Month: January 2010

Back From NJ

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I am back from baby sitting in NJ. I left around lunch time and got a ride to the train from Michael. I totally forgot that there was no 7 train this weekend. I ended up being lazy and grabbing a cab home from Penn Station. I didn’t want to deal with the shuttle bus and the out of the way trip I needed to take to get home, especially since I felt a migraine brewing and I hadn’t taken anything for it.

Thankfully I got home in time to lie down and take something for my head. I relaxed the rest of the afternoon. I was not happy I didn’t get to spend more time with the kids but I was glad to be home and relaxing.

Babysitting

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Today I got to spend the day with the kids and experience life with 3 little people. I don’t know how my sister does it full time. They are a lot of work, but loads of fun. I went with Michael and Zachary to Taekwondo. Zack was very cute doing his little routine. We then went to get Morgan from Gymnastics. From there we took both of them to lunch at their favorite restaurant. 5 star it was not, but I have been there before and they make a good greasy burger!

Then it was back to the house to hang out for the afternoon.

Babysitting wasn’t too bad. Carrie put Alexis down to sleep and she didn’t wake up too often that required her to be held! Morgan read to me for a bit before going to bed. I find it really funny that she now reads to me instead of the other way around. Zach was the most difficult since right after Carrie and Michael left he ran out of his room saying he wanted his mommy and daddy. He tried to scam me into a getting a few things, he is good like that. I barely won the battle of wits and he went off to bed without any other issues.

Other than that it was a low key night of browsing the web and catching up on some reading that I hadn’t gotten to over the week.

Unexpected Meetup With Friends

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Today as I was planning to get to my sisters after work I ended up meeting up with Luke to discuss some work stuff. That actually turned into meeting up with a whole group of friends I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. I didn’t get to spend too much time with everyone since I had to leave at 7PM to go catch a train. it was nice having two drinks and seeing everyone.

After meeting up with everyone I headed over to Penn Station to catch a NJ transit train to my sisters. I didn’t get to see the kids since it was after 9 by the time I got to the house but coming to get me from the train after they went to bed was the best idea logistically. Tomorrow I get to spend the entire day with them so I am looking forward to being exhausted but happy!

Nothing major to note at work. It was a typical work from home day.

An All Around Good Day

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I don’t know what it was about today but it was a generally good day where most things went right. I don’t know if that means tomorrow will be horrible or if it is to make up for the late night call from work yesterday and the briefly being sick on Sunday. Either way today was all about things coming up Scott.

I went to Starbucks and they forgot my drink so i had to wait an extra 5 min. WIthout asking they gave me a card for a free drink, score! Hey it is an extra $4.

Went to the doctor and I am in generally good shape. He also said I could try skiing and roller blading again after being restricted from it for a while for a problem I had last year. That was an unexpected turn of events so another plus.

Day With The Parents

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I spent the afternoon with my parents at their place. They wanted to see me before they went away on vacation and since they were at my sister this weekend today was the only day that worked for all of us.

I took the 7 to Main St. and my dad picked me up. I hung out at their place for a while. I tried to figure out why their computer was blue screening. I am not sure why but i updated them to Vista SP2 and ran some updates. I also uninstalled all the crap my dad installed on it. Hopefully that worked. If not I may just give them my iMac since this weekend my dad actually said he may be ready to look at a mac. Hearing him say that I would be happy to give him my iMac if he would switch.

Had a close call when a metal folding chair fell on my mom’s head. Long weird story but yes that happened. My dad thinks she will be fine but her head hurt, but no concussion.

We went to dinner at Jackson Hole, and then I got a ride home. It was nice seeing them. I think I wont get to see them again for a few weeks.

Now I am catching up on my blog writing and getting ready for the work week. It is a 4 day week, but I have to work Saturday. Hoping that goes well, but that is an entirely different post.

Last Minute Plans With Friends

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I went into the city this afternoon to do some shopping. I hit Macy’s and finally broke down and bought a new dress shirt. I had needed to get a few for a while, or wanted to so I finally went. if i like the way this new shirt fits I will get a few more. I looked for a bunch of other things but didn’t find anything I liked so I called it a day.

I was wet from rain and doing grocery shopping for dinner when I got an unexpected call from Jayson. Apparently him and the wife (and Seth) were in for Gretchen’s birthday and wanted to goto dinner. I put what I was shopping for back and decided to goto dinner with them since even though I saw them twice in Dec, I don’t normally get to see them that much.

We went to dinner at Carmines. Jay loves that place. The food was good. 4 of us split a 40oz steak, among other items. It was good seeing them. Seth was a super well behaved baby too.

Freetalk Wireless

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Last week I ordered a Skype Freetalk Wireless headset. It arrived today. Pairing was really easy, and the headset fit well. I am worried that after using it a lot it will feel a bit tight. I like (and don’t like) that the charging is done from the dongle to the headset. I will see if that becomes an issue. I used it for one call today but wont really give it a true test until I am at work on Tuesday.

I have been looking for a good headset to use with my laptop when not at my desk at home. I hope this one works out, since my desk drawers at home are becoming a graveyard for wired and bluetooth headsets alike that haven’t cut it. Seriously I think I have at least 2 wired skype headsets that suck and I don’t use, and about 4 bluetooth headsets. I use 2 of those but not as much as I like and never with the computers since I have quirky issues.

Freeagent Go By Seagate

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For the past 6-8 months I have been setting aside money every month to purchase one portable hard drive. I am doing it for back reasons mainly, but I also had other storage needs so I figured I would budget some money each month. In the beginning I was able to get a 320gb drive for the money I put aside. After a few months I was able to get 500gb drives for the same price.

I had been getting mainly Western Digital My Passport Portable drives. They are fine overall. I did try one Iomega, and a Toshiba in December since I got a deal on a 640gb drive I used for my annual backup. This month I tried out the Seagate Freeagent Go drive. I also bought two docks they sell. Let me tell you so far I am very happy. The dock idea is brilliant. I have seen these drives for a while but when I originally wanted a dock I couldn’t get one. Now they are readily available so I bought a 500gb Seagate. Shuttling it around is a snap. I think I am going to switch to Seagate’s for a while as long as they keep selling portable drives that fit the dock systems.

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Back To Work

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It is back to work after a very light December. I had more time off in December than I worked. That is what I get for not using my vacation before the end of the year. it was nice to relax and travel, but this year I plan on using the time more wisely. I am anticipating a ton of catching up to do but a brief glance at my black berry says I don’t have too bad an amount of email to go through. I think the physiological impact of being back at work will be tougher than the catching up.

New Years

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For new years I made plans to goto Jayson & Gretchen’s for the night. Originally we had thought about going to a restaurant near them and get a group of people together. The group didn’t materialize so I went anyway. We had a lower key night. We bought steaks and cooked and stayed in. Dave also came over, but I don’t know what is wrong with him. He is always such a buzkill and needs to control his emotions. Other than Dave being a bit crazy we had a good time. I stayed over and we went for breakfast and then I headed back to the city in the afternoon.

Other items of note on this trip was I ended up breaking down and buying a pair of boots. I had needed after all the snow, but opted for the less water proof ones and went with the more comfortable ones. I got a pair of Doc Martin boots that feel really comfy. My mom said I can do something to them to water proof them a bit. They are still a step up from the shoes I wear when it snows!