Today at lunch one of the PM’s I am friendly with wanted to goto this Belgian pub. Another PM and I tagged along. This place was supposed to have fantastic burgers. Two of us ended up with fish and chips, but the other guy said the burger was really good. We will be back to try other stuff. The place was good. On the way back to the office we took a detour and hit a popular Belgian waffle truck that only is near the office on Thursday’s. The long line was worth it. I had this place a few times and it was really good. Another guy had heard about it and was the one who recommended to go since it was nearby. Well nearby is relative. Not sure when we will make that walk again, but since it was nice out today it was a good desert to our lunch.
scott
Morgan’s 7th Birthday Party
Today I went out to my sisters for Morgan’s 7th birthday party. To be there for a 1pm party I had to get up early for me for a Sunday. I took NJ transit out and my parents and Zack got me from the station.
I can’t believe Morgan is 7. She had a bowling party. Everyone had a ton of fun. After the party we went back to my sisters place with the family (aka 7 kids under 7 and 9 adults) to open presents and have dinner.
My parents gave me a ride home. We didn’t stay too late since my dad and I had work the next day. Day trips to my sister are lots of travel but seeing the kids was worth it!
Saturday at the Movies
Today was generally low key. I got to relax a bit from my travel week. I went with a friend to see Alice in 3D. It was better than I expected, of course I had low expectations. I also saw the preview for Tron and the new Shrek movies. I want to see both of them.
It was an early night since the dam 7 train isn’t running by my apartment so I needed to take the shuttle bus. Once it gets really late they don’t run that often. During the day they seem to be pretty good.
Back in NYC
As much fun as I had in St Louis I was glad to be back in NYC today. I wasn’t glad to be in the office at 9AM after getting home near 12:30AM. I had a 9AM conference call and then I had some face to face meetings so I couldn’t work from home. I also had to race out to a working lunch at the hard rock right by work. I don’t’ normally do those so it was a change of pace.
Overall a really productive and hectic day. I was so glad to get home and just relax after work.
St Louis Day 3
I am on my way home from St. Louis now. I got a bit delayed getting out, but thankfully it wasn’t more than an hour. A bunch of us got a ride to the airport from the one person from NYC who had a rental car and was leaving today. I was on a different airline than everyone else so I couldn’t hang out with anyone else. They were in a different terminal. I hit the Chillis Too for dinner and then went to the American club before the flight. Flight Tracker and the FAA weather app’s on my iphone were invaluable for this trip. Both kept me better informed than the airline was.
Other eventful things today was we went out as a large group to Mongolian BBQ. I was skeptical about it but overall the food was pretty good and there was plenty for me to eat so I was happy.
St Louis Day 2
Day two of the conference was good. We got a lot done. I did my big presentation. I think it went well. After work I was going to avoid the team dinner since I was really tired, but I got strong armed by two guys on my team and another guy who we work with and I ended up going with them to the shooting range. One of the guys from NY really wanted to do that so 4 of us went.
It was a lot of fun. I got to shoot an AK-47 and an AR-15 for the first time. I also tried a really big revolver like the Dirty Harry gun. I didn’t like that. After that we went to dinner at this place that had fantastic burgers. Thankfully I was back at the hotel at a reasonable time. I was still glad I didn’t goto the other event since they were out much later.
Overall a really good day.
St Louis Day 1
The first day of the conference went well. I also got to spend some time with my team that is in St Louis. For dinner another team manager was in and most of her US staff with her so we ended up combining our team dinners and had one big get together. We work closely with each other so it was nice to get out of the office for a bit. We almost never do this so it was a lot of fun. One of our head architects was also in town so he came along. All in all it was like 9 people. We went to a decent steakhouse that several people have been to before. Compared to NY it was super cheap and tasty!
The night wasn’t too late since we all had to be at work at normal hours. Overall it was a great first day in St. Louis!
Off to St. Louis
I am on my way to St Louis for a few days. It is a work trip. There is two events going on there this week. My team is involved in both, but I personally am in a conference. A few other people from NY including another person on my team is going.
Thankfully getting out of NYC was uneventful. My other teammate picked me up at the airport. he got a rental car and i didn’t since i didn’t think it was worth the expense. We went to Friday’s for dinner and ended up meeting up with one other person who is in town for the week.
Mediocre Friday
Today was one of those days that didn’t suck, but was just a general bla day. It was only partly related to the weather. It started out with promise (like all days i guess) but went downhill quickly. Work wasn’t horrible but was just a stressful day that was full of working issues that shouldn’t have been issues. That is all I really will say but it was just a frustrating day. Thankfully these days are in the minority.
The evening was also a general let down. On top of that it was freezing, and I had to navigate the large amount of snow. I am looking forward for the weekend, even if I am traveling on Sunday.
Evernote
For the past 6 months or so I have been using Evernote. I kind of stumbled upon it while looking for a personal wiki solution. I know evernote is not a wiki. I was looking for a Wiki and ended up with Evernote. OK, I started this story at the end. So let me start from the beginning.
In the past I have written about VoodoPad. I loved, it. Still do but it is a Mac only application, and with needing to use a work Windows machine over the past almost 2 years I had to stray away from VoodoPad since well I want my “stuff” in other places than at home on my computer. At first I tried google docs, and quickly moved to Zoho. Fear of not having control of my data and an easy export option got me to build my own Media Wiki install and just password protect the site. At first I was happy with Media Wiki, but the effort of making the entries look good was significantly more than what I spent with VoodoPad. I know I shouldn’t complain because a year before I was using VoodoPad I was using plain old text notes with no search on my Treo. I got spoiled, I admit it. Media Wiki was a great idea, but it was over kill for what I wanted. I thought I wanted a wiki to collect my thoughts and document information I need to recall often, or just store for future searching. Ever since I started a Wiki at Partsearch for documentation (yes after Gus’ nagging for months to try it) I was hooked on the format.
When using Media Wiki became too much for me to bother with I went on a search for a replacement. I wanted something that was cross platform, and could also be used in a browser. I also wanted ease of use, and the ability to get my data out of their system if i needed to. I read some reviews of evernote and I gave it a try. At first the differences from what I thought I wanted (a wiki) and Evernote were a huge stumbling block for me. That was until I learned that I can still have great search functionality out of Evernote even though it wasn’t a wiki. It was what I wanted for putting notes and stuff into something.
The more I started using the program the more I relied on it. Then the iPhone version came out and I thought ti was great, but then was not so happy about its lack of offline support. Recently they fixed that and now I can store all my notes locally on my Windows computer, Mac or phone. At that point I was like OK, these people have earned me paying for the premium service.
Now I use Evernote for everything including to just jott down notes in a meeting. No more scratch pads, or even a text/notepad window opened. Without Evernote and Remember The Milk (another app I have written about a few times) I don’t think I would be as productive at work or at home. I am eager to see what the Evernote people will come up with for the iPad.