking Jagermeister. I was just imagining how sick some of those people were going to be later.
My wife and I kept to ourselves until Richard and his girlfriend arrived. We chatted with them for a while but it was evident that we were not in our element. Somewhere around 9:30, we said our goodbyes and walked home. G'night.
When we got there, there was a group of 6 or so people chatting together, 3 "Dallas women" and their husbands who paid attention to each other and no one else. I counted 3 other couples who were pretty much ignored. Shortly after we arrived the 3 couples started doing shots of tequila. It was good tequila, but still, it was tequila. After the tequila was gone, they started drinking Jagermeister. I was just imagining how sick some of those people were going to be later.
My wife and I kept to ourselves until Richard and his girlfriend arrived. We chatted with them for a while but it was evident that we were not in our element. Somewhere around 9:30, we said our goodbyes and walked home. G'night.
And I Almost Forgot...
Allstate has agreed to replace the Sony with another Sony. The one that was stolen is no longer available (it is OoP - Out Of Program for all you none retail people), so Alstate is giving me another model Sony.
It Is Beginning To Look A Little Like Christmas...
It is getting cooler and drier, but no snow. That is asking a bit too much from north central Texas. I miss snow...I know it can be a pain at times but snow does two things that really get my spirits up. 1) I brightens things up. 2) It acts like a sound barrier to keep the noise down.
Work has slowed a bit (and this is good, since I am a one man show for Canada, US, Mexico, Central, and South America) and I have been able to work a bit from home (a few hours yesterday and some today) and if all goes well, I should have a quiet (albeit event filled) Christmas weekend.
My truck is in the shop and the work is underway. I called them and they told me the total on the vandalism and theft (the theft being the smallest part) was just over $1,100, with my part bing $250 (deductible). The truck has a value of about $5,000. Sad. The original estimated completion date was January 3, 2007 but the manager told me that it looks like early next week (Tuesday or Wednesday) is more likely. Yippee!
My wife took me to work yesterday since she also had to work. I did some from home until she was ready to leave then I went in to complete my day. She normally does not work a full 8 hours, so it worked out. We got off work and deposited her paycheck as well as the insurance check so that money would be there when we pay for the repairs. After that we headed home to let the dogs out and feed them. I checked the mail (junk) and then we went to a local Mexican restaurant for some Tex-Mex goodness. The dinner was tasty but I ate just a tad too much (my appetite is slowly shrinking...this is a good thing) so I had a mildly upset stomach. I did not tell my wife because she needed/wanted to do some shopping and I did not want to slow her down.
We hit up Big Lots for a couple of things we needed at the house (candy, gift boxes) then to Target to get a riding toy for a child in our church who really could use it. The family is a big one and his salary only goes so far. There are 11 of them in the family.
We came home and after walking the dogs with my wife, I brushed my teeth and was in bed by 9:00 PM. For some reason, I was really tired. A woke up once at midnight, got a drink of green tea (really, just a mouthful), and went back to bed until the alarm went off at 5 AM. Since my wife needed the van this morning, I logged in and took care of a few things from home.
This weekend should be rather event filled. We have a wedding reception to go to Saturday night (plus I will have my normal chores to do), two services on Sunday at church (of which I will be actively participating in the evening one), Monday I can relax, but I am not sure if we are doing anything or not. I this is the first year in several that we have not been anywhere. It is possible that we will meet with other transplants or orphans but that has not been decided. Being by ourselves this year is gonna be odd. No son (He is in Kuwait) and no family (we are not traveling) to occupy us. I guess we may do what I used to do when I was single...go to the movies!
Work has slowed a bit (and this is good, since I am a one man show for Canada, US, Mexico, Central, and South America) and I have been able to work a bit from home (a few hours yesterday and some today) and if all goes well, I should have a quiet (albeit event filled) Christmas weekend.
My truck is in the shop and the work is underway. I called them and they told me the total on the vandalism and theft (the theft being the smallest part) was just over $1,100, with my part bing $250 (deductible). The truck has a value of about $5,000. Sad. The original estimated completion date was January 3, 2007 but the manager told me that it looks like early next week (Tuesday or Wednesday) is more likely. Yippee!
My wife took me to work yesterday since she also had to work. I did some from home until she was ready to leave then I went in to complete my day. She normally does not work a full 8 hours, so it worked out. We got off work and deposited her paycheck as well as the insurance check so that money would be there when we pay for the repairs. After that we headed home to let the dogs out and feed them. I checked the mail (junk) and then we went to a local Mexican restaurant for some Tex-Mex goodness. The dinner was tasty but I ate just a tad too much (my appetite is slowly shrinking...this is a good thing) so I had a mildly upset stomach. I did not tell my wife because she needed/wanted to do some shopping and I did not want to slow her down.
We hit up Big Lots for a couple of things we needed at the house (candy, gift boxes) then to Target to get a riding toy for a child in our church who really could use it. The family is a big one and his salary only goes so far. There are 11 of them in the family.
We came home and after walking the dogs with my wife, I brushed my teeth and was in bed by 9:00 PM. For some reason, I was really tired. A woke up once at midnight, got a drink of green tea (really, just a mouthful), and went back to bed until the alarm went off at 5 AM. Since my wife needed the van this morning, I logged in and took care of a few things from home.
This weekend should be rather event filled. We have a wedding reception to go to Saturday night (plus I will have my normal chores to do), two services on Sunday at church (of which I will be actively participating in the evening one), Monday I can relax, but I am not sure if we are doing anything or not. I this is the first year in several that we have not been anywhere. It is possible that we will meet with other transplants or orphans but that has not been decided. Being by ourselves this year is gonna be odd. No son (He is in Kuwait) and no family (we are not traveling) to occupy us. I guess we may do what I used to do when I was single...go to the movies!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
I Finally Watched It All
My wife had an womens engagement to go to last night and since it was cold and damp, I stayed home. I washed the dinner dishes and put up the groceries and then headed into the office to enter the bills (oh, that reminds me, I need to deposit the insurance check) and finish "Star Trek: Nemesis". Not an overly good movie, but I made it through it without falling asleep this time. After that was over, I watched, "A Scanner Darkly". Mixed reviews on that one. I liked the animation style, but why do all dark cartoons have to have a sex scene/and or language and nudity?
The movie was hard to follow for a while up until about the last 15 minutes. I guessed at one scene (and was correct) but did not get the gist of it until it ended. I give it about a 7.5 out of 10...slightly better than average. Keanu Reeves was in it and thankfully I do not remember him saying, "Whoa!" (I think it is a contractual requirement or something...just kidding).
I still have "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest" and "Star Trek: Insurrection" to watch then after that, I am not sure what to watch. Any ideas? I will watch G, PG, PG-13, and R (R movies need to keep the nudity/harsh language to a minimum...graphic violence is okay). I do not watch a lot of movies but with the holidays coming up quickly and work will be very slow. I will need something to pass the time when I have *nothing* to do.
The movie was hard to follow for a while up until about the last 15 minutes. I guessed at one scene (and was correct) but did not get the gist of it until it ended. I give it about a 7.5 out of 10...slightly better than average. Keanu Reeves was in it and thankfully I do not remember him saying, "Whoa!" (I think it is a contractual requirement or something...just kidding).
I still have "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest" and "Star Trek: Insurrection" to watch then after that, I am not sure what to watch. Any ideas? I will watch G, PG, PG-13, and R (R movies need to keep the nudity/harsh language to a minimum...graphic violence is okay). I do not watch a lot of movies but with the holidays coming up quickly and work will be very slow. I will need something to pass the time when I have *nothing* to do.
That It Is NOT How We Do Our Subject Lines Here, Young Man!
The other day I was told that I handled my first big escalation pretty well. I realize that there are so many little things that it is all but impossible to do one perfectly, but I did okay. The only complaint that was given regarding it came from our customer who was "concerned" that they were listed in the "CC:" line instead of the "To:" line. Okay, that was no problem to correct.
Today, I get an e-mail from our customer telling me that updates are supposed to have a specific working to them that I failed to recognize. I missed the word, "information"...silly me, I used the word, "update". As long as those are the only things I get dinged for, I think I will survive.
I have one escalation left to close and I am hoping I can get it closed by end of year. That will be pushing it, but I am gonna try.
Today, I get an e-mail from our customer telling me that updates are supposed to have a specific working to them that I failed to recognize. I missed the word, "information"...silly me, I used the word, "update". As long as those are the only things I get dinged for, I think I will survive.
I have one escalation left to close and I am hoping I can get it closed by end of year. That will be pushing it, but I am gonna try.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
The Process Is Underway
Monday was pretty uneventful with the exception of still not being called back by the insurance company. My wife (Oh, how I love that woman) called without me knowing it and when she was told that "no claim ahd been filed", she immediately called me. In turn, I called them, gave them the claim number that I was given via e-mail and the process was started. I was told that I could go to the closest one stop repair facility (closest one she said was in Addison) or drive to McKinney and have and adjuster look at truck and cut me a check. I took the latter (more on that later...).
I got home and gave my wife the news and she seemed pleased enough. Driving around with a broken out windows when it is rainy and/or cold out is not much fun. She agreed.
We had salad (with tuna on top) for dinner. I know, not a manly meal, but I need to get more greens and fiber into my diet and less fat and cholesterol. My lovely wife is helping and while I may not be the happiest about it, it is for my own good.
After dinner , I washed the dishes and went shopping for a few things as well as run a few errands. I got back in a fair amount of time and worked on my testimony for Sunday. I got it about 90% complete and e-mailed it to our assistant paster for approval. Then next morning, he responded with an affirmative.
After that was written and the bills were entered, I decided to watch some videos that I had never watched before. I started with Season one of "Red Dwarf" but I did not find it as humorous as my colleagues do. I stopped it and popped in Star Trek, Nemesis. My Lord, what a snooze fest. I fell asleep TWICE in the first hour. I have not done that since the first Star Trek movie. After I woke up the second time, I decided to go to bed. After all, I had already taken a sleep aid (Star TreK), so I was ready.
I got up and got ready for the appointment with the adjuster. While she was polite, she was not over quick. She gave me my options and while she was finishing up, I called one of the choices I had (Addison was not the closest as I was told previously, there was one less than 5 miles from my house) and they had a cancellation and could see me today. After the adjuster was finished and cut me my check, I drive home to unload the truck and have my wife meet me at the shop. At the shop I was checked in, but I failed to give them my key. My wife (Oh, how I love that woman!) dropped me off at work and WENT BACK to the shop to drop off the key BEFORE she went to work. She called me and told me about 15 minutes later that they wanted the remote as well, so she had to drive back home and get the spare. I called her boss and told him what was going on (he goes to our church, so he is rather understanding) and he told me not to worry. He is a nice guy.
While all this was going on, I was racing to get to work to attend a ConfCall. I made it with 60 seconds to spare :). Since I was about 2.5 hours later to work than I normally am, I was scrambling to catch up. I was a bit upset to see that the ticketing system was down, so I could not get logged in to do my work, but the good news is that it had been down for hours and I could not have been able to log on had I been on time. Bad for some, good for me!
The system finally came back up and I was able to get things organized in short time. Before I knew it, it was lunch time, and while I had just come it a couple of hours before, I had not eaten since 6 AM, so I was a bit hungry.
The only thing that was a "problem" so to speak was something our customer had complained about to my dotted line manager in Europe. They complained that my status update e-mails had them in the "CC:" field instead of the "To:" field. Wow. Of all the things to complain about. I guess that I should feel blessed that the CC issue was the only thing they complained about, right?
Well, I will be out of a vehicle for a couple of days at least. The good news is my wife and I can carpool, but the bad news is I will not be at work very early, BUT, I am not going to complain. What I may do is start at home and finish at work. That might be okay.
I got home and gave my wife the news and she seemed pleased enough. Driving around with a broken out windows when it is rainy and/or cold out is not much fun. She agreed.
We had salad (with tuna on top) for dinner. I know, not a manly meal, but I need to get more greens and fiber into my diet and less fat and cholesterol. My lovely wife is helping and while I may not be the happiest about it, it is for my own good.
After dinner , I washed the dishes and went shopping for a few things as well as run a few errands. I got back in a fair amount of time and worked on my testimony for Sunday. I got it about 90% complete and e-mailed it to our assistant paster for approval. Then next morning, he responded with an affirmative.
After that was written and the bills were entered, I decided to watch some videos that I had never watched before. I started with Season one of "Red Dwarf" but I did not find it as humorous as my colleagues do. I stopped it and popped in Star Trek, Nemesis. My Lord, what a snooze fest. I fell asleep TWICE in the first hour. I have not done that since the first Star Trek movie. After I woke up the second time, I decided to go to bed. After all, I had already taken a sleep aid (Star TreK), so I was ready.
I got up and got ready for the appointment with the adjuster. While she was polite, she was not over quick. She gave me my options and while she was finishing up, I called one of the choices I had (Addison was not the closest as I was told previously, there was one less than 5 miles from my house) and they had a cancellation and could see me today. After the adjuster was finished and cut me my check, I drive home to unload the truck and have my wife meet me at the shop. At the shop I was checked in, but I failed to give them my key. My wife (Oh, how I love that woman!) dropped me off at work and WENT BACK to the shop to drop off the key BEFORE she went to work. She called me and told me about 15 minutes later that they wanted the remote as well, so she had to drive back home and get the spare. I called her boss and told him what was going on (he goes to our church, so he is rather understanding) and he told me not to worry. He is a nice guy.
While all this was going on, I was racing to get to work to attend a ConfCall. I made it with 60 seconds to spare :). Since I was about 2.5 hours later to work than I normally am, I was scrambling to catch up. I was a bit upset to see that the ticketing system was down, so I could not get logged in to do my work, but the good news is that it had been down for hours and I could not have been able to log on had I been on time. Bad for some, good for me!
The system finally came back up and I was able to get things organized in short time. Before I knew it, it was lunch time, and while I had just come it a couple of hours before, I had not eaten since 6 AM, so I was a bit hungry.
The only thing that was a "problem" so to speak was something our customer had complained about to my dotted line manager in Europe. They complained that my status update e-mails had them in the "CC:" field instead of the "To:" field. Wow. Of all the things to complain about. I guess that I should feel blessed that the CC issue was the only thing they complained about, right?
Well, I will be out of a vehicle for a couple of days at least. The good news is my wife and I can carpool, but the bad news is I will not be at work very early, BUT, I am not going to complain. What I may do is start at home and finish at work. That might be okay.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Everybody Is Doing It...
I could not let have Rycherox and Knightmare Duck have all the fun with posting screen shots. I know this may be boring to some, but I like simple, minimalistic desktops. My other box, the file server, uses IceWM.
To the right is what my desktop looked like last summer on my home Windows machine. It is kind of busy, but I think I was in information overload mode. I needed to have all kinds of data handy...all the time.
The wallpaper was one that I found quite by accident and fell in love with it. I really like tigers.
Here is an older desktop I once used. I think this was Breezy Badger Ubuntu, IIRC. I tend to like blues, silvers, and grays in my color schemes. Like Rycherox, I do not like the orange and brown default colors of Ubuntu. I would much prefer, Blubuntu!
Notice the transparent/translucent terminals.
This was an experiment with transparent tool bars. The tool bars you see are actually png files and I lined my icons up on top of them. It takes a bit of work to make it this.
The transparent and borderless terminal was something else I was into for a while, but you cannot move them once opened and that is not a good thing for me. I am always resizing my terminals.
To the right is what my desktop looked like last summer on my home Windows machine. It is kind of busy, but I think I was in information overload mode. I needed to have all kinds of data handy...all the time.The wallpaper was one that I found quite by accident and fell in love with it. I really like tigers.
Here is an older desktop I once used. I think this was Breezy Badger Ubuntu, IIRC. I tend to like blues, silvers, and grays in my color schemes. Like Rycherox, I do not like the orange and brown default colors of Ubuntu. I would much prefer, Blubuntu!Notice the transparent/translucent terminals.
This was an experiment with transparent tool bars. The tool bars you see are actually png files and I lined my icons up on top of them. It takes a bit of work to make it this.The transparent and borderless terminal was something else I was into for a while, but you cannot move them once opened and that is not a good thing for me. I am always resizing my terminals.
So-So Sunday
Well Sunday was a decent day overall. I got and went through the normal routine before went to Sunday School (I drove my wife's van since rain was forecast) with a couple of small differences.
While I was getting ready, I plugged in my beard trimmer to whack down the 3 week growth and it would not turn on. I tried different outlets but the result was the same. Oh well, I guess I go to Sunday school looking scruffy. I shaved my neck so the only shaggy part was the mustache and the jawline.
I went to Sunday school and was entertained by Jimmy and JK for about 45 minutes. Both of them can get really deep when they want to. We started talking about the correlation between a new life in Christ and the New Year. It was pretty interesting, but I had to cut them short because I had to go back and pick up my wife for church.
I picked her up and we headed back to attend service. After the service, there was a reception for a family that is leaving. It is sad to see them go, but everything has a season. I munched on a few cookies and some peanuts while we said our good byes, then we went to grab lunch. We could not find the deli we wanted to go to for lunch so we went to the new BBQ joint instead. The quality of the food has gotten worse each time we have gone back. In about 2-3 more trips, it will not be worth it to go at all.
We stopped off to the bank to make a deposit, then to Target to purchase some tape, cereal bars and a new beard trimmer. Needless to say, I paid much less for it at Target.
We drove home and I worked a bit on some web based stuff regarding my web logs. A while back my gzipped lg files had to be unzipped to be read by analog. Then an update was made and I did not have to do this anymore, now the same issue is happening, only with a twist. If I d/l them directly and save them, they save a z byte files. If I try to open them up (over the web) with the GUI Linux tool, they open fine. I have no idea what is wrong, but if I can get them one way or the other, I am fine.
Later on in the day, I found out that UFC broadcasts on one of the Spanish channels that we get free. I guess I will be watching it there once in a while. I think it comes on Saturday evening at 9 PM central. I will have to check the web to be sure.
I called my mom to check on her and she brought me up to speed with all that has been happening with her. Life really does not change much for her in her corner of the world, but I still enjoy talking with her.
I went to bed shortly after walking the dogs and watching something called "Celtic Women" on PBS. It would have been perfect if not for the constant interruptions asking for donations. Well, it is free TV.
I woke up very stiff an sore in my lower back. I am not sure why, I have not been abusing it...much. After walking the dogs, coffee and a hot shower, I am beginning to feel a bit better.
My ride to work was annoying since the window is shattered in the truck. I had to tape plastic over it and it tore loose 15 minutes into the trip south. It was noisy and now I have tape residue on the door. I seriously hope I can get it repaired SOON.
I got to work and found that I am 95% ready to close the escalation. I have to wait for one of the other teams to submit a form to the team who fixed it then, I can close this baby. Thank you, Lord!
While I was getting ready, I plugged in my beard trimmer to whack down the 3 week growth and it would not turn on. I tried different outlets but the result was the same. Oh well, I guess I go to Sunday school looking scruffy. I shaved my neck so the only shaggy part was the mustache and the jawline.
I went to Sunday school and was entertained by Jimmy and JK for about 45 minutes. Both of them can get really deep when they want to. We started talking about the correlation between a new life in Christ and the New Year. It was pretty interesting, but I had to cut them short because I had to go back and pick up my wife for church.
I picked her up and we headed back to attend service. After the service, there was a reception for a family that is leaving. It is sad to see them go, but everything has a season. I munched on a few cookies and some peanuts while we said our good byes, then we went to grab lunch. We could not find the deli we wanted to go to for lunch so we went to the new BBQ joint instead. The quality of the food has gotten worse each time we have gone back. In about 2-3 more trips, it will not be worth it to go at all.
We stopped off to the bank to make a deposit, then to Target to purchase some tape, cereal bars and a new beard trimmer. Needless to say, I paid much less for it at Target.
We drove home and I worked a bit on some web based stuff regarding my web logs. A while back my gzipped lg files had to be unzipped to be read by analog. Then an update was made and I did not have to do this anymore, now the same issue is happening, only with a twist. If I d/l them directly and save them, they save a z byte files. If I try to open them up (over the web) with the GUI Linux tool, they open fine. I have no idea what is wrong, but if I can get them one way or the other, I am fine.
Later on in the day, I found out that UFC broadcasts on one of the Spanish channels that we get free. I guess I will be watching it there once in a while. I think it comes on Saturday evening at 9 PM central. I will have to check the web to be sure.
I called my mom to check on her and she brought me up to speed with all that has been happening with her. Life really does not change much for her in her corner of the world, but I still enjoy talking with her.
I went to bed shortly after walking the dogs and watching something called "Celtic Women" on PBS. It would have been perfect if not for the constant interruptions asking for donations. Well, it is free TV.
I woke up very stiff an sore in my lower back. I am not sure why, I have not been abusing it...much. After walking the dogs, coffee and a hot shower, I am beginning to feel a bit better.
My ride to work was annoying since the window is shattered in the truck. I had to tape plastic over it and it tore loose 15 minutes into the trip south. It was noisy and now I have tape residue on the door. I seriously hope I can get it repaired SOON.
I got to work and found that I am 95% ready to close the escalation. I have to wait for one of the other teams to submit a form to the team who fixed it then, I can close this baby. Thank you, Lord!
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Winding Down
While my day started early, I did not really get started on any chores until about 10 or so when my wife and I cleaned up all the broken glass in my truck. We worked on that until I went to get my haircut at 11:00. After giving the woman who cuts my hair the run down on the smash and grab, I deposited last nights earnings in the bank and came home. I had a light lunch and then got started vacuuming the house and washing dishes. In between that I helped with the laundry so my wife could concentrate on grooming our two dogs and cooking supper.
Off and on I worked on cleaning up mistergeek.com some, putting up a banner for my generous web host (www.lancomhosting.com), worked on getting ssh and ftp working properly (amazing how many silly mistakes can keep you from getting your work done), and did a little tweaking on hockey-puck, my wife's laptop. Once she gets used to the touch stick (she really wants to use a regular mouse) she will be fine. She likes having the mobility that a laptop can offer. I guess it will only be a matter of time until we get a media vault or a NAS for the office so all our files are in one spot.
After a quick dinner of BLT wraps (my wife fried up the bacon outside to keep the kitchen clean), my wife washed the Golden and I watched Battlestar Galactica. When that was over, I walked both the dogs while my wife got a shower, then we watched a recorded UFC from Wednesday. She got tired so I finished watching the fights and then started blogging.
During one of my e-mail checking sessions, I got notice from Dakboy that he wife gave birth to their son. Hoo-ah! I am happy for both of them. I remember my son's birth (he is a 19 year old soldier now) like it was yesterday. Dak, take lots of pics and video. They will be priceless in the future.
I am not very sleepy, but I am tired. I have church tomorrow and my wife and I need to go out for a decent lunch together. We still need to do some shopping, but I dread doing that. Maybe I can do it during the week.
Off and on I worked on cleaning up mistergeek.com some, putting up a banner for my generous web host (www.lancomhosting.com), worked on getting ssh and ftp working properly (amazing how many silly mistakes can keep you from getting your work done), and did a little tweaking on hockey-puck, my wife's laptop. Once she gets used to the touch stick (she really wants to use a regular mouse) she will be fine. She likes having the mobility that a laptop can offer. I guess it will only be a matter of time until we get a media vault or a NAS for the office so all our files are in one spot.
After a quick dinner of BLT wraps (my wife fried up the bacon outside to keep the kitchen clean), my wife washed the Golden and I watched Battlestar Galactica. When that was over, I walked both the dogs while my wife got a shower, then we watched a recorded UFC from Wednesday. She got tired so I finished watching the fights and then started blogging.
During one of my e-mail checking sessions, I got notice from Dakboy that he wife gave birth to their son. Hoo-ah! I am happy for both of them. I remember my son's birth (he is a 19 year old soldier now) like it was yesterday. Dak, take lots of pics and video. They will be priceless in the future.
I am not very sleepy, but I am tired. I have church tomorrow and my wife and I need to go out for a decent lunch together. We still need to do some shopping, but I dread doing that. Maybe I can do it during the week.
A Picture Is Worth...
Absolutely NOTHING...to the Dallas PD that is. Neither are the prints and DNA (blood) sample left at the crime scene, or even the type of stereo that was stolen. I guess I understand...why bother when they are never going to catch the guy anyway. Dallas has some serious crime problems, even in better neighborhoods.
Below are some shots to show what the perp did to my baby. This first pic is what I saw as I came out of the condo and headed towards my truck. Picture this in a parking lot at night with a light post very close shining in the cab:
Then I hit the remote door locks (which also turns on the cab lights) and saw this. Again, I saw this at night in a parking lot with one light shining:
I walked around and opened the door to look in. It looks bad, but the fascia pops back in pretty easily. I popped it in to drive home and popped it out again for the sole purpose of photographing them. You have a right to see what a stupid thief will do for a stereo valued at less than $100.
They made more of a mess getting *in* to my truck than they did getting the stereo out. The actually unplugged the unit and did not cut anything.
Below, they must have not liked my choice in music. They ejected the CD in the unit and left it on the floor with blood still on it. They also did not take the trim plate that came with the unit, which means it is gonna look pretty stupid in the car they put it in. They were not very smart because they tried to pry the unit out and it had quick release pins holding it in. Stupid thief. They left my crucifix, my Promise Keepers Key, and my Celtic knot necklaces which were around the rear view mirror and 8 CD's in a nice leather case with an embossed Celtic knot on it in the glove box. They also missed loose change in the console and my billy club in the extended cab.
Below you see the blood left on the door and the jimmied lock. I cannot get my key in it so it is pretty much FUBAR. Glad I have remote locks. The lock has a very sharp edge from being jimmied and I believe that is what the perp cut himself on. His prints are also on the truck, but the the Dallas police do not care about silly details like evidence.
Something that is not shown in this picture is some that I noticed as my wife and I (I LOVE THAT WOMAN!) cleaned up the mess. It appears that they stuck what looks like (from the impression on the gasket) a flat blade screwdriver between the window and the gasket trying to pry it out. If they wanted my stereo so badly and wanted to get it easier, quieter, and with less bloodshed, they could have just popped the rear cab window and unlocked the door. I realize that would have taken a thief with at least half a brain, but if I can see that...
The best I can tell is that they tried to jimmy the lock, cut themselves and then pried at the window, possibly shattering it. Then the door was opened and they popped off the fascia. The thief must have propped himself against the floor at some point because there was blood *under* my driver side floor mat that was not there before. I guess he put his hand under the mat to keep from cutting himself further.
As I look back at this, part of this is my fault. The CD player is silver, in a dark gray interior, so it stands out. I also did not park as close to the condo as I could have because I was trying to leave parking for the residents who would be coming home soon from work. The good news is that no innocent people (myself or residents of the condo) were hurt and I was smart enough to take my Ray-ban sunglasses and my laptop inside. I am sure that even a *stupid* thief like the one who liberated me of my CD player would have taken those.
My wife made a funny comment. Back in biblical times, a person who was caught stealing had a hand cut off. If the cut on the perp's hand got infected and he did not take care of it, it would have to be amputated, ergo justice would be service in a biblical fashion. I don't wish any ill will towards this perp. Yes this is an inconvenience and I will be out a stereo (I am not sure if Allstate will allow me to replace it...I did not tell them I had an after market stereo). I may even have my truck get wet on the inside (rain is forecast early next week), but I am not the judge. God is and the perp will get what is coming to him ... in God's time.
Below are some shots to show what the perp did to my baby. This first pic is what I saw as I came out of the condo and headed towards my truck. Picture this in a parking lot at night with a light post very close shining in the cab:
Then I hit the remote door locks (which also turns on the cab lights) and saw this. Again, I saw this at night in a parking lot with one light shining:
I walked around and opened the door to look in. It looks bad, but the fascia pops back in pretty easily. I popped it in to drive home and popped it out again for the sole purpose of photographing them. You have a right to see what a stupid thief will do for a stereo valued at less than $100.They made more of a mess getting *in* to my truck than they did getting the stereo out. The actually unplugged the unit and did not cut anything.
Below, they must have not liked my choice in music. They ejected the CD in the unit and left it on the floor with blood still on it. They also did not take the trim plate that came with the unit, which means it is gonna look pretty stupid in the car they put it in. They were not very smart because they tried to pry the unit out and it had quick release pins holding it in. Stupid thief. They left my crucifix, my Promise Keepers Key, and my Celtic knot necklaces which were around the rear view mirror and 8 CD's in a nice leather case with an embossed Celtic knot on it in the glove box. They also missed loose change in the console and my billy club in the extended cab.
Below you see the blood left on the door and the jimmied lock. I cannot get my key in it so it is pretty much FUBAR. Glad I have remote locks. The lock has a very sharp edge from being jimmied and I believe that is what the perp cut himself on. His prints are also on the truck, but the the Dallas police do not care about silly details like evidence.
Something that is not shown in this picture is some that I noticed as my wife and I (I LOVE THAT WOMAN!) cleaned up the mess. It appears that they stuck what looks like (from the impression on the gasket) a flat blade screwdriver between the window and the gasket trying to pry it out. If they wanted my stereo so badly and wanted to get it easier, quieter, and with less bloodshed, they could have just popped the rear cab window and unlocked the door. I realize that would have taken a thief with at least half a brain, but if I can see that...
The best I can tell is that they tried to jimmy the lock, cut themselves and then pried at the window, possibly shattering it. Then the door was opened and they popped off the fascia. The thief must have propped himself against the floor at some point because there was blood *under* my driver side floor mat that was not there before. I guess he put his hand under the mat to keep from cutting himself further.
As I look back at this, part of this is my fault. The CD player is silver, in a dark gray interior, so it stands out. I also did not park as close to the condo as I could have because I was trying to leave parking for the residents who would be coming home soon from work. The good news is that no innocent people (myself or residents of the condo) were hurt and I was smart enough to take my Ray-ban sunglasses and my laptop inside. I am sure that even a *stupid* thief like the one who liberated me of my CD player would have taken those.
My wife made a funny comment. Back in biblical times, a person who was caught stealing had a hand cut off. If the cut on the perp's hand got infected and he did not take care of it, it would have to be amputated, ergo justice would be service in a biblical fashion. I don't wish any ill will towards this perp. Yes this is an inconvenience and I will be out a stereo (I am not sure if Allstate will allow me to replace it...I did not tell them I had an after market stereo). I may even have my truck get wet on the inside (rain is forecast early next week), but I am not the judge. God is and the perp will get what is coming to him ... in God's time.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Why Don't We Steal Away...
El Gee's stereo. Yes folks, you read it here first...El Gee's beloved 1999 Dodge Dakota was broken into Friday night in Dallas. Shattered glass, busted lock, and damaged dashboard. Can you tell I am not overly happy?
I left work at 4:00 PM to do a gig on Northwest Highway. It was below my normal rate for a house call, but I know the guy and he needed the help. I got there at 4:45 PM or so due to heavy traffic and called up "Don" to let me in the building. I helped him out for about 2.25 hours and after collecting a modest (very) I was escorted out. It was dark, but my truck was parked under or near a light post. When I got close to my truck, I noticed that part of the dashboard was sticking up, around the steering wheel. I was approaching the truck from the driver's front side and did not notice until several seconds later that my passenger window had been smashed out to gain entry to the vehicle. My dash (actually the fascia around it) had been popped off to allow the thief at my stereo, a Sony CDX-L300 ( a rather inexpensive CD player), which was PRIED out of the socket. I was pretty much in shock since that is the most damage that has been done to my truck since the accident I had 2-3 months after I bought her.
I called 911 and the operator told me that the Dallas Police Department does not respond to vehicle break-ins. I was told an officer would call me within 4 hours. Joy. I then called my wife and told her what had happened and she was just glad that I was not near the vehicle when it happened. I guess I am too.
I drove the 30 miles home on 75 (AKA Central Expressway, the main artery going from downtown Dallas to Sherman) with a smashed passenger window, breathing smog from all the other cars. While I am a little mad, I cool down by the time I get home. I brought in my laptop (I took it in the apartment with me so it was not stolen) and said hello to my wife. She gave me a hug and told me she was glad I was okay and I agreed. I was home for about an hour when the police called me back and asked some very basic info and told me my police report number. Since that part had been completed, I took little man for a walk so he could be a dog and I could mellow out a bit.
I got home and filed a report with Allstate online. After that was complete, I went out to the garage to inspect the truck and noticed some things I did not initially see at the crime scene:
1) NOTHING else was taken (coins, CD's, etc).
2) The thief attempted to jimmy the lock to gain entry and apparently failed since my passenger window was broken. The lock had a jagged piece sticking out that the thief got cut on. There was blood on the outside of passenger door and also on a CD that was lying on the floor. My guess it was a thumb from the smear mark on the CD.
3) The wiring harness was left intact, not cut.
I plan on taking and posting pics tomorrow when I get some light.
Time for ice cream...I deserve it.
I left work at 4:00 PM to do a gig on Northwest Highway. It was below my normal rate for a house call, but I know the guy and he needed the help. I got there at 4:45 PM or so due to heavy traffic and called up "Don" to let me in the building. I helped him out for about 2.25 hours and after collecting a modest (very) I was escorted out. It was dark, but my truck was parked under or near a light post. When I got close to my truck, I noticed that part of the dashboard was sticking up, around the steering wheel. I was approaching the truck from the driver's front side and did not notice until several seconds later that my passenger window had been smashed out to gain entry to the vehicle. My dash (actually the fascia around it) had been popped off to allow the thief at my stereo, a Sony CDX-L300 ( a rather inexpensive CD player), which was PRIED out of the socket. I was pretty much in shock since that is the most damage that has been done to my truck since the accident I had 2-3 months after I bought her.
I called 911 and the operator told me that the Dallas Police Department does not respond to vehicle break-ins. I was told an officer would call me within 4 hours. Joy. I then called my wife and told her what had happened and she was just glad that I was not near the vehicle when it happened. I guess I am too.
I drove the 30 miles home on 75 (AKA Central Expressway, the main artery going from downtown Dallas to Sherman) with a smashed passenger window, breathing smog from all the other cars. While I am a little mad, I cool down by the time I get home. I brought in my laptop (I took it in the apartment with me so it was not stolen) and said hello to my wife. She gave me a hug and told me she was glad I was okay and I agreed. I was home for about an hour when the police called me back and asked some very basic info and told me my police report number. Since that part had been completed, I took little man for a walk so he could be a dog and I could mellow out a bit.
I got home and filed a report with Allstate online. After that was complete, I went out to the garage to inspect the truck and noticed some things I did not initially see at the crime scene:
1) NOTHING else was taken (coins, CD's, etc).
2) The thief attempted to jimmy the lock to gain entry and apparently failed since my passenger window was broken. The lock had a jagged piece sticking out that the thief got cut on. There was blood on the outside of passenger door and also on a CD that was lying on the floor. My guess it was a thumb from the smear mark on the CD.
3) The wiring harness was left intact, not cut.
I plan on taking and posting pics tomorrow when I get some light.
Time for ice cream...I deserve it.
She Likes It / Aftermath
The rest of my evening went pretty well considering I was tired. I gave my wife "hockey-puck" to toy around with and she sat in bed surfing the web for about an hour before shutting down. She said it was nice to work that way and she is going to put it through its paces over the next couple of weeks. If it works out, I will move her PDA over to it and a few other things. The biggest thing she is going to have to live with is not having access to all of our printers, saved photos and such. All those are on the main PC that is not on 24x7 and shouldn't be because it is loud and uses more power than I would like. I have kicked around the idea of getting a SOHO NAS (Small Office / Home Office Network Attached Storage) so we could use it as a print and file server. I could get a smaller one (160 gig) for a couple hundred dollars, but I would prefer getting a 250 -300 gig one if at all possible. To be honest, I could set up the Linux server to do all that (I would just need to buy a bigger hard drive for it), but it would not be very fast and it is a little noisy. Well, I am not in any hurry at the moment. We have plenty of time.
I got up tired after a semi-fitful sleep. I got back and went through the normal morning routine, albeit somewhat out of order (I could tell you why, but then I would have to kill you). After eating a quick breakfast and kissing my lovely bride goodbye, I grabbed all my gear (lunch, laptop, and water), trash and recyclables, and left.
I got to work expecting the worst after yesterday's escalation. My day did not end on a positive note and I figured it would just continue today. When I got into my office, my phone was ringing. I quickly answered it, setting down my laptop bag, water, and lunch. It was the tech from India telling me that the issue was fixed, pending customer confirmation. I was happy, but cynical. I had gotten my hopes up before and had them dashed to the ground. I thanked the tech and hung up. After logging on my to my PC, I noticed a lot of e-mails but very few were pressing. I received notice that the customer verbally agreed to close the case, but we have to get it in writing first. I set up a meeting to do a root cause analysis for later that morning and got started on my other duties.
When it came time for the meeting, one of the groups invited started pointing fingers despite what I had told them at the beginning of the meeting. The problem was two fold: No set process for patching the servers in question and the teams failure to read the change reports posted. I informed that when the customer agrees, this escalation will be closed.
Lunch time came around and a question came up about the AS-400 we have sitting in our DC. It seems to have lost network connectivity and we do not have anyone on site who can look at it. Now I am not sure how critical this is since this beast is only supposed to be holding archival data, but the requester seems to think it is important. I offered what knowledge I had on where the beast is and who used to administer it, but that was not enough info.
Well, I have 2 open escalations, but neither are overly pressing. I will not get information on the first one until next week and the newest one ... well I am waiting for the customer to OK it so I can close the escalation.
I will not get home until later tonight since I have a gig downtown. It pays $50 bucks so it will be worth some of my time. I hope I will not be too tired to enjoy a walk since the weather will be pretty fair. I like mild winters!
I got up tired after a semi-fitful sleep. I got back and went through the normal morning routine, albeit somewhat out of order (I could tell you why, but then I would have to kill you). After eating a quick breakfast and kissing my lovely bride goodbye, I grabbed all my gear (lunch, laptop, and water), trash and recyclables, and left.
I got to work expecting the worst after yesterday's escalation. My day did not end on a positive note and I figured it would just continue today. When I got into my office, my phone was ringing. I quickly answered it, setting down my laptop bag, water, and lunch. It was the tech from India telling me that the issue was fixed, pending customer confirmation. I was happy, but cynical. I had gotten my hopes up before and had them dashed to the ground. I thanked the tech and hung up. After logging on my to my PC, I noticed a lot of e-mails but very few were pressing. I received notice that the customer verbally agreed to close the case, but we have to get it in writing first. I set up a meeting to do a root cause analysis for later that morning and got started on my other duties.
When it came time for the meeting, one of the groups invited started pointing fingers despite what I had told them at the beginning of the meeting. The problem was two fold: No set process for patching the servers in question and the teams failure to read the change reports posted. I informed that when the customer agrees, this escalation will be closed.
Lunch time came around and a question came up about the AS-400 we have sitting in our DC. It seems to have lost network connectivity and we do not have anyone on site who can look at it. Now I am not sure how critical this is since this beast is only supposed to be holding archival data, but the requester seems to think it is important. I offered what knowledge I had on where the beast is and who used to administer it, but that was not enough info.
Well, I have 2 open escalations, but neither are overly pressing. I will not get information on the first one until next week and the newest one ... well I am waiting for the customer to OK it so I can close the escalation.
I will not get home until later tonight since I have a gig downtown. It pays $50 bucks so it will be worth some of my time. I hope I will not be too tired to enjoy a walk since the weather will be pretty fair. I like mild winters!
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Sad, But True
Well how things can change...
I got off my second confcall, washed dishes, ran a report, did some follow up and was pretty much done for the morning. Next stop was supposed to be Fogo de Chao for our department Christmas lunch (If you *ever* get the chance to eat there, please do assuming you like meat...and lots of it). You will not regret it) but before I could head out the door, my dotted line manager in Sweden calls me up to inform me that there is an issue that our customer wants escalated. Well, I am an Escalation Manager, so I go into action. To make the process that I have to follow short for my readers, let's just say I have to contact a lot of people, coordinate the fix, document everything, and keep communications flowing. For any real escalation, this could take a couple of hours minimum to several days to run. This one started out looking pretty easy, but it soon bloomed into a mess. Needless to say, I missed out on the best meal I would have this year.
I had already shut down my PC when I got my first call, so I had to turn it back on and log onto the VPN again. Once on, I had to dissect a lengthy e-mail, contact our Incident Mgmt in Sweden and then a local tech in Dallas. I logged off my laptop, let my dogs out to use the bathroom (since they would be home all day by themselves since my lovely wife had just left for work), loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly...err... no I loaded up the truck and headed to work.
At worked I found the local tech who was working on the issue and he gave me the run down. I called the tech in India (no disrespect to those who live there or are from there, but communicating to Indian techs is as hard for us as it is for you...trust me) and telling him that his has been turned into a formal escalation and our customer is not happy. We gives me some info and I agree to the plan. I then set out to begin filling out the documentation required for this process (which, BTW, is no picnic to fill out). I get the documentation and the initial e-mail out to everyone and their mothers, then I start playing IM tag with techs and Incident Mgrs. By this time it is 12:30 or so. Lunch started at 11:30. My next meeting is at 2:00 PM. Grrrrr. The Dallas tech does everything he can (it is a very complicated ODBC driver error) and goes to have lunch. He does not have a 2 PM meeting.
At noon, I prepare my first update which is not overly optimistic. I send it to half the planet, including the Inc Mgrs. They are not happy either, but the issue is not an easy one to resolve.
More IM tag with techs and Inc Mgrs. The issue has been escalated to a third party (the vendor of the software). He thinks the latest Microsoft MDAC patch is the culprit. Tech tries to fix it, no dice. 2 PM roles around and I have my next confcall.
This one went pretty well and it is beginning to look just like I thought it would: home grown engineering app runs great on the LAN, horribly on the WAN. To test, some large files are FTP'd from various locations that are complaining to the site where the app is hosted. My guess is that the FTP times are going to be fast. The app is most likely not configured to work on a WAN (which is what 2 of the techs and myself said from the beginning, but the enginerds did not want to hear it) and that is causing anyone connecting to it over the WAN to see horrible performance.
That meeting ends and it is 3 PM. I am tired and hungry (remember I have not eaten yet and I had a microscopic breakfast anticipating a *huge* lunch that failed to materialize)...then my wife calls and I tell her the story. She says that we are going out to dinner and that is final. I agree with her and she starts looking for places to eat (close to me) when she gets off work at 5 PM. I prepare the meeting minutes and send them out to the attendees.
3:30 PM, I am in the hall talking to 3 mgrs about the issue and they tell me it was admirable to stay back to coordinate this issue. Thanx, but I am still hungry at that point. One of the mgrs who used to do this job told me some tricks that will help me in the future, so I plan on using them.
4:00 PM, more IM / e-mail tag with techs and Inc Mgrs. I prepare my last update of the day and tell the tech not to call me unless the world is imploding. Anything short of that he can contact the Inc Mgrs and if they deem it important, they can call me.
4:45 I send out the last update. I held on to it for about 30 minutes *hoping* to get good news, but the news look less encouraging as the minutes ticked by. It appears that the vendor cannot resolve the issue, so they are opening a case with the provider of the ODBC drivers the app uses. NO ONE is happy about that, but what can we do?
5:00 PM, I call my wife and we meet at a little Cajun cafe near my work. The food is remarkably good. The owners are...get ready for this...CHINESE and this is their second restaurant in the area. My wife and I both agree this place is going to be a regular stop.
We leave there at 5:45 and I go to get some gas since I am running on fumes. Traffic is horrible at that time and it takes me 45 minutes to go 15 miles and stop for ice cream and gas. Really.
I got home and let out the dogs (they were doing the pee-pee dance) and gave them fresh food and water. I went and got the mail (all junk) and then settled in to pay some bills online and update my blog.
I missed a great lunch but I think that God was testing my integrity. He wanted to see if I would do the right thing. I must admit, for a few minutes, I thought about just going to eat and worry about the aftermath later, but I could not do it. I may have not had my company Christmas lunch, but I am happy that I did the right thing.
I got off my second confcall, washed dishes, ran a report, did some follow up and was pretty much done for the morning. Next stop was supposed to be Fogo de Chao for our department Christmas lunch (If you *ever* get the chance to eat there, please do assuming you like meat...and lots of it). You will not regret it) but before I could head out the door, my dotted line manager in Sweden calls me up to inform me that there is an issue that our customer wants escalated. Well, I am an Escalation Manager, so I go into action. To make the process that I have to follow short for my readers, let's just say I have to contact a lot of people, coordinate the fix, document everything, and keep communications flowing. For any real escalation, this could take a couple of hours minimum to several days to run. This one started out looking pretty easy, but it soon bloomed into a mess. Needless to say, I missed out on the best meal I would have this year.
I had already shut down my PC when I got my first call, so I had to turn it back on and log onto the VPN again. Once on, I had to dissect a lengthy e-mail, contact our Incident Mgmt in Sweden and then a local tech in Dallas. I logged off my laptop, let my dogs out to use the bathroom (since they would be home all day by themselves since my lovely wife had just left for work), loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly...err... no I loaded up the truck and headed to work.
At worked I found the local tech who was working on the issue and he gave me the run down. I called the tech in India (no disrespect to those who live there or are from there, but communicating to Indian techs is as hard for us as it is for you...trust me) and telling him that his has been turned into a formal escalation and our customer is not happy. We gives me some info and I agree to the plan. I then set out to begin filling out the documentation required for this process (which, BTW, is no picnic to fill out). I get the documentation and the initial e-mail out to everyone and their mothers, then I start playing IM tag with techs and Incident Mgrs. By this time it is 12:30 or so. Lunch started at 11:30. My next meeting is at 2:00 PM. Grrrrr. The Dallas tech does everything he can (it is a very complicated ODBC driver error) and goes to have lunch. He does not have a 2 PM meeting.
At noon, I prepare my first update which is not overly optimistic. I send it to half the planet, including the Inc Mgrs. They are not happy either, but the issue is not an easy one to resolve.
More IM tag with techs and Inc Mgrs. The issue has been escalated to a third party (the vendor of the software). He thinks the latest Microsoft MDAC patch is the culprit. Tech tries to fix it, no dice. 2 PM roles around and I have my next confcall.
This one went pretty well and it is beginning to look just like I thought it would: home grown engineering app runs great on the LAN, horribly on the WAN. To test, some large files are FTP'd from various locations that are complaining to the site where the app is hosted. My guess is that the FTP times are going to be fast. The app is most likely not configured to work on a WAN (which is what 2 of the techs and myself said from the beginning, but the enginerds did not want to hear it) and that is causing anyone connecting to it over the WAN to see horrible performance.
That meeting ends and it is 3 PM. I am tired and hungry (remember I have not eaten yet and I had a microscopic breakfast anticipating a *huge* lunch that failed to materialize)...then my wife calls and I tell her the story. She says that we are going out to dinner and that is final. I agree with her and she starts looking for places to eat (close to me) when she gets off work at 5 PM. I prepare the meeting minutes and send them out to the attendees.
3:30 PM, I am in the hall talking to 3 mgrs about the issue and they tell me it was admirable to stay back to coordinate this issue. Thanx, but I am still hungry at that point. One of the mgrs who used to do this job told me some tricks that will help me in the future, so I plan on using them.
4:00 PM, more IM / e-mail tag with techs and Inc Mgrs. I prepare my last update of the day and tell the tech not to call me unless the world is imploding. Anything short of that he can contact the Inc Mgrs and if they deem it important, they can call me.
4:45 I send out the last update. I held on to it for about 30 minutes *hoping* to get good news, but the news look less encouraging as the minutes ticked by. It appears that the vendor cannot resolve the issue, so they are opening a case with the provider of the ODBC drivers the app uses. NO ONE is happy about that, but what can we do?
5:00 PM, I call my wife and we meet at a little Cajun cafe near my work. The food is remarkably good. The owners are...get ready for this...CHINESE and this is their second restaurant in the area. My wife and I both agree this place is going to be a regular stop.
We leave there at 5:45 and I go to get some gas since I am running on fumes. Traffic is horrible at that time and it takes me 45 minutes to go 15 miles and stop for ice cream and gas. Really.
I got home and let out the dogs (they were doing the pee-pee dance) and gave them fresh food and water. I went and got the mail (all junk) and then settled in to pay some bills online and update my blog.
I missed a great lunch but I think that God was testing my integrity. He wanted to see if I would do the right thing. I must admit, for a few minutes, I thought about just going to eat and worry about the aftermath later, but I could not do it. I may have not had my company Christmas lunch, but I am happy that I did the right thing.
Yesterday...
...was a rather boring day with nothing exciting going on until right before I left work. There was a big issue on an extranet server that we needed to get a vendor involved. I am not sure what the outcome of that was since I was not called on the issue.
I got home and got things ready to go to our care group white elephant gift exchange, which turned out to be one of the strangest ones yet. Most of the gifts were obvious hand me downs, a few re-gifts (guilty as charged, your honor) and only 1 or 2 new ones. I think we gave the most useful one, a gift card at Starbucks.
We got home in good time and I took some sinus meds since my lingering headache had not dissipated. After walking little man, I went to bed...I was bushed!
Today I woke up at 5 AM not ready to get out of bed..I was a little congested, but not bad. I walked little man and came back to feed him and make my morning coffee. I had a 7 AM confcall and wanted to get a shower since my time would be tight. After my first confcall, I noticed I had another at 8 AM...not enough time to get to work so I sent my boss and e-mail letting him know what my plans were: Work from home in the AM, go to lunch with the team (Christmas lunch at Fogo De Chao), then head back to the office for my 2 PM confcall.
My 8:00 AM confcall went well and ended early...SCORE! That gave me time to start this and wash the breakfast dishes.
More later.
I got home and got things ready to go to our care group white elephant gift exchange, which turned out to be one of the strangest ones yet. Most of the gifts were obvious hand me downs, a few re-gifts (guilty as charged, your honor) and only 1 or 2 new ones. I think we gave the most useful one, a gift card at Starbucks.
We got home in good time and I took some sinus meds since my lingering headache had not dissipated. After walking little man, I went to bed...I was bushed!
Today I woke up at 5 AM not ready to get out of bed..I was a little congested, but not bad. I walked little man and came back to feed him and make my morning coffee. I had a 7 AM confcall and wanted to get a shower since my time would be tight. After my first confcall, I noticed I had another at 8 AM...not enough time to get to work so I sent my boss and e-mail letting him know what my plans were: Work from home in the AM, go to lunch with the team (Christmas lunch at Fogo De Chao), then head back to the office for my 2 PM confcall.
My 8:00 AM confcall went well and ended early...SCORE! That gave me time to start this and wash the breakfast dishes.
More later.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Success #2
After a few days of tinkering...hocky-puck with Windows 2000 is wireless! Here is the secret:
For Windows 2000 with Service Pack 1 or 2 installed complete the following steps. If Service Pack 3 or later is installed, skip step 1.
1. Install QFE # 304014 (see comments below).
2. Add New DWord of "DisableIsaToPciRouting" in the Registry by completing the following:
a. Click on Start.
b. Select "Run".
c. Type "REGEDIT" in the "Open" box and click on "OK".
d. Select the following in the left frame: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Services\Pcmcia\Parameters .
e. With the above "Parameters" folder highlighted, click on menu item "Edit".
f. Select "New", the click on "DWORD Value".
g. Type "DisableIsaToPciRouting" in the box that open. Do not type the quote marks or add spaces. It is case sensitive.
h. Press "Enter" and leave the "Data" field at it's default of "0x00000000 (0)"
i. Close the Registry Editor window and restart the computer.
3. Wireless!
Since this was a hand-me-down, I did not have the original Toshiba CD and even though I downloaded all the drivers, I still needed the above hack.
For Windows 2000 with Service Pack 1 or 2 installed complete the following steps. If Service Pack 3 or later is installed, skip step 1.
1. Install QFE # 304014 (see comments below).
2. Add New DWord of "DisableIsaToPciRouting" in the Registry by completing the following:
a. Click on Start.
b. Select "Run".
c. Type "REGEDIT" in the "Open" box and click on "OK".
d. Select the following in the left frame: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Services\Pcmcia\Parameters .
e. With the above "Parameters" folder highlighted, click on menu item "Edit".
f. Select "New", the click on "DWORD Value".
g. Type "DisableIsaToPciRouting" in the box that open. Do not type the quote marks or add spaces. It is case sensitive.
h. Press "Enter" and leave the "Data" field at it's default of "0x00000000 (0)"
i. Close the Registry Editor window and restart the computer.
3. Wireless!
Since this was a hand-me-down, I did not have the original Toshiba CD and even though I downloaded all the drivers, I still needed the above hack.
Of TIme And Of Lights
I was at the park today eating my lunch (first time I have done that in while) and a thought came into my ever working mind. Where will I be in 20 years?
When I was a late teen/early adult (17-19 years old or so), I had trouble visualizing what life for me would be like in the 21st century. I certainly did not envision living in Texas, 9/11, the Internet, hybrid automobiles, bottled water, fatherhood, not owning a land-line phone, and countless other things that I now accept as common place. No, I was a West Virginia resident, a kid who thought that war/terrorism would never reach our shores. I got all my information from network news, the local newspaper, and the library. I drove a 6 cylinder car that got lousy mileage and drank water from the tap. I did not have a steady girl friend and if I was not home, I missed my phone calls.
Contrast and comparing where I was 20 years ago and where I am now, what will life be like 20 years from now? While I have a good imagination for things fantastic, I am not sure I can predict how things will look in 20 years.
I am pretty sure I will move to another state at least one more time in the next 20 years. In the last 17 years, I have moved from WV to NC to TX. The odds of staying put I think are low, but I wold not mind it too much.
I think that terrorism in the US will be very uncommon and the middle east will be a battlefield until Jesus takes charge. I just cannot see any other outcome considering the history of warfare that region has endured.
I see the Internet becoming even more mobile with more and more people using the web on the go via phone or PDA. The more mobile we become, the more we want our info to follow us. I suspect that "phone lines" and "cable" will be antiquated terms by then. We will have a "data connection" that will provide TV, phone and Internet all in one connection. As the lines for information become more blurred, you will see more and more entertainment and telecom companies offering moer services so you will have more of the "one stop shopping". I predict that fiber optics will eventually win out for urban and suburban customers while wireless/satellite will be the choice for those in the rural areas.
I think that the push for more oil will cause someone who is highly respected and very wealthy to push for alternatives fossil fuels. I see more homes with solar and wind power (in the southern half of the US), hydrogen/electric cars on the roads and the need/desire for oil diminishing exponentially. All this can be done now...the technology is there. All we need to do is implement it.
I envision cooking almost completely dying out thanks to cheaper pre-made foods. About the only time you will have "home cooked" is at a restaurant. I see this push today as people by pre-made dinners from the supermarket. We are giving less and less time for normal duties that 20 years ago were common place.
I am not going to have any more kids, but I do see having 1 grandchild. I have a son who is of that age, but he is not dating anyone. I would like to see a grand child within 20 years, but our son is a soldier and we do not know what God has planned for him.
I think the next wave of mobile communication will be live action high speed webcam phones. Hold a video conference on the go. Of course that will be dangerous until someone figures out a way to make a HUD for your windshield so your eyes will not be off the road.
Well that was fun...
One thing I rally do enjoy about living where we do is all the beautiful lights that people put up this time of year. While there are some displays nearby that will blind and confuse the pilots trying to find DFW, most are pretty subdued and are in very good taste. Once thing I have noticed is that if the lights are done well, so are the decorations...the two seem to go hand in hand. I gave seen many poorly done homes that seem to be a hodge-podge of themes, with no one standing out. One that comes to mind is about a half a block from our house. The woman who lives there has a projector lighting up the side of her house, a mixture of "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas" banners and lighted messages, and a maddening display of Santa, reindeer, eskimos, sheep, nativity and penguins... among other things. She has multiple trees outside, the eaves of her home, windows and the lawn decorations all decorated with lights. Maddening.
In my humble opinion, the decorations should be tasteful and keep with a theme. More is not always better.
When I was a late teen/early adult (17-19 years old or so), I had trouble visualizing what life for me would be like in the 21st century. I certainly did not envision living in Texas, 9/11, the Internet, hybrid automobiles, bottled water, fatherhood, not owning a land-line phone, and countless other things that I now accept as common place. No, I was a West Virginia resident, a kid who thought that war/terrorism would never reach our shores. I got all my information from network news, the local newspaper, and the library. I drove a 6 cylinder car that got lousy mileage and drank water from the tap. I did not have a steady girl friend and if I was not home, I missed my phone calls.
Contrast and comparing where I was 20 years ago and where I am now, what will life be like 20 years from now? While I have a good imagination for things fantastic, I am not sure I can predict how things will look in 20 years.
I am pretty sure I will move to another state at least one more time in the next 20 years. In the last 17 years, I have moved from WV to NC to TX. The odds of staying put I think are low, but I wold not mind it too much.
I think that terrorism in the US will be very uncommon and the middle east will be a battlefield until Jesus takes charge. I just cannot see any other outcome considering the history of warfare that region has endured.
I see the Internet becoming even more mobile with more and more people using the web on the go via phone or PDA. The more mobile we become, the more we want our info to follow us. I suspect that "phone lines" and "cable" will be antiquated terms by then. We will have a "data connection" that will provide TV, phone and Internet all in one connection. As the lines for information become more blurred, you will see more and more entertainment and telecom companies offering moer services so you will have more of the "one stop shopping". I predict that fiber optics will eventually win out for urban and suburban customers while wireless/satellite will be the choice for those in the rural areas.
I think that the push for more oil will cause someone who is highly respected and very wealthy to push for alternatives fossil fuels. I see more homes with solar and wind power (in the southern half of the US), hydrogen/electric cars on the roads and the need/desire for oil diminishing exponentially. All this can be done now...the technology is there. All we need to do is implement it.
I envision cooking almost completely dying out thanks to cheaper pre-made foods. About the only time you will have "home cooked" is at a restaurant. I see this push today as people by pre-made dinners from the supermarket. We are giving less and less time for normal duties that 20 years ago were common place.
I am not going to have any more kids, but I do see having 1 grandchild. I have a son who is of that age, but he is not dating anyone. I would like to see a grand child within 20 years, but our son is a soldier and we do not know what God has planned for him.
I think the next wave of mobile communication will be live action high speed webcam phones. Hold a video conference on the go. Of course that will be dangerous until someone figures out a way to make a HUD for your windshield so your eyes will not be off the road.
Well that was fun...
One thing I rally do enjoy about living where we do is all the beautiful lights that people put up this time of year. While there are some displays nearby that will blind and confuse the pilots trying to find DFW, most are pretty subdued and are in very good taste. Once thing I have noticed is that if the lights are done well, so are the decorations...the two seem to go hand in hand. I gave seen many poorly done homes that seem to be a hodge-podge of themes, with no one standing out. One that comes to mind is about a half a block from our house. The woman who lives there has a projector lighting up the side of her house, a mixture of "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas" banners and lighted messages, and a maddening display of Santa, reindeer, eskimos, sheep, nativity and penguins... among other things. She has multiple trees outside, the eaves of her home, windows and the lawn decorations all decorated with lights. Maddening.
In my humble opinion, the decorations should be tasteful and keep with a theme. More is not always better.
Dull Is Getting Old / Small Catch-up / Fixed!
"Always a Dull Moment" celebrated 2 years Sunday and I forgot to make a big deal about it. Happy Birthday, AaDM!
I was surprised that yesterday was as non eventful as it was. Not that I am complaining...not at all. Now my colleagues in Europe were not so blessed...they were busy all day long. I did not envy them at all.
As a matter of fact, I had almost decided to go home early, but then I remembered that I would be taking an extended lunch on Thursday and decided to stay until 4:30 PM.
About the only thing of interest was a call and e-mail from a recruiter asking be about "Paul", whom I have blogged about before. Paul was terminated back in June-July of this year and has just now decided to look for work. I did not think he had the funds to survive that long without work, but with his unemployment checks and savings, he was able to make it 6 months...not bad.
I gave him a good review, but I did not make it spotless. While everyone deserves a second chance,I am not going to blatantly lie for anyone. Sorry Paul...but you know me. I am gonna call it as I see it..however I did tell them that I would hire you if given the opportunity.
I got home and greeted my wife while fending off the dogs who were excited to see me. They had already been fed and my wife was cooking dinner, so after greeting them all, I retired to my office to check the bills/mail and enter in any receipts that my wife had not had time to do so. Since there were not many, I began to work on my wife's PDA problem. I have good news...I resolved it. yes, I finally figured out what was causing it...errr, well sort of.
One by one I removed the palm databases that I suspected were causing the problem. One by one, nothing worked. So I started thinking about how the data was being restored. The device had a program called "SyncAll" that was designed to give you a full restore in case of a system crash. It turns out that something in the back-up folder was messed up, so I renamed it and allowed the pda to sync only the typical data (datebook, contacts, memos, to do lists) and then install the programs one at a time until finished.
Before I could begin that process, my wife called me into dinner and I told her that I think I had the problem licked. She seemed very pleased (she really misses her PDA), so I ate quickly and then cleaned up the dinner dishes (she cooked, I cleaned...fair enough) and went back to my task before my trustee meeting.
I did a sync of the standard PDA data and then turned off the PDA. I waited. It did not come back on. I turned it on, opend a few programs to see if her data was there then turned it off. It did not come back on by itself. This was good. I then began adding the programs my wife needs (Bible, password safe, and a couple of others) and did a sync again. After the installs and sync, AI turned it off and back on. I tested some things and turned it back off. It did not come back on. Happy, I went to my trustee meeting.
The meeting was short (1.5 hours) but we were warned that the next one would be much longer due to the fact we would be going over the church budget. While I am not looking forward to it, I will do my part because I believe if you agree to something, you need to carry it through towards completion, even if it is not pleasant.
I got home and my wife was watching on TV that I was not interested in, so I went in the office and played with hockey-puck, trying to get it to connect wirelessly. I am not having much success, and if I do not get this working, my wife will not be able to use it. Odd that I had no problem getting it up and running on Linux, but have so much trouble with Win2k. It is not an encryption problem, since I turned that off for the test. Both the laptop and the router see each other, but I cannot get an IP address, even though both are set to DHCP. I guess I can try to give the laptop a static IP address. It cannot hurt to try...
Since I was not successful on that, I started to watch season one of "The Shield". I while I like the show mostly, it is a lot more graphic than I thought would be allowed on regular TV. I will watch a few more episodes to help me make up my mind...
I was surprised that yesterday was as non eventful as it was. Not that I am complaining...not at all. Now my colleagues in Europe were not so blessed...they were busy all day long. I did not envy them at all.
As a matter of fact, I had almost decided to go home early, but then I remembered that I would be taking an extended lunch on Thursday and decided to stay until 4:30 PM.
About the only thing of interest was a call and e-mail from a recruiter asking be about "Paul", whom I have blogged about before. Paul was terminated back in June-July of this year and has just now decided to look for work. I did not think he had the funds to survive that long without work, but with his unemployment checks and savings, he was able to make it 6 months...not bad.
I gave him a good review, but I did not make it spotless. While everyone deserves a second chance,I am not going to blatantly lie for anyone. Sorry Paul...but you know me. I am gonna call it as I see it..however I did tell them that I would hire you if given the opportunity.
I got home and greeted my wife while fending off the dogs who were excited to see me. They had already been fed and my wife was cooking dinner, so after greeting them all, I retired to my office to check the bills/mail and enter in any receipts that my wife had not had time to do so. Since there were not many, I began to work on my wife's PDA problem. I have good news...I resolved it. yes, I finally figured out what was causing it...errr, well sort of.
One by one I removed the palm databases that I suspected were causing the problem. One by one, nothing worked. So I started thinking about how the data was being restored. The device had a program called "SyncAll" that was designed to give you a full restore in case of a system crash. It turns out that something in the back-up folder was messed up, so I renamed it and allowed the pda to sync only the typical data (datebook, contacts, memos, to do lists) and then install the programs one at a time until finished.
Before I could begin that process, my wife called me into dinner and I told her that I think I had the problem licked. She seemed very pleased (she really misses her PDA), so I ate quickly and then cleaned up the dinner dishes (she cooked, I cleaned...fair enough) and went back to my task before my trustee meeting.
I did a sync of the standard PDA data and then turned off the PDA. I waited. It did not come back on. I turned it on, opend a few programs to see if her data was there then turned it off. It did not come back on by itself. This was good. I then began adding the programs my wife needs (Bible, password safe, and a couple of others) and did a sync again. After the installs and sync, AI turned it off and back on. I tested some things and turned it back off. It did not come back on. Happy, I went to my trustee meeting.
The meeting was short (1.5 hours) but we were warned that the next one would be much longer due to the fact we would be going over the church budget. While I am not looking forward to it, I will do my part because I believe if you agree to something, you need to carry it through towards completion, even if it is not pleasant.
I got home and my wife was watching on TV that I was not interested in, so I went in the office and played with hockey-puck, trying to get it to connect wirelessly. I am not having much success, and if I do not get this working, my wife will not be able to use it. Odd that I had no problem getting it up and running on Linux, but have so much trouble with Win2k. It is not an encryption problem, since I turned that off for the test. Both the laptop and the router see each other, but I cannot get an IP address, even though both are set to DHCP. I guess I can try to give the laptop a static IP address. It cannot hurt to try...
Since I was not successful on that, I started to watch season one of "The Shield". I while I like the show mostly, it is a lot more graphic than I thought would be allowed on regular TV. I will watch a few more episodes to help me make up my mind...
Monday, December 11, 2006
Sunday, Bloody Busy Sunday
AS in most of our weekends, Sunday did not disappoint. I actually could have had more to do, but I told the person I just did not have the time.
My wife let me sleep until 7:15 (we were up until midnight) and she walked the dogs. I fed them and made my coffee while she got the meds and vitamins for them together. After that bit, off to read my bible and get a shower and head to Sunday school. Once at Church, I eventually) made it to class and noticed a new couple so I said hi to them. I soon found out that she was Hebrew (she did not call herself Jewish) and had come to the realization that the bible (for her the Old Testament / Torah was lacking and was missing something. She started reading the New Testament and began studying Christianity. Wow. After class we chatted and then headed towards the sanctuary for service.
After service came lunch and a couple of errands before I came back home to clean house. We did not get a chance to do it on Saturday, so Sunday was the day. While I was cleaning, my wife was busy with some sh0pping (that was OK with me...I do not like shopping). Once I was done, I had some bills to pay and dishes to wash. When all that was taken care of, I started (again but without success) to get hockey-puck running wirelessly. I am not sure what is wrong. Both the router and the PC see each other but refuse to communicate. Funny how this worked ok under Linux but not unser Windows 2000. I know I have something set wrong but cannot figure 0ut what it is. And to alleviate any questions about security, I turned it all off and still no dice.
My wife came home about an hour or so before we had to be back at church for the children's Christmas pageant. it was for the kids that were 12 or younger and it was pretty cute overall. We brought cookies to serve at a cookie reception and stayed about 1/2 an hour after the show was over to say high to some friends.
We got home and walked the dogs and I called mom while I was out with Little Man (they do better when they ware walked separately). Mom was feeling pretty sick so I only talked to her for about 20 minutes or so. After I got back, wished her a good night and let her get some rest.
It was now a little after 8 PM and we have been very busy all weekend long. My wife and I decided to watch "Cinderella Man" at the suggestion from one of our church family. Yes, it was a boxing movie and yes, it had language. It was a good story on value on morals, so we turned a deaf ear to the "GD" this and "JHC", that. I am not a Russell Crowe fan, but it was pretty good nonetheless.
After the movie was over we decided to hit the hay. It was 11:00 PM and we were tired after a long weekend. I contemplated my week and it is busy as well (Trustee meeting tonight, care group Wednesday, Lunch at "Fogo de Chao" on Thursday and a gig on that evening and hopefully we will have a "normal" weekend (whatever that is). I still have a gig to do at one of the church members homes but he is not in a huge hurry. The tips I gave him have helped him some and he thinks he can hold off until after the holidays until I can go over and help him out.
My wife let me sleep until 7:15 (we were up until midnight) and she walked the dogs. I fed them and made my coffee while she got the meds and vitamins for them together. After that bit, off to read my bible and get a shower and head to Sunday school. Once at Church, I eventually) made it to class and noticed a new couple so I said hi to them. I soon found out that she was Hebrew (she did not call herself Jewish) and had come to the realization that the bible (for her the Old Testament / Torah was lacking and was missing something. She started reading the New Testament and began studying Christianity. Wow. After class we chatted and then headed towards the sanctuary for service.
After service came lunch and a couple of errands before I came back home to clean house. We did not get a chance to do it on Saturday, so Sunday was the day. While I was cleaning, my wife was busy with some sh0pping (that was OK with me...I do not like shopping). Once I was done, I had some bills to pay and dishes to wash. When all that was taken care of, I started (again but without success) to get hockey-puck running wirelessly. I am not sure what is wrong. Both the router and the PC see each other but refuse to communicate. Funny how this worked ok under Linux but not unser Windows 2000. I know I have something set wrong but cannot figure 0ut what it is. And to alleviate any questions about security, I turned it all off and still no dice.
My wife came home about an hour or so before we had to be back at church for the children's Christmas pageant. it was for the kids that were 12 or younger and it was pretty cute overall. We brought cookies to serve at a cookie reception and stayed about 1/2 an hour after the show was over to say high to some friends.
We got home and walked the dogs and I called mom while I was out with Little Man (they do better when they ware walked separately). Mom was feeling pretty sick so I only talked to her for about 20 minutes or so. After I got back, wished her a good night and let her get some rest.
It was now a little after 8 PM and we have been very busy all weekend long. My wife and I decided to watch "Cinderella Man" at the suggestion from one of our church family. Yes, it was a boxing movie and yes, it had language. It was a good story on value on morals, so we turned a deaf ear to the "GD" this and "JHC", that. I am not a Russell Crowe fan, but it was pretty good nonetheless.
After the movie was over we decided to hit the hay. It was 11:00 PM and we were tired after a long weekend. I contemplated my week and it is busy as well (Trustee meeting tonight, care group Wednesday, Lunch at "Fogo de Chao" on Thursday and a gig on that evening and hopefully we will have a "normal" weekend (whatever that is). I still have a gig to do at one of the church members homes but he is not in a huge hurry. The tips I gave him have helped him some and he thinks he can hold off until after the holidays until I can go over and help him out.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
I Wondered How Long It Would Be...
Before this was attempted. From the Associated Press:
After being tipped by an acquaintance of Derrick Shareef, the FBI says it taped the 22-year-old planning to use hand grenades to blow garbage cans into clouds of flying shrapnel in a crowded mall the Friday before Christmas.
I have envisioned this way before this story was released. As a matter of fact, the day of the September 11th, 2001 attacks, I told my wife that malls would be the next target. However, I expected small timed bombs scattered all over a mall rather than grenades.
Rookie. {sarcasm}
After being tipped by an acquaintance of Derrick Shareef, the FBI says it taped the 22-year-old planning to use hand grenades to blow garbage cans into clouds of flying shrapnel in a crowded mall the Friday before Christmas.
I have envisioned this way before this story was released. As a matter of fact, the day of the September 11th, 2001 attacks, I told my wife that malls would be the next target. However, I expected small timed bombs scattered all over a mall rather than grenades.
Rookie. {sarcasm}
Later That Day...
I came home and helped with laundry and the dogs and changed the light bulb in the garage door opener that had burned out. I was not hungry even though it was past lunch time, so I did not eat anything. We were planning to go to the Family Readiness Christmas Party at the armory since we have not socialized much with the other soldiers families. The even was at 3:00 PM so we needed to leave by 2:45 or so. That was about enough time for me to pay some bills online and let my wife get ready.
At 3:15 we left for the armory (yes, we LEFT 15 minutes later than the start time of the even...) and even thought we left late, we did not miss anything. The meal was so-so, but it was the thought that counted. Wal-Mart assisted the FRG with the party and it meant a lot. My wife bought a commemorative T-shirt from the FRG and we ended up leaving after about 2 hours or so. We chatted with soldiers wife and her father in law for a large part of that time. He was about 65 or so, nice guy originally from Buffalo, NY. He retired from GM and after talking to him cold tell that his son meant a lot to him. I think I will add them all to my prayer list.
We came home, walked the dogs and watch last night's Law and Order. After that was over I decided to watch Battlestar Galactica and then work on the hockey-puck, trying to get it ready for my wife...
At 3:15 we left for the armory (yes, we LEFT 15 minutes later than the start time of the even...) and even thought we left late, we did not miss anything. The meal was so-so, but it was the thought that counted. Wal-Mart assisted the FRG with the party and it meant a lot. My wife bought a commemorative T-shirt from the FRG and we ended up leaving after about 2 hours or so. We chatted with soldiers wife and her father in law for a large part of that time. He was about 65 or so, nice guy originally from Buffalo, NY. He retired from GM and after talking to him cold tell that his son meant a lot to him. I think I will add them all to my prayer list.
We came home, walked the dogs and watch last night's Law and Order. After that was over I decided to watch Battlestar Galactica and then work on the hockey-puck, trying to get it ready for my wife...
Oh What A NIght...And Morning!
I left work at 4:00 PM (damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead) and made it to the Japanese restaurant in pretty good time. No calls on the way there...
I get there and I find out two things: a) my wife, her boss, and his wife are all running late (as well as the other couple he invited, his foreman and the foreman's wife) and b) the restaurant does not open until 5:00, which puts us 30 minutes behind schedule. As I wait for the other dinner guests and for the restaurant to open, I sit, asking God to give me a quiet evening.
Everyone shows up and the establishment opens. We go in and are seated and proceed to have a great dinner at Shogun Japanese restaurant. I had the filet mignon, like I normally do when I have beef while most of those around me chose filet and wither shrimp or chicken. I did not go for the extras since last year when he took us out, I felt like a pig by having an appetizer, a huge meal, and dessert. This time I kept it simple and I was blessed for it. By ordering the filet only, I got a NICE 8 ounce filet that was darn near perfect. All the other folks got 6 ounce and while I was told they tasted very good, mine looked better :) .
During dinner, tickets were passed along the table with instructions for us to each take one. I looked at mine (all were the same) and noticed that we would be travelling about 1 hour east to Greenville Texas to see Mercy Me in a homecoming Christmas concert. I had never seen them before was a bit curious how they would be live in a very small auditorium in a little town like Greenville. I was blown away. The first half was "unplugged" with all acoustic instruments and the band sitting in high stools. The second half was an electric eye and ear candy feast that was not too loud, but cool enough for me (the hard rock junkie) to enjoy.
The band played all of their "Christmas Sessions" CD and many of those tunes really kicked. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "The Little Drummer Boy" really hit with a punch, a melodic punch that was not too bombastic but not wuss rock, either.
After the show (which I would have paid to see...it really was that good) we took the slow route home an stopped at Sonic for drinks and Blasts, paid for again by my wife's boss. We joked and had a great time as all 6 of us sat in Gustavo's Suburban. After an enjoyable ride home, we stopped by to pick up my Dakota and my wife and I drove 30 minutes home in the cold Winter air.
I had my phone on vibrate all evening long and was truly blessed that I was not called. Thank you, God for that gift.
After getting home and in bed around midnight, I managed to get 6 hours sleep before I got up and walked the little man in the below freezing air. I got back, fed the lovable pooches and got a shower and coffee before heading off to the Men's Minstry Breakfast. Gustavo was cooking, but not has famous Huevos Rancheros (I do not like eggs, but his I will eat), just typical gringo food. It was good, although they had way too much again. They fixed a lot since we had a guest speaker, Neal Jeffrey. He did a great job and I think his message was well received.
After the breakfast was over with, I stayed to help clean. I did a lot more cleaning than I normally do, but I did not mind...the phone did not ring and I was being fed...in more than one way.
I get there and I find out two things: a) my wife, her boss, and his wife are all running late (as well as the other couple he invited, his foreman and the foreman's wife) and b) the restaurant does not open until 5:00, which puts us 30 minutes behind schedule. As I wait for the other dinner guests and for the restaurant to open, I sit, asking God to give me a quiet evening.
Everyone shows up and the establishment opens. We go in and are seated and proceed to have a great dinner at Shogun Japanese restaurant. I had the filet mignon, like I normally do when I have beef while most of those around me chose filet and wither shrimp or chicken. I did not go for the extras since last year when he took us out, I felt like a pig by having an appetizer, a huge meal, and dessert. This time I kept it simple and I was blessed for it. By ordering the filet only, I got a NICE 8 ounce filet that was darn near perfect. All the other folks got 6 ounce and while I was told they tasted very good, mine looked better :) .
During dinner, tickets were passed along the table with instructions for us to each take one. I looked at mine (all were the same) and noticed that we would be travelling about 1 hour east to Greenville Texas to see Mercy Me in a homecoming Christmas concert. I had never seen them before was a bit curious how they would be live in a very small auditorium in a little town like Greenville. I was blown away. The first half was "unplugged" with all acoustic instruments and the band sitting in high stools. The second half was an electric eye and ear candy feast that was not too loud, but cool enough for me (the hard rock junkie) to enjoy.
The band played all of their "Christmas Sessions" CD and many of those tunes really kicked. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "The Little Drummer Boy" really hit with a punch, a melodic punch that was not too bombastic but not wuss rock, either.
After the show (which I would have paid to see...it really was that good) we took the slow route home an stopped at Sonic for drinks and Blasts, paid for again by my wife's boss. We joked and had a great time as all 6 of us sat in Gustavo's Suburban. After an enjoyable ride home, we stopped by to pick up my Dakota and my wife and I drove 30 minutes home in the cold Winter air.
I had my phone on vibrate all evening long and was truly blessed that I was not called. Thank you, God for that gift.
After getting home and in bed around midnight, I managed to get 6 hours sleep before I got up and walked the little man in the below freezing air. I got back, fed the lovable pooches and got a shower and coffee before heading off to the Men's Minstry Breakfast. Gustavo was cooking, but not has famous Huevos Rancheros (I do not like eggs, but his I will eat), just typical gringo food. It was good, although they had way too much again. They fixed a lot since we had a guest speaker, Neal Jeffrey. He did a great job and I think his message was well received.
After the breakfast was over with, I stayed to help clean. I did a lot more cleaning than I normally do, but I did not mind...the phone did not ring and I was being fed...in more than one way.
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