Life, Kids, Technology & that move to another continent
Stayed at work late and then went out with Jayson and his in-laws to a nice restaurant in Little Italy. It was a nice night. We even hit the good desert place after dinner. Cari was going to come with us, but she got a bad head ache and took off from work.
Other than that I had an interesting day at work, but the contents of the day can’t be posted here. I have updated my Work blog (password only) with details.
The past two days have been busy with meetings and very little tech work, or anything interesting enough to run and write about. I have been feeling like I am not getting anything done, but in fact I am being productive. When I feel like I am not getting allot done I realize I am doing office work, and not tech work! not bad, but just different.
I am trying to save money the remaining week of this month. For that reason I passed up going out with John and Jay to dinner last night, but then ended up going out tonight with other friends! I intend to safe the rest of the week! Really!
I was just finishing up going through my TO DO list and email backlog. I think now (at 10 to midnight) I finally am done. I am off to bed!
It wasn’t that we were bored today (i actually got allot done) but it was a “relatively” slow day. Case in point Jayson and I were able to sneak out (not really since my boss knew where we were going) and goto the Outback for lunch. In NYC the Outback does in fact serve lunch.
We also got some time to work on a new cabinet we received for our computer room. I have to say that HP rail kits are the easiest I have ever had to install. I cannot believe that IBM still makes you screw things in and do all this work to get a kit in, but HP you just snap it in and you are done in 3 minutes. Now I have to finalize the cabinet layout before we put more gear in it.
Other than that, today was an uneventful day. And you know what? I don’t mind a few uneventful days every now and then!
The service was short. I am a fan of short services. They did a non-traditional wedding. Their friend Vivian was the officiant. We held it in a gazebo right on the beach. It was beautiful. It was touch and go on the rain for a while but by the time we got to the site for the service it was not wet at all.
After the service we went to a park across from the inn where the reception was being held. We took photo’s, etc. We then went to the reception and partied. I partied a bit more than others. I lost count of how much I drank, but it couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 drinks. I made it thorough desert, but then I decided to drop my jacket off at my room because I was hot and I didn’t want to forget it at the reception. Bad idea. The next think I know it is 2 hours later and I woke up sitting in the easy chair in my room. I had missed the last hour and a half or so of the reception.
Today I feel like crap. That is what I get for drinking. I had a head ache this morning, but I am feeling a bit better now.
Amanda’s Aunt gave me a ride to the airport. She was cool. I got to Portland so early that I was able to fly standby on the earlier flight. I am in the air now (as I write this), and I hope my luggage got on the plane. The lady at the counter reassured me that it would get on the flight. I will find out in less than an hour.
Now that I am getting back to NYC early I am hopeful that I can get my Tux back to the rental place tonight instead of paying the late fee and returning it tomorrow. I will see how long it takes to get home later before I commit to anything.
I am an American Express Card holder. I am happy about that. Amex treats you right. I don’t remember any major problem (nock on wood) with them as a credit card company. I do remember all the good things they have done when I have had problems. Sometimes without me even asking. That is good service. Yes I pay allot for that service, but isn’t that the point?
Because I am so happy with my Amex I have decided long ago that I don’t need any other card. I mean I have a charge and credit card with Amex. Well since my bank has given me a Debit card allong with my ATM card I figure I can use that if I ever come accross a place that does not take Amex. I must say that I have been known to leave stores when they don’t take Amex. If you want my business you should take a credit card that huge portions of he popuation have, and the vast majority of stores take. Being cheap about the percentage point or two that Amex charges over Visa/Mastercard is just petty and looses my business. I got that attitude from my dad. He had a Visa card that he never used. I remember on a few occasions where we would leave stores if they didn’t take amex, even though he could use the visa card. I am the customer, I want to pay in a legitimate way using this card. If you won’t accomodate me, I am leaving. And leave we would. I am like my dad (even though sometimes I don’t like to admit it). We can both be stuborn. he a bit more than me, but as a customer I am right. Aren’t i?
I am here in Maine. More on that later. The inn I am staying at has WIFI. I was like cool. I have 2 hours to kill so let me get online and check my mail. Yeah, that didn’t work. Why you ask? Well the wifi company doesn’t take Amex. I was a bit miffed but then said ok, this is why I have my debit card anyway. So I broke out the debit card and punched in my digits only to get rejected. The credit card authorization company does not recognize my debit card as a valid MasterCard. So I am stuck with no WIFI. I am actually cool with that, but I am really pissed at a company that makes it so difficult for me to use there service. OK, I know everyone DOESN’T take amex, so I use my debit card, and you STILL won’t take the dam card. Come on. I am still not going to run out and get a Visa or Master Card. I will spend my money at a place that is willing to take it!!!
I am sitting in my room (super small, but lets not go there right now) waiting to put my tux on. I am supposed to be ready to go in about an hour. Since it will take me like 20 minutes to get dressed I have time to kill. In a minute I am going to run down to the inn bar and fill up my flask. Rich & Amanada got me a flask kit with cups and stuff for a gift. It was exactly what I wanted. I am going to fill it up “just in case” for the ceremony. I wonder how much the bar will charge to fill up a 6-oz flask with JD or Southern Comfort? I will find out.
I am not looking forward to wearing a tie. Rich’s dad helped me get it ready, but I hate wearing them. I know I “clean up nice” in a tux or good suit, but they are so uncomfortable to get into. After a while I get used to it and am fine, but it is that first few minutes that I dread. I hate sweating in them:(
I took today off. I mean I did work all weekend, and I needed the time off. My big plans for the day are sleeping and watching stuff on my Tivo. Well I got up at 10AM. There went the sleeping part of my day. Then I realized that I don’t have much left on my Tivo that I want to watch. So I am just relaxing now. Maybe I will go get a hair cut later, or go out and do something. Since I was running around all weekend it is nice to sit around and not do anything for a while.
Watching a disaster unfold (from a great distance) gets you thinking about things. For me first and foremost I wonder if all my friends and my friends families are ok? Then I begin wondering if I am prepared if something would happen in NY again? The answer is I am not prepared.
I have a well stocked (or it was the last time I checked it) first aid kit that was once my first responder bag when I did volunteer EMT work. I have some non refrigerated food, like cereal bar’s etc. I need more. I have no stockpile of water except for the 2 or 3 letters I keep in my fridge. I have 1 mag light flash light with only the batteries in it. The only self protection gear I have are a bunch of ceremonial swords I have, but I don’t think they will be of much use.
So in an effort to be prepaired for anything I am making some changes. I just ordered some fresh direct, so I got several gallons of water, and batteries for the mag light. I need to get another flash light for backup, and a replacement bulb for the mag light. I am also researching long lasting food stores. I am going to buy some MRE’s or MRE like food from ebay.
I figure that should be enough stuff to start. Then I will reevaluate the situation and get more stuff if needed.
I have mentioned before that I do not watch the news. I can’t stand it. I am not going to rehash all the reasons why I can’t stand the state of news in this country. I used to be able to watch the news for hours, now I can’t stand it. When a disaster hits like the hurricane last week I am forced to the news channels. The thing of it is you can watch CNN for 30 minutes during the entire ordeal and get all the news you will ever get from them. I didn’t watch very much news. I checked out individual news articles online from CNN, NY Times, and the BBC. I like the BBC because it gives an outside view of events in this country.
It is not that I am not interested in current events that I personally block myself from watching news updates. I just can’t stand the way it is packaged and presented these days. I do want to find out what is going on. Gus found a great blog that he passed along to me. it is a bunch of guys at a hosting provider who stayed behind to keep their systems running. You can check out their blog here. Besides the fact that the blog is run by a bunch of guys (and girls) who do what I do for a living, it is also unedited front line account of what is going on. They have feeds for video, and tons of photos. Gus sent me the link saying that if it was in NYC he thought that would be me. I told him I wasn’t so sure. It is true that our data center is one of the safest places in the city, but depending on the situation I would head for the hills! Either way these guys are a great read!
They have inspired me to try and find other blogs like it from people down there living through what is happening. Still searching…
Friday was relatively light day at work. Got allot done since not many people were around. I met my friend Kristen for drinks at this swanky bar near the office. As she pointed out for a swanky bar, they had ikea furniture, and plasma TV’s. I love some places priorities. After a few rounds we hit Angelo & Maxi’s. It was an unplanned visit to one of my favorite steak places. The food was great as always. After dinner we ended up at some dive bar in the village. Kristen liked it because it had a Pac Man machine. I couldn’t recreate my steps finding this place if I tried. I had a good night and then cabbed it home. I don’t even want to attempt a subway ride from the west village home on a friday. It will take too long.