I am finally home after a nice dinner out, and some single malt.
Personal
Wondering why I am at a packed queens mall a week before the holidays?
Out with Mike and Herbie…,
And I Thought Buying Electronics Was Confusing
Over the past few months I have gotten more and more interested in cooking. I am not sure if it is because I decided I want to eat a bit more healthy. It could also be due to the kick ass grocery store that is now open across the street from me. I am now motivated to eat a bit better and I have a steady supply of fresh food to choose from.
My problem is that my cooking equipment is a bit lacking. I have a small George Forman grill and a cookie sheet. Sad, I know. I already ordered a new bigger easier to clean George Forman grill that shows up sometime this week. I also started looking for pots and pans to cook things I am interested in. The problem I found is they don’t make it easy to pick just 2 or 3 things to get. Most of what I have found are sets of 11 or 12 pieces. I want 3 things. A frying pan, large pot, and a steamer. The loose stock items you can get aren’t what I want. I might end up needing to get a set that I don’t really need. I also can’t identify why the price of this stuff varies so much between sets. I know there is probably some fundamental difference between stuff but I don’t know what it is.
At least with technology I knew what to look for no matter how confusing stuff was. I bought cheap steak knives thinking they seemed fine, and now I know why they cost like $20. They are starting to rust after a few uses. This whole experience is teaching me that I have allot to learn.
email backlog is almost gone for now. Dinner is done and cleaned up. Maybe it is time to sit down and relax a bit.
I was happy to have seen lots of long lost friends from Partsearch last night!
Company Party Vs Reunion
Yesterday was a bit hectic at work. I worked out of two different offices. I ran from one to another at lunch so I could be at meetings at the other location in the afternoon. It was very hectic but also extremely productive.
After work I headed out with a bunch of people to the company holiday party. I ended up not staying. There were really long lines. Truth be told I was double booked. A bunch of friends I used to work with at Partsearch were getting together and I hadn’t seen some of them in almost two years. I originally wanted to goto the holiday party and mingle for a while and then head out to the other get together. Well we needed up leaving for the party late, and then there was a huge line so I decided to skip out. I am a bit upset by that, but almost no one I know was going to be at the party. My team wasn’t going.
The Partsearch semi-reunion was cool. One of the big things I miss from working there was hanging out with everyone there. I still am friends with many people I worked with there, but it is still different being friends and seeing people everyday and doing almost everything together. To be able to go out to lunch with a group of friends at work is priceless. OK, enough reminiscing. The get together at No Idea (of course) was fun. I ended up staying out till after 10. Not so late, but late enough when I had a meeting at 8:30 AM today.
Getting Out
On days I work from home I have to sometimes force myself to get outside. I don’t want to be locked up all day. Today was probably a good day to stay in since it was in the 20’s all day, but I ended up going out twice. I had to get something to eat for lunch. I ended up also grabbing some Swordfish at the market by my house and cooked it up for dinner. It was fantastic as usual. I picked up some crab cakes for dinner tomorrow but then realized I wont be home for dinner. Hopefully I will have them Wednesday. I am glad I am cooking more.
I also ran out after work today to get a hair cut. I ended up getting a cut and a shave. I always love the way it feels after a professional shave. Especially in the cold air. The down side is it is not so cheap. I probably wont do that again for a while but I am not unhappy that I got one today!
Now I am off to attempt to get to bed early since I have an early day tomorrow. Here is to actually getting to bed!
My Short Week
I am excited for this week to get underway. I have a packed schedule at work Monday through Wednesday, but then I am taking two days off. I decided to use my vacation days by taking 4 day weekends for the rest of the year. I have to burn off days before 1/1, and I didn’t really plan to go anywhere since I wasn’t expecting to get time off right away when I started my job back in September. I am not complaining at all but I just didn’t think about doing anything cool.
My company holiday party is also this week so I hopefully will get to meet more people I only know from their voices over the phone!
I just hope I can get to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight. I wasn’t tired till almost 1AM last night. Getting to sleep on Sunday nights is always fun.
My New Monitor
After searching far and wide for a good deal on a monitor I ended up ordering a Dell 23″ LCD. I got a nice discount and it was the right size for me. It also offered DVI & VGA inputs. I got it yesterday and it looks great on my new computer table add on. I am finally using Outlook the way it was intended (full screen with a nice big 3 pane setup so I can see everything).
Now all I need for the perfect computer setup is a better mouse and keyboard for my Thinkpad. I just got a Microsoft Wireless Laser mouse for my Macbook and it is really nice. Moves really smooth. I might get another one for the Thinkpad, but I can’t figure out what kind of keyboard to get. I love the Apple Wireless Keyboard I use on my Macbook, but I don’t think it will work with a Windows machine.