Hard Day's NIght

I am weary. I stayed up until 11:00 (up at 5:00 AM - rinse and repeat) working with people all over the world (literally: US, Manila, Sweden, India) to resolve an issue. The system that is in question has too many connecting points to other systems, so troubleshooting this has been difficult. Finally a smart feller in Sweden found what he thinks the real issue is and has contacted the Third Party who supports it. Usually, that is enough, but I went ahead and gave him a call anyway. just to be sure.

Being on cal this week will surely be taxing, as it is the end of the month and we all know that means SAP and related systems problems. While I did not get called last night, working on the issue until 11:00 made up for it. Is it September yet?

In other El Gee news..My curiosity with Islam (no, I am not converting, just learning what I can) has lead me to some "jihad wary" web sites. The sites have news links and some of the stories will break your heart, while others will make you laugh.

I have been dealing with a rash of calls from our help desk and their first level support. For those who work in tech support, you would not be surprised by the calls that get passed on to us. My group is not a technical group...we manage the issues. The people who call us are supposed to be filters to make sure the issues we get are legit, but they are failing in that duty. I wish I had the energy to document them all, but that would just take too long. Needless to say that if the local people just asked a few more questions, they would have a much better idea what is going on.

Let me give you one example. We received a call stating that the customer was unable to send and receive e-mail. The local person did all kinds of troubleshooting but still could not figure out what the problem was. My colleague calls the customer back (remember, we are not a tech team) to get more info. he soon learns (by asking just a couple of questions), that the person has no network activity at all. Mail was just the first thing he noticed was not working. Now it would be easy to go off on the end user and say they did not offer enough info, but in the world of I/T, you ask all the "silly" questions because they will give you insight to the solution.

The phone just rang and it was the L1 local guy. "El, we are getting lots of calls from end users who say that they cannot log in to the Windows PC unless they reboot."

"And?" I asked...

Silence.

"Well, it sounds to me like a DHCP issue...I would put up a front end message telling the customers that if they have trouble logging on to the Windows environment to reboot and if that does not work, to stay on the line so they can be assisted.", I offer.

"Great idea!", he replies and ends the call.

{Sigh}

Rather Lazy Weekend

Nothing much went on so far this weekend and I guess that is a good thing. I am on call next week and I need to be available "just in case".

Saturday was pretty light in the chores department and I was completely done by 1 PM. There is always painting to do, but since my wife is not overly thrilled with my style of painting, I decided to pass. The house was clean, dishes and clothes washed, the yards mowed, and my Sunday school lesson was finished...nothing for me to really do that does not cost money. I was hoping that a PC gig would materialize before now, but it didn't. Working on a PC while I am on call is difficult (but not impossible) and I would rather not unless I have to.

I watched Bodog Fights on Ion at 10:00 PM on Saturday. There were only two fights (one mens, one womens) but both were pretty good. I am not sure where I stand on watching women compete in MMA...part of me says, "Go for it", the other part of me feels the women are being exploited. Skimpy, skin tight outfits on two women beating the stuffing out of each other seems...wrong in a way. However, like an auto accident, it was difficult to turn away.

Sunday was pretty much more of the same, with the exception of the luncheon we had for the son of dear friend of our former pastor. He is from Nigeria and will be attending medical school in WV...about 30 miles from where my mom lives. I may stop in and visit him when I go visit. Oh the luncheon was taco salad. My wife made her famous home made refried beans...from scratch. Yummy.

I got home and let the dogs out and ate a small bit of ice cream before plopping down on the couch to watch a little Discovery. It was not too long before I was snoring away on the uncomfortable slab of fabric and wood we call a couch. We just have to get something better. We have had this piece of junk for 10 years and I hate it now as much as I did then. It is the most uncomfortable piece of furniture in the house. We got it when we bought our first house in NC...we bought it from Rooms to Go...a mistake we shall not repeat.

I have started taking Aleve again on a regular basis...something my physical therapist calls "Aleve Therapy". Two Aleve twice a day for 7-10 days to reduce the swelling that causes the pain in my back and leg. While the surgery I had over a year ago was a success, I still have issues with my sciatica..however it is not nearly as bad as it was before the surgery. My wife is asking me to have it looked at, but I am not looking forward to more doctor visits and or surgeries.

Well, I guess I need to call mom and see how life is treating her. I can walk Little Man while I talk...at least that will keep me entertained.

Oh, no word back from the scammer, but to be honest, she did not write last Sunday and if my last note did not prove to her that I am baiting her, then she is either playing along, or she is a complete idiot.

Sympathy For The (Scammer) Devil

Outside the people who read my blog (btw, thank you for reading), I have told very few people about my exploits with the Scamette. The few I have told have responded in ways from complete hysteria to sympathy. Not sympathy for me, but for the scammer.

Yes, you read that correctly.

One of the guys at work, "Larry" came in to my office the other day, right after I got done telling my TL about Scamette. Larry had his customary cup of thick strong, black coffee and plopped down in the spare chair we have for guests.

"What's so funny?" he asks. My TL is still snickering and doesn't say anything. I am not sure he can really...he is snickering pretty hard.

"Want a Russian girlfriend, Larry (Larry is European, but he has been in the US for 15 years or so)?"

"What?"

I then begin to explain to him what I am doing. He looks at me and says, "That's cruel."

My jaw hits the floor. "Cruel?" I ask.

"Yes, cruel. Taking advantage of a poor foreign person like that."

He was not joking. He honestly thinks that it is perfectly acceptable for people to attempt to scam other out of money or even harm them physically, but it is not okay to waste their time by "baiting" the scammers. This is what society has become...sympathetic for criminals.

My new neighbor across the street summed it up nicely:

Prisons are full of murderers, rapists, thieves, etc. Most of which are guilty and their crimes horrific. Put a pedophile in prison and all of a sudden the inmates think their crimes pale to those of that pedophile. I am not saying any one is better or worse than the other, but why is it that all of a sudden, there is a moral code in prison and pedophiles are the bottom of the food chain? However, I digress.

I tell Larry that before he judges me, he needs to understand what is actually happening:

Some group rents an office or an apartment in an inconspicuous place (in Europe or Africa) and furnishes it with 10-12 PC's with satellite internet access. They then hire one 18-26 year old person per PC to correspond with men (and women as well) in hopes that they can scam money from them. The payout for the young person is 10-15% of the take.

The scammer steals photos (usually of very attractive people) from photo sharing web sites and uses them to lure their mark in. If the person is naive enough, they may send money to the scammer or the scam may include getting the person to go to Russia or Nigeria where they will be robbed or even killed. This has happened.

"But El Gee, no one believes those things...everyon knows they are bogus!"

Not everyone. The web is full of stories of people who were ripped off by Russian, Brazilian, and Nigerian romance scams. It is big business and people fall for it. Evil people with evil intentions are hiding in the dark waiting for the right opportunity to pounce.

Consider me a spot light.

I have no sympathy for the people perpetrating these acts. I have friends that while they have not been ripped off, are lonely enough to possibly fall for something like this. I hope they read this.

Larry still thinks I am cruel but I do not care what he thinks. Yes I know some people think this is a huge waste of time and it is easier to delete than reply and bait. However, it is not about time. It is about people. Good people being targeted by cold heartless people hiding behind the pictures of pretty people.

Let's Talk About Sex (But Not Online)

I guess my scamette's subtle hinting for money was not working so she goes straight for the jugular...she wants to talk sex face to face but not via e-mail. Wow, an old fashioned scammer girl...I am touched. She has made it very clear she wants to leave mother Russia and is willing to live in sin with a man to do it. And to think, she started out sounding so wholesome...

Scamette sent two more photos, but she messed up and sent one that she had already sent before. I guess keeping all the scams she straight that she is running is pretty difficult. I also noticed that she never replies to the e-mail I send her...she always sends a new one. I am not sure what the significance of that is, but I am curious.

She had made a comment about me not answering some of her e-mails and that I should check my spam folder for them. I was not sure what she meant by that, because I had nothing in my spam folder from her. Then I realized (after I went through all her e-mails) that two of the e-mails were delivered out of order. Ahh...that makes sense.

I have been sending her pictures of "my" ranch, "my" ranch helpers (I hint that they are gay, but she has not commented on that), "my" black mother, "me" running on with a prosthetic leg, "my" dogs, "my" horse and my favorite one...a picture of a pig that I told my scammer that I named after her. Here is what she said about that:

"I have been very surprised when you have informed that you have named one pig in my honour. I am very happy to this. I hope, that it is the most beautiful pig."

I have noticed that the scammer rarely answers any of my questions (albeit pretty silly questions). I guess this is normal since they goal is for the scammer to get to know me.

The two guys who I BCC every e-mail to are rolling after every one. I cannot wait until this is over with so I can publish all the e-mails in chronological order, with the pics I sent her, on the web.

Freakin' hilarious.

The Fallout

I received a response from the TPC I sent the scathing e-mail to. It was not what I expected.

Two of the managers from the TPC and one of the managers from the customer we both support joined me on the call. I was asked point blank by the TPC, "Who should be running this?" I gave them an earful.

Since our customer was on the line, I prefaced my comments with, "You know Burt (the TPC manager), $customer does not want to be burdened with our internal problems. She is welcome to stay, but she is not required to be here. With that said..." and then I lit into them.

First I defined what we are contractually obligated to provide and how the TPC was impeding that by not documenting what their techs were doing in the ticketing system. "If they fail to do that", I said, "then we cannot do our part and keep the customer and our mgmt informed of the progress or lack thereof."

They tried to defend themselves by blaming it on the e-mail system not delivering messages to me and I shot that down real quick by telling them that the only acceptable delivery of updates was via the ticketing system and phone...two methods the techs in India an KL fail to utilize. My tongue lashing went on for about 15 minutes or so, then the other manager, Don said quite simply, "You are correct. We have failed to live up to the contractual obligations and for that we have no excuse. We will work to rectify the situation." We ended the call with an invitation to me to join the concalls next week on the resolution of this. I do not plan on attending. Instead, I am going to let our escalation manager attend. If you think I have a bad attitude, then you have not heard him in action. To give you an idea on how caustic he can be, allow my manager to do that: "The TL/colleague is the good cop, the Esc Mgr is an a$$hole and El Gee is somewhere in between". I think that says it all.

After that meeting, I was anticipating having regular updates to the open trouble ticket the TPC is working on...boy was I wrong. There were no updates all day long. Some rectification.

All I can say is that the rest of my day went by pretty quickly. I told the my TL/Colleague to go home early since he was going to have a rough weekend but no more did he walk out the door was I told to help the Esc Mgr work on a load of tickets that one of the local techs owned. It seems he has done all the work, but he does not have access to the system to close the cases. My boss told the Esc Mgr and me to close them...125 of them. At first I thought we would have to close them one at a time, but after poking around the system for a while, I figured out a way to run a query on all tickets assigned to that tech that were older than 90 days and I closed them with simple batch close. Of course there is no real info in the ticket describing what the tech did, but that is not my problem...it is the techs.

I handed the phone to my TL/colleague at 5 PM and left for home. I stopped off at the store to get a few things my wife needed (and some ice cream for me...) then came home. After a quick dinner of hot dogs, chips, and iced tea, I went out to finish spraying weed killer on ours and our neighbors lawn. A quick shower when I was done and I feel great.

Talk To Me

Four years ago when it was announced that support for our customer was split between us and our fiercest competitor, I knew this was not going to be smooth sailing. We are in charge of the hardware, the operating system, and the local network while our competitor is in charge of the software. The biggest challenge now is communication. We cannot get them to update us on the status of issues.

Let me backtrack a bit. Not only are we in charge of the previously mentions items, but we also "own" I/T, meaning if it goes down, we are respond and are responsible...even if we are not the ones who will fix it and even if the group repairing the issue is hired by the customer. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

The past few days we have been tracking an issue that was assigned to the third party who does software support (at the behest of our customer). Their ticketing system talks to ours and vice versa. If they update their ticket, we see those updates. The problem the past few days has been that the TPC has not updated the ticket at all. The only notes are from me and my colleague. This causes a bit of a problem since all high severity cases are to be updated on the customer web site and normal intervals if the TPC's cannot give us updates, we cannot update the customer.

This morning, after noticing that the ticket had not been updated (even though the TPC's help desk said it would) in over 24 hours, I fired off a rather scathing e-mail to the folks at the TPC, CC'ing our local management. I am sure there will be something said (most likely to me) about this.

Pray for me.

Just A Few Observations

Sometimes, thoughts come into your head and you just have to jot them down:

* If you ever want it to rain, just water your lawn or wash your car. This really works (While we have had a wet spring and early summer, we have been rainless for the last 10 days or so. I decided that my foundation was too important to neglect, so I watered it on Monday and watered the lawn on Wednesday. Thursday, it stormed. While the offical Weather Channel report says we only received .14 of an inch, I think that is off. It rained very hard here).

* A surprising number of people are up using their PC's at 5:00 AM (I get up to walk Little Man at 5:00 AM. The neighborhood is quiet and dark, except for the newspaper delivery person. As I am walking through the neighborhood, I counted no less than 5 people with blinds open, working on their PC's in their home office).

* I would not want to trade places with a celebrity for any amount of money (Just look at who is in the news and for what reason).

* When running late for work, you will hit at least 50% of all traffic signals, causing you to run even later. On the days you leave early, you will hit very few.

* Baiting scammers gives you motivation to study geography (I had never heard of Mari El until last week).

* If you look at your web logs, you will be amazed at what people are looking for when they find your page (about 25% of people are looking for info on the mattress I bought from Ikea, close to 20% are looking for info on a con man I crossed paths with once, and about 5% of my readers are looking for info on the "hello! i am bored tonight" spam mails...), not to mention where they are from (governments, universities, churches).

Tell Me What You Want

Well, my corny e-mails to the scammer have not stopped her/him from continuing correspondence. She has informed me that her name is "Tatayana Sorokina", but I can tell you the pictures are not hers, they belong to this woman.

I have a friend in law enforcement who is aware of my exploits and he says the ploy used by my little scammer is the classic "bar room stripper" shake down:

* She wants to see what your worth
* She wants a phone or face to face to prove you are real.
* She wants to do this without having to use sex directly but will if she has too.
* She needs more personal information about you to help her get a plan of attack on you.
* She will send you a list of thinks she likes to do/eat/read/etc... but she will not give strong opinions and will have two choices like --- I like rock music but listen to country when I'm in the mood. You would respond by telling her what you like in music and she will magically be convinced by you that your kind of music is now her favorite too.

I guess we shall see.

By the way, she stated in her last e-mail that she did not have an apartment. Does she look like she is homeless to you?

She also is interested in travel, possibly to Turkey. Somehow I do not think she would fit in very well there.

Of course she is playing the "I want to be a good wife and mother" card pretty hard. I guess it seems natural for her to do that since I am not portraying a playboy type.

More info on her:

* Nicks used : Maria, Mashka, Marra, Tanya Sorokina
* E-mail addresses used: marrra1@yandex.ru, marrra@list.ru, mari33lo@rambler.ru, sorokina.tanya@gmail.com, tanysha.love@gmail.com, belletanya@gmail.com
* IP addresses used: 217.107.237.205, 207.226.45.246, or 207.226.45.254
* Resides in Mari El Russia, but says she is from Vologda, Sokol, Russia
* The pictures are stolen from a model named "Malvina"
* Read the Wiki entry for organized crime in Mari El
* The first e-mail (from Outlook Express) was from "Tatyana" but all the rest (Gmail) are from "Tanya".

I am not going to post any more pics since I have linked to the web page that hosts all of them, but I will keep you posted...

Blackened

Right before lunch time yesterday, we received a call (actually an IM...the help desk likes to IM us) that a customer wanted a previously opened ticket raised to a high severity. The ticket was about 18 hours old and moving it up to the next level would have made our partner/competitor miss the contracted service level, so I had the help desk open a new case. I called the competitor's help desk, gave them the ticket number and was grilled by the person who answered the phone in such a way that had he been within 10 miles of here (he was in India), I would have throttled him. He made some very snide comments that I will not go into, but I feel justified in e-mailing the client mgmt to inform them of the issue. However, I digress. Once the guy in India was done belittling me, I gave him our contact number and went on my way. 15 minutes or so later, he calls me back telling me that I did not do something correctly in the ticket and I needed to correct it. I immediately opened up the ticket and checked the logs and saw that I did it exactly as I was supposed to. Informed the sarcastic HD person that I believe he was mistaken and he "checked again". "Oh, it must have just updated", he replies and then he hangs up.

Two hours later, I notice the case is in "pending", indicating that they are waiting on the customer. I opened up the ticket and see an e-mail pasted in it indicating that they cannot continue working since the person they need to resolve it is on vacation. I call up the manager of the end user and inform her and she tells me this is unacceptable. Well "DUH!", of course it is. The problem is that the third party that our customer has chosen does not answer to us, even though we "own" I/T and the I/T processes. I call the tech to ask him why he has not called the vacationing employee's manager and he tells me that he can't. We argue back and forth and decided to call the end users manager to let her know the dilemma. I thought she would understand but she informs me that she "thinks" it should be my responsibility to contact her peer in Europe. "We must follow the process", she says.

"Well, if we are going to follow the process, then I suggest you contact your company's escalation team so they can find a manager to work with us", I reply.

"We do not need to get the escalation team involved," she says rather timidly. "I do not see why you cannot make the call."

"Because, we have processes that you have approved and in some cases, authored. Processes need to be followed."

"I don't think that is the process!" she quips.

"Well, I am quite sure it is. You see, before joining this team, was on the escalation team and it was my responsibility to make those calls...and they came from people such as yourself." I inform her.

Come to find out it was not a case of "I don't know", it was a case of, "I am just an acting mgr and I don't want to call up a real mgr late at night and make him mad".

This went on for a while and I finally gave the mgr a call. He did not answer, so I left him a message (something the techs in India and KL never seem to do...not sure why) with the tech's and the acting mgr's mobile number.

The rest of the day went smoothly and I was able to go home without incident at 5:00 PM. On my way home, I stopped by Lowe's to get lawn waste bags and some Weed Stop 2X (kills weeds, not grass). I really hate how stores do not put things near each other that should be. The lawn bags were outside in garden department, instead of in the inside where they would be easier to find. Home Depot will move the bags from the lawn and garden dept to front as soon as you walk in since they sell so fast.

I got home and took care of the dogs, ate a couple of pork bbq sandwiches, some chips, and a glass of sweet tea. I changed into old clothes and went outside to spray our back yard as well as our neighbors. The weeds were pretty heavy so I made sure I sprayed them well. I hope I sprayed well enough. Spraying an entire yard by hand takes a while. I try to do it a couple times a year.

After all that, I chatted with my wife cleaned up some, and ate some Blue Bell ice cream. There was nothing on TV to watch, so I read some e-mail, caught up on the MMA news, and went to bed.

I am so exciting.

Burn, Baby, Burn

"That is possible in the last letter you have not understood my expression. I wished to speak, that it will be pleasant to me to receive sunburn with you on seacoast and to float together with you."

Yep, that is my idea of a fun time...floating on the coast, getting sun burned.

My little Russian scammer sent that to me today. Her Scamglish is getting easier to read (maybe I am just used to it) and she is showing signs of modesty:

"I try to send you a photo in each letter. I have already touched all photos in an album. But the majority of my photos are made in it to year. I shall send certainly to you different photos. But a photo in bikini or intimate photos. I shall not send you. I hope, that you do not take offence at it."

I would have thought that she would have caught on by now, but maybe scammers really are stupid. I have sent pictured of "my" ranch, dogs, ranch hands, me, my mom, and my two best friends. The stories I wrap around the pictures are enough to make my con-conspirators laugh...I take that as a compliment.

"El Gee, why waste all the time on a scammer?"

If I was not "baiting Skippy", I would be writing and to be honest, writing the e-mails to the scammer is much more fun than writing short stories. Maybe one day, I will put this in my memoirs.

Harvester of Sorrow (And Weeds)

Work, overall, went well. We had a couple of minor issues but they were sorted out pretty quickly. I have come to the conclusion that either our off-shored help thinks we work 24x7 here or they have no concept that 4:00 in the afternoon for them equates to 3:00 AM to us. Trust me when I tell you that I am not in front of my PC at that time.

Our security manager has been in and out of our office a lot the past few days. He is not very comfortable with the idea that the building will lose power from the grid this weekend, even though we have a UPS system and a generator back up. It seems the company that was outsourced to handle our facilities (which happens to be one of the largest companies of its kind) has not ran a "full load" generator test in over a year. The generator has been tested (to see if it will fire up properly) but not really put through a thorough testing for over a year.

Why is the building coming down? The land lord needs to do some serious work in the sister building this weekend and there is one main power feed into the two buildings here. If one loses power, they both do. Why does that frighten us? This building hosts one of the three main data centers our customer has in the US...if we lose power and the Jennies do not kick in, we are in trouble. If the guys from facilities are half as clueless as the Sec Mgr says they are, we are toast. I am so glad I am not on call this weekend. I pity my TL/colleague...he is on call.

After I got off work, I drove to Home Depot to pick up a few things I needed to finish my yard work. I got a new air filter for the mower (2.5 years on the original was a tad too long) and a pack of edger blades (after finding the right ones in a different area than the others). I had planned on getting some lawn bags, but HD was out. I initially thought they had just moved them again, (HD tends to move quick selling merchandise from place to place, just to keep shoppers alert) but the associate told me they had very in stock and if they were not by the front door, they were out. Since there was none by the entrance, I paid for my merchandise and left. I figured I would just stop at Kroger and get some bags since they always have some, but when I got there, they were out as well. Since I did not have any bags, I would be forced to mulch and not bag for the first time in 10 years.

I got home and let the dogs out and fed/watered them and then I changed into yard work clothes (old shirt, shorts, socks, and shoes). After cleaning up after the dogs, I ate a cold cut sandwich and washed it down with a glass of iced green tea (with ginseng and honey). It was just about 6:30 and that would give me 2 hours to change the edger blade and the air filter, mow, trim, edge, and clean up our yard.

While I was performing my tasks, a few things surprised me. First, the heavier edger blades did much better than the lighter, thinner, cheaper generic blades. The cut along the sidewalk was much cleaner. Next, the mower ran a lot better with a new air cleaner.. Third, I cut the yard much quicker when I do not have to bag. As long as I can bag it a couple times a month, I think I will mulch every now and then and see if that helps my weed issues.

After my adventures in lawn care, I walked Little Man. At first he did not seem into the walk, but about half way around, he began acting like his old self again. By the time I got him back home, he was running up and down the hallway like he did years ago. I really miss the old "Little Man". I am gonna cry like a baby when he dies.

Once the dog walk was over with, I showered and watched the first 1.5 hours of IFL Battleground that I missed Monday. The fights were pretty good, but two of them ended early due to shoulder injuries. I do not think I have ever seen that before.

After IFL, I read my e-mail and then hit the hay. I was tired after my adventures and needed some much deserved rest.

The Hook

Well, after 5 e-mails, my little Russian scammer is hinting she needs $100:

"When that I wished to move to live to Moscow. But I understand, that it for me would be difficult, because rent of an apartment costs there expensively. And it is very far. It about 1000 kilometers. And the ticket costs about 100 dollars. Probably it for you is not a lot of, but to me for this money to have to work about half of month."

Notice she tells me the distance in metric, but uses American currency when she hints at what she wants.

One thing I notice about this is that she uses a Gmail account, but she is never logged on to Gmail. Obvsiously she is using an e-mail client... the header info would lead me to believe she is using Microsoft Outhouse Express:

X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
Received: from COMP1 (nat.spectrumsat.net [207.226.45.254])

Of course all her e-mails are in Scamglish, but they are mostly readable. She has already told me that I am her friend and that she wishes we could lay out on the beach together. Gag.

Stay posted.

The Morning After

After my chores were done, I watched the last 1/2 hour of IFL Battleground and then we watched "The 4400" that was recorded Sunday. I like The 4400, but is is becoming a bit of an X-Files clone and that was what I was hoping would not happen. The X- Files was good in its own right and any attempt to recreate it is a mistake.

After TV, I really was not in the mood to stay up, so I went to bed. My wife told me she was going to take a shower but I was completely out by the time she made it to bed.

I was woken up by a text message at 3:30 - 4:00 AM. I read (but I cannot remember much about) it, and deleted it. In my mind it was not important enough to keep. I wish I had though...I wonder who it was from? The only thing I can remember only one things...the word "Yahoo" in parenthesis. Odd.

The alarm woke my up at 5:00 AM and it was then I noticed that my older dog, Little Man, did not feel well. His stomach was making a very strange gurgling noise (it does this once in a while), but he was not hungry and he wanted to take his morning walk. When I got back my wife gave him an Endosorb to help his stomach while I took out The Golden and fed her.

The rest of the morning (up to and including my trip to work) was uneventful. I am sure that will change...life has a way of keeping me on my toes.

So Tired / More Tanysha Pics

My neck bothered me all day at work. It is still stiff.

Work itself was fine, but for some reason a migraine came on in the early afternoon. It is mostly gone, but it is still lingering. It almost feels like a sinus headache gone bad.

I got home and ate two hamburgers that I grilled the night before. I washed them down with a glass of green tea.

After I ate, I mowed my neighbor yard. Oddly enough it took me almost as long to do that yard as it does when I do both hers and ours. Odd. Oh well, at least I am done.

The Russian scammer sent me two more pics today. I am going to have to chronicle this at some point...it is getting good.

Winding Down

My weekend is almost over. In a couple of hours I will go to bed and approximately 8 hours after than I will begin another work week. I am glad that my colleague/TL will be coming back from vacation tomorrow. It has been a long, stressful week. If I was not a believer, I may have cracked, but God gave me strength and through him, I persevered.

Friday night when I got home, I relaxed and even went to bed at a reasonable time. At 11:00 PM, I was called by the local Help Desk asking me to look at a ticket. It had been submitted via e-mail from our team in Malaysia. They were requesting a high severity ticket to get an on site tech to reboot a server. I looked up the server in our database and found it was an R&D server that was only supported Mon-Fri, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM. I told this to the local HD guy (who should have known this) and told him that if our Malaysia team needed on site support, they knew the procedures to get them and they did not need me to escalate at ticket to do so. With that being said, I went back to bed. The next morning I checked on the status of the ticket and it was back with the Malaysia server team but with the L3 group and a note on the ticket stated they were going to follow the process. I smiled and got ready for the men's breakfast at church.

The breakfast was good and we had one of our new members speak to us about God's will for us. It was good to hear someone in the laity speak up and admonish others for sitting on their butts doing little or nothing but making the most noise about nothing being done.

After breakfast, I stepped in an washed dishes like I normally do then I met my wife at Kroger to fill up the tanks of our vehicles (we earned our 10 cents off per gallon and we were not going to waste it on just one vehicle). Once that was completed, I went home and started vacuuming the house. I finished that and changed the sheets on our bed and then ate a small lunch. We had been called earlier and invited over to Jimmy and Collette's house to help celebrate her birthday and since we did not have any plans, we decided to go. Well, let me clarify that...my wife had plans but I didn't and since she wanted to see Jimmy and Collette, she did both. I stayed at Jimmy and Collette's until my wife's function (Chick Flick night with the women's minstry) was over with then she came to pick me up. Once we got home, we walked the dogs and hit the hay.

Sunday was pretty typical for us. I got up and had coffee, walked Little Man and got ready to teach Sunday School at church while my wife did her thing (I have no idea what all goes into her routine...all I know is that it takes forever to complete). I taught my class and it went about as well as I expected. I had a few people out but I had a new person attend and that made things okay.

The service was good and the message really hit home. The one line that stuck with me was, "If you words had a smell as well as a sound... you have good breath or bad breath. I was a bit humbled and realized that I needed some spiritual mouth wash...the heavy duty kind!

After church we had lunch at The Jalapeno Grill and then went home to our customary Sunday afternoon nap. We slept a bit longer than usual, but we did not have any plans so no harm, no foul. My wife prepped some meat for me to grill (chops, hamburgers, and chick breasts/thighs) and I after that was all done, I walked Little Man again. While I was grilling, I thought back to Saturday when I was over at Jimmy and Collette's house. Jimmy was cooking stuff on the grill and he (okay, we) lost track of time and burned a few of the burgers and a bit of the ears of corn. Some of them were pretty bad. We got caught up in the presentation that his daughter made in reference to her budget for her first year of school and we lost track of time. Most of the food was edible, it was just a bit charred.

When my day had finally wound down, I called mom to see how she was doing. She sounds a bit blue and I am a bit concerned. She needs to get involved with more people her age but she does not really want to. That is too bad, because I think she would really benefit from that.

Too Fast For (Tanysha) Love, Part 2

I feel a little guilty. Not a lot mind you, bit a little. A while back, a Russian scammer sent me an e-mail (which I blogged about) and I entertained the thought of toying with her, but gave up. Well, she contacted me again using the same format as before. Since I knew it was a scam, I decided to play along. She sent the same pictures (below) and after I sent her a response, she sent me more. I am sure I am going to have a ton of pics before this is over.

This has been going on for about 4 days now. "Tanysha" has been pretty predictable by writing to me once a day or so. As with most con artists, she/he is pretty skilled at getting info, but I have not given anything that is real. What I have done was create a cowboy personae to feed her/him. I have redneck friends, live on a ranch, and have two Latino ranch hands. I even served in Iraq during Desert Storm.While I am sure that my charade will fall through soon enough, I plan on having fun while I can. If I can waste enough of the scammers time, maybe they will get the idea. I wonder how many people get taken for a ride by the romance scams each year?

The scammer, "Tanysha", has asked me a lot about my family, friends, and my life as well as for pictures. If you read the scammer's e-mails closely, you will she/he NEVER answers any of the questions I ask. That is a great sign that this is really a scam.

According to A Romance Scam Busting Web Site, the scammer is hijacking are the pictures of a model from here. The funny thing is in her e-mails she keeps telling be (in "scamglish") how hard she has had it, but anyone who is thinking could see she the subject of the photos is not wanting for anything.

This is not the only Russian scammer to e-mail me. I had one other that was bold an sent me pictures with the intro "hook" e-mail. She was not a stunner (as a matter of fact she was kinda plain) but she was not in Russia. She had a US IP...and that is a little to close for El Gee.

Anyhoo, Rycherox and Knightmare Duck are BCC'd on every e-mail so if anything does happen to me, at least they have copies of IP addresses and what is said. I like to be prepared.

Seek and Ye Will Find

Thanx to a posting in a news group, I think I know what caused my AVS Anti-virus problem. It was my Sygate Personal Firewall. It seems that AVS has a setting that interferes with Sygate that causes lack of network access.

I want to thank "Art" from the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup for pointing me in the right direction. Armed with that info, I can adjust the settings for AVS not to scan my network for "threats".

The Hurting

I was pleasantly surprised to have a day that was headache-free. I have had the same headache (in varying degrees of intensity) from Sunday evening to Thursday morning. It was getting just a tad annoying. It changed locations several times and came on from mild to "please kill me now" at different times...Wednesday night being the worst. I have been having these every now an then and I thought it was just severe sinus headaches, but sinus headache medicine rarely worked. Then I thought it was a stress/tension heachache, but Tylenol did not work (unless I took double dosages). My wife and I are convinced that it was a Migraine headache. TOday I feel okay. There is a little pressure (that part is sinus) and a little pain (stress) but nothing like before.

Yesterday went well overall with one exception. The ongoing server restore/data restore still was not solved. people were still missing data and the lack of concern that the team in Malaysia appeared to have was really getting on my nerves. Finally, after several con-calls (conference calls) with the techs involved, we think we have all the data. I am waiting on customer feedback.

Since my wife was working, I just made a couple of wraps for dinner, after I took care of the dogs. When my wife got home, I washed the dishes and decided to work on a few things in my office.

The night was uneventful...no calls, although I made a few to make sure things were done with the restore. Instead I walked the Golden (Little Man has chewed the paw pads off three of his feet...he suffers from separation anxiety) and decided to give AVS (Active Virus Scanner, a Kapersky tool) a try. I have been a fan of Anti-Vir for years, but I am getting tired of the nag screen to buy the full blown suite...something I do not need. So I downloaded the AVS tool, uninstalled Anti-Vir, rebooted, installed AVS and .... no internet connection. I at first thought the cable modem or router was acting funny, so I rebooted them, then I realized I was still logged on to my work PC and it was working just fine.

I figured the AVS tool did something to my TCP/IP stack, so I ran the netsh winsock reset command but that did not do any good. I removed the AVS, rebooted, and ... my internet connection was back. Hmmmm. Well I was not going back to Anti-Vir, so I installed AVG, the client I had running on my wife's (now defunct) laptop. It installed perfectly and I was back in business. Since my wife is now using the main machine, I had to log on as her to make sure everything worked, and it did.

With all that done. I went to bed.

I woke up well before the alarm went off but laid in bed until it did, simply because I needed the rest. I got up and attempted to walk Little Man (a dog limping on three legs is an odd site. It took 20 minutes to walk half a block but he finally peed. Once I got back in and let the Golden out to do her thing (Mrs. Gee would walk her later) both dogs were anxious to eat and drink some cool water. The morning was rather humid and they are not humid weather dogs.

After the normal routine (slightly truncated to allow me to get to work by 7:00 AM) I left and went to work. When I arrive, nothing new had happened, so I took the opportunity to read the news, commnentary, and blog a bit.

Getting Out Of Hand

It is no secret that I am an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fan. I like watching anything I can get my hands on (WEC, IFL, Bodog, UFC, and WCL -- although WCL is not MMA). I cut my teeth on old DVD's of the UFC (Tank Abbot, Royce Gracie, Phil Baroni, Cabbage, Frank Mir, etc) and really enjoy the maturity of the sport. MMA is my vice.

However, the news of rampant drug use is bothering me. Today, UFCJunkie.com is reporting that Hermes Frank and Sean Sherk both tested positive for illegal drugs. Both are being suspended for one year and that is gonna hurt both of them.

Franca and Sherk are not alone. Marvin Guillard tested positive for cocaine and MMA Weekly has reported:

* Nick Diaz, Diego Sanchez and Joe Pearson have all tested for marijuana.
* Tim Sylvia, Josh Barnett, Stephan Bonnar, Kit Cope and Vitor Belfort have all tested positive for steroids.
* Kevin Randleman was suspended by the NSAC for providing fake urine for his drug test, due to his taking banned painkillers and antibiotics for a severe lung infection he was battling.

Is it ever going to end?

Pain, It's What's For Dinner!

Yesterday went well enough...not busy at all, just a lot of follow up work...none of which bore any fruit. I was able to take a nap at lunch time (in my truck, windows down, parked under a shade tree...nice) and continued my day. Towards the end of my day, I was contacted that a customer wanted to open a high sev ticket. When I asked what it was pertaining to, I was told it was an FTP issue. The man said he had a deadline to meet and needed to be able to FTP files outside our customer's firewall. I denied the high sev and the customer did not appear to be too happy. I instructed the HD person who was handling the call on how to ftp and and even gave them step by step instructions on how to do it. While I am not sure, I think the big problem was education on the customer side.

I got home and quickly set up, then entered a few bills into AceMoney before dinner. My wife was making taco salad for dinner so cooking time was pretty short. We ate the salad and had fresh fruit (blueberries and strawberries) with whipped cream for dessert. Glasses of Cherry Limeade and Lemonade were drank (along with a couple of sinus pills for me) and I started to clean up the few dishes that were dirty.

After I was finished with the dishes, I realized the headache that I had all day was getting worse. I have actually had it for the past four days now, but last night it was the most painful that it had ever been. I first thought it was a sinus headache, so I took some Tylenol sinus, but when that didn't do the trick, I took a couple of Tylenol. Three hours later, the pain (which was to the point of making me nauseas) was still there. I took 2 more Tylenol, walked Little Man, and went to bed.

I woke at 1:15 AM and my headache appeared to be gone but by the time I got up at 5:00 AM, my headache was back, but not as bad as the night before. My walk with Little Man was not very pleasant and I returned home not even desiring my morning coffee. I got ready and left for work on time and as far as I know, I did not forget anything. On the way, I had to take a detour due to a broken water line flooding the street. The break was at an odd location and the detour put me in the thick of normal morning traffic that I normally avoid. Oh well.

The past week (the on call part) has been pretty good...no calls so far and I only have two more nights and then I can hand it over to my counterpart in Mexico. Then I have my normal weekend chores to do.

No rain yesterday, but at least the mosquitoes are not as bad as they were. I need to water the foundation when I get home and I also need to pay the house and car payment as well. Online banking is very nice at times.

Something To Talk About

My morning walks give me time to reflect on things as well as wake up. I am now on my third day without caffeine and it shows. I have had a headache all three days and it takes me a lot longer to wake up.

This morning during my walk I noticed that it was cool (by Texas standard), only about 70. Few people had sprinklers on, I guess they finally figured out God was watering our lawns and we didn't really have to...yet. We have had a plethora of rain up until about 5 days ago and now we are starting to return to "typical" North Central Texas weather, although for July it is still a few degrees below what we normally see. It has been in the upper 80's to mid 90's and we are used to seeing a few 100 degree days by now. If August and September are normal, we will still be way above normal for the year.

I have commented before about the abundance of rabbits in our neighborhood. I have seen as many as a dozen during my short .5 mile morning walk. Many of them are pretty big for wild rabbits. During the last three days I have not paid any attention at all to the rabbit count...I have been too sleepy to notice.

Speaking of critters, I saw not one, but two hawks in our neighborhood being pestered by much smaller birds. Being a predator, I would not have expected that, but maybe the smaller birds were just too nimble and quick for the larger hawk.

I also have seen more (and bigger) snakes this year than I normally do. I do not know one from another, so I cannot tell you what kind they were, but one was in a local pond and the other two were crossing the road near the pond...but one did not make it. Each one of them was 4-5 feet long.

Yesterday at work I was very steady in the morning and afternoon following and finishing up on two hot open issues. One was eventually closed but the other remains open. It looks like a political battle and I really do not want to be involved any more than I already am. We had a server go down and when the data was restored, some files were missing. That can only mean something in our backup routine is not quite right.

The afternoon was rather uneventful until I got an IM from the Inc Mgr in Costa Rica telling me that he was getting flooded with several calls on various apps hosted in Europe. I made a quick call to the NOC in Stockholm and they verified having trouble getting to some of those applications as well as few others. I informed global Inc Mgr and he did some checking...they found a router that was acting flaky and put in an order to have it replaced.

By the time I went home, nothing needed my attention, so I concentrated on taking care of the dogs and washing up the dishes until my wife got home. My wife called me to let me know she was bringing home pizza and I thanked her.

After she got home and we ate, I began working on hockey puck, her freebie laptop. It has been acting up and the previous night I had found it to have a bad DIMM and the HDD was going south very quickly. I was trying to clone the drive with Clonezilla but I was having difficulties. The CD would intermittently boot, so I went to check to make sure the burn was a good one, and sure enough it was. That left me to believe that the DVD-ROM was going bad and after attempting two other CD's in it, I realized that was the case. One other thing I noticed when I was trying to boot the thing was that the power button was sticking. With all that, it seemed pretty silly to try to fix a 5 year old laptop. Luckily the amount of money we put into it was minimal...about $30 for a refurbed slimline battery (that is still in good shape if anyone wants to buy it). I guess considering the age of the unit and how it was treated before I got it, 6 months is not too bad. I guess I should strip out the 256 megs of PC-133 memory before I chuck it. I already removed the HD...I need to wipe it before I throw it away.

I have another (but much older) laptop my wife could use, but she just told me not to worry about it. We still have the desktop and while that means she and I will be competing for use of the PC, I can still use my little laptop to view mail...I could create an account on it for her since that is what she does the most...read mail, but getting my wife to use Linux is not going to be easy. It was hard enough to get her to switch to Open Office. I guess I cannot blame her...she knew office and was comfortable with it and change can be scary sometimes.

Well, it is something to talk about.

A Little Home Sick

With my annual pilgrimage to by birthplace less that 60 days away, I started thinking about my home state and what I want to do when I go back. Normally I just visit family and friends, but I think I am going to do a bit of road tripping when I get there. I know the gas is going to kill my wallet, but it only happens once a year and it has been forever since I have seen some of these places. Audra Park is on the top of the list. Lots of fond memories about that place.

Until that day arrives, I can just hum along to the unofficial song of my home state, performed by John Denver:

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains
Shenandoah River -
Life is old there
Older than the trees
Younger than the mountains
Growin' like a breeze

Country Roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

All my memories gathered round her
Miners lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine
Teardrops in my eye

Country Roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice
In the mornin' hour she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
And drivin' down the road I get a feelin'
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

Country Roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

Country Roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

Take me home, now country roads
Take me home, now country roads

Overload

I have a saying that I have used for years: "Sometimes I get my money's worth out of the company and sometimes the company gets their money's worth out of me". Yesterday (and quite possibly all this week) the latter is true.

My TL/colleague is on vacation. I cover the day and I am on call at night. Yesterday was busy. The world of IT as I knew it was crumbling and I was one of many responsible for tracking it. Luckily for me I am only responsible for regional things...but there were enough things in our region to keep us busy.

The first was the contractor time tracking tool. It is an overly complex system (Windows and Unix, FTP, firewalled and DMZ) that allows any contractor anywhere in the world to enter their time and have it get tracked. We learned that the data had not been updating for a week and no one noticed. Couple that with the fact that the product is supported partially by us and partially from another provider and the support is in three different countries (US, Malaysia, and India) and you have a mess. It is far too complex to go into here...let me just say that I was ready to pull out my hair.

While that little gem was taking shape, we received notice that a server that was patched by our off shored L2 group died and NO ONE BOTHERED TO WORK ON IT all weekend long. I come in Monday to find the machine down, 4 partitions lost, and no one working on it. Again, this issue is still being worked on as a full recovery of the data is being preformed from backup.

We had several "unofficial" priority cases as well. people with lost data (that they deleted) who wanted it restored now (can't let that photo of grandma disappear) and the SAP module used for time tracking (not related to the contractor issue) was hosed. Luckily the restores were taken care of with a phone call and the SAP issue was global, not local so I was off the hook. Not that it mattered...the first two issues kept me hopping all day long.

Since work was in total chaos, what better way to add to it than a call from my wife telling me her laptop is giving her an odd error. What the beast was doing was blue screening on her. When I got home and had a moment to look at it, I found two major issues. The first one was a bad DIMM. While I had spares, they were the wrong kind for her laptop, so I had to take out the bad DIMM and let her go with just half the normal memory. Once that was done, I installed a HDD monitor and almost immediately it warned me her drive is failing. Joy. I really cannot complain though. The laptop was free and we only put about $30 or so into it, plus a lot of time. If I want to buy a hdd and some RAM, it will cost me ($100 or so) and I am not sure it is worth doing for a 6 year old laptop. I guess I will see.

The night was quiet (only because the teams working on the issues failed to contact me with updates) so I was able to watch a little TV (IFL Battleground and The 4400) before I went to bed with a headache...one I still have this morning.

I wonder what the rest of the week will bring?

Status Report

I did not blog at all this weekend and my PC/Internet time was pretty low as well.

Saturday was pretty typical with the normal chores. I had already cut the grass so that was on less thing I had to worry about. By the time I was done with my chores it was about noon or so, so I ate left overs and worked on my Sunday school lesson while I waited on my wife to get back from aerobics and shopping.

We had plans to go to Mickey and Mary's house on Saturday evening. Mickey's laptop would not boot and every time he tried, tit would blue screen and then reboot on its own. None of the boot options would work (safe mode, debug, command line, etc) and I was getting worried. I have never run into anything quite like that before. Mickey's biggest fear was that he had not performed a real backup yet and he had owned the laptop for three months. He had a lot of work data that would be very hard to recreate. I had to get his data off the drive.

I ended up booting to a Linux Live CD and copying the data to a external USB drive. We spent most of our time troubleshooting, trying to get the machine back without losing data and without reloading Windows. We managed to get all the data but we had to reload Windows. Now I will credit Gateway (the manufacturer of the laptop) with a painless reload of Windows. While it took a while, it was complete.

Now while I was in the middle of this, I received a phone call from our help desk in Dublin. The guy who was on call was not reachable so the Dublin group called someone in Europe who gave them my mobile number (I do not publish my mobile number since it is not paid for by the company, but a few people have it for emergencies), so he called me asking for help. I was not in the position to help him (30 miles away without my PC, stable internet connection, or contact info, as well as the fact that I was knee deep in a PC recovery that needed to be done ASAP). I did manage to give him a lot of options and told him he that if it became very serious I could possibly help in a couple of hours. He never called me back so I figured all was well, but I knew I would hear something Monday.

With the PC issue taken care of, my wife and I went home very full (it was just pizza and salad, but the coconut creme pie we had for dessert was just fantastic) to walk the dogs. We had been gone for five hours and the pups were ready to walk and potty.

Sunday I got up and got ready for church and Sunday School. The lesson went well (it was on Samson...he was a ornery thing) and I chatted with a few people before service started. I grabbed a seat next to Mary (Mickey's wife) and saved one for my wife. Mary was flying solo since her hubby got called out earlier in the morning (I am so glad I got his PC up and running) and would not be able to make it to church. The praise band started and my wife had not shown up yet, so I kept my eyes open for her. After the sermon was over, I got worried (no cal, no text message, etc) so I got up and checked to see if she was in the nursery volunteering. She was not there, so I called her mobile, but there was no answer. I started to walk out to see if her van was in the parking lot and before I got there, I saw her chatting with a woman we know...the wife of one of the trustees. It appears he got called out as well this morning. What is the old saying, "No rest for the wicked"?

After the service, I checked on my wife but she was still chatting, so I drove home. She would be home soon enough...at least that is what I thought.

I got home and let the dogs out to use the bathroom and I changed into some shorts and a t-shirt to keep cool. It had been warm and had not rained in a couple of days so the air was getting rather hot. I switched on the TV and watched a sermon being preached in Florida...the sermon was on gossip. I watched it until my wife called to let me know she was on her way. I looked at my watch and it was almost 1:00 PM..we were let out of church at 12:00 PM and I was home by 12:15 PM. I guess my wife had a lot to say or the other woman did...not sure which.

When she made it home, I put up the dogs and then we headed off to grab a quick lunch. We were both very hungry and did not want to wait. We decided on Taco Bell and it was pretty good for cheap food. We ate and drank our fill then went home.

My wife decided to listen to her mp3 player, so I watched some MMA that had been recorded for me. It was from the Pride organization in Japan and it was not too shabby. While the announcers voices got on my nerves, the guys really were talented.

After a couple of hours of that, we fed the dogs and let them out again. I was getting hungry, so I took some grilled chicken and made wraps with them. To season them, I used some of the Indonesian hot sauce one of our missionaries gave me. It was hot, but the effect was odd...my head and face tingled. The effect was similar to a B-12 tingle but hot. Very odd sensation.

After dinner my wife and I watched a little TV (Discovery Channel on ancient Egypt). When that was over, I took Little Man for a walk and talked to my mom until my battery died. With a dead battery and a hot tired dog, I returned home. With nothing left for me to do, I went to bed. I wanted to get all my rest since the following week would be busy.

I got up with the alarm and walked Little Man. I cut my routine short since this is my early week as well as my on call week. Not only that, I will be flying solo since my TL/colleague is on vacation. I have never had to do this yet, but I should be okay since I do have info available for me if I get into a pickle. Of course being by myself means I have to get home as soon as I can because I will be avbai

I almost forgot...today I started my regiment a little differently. I am now drinking decaf coffee to see if I feel any better drinking it instead of the high octane stuff. I have decided to cut down soda (I drink 1-2 a week now) and go to decaf coffee at home.

I Said, "Do You Speaka My Language", Part 2

Again, I am not making fun of the people who entered these, but it goes to show how misspellings as well as using the wrong word can be a little...humorous.

I deal with people from all over the world and I want to say upfront that I thank you for at least trying to convey the message in English. Me trying to do the same in your language would be a disaster.

Actual Trouble Ticket descriptions (remember, I work in I/T):


"Mails Outlook problem" (I thought it was a problem if Outlook didn't mail, but what do I know...)
"Solution, Report problem" (Well duh!)
"IED payments rejected" (That is what you get when you try to rip off the guy who is selling you Improvised Explosive Devices)
"Bookie System Problem" (Go to jail, do not pass, go, do not collect $200...)
"Customer didn't get a Po (perches order number)" (What can I say about this...it is just funny)
"Rooms have disappeared or been removed" (Well, if you would just pay your IRC rent on time...)

Rain Free

Well, no rain yesterday...It was hot and humid, but it did not rain in my neck of the woods.

The work day was slow as normal. A few calls came in, none of which really belonged to us, but we assisted anyway. We both were bored.

After my TL left and 1/2 hour before I was to leave, I got a call that a server was down. I had the IP and name, but neither one was in the database we used and an nslookup failed to return a valid response. I called the customer back and left a message for him to call the help desk since I would be leaving soon. I did not get a call before I left, so I sent an e-mail to several people that couple possibly be involved to inform them just in case the case really needed escalated (it was looking like an R&D Mon-Fri support issue, but you never know...). After handing over the on call to my TL/colleague, I packed up and went home.

Once home, I took care of the dogs and checked the mail. There was not much left in the way of leftovers, so I just ate a sandwich before I changed into some old shorts, hat, t-shirt, and shoes to go mow grass. In eight days the grass had gotten pretty high (just the right combo of heat, rain, and humidity will do that) and since rain was very possible this weekend, I wanted to make sure it got done. I am on call next week and I will not be able to cut it then.

I was able to finish in just about 2 hours, give or take. The heat did not get to me until 2/3 of the way into the task. My wife got home just before I finished.

After I water break, I grabbed little man and walked him. I was very dirty and itchy and was ready to get a shower, but the dog needed a walk. I guess I could be uncomfortable a little while longer.

On the way back I stopped when I saw two of our dog owning neighbors in front of our house, talking. We chatted and one of the ladies, (the one I cut grass for) asked me to get rid of some plants she has growing beside her patio. It seems the sunflowers are attracting bees and they bother her when she is outside. Oh well, I can do that. It will not take long. She expects me to charge her, but I will only do that if I run into problems.

Once I got in, I grabbed a shower and experimented with a Simply MEPIS 32 install. I have used it in a couple of laptops and it worked well, so I thought I would give it a shot as server by installing it on Maximus, the massive Compaq computer I was given. The install went well, but there were a few not so user friendly problems (SSS, SAMBA, and networking) that cropped up. I was able to fix them but it took until almost midnight...something I normally would not have had problems with using Ubuntu. I will use it for a while and see what other Linux distro looks appealing when I am bored with it. Heck, Debian 4 (Etch) managed to stay on it for 4+ months. That is a record for my sandbox!

Texas Flood

My drive home yesterday was...interesting. The sky to the north (the direction I was traveling) was black. Lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and the rain came down in sheets. Traffic was slower, but that was to be expected. Drivers forgot to follow the basic rules of the road and near misses were common.

When I was about 4 miles from home, just 3 major intersections from home, two teenage boys ran across the street ahead of me, trying to beat me across the intersection. The rain was heavy and I did not see them until it was almost too late, but I was able to slow down in time. Just about then, one of the boys slips and falls in the road...I narrowly missed him. Ah, the ignorance of youth.

Once home, I was greeted by my wife who was cooking dinner (it was something she just through together, but it was good). She informed me the power had been out three times in the past hour. Not fun when your house is mostly electric.

After dinner, I cleaned up (as per our agreement) and then I walked Little Man. The walk was comfortable...no mosquitoes to bite and annoy me. We were gone about 20 minutes.

Once back, I started to watch UFC 73 that had been recorded. It was not bad...the talent pool was deep but because the fighters knew each others abilities, the pace was slow at times. The Sean Sherk/Hermes Franca fight was one of my faves.

After the MMA action was over, I went to bed. I could have stayed up and worked on my Sunday school lesson, but I had the first part done and unless I go over the chapters, I do not need to do any more this week.

I woke up felling pretty good with the exception of a slightly stiff back. I was not too worried since it usually loosens up as the day goes on.

The weather is cloudy and it appears another storm is coming out of the north. While it looks like it will not last long, it looks like it will be fierce. I think we have only had about 7-10 days without rain in the past 60 days. Eerie.

Blogger/Firefox Mystery Solved

It turned out to be a cursor positioning issue. It took a while but I finally figured it out. It does not always happen, but once in a while I have to position the mouse cursor slightly above the title box. Feh.

Yesterday ended well without any issues to follow up on. A couple were reported but they were either solved locally or they were not high enough severity to involve my group. When it was time to hand over to my slightly "down with a cold" TL/colleague, I had nothing to report. Time to go home.

I got home and took care of the dogs and got ready to meet my wife for a quick dinner. We had planned on going to Scotty P's, but she changed her mind and decided on something a bit more healthy from Jason's Deli. Once we got there I noticed they had a couple of new selections, one of which was their version of a Cuban sandwich that they called "Yami's Miami Pannini". While it was not as good as a Cuban, it wasn't bad. My wife opted for the salad bar so I had her e grab some Kalamata olives...me likes those!

After dinner we went home and watched season 4, episode 4 of "The 4400". This season started out a little dry, but this last episode had a twist to it. If you have not seen the show, then get a copy of the first 3 seasons and watch those first or you will not understand ANY of what is going on now.

After we were done watching TV, I went and walked Little Man and then headed off to be, early. The rest did me a lot of good...almost too much good since I woke up wide awake at 3:30 AM unable to immediately get back to sleep. Eventually I was able to fall back to a deep slumber...just in time for the alarm clock.

Once I was up for good, I went throug my normal routine and headed off to work. My TL/colleague was there, feeling better than he did the previous two days. For the second night in a row, there were no calls for him to deal with. I know that made him happy.

After lunch he and I investigated the now vacant office across the hall. it is a tad smaller than what we have now, but it has a window and better cell phone coverage. He said he was okay with it (It will be a bit cramped, but brighter) but I told him to sleep on it before he makes up his mind.

While we were checking it out, I found a data cable (as well as a host of other items) that the previous occupant left behind. God was smiling on me because the data cable fit my Samsung SGH-X507 and the software was a free download from Samsung's site. w00t! I got back to my desk and downloaded as well as installed the software. Once installed, I was easily able to change my wallpaper (to my son's picture) and my ring tone (mp3 of "Execute the Sound" by P.O.D.). I will take it home to allow my wife to do the same. I am now very happy!

No real plans tonight...maybe some MMA action...maybe just together time...I guess I will just let things go and let the evening take its course.

Terrorist Book Club

When I was a kid, we used to have a blast making up book titles with funny author names ("Yellow River" by I.P. Freely and "Race to the Outhouse" by Willy Makit and Betty Diddent for example). Well I am still a big kid at heart and since we are fighting a "war on terror", I thought up a few with a Jihadist theme. Let me make one thing PERFECTLY clear...I am not anti-Arab, just anti-terrorist.

Terrorist Book Club Top Reads:

1) “Jihad Dance Party” by Sheik Yur Boodi
2) “Love, Terrorist Style” by Luq N'Far a’Hadi
3) “Osama's Cave of Smells” by Mustaf bin Farteen
4) “Jihad Sissy Boy” by Iwan M'Mami
5) “Here Come the Soldiers” by al-Lok Muhdor
6) “Do I Look Like a Terrorist to You?” By Luq N’amira
7) “The Dining Out Guide For Jihadists” by al-Haf D’Salaad
8) “The Best Places to Hide Your Weapons” by Amid Da’rubbal
9) “Car Bombs” by Waddah P’Sajunque
10) “You Too, Can be an al Qaeda Host” by Siddon al-Geddit

Rock The Casbah

Obviously she was not concerned about justice when infidels were involved.

Courtesy of Yahoo news.

Stone Cold Crazy

N surprises here...at least as long as you are current with your Islamic law. And you are afraid of Christians?

All of a sudden, a little public and family embarrassment does not seem so bad:

Under the punishment of stoning, a male convict is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female offender is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried.

Courtesy of Breitbart.com

Flying Solo again...

I am not sure what it is with Blogger and Firefox this morning...I cannot enter or edit anything on the subject line. I am going to install Epiphany and see if it does any better...

When I got home, I walked both dogs and ran into one of our neighbors on the last leg of the journey. She is s former teacher and a stay at home mom. Her hubby recently lost his job due to a merger/buy out but was able to find something else rather quickly. She asked about our son as well as Mrs Gee and the dogs. Just about that time Mrs Gee pulled in so we all chatted for a bit the we went out separate ways.

Once we got in, we watched IFL Battleground that I had recorded earlier, but it was pretty boring. I am not sure what happened but the audio and video was out of sync and that has not happened before on things that I have recorded. It really didn't matter since it was not a very exciting match. We ended up going to bed right after that.

My TL/colleague called off today. While he feels better, he would feel more comfortable if he had another day of rest. Although he was on call, he did not get paged. I am glad for that since no one likes to work when they are sick. I offered to take the on call from him, but he refused my assistance.

I have been aching a bit on my left side from the waist down for a week or so. I think my sciatica is acting up again. I have not taken anything for it this time because I really would like to use as little drugs as possible for pain. Only if it gets unbearable do I want to take meds.

I had brought my bible and my Sunday school lesson so I could work on it if it was slow today, but since my TL called off, I would rather not get started on it...that would really make us look like we do nothing all day!

After installing and configuring Epiphany, it seems to allow me to edit the subject field...I guess I will use that for a while!

All Your Meetings Are Belong To Us

Posting from Internet Exploder...every time I try from Firefox, I have editing problems...

The meeting last night was quick...1 hour 10 minutes. The other two people in attendance both suggested that I lead the meetings more often so we can get out sooner :-) . I will not argue. Getting home at 8:30 was much better than getting home at 10:00 PM or later. In all fairness the guy who was out of town had a laundry list of things to cover and since we were unable to go over them the meeting went faster.

Okay, I am switching back to Firefox...IE really suxxors.

Sick Of It All

My TL called in sick...a rarity for him. He called me just as I was pulling into the parking lot. In my rush to get in and get set up, I whacked my book bag on the door frame...by the grace of God my PC booted up.

Lessee...oh, Bodog was pretty good on Friday night...two fights, one good, one left me a bit miffed. One of the matches had a former WWE "star" competing and he won...my fear is that more WWE guys will attempt to make the transition and will turn MMA in a circus.

In between bouts and during commercials, I checked the live updates of UFC 73. Sean Sherk defended his title as did Anderson Silva...both are very,very tough. Methinks that both will hold the belts for a while unless an injury occurs in the ring.

Sunday started like any other Sunday. I completed my routine, went to church and taught my Sunday School class, and then attended service. Our Worship (music) leader, "Jay" play a very rocking version of "Better is One Day"...reminded me a bit of Kutless. I told him that and he looked puzzled, so I guess he is not a Kutless fan. I asked him to look into performing "Strong Tower" at a later date and he said he would check into it.

After service, my wife and I went to a local Chinese fast food place and ran into "Toby", the son of a Nigerian Bishop our church supports. We asked if he would like to join us and he graciously accepted. We chatted for a while about his plans for medical school and after we wore out that subject, he asked me when I was going to Nigeria to speak to his people regarding the importance of IS/IT and good Christian values that can be applied in that field. I was bit overwhelmed by his request. I had considered going to Nigeria before I had my back surgery to help with a little manual labor, but after I found out the extent of damage to my back, I decided not to go. Then, our preacher, "Pastor Rob" asked me to go over and do a "train the trainer" session for computers. The areas we would be ministering at have smart people, but they have no formal training. Even though I am not a certified trainer, I have done some adult training in the past. "Pastor Rob" told me that he appreciated my dedication and wanted me to go. Armed with that knowledge, I had planned on going this year witht he Nigerian team, but finances kept me from going. Now that "Toby" has pressed the issue, I think I need to concentrate on going with the next team. There are too many signs from God for me to ignore.

After lunch my wife and I went home and let the dogs out, then we took our obligatory Sunday nap. It was one of the most restful naps I have had in a while, and I was very well rested for th evening service at church.

The service on Sunday night is only held once a month and it is dedicated to prayer. out of a 2 hour service, 1/2 hour was for music, one hour for a sermon, and 1/2 hour was dedicated to prayer. The sermon was delivered by our missionary to Indonesia and at the conclusion of the service, he passed out some small gifts from his travels. I graciously accepted some Sumatra coffee beans and some Indonesian hot sauce.

We got home and I decided to walk Little Man before any storms hit. It had been dry for a couple of days but I knew that eventually we would get a storm. It had been thundering all afternoon.

After returning, we watched a little TV, but soon I grew tired, so I went to bed. I slept very well.

I woke up very fuzzy headed, but since I did not have to go in until a bit later, I had time to clear the cobwebs out and do some of my normal routine (like wash dishes and put away things) that I have to forgo when I am on call.

Once my normal routine was complete, I packed up my gear and headed to work. With the call from my TL/colleague informing me he is taking the day off, I will being flying solo.

Still much better than the old role.

Brighter Than Sunshine

Wow...no rain yesterday or today. I guess I can tell Noah to cancel the ark.

Seriously, for those of you who were not aware, North Texas has been getting rain for the past two months. I have never seen it rain as much in June and July as I did this year. Normally July has rain once, maybe twice all month long, but as of the seventh, we have had five days of rain.

Now with all this sunshine, one would think I would be out in it...but alas I am on call so I vacuumed, stripped and made the beds, worked on my Sunday School lesson (I even e-mailed it out to my class), and washed dishes. I did take a small excursion to the grocery store to pick up some tea, milk, and goodies as well as taking a walk with both dogs (they behaved very well).

I just stepped out of the shower and thought I would check my e-mail before watching Bodog Fights. I was hoping to go out to a watering hole with my martial arts instructor to watch UFC 73, but I did not want to risk going, paying a cover and having to leave...ruining the evening for "Jimmy". Oh well...there is always next time.

After Bodog, I need to get some sleep since I am teaching tomorrow.

Get A Job

Part of my new work role is to manage customer affecting issues when they reach a high severity status. Lower severity issues are not my (or my colleagues) concern. We just stick to the ones that are "hot".

Yesterday we got a call from the help desk regarding an application that our customer uses that comes from our fiercest competitor (who just also happens to be a partner on this account...grrr). It is a web based collaboration tool that is still very heavily used even though there are other tools that can replace it (that never ceases to amaze me...1 company using multiple tools to reach the same goal). The customer cannot search for his documents and gets an error every time. The server team is called (they will not be the ones to fix it but we have to follow the process) and they look into. L1 pings and traceroutes the server (duh, it is up...the customer was able to log on to it, just not search) and since it is up, it gets passed on to L2 (this really irks me) to investigate. L2 repeats L1's tasks an attempts to log on as the customer would, but they fail (they do not have end user permissions via the web...go figure). They immediately contact the platform L1, but that group is only Mon-Fri, 8 to 5 CET (Central European Time). I know the customer is not going to be happy about this, but a policy is a policy. I try to contact the TL for the platform group and he tells me that the actual app is supported by our competitor (makes sense, it is their app). Armed with this new info, I call our competitor's help desk. I am greeted by a very alert Indian (this surprises me since it is 3 AM their time and he is at home...) who politely tells me the app is no longer supported by his company, that it must be supported by us. This is not meshing well with what the platform TL told me, so I begin to question the polite Indian gentleman a little more aggressively. I tell him what I was told and he gives me a very interesting runaround. Seeing that this is not going anywhere, I end the call (politely) and call our mgmt contact with our competitor. "Curt" is not available but his partner in crime, "Slug" is. Slug gives me the info I am looking for, so I call back the help desk contact and tell him. One of the issues we run into is that our customer calls the application one name, but internally at our competitor, it is known as something else. Once that is cleared up, he finally agrees to look at it but he again informs me that the support is Mon-Fri, 8 to 5 CET (Central European Time). He tells me that the case needs to be lowered to medium in severity so it can be addressed properly. I agree to lower it and we call and tell the customer the news. He takes it well (he is normally pretty even keeled, so no surprises there) and agrees to let them look into it Monday morning CET (we are in the US, Central Time). I hang up with him and make my updates while my colleague/TL makes his (he offered to keep the customer web page updated for me...nice guy).

A couple of minutes after I hang up with the customer, India calls me back telling me that they cannot get in touch with the customer. WHAT? I thought it was not supported during our business hours.

The polite well spoken (if not a tad hyper) Indian gentleman tells me that since we were "concerned" about this issue, the tech agreed to work on it after business hours. I find that just a bit odd because if I was not required to look at something until 8 AM my time and it was currently 3 AM, my butt is going back to bed. Something is fishy with our competitor.

A little while later, I find out what that was.

It seems that a few hours before, our competitor was forced to alter some code for the app and we (my company) updated the server with that code. Fearing that the code blew something up for the customer and not wanting to lose face or the contract for support, they took the call after hours as insurance. "Bastages", as my old roomie used to say.

This may not seem like a big deal to you, my faithful readers, but I can tell you when you have to manage issues that are critical to the customer and you have to do that much detective work just to get a call dispatched...something is wrong. Welcome to my world.

That little gem took us about 3-4 hours to iron out. Once the smoke cleared, my TL/colleague told me to go home early. "After all" he says, "you are on call this weekend." Feh.

I get home and start setting up for on call (laptop connected to the VPN) and wait for my TL's call. While I am waiting, I prep the grill for dinner (brats, and filet mignon). Dinner was going to be very good.

I just got the food my wife prepped on the grill when my TL calls me for handover. Nothing is going on and the issue we were working on is now out of our hands (it is a lower severity and not our concern). He wishes me a peaceful weekend. I pray he is correct. I am logged on via the VPN to work and monitoring the threat board. There is only one new issue open and that is local Swedish issue. It is also a change weekend so many people will not call since they will look at any issues they have are related with scheduled down time.

I can only hope :-)

Hurts So Good

I am not sure why, but I ache all over...flu type aches, but none of the other symptoms.

It is Friday and I am on call all this weekend, including Sunday. I am scheduled to teach Sunday School, but I am not sure I will be able to. I started working on my lesson Wednesday, but forgot to bring the file with me (I forgot to put it on my memory stick), so I cannot work on it here in my spare time. Looks like I will have to finish it over the weekend. Once I am done I can e-mail it out and the lady who normally teaches can fill in for me...I confirmed that last week with her.

We only had one issue yesterday but it came up after I went home and since I am on call, I got to track it. It finally was solved at 9:30 PM, but I would not have know since that darn off shored techs never call. Grrr.

Today has been quiet with the exception of an issue that just came up. I love the cases where we are forced to work with our competitors on their product. The chance for conflict always looms.

Being on call during the weekend is going to be new for me this time around. When it is our turn at the weekend, we get to cover for Latin America as well as a North America. I have not had great experiences support Latin America in the past and I hope that either, A) I do not get any calls or B) the techs speak English since my Spanish and Portuguese SUCKS.

My TL/colleague goes on vacation in a couple of weeks so I will get a chance to fly solo and see how I deal with a week without my "training wheels". While I am not overly worried, I want to be cautious. This type of thing is what the old role turned out to be like.

Give Peace A Chance

I have been doing a lot of web browsing lately, mostly centered on Islam and Jihad. I am trying to get a better understanding of this religion and what it is about. Robert Spencer over at Jihad Watch has been a big help (He is a Tarheel, by the way) and I am pretty amazed at some of the things I have been reading.

I plan on posting more when I can do some more studying.

Feels Like...Monday

Thursday morning after a midweek holiday...it feels like Monday.

While I would have liked to sleep loner, the rest I received was enough to get me going. Coffee usually helps.

The week I am on call I trim my routine down quite a bit to allow me to leave early enough to get to work by 7:00 AM. Today was no exception and I was at my desk with the laptop logged in by 6:55 AM. Go me.

There was not a lot to do other than finalize the case that was closed yesterday. Post Mortem reports need to be done so I knocked those out quickly. I was glad that I did not have to fill all of them out, only the summary. I did not have to do all the extra stuff since this issue happened less than 30 days ago and I was able to piggy back this one on the original. We can do that if the final report has not been finished yet..

My boss stopped by to chat for a few minutes shortly before 8:00AM. My TL had not come in yet and all was quiet. That most likely will change on Friday or Saturday, but that is okay...whatever happens is a learning experience for me.

Well, 15 minutes until lunch time. I need to make sure I leave the building today. I have made a habit the past week or so of staying at my desk. We can't spoil our colleagues now, can we?

Crash Boom Bang

I was lazy early in the day so in the afternoon I figured I better actually do something. Since the sun was shining and I had two yards to mow...I did. It took a couple of hours but it all went well. When I got done, both yards looked good and I needed a shower very badly.

After my shower I folded a couple loads of clothes and walked the dogs. My wife was itching to get out of the house so after she got cleaned up and I fed the dogs, we went out to eat.

We ended up at Chili's, but that was not where my wife wanted to be. All the "ethnic" places (Chinese and Italian) were closed so we took a chance with Chili's. I tried the Honey-Chipotle chicken crispers (good but a touch to much honey) and the mango tea. Very good combo. My wife got a salad (no suprise there) and we skipped dessert.

We came home and watched some TV until it was time to go watch the fireworks display in Plano. We did not have to drive...we were able to walk to a location that had a great view. As a matter of fact, we had a view of about 7 different displays. That is one nice thing about living where there are no trees...you can see for miles.

When the fireworks had died down, we walked home. I washed all the bug repellent off of my arms and legs and decided to check news and e-mail. I need a drink...I am very thirsty.

Freedom Is Still Not Free

I sent an e-mail to my son today, thanking him once again for his service to our country. As a soldier in the Texas Army National Guard, he serves proudly.

I encourage you to send an e-mail to anyone you know who serves or has served in the armed forces of the United States. The serve so we can have the freedoms we enjoy.

I know a few of my readers are active military and ex-military. Since I do not know your names, I would like to publicly give you a big heart felt thanx for allowing me and others in this great country to be able to enjoy one more Independence Day. I do not care what branch you serve, be it Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, the Coast Guard, Air National Guard, or Army National Guard. If you wear a uniform that proclaims you as a servant of this country, then my thanx goes out to you as well.

I once had given some thought to getting a bumper sticker and/or t-shirt made that said something along the lines of, "My son serves overseas so you can have your right to a stupid opinion." I am not saying all opinions are stupid, but some people seem to forget that we FOUGHT for this country. It was not handed to us. The fight has to continue if we are going to live in a "free" society.

Remember those in uniform.

And They Are Off!

My day at work started off with a flurry of activity. Before I could remove the forwarding of the hotline, I got a call from Europe (The Research and Development Help Desk - RaDHD) telling me of a problem with Clearcase at a customer site in Canada. After a little research, I found the contact info and all was well.

30 minutes later, I get an instant message (IM) from the help desk in Latin America telling me that there is a problem with an extranet web server in Dallas. The disk space is critical (less than 5% free) and more space is needed. I follow our processes and let our offshore support do what they can (even though I am sure it will bear no fruit) and at the same time contact the extranet L3 support to let them know what is going on. It seems there is a long history with this server and our customer. The use up the space they order 2x-5x faster than they expect and have the nerve to get upset when they run out of space. While this needs to be handled as an order (they want 1.5 terrabytes more HDD space), we do not add it until the order is placed and approved (we have been burned on that in the past...giving our customer things before they commit to buying them). This causes a bit of a problem because this standalone server is used by our customer as well as some of their partners. If there is any downtime, the customer can lose money.

To make a long story short, we have the hardware to give them 250 gig of HDD space and we make arrangements to have that added (add the controller card and install/configure the extra HDD's), but it is going to take 12-18 hours (a full backup needs to be performed as well). The customer agrees (reluctantly) and the process is completed. The rest of the day centers on this activity but it is just follow up.

My TL/colleague tells me I can go home early, if I want to (I did the same for him last week) and decide to leave at 3:30 PM instead of 4:00 PM. I get home and take care of the dogs, check the mail (my Kubuntu CD's came in...w00t!), eat, and wash the dishes before my wife gets home. We chat, do a devotional, watch a little TV and when the shows grow boring, I go in the office and watch a previously recorded UFC. Not as exciting as the WEC or the IFL Battleground stuff, but it has been a while since I have seen any UFC fights.

I finish watching the fights at 12:30 AM and decide to get some sleep. The issue that was being worked on had not been updated, so I decided to do that the following morning.

The next morning (July 4, Independence Day in the US), I woke to the sound of my 5 AM alarm, which my wife quickly squelched. She told me in a very loving voice to go back to sleep...she was going to take care of the dogs this morning. She is sweet.

I did just that..and slept until 7 AM. I got up and updated the threat board regarding the issue I was responsible for watching and then logged off. It is a holiday and I am not on call today. Our colleague in Mexico is working in our place. It should be slow for him since the only area he is responsible for today (and tonight) is Canada and Mexico, unless some fool in the US decided they need to work. It is the end of month/quarter/half financial close and reports will be ran from SAP, but so far, things have been reasonable. If all goes to plan, my day (and night) will be quiet. I still have to finish out the week (and weekend) but I am ready for it, at least mentally. If we get no major issues Friday or Saturday, I should be able to teach Sunday School and attend services at church. If not, then well so be it.

Easing Into A New Week

Being a holiday in Canada yesterday meant that my colleague and I eased into the new week. It was not hectic and only a few things needed to be completed. The weekend was uneventful for the person on call (my TL...I have next weekend as well as this week) and he was able to get some rest. I am happy for him. No one likes a busy on call week.

Since I am on call this week, I was first to arrive in the office. The day went quickly (7:00 AM - 4:00 PM usually does) and before I knew it, I was going home. Once home, I set up my laptop and got ready to take handover from my TL.

Dinner was Teryaki chicken salad. It was nice to have something light for dinner and the chicken that my wife cooked was perfect. For dessert we had strawberries and whipped cream. I had a couple of pieces of chocolate Angel Food cake left so I took one of them with berries and whipped cream. Yum.

Since my wife cooked, I took care of the dishes. There was a lot of flatware and plasticware, but little else. I am not a fan of plastic for food because it is so hard to clean if it gets greasy. I much prefer glass or paper.

After eating and cleaning, I did some bill paying and then watched IFL Battleground. It was a new episode and my favorite team, the Quad Cities Silverbacks won. All of the matches this time were really good, even the ones the 'backs lost.

After that, I watched "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel. It is a pretty good show that focuses on "interesting" food from other countries. Last night was centered on Vietnam and what was eaten (and drank) was rather exotic. It is hosted by Anthony Bourdain.

At that point I was rather tired so me an my wife decided to hit the hay and get some rest.

Oh, my on call phone did not ring at all that night. I did however, get a few when I first got in to work.