Y7 D219

Another one of those days where I can't actually post my post because it is still yesterday at home. I have to sit on this for two hours and post it from the airport. Which we are leaving for in two hours. It is finally time to go fucking home.

Yesterday was seriously uneventful. I taught from 8-4, went to bed at 7. In between, I packed, and I ate. That's it. That was my day. A radius of about 100 feet. Whee.

B went out to say goodbye to her sisters and mom one last time, dropped off the truck with her grandfather, and then came back and did the same thing as me just slightly later. She went to bed around 9.

Home. Soon. Home.

Y7 D218

So close to going home. We will be at the airport in less than 24 hours. I have never been so excited in my whole life. Just one more day.

Yesterday was okay. I woke up with a headache but once I turned the heat off and took some advil that was better. I went down to breakfast, watched the Doctor Who Xmas Special, then started class. That damn xmas special. How is it Steven Moffat can pull your heart strings like he does? So annoying.

B came back around 11 while I was teaching. She basically hung out while I worked. She was going to see another friend yesterday during the day but he ended up flaking on her. One of the issues she would always complain about with him. I finished class around 3:30 and from there we just hung out until it was time to go to her old work Xmas party. We went to red robin first for dinner as the party was at a bowling alley with bad pizza and warm soda. We got to the party around 7:15 and hung out for an hour. Most people didn't know we were coming and they were surprised to see B. However the whole thing was really bad for her ego. Most of the girls there are catty bitches concerned with nothing more than getting married and pregnant. I now understand B's attitude when she first moved. Even she saw it and was surprised. We got back to the hotel around 9, read for a while, starting pre-packing, then bed around 11.

Today I teach, we pack, we sleep, we leave. Soon we be home.

Y7 D217

I have a splitting headache this morning. Heat headache. It started snowing here finally and as a result the stupid heat would not shut off. I slept like shit as a result and this morning my head is pounding. I cannot wait to get home where this is not a problem. Two more days and I can finally head home.

Got up around 5 yesterday, went down to breakfast at 6, and then sat around until 10am when class started. East coast start times are a bitch. All of my students except for one are east coast as well. Upside is we agreed to start at 8 today and tomorrow. That will help. B left around 11 to hang out with her friend for the day. They also had a sleepover so I am alone right now. The snow did cause them a problem as she was in an accident yesterday. They hit a patch of ice on the freeway and slammed into the center divider. She is okay so don't worry. A little shaken up but no injuries. The weird thing is her friend almost got a ticket for 'fleeing an accident scene'. WTF? Where I am from if there are no injuries, no other vehicles, and minimal damage, you don't call the police. Apparently here you call no matter what. Weird.

They made it back safely to her friend's house and all is good on that front. She should be coming back today around 10 or so.

I finished up class around 5:20 and then ate leftovers for dinner. Watched some TV. I watched three episodes of Agent X. I found out they have cancelled the show but they must have known and the last episode was satisfying and closed the story nicely. If it were to be renewed they left it just open enough but otherwise they wrapped things up well. I don't feel cheated that it is gone.

Also read the bad news about Lemmy passing away. That's a real sad one. He has his 70th birthday on the 24th, gets told he has super cancer on the 26th, dies on the 28th. Fuck. I did download the entire studio discography of Motorhead last night in tribute. Too many people from my youth are dying off and it sucks.

Went to bed around 10. Not much else to report. Almost time to go home and have Christmas finally.

Y7 D216

Yesterday was fun and crazy and full of CHRISTmas. Oh yeah, that's how the spell it where we went yesterday.

I got up around 6, went out around 7 and put gas in the truck and grabbed bagels for everyone. Got back, and once B was up, we started final packing. We decided to leave everything there until we got back from our day trip since I didn't want to leave stuff in the back of the truck where someone could steal it or it could get wet. We went out around 10:30 and first went over to her other grandparent's house to say goodbyes. We then picked up her friend and headed out to Frankenmuth. It's one of those Bavarian style towns with shops and 'authentic' stuff but the big draw is a store called Bronners. It's the world's largest CHRISTmas store. Emphasis theirs, not mine. They have so many Jesus displays it's ridiculous. They do ship so we bought some stuff and it is on the way. Should hit home around the same time we do.

We had 'world famous chicken dinner' around 1:30 which lasted until 3. It's an all you can eat affair with chicken and noodles and cottage cheese and pate and dessert and oh my I am going to explode. It was great but holy crap were we all full after. We then wandered around the shops for a while and headed back around 4. On the way back we stopped at the hotel and checked in. This way we didn't have to deal with check in with all our stuff and B's friend got to see where the hotel is located. They are hanging out all day today and she is picking her up here.

Dropped off friend, hit grandparent's house for luggage and goodbyes, headed back to the hotel. We got settled in around 6:30. We have a two room suite which should work for me for training. We shall find out in about 5 hours. Yes, I have to train from 10-6 est. I fucking hate those hours. Since everyone in my class but one is est I am going to see if we can bump it up a couple of hours.

Relaxed, finished a book, went to bed around 11. Only 3 more days.

Y7 D215

Slept in pretty well this morning. Of course I finally start getting good sleep the day we are leaving this place and going somewhere else.  Sheesh. Speaking of 'sheesh' that's where we ate dinner last night. Yes, that was really the name of the place.

We spent the day honestly doing absolutely nothing. B watched a marathon of 'the curse of oak island'. I read. We both did a test pack of all our stuff and got very pissed at everyone who didn't listen to us when we said no fucking presents. I ended up taking two boxes of stuff to FedEx and paying $40 to ship it home. It should arrive the same day we do. But now at least we won't stress at the airport.

B took a nap and I did some laundry around 2. She slept until 4 and then got ready. We went out to dinner with B's dad, his new wife, and her son. It was nice. They paid which is always nice. We ate so much food it wasn't even funny. I felt a little guilty because I planned on paying my share. If I had known they were paying, I would have ordered less.

Got back, socialized until around 11, went to bed.

Today we are off to "Christmas Town" about 1 1/2 hours away. Fun.

Y7 D214

I have adjusted finally to the time zone I am in. I didn't wake up until 5 this morning. Went to bed at 11 which means my body is back to it's 'normal' six hour sleep cycle. I have been sleeping fairly well the last few nights. Not perfect, but not bad either. I am anxious to get back home into my own bed. Only 6 more days. Jesus. 6 more days on the road.

Yesterday was officially Christmas and we spent it with B's mom's side of the family. They are an interesting bunch. While there were physically less people, it seemed the volume level was higher. I get where she picked up her 'yelling' part of her. They just yell more and are angrier than her dad's side. Plus her two sisters are a bit wild for my taste. They were all over the place running and screaming and it was rough. We were there from about 11 until 6, then came back here to her grandparents (dad's side) and relaxed.

We did ask that everyone not get us presents and while most people respected that, we now have a blanket, a quilt, two ornaments, and some assorted other stuff I have to figure out how we're getting home. Sigh. The one thing everyone has done which is nice, is give us cash. We received around $400 in cash. Now that's my kind of gift. We are planning to go to Frankenmuth tomorrow which is a Christmas kind of town and now we can use the cash if we want anything. I am also hoping these people will ship anything we buy.

All in all it was a weird Christmas. I am not used to spending it away from home so there was that. Plus what the fuck is up with everyone eating at 3 in the fucking afternoon?!?! Ugh. Too many carbs too.

Almost home. Today we are doing nothing except a dry run of packing. Tomorrow we go to the christmas town, then check into the hotel. I have 6 fucking students next week. Don't these people have lives? Hopefully we will get a good room and I won't have any issues.

Y7 D213

Happy Christmas to everyone. May your day be full of joy. Yesterday mine was full of noise. I was very overwhelmed by the sheer number of people here. More than I have experienced ever with X1's family. They started coming at 9 and didn't leave until 10pm. All day dozens of children, dozens of adults. It was crazy. I got so flustered at one point I had to go upstairs. I meant to just take a short break and read, but I ended up falling asleep for an hour. When I came back downstairs, I did my best to integrate and be social. I think I did okay. They opened presents and while we explicitly instructed people not to get us anything, B's grandmother made us a quilt, and her grandfather handed me an envelope with $150 in cash. Okay. I can handle that kind of gift. Small and usable everywhere. Works for me.

There was food all day, small talk all day, and then finally we went to bed around 10:45. It was a long ass day.

And guess what? Today we get to do it with the other side of the family. Oh joy.

Can I fucking go home yet? I do need to go home because I had a bit of an issue yesterday. I went to look up a new doctor for when we get home and I was created with a message on UHC's site about how my policy is canceled. Um... I ended up getting responses back from people around 10am saying everything was fine and that they website wasn't updated yet. Okay, sure. It better be when I get home.

Can someone please turn this heat off?

Y7 D212

The sheer quantity of people here is starting to get to me. I did manage to sleep in a bit today which was nice, but I am so ready to be away from all of this. We will not do this every year regardless of what B might think. She is welcome to come back, but not me. Sorry. I can't do this for this long. A couple of day fine, but I am just fucking tired of being away from home and having my routines disrupted.

We picked her sisters up yesterday morning around 8 as B agreed to watch them for the day while her mom worked. We took them to the mall and got them Build a Bear  and then for whatever reason they hadn't seen Santa yet. We waited in the line from hell and took pictures with Santa. The package we picked came with one 5x7 and we were straining to decide who gets the big one until finally we said fuck it, we're keeping it. Got back to the house and the girls played. I took a nap and then B took one. They had dinner at 4:30 because they're old and they have too many children here. I politely declined dinner.

I did get hungry - at 8pm. I took a drive and went to White Castle. Shit was good. I enjoyed it that's for sure. Came back and B's cousin and boyfriend from IN arrived. They too are staying here. Whee. More fucking people. We all at around 9:30 headed out to B's stepmom's holiday party at a bowling alley. Such fun.

Finally got home and got in bed around midnight. Only a couple more days of this shit.

Y7 D211

I have a bit of a headache this morning. That two bottles of wine with dinner last night is coming back to haunt me this morning. No, I didn't drink them all by myself, but I probably had a good bottle to myself.

We took B's grandparents and their best friend (affectionately known as an "aunt") to a place called Mad Hatter Bistro last night. The whole place is done in an Alice in Wonderland theme and was incredible. Some of the best food I have had in a while. Plus everyone had a great time. The whole family enjoyed themselves, wine was a flowing, I didn't have to drive so I was able to relax and enjoy myself. And B's aunt is a hoot. She is a wild crazy thing who would do wonderfully living near us. We were out from 6-10:30 it was that great of a time.

During the day we didn't do much. Hung around, had lunch with B's friends who are very nice. Everyone here is so nervous meeting me and I am like "why??" but whatever. We came back from lunch, did laundry, then I took a nap.

It was one of the best days I have had while here. Today more family is coming in prep for tomorrow and we are taking B's sisters for the day. This should be interesting.

(Quick shoutout to my friend and her husband who are in Vegas. They are celebrating their 15th date-a-versary. You two are too damn cute. Stop it.)

Y7 D210

I want to go home now. I am done with the whole family thing. I have seen enough people and made enough small talk I need to go. What do you mean 9 more days? Um, no. Ugh. I wish I had a choice. I would be happy to go home right now. See my cats, see my bed.

Yesterday I got up at 4 and I worked like mad. I was the only one up until at least 9 and man did I earn my time off. I got all of the remaining demos done, I got everything uploaded, and I was done by 10am. Bam. I am now free the rest of the week. I am good to go.

B's grandparents had some people come over. Yes, it's the midwest at holiday with old people. They all just get together and fucking socialize constantly. We sat here smiling politely and then finally just bailed. B needed to get a card and a couple of last minute gifts. We then met her friend for dinner at a BJs kind of place. Imagine if BJs wasn't a chain. More homey but still 100 different beers, that kind of place. It wasn't bad.

We stopped at her mother's for some more socializing then got back here around 7:30. I decided I needed ice cream (truth - I needed out of this fucking house and to be alone for a while) and went to the store. Got back, hung out, read, and went to bed at 11.

Managed to sleep in until 7 again. I think it's really just the time difference and not some improvement in my schedule.

EDIT - The big thing we did yesterday was sign B up for insurance. $230 a month but at least now she is covered. I am making her go to the damn doctor every month to make sure we get our money's worth. Or I don't know, she could get a job and make $250 a month...

Y7 D209

I fucking hat wind chimes. I am hearing ones right now outside the window. I am currently sitting at the dining room table of B's grandparents with two laptops open. They have no clue what I am doing or what I do. It's the same story always. Whether it's X1's, X2's, or B's family or most of my friends  for that matter - they have no idea what it is I do. It can be a bit annoying because all last night everyone kept trying to worry about it me. I fucking hate it when people worry about me. Just leave me alone, let me have this little corner of the world and I will do what I need to do. I don't need fancy space, I don't need everyone to be quiet. You're all making me feel more self conscious than I need to feel.

So yesterday - I woke up around 7 which while it seems late, it really is 4am at home so I was right on my normal schedule. Go figure. Right now it's 4:25am EST so yeah. Anyway, got up, showered, meandered around while everyone else slept. B and her grandfather both got up around 9. We went out around 10 to do some last minute shopping. There were a couple of people we didn't get gifts for because we couldn't bring them with us and we didn't want to ship them. We went and got some $20 things for people. We went to a couple of different stores, had lunch at a place B likes (they have this thing called 'almond cheese' and it is most definitely not cheese), and then got back around 2. We wrapped presents and socialized and then went back out at 4:30.

We were having dinner with B's mom's family last night. Her mother, her mother's boyfriend, grandmother and grandfather, great grandmother, and her two sisters. 9 of us. We met up at a mexican restaurant and it was okay. Very chain and midwest but it wasn't awful. After dinner we went back to her mom's house to socialize. I am just not used to this and it is taking its toll on me. I am not used to this many people, this much family, etc. I am very used to being by myself. I was getting cranky and on the way back B and I got into an argument.

She wants to hang out with one of her friends and she doesn't want him to feel awkward because I am around and he doesn't know me and etc. The bottom line is she was planning on going out tonight around 10pm to go hang out with him and some other friends and that just rubbed me the wrong way. You're going to leave your husband home alone asleep to go hang out with a bunch of stoners. Whatever. Needless to say that was a fun discussion.

Went to bed around 11 after more fucking socializing. I don't know if I can take this for another 10 fucking days. Thank god we are going to a hotel in a few days.

Y7 D208

I am sitting in the dark in a strange kitchen at 7:25am. I did managed to actually sleep in until almost 7. But when you think about that, it's really 4am PST so I got up at the same damn time I would at home. Sigh.

Yesterday was a long long day. I got up at 12:30am CST, headed to the airport at 2:30am, and was at my gate by 3. It was dead at security EXCEPT for the 1000+ military people. Surrounded by sheep. A sea of bald headed order taking mindless clones. I would say that coach on my flight from STL to Chicago was 50% military. It was crazy. I luckily was up in front. Even though it was a short flight, it was still nice being up in the front away from everybody. I sat and read.

Got to Chicago at 6:30, hung out in the club until 7:45, went to my gate, boarded at 8:15. I almost had an issue with my bag. This was one of those stupid RJ planes and I had to really shove my bag in there. It was close as wether the door would close. Got to DTW and B picked me up. We then went to her mother's house to say hello, then went to her grandparent's house where we are staying. We pretty much hung out here for the rest of the day. Her dad and his wife came over for dinner which her grandpa and I split. We had boston market. I made queso de muerto in the evening for everyone while B helped her grandmother wrap presents.

Went to bed around 11:30. Full day of socializing. I don't believe we have anything on the table for today. I do need to get some work done tomorrow, but today everyone can kiss my ass.

Y7 D207

I am writing this at 12:44am CST. I have to wait an hour before I can actually post it though. Otherwise it will show up as yesterday. I hate time zones.

First off, if I ever get my hands on the son of a bitch who called my room at 7:33pm last night, I will strangle them. I went to bed at 6:30 because I had to be up now and I was so soundly asleep and having dreams and then the fucking phone went off. Motherfucker. I was too disoriented to answer it. By the time I was fully awake and able to figure out what was going on it had stopped ringing. No message either. Assholes. I then laid there for another hour trying to fall back to sleep.

The day was pretty boring. Taught my class from 9 until about 4:15. Packed everything up except for what I need this morning, then hung out in the lounge for a while. Got back to the room around 5:30 and finished up any last minute organization.

Today I leave for Chicago, then Detroit. The next 12 days will be spent in Detroit "on vacation". Yeah right. I have to work at least Monday and Tuesday. Then the following week I have three says of teaching from another hotel room.

Whee.

Y7 D206

Spent the whole day in the room with the exception of leaving for breakfast and leaving for dinner. So much fun. I even had room service bring me up lunch. That's how exciting my day was. I will say I am very glad I bought this Chromebook. It was perfect as a second machine while I was teaching. I could use it to check mail and other issues while having the students viewing my main screen. For $250 it is a perfect secondary machine. It does exactly what I need it to do. It is in essence a tablet on steroids, but that's okay with me.

Taught my class. For the most things went fine. I had one guy on though that nobody can figure out what he is doing. This is the 3rd time he is supposed to have taken this class, but the first time he had technical issues, the second time he was sick, and this time he stayed on for 90 minutes. Nobody seems to know what his issue is.

B traveled yesterday. She did okay. Only a few messages throughout the day of stress. Stupid people freaking her out by being stupid people. Her luggage taking forever. Basic stuff. She arrived at 6pm EST last night. I will be there in about 27 hours. I watched a new show last night - The Magicians. Not bad. I read up on it and found the books it was based on and grabbed those to read. The show doesn't start regular airing until 1/25 so I have some time to read the books.

My niece was supposed to arrive at our place some time last night and she was supposed to text me but no response. I just sent her a text asking if she made it okay. Let's see if she responds. I need - correction - I did just check in for my flight tomorrow. No upgrade but whatever. These are two little 90 minute hoppers. I think I can handle it.

I did bring a check with me for the second to last payment for my tax guy. I sent it out from the hotel and I have asked him to please let me know when it arrives as I am paranoid about shit like this. Mailing it from a weird place always worries me. I hate mailing things in general.

Breakfast, packing, teaching, sleeping, then off to Detroit. That's my day.

Y7 D205

Had a rough night sleeping last night. Couldn't get comfortable, couldn't find a good temperature, kept tossing and turning. Didn't fall asleep until after 11. Not sure why either. It's not like I napped or something. I just was having a hard time.

I did have something happen last night that I found sad and interesting at the same time. I can't imagine what it must be like for women. I say that because last night I was leaving the executive lounge after dinner and got into the elevator. I got in the same time as this women did. She had already pushed the button to my floor so I looked and didn't push anything, just kind of moved to the back of the elevator. The minute I didn't push a button I could feel her tension. It was something palatable in the air. Then when the elevator opened, she got out first and I followed. Unfortunately from the elevator to the rooms is a very narrow hallway. I was right behind her in this hallway. I was trying to slow my pace to not put her on the defensive, but it did the opposite. Her was some guy following her to her room from the elevator. At least that's what it must have felt like in her mind. She stopped and pretended to look at something out of the window to let me go by and to watch where I was going to make sure I was really going into a room. What the fuck is wrong with society when a woman has to be on the defensive and worried about someone when they are in a public, well lit hotel? I felt like such a horrible person because I am male and made this woman feel uncomfortable. It's a sad society we live in when you have to deal with things like that. Always on guard, always wondering if the guy in the elevator is going to follow you to your room and rape you. I apologize to every woman out there who has ever had to feel that way. It's a fucked up situation.

Other than that, the day was uneventful. Finished my class around 4:20, headed back to the hotel, and was upset to find that at 4:50pm, housekeeping had yet to show up. I did bitch on Twitter about it and it was done by the time I got back from dinner, but still. Of course I had to run into one of the housekeepers on the way back who told me someone went home sick. Sorry? Not my issue? I just want to come back to a clean room.

Watched part 2 of Childhood's End. Wow. They have done an excellent job with this. Part 3 is on the agenda for today and I am excited to watch the conclusion. It is a really good mini-series. Excellent work.

Dealt with B being anxious about her trip today. Every little thing was prompting a question - does your niece know where to park? Does the driver know what terminal? Will he be here on time? You paid him, right? Yes, yes, and yes. Breathe. She is already up and waiting for her driver. He will be there in an hour and then even more stress as she flies. I did help her out yesterday by stopping class for 5 minutes while I checked her in and sent her boarding passes. I managed to move her up to a better seat and to get her priority boarding. Anything that will help her stress I will do. Just easier for me in the long room.

That's about it. Today and tomorrow I am teaching a class from the room. This should be interesting.

Y7 D204

Two more weeks and this year is over. Wow. 2016. Things I never thought I would see for $1000 Alex. It's so weird when you think about it. I have lived almost 5 decades. That's a long bloody time. Another 5 to go please.

Taught my class. 14 students, 13 of whom are doing just fine. 1 is not quite suited for this and a couple more were on the fence in the morning, but they pulled through by the end of day. Finished up class a round 4:20 and got back to the hotel about 4:30.

Changed, went to the executive lounge for dinner. It's not really meant to be dinner quantity food, but free food is free food. I am trying to keep expenses down to a minimum. So far I have about $10 in expenses. Not too shabby. Realistically I could spend about $50 a day without concern but it's the end of year and I don't want to listen to anyone bitch.

Got back to the room a little after six and watched some shows. Watched the first episode of Expanse. On the fence with that one. Have three more episodes to go before I make a decision. What I did watch which I really enjoyed was Childhood's End. Excellent adaptation of the book. Part one was really well done with an excellent cast. Part two came down last night and I am really looking forward to watching it today.

Went to bed around 9:45. Talked to B briefly as she was having trouble with the garage door opening. She is stressed about her trip tomorrow, I can tell. I can hear it in her voice and from her emails. This is a big long trip and we both have our concerns.

Another day of onsite training followed by two more in the room.

Y7 D203

Was up at 1am yesterday morning. Got ready and was out the door for the last time for 17 days at 2:45.  While I was waiting for my driver, I saw a shooting star which was kind of cool. I must admit, we have a lot less light pollution where we live now and it's nice to look up in the sky and see all the stars. When it's not raining of course. Got to the airport at about 3:30, checked in, and got to use TSA Pre for the fist time. Literally two minutes through security. Nothing out of my bags, no belt off, no shoes off. It was such a nice treat. Was at my gate by 3:50. We boarded at 4:30. While I didn't get an upgrade on either of my flights, in both cases I was lucky enough for no one to be sitting next to me in the middle seat. Got to St Louis around 3:15 and was at the hotel by 4. Checked in and was pleasantly surprised by my room. I have the only suite on the floor. A full two room suite which is nice. Especially since I saw in the room next to me is an entire family. I don't know how they are fitting 4 people in a room half this size. Ate dinner in the executive lounge then relaxed in the room. Went to bed around 10.

Today and tomorrow I teach on site then Thursday and Friday I teach from the room. Not much else going on around here.

Y7 D202

Up and stressed already. Been up for almost 45 minutes. Went to bed at 8:30. Very boring day yesterday. Most of it centered around getting ready to leave. Last minute packing, trip to target for toothpaste, etc. I was also on the hunt for a new jacket to wear. This reminds me of the time in 2004 when I had to go to Canada and didn't have anything appropriate to wear then. If the weather gets bad while I am in MI, I am going to freeze to death.

We watched the rest of HPDH1 and all of HPDH2 yesterday. I am through all of the damn movies now. There's 3.5 hours of the day gone. Not much else went on. We got all of the stuff ready for my niece, cleaned out the fridge, and basically didn't do anything.

Okay, time to go.

Y7 D201

My ear is feeling a little better today. It's still a bit clogged up, but it is better. I am also mentally feeling better. I wrote out a long email to B yesterday morning just dumping everything that is on my chest and it felt good to unload. It's one thing to write in here where I know at least 4 or 5 of you are reading it, but it's another thing to write it or talk to the person you are right next to all day long. Plus it's the person I have been taking all my anger and frustration out on so that person deserves an explanation of just what the hell is eating at you.

I got all the laundry done by 7. I went out to the vape shop around 9 to get some coils for my tanks. I am giving B's mom one of my batteries and tank while we are in MI and I wanted to make sure she has a clean coil so she doesn't get the burnt taste of a used coil.

Came back and then B and I went out for lunch. We were both craving burgers and the need of getting out of the house for something other than errands. We got back from lunch and both took a nap. When we woke up I started packing. All done. I can't believe how much I managed to fit into one bag. I will have enough for the full 17 days I am gone. While B was napping I went to the bank to get cash to leave for my niece. There's an envelope with $160 in it for her. $100 upfront for watching the house, $60 for food. Plus there's a ton of food still in the freezer and pantry she can eat.

Throughout all of this, I worked on my docs. I managed to get 27 of 31 demos completed. It's a huge weight off my shoulders to be that close to done. I can finish the remaining for demos next week while in MO. One demo a night and I will have it done by Thursday. Then it will be off my plate until January and I won't have to work as much while we are in MI.

We ate our leftover burgers for dinner, watched Top Chef, played some video games, then we settled into to watch HPDH1. We got about 1/2 way through before I started falling asleep. It was almost 11 and seeing as I had been up since 3 with only an hour nap, I was done. We are going to finish it and HPDH2 today.

Right now I need to check in for my flight and do final packing. Then I have to go to the store to get B some stuff. I will be going to bed around 8 tonight as I have to be up at 1 for my flight. Travel time, here I come.

Y7 D200

I paid $166 for doctors to tell me there's nothing fucking wrong with me, yet I can't hear out of my left ear, my head is throbbing, and I can't sleep. Gee thanks for nothing.

I have to pack today. But before I can pack I need to do laundry. But it's 3:30 in the morning. I can't start the washing machine this early or I will wake up the dead.

Had a shitty day yesterday. My class was filled with the most boring fucking people ever. I didn't feel like doing anything after class either. I didn't get any more done on my new class I need to finish. I have to work on it today and tomorrow. I am so close to having all the demos done.

Our big Friday adventure? We powered through Jessica Jones. Pretty good show to be honest. We watched every single episode yesterday. I did wish Kilgrave had turned purple like he was supposed to be.

Went to bed around 11.

That's it. That's my life. Pain. Inane shit. Horrible sleep. Death.

Y7 D199

Well so much for sleeping to an alarm. Back up at 3:30. Whee.

I did the world's easiest memory upgrade last night. It took me less than 15 minutes to upgrade both of my macs. The media server now has 4gb and this machine now has 16gb. All I needed to do on one machine was unscrew a bottom plate and on the other push a button to expose the memory bay. I don't know why I didn't do this before. Both machines feel brand new in their performance. Especially the media server. It's a Christmas miracle ya filthy animals!

Taught yesterday. The world's most boring group of students. This particular class doesn't necessarily attract the most exciting of people to begin with, but man were they just like dead. I really did feel in part like I was talking to myself. Whatever. We finished around 2 and have one more day to go. I also worked on my other docs for about 2 hours yesterday. I got 2 more demos done taking me up to 21 total out of 32. I would like to get another 5 or six done before Sunday. If I do 3 each of the next three days that will get me very close to having it completely done.

We waited for the mail to arrive until about 6 last night. I am not happy with the mail people right now. Showing up late. Packages not moving. I have at least three things I would like to arrive before I go and I think they should all arrive today, but I don't have much faith in the mail carriers. I know it's holiday time but jeez, do what everyone else does and hire some holiday people.

After the mail arrived we went to the mall. B's need for boots has reached desperation stage. She really does need them for her trip and we are down to the wire. Luckily she found a pair reasonably priced that work. Mission accomplished. We had a nice seafood dinner while we were out. I had a stuffed salmon that was really good. She had coconut shrimp with a chicken caesar salad.

Got home around 9 and watched some TV. Big Bang was hilarious last night. I have found you either love or hate that show with no in between. I love it and so does B. Screw the haters. I also yesterday started watching Jessica Jones. There's a show with some controversy. I won't give away any more than what's out there already, but I can see how for victims of abuse and rape it is a hard show to watch. The first episode was deep as hell. Excellent, but deep.

Went to bed around 10:30. One more day of class, some doc writing, then it's laundry and packing time. Two more days at home.

Y7 D198

For the first time in weeks I actually slept through the night and woke up to an alarm. Amazing. Of course now I feel rushed which I haven't felt in a while. I still have 2 hours and 20 minutes until the start of class but for whatever reason I feel like there's not enough time.

Went to the doctor yesterday. Kind of pissed off about it and really don't like insurance. I would say I don't like doctor's but there's nothing the doctor can do about the prices because of insurance companies. I woke up yesterday with massive pain in both ears sweating like crazy. I went online and made an appointment at the same place B has been going. I managed to get a 4pm appointment which is crazy to me. Same day appointments at a doctor is just weird. But I wasn't going to complain.

I managed to teach all day even though a couple of times I had to just stop talking because I felt like I was going to pass out. I got through class and we finished around 2. After class we went to Target before hand because B needed some stuff for her trip and to kill time before my appointment. Got into the doctor's at 3:30 and sat until 3:50. Not a bad wait and technically they saw me early.

Bottom line according to the doctor is I have a cold coming on and instead of waiting to the last minute like I usually do, I was catching it early. Hopefully by doing so I will reduce the symptoms and healing time. Unfortunately since it's just a damn cold (aka virus vs bacterial) there wasn't much they could do for me. That part sucked. They did give me some numbing drops for my ears which helped, but I am still sweating and still having pain. I am also at the point where my left ear is about to close up on me. I hate this part.

We watched some TV, played some video games, and I went to bed around 10:15. Today I have a two day class starting with 5 people. I should have a couple of packages coming today too. Some memory for my media server is the big one. I realized the stupid thing only has 2gb of memory in it the other day when I was playing around with Plex. I couldn't figure out why it was taking so long to do some things. For $40 I was able to pick up two memory chips to at least take it to 4gb. Unfortunately due to the age of that machine, that's the max I can put in it. But even that will help. I remember when 2gb was a lot of memory. Now I can barely function on it. My laptop has 16gb and some days that even pisses me off.

Time to shower and get ready for class. Two more days of teaching, packing, then off to three crazy weeks on the road.

Y7 D197

I woke up this morning sweating like crazy with pain in my left ear. I just made an appointment for 4pm for the doctor. I cannot travel like this. I need to make sure I am 100% healthy.

Taught all day, finished around 2, took a very brief nap, then I worked on my docs until 5. That filled my day up. After work we had dinner; B made broccoli cheddar soup. It was pretty good. I wasn't in a good enough mood to appreciate it though. This pain in my ear was already starting and it was making me cranky as hell. She too wasn't feeling well and around 9 she took two excedrin PM and went off to bed. I followed shortly after around 10.

The only other thing to go on yesterday is me being extremely pissed off at USPS. Things are days late, stuff was delivered to the office at 5:47pm, and I didn't find out until 6:30pm. They are just doing a shit job up here when it comes to delivery. I am not happy with USPS at all. One of the things I am waiting for is a gift for someone that really needs to get here before I leave. In addition, I have a Chromebook on order that I want to take with me on this trip.

Yes, I ordered a Chromebook for myself. B and I have been talking about how I don't really use my laptop as a laptop when I am. She will sometimes say to me "just bring your laptop out here" when I ask her to look things up on hers. The problem is, my laptop is big, powerful, and plugged into a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. Moving my laptop is a huge pain. Hence, the need for a 'real' laptop or as my friend called it, a tablet plus. It weighs like 3 lbs, has a 14" screen, and will be perfect for the things I want it for. I also wanted it for this trip. I have to teach while on the road and I use two machines when I teach. One for the presentation for the class, one for me to read for notes. I have done it before with a tablet, but it was hard to read. This way I can have it in the hotel room with the presentation available for me. This is very similar to what I did in 2009 when I had that little netbook that I took to Europe. Not as powerful as a big one, but perfect for email, web surfing, quick docs, etc. But if USPS keeps fucking up, it won't get here in time and that will piss me off.

I am probably crankier about this than I should be because of my ears, but whatever. Another day of teaching followed by the doctor. Let's go.

Y7 D196

I got a lot accomplished yesterday. Was up early, and started right in on the new training class. I managed to get a bunch of demos done and we now have 16 out of 31 complete. I plan to work a couple of hours each night after class this week to get even more done. The goal by the end of the week is have at least 25 of the demos done. Some will be easier than others and I think I can do it.

In addition to all that I managed to do a 2 hour mentoring session with a former client, go to the eye doctor and make an appointment for January, hit Target for a couple of things, and have my eye lashes tinted. Hey if I have to meet B's family in a couple of weeks, I need to look good dammit.

I finished working around 5:30 and we had dinner. I slow cooked a pork roast and made stew out of it which turned out pretty good. I was happy with how it turned out. Nothing good on TV last night so we watched Half Blood Prince. Only two more movies to go. I am not hating the movies, but they are pissing me off. So much is being left out from the books. Crucial plot points. Major character arcs are being glossed over. I would have rather seen HP the Series with 7 season each with 8 episodes where they would have had the time to really do the books justice. This is why I can't watch movies sometimes.

Speaking of books I got B interested in one of my favorite books - I am Legend. She saw a post about it and was asking if I have ever read it. When I finished laughing ten minutes later, I said yes, about 50 times. Now she is intrigued and plans on reading it.

We finished the movie around 10 and I went to bed shortly thereafter. I have full classes the next four days which is good for us as a company financially but it's going to be a stressful few days. I am worried I will have some not so bright people to contend with, especially today as it's an intro class to a topic.

One more week and I am gone.

Y7 D195

Guess what it did here all day? Rain. Then it rained some more. Just for fun it rained even more after that. Oh and it's still raining. Mind you, I am not complaining. Just the opposite. I love it. Makes me very happy actually.

We didn't leave the house at all yesterday. We worked on a puzzle, played video games, took a nice nap, slow cooked a corned beef for dinner, and watched Order of the Phoenix. A great way to spend a Sunday. I even worked a little on my work stuff to get it closer to completion. I really don't have much to talk about today and it's for good reasons, not bad. We just really didn't do anything. Spent a lazy Sunday inside watching the rain.

This is my last week at home until January. I am going to savor it. I have a bunch of stuff to do before the weekend though. Need to figure out three weeks worth of laundry, make an eye doctor appointment, get a lash tint, and tell the office we will be gone and someone else will be staying here. I should probably make a checklist. I also am stressing about the few things still out in the ethos known as USPS. Hopefully they will all come before I leave. Otherwise I will stress all week.

Today I have a mentoring session from 7-9, then I have to work like a madman on these demos. I am hoping to get 13 done today. Wish me luck.

Y7 D194

Had a great day yesterday. I am in a better place. I know I pissed off our neighbor yesterday morning though. I woke up at 3. Tried to fall back to sleep and ended up getting up at 3:20. I really wasn't paying much attention to things and decided to start laundry. At 3:20 in the morning. You don't realize just how loud a washing machine is until there's no other sounds going on. When it hit the spin cycle I was sure she was going to come bounding up the stairs to chew me out. I then tried to put the first load in the dryer and man was that even louder. I swear there's a small airplane in the laundry room. I then went into the bathroom to buzz my hair and that too apparently decided to be the loudest thing in the world. But I did get at least one load of laundry and my hair completed by 4:30am. At 6:50 I went to the store to get a couple of things that we weren't able to get at the grocery store on Friday.

I have often noticed something about stores early in the morning on weekends. Yesterday proved no different, and that is how many men are at a store right when it opens on the weekend. It's like we're all up and just want to get shit done. The store I went to yesterday morning was 99% male shoppers.

Got back around 7:15 and figured it was late enough to finish laundry. Had it all done by the time B got up around 8. Once she was up we went to the thrift store to see if we could find a mate to a soup bowl/mug she found there on Friday. Unfortunately it was gone. I however found two shirts for $10. We then went to Old Navy as I wanted to see about finding a couple more shirts. See I don't have very many casual long sleeve shirts. I either have short sleeve t-shirts or dress shirts and not much in between. That's what happens when you're a Californian all your life and live where the coldest it gets is 40 on the worse days. Managed to find a couple of shirts on sale for less than $25 total which made me happy.

Got back home, put away laundry, and took a nap. We had plans to go out to dinner with this couple we met a while back. We have been horrible at being able to keep social obligations due to my schedule and we knew we had to keep this one.

When we got up I played around with Plex some more. I managed to get one directory scanned in and need to figure out why it sees 243 out of 252 directories. It's got to be a naming thing and I need to figure out why. I think I figured out one directory. Also my friend did some tests on his Apple TV for me and they still haven't fixed the damn problem of multiple season shows collapsing in the list. I don't need 10 entries of Friends when I try to scroll through the tv show list thank you.

I also did some work stuff to help knock out some stuff I have to do tomorrow.

We went out around 5:50 and got to the restaurant around 6:45. We had a great dinner of Mexican food right on the river and then we all went for ice cream afterwards. We got home around 10, hung about for a while trying to play some HP but we both were too tired.

Nothing on the agenda for today. The wind is howling and the weather is awful. I figure we will be staying inside most of the day which is fine by me.

Y7 D193

I'm doing better. I let go a little bit in my head and it helped to wash away some of the anger and sadness that was building up. I am a little more at peace. Got up yesterday morning and did bills. Always a fun way to start the day. I am trying to pay off as much as possible for the month before we go to MI for the end of year. I don't want us stressing at all while we are there and I know that if I have everything paid off then there's nothing coming out of the check on the 18th and that will help reduce any potential stress. I know we're going to have to pick up at least one dinner or lunch for someone and I want to be ready. I hate when you're watching your bank balance and the numbers don't line up to what you have because things haven't posted and you're just like well that number is wrong. So I am watching things like a hawk right now.

Upside to being gone for the last three weeks of the year is no mileage on my car. I figured it out and we are averaging 600 miles a month. That breaks down to 7200 a year which is well below the allowance and the average. If I turn this thing in with 20,000 miles it will be a great resell for the dealer and give me a good value. Bright side.

Worked on my docs yesterday as much as I could. Demo writing is a challenge. It's not the easiest thing. I have 30 demos in this class and I managed to get 5 done. I will probably work today and get a couple more done. My goal for EOD Monday is at least to have 20 done. We shall see how I do. If I get to 20 then I can work a couple of hours after teaching every day next week to finish up the remaining. That way I won't have very much to do while on the road.

Went grocery shopping in the afternoon. I still need my niece to tell me what she wants for food in the house while we are gone. I want to make sure there's some stuff in here for her. I am going to leave money, but I also want her to have stuff too. I got more than enough to last us until we leave and some leftover. We played HP Lego last night. Got to 94% completion. We will hopefully finish it today. We watched a little TV and then we both were tired and went off to bed.

I did wake up at 3:15 this morning. I have already taken out the trash and started laundry. Look at me go.

Y7 D192

My night ended with learning about the death of Scott Weiland. Dead at 48 on a tour bus in Minnesota. Shitty way to go  in a shitty place. Makes not seeing him in October even sadder. 48. That's me in months. Dead. Of course, I am not doing crack or heroin every day so odds are I am okay. Still makes you think doesn't it?You get past a certain age and everyone is dying around you. Lovely. I got to share this news with kid at 10pm last night. She wasn't too thrilled with the news either. Lousy way to end a lousy day.

Jumped in to my documents early in the morning just like I will today. I managed to get through all of the slide content by around 3. Today I start adding demos. I expect that to take me 2-3 days. I should be able to have this finished before we leave for MI. That's the goal at least.

I made two stops in the morning. One to get my meds from Walgreens, the other to pick up glue to hopefully repair my statue. I haven't touched him since 8:30am yesterday and in 3.5 hours I will see if it is cured. After working I took a nap as I was still in a lousy mood. Watched the season premiere of Top Chef season 13. I stopped watching the show after season 8 as they started doing too many weird ones like All Stars and Masters. I figured what the heck, let's give it a shot. I forgot how much I enjoy watching real chefs work.

I also continued my research into new media servers. Based on everything I read, Plex it seems is the best option for me. I am still investigating Kody but it has too much configuration options for what I need. I just need a simple interface and Plex is winning. I will play with it more this weekend and see what it does.

I was still in a crappy mood yesterday. Between bills, work, travel, my broken statue, and just life in general, I couldn't shake it. I am starting to feel better today. I do appreciate that when these moments hit I don't respond like I used to and go out drinking or being stupid. Yes, I may shut down and be unresponsive, but at least I won't end up like Scott Weiland.

Y7 D191

Yeah, I am still in a shitty mood. Whatever. Taught. Finished at 2, took a nap until 3:15, went to Walgreens to get a prescription filled and of course they fucked it up so I have to go back at 8am and pick it up even though it was promised to me at 4pm yesterday. I would act shocked and surprised, but I'm not. I can't count on anyone or anything these days except myself so fuck it.

Got back, made chicken for dinner, watched iZombie, fucked around on the computer for a while. I am doing one thing interesting. I am finally trying out some alternatives to using iTunes and the Apple TV. I downloaded and installed Plex to see how it works. There's a Plex client available for my TV which means I don't need a dedicated box plugged into the TV. They also have a plug in for the new Apple TV models which might be worth looking at. I may work this weekend on playing around with it. If anyone knows of something better than Plex, tell me. Here's the catch - I have to be able to install it on one of my servers and stream to my TV. I can't have a dedicated box in the front room. All the other ones I have looked at require you to have a box plugged into the tv itself. Plex is one of the few fully robust ones that streams. But I am open to suggestions.

Went to bed around 10. Today and tomorrow are heads down document development. No breaks no interruptions. I have to get this done. I want to have all the content in place by Friday and then start doing demo additions on Monday. That will be the last day I have to work on it until the 21st of the month.

Why am I still pissed off? Life in general. No other reason.

Y7 D190

Yesterday was a really shitty day. I am still not over my sadness and anger from yesterday either. I don't expect today to be much better.

First off my class was awful. One guy was 30 minutes late, then he disrupted everyone for 15 minutes so he could be caught up on everything he missed. We got past that and then while I was working I get a hangout from B. While cleaning she broke one of my Disney statues. One that is retired and no longer available. One that they only ever produced 250 units. She broke the ear off my large Oswald statue. She then tried to unsuccessfully glue it which just made a mess and stained the resin. Needless to say I was not very happy. I tried not getting mad, but that didn't work. Of course this sent her into anger and then sadness. But the worst part is how I felt about it. I feel stupid for having these things. Why does a grown man even have this crap? I could be in a house right now if I hadn't wasted money on most of the crap I am surrounded by every day. I stare at these pin boards and wonder how much that would bring in towards debt and the future if I were to sell them tomorrow. She thinks I am mad about the statue but it's more that I am depressed about how useless I am.

This obviously put a damper on the whole day. I am still not feeling any better. I don't feel much like writing let alone do another day of training. Time to put on my mask and make sure it doesn't slip.

Y7 D189

Happy Christmas 1st!

I have a bit of a headache this morning. I think it is a sinus pressure headache. The weather here has been weird in the last 24 hours. Basically I froze my ass off yesterday. No matter what I did, I could not get warm. It was no more than 35 or so all day. Then in the evening it started to warm up and rain. All over the place.

It was a busy day yesterday. I had my TSA appointment in the morning. My appointment wasn't until 10, but I didn't want to sit in traffic so I left the house at 5:45. Yeah, I know. But I brought some TV shows with me on the laptop and figured it would help kill a few hours. The place for the interview opened at 7:30 and I got there at 6:30. I did watch a couple of shows while I was waiting and at 7:32 I took a chance and went inside. Luckily I picked a slow day. They saw me at 7:40. I was done and back home by 8:45. This was really good as I needed to power through a new class we are delivering in January. I got a LOT done yesterday too. I do have a bit of motivation to have it done by 1/5 and let me explain why.

While I was driving yesterday I called American. I am currently at 41,000 miles. I have 5200 booked between now and year's end. I am going to finish up about 4k short of Platinum. I called to ask them what I could do. Turns out since I am so close, I can pay an upgrade fee to get to the next level. Awesome, except it's $600 to do this. I have to debate whether it's easier and cheaper to just spend a whole day flying to get the 4,000 miles or pay the fee. When I mentioned this to my boss yesterday, he is so wanting this class done, that he agreed to let me expense the fee if I get this class done early. Done and done. I will have it done before the first. If I can spend 2016 as Platinum you're damn right I am going to work long and hard getting this class done. The problem is how many free days I have to do this. We ended up making the decision to cancel my Thursday/Friday class. There was only one person and we moved them to a January class. Score. That gives me two more days this week to get a shit ton done. Very happy about this change of events.

Around 3, the bed people came. The new bed is huge. Sigh. We both love it, but it's just so big and takes up a huge chunk of the room. We now need to figure out how to replace the dresser and nightstands to rearrange the room. This is going to be painful.

After they left, I went back to doc writing and then we went out for a quick errand. B spent the day cleaning her old laptop off to give to her sisters for Christmas. We needed to get a mouse. I tore apart boxes trying to find an extra mouse to no avail. We ended up having to go to Target and Fred Meyer to find one cheap enough to give away. While we were at the store we grabbed a roast chicken for dinner.

Got back home, had dinner, then settled in for the 4th HP movie. These movies just keep pissing me off with how much they are leaving out. Some movies would do better as TV shows because you'd have more hours to tell the story. I would have rather seen one book per season and have them spend 8-10 hours doing story development than try to cram all of it into 2.5 hour movies. My opinion.

Finished up around 10:30 and went to bed. Today I have 3 students, tomorrow 2, then back to my doc writing. I must finish!

Y7 D188

Why can't I sleep anymore? Seriously. Is this what they mean when they talk about 'old people' and not sleeping? I am averaging 5-5.5 hours a night these days and that's it. Had some interesting dreams though. Some day someone will invent a device to let you record your dreams. I always wake up with them right there in the front of my mind and then poof, gone.

Didn't do much of anything yesterday. We did go out for a brief while. B needed some herbal vitamin supplement thingie and we went and took care of that. Stopped in BBB while we were out and ended up buying a new door mat for the front door. It's Snoopy and he and Woodstock wish you a merry Christmas. So much excitement.

I also managed to get B a new Christmas present. She has been wanting one of the snow globes one of our favorite artists makes and she put 4 up for sale on her store yesterday. I had to act quick as they sell out rapidly. At 3:00pm she put up 4 snow globes and 12 statues she makes. By 3:08 13 of those 16 items had already sold out. I got mine luckily. I also did the math - this woman made $1400 in less than 10 minutes. It takes her hours to create these pieces but damn. That's a loyal following to sell out that quick.

JEEZ. Just got my 50,000th email telling me today is Cyber Monday and how much I can save save save! The truth though is you have been sending me emails all weekend. There's nothing special about today any more. Sigh.

Had pork chops for dinner then settled in to watch the third HP movie. Three down, five to go. I didn't enjoy this one as much. To me it felt like too much was missing from the books. Yes, the story was told, but there were some major holes in my opinion. Tonight will be the fourth one, let's see if it is any better.

Our new bed frame comes today. Sometime between 2 and 6. Right now, I am off to the TSA office. I have an appointment this morning to finally get my KTN. Kinda excited about it to be honest. In some airports this will save me a lot of time. Not that the line will be shorted but that I won't have to undress or unpack. It will make getting through much easier.

That's about it for now. Rent is paid, bills are paid, and in two weeks I am back on the road until the end of the year. I have 3 classes this week. Small groups for all of them but classes they are. People to be taught.

Y7 D187

I think about things and wonder how do some people even exist? Yesterday I saw the following:

- A clip from a documentary on the poorest state which also happens to be the most conservative state. I can't remember which it was, but they were asking people how they could be republicans yet live so poorly. These people were disgusting to me. Pro-white, no teeth, jesus jesus jesus, Obama is a muslim, down with government. And these people owned houses and pro-created. How? How do these people exist?

- A company that is making a 'Christian' AK-47. Complete with scripture passages, settings that include Peace, War, and God's Will, and overall no sense of shame whatsoever. Again, how do they exist?

- But the topper was the man who bought dozens of pig heads, lined the road to his house with them, then posted a picture saying 'no muslims will get down my street!'. WTF? Because you know, pig heads make a magic barrier apparently.

What is wrong with these people? Why are they allowed to live? Something is just off. Locally none of these people are bothering me, but it just bugs me in general that these people exist.

In my world, I had an interesting day yesterday. Woke up early, did stuff, but then fell back to sleep on the couch until almost 11. Played some video games, cleaned some, relaxed. A much needed day of no obligations. I went to the store once to get a few things for dinner, but otherwise, did not leave the house. Got a text from the furniture store confirming our bed delivery for tomorrow, took a walk to get the mail, and talked with the kid a bit.

I kept forgetting it was Saturday. This always happens when I have weird weeks with downtime and holidays. I did do my timesheet to get that out of the way and got my class lists for next week. Very slow week. Tues and Weds, I have two students, Thurs-Friday, one student. Barely enough students to cover my salary for the week. I want a better quarter than the last one but it's not something I can really control. Also this time of year can go one of two ways - either people using up training dollars to keep the budget for next year or everyone out of the office and no one around to take training. This next week is the latter unfortunately.

Watched the second HP movie as planned. I have the 3 hour extended version of the movie. Was kind of cool because there were things even B had not seen in the movies. I was nitpicking over difference between the book and the movie again. Funny though, this is the one time something like this has been accepted by B. Because she too nitpicks the movies and it made her happy to hear me criticize some of the same things.

Today I would like us to get through 2 of the movies instead of just one. 5 hours of our lives, but it will mean we are halfway through all of them. No other plans for today as of now. I do need to find a night where we can hang out with our friends. We haven't seen them in months and they live 5 miles away. Some times I feel awful we haven't seen each other, but it's just scheduling, not lack of desire. We will figure it out.

Y7 D186

We inadvertently did some Black Friday shopping yesterday. We didn't mean to buy anything but it happens. We got up and both of us wanted to go somewhere and not be in the house all day. We decided we would go to Cost Plus to get some stocking stuffers and a tea kettle for B. On the way there we passed a furniture store and decided to pop in.

Consciously or not, B has been slowly getting me to replace all the things she either dislikes or were part of my former relationships. In the last three years we have purchased a new mattress, the couch, and other assorted things. Very little of my pre-B days exist. There are two things left she wants to change - my leopard print ottoman/coffee table and the bed frame. I have been with her on the bed frame as mine was from Ikea and is now 7 years old. It's metal and it squeaks whenever someone moves. We have been casually looking at some but nothing caught both of our eyes. As for the coffee table, whatever. If she wants a new one I don't mind. To be honest, the one I have was bought by a single guy, for a single guy. It was one of the first things I bought after the divorce to call 'mine'. If you go back and read year one, you'll probably find the entry where I bought it. It too has served its purpose and could use retiring. We go into the furniture store to look at stuff. I think we're going in there to look at coffee tables. Yeah, no. We found a bed frame we both could handle. We looked at it, we measured, we thought, and we left the store. The price was really good and they had 11% off (don't ask) for Black Friday.

We left the furniture store and went to Cost Plus. Got a kettle and stocking stuffers as planned. The whole time of course we were discussing the bed. Got back home around 1, measured, thought about it, and then B decided to take a nap. I told her while she was sleeping I would go to Target to get some nuts (they have the best price on planters deluxe mixed nuts) and buy a bed. She agreed. I headed back to the furniture store and bought the bed. It will be here Monday. Now I haven't included pictures in a long time, so for your viewing pleasure:

Tada. I don't know if you can see it, but it has this nice pattern inlay that we both liked. We didn't' care for the dressers or the rest of the pieces as much and opted just for the bed frame. The best part was the price. Thanks to the sale and no tax, $445. When we had come before I checked prices, and the cheapest online price I could find was $670. Some places wanted as much as $800-$1000. Not too shabby I feel. I forgot to mention something about the bed. I paid cash. No financing. No credit card. Cash. That felt good. It pushes this pay period a little bit, but not too bad. It felt really good to be able to buy something like this without stressing. Any more and it would have been an issue, but we did it. I have come a long fucking way.

While I was out doing all this, the kid called. She finally had some time to arrange her flight. I gave her a discount code I have been holding on to and with that code, her flight was $38. Score. She will be here 1/17 - 1/22. I am trying to see if I can take that week off so I can spend the full time with her. 

Got back home, checked the mail, played some video games, and then B and I settled in to start watching Harry Potter. In the mail was something I wasn't expecting. I got a notice from CA DMV about the Pontiac. They seem to think we don't have insurance on it. I had to copy my insurance card and mail it back to them. I hope we don't have a problem since my insurance is for here and the car is there. I think that's the problem. I may have to sell the car outright to the kid and have her get a CA insurance policy. We shall see. 

Watched the first HP. After just re-reading the books, there are many things I caught that I hadn't before. I have seen the first movie three times now but none of the subsequent movies. This should be interesting.

Went to bed around 10:30. Today nothing is planned except more movie watching. I keep forgetting it's only Saturday which isn't a bad thing.

Y7 D185

I did it! I slept in until 5:45!! YAY ME! I did wake up at 3:48 having to pee like a racehorse and I almost got up then but forced myself back to bed. Best decision ever. I had a weird dream about going to Bruce Willis' house but it was worth it to actually sleep a decent amount of time. I went to bed around 11 so I am happy this morning.

Had a pleasant day with my sister yesterday. I was dreading it a bit because well you know, family. We headed out around 11:45 and it took us 2:40 minutes to go 135 miles. I was not happy about that. The drive was pure hell. If I have to put my car in park on a freeway, we have an issue. But we got there and things were okay. My sister's husband drives me a little nuts, but she knows that. He just is a bit socially awkward and he can be a bit of a doofus, but it was all good.

The food was great. I tried to remain good to our diet and had turkey, ham, eggs, cranberry sauce (the worst thing I ate sugar wise), and the insides of cute little individual pumpkin pies. Unlike most people last night, I was not stuffed or feeling like death after eating. Points to me.

After dinner we played games and talked. My sister gave B stacks of fabric and bags of yarn which made them happy. Just one more thing I have to figure out what to do with here, but hey they're all happy.

I will give my sister points for something and I have to admit I am a bit envious. They just purchased a manufactured home. Cash out right. Good for them. I will also admit that prior to now I had a mental image of what a 'mobile' or 'manufactured' home looked like and the person who lived in one, but I realize the error of that. What they are getting for the price they paid is a lot better than what we have so good for them. It inspired me enough to even start looking them up myself. The only thing I would do different than what they are doing is where they will be putting it. They are going to be living in a park ($450 a month lot fee including water, sewage, and electricity so not too shabby on that!). I would prefer to buy a piece of land, like a 1/2 acre, and put it on there. I know there would be challenges with running water lines and electricity, but at least it would be my land, my house, no neighbors, etc. I honestly can't wait to go visit them when they move in because it will give me even more information.

We headed out around 6:45 and got home a little before 9. I did look up some manufactured home sites when we got home out of curiosity. For a fraction of the price of a regular home, we could have an 1800 sq ft place. But I know it's the land. When I add in what the cost of a lot would be, that number goes up. Sigh.

In the end it was a long day, but enjoyable. Today? Today I do nothing.

Y7 D184

I am so disappointed right now. I woke up once and knew it was too early and I went back to sleep. When I woke up the second time I was excited because I thought I had actually slept in. I figured it was 6 or 6:30. Imagine my feelings when I saw it was 4:30. Dammit. I tried. I really tried.

Had a nice day yesterday. No one bugged me. We went out at about 9:30 to Vancouver to get our mani/pedi done. We were there until about 12:30, then we hit the post office to mail all of the gifts to MI. Got home around 3:30 thanks to bad traffic and holiday drivers. Stopped at Target on the way home, then a quick run to the grocery store for something we were out of and didn't want to have to go get today.

Made a steak for dinner, watched some TV, and tried to start watching Harry Potter. I was not happy with the versions we had so I have been grabbing better copies. Between getting them and converting, I am still not quite done updating the files. Maybe this morning we can watch one of them.

We also made a decision last night about our trip back to MI in a couple of weeks. I have been worried about teaching a class from B's grandparent's house. This is where we are supposed to stay while we are there. I have also been stressing about spending that long at one place. I asked B to have them run a speed test on their network. Results? 5 down, .2 up. Um. No. I can't teach from there. Sorry. I ended up booking us a hotel from 12/27 - 12/31 to make life easier for everyone. I have 500k Hilton points. A suite is running me 140k. Totally worth it in my mind. I will make up 50 of those when I go to St Louis so no stress. This is what these points are for anyway. Now I can teach without a problem.

Went to bed around 10. Good day overall.

Today is Thanksgiving. Spending it at my sister's house. This should be interesting. I need to text her and get her address. That might help, huh?

Y7 D183

I am free for a few days! No classes, no travel, no nothing. Paradise.

Taught until 2:30, played some video games, watched some TV, waited for a package to arrive, made pork chops for dinner, went to bed.

You know your life is pretty boring when it can almost fit into a twitter post.

Look, I'm really not complaining. It's just so different how life is these days versus how it was even 5 years ago. Speaking of 5 years ago, yesterday was the 5th anniversary of my brother's death. I still have the last voice mail he ever sent me. So weird when you can listen to something like that and know you'll never see that person again. Especially now that we live up here and would be 30-45 minutes away from him. I keep wondering if we will ever run into his wife and my nephews. I don't even know how old they would be at this point. I swear one should be 13 or 14 if not older. I wonder if they think about me ever. What happened to our uncle? Will I one day get an email from them like I did their father? What does their mother say about me if they ask? It's a shame how adults can behave sometimes.

Today I have to go the store for a couple of last minute things for tomorrow, then the post office to mail Christmas presents to MI, then we have an appointment for a mani/pedi. Technically B does, but she can't drive to Vancouver on her own. I'd be happy sitting at home doing nothing if I had my way. Alas, I don't have my way.

I need to get to the store before it gets crowded.

Y7 D182

Halfway point. Another year almost gone. Amazing how we don't think we can survive another day of what the world throws at us and the next thing you know 7 years have gone by. Life moves pretty fast. Blink and you just might miss it.

Nothing exciting to report yesterday. A pretty mellow day. Taught my group of seven. The students are pretty mellow. We finished up around 2:20. One more day and then I am free for 5 days. I did do something for me yesterday - I finally enrolled in TSA Pre. I know I should have done it a long time ago, but it's just something I never got around to doing. I have an appointment on Monday for my interview. I will then have a KTN to add to my American account. It will save me some time in some airports. Not all, but some. The biggest deal will be not having to get half undressed or take out any of my liquids. I don't know what to expect at the interview, but I also don't see it as a big deal.

I also finished my timesheet and expense report yesterday. One part of me wanted to wait until Wednesday just to prove a point. It's not my fault that they didn't add all of my projects to the list of available items so why should I have to work extra to get it done quickly? On the other hand, I didn't want it floating over my head on Wednesday. This way it's done and it's one less thing I have to worry about doing. In the end convenience won out over principle. That sounds like most decisions by most people.

Watched some TV. B is trying to catch up on the shows I watched while on the road. I made chicken for dinner. Got super tired around 9 and ended up going to bed at 9:30. I turned on the heating blanket and was asleep instantly.

Time to get ready for class.

Y7 D181

Talked to the office yesterday about the neighbor issue. It is now registered as a formal complaint and she is no longer allowed to talk to or contact us directly for any reason. She has six more months left on her lease, we have 22. This should be interesting. The office was very sympathetic as they have had to deal with her before. The issue as we all see it is that she has not had to live in an apartment in a very long time and has forgotten what communal living is like. I can empathize with her on that part as it was a shift for me to go from a house back to an apartment, but that doesn't give you the right to be malicious and a horrible neighbor.

We worked in the garage yesterday to rearrange a few things as we wanted to make sure the car fit without any problems. Mission accomplished. The weather forecast for this week does include snow (a very little bit mind you) and we didn't want to leave the car outside just in case.

Our big project yesterday however was mounting the TV to the wall. That took us hours because we didn't want to fuck it up. We measured, measured again, then measured a third time. We even made a cardboard model to use as reference to determine height, where on the wall it should go, etc. In the end it came out looking really good. We are both pleased with the job we did. It was a lot of effort but totally worth it. We still need to clean up and rearrange the cables under the TV but we are both really happy with the end result. This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but the last thing I am is handy so to accomplish something like this and have it come out looking good is a big feather in my cap.

Ran some errands at the mall when we were done including getting some soap at Bath and Body Works. It has begun at the mall - season of the rookies. I hate shopping this time of year because you get the useless people who don't know how to shop. We realized moments after getting there that we needed to leave. We did what we needed to do and got the hell out.

For dinner we had a cheat day and had friend chicken tenders. So good. It's amazing how good fast food can taste when you don't have it for 4-5 weeks. Came home, watched some TV, and we both went to bed early. Even B was in bed by 9:30. I slept like shit as the fried chicken was coming back for a visit. The downside of fast food.

Have a class today, two days of one of the hard classes. But then I am done for 5 days. I can do this. I can get through 16 hours of this.

Y7 D180

I slept in until almost 5:45! Go me.

Two things of interest happened yesterday. One not so exciting, the other may have some future excitement, we shall see. The first is I finished reading all seven Harry Potter books. I have been reading them for the last couple of weeks. Why? Because it's important to B. If it's important to her, then it is important to me. So far this decision has paid off. Her excitement at knowing she can talk to me about these things has been very clear. This is something she is passionate about and to be able to share that has made her very happy. How do I feel about the books? Meh. I can see how if I was the 'right' age and read them as they were coming out, how much of an impact they might have had on me. But reading them as an adult I found them to be an engaging story but a lot of holes, a lot of unanswered questions, a lot of just accepting things, etc. They aren't poorly written or anything, they just don't hold the same draw over me as they do her. But at least now I can understand references she makes, understand who she is talking about when says certain things, etc. This was my only goal. Goal met.

I did try to do my timesheet and expense report yesterday however I was stopped by this last client not being available in my list of projects. Can someone please be a little more proactive about this shit? Here I am trying to be a good person and get things done but can't and have to deal with all the stupid auto emails that come through. Annoying.

I went to the grocery store yesterday around 6:30am. Man I love the store at that time. Empty and quiet. So many people doing Thanksgiving shopping. One lady had 15 boxes of stuffing in her cart. Either she has a super family or she is donating them. Let's hope for the latter because that's a lot of stuffing. Came back, put things away, and B got up a little afterwards. We then went out to run a couple of errands and get some stuff I missed off the list.

Got back a few hours later and then I worked in the office for a while. Moved over files, got things done. It was around 5 that the second issue of the day occurred.

Our neighbor below who I have mentioned before, decided that we needed to hear her music loud and clear. We tried to tolerate it for a while but finally it got too much for both of us. In the end there was a huge showdown between us and her, resulting in her crying and wailing on about her dead husband. We did get her to turn her music down thankfully. But to be safe, B wrote this 5 page document about our interactions with her since the moment we moved in. I then emailed it to the main office letting them know I would be speaking to them today.

The problem is similar to the one we had with fatty mcfuckfuck at our last place. There's not a lot of padding in these apartments and every time we move or walk around it echoes. But as I told her last night, there's a big difference between unintentionally causing noise and maliciously turning your stereo up knowing it will piss people off. As I have had time to reflect on the incident, I have wondered if she had been drinking when she did it last night or if maybe it's her way of getting attention because she is so lonely. Either way, we reported it because it will probably turn into a huge thing of he said she said and I want our side documented. B also recorded what she could of the conversation but since she was so far away you only her parts of it. At 10am today we are going down to the office to discuss with management. Let's see how this turns out.

We bought a bracket to mount the TV on the wall last night. That's our big project for the day. Even bought a stud finder to make sure we get this right. Wish us luck!

Y7 D179

I'm home. I'm finally home. Sweet jeebus I am not on the road any more. And I don't have to go anywhere for three weeks. What to do, what to do?

It was another long travel day. Which mind you I plan to capture exactly in my timesheet. I calculated that between the time it took me to get both there and back, I worked almost an entire regular work week just traveling. Ugh.

Got to the airport around 3am EST. I will give PHL this - they truly are a '24 hour' airport. There were actual people working the car rental return, the shuttle was prompt, and I was at the gate by 3:15. Security opened around 3:45 with no issues. Got to my gate and relaxed. My flight to DFW was uneventful. I had my first class upgrade, they served me a quiche, and I managed to get an hours sleep. Not too shabby. My flight from DFW to PDX? Not so nice. I was 8th on the upgrade list so that wasn't happening. Boarded and I had the window seat with no window. Just a blank wall. I hate that. Makes me feel claustrophobic. I prefer the window seat so I can look out and not feel as trapped. I used to like the aisle seat but to be honest it was because I needed to use the restroom all the time. Of course that turned out to be prostate issues so now I can go back to sitting by the window.

I sit down and this woman sits in the middle of the two seats next to me. She is, how shall we say, a plump lady, and I thought wow, maybe she bought two seats to be comfortable. No such luck. By the middle of the boarding process someone came to claim the aisle seat and this woman squished me into the corner making my claustrophobia feeling soar even higher. 4.5 hours of this. Kill me.

Finally get to PDX around 1pm PST. All in all I had already been up since 9pm PST. 16 hours already. I then had to take the train and finally got home around 3:30.

Once I got home I went through mail, unpacked, wrapped presents, dumped files, B needed to go the store, and I needed food.

When I finally slowed down it was 10:30 and that was that. I promptly fell asleep.

Today I need to do my timesheet, expense report, bills, and groceries. Otherwise, nothing to do this whole weekend. The more I get done today, the better.

Y7 D178

It's early here. 12:30am to be exact. I am saving this as a draft since it will be too early to post it and have it be for Friday.

Had an extremely boring day yesterday. Arrived on site at about 7:15am, did an hour demonstration on a couple of topics from 9-10, then I basically sat while the group worked on their own stuff and I answered random questions for everyone. It was mind numbingly boring. I left at 4, got back to the hotel around 4:30, had dinner at 5:30 after packing, went to bed at 7. Woke up at midnight. That's it. That was my day.

Now I have an hour drive to the airport and 10 hours of travel. Whee.

Y7 D177

Just checked in for tomorrow's flight. One upgrade confirmed at least. It's two 4 hours flights tomorrow (approximately) so to have it on at least one of them is okay by me. I am so frustrated. I am going to come so close to Platinum this year but unless I get one more damn flight, I am going to miss it. The second time this has happened where I have been within 5,000 miles of hitting it. The last time I came up 2,000 miles short. This time about 4. Why can't my boss get me ONE more road trip. Ugh.

Finished up the formal material yesterday with the client. I think everyone is happy. I did have to increase the pace slightly to fit everything in, but we did it. We finished around 4:30. I got back to the hotel at 5. I ate my cafeteria salad for dinner, watched some shows, read, and went to bed.

I just want to go home. I want to sleep in my own bed. I want to wrap presents. I want to be left the fuck alone.

Speaking of not getting to do Christmas at home, finally got some good news from the kid. She got accepted into housing! She is sharing an apartment with 3 other students, but that will be better than living with her grandmother for sure. She is 15th on the waiting list for a parking permit which sucks, but at least come 1/1, she will have a place to live. Assuming we can pay for it. She is investigating payment options right now. Once all that is settled, we will book her flight to come see us in January. We are going to have three Christmas days as of right one. One in MI, one at home, one with the kid. Whatever.

That's about it. Today is a free form mentoring session, followed by me going to bed at 7pm so I can get the hell out of here at 2:30 EST. Joy.

Y7 D176

Had a rough night last night. Tossed and turned. Woke up multiple times. I hate that. You wake up thinking it's morning and you find you've only been asleep for 90 minutes. So annoying. I think my body and mind are so screwed up lately with waking up too early that I can't get a full night's sleep anymore. Just once I would like to sleep straight through for a solid 8 hours. Price of travel.

Speaking of travel, B has hit her point. This is the third week in a row I have been gone and it's starting to affect her too. She is one of her melancholy moods. I know I should be supportive, but it's hard because it brings my mood down too. Which is worse because at least she is home. At least she gets to be around familiar things and can sleep in our own bed. I have to just suck it up and be here 3000 miles away.

Taught my class from 8:30 - 5:00 last night. We needed that extra half hour. I managed to get us 90% of where we needed to be. It's okay as today's class usually finishes early and I can squeeze in the extra hour from the last two days. Today is the last formal day of class work followed by an open ended session on Thursday. I am hoping Thursday's class finishes early to give me some downtime.

Got back to the hotel around 6. Ate my 'lunch' for dinner. They are giving us lunch vouchers each day we are in class and I saved the salad I bought to eat for dinner. Wasn't bad. Definitely keeps my expense report down so no one can yell at me at least.

Watched the Muppets, read, and went to bed. Two more days of the same and I can go home on Friday. Then three glorious weeks at home. Thank goodness.

Y7 D175

Caught up a little bit on my sleep. I went to bed at 9:30 and slept until 5. That helped. I was so exhausted yesterday but had to act like I was full of pep and energy. That tired me out even more. But I didn't force myself to stay up too late. I went to bed when I couldn't take any more.

Arrived on site around 8 yesterday. Got the room all setup and ready to go before the students arrived which was nice. I hate trying to do my stuff while people are filing in. I like to be all ready to go before they get in the room. Yesterday I had enough time to do that which was good. I have 15 students plus two 'observers' who are really there to help their people and not to watch me. We made it through as much material as we could given the time constraints. I am delivering 4 days worth of training in three and I managed to shave off about 2 hours yesterday and need to shave off 2 hours today to get it all in given the allotted time. I think I can do it. Only one of the students had any problems yesterday but by midday even she was caught up and following along with no problems.

Headed back to the hotel around 5:30, went to dinner at a diner next door. Had pork and kraut which was basically a bowl of sauerkraut with chunks of pork built in. Very east coast kind of meal in my mind. It was good, not great, but good. Finished up and headed back to the room.

Finished up last minute (last minute, ha!!) Christmas shopping on Amazon, watched some TV, read a little and went to bed. Excitement abounds.

Only issue from yesterday was with my rental car. When I got up in the morning I discovered that the entire passenger side was covered in ash and it stunk like a cigarette. Whoever had it before me used the center console as an ashtray. Plus I found a dent on the driver's side door. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Avis trying to get it all logged to make sure I didn't get charged for any of that. I am not looking forward to Friday when I drop it off and they try to hassle me for these things. Hence why I got it all logged with them.

Shower time and day 2 of 4.

Y7 D174

It took me 16 hours to get here yesterday and then add to that a 3 hour time change. I am once more operating on less than 5 hours of sleep for the second day in a row. Very frustrating. Yesterday started off okay. I knew I had a close connection between my two flights and I was a little stressed out about that as it was but then things got worse.

Got to the airport a little after 4, checked in, and made it to my gate. We boarded at 6:30 and things were looking good for an on time departure. We rolled away from the gate and then nothing. We sat there for a few minutes. Turns out the starter on our plane was broken. Oops. Kind of need that. We then deplaned and they made us move 16 gates to a new plane. It took almost 2 hours before we were on another plane and finally ready to go. I obviously was going to miss my connecting flight. I was already scheduled to arrive in PA at 7pm, and then drive an hour. My new flight? Didn't leave until 1:30 on paper with a 9pm arrival time. In reality we didn't leave until a little after 2pm and we landed at 10:05pm local time. I had to let the hotel know, let Avis know, etc. By the time I was in the car and headed to the hotel it was 10:30pm. I didn't get here until almost midnight. Then I still had to unpack and iron.

Luckily for my long flight I had a 1st class seat. Which according to one person made me 'better than everyone else'. Here's the story; we're waiting to board and 1st is first. This woman who was not in first but was a priority (like I usually am) was blocking the lane. "I AM PRIORITY AND THIS IS THE PRIORITY LANE" she shouted at one person who asked if she was boarding for first. I turned and looked at this woman with surprise at her anger and she told me and the other woman how we thought we were superior to everyone else and that we should go fuck ourselves. Wow, okay. I get you are priority and want to board, but could you please move out of the way. She finally boarded like 30 people later and had this look of disgust as she came through the 1st class cabin to get to her seat. I hate people like that. You know why most of us are in first? Because we bust our asses through the year to get upgrades and get on the list. Don't blame us for being rewarded for being loyal. She had so much anger. Now I will say, I did enjoy my vegetable ravioli, my warm nuts, my reclining seat with footrest, and the sundae bar, but I earned it. I have worked hard for these perks and won't let you diminish them for me.

I need to figure out where I am going this morning. I have to be onsite at 8am, but not sure exactly how far it is from here. I know it's under 10 miles, but I don't know what kind of roads or traffic I am about to experience. Need to put some food in me here shortly and wake up a bit.

Tonight I am going to bed so early.

Y7 D173

I am split between two airlines this morning. This has been the hardest thing about moving. Most of my flights require some kind of connection from PDX. Either SFO, DFW, or PHX. Which means my first flight is on Alaska. But then my connecting flight is back on American. Two check-ins, two sets of boarding passes, two apps, two upgrade lists, etc. It's annoying. I do have my upgrade on my first flight today at least. PDX to SFO. Then it's a 5.5 hour flight from SFO to PHL. Then an hour drive until I get to the hotel. This is going to be a long fucking day.

Was up at 4:30 yesterday and did stuff until B got up around 10. I did finish moving over all of the files from the current HDD to the new Archive HDD. Almost 4.5 TB of data moved. It also helped me to discover places where I have missing files, holes in seasons, etc. A big project, but worth it in the end.

Once B got up we went out for errands. She needed socks and we needed food.

Got back around 2, wrapped a couple Xmas presents that had arrived, read, hung out, watched some TV, made meatballs for dinner, bed at 8:30. Oh what a crazy wild life.

Y7 D172

I honestly didn't mean to be up at this time, it just kind of happened. I had a pretty restless sleep last night. It's getting drier here in the house as we have to keep the windows closed at night now. I may need to pull out a humidifier at night. I keep waking up with the worst case of dry mouth ever.

It feels like I did eleventy billion things yesterday. None of them included packing for tomorrow unfortunately. That task is still at hand. I have to start laundry here in a few before I can pack. My class went from 6-2, then I ran errands including the grocery store and Target. Waited for UPS to bring one more package. UPS really pisses me off. I see the truck in my neighborhood at like 10am so why does it take until almost 7 for them to bring me my package. Very inefficient delivery. I also called Disneyland about the stuff I ordered last weekend. Amazon has spoiled me. Having prime, I am used to things getting here in 2 days, 3 max. According to the nice person on the phone, they are running 10-15 days for delivery. WTF? That's forever! Luckily someone will be home and I don't need any of that stuff until December, but man. That's business days too. Which means my stuff won't get here until the first week of December at the earliest. Thank goodness shipping was free.

Made chicken stir fry for dinner, B went and did some editing on her latest writing project, I organized files. I have just about moved almost 3TB of TV shows over to the new drive. I still need to go through a bunch of stuff to see if it needs moving, but I have moved quite a big chunk which makes me happy. I finally sat down to watch some TV later in the evening then went off to bed around 10:30.

There's a storm brewing outside. I can hear things getting whopped around by the wind. This might turn out to be the first real storm I have seen since moving here. It's rained, sure, but it's been drip drip kind of rain. I want a big ass storm. I may get my wish today.

Errands, laundry, and house cleaning are on the agenda for today. Then I leave for a week.

Y7 D171

I am so fucking tired right now. I just feel like I have no time to get anything done, yet I got a lot done. Yesterday was weird. I had that early morning session with one person from 7-9 to start the day. Of course she was late - "oh, I had trouble getting into the office this morning". Whatever. Thanks for wasting my day a little bit. We ended up doing only about 90 minutes but since she was late it took the whole two hours. You'll be damn sure I am putting that down as 2 hours on my timesheet this afternoon. After I finished with her I had an hour and a half until my next session. I decided to go to the store for B during that time and get her stuff off her list.

Came back, worked on my expense report for this week, and waited for my 10:30 group. I don't like them. First off, it's seven people in one room all talking at the same time using one connection. That always drives me nuts because I can't control the mute nor can I see individual screens if someone is having a problem. Plus they have already had three and a half days of my co-worker on another topic where I am coming into the group cold. Got through it and finished around 2 as planned.

After class I worked on wrapping presents while we waited for Fedex and usps to come. As of right now thanks to prime, only 3 or 4 gifts are still outstanding from Amazon. Still waiting on three packages from Disneyland. Hopefully those will be here soon. I need to call them today at lunch to get tracking numbers. Once everything was wrapped, B and I worked on the tree. We got the tree set up and the deliveries came. We needed to go to the grocery store, but it was around 5 at that point and traffic was starting up. We decided to have dinner first then go out. I made a nice chicken and veggie dinner. It was pretty darn good to be honest. I was happy with how it turned out. Around 6:30 we headed out. B needed her probiotic drink that they only sell at one store here in town.

While we were out we decided to stop at a couple of stores in the never ending quest to find me boots. Success finally! I found a decent pair for $40 and they have fur lining too. I am very pleased with this. We got home around 8, watched a little TV and then at 10:30 off to bed.

I woke up this morning to a hangout from B. Seems our downstairs neighbor was playing loud music at 1am so she went down to confront them. Apparently that went well and all is good. I will get the details when she gets up later.

Time for day two with this one group, then a day off, then off to PA.