Personal

Spa Day

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I had time in the late morning so I got a spa appointment. I like a good Swedish massage. A real one, not one with a “happy ending” like everyone joked with me about this week. My back gets messed up sometimes, so it is good to loosen things up. I need to go more often. A bit of steam room action (inaction), a shower and a shave and I felt awesome for my flight home.

Whenever I hit Vegas I like to do at least one day at the spa. It is relaxing, especially before a 4 1/2 hour flight home. Now back to waiting for said flight to board!

Convention Close

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Thursday was the last day of the convention. I missed one of the seminars I wanted to hit, and part of another to deal with a problem at work. I did learn a ton about DNS, and some other Cisco security tools at the seminars I made it to. Some of this stuff is so fascinating.

I hit the pool in the late afternoon. I didn’t get much sun. it was too hot. I ended up by the cafe by the pool for a quick snack, and some reading. it was very relaxing.

Thursday night we had the big Cisco convention party. It was cool. They rented out several rooms and the pool at the Palms. Hung out there with Joe for a while. We even played Halo. They were having a contest. Yes, Xbox at a convention party. it was a Cisco party!!! A bunch of tech guys and you need some sort of game. Joe was killing everyone we played. I was just getting killed. The top 18 players of the night (by highest stats of each 5 minute game played) would win an Xbox. When we left halfway through the party Joe had about 8 of the 16 slots taken up, so he should win a new Xbox to go allong with his other 2 that he has.

We met up with Karen at the Paris, and hung out at the lounge. This is where Jayson and Gretchen got really drunk at after their wedding (or so I am told). We had a few rounds and then we all went off to bed.

A Good Steak

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Wednesday night I went to a meet and greet for Cisco people interested in (or using) IPCC. I met some cool high level tech guys on the team from Cisco, the product manager, etc. I also had some important questions answered for me.

I met up with Pankaj, and we cut out of the meet and greet and hit Morton’s for dinner. I love a good steak. I also love a good steak 2 nights in a row. We had a few drinks waiting for some other people we were meeting up with. It was a good time. I even got to try the Godiva desert I missed the last time I was at Morton’s with Alison. It was fantastic.

I ended up back at the Paris and met up with Joe, Karen and Joe’s folks for drinks at the lounge. I didn’t drink more (i was pretty well off from the Morton’s alcohol) but I hung out with them for a while.

After Hours (for me) In Vegas

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For dinner tonight I ended up back at the Paris to meet my friend Sean & his wife Kelly for dinner. I have mentioned Sean before (sunday for starters) but I don’t know if I every gave any history on him and Kelly. I went to college with Sean, and whenever I goto vegas it is good to see him. Don’t know Kelly as well as Sean, but she is really cool. We went to this french resteraunt in the Paris (go figure) that she likes. We all had fantastic steaks. All the deserts were also great. I had this flowerless chocolate cake. It was pricey, but good. I am now wired on the cappichino that I had. I almost never get desert, and even less frequently do I get coffee. And no I cannot spell Cappichino, and I hacked it so bad that the spell checker can’t even make a suggestion.

I had a great time, and I think they had fun too. We had to cut the night short since Kellys mom was watching their baby and had to get up early tomorrow. We might hook up again this week, but my schedule is getting kind of tight. I am supposed to do this user conferece and meet up with a Cisco engineer that I know for dinner tomorrow. Then thursday is the big closing party.

I made my spa appointment for friday. I decided that I am taking my poker winnings from last week and I am going to the spa. I will relax in the morning and early afternoon and then go right to the airport for my flight home. Hopefully the day will be as nice as I have planned it to be.

Still Recovering

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I thought I had recovered from my reverse (nights awake, days sleeping) schedule of last week. That was until I had to stay up late again monday night. My body clock is all screwed up. I can’t goto sleep, but then I can’t get up in the morning. Just cant win this week. For that reason and because I have had a crazy week at work I haven’t written much. I am just tired. I need to get ready for my trip to Vegas next week. I haven’t even seen if I have my luggage or if I lent it to my parents. I realized this weekend that my flight is early on Fathers Day. that means I don’t get to see dad. Of course that also means he doesn’t need to pay for me when he takes everyone out to dinner that night!

Little Italy

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Meet up with Cari, her sister, Jayson, Gretchen, and Jay’s mom for dinner in Little Italy tonight. We went to a place we goto allot. It was good, but I can’t remember or spell the places name right. Afterward we went shopping for junk inexpensive sunglasses and accessories for Cari’s niece. It was hot and steamy from the rain, but we had a good time.

I just got home about an hour ago. I am still not tired. Even after a relitivly strong drink at Cari’s. I know I need to lie down now in order to be normal for Monday, but I am still not tired. I will try in a little while…

Sleep

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My sleep habits are all screwed up now that I worked nights two days in a row. Tonight I don’t have to do an overnight. We got allot done yesterday so we didn’t have to go in today. I do have to go back one more time on Thursday night. I got home at 6AM this morning and slept till 2PM. Now it is midnight and I am not tired. I figured I would write a bit and then hopefully sleep would come.

My building’s maintenance crew gave me a new AC unit today. The on in my living room was not cooling. Now I am nice and cold while I sit here and write! When I called they said it would be a while for them to send someone out so I ended up going to the office for a few hours. It was that or goto Starbucks and pay for internet. At work, it is free (for me)!

I went over to Macy’s after work to try and do some shopping, but the lines were really long for the changing room. I decided to try back some other time.

I also went over to the Cingular store. I still think they are an evil company, but I bought a pre-paid SIM card to test out their service. I have been having intermittent reception issues with my T-Mobile phone. So much so that this week I have been using my work Nextel and leaving forwarding calls to that. The pre-paid SIM was cheap, so I will try it for a few days and see if I like it or not.

I also re-organized part of my living room. I had for a while 2 monitors on my desk. They took up allot of space. I had another half of the L of my desk with nothing but piles of crap on it. I cleaned it off, bought a power strip and put my 20″ Apple Cinema display on the other desk. Now I have my powerbook plugged into that and I have more room. I also moved my printer to a shelf out of the way. I still need to clean up my place, but I am lazy since I have been out of it with these weird hours. I keep telling myself I will clean this weekend.

Besides that, I tried to rest allot today. More exciting things this weekend, I hope!

Too Much To Talk About

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I could go into so many things that went on this week. Had a great holiday weekend. Ended up hanging out with a bunch of friends Monday night in Little Italy.

Hung out with my friend John on Tuesday. He is finally working in Manhattan so Jay, Danny and I meet up with him for a few drinks. John, Jay & I ended up back at Dan’s for a pickup game of Texas Hold-em poker. At one point we had like 7 people playing. Not bad for 30 minutes notice on the game. I had a head ache all day Tuesday, but after dinner I felt well enough to go play. I am happy I did. I doubled my money!

Being out late every nigh has taken its tole on me. I am tired. I have been going to bed at 1AM every night for days. I need to get a good night sleep. Hopefully I will be in bed by 11PM tonight.

Today I got up early for a trip upstate for a BBQ. It was fun.

Tons more to write about, but I am going to bed!

Early Friday

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Got off work early today (due to the holiday!). Jayson and I went down to the Apple store (see later post for details), then headed back to my place. Jay is/was selling his Treo 600 that I sold to him a few months back. He liked it but thought it was too big. he sold it on Craigslist in like 15 minutes. No fees or anything. I was impressed. We ran back to my place to grab the original box and manual for it. I always try to keep that stuff. The guy buying it picked it up today. It was no fuss, no muss.

I hung out at Jays place for a while and played with Pierre. he is suck a funny dog. We hit dinner at Burger Heaven and then I went home to relax. I ended up working on Quicken (see next post) for most of the night.

Star Wars Episode III

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I “finally” saw the new Star Wars movie today. Rich, Amanda, & I bought tickets last night for the noon show by their house. I got up early and trekked out to Forest Hills to see it. It was worth it. The theater was not that packed, and we had stadium seating. They have stadium seating in Manhattan you may say, but it wasn’t crowded. I would have traveled to Iowa to see the movie if I knew it wasn’t going to be crowded.

I won’t bore you with details about the movie, except for the fact that Skywalker IS Darth Vader! Why didn’t anyone tell me! Seriously, it was a good movie. Most people could predict most of it, but it was still a good story.

After the movie we walked along Austin Street. They had some street fare. I had a crab cake sandwich for lunch. The thing was like the size of a hamburger. it was good, and didn’t hurt my stomach. I got some peanut butter fudge for desert. Cold stone creamery beaconed but it started to rain before I could get over there. Still not sure why there was a fair, but it was interesting. I passed on the funnel cake. No one else seemed to want it, so I didn’t want to pig out on my own. I searched but could not find a churro guy. Man street fairs are great for really bad for you (AKA very tasty) food.