Life, Kids, Technology & that move to another continent
It was Dari & Jennifer’s birthday’s at work friday. We went out to America for a lunch. There was like 22 of us. It was a huge table. it was a nice time out. It was the first of 2 celebrations for their birthday. Dari’s boyfriend had setup a surprise dinner for her so we didn’t want to have her figure out she had a dinner that night, so we went to lunch.
Check out the mob for photos…
Jayson and I went shopping at Macy’s after work today. We are never good shopping together. We make each other spend money. I bought 4 new pairs of paints, 3 shirts, and some socks. For me that was allot. I got so much since they were on sale 50% off. My problem is I bought a type of paints that I never had before. I was not 100% sure on the size and if I will like them. If I do like them I am going to get more… Jayson also spent some $$$ on paints.
He got me buying the dockers paints that are wrinkle resistant and stain resistant. You can pore coffee on the paints and they wont stain. They will dry fast also. Water beads right off of them. I like the fact that I can wash them in the machine and not have to iron them. That will save me $ on dry cleaning. My current khakis get nasty fast. I hope these dockers wear better.
And I said I would not spend allot this month since I want to move. Oh well:(
I got allot done at work today. I setup 4 websites. I configured IIS, our Cisco Local Directors, etc. now all I need to do is get the SSL id’s for them. Jayson got cracking on the 3 new servers we just got in. 1 is done, and another is partially done. We also got through a bunch of support tickets. All in all a good day, except for the heat.
We fled the heat to the server / telecom room for allot of the day. it was just too hot, and I couldn’t sit in my office all day knowing AC was 20 feet from me. I still ended up out in the heat for at least half the day.
Most of the office left early to play softball. We stayed and finished up some work. I am not ready to play softball yet.
Check out the Mo-blog. One of our developers, James went out and bought a portable pool. They filled it with water and I got some pictures of people sitting in the office with their feet in the pool. it is really funny. yes it was that hot…
Went with Jayson and Dan to angelo maxi’s steak house for Jayson’s birthday today. It was good food like always. We had the lunch special. For $20.99 you get soup or salad (i don’t eat it) a steak of some kind, and desert. I get the cheese cake. It is awesome for like $26 after tax and tip. It is not an everyday thing, but once in a while it is nice, and allot cheaper than their regular meal at dinner time.
I talk allot about communication gadgets, etc. I won’t lie, I like them. I think they are cool. I also find them invaluable. Yesterday reaffirmed that for me. I was lost without my cell phone when the confiscated it yesterday. In order to check in with work I had to call our 800# to our call center and get some one to patch me through to Kai. I missed the call about a site being down at noon, not that I would have been able to do anything. I at least could have given out vital info if someone needed it.
It is good to a point that I can stay connected with one communication device like that. It is bad that when it is taken away it is like I don’t know what to do. I can tell you I was bored for a while. I did other things, but you almost get addicted to being able to stay so connected.
Note to self for next jury duty, get a non camera phone and use that. Gus has my old T-68i and he is in India, so I didn’t have a phone I could pop my SIM in that the court officers wouldn’t take.
My apartment building finally turned on the AC for the building on Monday night. I figured this out Tuesday evening when it was really hot and I was cranky. My apartment is now cool and comfy. I wish I could say the same about work.
I am in shorts and sneakers today for work. They said relaxed dress code until they could fix the AC, so I am taking advantage of this for now. I wish it was just cooler, but I will settle for no paints now.
Last night I went to dinner with my parents. I got home at like 4PM from Jury Duty. that is hours earlier than my normal time. I went and got a hair cut and then went to dinner.
After that I went home and did some work. We were really backlogged since I was out for 2 days. I cut the backlog down allot but we still have more to do.
Since I am out on Jury duty Dan has postponed the cube redesign scheduled for this thursday. As of now it seems I will be out all week. The newly scheduled date is next thursday.
Also on the construction front is the preparation for new cubes in Kingston. We have one cable quote, and we are waiting for a new one. Once that is done we begin plan’s on Phase III of our call center build out. I guess Phase II would be the adding the remaining cubes. Phase III would be the plan to double the call center size with new space. That plan is underway now. We meet architects on Thursday to discuss the designs.
It looks like Kai and Brian will loose their office when we do the construction. The kitchen won’t be big enough for all the people we plan on holding. The IS office can be moved and a wall can be broken down and the kitchen can expand into the IS office. Because of the size of the office when the construction is done we will need a second telecom room to accommodate the new cable runs we will need.
With all this construction I at least know what my summer will be like.
The powers that be have smiled on me today. Turns out that my case settled out of court. We were just told the good news. I am now waiting to be officially released from jury duty. The cop running the show has not decided to do that yet. I am not sure if we have to wait till 5PM or if we will get out soon. Either way I am out by the end of today. I am happy now.
All I have to do is get my cell phone back!
I am on day two of Jury Duty. Yesterday was going ok until I got put on a Jury. I was in the new courthouse. The AC was on, I had cell reception. I figured I can ride this out. No problem. Then I get put in a room for 4 hours and at the last minute I get selected as an alternate on a jury. I did my best to not be wanted, but they selected me anyway.
My dad picked me up from the courthouse yesterday and we went to dinner. THe commute wasn’t so bad. today will not be so nice. I got a car service to the court house again. That went over well, except for its cost. Going home is more difficult. I don’t know when I will be let go, so I cannot arrange for a car. Taking the rail road will take longer than it would from the city since I would have to go from Jamaica to wood-side back to my train station.
Other problems abound today. My GPRS service was not working on my phone so I could not check email. I figured it would start working eventually today. I will never know since the court house confiscated my phone because it has a camera on it. I can get it back later, but I am now without a phone all day. I had to call the office before and I used our 800# to get a hold of kai. If it wasn’t happening to me, I would think it was funny.
I am now waiting for my trial to be called. They say it can happen anytime between 10AM and 5PM. It feels like I am waiting for the cable company.
The only plus side is that the AC is going in the courthouse and it is comfy. Work will probably be hot and nasty this week without AC.
I am sitting here blogging in the central jury room waiting for my case to be called. I cannot find any outlets to power the laptop so I am keeping it powered down as much as possible. I have the screen brightness down all the way to conserve power. I don’t know how long I will be here. I also don’t know if or when I can charge the laptop up again today.
I have been using my Treo for email. That way I am trying to phase out my blackberry. Since I cannot have the camera phone in the courthouse I am having Jayson fedex me my pager for tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will get it before I leave for the courthouse. With my blackberry I can at least get email when I am out of the office. The Treo was fine yesterday, but they confiscated it today:(
This blog entry was written while listening to Black Balloon from the album “Dizzy Up The Girl” by Goo Goo Dolls
I may have mentioned this before but the only software I am buying recently is software for my Treo 600. I am finding so many useful things to get, I going out and buying the full versions when the trials are over.
I just bought Verichat. it allows you to chat over GPRS. You can use AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ. If you are not actively in the program, but logged onto their proxy server and someone sends you an IM, you get a SMS message with the IM. You then can sms back or enter the program and chat. Regular chatting does not use up SMS messages. it rocks.
I also got Call Shield Lite for the Treo 600. It allows me to identify anyone or any group with distinctive rings. It also allows me to hang-up, send to voice mail or answer any call by a number of parameters. you do this by group, person, or phone number. I have someone who keeps calling with a wrong number. I programed the software automatically hang up on them before the phone rings. It is so crazy, how cool this software is.
I am going to buy jabber software so I can use work’s jabber system on the Treo. I haven’t tried that out yet, but it looks good.