Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Y8 D5

I have my clock almost reset. I normally don't have problems but this one is beating me up. I am dealing with a 1/3 of a day to synch. Not so easy. I woke up at 3 yesterday thinking it was later. This morning I managed to go until 3:45. I am hoping by tomorrow I will be back in synch. The big issue was at 9 I was done. I went to bed and collapsed. Couldn't keep my eyes open.

We did some shopping yesterday for B's trip. She leaves two weeks from today. She needed a few things for this trip so we headed to the mall. She got a pair of jeans and some new sandals. She's wanted a pair of Birkenstocks for a long time and we broke down and got them for her. $100 for sandals but they will last a long ass time.

Came back and did four loads of laundry. Went back out to the store for some stuff including a new towel rack for my bathroom. Came back and put away all the laundry. For dinner I made chicken the ways he likes it with veggies and a salad.

Not a very exciting day but that's okay. I needed to relax anyway. Today I have a conference call, need to do my expense report, and practice a new class for Friday. I will also try to stay awake today until a decent time. Let's see.

Monday, May 30, 2016

Y8 D4

I know it's going to look like there was a gap in this missing out on Sunday, but not true. Time changes are a bitch. I really didn't miss a day. I won't have to make another trip like that soon thank goodness.

24+ hours to get home. Let's see if I can bring it all together. Woke up 2am London time. Got all my shit together, ate the leftover donuts I still had, and headed down to the lobby at 4:30am. My driver arrived about 4:50. Not too bad. He was scheduled for 5am. We then made it to the airport around 5:30am. Why so quick? Because my driver was insane. I managed to get a picture at one point of his speedometer. He was doing 93 on the M4. He had a Mercedes which beeped at him when he was too close to someone either in front or behind and that thing was beeping the whole drive. Scariest fucking ride ever.

He dropped me off and I went inside to the boarding pass machine. I grabbed my pass and then decided to se if there was an upgrade available. Best decision ever. It cost me $450 out of pocket, but I has a business class flight to DFW and then an automatic 1st class from DFW to home. Some of the best money spent. The business class pods on this flight were awesome. Full menu of food and beverages, complete lay-flat seats, full size pillows and blankets, travel kit to keep from Cole Haan, expedited security through Heathrow, and more. The security part was a blessing. Instead of 500 people ahead of me (no exaggeration), there were 20. Not quite as good as TSA Pre as I still had to take things out of my bag, but the difference in line was worth it. Went to the Heathrow Admiral's Club as I had almost 2 hours before my flight. Wow. What a club. This is what I pay for each year. The ability to truly relax. Full food and beverage, showers, private chairs. I could get used to this part of travel if US clubs were this good.

While waiting for my flight I did do some duty free shopping. I brought home some small things for B like biscuits. I did somehow lose one of my Hogwarts chocolate bars which sucks. But oh well.

Boarded my flight, ate, then slept for about 4 or 5 hours. It was almost a 10 hour flight and I still had plenty of time to kill. I watched a lot of The Middle. Got to DFW at 1:48pm. I had 2.5 hours to get off the plane, get through customs, go back through security, change terminals, and get to my new gate. I did it in an hour. Go me. I was dripping sweat by the time I hit terminal A but who cares. I made it. Left for PDX at 5 (about 20 minutes late) and hit the ground at a little before 7. Took the train and made it home around 8:30. Unpacked, spent time with B, then went to bed around 10:30.

I have a shit ton of things to go through today - receipts, clothes, etc. But I may leave it all for Tuesday as this is supposed to be a holiday, right? In the end I had a good trip. I would do it again but opt for business class the whole way up front. I don't care what it costs. I would also stay at a different hotel to minimize the 15 miles I walked. Lastly I would probably cave in and check a bag. I felt like everything was squished in mine.

Regardless, I am glad to be home.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Y8 D3

Oh boy did I do a lot yesterday. I got up at 4:30 and headed out around 6:30. I walked to the train station and started my journey. Of course, the one day I have to myself it's raining. Not like drizzle normal London-esque rain, but real fucking rain. Sigh. Whatever. I dealt with it. Took the train to London Bridge station, then changed to the Northern line and got off at King's Cross. It was a little before 8 when I got there and luckily the HP store was already open. Got a bunch of stuff for people including a t-shirt for myself. Took tourist pictures.

Got back on the train and headed to Piccadilly Circus. Got off the train and walked about 2 miles. During that walk I saw 10 Downing, the Castle grounds, the Palace, Big Ben, the Eye, the Dungeon, and all sorts of random stuff. I have taken about 700 pictures this week.

Found Southwark station and headed back to the hotel. I was back around noon. Took a nap until 2. Walked to a "NY Italian" restaurant. The waiters were dressed as superheroes, they had Sister Act on the TV, and Chuck Berry on the radio. Um, okay.

Headed back to the hotel and packed. So far everything is fitting. Barely but it's fitting. Watched TV and went to bed at 9:30. Couldn't sleep until 10 though. Up at 2:15 for this. Showered and ready. My driver will be here in about 90 minutes.

I checked in for my flight on line and don't have boarding passes which is tripping me out, but I will get them. I will have four hours to get to my gate. Should be enough. It's going to be 25 hours until I am back at PDX but here we go.

Y8 D2

Finally a day to myself with no travel involved. Okay, no airport travel. I will be doing a lot of tube traveling today. Got to get myself to the Harry Potter store. Taking three different lines, walking 1.2 miles in total, and seeing London dammit.

Finished my classes up. I feel they went well. We finished around 4. I stopped at Lush and got a bath bomb and at Boots for a new toothbrush. Which I am hiding this morning before I go out. Don't want a repeat of the lost toothbrush incident. They did replace it and I will keep the replacement in my bag just in case this happens again.

Got back to the hotel around 5, had dinner in the hotel, took a bath and relaxed, watched some TV and went to bed around 11.

I added it up, I have walked over 5 miles this week. My poor feet need a break next week. I just got my class list for Friday's class. 13 people, 80% are Indian names. This should be fun.

Time to shower and adventure!

Friday, May 27, 2016

Y8 D1

Welcome to year 8. Whee.

Slept well again last night. Two nights in a row. I could get used to this. My biggest complaint about any place I stay is poor internet. Where was I recently where it didn't suck? Don't remember. But here it's a whopping 5mb down on a good day. Mostly I am averaging about 3. Suck.

Taught day 3 yesterday. Smaller group. We went from 9 until about 4. I hopped on the tube and headed back to the hotel. Since it was early I came straight back here. Had dinner in the hotel. Had a wonderful smoked duck followed by a chorizo and chicken burger, topped off with a pear and apple crumble. Yeah, it was pretty good.

Spent the rest of the night in my room watching tv and answering emails. Talked with B for a while. Went to bed around 10.

Last day of training today, then I can have a day to myself. Heading home Sunday and luckily I have Monday off (holiday) and then a relaxing couple of days to prep for a new class on Friday.

Not much else going on right now. Just in the groove.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Y7 D366

This is it. The last day of year 7. So much time has passed it's amazing. So many life changes in the last year. I once predicted it would take me 5 years to get out of the crushing weight of everything that was affecting me. I was a little off, but here I am. Still fucking standing 7 years later. How life has changed. Hell, I am currently in London right now. I have a wonderful wife who loves me very much and whom I love even more. I live in a much better place in a much nicer city. Friends are there and maybe I don't have as many local friends as I would like, but the people who are in my life are true and care for me. I can't ask for much more on that. Sure, there are still goals left to achieve and things to do, but I feel pretty good about how far I have come in the last 7 years. Good for me.

Day two of training yesterday. I wanted a taxi at 6:45am yesterday and for some reason this caused a bit of misunderstanding. The issue was my room is also 645. I confused them that I wanted a car at the same time as my room number. At 6:50 there was still no car. The night manager then stepped up. He was like "sir, come on, I will drive you to the tube." Just straight up in his own car, he took me to the train station. I was extremely grateful for this act of kindness. I was already stressing out since this was the first time I'd be taking the tube into work. But everything went off without a hitch, got to the station, 15 minutes later I was at the office, 10 minutes of walking around confused I found the door and someone let me in. I had one more student yesterday but I still ended up finishing right around 5pm. I decided to let commuter traffic die down before heading back which was a wise idea. I spent some time exploring the mall. During class the question had come up as to what the total square footage of the mall really was. Answer? 1.9 million sq ft. Holy hell. I then explored after work all of it. Yep. I walked the whole damn thing. Had dinner at a Caribbean place in the mall. Excellent goat curry. I paid for it around 1am, but man it was good.

Around 7 I headed back and then the hard part - walking back to the hotel. I got turned around and it took me an extra 10 minutes to get back to the hotel, but I made it eventually. Hung out in my room and went to bed around 10pm.

Day 3, probably a repeat mostly of everything I did yesterday. Tube, teach, eat, tube, sleep. I am looking forward to Saturday when I can explore. I have already figured out my tube route. Platform 9 3/4s will be found and shopped!

Time to get ready.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Y7 D365

One day down, three more to go. Once again I know this will come as Tuesday's post for all of you, but it's Wednesday 5am for me.

Left here pretty early yesterday since I didn't want to be late. Had the hotel drive me to make sure I didn't get lost. Good thing too as I did get turned around a bit in the morning. This office is directly inside a mall the size of some cities. There's a reason it's called Stratford City. There's a bus station, tube station, and train station all in this one location. Plus there are multiple office buildings and like 1000 shops. It's fucking huge. And it's non-stop people all hours of the day. I went into the right building but wrong side. Once I got that figured out, got setup. We have a very small room for the amount of people but it worked. We managed to get through all the material and be out a little after 5pm. I took the tube back to the hotel which is about 1 mile away from the station. The walk was a bit of a hike but I managed. I am debating walking back this morning or having them drop me at the tube station. I can easily get where I need to be once I get on the tube, but it's getting there that is tricky.

I was exhausted from everything yesterday and decided to eat in the room. I just didn't feel like being around people. I had a nice chicken with some soup and a cheese plate. It was actually quite good. I watched some TV and went to bed around 10.

I don't think I am jet lagged thank goodness. All the travel I do I just tell my body to go wether it likes it or not. I slept pretty good last night compared to the first night. Just a few more days of this and I have my excruciatingly long trip home. But then I am home for the whole month of June. I can handle that.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Y7 D364

I know this post is going to show up as Monday back home, but it's Tuesday 5am where I am. So you get it as Tuesday's post. Deal with it. The trip was insane. I got to the airport around 5am Sunday morning. Still had no word on my upgrade. As I am literally walking down the gangway to board, my phone dings that I was upgraded. The last seat in first. Score. The gate agent came down to move me but I was already in my new seat. We laughed that I got the ding already. DFW here I come. No problem getting to Dallas. My UK flight however kept getting delayed. I didn't leave until almost 6:30pm Dallas time. I was in a decent but not great seat for the next 10 hours. I was stuck in coach but had no one next to me which was nice. I slept sporadically but not solid. I even took a sleeping pill but I just couldn't get comfortable. To summarize - PDX 5am Sunday to 11am Monday is how long it took me just to land in London. THEN the hell of Heathrow immigration. An hour standing in line for someone to stamp my passport. My driver finds me and we then spend 90 minutes getting to the hotel.

In the car on the way to the hotel I have a freak out moment in my head when I remember I didn't bring any power converters. They didn't have any at the hotel so I had to walk 20 minutes to hit Tesco. It was okay as I wanted to go there anyway. Got that taken care of and then arranged morning car service for each day. I may not use them every day but I need them today as I don't know where I am going. On the way home tonight I plan to take the tube. Wish me luck on that.

Got back and ironed. Blew the power circuit in my room doing that. Fun times. Had to have maintenance reset my room. Got that all done and then just hung out. Around 6 I went to the lounge to have 'dinner'. I wasn't super hungry and they had an assortment of meats and cheeses which worked fine for me.

Came back, watched tv, went to bed at 9:45. Slept until midnight when the room was just way too hot for me. Had to open the balcony door but even that didn't help. Finally fell back to sleep around 2 and got up at 4:40.

Day one of teaching today. Let's see how it goes.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Y7 D363

After 24 plus hours I have made it to London. I think it's about 3am at home so I will post. Long ass day. Flight delayed 4 hours. An hour and a half in immigration. I am so tired and done its not even funny. I need a shower. I will elaborate more later.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Y7 D362

LONDON BOUND! I leave shortly. I am already dreading this trip as I don't have ANY upgrades and I already received an email saying my London flight will be delayed 90 minutes. Off to a great start and haven't even left the house yet. Lovely.

Errands and errands yesterday. Had a decent lunch out, ran errands, groceries, etc. Made sure B has what she needs while I am gone this week. Napped which was a mistake. Checked in for my flight. Have horrible seats from DFW to LHR. Middle section aisle. Ick. I want my window. But the tradeoff was room or window. I opted for room. 10 hour flight I want some room.

We ate leftovers for dinner to clean out the fridge. Went to bed around 9:30 so I could get up at 2:30. Not much else to tell. Adventures in the United Kingdom start now.

It's been 7 years almost since I was overseas. This should be interesting.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Y7 D361

After 18 months of looking I finally have a wedding ring. Chocolate diamonds inset with a row of standard diamonds in a nice brushed gold. I am very happy with it. Lightweight but still solid. I really like the ring and I like the price. It was originally $1600 down to $900. I also got the lifetime warranty and service plan on it for $100. I am very happy about this. That was the big point of the day. Took B to get her haircut and while I was waiting I walked over to the game store. Picked up a new 2 player game called Patchwork which we played three times last night. Cool game. Strategy plus luck. Did some grocery shopping. Did laundry. Packed. Need to check in for my flight this morning. So far no upgrade notices which kind of sucks but what can you do? You take the flight and you deal with it. At least because it's an international flight I will get fed on 10 hour part of my flight even in economy. Might be a stale sandwich but food will be food. I got confirmation late in the afternoon my manuals were printed and shipped as is with no changes needed. That was a good thing. I had basically a weekend day yesterday and got real confused at one point about what day it was. I freaked out thinking it was Saturday and I forgot to check in for my flight. Then I calmed down and remembered it was Friday. Made meatloaf for dinner. Copied tv to watch to my laptop. I am not putting any on the tablet as I want the battery to last for 10 hours. Going to pick up some sleeping pills today to knock my ass out on the long part of my flight. Hopefully I can get 4 or 5 hours of sleep on the plane. I have to wake up and treat it like a new day and not like the 11pm it will really be. Hey, I am off to London tomorrow. Trippy. Talked briefly to the kid. Her bf graduated from college last night. She has a few more months and then she graduates as well. Proud of her. Time to finalize everything and get ready to leave. I am out of here tomorrow at 4:30 so early post tomorrow.

Friday, May 20, 2016

Y7 D360

Six more days and we start a new year. So much has happened in this last year that I can't believe it's only been a year. Life changes, adventures. So much.

Had a very productive day yesterday. It got off to a rocky start though. I was trying to do things and kept hitting walls. It was too early for any of the people I needed to talk to to be up and ready to go but I finally corralled everyone around 8:30 and got resolution to a few issues. Once I got all that I was able to crank through full steam. I managed to get the final class modified. 4 days of training fully customized in four days. They all have until 6am this morning to submit changes. That's twenty minutes from now. Haven't seen any yet and I submitted the final revisions to the group at 2pm. I take this as a good sign. Once I had everything locked down, I relaxed for a while and ended up taking a brief nap until 3:30. Got up, read, and waited for a friend to come over.

He got here around 5:30 and we took him out for a nice birthday dinner at a seafood place. We had a really nice time. We got to know more about him and B was at ease. It's hard for her to find people she can talk to without anxiety and she had a good time. We got home around 8 and sat and talked for about an hour. Turns out he has synesthesia, (thank god for spell check on that one) and we were fascinated by this. Most of the conversation was about this topic. We learned quite a bit.

After he left we relaxed and I went to bed around 10:30. Today I have to do laundry, pick up my new wedding ring, and finalize my plans. I leave 4:30 on Sunday morning. Few more days and I will be in London. Wow. A busy week ahead of me.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Y7 D359

In case you ever need to know this, it takes roughly 22 hours to copy 2.34TB from one external drive to another. One of my hard drives was making a funky noise yesterday morning and I decided to copy its contents onto another drive where I have room. If something happens at least I have a backup current to yesterday. When I get back from London I will pick up a new 8TB to add to the array and move everything over there. The amount I beat up hard drives this doesn't come as a shock. I wish there were an alternate way to store this much data but I will have to wait until the future is today. Heck, 10 years ago the thought of going and buying an 8TB was crazy. Who knows what storage will look like in another 10 years. 1TB flash drives? Probably.

Worked on my customization yesterday. Had a bit of downtime from 8-11 because the UK team decided to move servers without telling any of us. Nice. I used the time to run errands. Specifically I went to the bank and got some GBP for incidentals. $250 got me 165 GBP. Suck on the exchange rate. I also stopped at the jewelry store and looked at the wedding ring I want. I like it and will pick it up Friday. Chocolate diamonds set in a brushed gold finish. Makes me happy.

Got back and worked on my stuff. Finished day 3 around 4pm. I also exchanged a ton of emails with work people. One in particular I had to rewrite my reply three times to make sure I didn't sound like a dick. They want to start the first two days at 10am. WTF. 10-6 class. Bite my ass. Plus one of the people had the nerve to say if I don't change every demo "the class will be a complete failure". Um, excuse me? They 1000+ people I year would beg to differ bitch. But I was cool and didn't say anything except polite stuff.

We had fajitas for dinner, relaxed, and read. Went to bed around 10:30. Last day of customization today and if all goes well I will have Friday for myself. Wish me luck.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Y7 D358

People do not understand the concept of work travel. They've seen too many movies and tv shows where traveling for work is glamorized as you go to one meeting then spend your time basking on beaches or seeing great local stuff. Sorry to burst your bubble but being on the road for work is 9-10 hours a day of working, then collapsing in a hotel room at night because you're too tired to move. Everyone to whom I mention I am going to London thinks how exciting and fun! Yeah, no. It will be 10.5 hours of flight from DFW to LHR, then trying to navigate my way around a confusing city, then working all day, then flying back home. Fun doesn't come into the equation.

After two years of searching, I may have found a new wedding ring I like. I have been wearing my grandfather's ring since we got married and while it's fine, I wore it when I was married to X2 and it feels weird having the same ring. I debated wether or not to have this one updated and customized but any time I think about doing that it makes me feel bad that I am going to mess up something that is sentimental to me. Which is why I have been looking for a new ring. There have been plenty of rings I like, but I am not about to spend more on me than I did on B. I found one with chocolate diamonds that's only $800. That's a decent price and I like the ring. I am going today to one of the stores that has it in stock to see if I really like it or not. If I do, I will order it and have it when I get back from my trip.

I finished up the second day of customization. Two more classes left to modify. I will get at least one done today. It's possible I can get both, but unlikely. I will definitely finish one up. If I do get them both done today it opens up the rest of the week for me.

Made chicken parmigiana last night for dinner. Came out really well. Plenty of left overs for today for lunch. Watched a little TV and went to bed around 10. Slept pretty good too.

OH! I almost forgot. I took my friend's advice and ordered some Philips LED light bulbs. 1500 lumens and I replaced 4 of the 5 fixtures in my office light. WOW. Pure white daylight. I love them. $35 for four bulbs but they will last 10 years. That's less than $1 a year and the annual use is about $1.65. I want to slowly replace all the bulbs with these babies. They are incredible. I love the white light without any yellow tinge. Plus they throw off no heat. They can be super bright without burning you as you sit under them. Love love love them.

I also backed a kickstarter yesterday. It's from two film makers looking to adapt Chuck's book Lullaby. It's one of my favorites from him and I signed up at the $125 level. This gets us access to a pre-release screening in Portland, a poster, a copy of the movie, a download of the movie, and all sorts of other stuff. A worthwhile cause if you ask me.

Time to work on the next class.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Y7 D357

Happy birthday to my good friend. I already texted you but you deserve a public shout out as well. So woooo! You're old!

Yesterday was productive and annoying at the same time. I had to wait until 9am to get things started but once I got started I was on a roll. I managed to get 'day one' of four customized for the client. My expectation is a day a day to be done by Thursday and take Friday to chill. We'll see if I can keep the pace up today. I am starting earlier today and hopefully will get a good chunk done. I worked up until 4, then went and had an eyelash tint. Came back, made pork chops for dinner, watched a little tv, and relaxed. I was tired and went to bed around 10. I have a new supplement coming today in the mail which was recommended by a friend. I am hoping this helps some of my tiredness lately. We shall see.

That's everything that happened. It was a rather uneventful day. Got some changes to my schedule for June, but no new travel. Just some updates to classes. I will be going to PA in July, we just need a signed contract. I have been to this location before and it's not too bad. Just double checked where I stayed last time and I remember this trip. I got in super later due to delays and was driving around at 2am on the way home. PA in July. That will be interesting.

Time to start working. The sooner I get this all done, the sooner I have a day to myself.

Monday, May 16, 2016

Y7 D356

10 days and this year is over. Holy shit. I will start year 8. Amazing. So many posts. Still mostly cathartic for me too. Not nearly as much as it was when I started, but it still helps me. When I start getting dementia (god forbid) I will have this chronicle to look back on and hopefully remember the things I did and the people I knew.

Did more work yesterday. On my one day off I spent probably a good 3 hours trying to coordinate everything that needs to happen this week. As of right now this morning, my VPN access doesn't work. I need that fixed asap so I can get into things. I have 4 days roughly to change three classes. Whee.

Ran some errands with B, watched Eurovision - all 7 hours of it over the whole weekend. I wanted Georgia to win, but I knew they wouldn't. I was kind of sad that Australia lost by 21 points, but whatever. Made some nice steaks for dinner. B wasn't feeling 100% but she managed to eat a good portion of her dinner.

Went to bed around 11. Have a 9am this morning with everyone to start the ball rolling. Wish me luck.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Y7 D355

Oh look, it's my one day off this week. Whee. Taught my class yesterday. It was a bit rough because I kept remembering it was Saturday and I wasn't going to have time to myself for a lot of things, but the students loved it. As a matter of fact, they want more. Okay. I gave this and some other feedback to my boss and I will admit he publicly gave me kudos and I received some praise and thanks from multiple people in the company. That part felt good.

Finished class around 2:45 and B I went out. She has been wanting some new clothes that are comfortable but aren't t-shirts. Since she doesn't have to go into an office, she pretty much lives in t-shirts and jeans but feels frumpy as a result. We went to Ross where she tried on half the store. She ended up getting 10 news tops for $75. Not too shabby. She's really happy and that's what counts. I remember taking X2 on a shopping spree once in Newport Beach and she spent $2500 so yeah, not complaining. We also ran a couple of other errands while we were out including getting some stuff for dinner.

Had chicken coconut curry for dinner and we both paid for it. We both spent a little time in the bathroom after dinner. Something did not sit right for either of us. I hope we didn't get a bad batch of the stuff. After dinner she took a bath and I started in on trying to be ready for Monday's work. I need to be able to connect to the new client's VPN first thing monday morning and it was not successful. I am hoping to get it resolved today to be ready for tomorrow.

I also looked something up yesterday and got super depressed about something. There are some new townhomes being built by us and they sent me a price list. I plugged some numbers into a mortgage calculator and even with a 105% loan (cover the place plus moving and closing costs) the monthly (even including PMI) is $40 more than we are paying now. But try finding a bank willing to take the risk and do a full loan. It's almost impossible these days. Pisses me off.

Today I have a couple of errands in the morning followed by nothing except trying a VPN connection. I can handle that.

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Y7 D354

Next time I agree to do a Saturday class someone needs to smack me. I was up way too early for that 5-1 class yesterday and I haven't enough sleep for this shit. Not to mention it's too fucking hot in here and I am already dying. Ugh.

So, while I was teaching my 13 student 5-1 class yesterday I talked to my buddy. He explained to me some good options for my phone when I am in London. I leave in 8 days. Wow. This is going to be a whirlwind week leading up to the trip. Packing won't be a problem since it's just a regular 4 day class, but I have one week to do all their customization starting Monday. Rough. Anyway, he told me what he used recently in Germany and that should work out fine for my needs too. It will at the most run me $70 to have full access on my phone the whole time I am there. I know I will need it the minute I land as I was telling B all about the options and her response was 'the minute you land you'd better be texting me no matter what it costs'. Yes dear. Finished up my class around 12:45, and while I wanted to nap, we used the earliness of the day to go to Costco. Smart move since it was already starting to pack up when we left. Somehow we spent $200 without even trying. It dislike that store for that reason. You go in for 3 things and come out with 20 and spent $200.

Came back, relaxed, then went for a nice sushi dinner. B wanted to get something at the mall and we headed there next. Walked around the mall for a while and got home around 9. Watched Wynonna Earp and went to bed at 10:30.

Get through today. Have tomorrow to myself. Work my ass off next week. Go to London. Okay. Next 7 days planned.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Y7 D353

I almost typed Y76 up there. Man, I don't know if I will even be around in 69 more years let alone still writing via this format. That would only make me like 117. No problem, right?

Up super early today to do this private 5-1 training. On one hand it will make for an early finish but this is rough for sure being up this early. Normally I would be off to an airport at this time. Not today. Nope. Just sitting in my chair.

Finished my class up yesterday around 2:30 and meandered about for a while. At 5 we headed out to visit our friends. We have seen them all of once in the 7 months we've been here and that was the Monday after we got here. Sad. Now that we've been here a while, we realize they are like right around the corner from us which makes this even tougher. It was nice hanging out with them for sure. They're good people and one of my other friends from way back when is currently staying with them while he finds a place up here too. We had a nice dinner at a hole in the wall mexican place then went back to their house to socialize for a while. My one friend who is staying with them, had a portable A/C unit he said we could borrow until he needs it back. Score. We got home around 8:30 and the first thing I did was set that up. In less than an hour it had managed to drop the temp in here by two degrees. Nice.

Went to bed around 9:30 to get up for this thing. Teach today, teach tomorrow, then I get a break until Monday. So many. Then it's London time. One more week and a day until I leave. I did have a bit of stress about that yesterday. I got an email from the hotel saying my CC was declined. Stupid bank with their stupid fraud. You let the $2500 plane ticket go through but then you decline the hotel stay because you think it's fraud? Um... I managed to get a hold of the bank and resolve the issue. I just got an email from the hotel saying it's all good. Thank goodness. It's one thing to be stuck in OH or TX and need to deal, another in London. I have to remember to turn on international calling while I am gone too. Need to do that this week.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Y7 D352

I just woke up to a nice pleasant surprise - my tax refund from the state came through. $500. It's all going back into savings mostly to make up for what we had to send the Federal IRS but it was still a nice way to wake up.

Taught class yesterday. Three students. One of whom doesn't belong in class, one who had a power outage near the end of the day, and one who is doing great. I swear if it was just this one person I could have been mostly done with the class in one day. Still it's better than the Friday group will be. 13 students none of whom have a name I can pronounce. Not looking forward to tomorrow.

After class didn't do much. Made dinner, shrimp scampi, and watched a little tv. B decided we needed to bring something to our friends when we see them tonight and at 8pm we went to the grocery store to get ingredients for banana bread. Whatever. She wants to bake, we bake. Not much else going on. Right about now my sister is on a plane to Australia (or maybe she's there, who knows with time changes). And soon I will be on a plane to London. I am mostly excited for this trip. A little nervous because it's an international flight, but for the most part excited. I tried getting my upgrade on the international leg, but it wasn't available. Oh well. I will survive.

Today is day two. Then after work we're going over to our friend's house. We haven't seen them since we moved here 7 months ago. I know. We are awful people. But it is what it is. We can't stay late as I have to be up at 3.

That's it. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Y7 D351

There are very few movies I can re-watch and still get immense pleasure from multiple viewings. Deadpool is one of those few movies. Yesterday was Deadpool day and it's how we spent our evening. We love that movie so much I even bought the blu-ray version of it and we watched almost all the extras. That's commitment. Takes an awful good movie for me to watch everything. I love that damn movie.

Taught my class. Got onsite super early to make sure I had a good parking space. I ended up getting a prime space right in front of the building. Had to get there at 5:10am, but it was worth it. Class was non-stop all day with little time for joking around. This is the same client I deal with before where we did four days of training in two. I skipped over a lot of stuff and would love to go back and do a third day. I felt rushed all day and luckily my class understood why, but it still was kind of rough having to power through stuff that isn't easy to grasp.

Got home around 5:30 thanks to horrible traffic, made chicken for dinner, then we settled in to watch a movie. That was the extent of our night. Went to bed around 10:30.

Now I teach from home the next four days. Yes, four. It's a weird week. Today is a two day public class with 3 students, normal 7-3 time, then Friday is a private class for 15 people (all of whom are Indian which should be a fun time trying to understand them), then Saturday a 2 person one day special class. We wanted to see if there was any interest in weekend classes. We got two. Meh, it's more money for us. We will barely break even on this class, but it was worth the experiment.

Time to get ready for day one.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Y7 D350

Decent day yesterday except for the part where B almost gave herself a concussion. Other than that it was fine. I left here super early to get a good parking space at my client. Taught my class, group of about 10 people, finished around 4, got home around 5. Had stuffed peppers for dinner. Watched some tv, went to bed. Nothing exciting to report from yesterday. Sorry. It was a pretty boring day to be honest.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Y7 D349

Reasons to watch out keeping your bedroom windows open at night - just taking out the kitty litter as I do and I swear I hear a baby elephant come from someone's bedroom. Or just a really loud fart. Either way...

Fun day yesterday. We took the train downtown to go to the big Powell's as I wanted to get something very specific for the Chuck book signing in June. I got the vinyl audio edition of Expedition, the FC prequel. I want Chuck to sign it. I think it will be cool. We also went to the piercing place where I got my left rook pierced. A very subtle piercing which no one will pay much attention to. 5/16th" 16 gauge curved barbell. The size of an eyebrow piercing basically. It was a little rough sleeping on it last night, but otherwise no pain and easy enough to heal.

We grabbed some lunch at Noodles, walked around, came back where B ended up taking a late nap. I did not as I needed to be in bed at a decent time. I am doing onsite the next two days and have to leave here pretty early to miss traffic and get a good parking space.

We watched a little tv, relaxed, had a late dinner of junk food, and enjoyed our Sunday night.

A good end to a relaxing week. I don't get a break again until I am back from London so it was a nice respite before the storm. Now to get ready and get the hell out of here.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Y7 D348

Weirdest thing just happened. I woke up, grabbed my phone and I swear it said 5:03am. I didn't want to get up and decided to go back to sleep. Woke up again assuming it would 6 something and it said 5:18. I only went back to sleep for 15 minutes? I managed to have a brief dream though. I got REM in 15 minutes? Yay me?

Today is Mother's Day. One of my least favorite Hallmark holidays. Not only because my mother is dead, or because I haven't had anything to do with the kid's mother for so long but because it's just a messed up day. Everywhere across the country, servers had to get up at 3am to make food to serve to screaming children, mothers are trying to smile at burnt toast and crappy handmade cards, and then they spend their day doing stuff with their families. The same people they want to avoid. Did you know this is the busiest day of the year at Disneyland? Not Christmas, not in the summer. Mother's Day. Between families who think it would be fun to take mom to the park and dads who take the kids to the park, it's not a place to be today.

We did some stuff yesterday. It was hot again and both of us hated it. I woke up early and ran some errands including the grocery store, the pet store, and the vape shop. I needed new coils for my tank, new bowls for the idiots, and stuff for stuffed peppers tonight. When B woke up we went out for a while. We had a nice lunch at the local seafood house. Wandered around the book store and headed home.

Played some video games, read, relaxed. A boring nice Saturday.

Today I need to iron and prep for tomorrow class onsite downtown. I need to look up the address of where I am going. That might help. Hopefully it will be cooler today. Please let it be cooler today.

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Y7 D347

Yesterday went from 5am until 3:30am. Almost a full 24 hours. Luckily I had a short hour nap in there somewhere. Made two more hotel reservations, one for June and one for July. Both personal believe it or not. The day started off with me going to the store around 6 and getting a couple of things, very similar to how today will be. Got back, did some work and then at 10am, I ordered two tickets to the June 28th signing of Fight Club 2 in Seattle. Chuck will be there to sign the hardbound edition of the book. I sent my boss a message saying I need that day off as I will be picking B up at the airport from her trip to MI then heading straight to Seattle. It's a four hour drive and the signing starts at 4. He got so excited he told me to take the next day off too and spend the night in Seattle. Okay. Won't tell me twice. Now we have a nice little something to look forward to when B comes back from her trip.

Did some more work, specifically around my London trip in two weeks. Coordination, planning, etc. Got all that done by around 1 and napped. In there I heard from my friends who live near us. They wanted us to come over for dinner. Sorry, we have plans. Yep. Real plans. For those plans we were going to leave around 4:30 but around 3:30 a crisis appeared.

Ants.

Fucking ants. The hot weather is driving them inside and B's bathroom was covered in them. We had to deal with that before we left. Cost us a good spot in the line we needed to get into. Line? For what you ask? THE DRIVE-IN! Yes, we found a real drive in still in operation AND showing current movies. Not some bullshit showing of Grease or something. A true working drive-in. We were going to see a double feature - The Jungle Book and Civil War.

I read online that it packs up pretty quick on nice nights and with big movies. I was shocked at much it packed up so early. We were like 30th in line when we got there around 5:15. The doors didn't open until 6:30 and the movie didn't start until 9. Talk about a lot of sitting. We had ordered a pizza prior to leaving to bring with us which was a smart thing to do. We had dinner in the car while we sat and waited.

I will admit I was not enjoying myself pre-movie. I now know the answer to "Where do all the white trash and their fat ass annoying offspring hang out on the weekends?". The drive-in. I was so annoyed and bothered by the noise and the people that it was tough. B brought her tablet and read which drove me even crazier. Any time I tried talking she was annoyed because I was interrupting her reading. Fair but I was bored, hot, and frustrated. Luckily both of the movies were excellent and turned my annoyance down.

Jungle Book started at 9ish and we were both pleasantly pleased at how well they did. It's really a good movie if you're looking for something fun to watch. A faithful interpretation of the book. Then intermission came for about 20 minutes and Civil War started around 11:30. It was good but not stellar. Some holes in the story that were frustrating. But it moved the story arc forward and it was an enjoyable 146 minutes. Everything finished after 2 and by the time we got home it was nearly 3. Of course the stupid ants were back and we had to spend another 30 minutes dealing with them before even thinking about sleep.

Wait, didn't I go to bed at 3:30 and isn't only 7? Yeah. I was up at 6:30 which is sleeping in for me normally. So 3 hours of sleep it is. This shall be a fun day. First stop, store for ant shit.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Y7 D346

It's going to be hot today, I can already feel it. Like bad kind of hot. Ugh. This will not be fun. Whatever.

Just booked my hotel for London. I was dealing with the stress of that last night. I finally at 6pm got general info where the training is going to be held. In a mall basically. That's what the client sent. A picture of a mall. Makes sense since this is Westfield and they own all the malls. But it didn't tell me if that's exactly where it will be. Plus there are no Hilton properties less than 5 miles away. I ended up finding a Doubletree right on the river Thames close to a tube station. It's a 15 minute tube ride each morning. I can handle that. Now to find out if I need any special documents to get into the country. Fun stuff.

In the morning I went grocery shopping and stocked up on things for the house. I will be home for another 16 days and we to make sure there is food in here. I get paid right before I leave and can leave B money while I am gone, but I wanted to make sure we made it until then.

I worked on the fourth and final training I wanted to build yesterday. Worked hard on it all day. Started at about 7 and finished around 3. Straight 8 hours of development. Got it accomplished and got some good initial feedback on it. That felt good. Felt like my work was recognized.

Made chicken stir-fry for dinner. B is in a clingy mood which is annoying me. I think she is subconsciously stressing about my trip and doesn't realize it. I get all flustered when people get too clingy to me. Makes me want to pull away. But I tried to ease her concerns and be the good husband. Watched some tv, and went to bed around 11:30. I was up later dealing with the hotel shit.

Now to pay bills.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Y7 D345

Three weeks to go and we start a new year. Wow. Time flies like an arrow, fruit like a banana.

Got a bunch of things taken care of yesterday including booking my flight to London. I officially leave on 5/22 and return 5/29. I will make like 15,000 air miles in one shot for this. 24 hours of travel though. I leave here around 7:30 in the morning and get to London 6:55am the next day. Woof. Sleeping pills here I come. Don't have a hotel booked yet though. We don't have an address for where the training will be taking place unfortunately. That has me a little stressed out but whatever. The longer they delay, the more this shit costs.

I also got a new tablet yesterday courtesy of the company. I had an old iPad mini that they bought me three years ago and while it was okay, I could tell it was getting a little long in the tooth. Not to mention it was getting harder for me to see the screen when I was onsite and trying to use it as a secondary monitor. I got the Samsung Tab S2 32gb with a 128gb micro SD card. More than enough room for what I do with a tablet. So far I like it. The only thing is getting my books organized the way I want them and still having the reading app pick things up. Annoying that the Kindle app wants it certain places. I am going to try a different reader today and see how it works. My big thing is I have about 1100 books and I want them in very specific folders. The kindle app makes you put them in one spot which irks me.

Worked on a new class yesterday. Got about halfway through it. I feel I can finish it up today. That will be nice as it's one we haven't advertised but we all feel will be received by the market well. Nice to have it in our back pocket when someone asks for it.

We had a nice pork roast for dinner which came out really well. After dinner we went out to Best Buy to return the case I bought for the tablet. It was too big and bulky for my tastes. I also found one on Amazon for a third of the price. It will be here tomorrow. Then we hit FedEx so I could mail the old tablet back to my bosses. I had no interest in keeping it. Done and out of my hair.

Watched a little tv, then went off to bed around 11. This has been a good week so far. A little stressed about money since I spent too much at Disneyland as always. But we should be fine this month. A little tight right before I leave for London but it will all even out towards the end of the month. It should all be good.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Y7 D344

The best thing about this week so far has been waking up without an alarm. I slept in pretty late on Monday but yesterday and today woke up around 5:15 which isn't bad without a glaring noise in my head. I have even been able to go to bed a little later because of it. Went to bed around 11:15 last night. Man some days I wish this could be like this all the time.

I just tried something new with the media server this morning. I wasn't able to play .FLAC files before on iTunes but with Plex it reads them just fine. Huge difference in the bit rate on FLAC over MP3. Like 844k to 320k difference. Truer depth and sound reproduction. Score one more for Plex.

Got a lot accomplished yesterday. Managed to coordinate and take care of updating all of our Tableau classes. We now have a 1/2 day fundamental class, a one day intermediate, and a two day advanced class. Today I am going to toy with the idea of a 1 day expert class. I can think of a few things to put into there but how it all comes together is what I want to play around with first.

Had a nice indian meal for dinner including coconut chicken curry, palek paneer, and naan. We both ate too much naan though and we felt it all night. We took a ride to Best Buy to look at something for work. My tablet is getting a little long in the tooth. I have used it multiple times over the last few weeks while on the road and it is showing its age. I have an iPad mini which the company bought for me 3 years ago and while it works fine, it's too small for it to be practical sometimes and it's slow when I push it. I am looking at the Samsung ones and it's not easy to choose. There's the S2, the A, and the E. I thought the A would be okay until I saw it in person. Real shitty screen. Funny enough, the E which is cheaper has a nicer screen. The S2 is what I want, but it's $500 and that's beyond the budget limit I feel. The A was $299 and was okay. The E is only $199 and I don't think anyone will balk at that. I need to report back my findings to my bosses and see what they say about my budget limit. If there's no push back, I will get the $500 one, but we shall see. I will also add a 128gb micro SD to either one I buy which means internal space is not an issue.

Watched a little tv and relaxed. We had both hoped for the sex, but the naan had other ideas for our bellies. I think tonight we should skip dinner all together and go straight for dessert. Boom. I'm funny dammit.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Y7 D343

Having yesterday off was like mana from heaven. We got so many things accomplished, even with 80 degree weather. B got up around 9 and we went full steam from there. Our first stop was Target for some stuff she needed. Then we *finally* went to Chik-Fil-A. Only six weeks after they opened were we able to get in. Was it worth it? Meh, it's chicken. But it was the principle of the thing. We also went to Costco. Have you ever tried going there on a weekend? No thanks. Which is why we were happy to have a Monday free. We only needed three things and trying to do that on a Saturday or Sunday is impossible. We were in and out in 15 minutes. Beautiful.

The big part of the day actually came in the late afternoon. While we were at the vintage store on Sunday, we saw a dresser we liked. It was marked at $175. The dresser we've been using is an IKEA special which I bought back in 2010. The drawers are a little messed up and it looks six years old. This one was a nice wood one that had been refinished and painted in a nice seafoam green color. I offered them $125 and they came back with $140. Done. The fun part was loading it into the car. We managed to do it and squish B in the back with the dresser. That was a harrowing ride home. Right in the middle of commute time too.

Once we got home we struggled a bit, but managed to get it upstairs all on our own. We then spent the next three hours trying to rearrange everything to fit it. In the end, I took our old dresser and put it with me here in the office. This way we both have our own six drawer dresser. I end up getting dressed in here most morning because I don't want to turn on the lights and bug B. This way I now have everything in here with me. Plus it opened up the closet big time for both of us. We finished around 8:30 and both of us just collapsed. We watched a little TV and I went to bed around 10:30.

A really productive day off. Totally enjoyed it. Now to talk to my boss to figure out the rest of the week.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Y7 D342

It got too hot here yesterday. Like stifling I don't want to leave the house don't touch me hot. We went out for a short time in the morning/early afternoon and it was unbearable. There was a 'flea market' being held at a vintage mall and we tried walking around the booths but we both just got too frustrated and said home now.

We ended up locking ourselves in the house with fans a blowing. That pretty much was our whole day. We did do some research into art or pottery classes to see about taking a class to get us out of the house. We may have found a couple of good choices.  We also discussed B's upcoming trip - 45 days away - and how she wants to get some pictures while she is there. Her mother brought up the idea of going to a Penny's or similar store to have some pictures done of all the girls and women as her great grandmother is going to be 97 next year and they want to have some nice family shots done. Totally get the idea, don't support the location. They are going to want something nice in a variety of views and so we looked up professional photographers to get some quotes. Waiting to hear back on some things.

Neither of us felt like cooking and I ordered take out from BJs. They do curbside pickup near us and fuck it. We just kind of sat in the dark the rest of the night. We both wanted to have the sex but I was too hot and cranky. Plus my libido is just not there. I don't know what the fuck is wrong with me in that respect. Maybe I am starting to get low T. I should go to a fucking doctor. Logic.

I am taking today off. Like off off. In a little while I am going to do things I can't do on weekends or during the week normally. Like drop off the recycling. Go to Costco. Go to Chik-fil-a. I know that last one is dumb, but there has been a line out the door every weekend since they opened. We figure a Monday around 11 might be okay. We shall see.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Y7 D341

Holy moley! I slept until 6:30. Man I needed that. There are no words to describe how nice it was to not have to get up to an alarm and go to the damn airport. I woke up on my own, leisurely got out of bed, and started laundry. Nice way to start a Sunday.

Yesterday was pretty good too. I got up way too early but was able to get quite a bit done in the morning. I ran errands, rearranged the office, setup the new media server, got a chair mat for my floor, got a new monitor for one of my machines, and grabbed some groceries. A very productive morning. When B woke up we did some more errand running as I had missed some stuff. We also grabbed some lunch and when we came back I replaced the lever on one of our toilets. I could have asked the office to do it, but they use these cheap plastic ones which is why they break in the first place. I was a big spender and got the $4 metal one. Look out.

We decided to have italian for dinner last night and had a wonderful night out. The food was excellent as always at the place we go to. You can tell a place is good when right across the street is another place that sells pizza and they have one table at 6:30 on a saturday while the place across from them has a line out the door.

We got back home and dyed my hair as it was fading already. This has been a problem lately. I may have to either change brands or give up as it keeps fading faster than I would like. We watched a little TV, I played some video games, and went to bed around 11:30. I think staying up helped me get a good night sleep too.

Nothing of any urgency on the calendar today. Laundry and house cleaning is about it.