The first week at work was interesting. I was glad to get out for a few quick drinks at Blaggards with some friends. I meet Luke, & Stanley there. After a while a bunch of old friends from Redcats showed up. We talked and hung out for a while. I didn’t want to stay out late so I was home by 9 ish. Sounds kind of early but when you start at 5ish it isn’t.
Personal
I am adding cheesy yet addictive 80’s music to my iphone for my commute tomorrow!
Less Than 24 Hours In AC
I went down to Atlantic City for John’s bachelor party yesterday. It was fun. I didn’t do anything crazy since I wasn’t feeling 100%. I got down there early so I had time to get a massage before we headed for probibly one of the most expensive steak dinners I have ever eaten. It was dam good though. After dinner we played a poker tournament. Out of 10 guys I ended up in like 5th place. I didn’t win anything but after having crap cards all night I was surprised to do as well as I did. I ended up heading off to bed around 1AM, right when everyone was about to head out to play the tables. I have the new job starting tomorrow and my parents coming over later so I wanted to leave for home early. I got up at 6:45AM to drive back. Overall it was a hectic trip to get out there and back in less than 24 hours but worth the trip.
Now my parents are coming over for some dinner. I think they want to wish me well before the new job.
Dinner With Morgan And A Screaming 2 Year Old
I meet up with my sister near my parents house tonight to go for dinner. Carrie, Morgan, & Zachary are staying over at my parents from Monday until tomorrow. Since I didn’t see them while they were in PA this weekend I decided to head out to Bayside for some dinner. My parents were going to a show with friends so they were a no show.
I was surprised when I got picked up at the train to see my dad in the car with my sister. It turns out that my parents hadn’t needed to leave yet, and apparently my nephew didn’t really want to goto dinner without his Poppy. For a little guy of 2 he really lets you know when he doesn’t like something. Hoping to avert a meltdown my dad rode in the car to the restaurant (we went to Jackson Whole) and my mom picked him up there. Well, we may have delayed the meltdown but when my dad left Zach was not so happy. I think everyone in a 2 mile radius knew he wasn’t happy. My sister had to take him outside for a while. That at least gave me time to hang out with Morgan. I can’t believe she starts Kindergarden next week.
I can forgive Zach being loud, because hey he is my nephew. What I cannot forgive is he didn’t give me a hug goodbye, or even a high five. I even tried for a low five, and got nothing. Like he is going to get sugar or chocolate when my sister isn’t looking now. OK, maybe he will anyway but I won’t be happy about it.
I at least got a rid home. And to top off the evening I was able to snag my dad’s Garmen GPS for my trip next weekend.
Hanging Out Again
Friday night I went out and meet up with Luke, Ben, Stanley & others. It wasn’t a late night, but I was out 3 of the 4 past nights. I am not normally that self destructive and go out that many nights in a row. It takes its tole on me. I didn’t sleep that well last night, but that was surprising only because I didn’t drink allot.
I meet up with Luke and Jeanette at Windfall. Stanley swung by for a few rounds. Then we headed off to Blaggards and meet up with a bunch of other people from my old job. We hung out there for a while before I called it a night. With the exception of the past two weeks I hadn’t been out allot in August so it was nice getting out and hanging with friends.
An Unplanned Reunion
Last night I went meet up with Danny to grab a few drinks. We headed over to an old hang out No Idea! As odd luck would have it as we grabbed our second round we saw none other than Gus, and James! We all used to work together and it was an unplanned meeting. I had seen James a few weeks before when I visited the old office, and Gus back in May when I switched jobs. We talked and BS’ed for a while. It was really nice to catch up with everyone.
I was surprised that Danny got really drunk. He usually holds his alcohol and he was out of it really early. He is not a nice drunk. I got really buzzed but knew when to call it a night. I did have to get up and goto work in the morning.
3 Month Anniversary
Today marks my 3 month anniversary at my current company. It is weird. In many ways it feels like I have been there for ages, and in other ways it feels like only yesterday that I left my last job. I want to write more about this milestone but due to my own restrictions on what I write about work on the blog I won't go into further detail.
Today and a large part of yesterday was taken up with meetings, and vendor meetings. I am knee deep in trying to figure out the final design for a data center project I am working on. Today was spent dealing with that, and other fun administrative items. It is funny how days like today fly by.
I meet up with Luke for drinks after work. I only had two before I headed off to home to try and relax before I have to get up and do it all again tomorrow.
Video Conversion Round 2
I finally put the order in to convert some VHS tapes I have over to DVD. I was so satisfied with the 8mm conversions that I am using the same place. I am also sending in about 400 photo's to be scanned as well. I am really upset at the condition my mom kept these photos. She is now finally keeping them in photo box's after years in baskets near the radiators and open windows in her apartment. Tons of photos have been ruined or damaged by getting wet or really hot. I hope the Home Movie Depot is able to scan everything I sent in. All I can say is thank goodness for Photoshop, or in my case Gimp since I am not paying for Photoshop.
I underestimated the number of photos that my parents actually have. I am at 400 photo's in the one box that I took from my mom. I didn't even get everything out of the box but I figured 400 was a nice round number to start with. There is about 4-5 other box's of photos to go, plus a box of slides. I think I might blow my budget on this project. In the end I think it will be worth it to have everything in digital format. I am also having trouble identifying what I might have already scanned over the past 10 years. I found a bunch of images that I already scanned a few years ago, and I bet a bunch more will be duplicated.
My annal attempt at cataloging everything is paying off to a certain degree. I was able to post a bunch of stuff to Facebook and it is hilarious to see the comments from friends.
On the video side of things I am doing only two VHS tapes in this run. That is because I want the original AVI's of these two tapes, and the HDD I am sending the processing place can only handle about two tapes. I am sending in my sisters sweet sixteen video and my Bar Mitzvah video. The next round of stuff I don't really want or need the original source material so I won't use a hard drive. I will wait until I get this first batch back before I send in the next one. That way I can also spread the expense into another month. This stuff isn't cheap, but this batch is about half the price of the 8mm batch.
Memory Lane
I gave up on trying to sleep tonight so I decided to post some recent and not so recent photos to my Facebook site. I got a bunch form the Redcats holiday party last December, a few from being out Friday night, and a bunch from HS. I have a ton more from HS I need to sort through and get up online. It is actually kind of fun to see the comments from everyone. I am most productive late at night when I can't sleep!
Thankfully A Lazy Sunday
Thankfully this weekend has so far been uneventful. After the antics all week I wanted some nice time relaxing at home. I got a fresh direct delivery, watched some movies and did two loads of laundry today. It might sound boring, but being able to sit back for a while was nice.
I had so much time (well sort of) that I was able to organize all my DVD’s. I have been meaning to do that for months and I finally had some time, and my book shelf was getting really messy so I spent the hour sorting through everything. For the past several months I have been on a organization kick. I have new storage containers for my computer gear and nice cases for all my CD’s & DVD’s.