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.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Sunday, November 29, 2015
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.
- 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.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
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:
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.
Friday, November 27, 2015
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.
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.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
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?
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?
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
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.
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.
Monday, November 23, 2015
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.
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.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
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!
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!
Saturday, November 21, 2015
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.
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.
Friday, November 20, 2015
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.
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.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
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.
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.
Monday, November 16, 2015
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.
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.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
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.
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.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
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.
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.
Friday, November 13, 2015
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.
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.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Y7 D170
Home for 3 days. Got up late yesterday and still had many hours to wait. I got to the airport at 3:30 and apparently Burbank is a little bitch airport and nothing opens until 5:30 there. I sat around for hours. Then after finally getting through security I sat around until 8:45 when my plane finally boarded. Got to PDX around 11:30, got on the train and finally got home around 1.
From there it was non-stop. We had a couple of packages coming so we had to wait around for those. While we waited, we started pulling out Christmas stuff. Because of my schedule Christmas is getting setup NOW. After the packages came we finally got to go out. Grocery store, Target, shoe store, Fred Meyer, and Michaels. All the errands. The shoe store was kind of important as I need boots bad. I need them for MI when we go, but I also need them for PA next week. I found a couple of pairs I liked but wasn't sold enough on them to flat out buy them now. I am going to keep looking until Saturday and if I haven't found anything then I buy them.
When we got back it was after 8 and we did some decorating, some wrapping, and mostly relaxed. I thought I could sleep in this morning, but forgot about a 7-9 I have this morning with a client. It's a little bitch session for one of the clients who couldn't go to my onsite training and they want one specific part of it. Fine. Then at 10:30 I have a class for some people back east until 2:30 then day two tomorrow. What I had hoped would be a quiet day is going to be a bit annoying to be honest.
Once I realized that I realized I needed to go to bed but I was too wound up. Ended up paying bills, helping B with decorating, and didn't get to bed until 11:30. I did sleep well though. That counts for something.
From there it was non-stop. We had a couple of packages coming so we had to wait around for those. While we waited, we started pulling out Christmas stuff. Because of my schedule Christmas is getting setup NOW. After the packages came we finally got to go out. Grocery store, Target, shoe store, Fred Meyer, and Michaels. All the errands. The shoe store was kind of important as I need boots bad. I need them for MI when we go, but I also need them for PA next week. I found a couple of pairs I liked but wasn't sold enough on them to flat out buy them now. I am going to keep looking until Saturday and if I haven't found anything then I buy them.
When we got back it was after 8 and we did some decorating, some wrapping, and mostly relaxed. I thought I could sleep in this morning, but forgot about a 7-9 I have this morning with a client. It's a little bitch session for one of the clients who couldn't go to my onsite training and they want one specific part of it. Fine. Then at 10:30 I have a class for some people back east until 2:30 then day two tomorrow. What I had hoped would be a quiet day is going to be a bit annoying to be honest.
Once I realized that I realized I needed to go to bed but I was too wound up. Ended up paying bills, helping B with decorating, and didn't get to bed until 11:30. I did sleep well though. That counts for something.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Y7 D169
Woke up late, rushing. Have 13 minutes until I have to leave. Everything is packed but I am stressed. Especially since I will have hours at the airport. Only leaving early because I need to drop the rental car off by 4am and want to miss LA Wednesday morning traffic.
Taught my people yesterday and confirmed two 2016 trips. I will be back here in Feb and in June. One of those I am going to extend to let B come with me. Probably the Feb one as it is around her birthday.
Got back to the hotel around 5:30, ate dinner, talked with B, went to sleep around 8. Fucked up and overslept. There you go. There's my day. Gotta run. Okay bye.
Taught my people yesterday and confirmed two 2016 trips. I will be back here in Feb and in June. One of those I am going to extend to let B come with me. Probably the Feb one as it is around her birthday.
Got back to the hotel around 5:30, ate dinner, talked with B, went to sleep around 8. Fucked up and overslept. There you go. There's my day. Gotta run. Okay bye.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Y7 D168
Do you know which band turns 50 this year? The Scorpions. Can you believe that? 50 years of making music. That's a long time. I know this because they just re-released 8 of their major albums in remastered format and I grabbed them last night. Love at First Sting, Blackout, Animal Magnetism. These are some of the best albums I remember from my childhood. I can't believe they have been around for 50 years. Then I start thinking about some other bands that are going to be 50 soon - AC/DC, The Eagles. Wow. I'm fucking old.
Headed over to the client around 7:45 yesterday, got there a little after 8. The weather is cooling off here and the walk wasn't horrible. We started around 8:30 and finished up around 5. We got through so many of their questions it was crazy. We built reports and models and at the end of the day they were happy. One more day of it until 2016.
Got back to the hotel around 5:30, changed, went downstairs for dinner. Had a salad and a bowl of soup. Back in the room around 6:15. From there I just watched some shows. Watched a new one last night that was pretty good - Agent X. In short, it's about a special agent who is at the discretion of the VP to go above and beyond the law to fight criminals. A little contrived but it was a fun show, well acted, and not half bad writing. I could handle a season of it. I don't think it will make it past one season, but it was pretty good. I might be surprised and it might last a while.
Went to bed around 9:30 as I was pretty tired. Getting up too early will do that to you. Go home tomorrow, teach two remote classes, then leave again on Sunday.
Headed over to the client around 7:45 yesterday, got there a little after 8. The weather is cooling off here and the walk wasn't horrible. We started around 8:30 and finished up around 5. We got through so many of their questions it was crazy. We built reports and models and at the end of the day they were happy. One more day of it until 2016.
Got back to the hotel around 5:30, changed, went downstairs for dinner. Had a salad and a bowl of soup. Back in the room around 6:15. From there I just watched some shows. Watched a new one last night that was pretty good - Agent X. In short, it's about a special agent who is at the discretion of the VP to go above and beyond the law to fight criminals. A little contrived but it was a fun show, well acted, and not half bad writing. I could handle a season of it. I don't think it will make it past one season, but it was pretty good. I might be surprised and it might last a while.
Went to bed around 9:30 as I was pretty tired. Getting up too early will do that to you. Go home tomorrow, teach two remote classes, then leave again on Sunday.
Monday, November 9, 2015
Y7 D167
Busy day yesterday. Got up early and got ready. Headed out to the park around 6:30 and got there right when the parking lot opened. My timing was perfect. I was on the grounds by 7:15. Since nothing was open yet, I had some breakfast and relaxed. After breakfast I went and did all the Christmas shopping. I found a piece of artwork for the kid, a watch for me, ornaments for B, charms for B, hot chocolate for everyone, and then two tiny framed pieces of art for me and the kid. I wanted a big piece but knew I would have nowhere to put it which is why I got the tiny version instead. I also got a new t-shirt and a wallet. Both of those aren't for Christmas but immediate use. B told me it was raining like crazy at home, the kid was complaining about rain where she is, and I had 80 degrees of sunshine. Sorry. But it's also too dry here. I am dying this morning from the lack of humidity. Can barely breathe and my throat feels like sandpaper. After shopping I went to DCA to hang out and see if there was anything else I wanted to get. I decided to splurge and bought the 60th anniversary train set for under the tree.
Best part of all this? It's all being shipped for free and everything I am having shipped I didn't pay any sales tax on. Probably saved a good $20-$30 just on tax and another $50 on shipping. Plus this way things will come next week and it will be fun.
Left the park around 11 and got back to the hotel around noon. I ironed and since housekeeping hadn't come yet, went for a nice walk. I walked around downtown Pasadena for about an hour, came back and STILL no housekeeping. Ugh. They finally showed up around 2:30. I went down to the lobby and waited for a while.
Came back up, napped for an hour, then walked to Rubio's for dinner. From about 6-8 I watched some shows, answered emails, and then read in bed until 10.
Today I have to be onsite from 8:30 - 5. Two more days and I will be home for a whopping three days.
Best part of all this? It's all being shipped for free and everything I am having shipped I didn't pay any sales tax on. Probably saved a good $20-$30 just on tax and another $50 on shipping. Plus this way things will come next week and it will be fun.
Left the park around 11 and got back to the hotel around noon. I ironed and since housekeeping hadn't come yet, went for a nice walk. I walked around downtown Pasadena for about an hour, came back and STILL no housekeeping. Ugh. They finally showed up around 2:30. I went down to the lobby and waited for a while.
Came back up, napped for an hour, then walked to Rubio's for dinner. From about 6-8 I watched some shows, answered emails, and then read in bed until 10.
Today I have to be onsite from 8:30 - 5. Two more days and I will be home for a whopping three days.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Y7 D166
Up early so I can go to the park today. I went yesterday but there were too many people and I started stressing out.
Got to the airport around 4:30, boarded my flight at 6:30, landed in Burbank around 8:45. By the time I found the rental car garage it was almost 9:30. It's a long walk from the terminal to the garage. I need to factor that in when I drop off on Wednesday.
I didn't like the car they assigned to me and asked if they had anything nicer. I ended up with a 2016 Mustang. Okay, I can handle that. Drove from the airport to the park - took me almost 90 minutes to go 35 miles. I do not miss this fucking traffic. At least Oregon traffic is localized. I know exactly where it is and when it is going to end.
Got to the parking lot for the park and it was a madhouse. Blizzcon is going on and it was just crazy. So many people trying to go to the convention.
Finally got inside the park and wandered around. I wanted to buy some Christmas gifts, but it's hard when the people aren't with you. I did buy a 60th anniversary statue, but that was it. I had a REALLY nice lunch at Carthay Circle. That was the best part of my day. On my way out of the park I ran into friends I didn't know were there which was kind of fun. We are going to try and meet up today too. Whilst all this was going on I talked with the kid. She got the car back. There's a leak in the top of the gas tank. Yeah like that is going to get fixed. Not for $800. Sorry. She needs to make the car last until May. That's all. Just May.
Headed out to the hotel around 2. Another 90 minute drive for 40 miles. So much stupid on the roads. When I got here I tried using the internet and because my room was in the far corner on the 12th floor, I had 1k per second. Unacceptable. I bitched on twitter and went to find some dinner. While at dinner they called me to explain where their access points are mounted and gave me a new room. I then had to come back, pack, and change rooms. There's nothing wrong with the new room and at least now I have internet.
Went for a walk after all that to try and clear my head. I was just very irritated. Came back, downloaded shows for the night, read in bed for a while, talked with B, and went to sleep around 10:30.
I did sleep well at least. My back is hurting but this bed seems okay. We'll see how I do after multiple nights in it.
Time to shower and hit the road. Today I will be in the park early dammit.
Got to the airport around 4:30, boarded my flight at 6:30, landed in Burbank around 8:45. By the time I found the rental car garage it was almost 9:30. It's a long walk from the terminal to the garage. I need to factor that in when I drop off on Wednesday.
I didn't like the car they assigned to me and asked if they had anything nicer. I ended up with a 2016 Mustang. Okay, I can handle that. Drove from the airport to the park - took me almost 90 minutes to go 35 miles. I do not miss this fucking traffic. At least Oregon traffic is localized. I know exactly where it is and when it is going to end.
Got to the parking lot for the park and it was a madhouse. Blizzcon is going on and it was just crazy. So many people trying to go to the convention.
Finally got inside the park and wandered around. I wanted to buy some Christmas gifts, but it's hard when the people aren't with you. I did buy a 60th anniversary statue, but that was it. I had a REALLY nice lunch at Carthay Circle. That was the best part of my day. On my way out of the park I ran into friends I didn't know were there which was kind of fun. We are going to try and meet up today too. Whilst all this was going on I talked with the kid. She got the car back. There's a leak in the top of the gas tank. Yeah like that is going to get fixed. Not for $800. Sorry. She needs to make the car last until May. That's all. Just May.
Headed out to the hotel around 2. Another 90 minute drive for 40 miles. So much stupid on the roads. When I got here I tried using the internet and because my room was in the far corner on the 12th floor, I had 1k per second. Unacceptable. I bitched on twitter and went to find some dinner. While at dinner they called me to explain where their access points are mounted and gave me a new room. I then had to come back, pack, and change rooms. There's nothing wrong with the new room and at least now I have internet.
Went for a walk after all that to try and clear my head. I was just very irritated. Came back, downloaded shows for the night, read in bed for a while, talked with B, and went to sleep around 10:30.
I did sleep well at least. My back is hurting but this bed seems okay. We'll see how I do after multiple nights in it.
Time to shower and hit the road. Today I will be in the park early dammit.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Y7 D165
Up and ready to go to the airport. Car will be here in 2 hours. Traveling on a Saturday. I did this so I could have a day to myself in Disneyland - a full day, tomorrow - but had I known about St Louis, I probably wouldn't have done this to give myself one more day at home. Cest la vie. In less than 12 hours I will be in Disneyland. I only plan to go for a few hours today. Mainly to make sure there's no issues with my annual pass to be honest. Tomorrow I will spend the whole day.
Yesterday was very busy. From laundry to hair dying to repacking to house cleaning to a conference call, I was going non-stop until almost 7pm. I managed to get everything done as well as make the client happy. I also got my expense report and most of my timesheet done. I couldn't finish my timesheet due to some things not being added but that's okay.
I paid bills yesterday too. I did get my Q3 'bonus'. After taxes a whopping $400. Blah. Whatever. I immediately moved money into savings and into B's account. I am proud that I have savings again. That's a huge win compared to where I was 5 years ago. I am not stressing to pay my bills, I am not stressing about going to the park today, etc. The only time I stress is when I want to pay MORE on a bill and I can't quite pay as much as I wanted. Good kind of problem to have.
The kid called me yesterday. The car is having issues. There's where I feel like a bit of a failure. They want $800 to fix everything that's wrong with it, but the car isn't even worth that much. I know most of that is labor and if I were there I wish I could do some myself. I also wish I could just give her $2500 to go buy something new. But I can't because I am useless. I have tried my best not to let her down but lately I feel like I am putting too much burden on her. I could give her my whole savings for a car but then what do I do? I am back to square one yet again?
Great, now I have depressed myself.
Yesterday was very busy. From laundry to hair dying to repacking to house cleaning to a conference call, I was going non-stop until almost 7pm. I managed to get everything done as well as make the client happy. I also got my expense report and most of my timesheet done. I couldn't finish my timesheet due to some things not being added but that's okay.
I paid bills yesterday too. I did get my Q3 'bonus'. After taxes a whopping $400. Blah. Whatever. I immediately moved money into savings and into B's account. I am proud that I have savings again. That's a huge win compared to where I was 5 years ago. I am not stressing to pay my bills, I am not stressing about going to the park today, etc. The only time I stress is when I want to pay MORE on a bill and I can't quite pay as much as I wanted. Good kind of problem to have.
The kid called me yesterday. The car is having issues. There's where I feel like a bit of a failure. They want $800 to fix everything that's wrong with it, but the car isn't even worth that much. I know most of that is labor and if I were there I wish I could do some myself. I also wish I could just give her $2500 to go buy something new. But I can't because I am useless. I have tried my best not to let her down but lately I feel like I am putting too much burden on her. I could give her my whole savings for a car but then what do I do? I am back to square one yet again?
Great, now I have depressed myself.
Friday, November 6, 2015
Y7 D164
Where am I? What day is it? I think it's Friday. I am at home. For another 24 hours. Then I go away again. To one of the most annoying clients ever. But at least I get to spend two days in Disneyland. I wish I had known about last week's trip before I booked this extra day on this trip. Then I wouldn't be leaving until Sunday. Yes I would have one less day in the park, but I would have had one more day at home. Stress. I know how 24 hours to get everything done that I need to get done including laundry, time sheet, expense report, and household stuff. It's going to be a hectic kind of day.
Yesterday was a travel day, all day. I was up at 1 CST, left for the airport at 3, boarded my flight at 5:30, got to Dallas at 8, boarded my next flight at around 11, then we sat on the runway until almost noon because of traffic. I can't even get away from traffic at the airport. Sigh. Landed about 35 minutes late in Portland, got on the train, and finally got home around 3 PST. From there, I unpacked, and started doing all the things B needed me to do.
At 7 I went over to a friend's house to pick something up for B's back. She pulled something bad the other night and hasn't been sleeping because whenever she moves it causes her to be in pain. My friend had some pills that would help that. Got back to the house at 8, watched a little TV, worked on getting last week's files added, and then went to bed.
My sister messaged me yesterday wanting to do brunch this weekend and I just kind of laughed. Nope, sorry. Back on the road. Bye bye. The kid also planned her visit. She will be up here 1/17 - 1/22. We will have second Christmas that week she is here.
Speaking of Christmas, I got all my annual e-gift cards from my surveys. $675 total. BAM. I gave B $150 of it to add to her amazon account and I took the rest. I have already added 16 items to my cart for $275. Still have to add the kid's which will be about $200 or so, and then click order and Christmas is done. We want everything here before we leave in December. As of right now that shouldn't be a problem.
Check in for my flight soon, then a 4 hour conference call mentoring session with a client I know nothing about. This one was thrust at me last minute. Thanks guys.
Need to start laundry soon too. So I can repack. Yay.
Yesterday was a travel day, all day. I was up at 1 CST, left for the airport at 3, boarded my flight at 5:30, got to Dallas at 8, boarded my next flight at around 11, then we sat on the runway until almost noon because of traffic. I can't even get away from traffic at the airport. Sigh. Landed about 35 minutes late in Portland, got on the train, and finally got home around 3 PST. From there, I unpacked, and started doing all the things B needed me to do.
At 7 I went over to a friend's house to pick something up for B's back. She pulled something bad the other night and hasn't been sleeping because whenever she moves it causes her to be in pain. My friend had some pills that would help that. Got back to the house at 8, watched a little TV, worked on getting last week's files added, and then went to bed.
My sister messaged me yesterday wanting to do brunch this weekend and I just kind of laughed. Nope, sorry. Back on the road. Bye bye. The kid also planned her visit. She will be up here 1/17 - 1/22. We will have second Christmas that week she is here.
Speaking of Christmas, I got all my annual e-gift cards from my surveys. $675 total. BAM. I gave B $150 of it to add to her amazon account and I took the rest. I have already added 16 items to my cart for $275. Still have to add the kid's which will be about $200 or so, and then click order and Christmas is done. We want everything here before we leave in December. As of right now that shouldn't be a problem.
Check in for my flight soon, then a 4 hour conference call mentoring session with a client I know nothing about. This one was thrust at me last minute. Thanks guys.
Need to start laundry soon too. So I can repack. Yay.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Y7 D163
I have been up for an hour but had to wait to make sure it was after midnight back home. Yesterday was a pretty good day at work, shitty day at the hotel. I got through class and it was one of those classes where you feel like you got to the students. Where they really grasped the material and everyone had a great time. The number of kudos and handshakes I got at the end of the class really gave me a good sense of satisfaction.
Got back to the hotel around 5:15 and WHAM. Apparently this is fashion week here in St Louis and last night was the culmination with the fashion show. The hotel was PACKED. Areas roped off, people milling all over; it was hell. If I didn't need to be and leaving this morning maybe I would have enjoyed it, but as I went to bed at 8, I was just pissy. Everything was crowded, loud, and obnoxious drunk pretentious assholes everywhere.
I hid in my room and ordered room service as a result. Had a nice chicken. Went to bed on time, slept for 5 hours and here we are.
Now it's time to go home for 36 hours. Whee.
Got back to the hotel around 5:15 and WHAM. Apparently this is fashion week here in St Louis and last night was the culmination with the fashion show. The hotel was PACKED. Areas roped off, people milling all over; it was hell. If I didn't need to be and leaving this morning maybe I would have enjoyed it, but as I went to bed at 8, I was just pissy. Everything was crowded, loud, and obnoxious drunk pretentious assholes everywhere.
I hid in my room and ordered room service as a result. Had a nice chicken. Went to bed on time, slept for 5 hours and here we are.
Now it's time to go home for 36 hours. Whee.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Y7 D162
Not a bad day yesterday. My class is pretty good. 10 students this time around. We went from 9 until about 4:40 which is exactly where we are supposed to be for this material. The group is varied in skills but a good group. No one was lagging too much and everyone had a great attitude.
I arrived on site around 7:50 after taking a cab from the hotel. The location is just far enough away where I could walk, but if I did I would arrive slightly sweaty and unhappy. Hence I took a cab. It's an $8 cab ride and it works for me.
The room is a good training room, same as the last time I was here. No problems there. One of my students graciously drove me back to the hotel after class. For dinner I went to Landry's seafood. I am a little pissed at that though. I need $36 to hit my next reward on Landry's and get $25 in credit and my bill was $34. Ugh. So close.
Got back to the room after dinner around 6:30 and watched some shows while getting last night's stuff. Went to bed around 10.
One more day teaching then I head home. Home for 36 hours then I leave again. Whee.
I arrived on site around 7:50 after taking a cab from the hotel. The location is just far enough away where I could walk, but if I did I would arrive slightly sweaty and unhappy. Hence I took a cab. It's an $8 cab ride and it works for me.
The room is a good training room, same as the last time I was here. No problems there. One of my students graciously drove me back to the hotel after class. For dinner I went to Landry's seafood. I am a little pissed at that though. I need $36 to hit my next reward on Landry's and get $25 in credit and my bill was $34. Ugh. So close.
Got back to the room after dinner around 6:30 and watched some shows while getting last night's stuff. Went to bed around 10.
One more day teaching then I head home. Home for 36 hours then I leave again. Whee.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Y7 D161
I am on the world's shittiest internet connection right now. Okay maybe not in the whole world, but it sucks for St Louis, okay?
Yesterday was rough. My flight out to DFW was acceptable but DFW (as usual) was a clusterfuck. Apparently there was 'fog' in the morning and 50+ flights were cancelled. It was a mad house there. My flight from DFW to STL was packed. I was 12th on the upgrade list. I can handle 3rd or 4th, but 12th tells me something went wrong. On top of that my flight was delayed. Somehow though the pilot managed to only be 10 minutes later than planned. I got to the hotel around 4.
After unpacking I went for a walk to find rockstars. That was not an easy task. A mile later I found a gas station with some. Through some sketchy areas too. I did pass the FBI building which was amusing.
Got back, ordered a salad in my room, ironed, watched Sunday night shows, went to bed around 10. Today I teach, tomorrow I teach, Thursday I go home.
I will be going home to a nice package from Amazon. I finally bit the bullet and ordered an 8TB HDD to add to the system. Going to move off archived TV to it. This will give me just under 30TB on the whole network. That better last me a while dammit. I figure another 1-2 years tops. But by then they should have 20TB drives and I can replace some of the 5s.
Talked with B, all is well back home. Breakfast in an hour, need to get ready.
Yesterday was rough. My flight out to DFW was acceptable but DFW (as usual) was a clusterfuck. Apparently there was 'fog' in the morning and 50+ flights were cancelled. It was a mad house there. My flight from DFW to STL was packed. I was 12th on the upgrade list. I can handle 3rd or 4th, but 12th tells me something went wrong. On top of that my flight was delayed. Somehow though the pilot managed to only be 10 minutes later than planned. I got to the hotel around 4.
After unpacking I went for a walk to find rockstars. That was not an easy task. A mile later I found a gas station with some. Through some sketchy areas too. I did pass the FBI building which was amusing.
Got back, ordered a salad in my room, ironed, watched Sunday night shows, went to bed around 10. Today I teach, tomorrow I teach, Thursday I go home.
I will be going home to a nice package from Amazon. I finally bit the bullet and ordered an 8TB HDD to add to the system. Going to move off archived TV to it. This will give me just under 30TB on the whole network. That better last me a while dammit. I figure another 1-2 years tops. But by then they should have 20TB drives and I can replace some of the 5s.
Talked with B, all is well back home. Breakfast in an hour, need to get ready.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Y7 D160
Okay, now today is a travel day finally. Hence the 1:@5am posting. Car will be here in about an hour, and then I have 10 hours of travel to St Louis. I am there until Thursday. Then home for one day, do a four hour conference call that day, then leave again on Saturday. Whee.
We did nothing yesterday. B was still feeling off and that wasn't helped with the time change. I was off a little all day myself because of it. Just never quite sure what time it was. The weather was gloomy and grey again all day and that made knowing what time it was even more challenging. Got all the laundry done, packed, made pork chops for dinner, watched some TV, and otherwise did a whole lot of nothing. Didn't leave the house once yesterday. We did do some work in both the garage and outside on the patio. B was missing a few books and with the new bookcases we have room to put them out. We dug through all the book boxes to find her missing ones. I also found all of my Terry Pratchett and spent time rearranging the books to fit those. I am only missing ONE Terry Pratchett book - Eric. Otherwise, I have every book he ever wrote including the stand alone ones from the 70s, Dark Side of the Sun and Strata. Those are hard to find. Especially with the original UK covers like I have.
Someday when I die, B and the kid will have a gold mine of stuff. They will make thousands off an estate sale. Too bad I won't be around to enjoy it. Or will I? LET'S GO REINCARNATION.
I did do one cool thing yesterday. Some of you know I take surveys during the year then save them up for Christmas. I always try to cash in the first part of November to allow enough processing time to make sure I have them by mid-November to start shopping. Yesterday I went through all the sites and my total gift cars this year? $675. BOOM. That's an almost $700 Christmas budget without any stress. Bam bitches.
Went to bed around 7:30 and slept until 1. Time to get ready. Next stop, St Louis.
We did nothing yesterday. B was still feeling off and that wasn't helped with the time change. I was off a little all day myself because of it. Just never quite sure what time it was. The weather was gloomy and grey again all day and that made knowing what time it was even more challenging. Got all the laundry done, packed, made pork chops for dinner, watched some TV, and otherwise did a whole lot of nothing. Didn't leave the house once yesterday. We did do some work in both the garage and outside on the patio. B was missing a few books and with the new bookcases we have room to put them out. We dug through all the book boxes to find her missing ones. I also found all of my Terry Pratchett and spent time rearranging the books to fit those. I am only missing ONE Terry Pratchett book - Eric. Otherwise, I have every book he ever wrote including the stand alone ones from the 70s, Dark Side of the Sun and Strata. Those are hard to find. Especially with the original UK covers like I have.
Someday when I die, B and the kid will have a gold mine of stuff. They will make thousands off an estate sale. Too bad I won't be around to enjoy it. Or will I? LET'S GO REINCARNATION.
I did do one cool thing yesterday. Some of you know I take surveys during the year then save them up for Christmas. I always try to cash in the first part of November to allow enough processing time to make sure I have them by mid-November to start shopping. Yesterday I went through all the sites and my total gift cars this year? $675. BOOM. That's an almost $700 Christmas budget without any stress. Bam bitches.
Went to bed around 7:30 and slept until 1. Time to get ready. Next stop, St Louis.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Y7 D159
Go check your clocks. It's only 4:38. Bye bye DST. It's the most annoying time of year. Halloween is over, bring on November and Christmas. That's the name of the month, right? I think it used to have another name but I forget.
Yesterday was the kind of day we signed up for when we moved here. It rained ALL day non-stop. And not just little dribbles like we have had so far. Nope, it was solid good rain all day. Gloomy and overcast and cold it was a great day outside. We both loved it. We spent the morning building bookcases and cleaning house. The difference those bookcases made is fantastic. I have the top of my desk back. I had some Disney statues on my desk which while nice to look at, took up too much damn room. I offloaded those to the bookcases and now my desk feels clean and empty. B worked on her Christmas projects. I did have to go out once during the day. She needed a prescription refilled so I trudged off to Target around 12:30. Basically the middle of the day when everyone and their mother was there. Didn't have much choice unfortunately. Had to be done.
Got back and took a brief nap. Both of us were confused yesterday because it felt like I should be traveling today and not tomorrow. I kept wanting to pack and get things ready. I ended up doing some of my packing but not all as today is laundry day. Very out of sorts.
For dinner B made stuffed peppers again. Damn. Everyone has a few dishes they can make perfectly and that's one of hers. They were so tasty. We watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown as one does on Halloween, while we ate. I then went in the other room and watched Ash VS Evil Dead. Oh man was that hilarious. It was too gross for B to watch (she tried but didn't last 10 minutes) but I loved it.
That's about it for the day. Very uneventful and mellow listening to rain. Not raining yet today but it's a 70% chance per the weather. Go baby go. I need to check in for flights in 15 minutes. Pray for upgrades.
Yesterday was the kind of day we signed up for when we moved here. It rained ALL day non-stop. And not just little dribbles like we have had so far. Nope, it was solid good rain all day. Gloomy and overcast and cold it was a great day outside. We both loved it. We spent the morning building bookcases and cleaning house. The difference those bookcases made is fantastic. I have the top of my desk back. I had some Disney statues on my desk which while nice to look at, took up too much damn room. I offloaded those to the bookcases and now my desk feels clean and empty. B worked on her Christmas projects. I did have to go out once during the day. She needed a prescription refilled so I trudged off to Target around 12:30. Basically the middle of the day when everyone and their mother was there. Didn't have much choice unfortunately. Had to be done.
Got back and took a brief nap. Both of us were confused yesterday because it felt like I should be traveling today and not tomorrow. I kept wanting to pack and get things ready. I ended up doing some of my packing but not all as today is laundry day. Very out of sorts.
For dinner B made stuffed peppers again. Damn. Everyone has a few dishes they can make perfectly and that's one of hers. They were so tasty. We watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown as one does on Halloween, while we ate. I then went in the other room and watched Ash VS Evil Dead. Oh man was that hilarious. It was too gross for B to watch (she tried but didn't last 10 minutes) but I loved it.
That's about it for the day. Very uneventful and mellow listening to rain. Not raining yet today but it's a 70% chance per the weather. Go baby go. I need to check in for flights in 15 minutes. Pray for upgrades.
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