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Day 2

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Friday was low key. Joe, Karen, & Chris had to work. I slept in and thankfully slept off the drinking from Thursday. I didn’t drink a lot but for me after one or two I start to feel it the next day. Getting old stinks sometimes!

I went to Joe’s office. Hung out for a bit, they ordered lunch for us and some of his guys that were in the office. I then took a quick run on two jobs with him to just tag along. We got to drive around the wet and dreary Baton Rouge for a bit.

For dinner Joe grilled up some steaks from some place they order from a lot. They place seasoned everything in some special seasoning and sauce. It was really good, even if Joe did over grill the steaks.

After ward we played some xBox. I hadn’t played anyone on xBox in a while. I forgot how fun it is. I didn’t forget how bad I was at it though.

The New Monitor

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Friday my new HP 30″ monitor arrived. It is pretty huge! I am glad I thought it through and ordered the quick release mounting bracket or else I don’t know how I would have screwed in that monitor on the LCD arm. Removing the base and putting on the mounting brackets were relatively simple. Getting the monitor onto the arm took 2 try’s since I had trouble visualizing how it connected. In the end I needed more time working on the cable management than I did on mounting the LCD.

So far the Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI adapter from Apple is working ok. I can see some slight “shaking” of windows near the edges, but only of certain colors. I barely notice it so I am not worried about that. What I don’t like is every so often when I wake the display from sleep it displays garbage squiggly lines on the display and I have to unplug the adapter and plug it back in. When I do that everything resets back to normal. Thankfully it has only happened a two or three times in two days. I may just have the monitor stay awake all the time but goto screen saver. I know that isn’t the best thing to do but I will give it some time to figure out what my plans are. I am just thankful that so far (knock on wood) the entire setup is working. I want to take photos of the entire setup after I clean up all the clutter, but that is for another day!

Sunday Migraine

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All in all it was a productive day yesterday and the crowds weren’t so bad. On the down side in the early evening after I wrote my post last night I got a sudden migraine. It was a bad one. I couldn’t even finish dinner. I ended up being able to get up for a little while a few hours later, but had to go lie down again quickly. I ended up sleeping it off and was fine this morning.

Sunday Shopping

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Today I didn’t listen to my better judgement and I went into Manhattan for some shopping. It is a big shopping weekend so I typically like to avoid the crazy crowds. I do have some stuff I need to get before my vacation so I decided to head out anyway. I first hit Macy’s to check out some luggage accessories. I need a few items before my trip. That Macy’s was a bust. I then headed over to see if my hair cut place was open for a quick cut. It was closed on Sunday.

I then headed to Paragon Sports looking for a computer bag. After much research this week I decided to look at a Timbuk2 Commute 2.0 Messanger bag a try. I really like my Tumi Messenger bag, but it is just too small to carry much more than my laptop and a few items. When traveling, or just going on day trips to the office in NJ I need to carry more stuff. The Tumi just wasn’t cutting it. My Swiss Army bag was big enough but just was too bulky and looked like a monstrous book bag. I heard good things about Timbuk2 before, and while checking out reviews I stumbled upon their site. Their messenger bags looked just as nice as the Swiss Army and Tumi ones I was checking out, and they were 1/3 the price of the Tumi ones. That is the thing with Tumi. I love my bag, and got it on sale and it was still $200. The slightly larger version of the same bag that probibly would have been perfect for me was $300. That is a lot for a bag. The Timbuk2 bag I settled on was less than $100.

So back to Paragon. They ended up having what I wanted but not in the right color. I then headed over to Tekserve who was supposed to carry the brand I was looking for. In the end they did have exactly what I wanted in the color I wanted so I picked one up. Saved me ordering online. I then hit up Best Buy since I am looking for a new monitor. That was a bust too. I then grabbed some Outback to go and headed home.

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Friday Off

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Today is a half day for my office. Since I took off Wednesday and there was a holiday on Thursday I decided to take off today and have a nice 5 day weekend. I just realized this was the longest I have had off in about a year. I didn’t do anything special today. I just hung out and relaxed. After the hectic two days at my sisters it was nice to relax.

I did go out for a bit to meet up with Danny for drinks and dinner at Stout. He was braver than me and went shopping today.

Not really sure what I am going to do this weekend. I am trying to avoid most stores but I do need some stuff so I shall see how the weekend goes.

Thanksgiving With The Family

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For the holiday I took off Wednesday and Friday so I could have a long weekend. I ended up getting a cold over the weekend so ended up taking Monday as a sick day also. That meant I was in the office for Tuesday only. Wed. morning I was off with my parents to my sisters for Thanksgiving. We left early enough in the morning (10:30 is early for me) we didn’t hit much traffic. We brought in Pizza for dinner Wed. night. It was a good day. I got to play a bit with Zach and Alexis. Morgan was out with friends most of the afternoon but saw her for dinner.

Thursday was fun. I think I had more fun playing around with Morgan and Zach before breakfast than I did all year. Zach can always put a smile on my face, and Morgan scares me with how smart she is! Dinner was fun, but I am never a fan of holiday meals. Not a huge fan of Turkey. We ate with Carrie’s fine china on several card tables in their family room. They don’t have a dinning room table and the dinning room has been converted into a downstairs play / sleep room for Alexis. For a small kid she has tons of stuff. Speaking of Alexis I did get to have nice bonding time with her Wednesday and Thursday. She generally didn’t cry and she didn’t spit up on me so we are bonding really well.

After dinner (well during desert actually) Michaels dad and I took off for the train to be back in the city at a reasonable hour. My dad gave us a ride to NJ transit. Door to door it only took us about 2 hours. For a trip to my sisters that is really good. In order to make the train I had to eat my piece of Pecan Pie fast, and I didn’t have time for seconds, or to take home left overs.

All in all except for a short period of time Thursday afternoon when I thought I was getting a headache the two days with the family was great.

Racist Puppets

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Well I told everyone I was going to see racist puppets in Manhattan and for some reason everyone knew I was going to see Avenue Q on broadway. I even told my mom I was going to see a show (she is the broadway show expert on my family and knows I almost never go) and when I told her what I was going to see she said that it was right up my alley, and I would enjoy it. Well with her I left out the racist puppet bit, but she has seen it and knows it was a funny show.

The friend I went with had seen it, but it was good enough to warrant a second time years later. Overall I thought it was a great show. I am not a show person, or a musical fan but this was worth the trip. I think I am off to Amazon to see if I can pick up the sound track because who doesn’t want to listen to hits like the internet is for porn or everyone is a little bit racist! Seriously, I am not kidding. I am going to find this sound track.

Before the show I had lunch at Juniors. It was the first place I have ever been that prepared a Grilled cheese sandwich open. Rather odd, but easily resolved.

Grabbed a drink and hung out afterward. Then it was off to home for dinner and laundry. Now I am writting a bit and off to bed. Thankfully I took tomorrow off so tonight feels more like Saturday night than Sunday night.