Personal

And The Kids Get A Computer

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I finally setup a day to goto my sisters and give my niece a computer. I took my dad’s old dell that I had and cleaned it up and put windows xp back on it. I gave her my 17″ flat pannel I wasn’t using, and also my altec lancing speaker set. It was my excuse to go out and buy Bose speakers for my computer set at home.

Surprisingly the setup was not that bad. Coping over some of Morgan’s music too the longest. The computer setup fine, and the router they already had (even though it wasn’t in use until today) remembered all its settings.

I also got to spend some time with my nephew Zachary. He is very playful for a 4 month old. he just doesn’t like to be put down. I don’t mind that he likes being held, but I guess that Carrie and Michael do. They think he is being spoiled.

Morgan and I also got to hang out. She was in a good mood, and playful. I like that since I get free hugs. you have to take them when you can with a 3 1/2 year old. Overall it was a fun day. I just hope I don’t have to deal with that much technical support on the new computer.

Month Long Recap

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Yet again I have been bad at posting. Sean emailed me looking for an update since I haven’t written in a while. I know I have been bad recently with not posting. I will provide a quick update of what happened this month. Ok, get ready here it comes:

Last week I was plagued with migraines from Wednesday till this Monday. It is the weather. I always get sick when the weather starts changing. It is something about the stagnant warm weather, not hot or cold when the AC’s stop running and it is just warm. I am not the only one I know that is affected by this but like clockwork twice a year I have an issue. I am feeling somewhat better now.

Last weekend I stayed in trying to kill the head aches. I ended up having to miss a Halloween party my friends threw because I felt like crap. I did get out a bit on Sunday to help Lauren and Andrew setup there new Macbook Pro. The twins are really cute, but a bit loud for my head aching state I was in.

The week before that I had a cold all week. Thankfully it wasn’t that bad. I took cold eze. I can’t spell it but it works. I sounded allot worse than I felt all week. The Tylenol PM also helped. The weekend of the 14th and 15th I pretty much slept away since I had a cold. Come to think of it, this month has been allot of resting when I am not working. That is a sign that things are crazy busy in the office.

One night a few weeks ago (i can’t remember when anymore) a bunch of us finally got together for poker. Brian’s girlfriend Amy was the big winner. I was the only other person that broke even. I did ok, but no where near as well as Amy. I need to schedule another get together soon.

I did the Jewish holidays at the usual places. One holiday was at my parents best friends house and the other was at my parents place. My dad decided to make the first holiday interesting by getting sick. He ended up in the hospital for a day and half with the flu or something. I am learning that even something as typically normal as the flu can put a diabetic in the hospital. He is ok but it was an interesting few days.

The other holiday was uneventful. I didn’t fast. I really can’t, or shall I say I shouldn’t. Me, medication, and not eating is a bad thing. According to my dad (who after all is a reliable religious scholar:) it is ok to skip the fasting if you need to take meds. Who am I kidding anyway. I am not religious 364 days out of the year, so why should I be that one extra day?

Other stuff went on this month, but I can’t recall all the details right now. Heck, I almost forgot about the hospital thing so I bet I missed some other important piece of info.

Work was really hectic this month. Lost of projects going on right now. I will cover them in another post if I find the time. Hopefully this wont be the last post for another month!

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Blowing Off Steam

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Last night after a stressful day a bunch of us went out and got a few drinks. We ended up at a dive bar on the upper west side. We hung out for a while and then ended up back at Miguel’s apartment to relax. It was a nice chance to relax from the crzy pace we have been keeping at the office recently.

While we where at the bar I came to the conclusion that I should take today off. It is the beginning of the jewish holiday. I have the time, and I needed a break. It wasn’t that I am very religious or anything, but taking the day off lets me go to my parents a bit earlier than I originally could if I went to work. I am writing this post from the rail road on my may to my parents house. My old stand by place to write, on the train.

Manditory Tipping?

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I saw this article today and I got a little ticked off. When did the percentage of tipping go up? I try to stick to double the tax or about 15%. That varies based on the service provided to me at the restaurant. I don’t know where someone thinks a mandatory 20% is fare. So you can provide really bad service and still automatically add 20%? I don’t know what pissed me off more about this, article. The mandatory part, or the fact that the amount they want to tack on is 5% more than what I have always thought as a fair tip. If you are concerned with cost of living adjustments, the tip goes up whenever the price of the meal goes up, so the percentage doesn’t have to change.

I am not being cheap. I regularly tip 20-25% if I get good service. Especially if I am traveling by myself and get good service I have given really big tips. I just get aggravated by people expecting more and then not providing good service. I don’t care what the article says about statistics of how people tip. If I get bad service you get a bad tip, and vice versa. About half the time I go out to eat in the city I get bad service, I am not going to reward someone for that. That is not saying everyone is bad, I also get some great service, but I should be able to dictate when I tip well or not so well based on the level of service I get. That is the whole idea of a gratuity, deal with it!

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Amenities Mishap

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One of the things I like about the building I live in is the dry cleaners in the basement. I usually drop off a bunch of laundry and dry cleaning once a week so I can maintain my lazy lifestyle and not do laundry. Laundry is like prison time for me. Dates back to when I was like 11 and my Mom started making me do the laundry. Since she was into all that keeping the apartment clean stuff, I had to wash and fold everything in the laundry room in our building. Man was it hot in the summer and cold in the winter down there. So now when I think of doing laundry I relate it to really bad conditions. Well that is the story I tell myself when I fork over $15 a week to have my stuff washed and folded for me.

This week I had a bit of an issue with my laundry. I picked it up Tuesday night and never started to unpack it until late that night. When I did, I realized that it wasn’t my laundry. I had just switched to a new generic white mess laundry bag and all my stuff was in it encased in a plastic garbage bad. Someone else also had a mesh bag and the laundry got them mixed up. Man was I pissed, but at least I had clothes and towels for the next day.

I went back on Wednesday and thankfully right as I walked in the lady stated that she bet I had the wrong laundry. In 2 minutes I had my stuff and was off. It was a close call. It could have gone allot worse. That was my brush with craziness on Tuesday.

Labor Day

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Today is Labor Day.¬† I don’t have anything special scheduled.¬† I am just happy that it is a Monday and I am not at work.¬† I am thinking about going to the beer garden with Jayson and Gretchen.¬† The weather is perfect for it.¬† They have to do some shopping first.¬† I need to clean up my apartment, so hopefully we will meet up later and go.¬† Other than that, hopefully it will be a restful day.

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August Recap

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So where have I been?  I kind of took the month of August off from writing.  Not sure why.  I did think about writing something.  I even had a few good post ideas, but I never brought myself to sit in front of the computer and write.  There was of course sitting in front of the computer.  Just not any blog entries.

So what happened to me in August?¬† On personal front, not a whole lot.¬† It was dam hot in NYC last month, so I neglected to do more bike riding, but when it is 90 and you are a person who likes it at 65 you tend to avoid outside activity like riding around for miles.¬† I did take a sick day early in the month.¬† I had a bad cold, but Cold-Eeze works like magic.¬† I am not sure why I don’t use that stuff more often.

On the work front allot went on.¬† it wasn’t as bad as the months leading up to our move in July but it is hectic with a¬† big project due date coming up so my team and I need to be ready to assist with it.¬† We also have our own projects going on.¬† I will talk about some of the cool technology stuff in other posts, but Jayson, Rob, and I had to go to our other office for a few days mid month to get a roll out of some new software underway.¬† Then there was the usual problems and some not so usual issues going on throughout the month that keep the stress level high.

I am going to try and make an effort to continue to write something every day or so.  I want to, and I truely like writing before I go to bed.  it helps me unwind.

Sleepy Sunday

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I was going to goto the Beer Garden today but felt like I was getting a migraine so I passed on the opportunity. Glad that I did. I crashed around 4PM and slept for a few hours. I felt like crap when I woke up so I did what I normally don’t do when I am home and getting a head ache. I medicated. I feel better now but I know it is only the prescription talking. I am hoping to be sleepy enough to goto bed soon and get a good night sleep.

The rest of the weekend I did some DVD and DVR watching. This week I was into The Wire. I watched season 2 and now I am on clearing out season 3 from my DVR. Man that is a good show.

Reminds me of Homicide Life on the Street. Back to the work grind tomorrow!

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The Non Event Saturday

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I laid low today. I got a hair cut today and tried to do some shopping, but ended up getting nothing. I did get stuck on the 6 train for like 20 minutes after someone pulled the emergency brake. The consensus of everyone in my car was if we found out who thought it was funny to pull the brake they wouldn’t find the body of the person that did it. The only upside was the AC ran while we stood crammed in there for that long. It was too hot to do some bike riding. I hope to get a ride in tomorrow or during the week.

Dinner After Dinner

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Last night we went to Spago at Caesars. The food was good, but it wasn’t enough for any of us. First there was no “normal” food. Now I understand it is supposed to be upscale, but you should have one normal dish that I can identify by reading its description on it. The portions where really small also. I ended up back at the Pizza Hut at my hotel about a hour after we ate to get a mini pie since I was still so hungry. Everyone else had show tickets so I walked around the shops at Caesars for a while before heading back to the hotel on the monorail.

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