My Life (nobody else would want it!) |
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Idle thoughts in the life of an IT Professional that's married with children. My Profile Map of Countries I've Visited Other blogs that I write: The Wine Spot WhineSpot (co-hosted) Other Blogs that I read: My Life (by Karen) Carrie's Blog A Nichol's Worth (Patti) Points to Ponder My Life in Paradise (Curt's Blog) poopee shmoopee's blog BostonBlueEyes (Colin's blog) LQ's Blog, Moo Alex Simon of Space Mark's Regular Life Trucker Bob's Blog  Shared pain is lessened Shared joy is multiplied
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Friday, August 29, 2003
Finally, a long weekend! Well, it's Labor Day Weekend, and hopefully we'll get some nice weather for it. Not sure what we're going to do if anything, but a day off is a day off! Ray's doing a GREAT job on the house! I can't wait till he's finished. He's power-washing the deck today, and staining it next week (it's quite a large deck). I just looked at the work calendar and noticed, we also have Columbus Day and Veteran's Day off! (personally, I think only veterans should have veterans day off, even though I'm not a veteran) Oh, did I mention, the ADT security system in work is STILL partly screwed up! Go figure. Well, more as I think of it.... have a great Holiday Weekend! Thursday, August 28, 2003
You call THIS security? Well, I got to work this morning only to find out our ADT system took a long weekend, and wouldn't let me in the building! And as everyone showed up, nobody could come in. I called the facilities person, and woke her up (she's on vacation).. she came in and she didn't even have a key to open the only door that's not magnetically locked. Nope, she didn't have the key. Next, I had to run to a locksmith that made a key for that door, came back... by which time now it's almost 2 hours after I got to work, and opened the door. What a start to my day! Took daughter out to dinner last night, as today's her first day of teaching real students.. the fruit of 4 long years of college. I know she's nervous, but I also know she'll do just fine *S* I also bought The Lord of the Rings, The Twin Towers last night, and only watched a bit of the second DVD, with added features and that was great! Well, got to get to work, already 2 hours late! Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Missing Post Ok, I was home sick yesterday, so I didn't write an entry. Today, I feel better and maybe I'll make up for it (maybe not). We have a long holiday weekend coming up, and not sure what we're going to do... hopefully have a nice cookout. My friend Ray's beginning work on the outside of my house (Ray's a painter by trade) and we need all the windows painted, our front door frame, garage doors and deck power-washed and stained. Ray's the best, so I know it'll be done right, and will last. Ray's a great friend, and we both LOVE UCONN Basketball, both mens and womens. He usually comes over just about every game to watch the mens games with me. This spring he bought himself an AC Cobra replica, a GORGEOUS car.. but sadly he's had his share of problems with it. He's probably one of the hardest working guys I know (physically wise), and also the most meticulous painters I've ever seen. He normally does houses in the quarter million to multi-million dollar houses because of his talent, but he works long hours, and it's physically demanding. I saw a funny quote this morning " I hated going to weddings. All the grandmas would poke me saying "You're next." They stopped that when I started doing it to them at funerals" And a funny for today: Women believe if a pet cat strays, it's because of a lack of affection at home. Women believe if a pet dog strays, it's because of lack of attention at home. Women believe if a woman strays, it's because of lack of attention at home. Women believe if a man strays, it's because men are pigs. Enjoy......... Monday, August 25, 2003
What a Weekend! The weatherman didn't lie, this probably was the best weekend, weather-wise, of the year. It was close to 80, bright sunshine and mild breeze both days, and perfectly cool for sleeping at night with the windows open. Yesterday, I sat out on the back porch in the shade, grabbed a beer and a new book and sat and read for hours... it was great. Started reading "PREY" by Michael Crighton, an EXCELLENT book (I read 292 pages yesterday). It's a techno-thriller about nano-technology and it's real hard to put down. So what'd you do this weekend??? Friday, August 22, 2003
TGIF, Again! Well, now I've seen it all. Click here to see the funniest thing! I can't even describe it good enough *laughing* I'm not even sure whether to take it seriously or not! (God, I just thought about it that my daughter reads this blog.... oh well, she's over 21) It's supposed to be the most gorgeous weekend all year this weekend... go figure, it waits till mid August for a good weekend.. *chuckling* What're you doing this weekend? Leave me a comment. Well, work calls... have a great weekend! Thursday, August 21, 2003
*yawn* I need a nap... I've been feeling kinda tired lately... not sure why. Maybe I just need a Saturday till like 10am or something (that's REAL late for me). Looking at the possibility of going to a car-show with my son on Saturday. Supposed to be a good one. I'd like to do more things like this with my son... hopefully this will be good for us both. Listening on the radio right now about a woman in California cooking a hotdog in a microwave, it blew up (they didn't say, hotdog or microwave) and the house caught fire and burnt down! Those Californians do everything big, even cooking hotdogs! Went to see dad last night with the family, as it was his birthday... he looks real good considering what he's been through. We gave him exactly what he wanted, one of those PUR water filters that go on the fawcett, and some spare filters. Brother and sister in law were there too, and it was nice having the family together. I'm honestly not sure how many of these get-togethers we have left, being whole like this... and it's beginning to sadden me to think about it. I guess we always figure our parents will be there... and it's sad to think they won't, and the realization slips in. Funny story, my mom tells us her answering machine kickes in sometimes at night without ringing at about 1am, with my daughter's voice... "Hi, we can't come to the phone right now......" and scares the heck out of her. May have to get her a new answering machine... this one seems haunted! Hey, don't forget to leave a comment once in a while so I know you're looking at my blog! *S* Well, happy Thursday all.... Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Is the sky supposed to be blue? Wow, two beautiful days in a row. I don't know if I can handle the strain *L* Had a quiet night as son was working, and wife and daughter went to the mall. Caught up on a few things, read the newspaper.. sometimes quiet is good. With this wonderful weather, my thoughts turn to golf. I haven't golfed all year yet, and the weather's calling to me. Maybe Friday, if the weather's still nice. Not that I'm good at all, but golf is a sport where you can either compete, or just have fun, and I'm one of the latter ones. I'll get mad at a bad shot when someone PAYS me to make it! *L* Seems like every day now, there's a new virus/worm/trojan coming out. What's with this?? Are the anti-virus makers needing money and producing the damn viruses? Well, job security for me I guess. Have a great humpday! Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Finally, NO RAIN! For the first time in I can't remember how long, no rain in the forcast today!!! We've had measurable rain for the last 14 our of 18 days! My birthday was great... went to Dave's house last night for my God-Daughter's birthday party and had a great time. This is what Dave and his wife got me for my birthday! plus a few other things. You'll notice something new down the left side, a counter. I admit it, I stole it from LQ's blog... but I liked it! *chuckle* Well, lots to do today, so I have to get going. More later as I think of it! Monday, August 18, 2003
Happy Birthday to Meeeeee! Yep, I'm another year older today (don't ask). This is also my God-Daughter's birthday too (much to her mother's chagrin), so we'll be going there tonight for cake and a party. Last week was so darned busy, I was at the main office from Wednesday through Friday helping out with some major problems. Hopefully, this week will be nice and easy! The weekend was nice... went out for a nice early birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant (Chatterleys) with wife, and friends Ray and Debbie and had a great time. Yesterday, after going to see mom and dad, did a few things at home and had Aaron over for dinner and cake, then daughter's boyfriend came over. It was a great time. Well, have a great week everyone, I'm actually out of work a bit early today to celebrate! Friday, August 15, 2003
TGIF (or have you heard this tune before?) Well, thank goodness the week's almost at an end. I'm finally back at my normal place of work taking care of my own problems. The people at the home office have things under control now. On that note, if the tech's there had a CLUE, things would be so much easier for them! They're all running around thinking THEY KNOW the answer, when the idiots don't have any idea what to do. I swear, every single one of the tech's were doing something different to fix this virus. There was no "plan", no "procedure" in place. When I started working on the virus there, the person I was working with was removing the virus, but NOT patching the PC to stop it from coming back! Not only that, but there's a managed copy of Norton's AntiVirus that he could install, but he wasn't doing it. I took him aside, showed him what I was doing (remove virus, patch, update anti-virus), and he was amazed and started doing it that way right away. I can safely say, the PC's I worked on will NOT get the virus again, and will be protected from now on. Rant over. Luckily, we were spared from the power outage last night. it's a scary thing though, to have all this power cascade into the toilet when it's not supposed to. I feel for the people that had to sleep in the streets last night cause they couldn't get home. I hope we fix this right, and quick. I downloaded and installed the COOLEST FREE software for astronomy (such an understatement). It's called Celestia, and can be found here It's 3-D, and can take you (movement, stars whizzing by...) to stars, planets, moons, asteroids, comets.. and the details are astonishing! We're going to book the cruise to Bermuda today.... it'll be nice! *S* And now, a Blonde joke for the weekend: The Blonde Cookbook MONDAY: It's fun to cook for Bob. Today I made angel food cake. The recipe said beat 12 eggs separately. The neighbors were nice enough to loan me some extra bowls. TUESDAY: Bob wanted fruit salad for supper. The recipe said serve without dressing. So I didn't dress. What a surprise when Bob brought a friend home for supper. WEDNESDAY: A good day for rice. The recipe said wash thoroughly before steaming the rice. It seemed kinda of silly but I took a bath. I can't say it improved the rice any. THURSDAY: Today Bob asked for salad again. I tried a new recipe. It said prepare ingredients, then toss on a bed of lettuce one hour before serving. Which is what led up to Bob asking me why I was rolling around in the garden. FRIDAY: I found an easy recipe for cookies. It said put all ingredients in bowl and beat it. There must have been something wrong with this recipe. When I got back, everything was the same as when I left. SATURDAY: Bob did the shopping today and brought home a chicken. He asked me to dress it for Sunday (oh boy). For some reason Bob keeps counting to ten. SUNDAY: Bob's folks came to dinner. I wanted to serve roast. All I could find was hamburger. Suddenly I had a flash of genius. I put the hamburger in the oven and set the controls for roast. It still came out hamburger, much to my disappointment. GOOD NIGHT DEAR DIARY. This has been a very exciting week. I am eager for tomorrow to come so I can try out a new recipe on Bob. If we could just get a bigger oven, I would like to surprise him with Chocolate Moose. Here's hoping you all have a great weekend..... Thursday, August 14, 2003
Viruses Suck! Whoever wrote this "Blaster" virus, should have a slow, and painful death. I spent all day yesterday helping the main office clean off this virus from a bunch of PC's. Maybe pull out his/her fingernails nice and slowly.. *grrrrrrrrr* The good news about working at the main office, there's some great people there. I worked yesterday with a guy named Jerry, that's extremely friendly and pleasant to work with, and actually enjoys learning new stuff, and actually LISTENS when someone's trying to help him. The sun is finally out today. After more than 14 days of rain/fog/high humidity, today'll be sunshiny and hot, but no humidity. Well, we'll see if I have to fight the dreaded Blaster virus today or not.... Have a good one! Wednesday, August 13, 2003
HumpDay Redux Well, that stupid Blaster Virus has been all over where I work. Luckily, the two major buildings I work in have a managed copy of Norton AntiVirus, and we haven't been hit at all, but the rest of the place... wow! (I even got hit by it at home on my Windows XP notebook, but it's easy enough to remove). My son, yesterday comes home and tells us about a "stuffed elephant" he MADE for his girlfriend. My God.... my son sews! *L* (must be true love, I never sewed for any of my old girlfriends!) We're still working on a vacation, now considering a 7 night cruise to Bermuda as airfare to Vegas keeps changing. Go figure. I had this ODD thought while lying in bed last night (no, not those thoughts). What if you were able to pay off a credit card, WITH a credit card? You could live your life with 3 credit cards, and never ever pay the bills. Just keep playing round robin every 30 days or so, paying one off with the other, around and around *laughing* and never really pay! (yes, I do think about weird things sometimes) It's all downhill from here (being that it's Wednesday!) Have a great one! Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Will it ever stop raining? Well, not much new since yesterday... but: My work cell phone died, and going to get a new one, they don't make the Motorola Star-Tac anymore, and the company we deal with doesn't have a flip-phone at all now, so the telephone person dug up a REAL old Star-Tac to try to make work for me (insert groaning noise here). Talked to wife about Vegas trip, she got the week off tentatively, but I went to check airfare again, and what do you think happens? Of course, it goes up by at least $30/person. We also talked about a cruise in January that wife's co-worker is going on. I don't know if I want to wait that long, and the last time we went on a winter vacation, we got stuck in Atlanta for 3 days because of a blizzard up here and I ended up spending a few days with the woman from HELL because of it (like I control the weather). What happens now, is totally up to her, but if she bags on going at all, I'll go by myself. Waving to LQ, Bubba and Ozzie! Well, as Arnold says, "Hasta la Vista, Baby!" Monday, August 11, 2003
Monday Morning Blues... Well, had a pretty good weekend. Went to lunch with a friend that got laid off from where I work recently, had a great time at a restaurant named The Corner Pug. Best chili and salad I've ever had! I know Mike reads my blog so "Get a job Mike!" *L* Friday night, went out after work with Dave, Aaron and another friend, Dan to a great restaurant/bar and had some beers and dinner. Had a fantastic time talking and laughing.. we need to do that more often. Wife and daughter came home very late, so I was in bed asleep already, but wife came to see me as soon as she got in. It's nice to have them back. Saturday and Sunday, I did some painting on some wood pieces I have for the split rail fence I'm replacing (small fence on corners of property), needs another coat, but it's so darn hot and humid.. it limited time painting. Supposed to be Hazy Hot and Humid (HHH) till at least Wednesday. Good grief.... we've had enough! *chuckling* Have a great day and week! Friday, August 08, 2003
TGIF! Went to the movies with Dave last night to see "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", and it was better than I anticipated! I loved the "period" sets, set at the turn of the century, and Captain Nemo's Nautilus was outstanding! All in all, great entertainment. Keep in mind, I'll watch ANYTHING that has either Sean Connery or Gene Hackman in it! *L* Wife and daughter come home tonight, and they've been missed. Looks like it's going to be a busy, if not rainy weekend. Have a great weekend! Thursday, August 07, 2003
Something I thought worth posting "The final crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia was memorialized in the cosmos as seven asteroids orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter were named in their honor today." See the full story here... One day closer to Friday... Well, Tuesday night I took daughter's brand new car in to have the security system installed (bought with the car), and they worked on it yesterday. I get out of work early to go get it, and they say it'll be ready late... so my son and I wait. And wait. And wait.... (ok, they gave me a new MazdaSpeed to try to go get an ice cream while waiting.. WOW) and when it's around 4pm, they tell me it won't be ready today. Oh, did I mention the loaner was a 98 Mazda 626 with well over 100k on the clock? I was very unimpressed. So, after hearing I had to keep this car for one more day, I went to see my salesman, and he said... no problem and got me the daughter of the owner's brand new Mazda 6! NICE CAR! I"m impressed. Had the optional V6, Tiptronic transmission, optional 450 Watt stereo.. not too shabby! Did I mention.... I stopped at Dunkin Donuts this morning, and as I'm bringing the coffee through the window, it hits the top of the door, and as it feels like it's falling, I squeeze harder, which pops off the cover, which spills iced coffee all down the outside and inside of the new car door? *chuckling* I hope this isn't the way my day's going to go! So, I have to go back today to get daughters car again! *groan* Seems like I've been running around every night this week. Today's the day my bud Aaron gets his divorce finalized! Whoo Hoo!! Well, work calls.... Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Humpday.... Well, the week's going by slowly.... and I miss my wife and daughter. It's been rainy and humid since Saturday, and it's expected to stay that way all week *groan*. All I can say is, when the sun finally comes out, my grass will be about a foot high! Well, not much else to moan about (that I wish to write), so have a nice day, and do something nice for someone today. Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Dinner and a Movie Well, as I said my bud Dave also has this week as a bachelor so we went out for great Mexican food last night (and a few margharita's) and to see the new Lara Croft movie. The movie was pretty good, with tons of great stunts, and twists along the way. Her geek-friend and butler have a tiny bit more roles in this movie (and I liked them), and as usual, the action is non-stop. All in all, just about on par with the last movie, and I'd rate it 4 out of 5 stars. (Pirates of the Caribbean by the way, was 6 out of 5, it was that good) Got home after the movie and my son and his girlfriend were watching TV, so sat with them for a few before turning in. All in all, the house feels empty without the wife and my daughter. Dave keeps telling me what a great job we've done with our kids, and it's hard to be humble when our kids are so..... great. My daughter's going to start her carreer in a few weeks as a high school math teacher, and my son begins college around the same time to be a pharmacist. We're very proud of them both. Dave has only one child, my God-Daughter, and I can only believe it'll be a lot harder with one child than it was with two. My kids were always best of friends, my son, staying up while daughter was out waiting for her... and her watching over him always. Both very different people, yet very much the same. Well, off to read the other blogs on my list and to start my day.... Monday, August 04, 2003
Bachelor Week! Well, my wife and daughter are off to Washington DC for the week, chaperoning a bunch of high school kids, so my son and I are bachelors for a week! My friend Dave is also a bachelor this week as his wife went to visit her family in Nantucket, so we'll probably see a couple of movies this week. It's supposed to rain all week long *groan*. What's with that? I'm tired of rain... send in the sunshine! Dad's had his first week of radiation therapy and so far is doing quite well. Keep your fingers crossed. Have a great day, more info as I think of it! Friday, August 01, 2003
TGIF, again! Well, I've scuttled the idea of vacationing at Sandals after reading incredibly differing reviews. Out of 10 reviews, 7 will RAVE about the place, and 3 will be so horrid, that it makes you wonder if the 7 raves are from employees. One of the 3 awful ones was written 3 weeks ago and was about 1000 words long explaining everything that stunk about the place (and there was a lot). So, we may look to go to Vegas. Next week, it'll be a man's house at home as wife and daughter are going away to chaperone a bunch of kids on a trip to Washington DC. So, Mike and I will be "bachelors" for a week (ok, his girlfriend is still around but so what). And, I'll leave you with a small joke today: The heaviest element known to science is Managerium. This element has no protons or electrons, but has a nucleus composed of 1 neutron, 2 vice-neutrons, 5 junior vice-neutrons, 25 assistant vice-neutrons, and 125 junior assistant vice-neutrons all going round in circles. Managerium has a half-life of three years, at which time it does not decay but institutes a series of reviews leading to reorganization. Its molecules are held together by means of the exchange of tiny particles known as morons. Have a great weekend! |