Today was another day in the office. This time I went to the mid-town office since I had a meeting with someone who was visiting from an out of town office. I hung out (sat) in the usual spot. Went to lunch with Ripu and Abby since I love the cafeteria in that office. Thankfully my 8:30 AM meeting was canceled so I didn’t have to rush to the office, even though I still got there early. It was a busy day with meetings and dealing with some outstanding issues. I got out of work a little late but thankfully a reasonable time.
Spring Cleaning with Ebay
Yesterday I sold my Nokia E71. I know, I use an iPhone 3G. I also bought a E71 a few months ago to play around with. I was hoping to be able to switch between iPhone and E71. I know, I bought and returned a previous Nokia E71 for that same reason. I wanted to give the Nokia more than a day trial. The verdict was it is a great phone but even with its drawbacks I like the iPhone and even when I did use the E71 I would often switch back to the iPhone. So since I am currently on a sell my extra stuff kick I sold the Nokia on Craigslist.
So far in the past month I have let go of my Macbook, and the Nokia. I loved the Macbook, but the reality was I wasn’t using it so I opted for the much faster iMac desktop. I am even contemplating letting go of my HP netbook since I have my work laptop that is an ultra portable. I am also looking to offload my 160gig iPod. When I got the iPhone I thought I would slowly stop needing an iPod. That is exactly what happened. With my new 16gig USB key and 16gig SD card in my laptop I no longer need the 160gig iPod for any portable file storage. That means it is getting wiped and put up for sale.
I am also in the process of selling my old Airport Extreme base station, but that is only because I upgraded. That sale will recoup half the cost of the new one. Man ebay you are my enabler for buying new stuff!
What I am not selling is my old 23″ cinema display. It found a new home as my second monitor on my iMac. I need to rummage through my storage bins to see if there is anything else I want part with. Don’t you smell spring cleaning in the air.
Waking Up With a Throbbing Head
It was a bit wet in the morning. I can’t believe how violent the rain was this morning. I woke up to the thunder and lightening and thought I was dreaming. This was about 4 AM and then I didn’t really sleep well after that. I went to bed with a head ache and woke up with one. That is the worst possible sign I can possible have. I was about to call in sick but had too much to do so I took some Aleve and chanced going into the office. I almost never take sick days so I could have if I needed to but I really didn’t want to. I just really didn’t want the head ache to deteriorate to a migraine. When I wake up in the morning with a head ache that is usually the outcome. Thankfully today that didn’t happen. I think it was luck and prompt medication (thought meds don’t always do it).
Today was an in the office day so I went to my home base office. Things were busy but generally nothing major stands out for the day. I picked up a filet for dinner and cooked it up on the George Forman and relaxed in the evening. By the time I got home I was feeling fine.
Its Monday Again
For some reason today I got 3 packages. I know I order 3 things but never expected two of them to show today. My fancy (in my opinion) mugs arrived. I got glass ones with metal handles. I always liked that style. I also got some stuff from drugstore.com since I am lazy and like ordering from them. I also got my business cards in the mail. I ordered them in the middle of last week and was amazed at how fast they arrived. It took me months to realize that if I wanted cards all I had to do was goto an intranet site and request them.
Today was a work from home day, and I am glad. I got a head ache in the afternoon that is still plaguing me. Unfortunately I had conference calls most of the day except for the late afternoon. It was a relatively productive day. More tasks were checked off as completed by my team than I added to the list of to do’s. Whenever that happens it was a good day.
Lazy Sunday
Today was a lazy Sunday. As with many Sunday’s I wake up with hopes to do something productive, but by the end of the day I haven’t been productive at all. I don’t really regret it, I just state that as fact. I did clean up my place a bit, and do the laundry but that is normal routine on lazy Sunday’s. Watched some TV, worked on the computer a bit, and then played around with the themes on this site. I settled on something less than what I wanted just because no free WordPress theme seemed to really say use me. Pondering buying a theme but I don’t keep one long enough to justify the expense. For now just playing around.
Birthday BBQ
Today I went to my sisters for a birthday BBQ. It was primarily for my nephew who turned 3, but also celebrating was my dad, brother in law, his other brother in law, etc. There were allot of names on the cake. We had a good time.
My parents picked me up so i had a ride to the event. That is always good. My brother in laws parents gave me a ride back to the city. I gave his mom a tutorial on some stuff with her new blackberry. I was impressed she wanted to do stuff with one that I never tried.
I had fun seeing all the kids. In total there were 6 including my niece and nephew. I got to see the newly renovated basement. I also got to setup their Wii. They had it since Morgan’s birthday in March but haven’t used it.
For food as BBQ‘s go I was not happy. For the kids they had turkey hot dogs and turkey burgers. There was no beef anywhere to be found. The turkey dog’s were ok, but I don’t care what anyone says you can tell the difference from beef ones. It is just like eating diet soda, it is close in taste but just not quite.
Overall it was a great day with the family.
New Coffee Maker
Today I got a coffee maker. It is a momentous occasion for me since I typically don’t drink coffee and I have never owned a coffee maker. For the past few years I have been drinking cappuccino’s ever so often. This winter I started drinking them on the days I went into the office. I am not up to 1 cup a day but I am having it a few times a week. I don’t drink hot liquids that much in the summer so I haven’t had that many recently but I saw that the company that makes the machines at one of the offices I goto makes a personal machine. I thought it was cool that they make cappuccino’s with no real effort. So I went out and bought a Flavia Fusion. I figured if I use it for a year or so I will make my money back from not having to pay large amounts of cash at starbucks or the grocery store by my house.
I also like that the Flavia machines make Hot Chocolate too. I am ordering nifty glass mugs with metal handles that come off the bottom. My mom will be proud when she sips tea out of them!
Two Offices In One Day
Today I started off in the office down town. I worked there for the morning and took care of a few meetings. Then at lunch time I went up to midtown for lunch and meetings the rest of the afternoon. It was a productive day. I stayed later than I anticipated but I was glad to get allot of work done!
Nothing spectacular happened at home tonight. Just relaxed and played a bit too much Xbox 360. I don’t do it all the time but I go through spurts of actively playing. I think I started one of those cycles on Sunday.
New Watch Band
After months of waiting I finally got the call that my new watch band is in. Back in December I decided that I wanted to replace the band on the Omega Speedmaster my dad gave me. The watch was 39 (in december) years old and it had the original band. Whenever I used it when I went to work I was scratching the bottom of it when I typed at my desk. Not wanting to continue to damage an irreplaceable piece of the watch (that band was discontinued and virtually impossible to get) or get a new one. I opted for a leather strap and titanium clasp. Back in December they said it would be a few weeks to get. By February they hadn’t shown up yet. I was not happy but figured I it was something that would never come in. I hadn’t paid for it yet so I thought nothing of it.
Fast forward till last week, and I was in the office and decided to check my voice mail. Oddly enough there were voice mails from the jeweler saying the band and clasp had show up, but the VM’s were from March. Now it is important to note that I goto this office once maybe twice a week. Because of that I don’t give out that number to anyone. When I am in the office I sometimes point my Google Voice number to that land line phone at my desk, but not always. Apparently the local voice mail system had picked up a few calls that the Google Voice VM should have caught. I never thought to check the voice mail since my phone doesn’t have a light telling me I have messages.
Once I heard the messages I called the jeweler to see if the stuff I ordered was still around after 2+ months. Yesterday I got a call saying they were and I could stop by anytime to get them. Today after work I headed over there to get them. 15 minutes later and a wallet that was much lighter than when I went in I had my new strap and clasp. The new look makes the watch look almost like a different one. The old steel band is in a safe place and will goto my parents for storage in the near future. My dad was quick to point out that I paid more for this upgrade than he did for the whole watch back in 1969. I still think it was worth it since with this new upgrade I will wear it more. I wore it more last week than I did in the past year!
Meetup With Long Lost Friends
Last night I meet up with Joe, Karen, John, Jay, & Gretchen. It has been almost a year since I saw Karen last and probibly 2-3 years since I last saw Joe.
We meet up at a bar called the Galaway Hooker. John suggested it since it was close for Joe, Karen, Jay & Gretchen. Surprisingly I had actually been there before but didn’t’ realize it until i walked upstairs. We ate and had a few drinks before taking off. It was way too loud for our tastes. We ended up going to a lounge down the block that was quieter where we hung out for several more hours talking and drinking. Overall I had a great time and I think everyone else did too. I found out later that John had to spend a ton of money getting home since it was so late and the train schedule was really bad.
I for one walked out of the bar and hailed a cab. I was home in 15 minutes. It cost like $14 for the cab and tunnel toll but getting home from the east side for me can be really easy sometimes. I was happy to be able to just pass out. I did not keep to my 2 drink self imposed maximum last night, but i was with friends I hadn’t seen in ages so I made an exception!