Y8 D158

It's cold and windy outside. No rain yet, but the promise of it is there. I can't believe it's almost November 1st. Happy Halloween by the way. May you get lots of candy.

Had a quiet inside kind of day. I went to the store once while B was taking a nap. That was around 2. She was out of bottled water and I was bored. In two weeks I am back on the road and am looking forward to it. Especially since our public schedule is very sporadic right now. I am not even sure what I am supposed to be doing today. I have to send my boss an email shortly getting some direction. I have a couple of classes I can work on, but man, I don't want to do them. Not my favorite topics. More yawn than anything else.

We played some WoW and watched some TV. Nothing much else. Like I said, it was a boring inside kind of day. We watched some new neighbors move in on the first floor. 20 somethings with a baby. Wonderful. Luckily they're fair enough below us we shouldn't hear it. While we can't afford to buy a house, I do wish we had looked into house rentals. Depending on what they try to jack our rent to in September if we aren't ready to purchase, we may look into house rentals instead.

Don't know what else to talk about this morning. Nothing else to talk about. Yeah. I'm done.

Y8 D157

No sleeping for me today. Up at an early time. I just can't quite shake the last part of this cold. It's moved to my ears. I can't hear anything right now. The whole world is muted. Not a bad thing I guess.

Waited for B to get up yesterday to run errands. Mostly because one of the places I needed to go didn't open until 9 and I figured screw it, I don't want to go out multiple times. So around 10 we went out together and ran our morning errands. Petsmart, Home Depot (needed a replacement knob for something the stupid cat stole), Freddies for dinner ingredients, Taco Bell because reasons, Bed Bath Beyond for something specific only they seem to sell, and I think that was it. Got back around noon, ate, and then I started in on dinner.

Why so early? Because I made my own cheese yesterday and it takes hours. All of the cheese I made went into making a homemade lasagna which also takes hours. Seriously I was in the kitchen it felt from 1 until 7. I did make a nice batch of ricotta and mozzarella. Kind of cool making my own cheese. One more survival skill learned. The lasagna came out incredibly tasty. I was very impressed with the end result. It took all damn day, but it was worth it.

We watched a little tv, played some WoW, and went to bed around 11.

Nothing on the plate for today. Quiet day inside is what I have planned.

Y8 D156

I slept in until 6:30! We must have had a great anniversary. Why yes, yes we did. Since we opened presents at midnight, when we got up that was already done. I made B breakfast and then at 10 we headed to Color Me Mine. This is what B wanted to do for our anniversary and I made it happen. I expected us to be there for an hour or so. Nope. We were there for 4 hours almost to the minute. B painted this Snoopy Christmas mug and I did a Tardis. If you take it seriously it's a lot more involved than just slapping some paint on and going. We were there so long I even went across the mall for sushi and brought it back to eat while we painted. It wasn't too crowded and we had a great time. Came back home and B took a nap from 2-4.

Around 5:30 we headed downtown for our anniversary dinner. Miss Delta Southern cuisine. Shrimp and grits for me, shrimp po' boy and mac & cheese for B. We had a quiet window table and it was wonderful. Got home around 9. We both relaxed for a while then B had to deal with a troll. Some guy she used to know who apparently had the hots for her had to go and make some rude comment about how old I am in one of the pictures we took last night and that she posted to Instagram. His comments really pissed her off and she let him have it. I was really touched by how she came to my defense and put this guy in his grave.

We played WoW for a while then headed off to the bedroom. Yay anniversary sex. Two wonderful years. 48 to go.

Y8 D155

It's our anniversary today! Yay us! 2 years. I swear it feels like more than that, but in a good way. We stayed up until midnight so we could exchange presents right when it was officially our day. I got B a monogrammed robe from Pottery Barn and an Ariel onesie pajama set. She got me a make your own cheese kit (makes 13 lbs of cheese!!), a mickey mouse t-shirt, cotton candy, and q-tips. The 2nd anniversary is cotton and we both struggled a bit with it. Cotton is not an easy thing to buy presents as a theme. I would assume that the traditional must have been to buy linens or something. "Here me woman, here's new sheets for you to wash for me." Totally sounds about right. Either way, 2 years together married. Wow. And I am still happy. Go figure.

Worked on docs yesterday. Took a break to go to Costco and get B's medicine she needed. She went and got a haircut. Looks really good. We went to the store after dinner. Dinner was a nice pork roast with little red potatoes.

Overall it wasn't a very exciting day. But then again it was Thursday. What do you want out of a Thursday? We played some WoW. I have been super impressed with how well B has taken to the game. She loves playing her hunter. I have my panda almost up to level 65. Finally am getting to some new areas I have never seen. Have a flying mount. We are both enjoying playing which is nice. If we could play in the same room it would be even better. But it's okay.

Today I am taking the day off for us to do stuff. We have a few things planned. It should be a fun day.

Y8 D154

Yesterday was WEIRD to say the least. I got up at midnight, showered and acted like it was a normal day. At 1am I started the meeting for my class. By 1:30am I had everyone on and we got started. Class wasn't bad. 6 people total, 4 in one room, two at home. Everything was going well. I felt odd teaching at that time, but it wasn't horrible. We took lunch at 5am and that's when the problems started. When we got back from lunch at six, the 4 in the office had a network failure. None of them could connect to the server. We tried troubleshooting for a while but in the end decided to reschedule the second half of the class. All that to not even be able to finish. Argh. Talk about frustrating. We ended the meeting about 7:30 and I sent out emails to everyone explaining what happened and dates where I can do the second half again.

Now here's where the day gets weird. Essentially my day was over. I had already worked a full day. I laid down on the couch and fell asleep for about 90 minutes. B had a doctor appointment a 10 and she headed off to that. I was then sitting there going, ok, now what? A word about her doctor appointment; this was with a therapist to discuss her anxiety. This is also why I didn't go with her. She wanted to be able to talk comfortably and freely without me adding to her anxiety. The doctor ended up writing her a prescription for busperone. We shall see if it helps. They also recommended a visit with a more experienced doctor whom she will be seeing on Monday. All good in the end. I want her to be healthy and happy.

Around 12:30 she decided to take a nap. Her cold came back with a vengeance and she was running a fever of 102. We put meds in her and put her in bed. I went off to the store and to pick up her prescription at Costco. The store was fine, no issues there. I even picked up some contact paper for a project I want to work on. Everything in my office is light colored except for my desk. Instead of trying to paint and make a mess, I was reading about how to refresh something like this using contact paper. I picked up a sample roll to see how it would work.

Got to Costco and tried to get her meds. Nope. First they couldn't find it at pickup and we thought they might have called it into the wrong location. Okay. Went to drop off. Nope. Nothing. Um.. wait let me check this stack of papers. Yep here it is. Sorry. Fuck. How long? About an hour. Double fuck. This was all after waiting behind every old person in town. Sigh. FINE. Headed back home.

Got home and tried out a section of the desk with the paper. LOVE IT.  Makes the desk look clean and new. Now to do the whole thing while not disturbing everything on the desk. Yeah. Good luck.

For dinner we ate every leftover in the house. I am proud of us on that one. Nothing taking up room in our fridge. It's all gone. We watched a little TV and then played WoW. She is really loving the game. I am super impressed. She's got her hunter up to 43 and is doing alright on her own. I am up to 64 with mine.

Went to bed around 10:30. I had a great night sleep and in part it's because of an experiment we are trying. We moved the cat's food to the kitchen (was in B's bathroom) and their litter to the hallway closet (was in our bedroom closet). This way we can lock them out at night. So far so good. I don't see anything destroyed and their both still alive. All I can ask for right?

Don't know what's on the agenda today. As you can see I slept in for once. Not sure what's going on. I am off tomorrow as it's our 2 year anniversary and we are spending the day doing stuff for ourselves.

Y8 D153

I don't normally teach with the lights on, but since I have to start a class in an hour, I think I might need to leave the lights on or I will fall asleep. This is going to be a weird day.

I finally yesterday figured out why I hadn't heard from my boss. He eventually responded to some emails at like 2pm and it's because he is in Vegas. He's at the convention B and I were supposed to be at. The one where we got married two years ago. None of us peons went this year because IBM wasn't comping any tickets and we aren't having a booth. It's only a handful of people there for meetings and dinners. It's all good.

Although, thanks to the lack of communication, I spent most of yesterday thumb twiddling. I did a bunch of reading at least. Got some knowledge in me. Played some WoW, watched some tv. B needed to go over to her cousin's place around 1 and I went with her. They were on a day trip to Mt Hood and needed someone to go over and walk the dog. Since it was the middle of the day traffic wasn't horrible and we were there and back in less than an hour. I needed to get out of the house anyway. I did go out at 6am yesterday to do some grocery shopping, but that was it. I needed a break.

Had Zoup for dinner which we got on the way back from the dog walking. Ate at 5pm because I went to bed at 7. Managed to sleep from 7 until almost midnight. No less than a normal night. Now to convince myself of that while I teach from 1am to 9am. This is going to be fun.

Y8 D152

It's the NyQuil. That's what's been causing me to get up so early. I just realized this. I have been taking it before bed the last three days. It's making me fall right to sleep, sleep straight through the night, but when REM is over, BOOM, I am awake. I woke up yet again at 3:15. I managed to fall back to sleep until 3:40, but here I am awake and I mean fully awake. Not groggy type awake but ready to go. Ugh. Tonight/tomorrow is my UK time schedule class, but watch, I won't be this awake for that. I have to go to bed at 6pm tonight so as to be up by midnight and start class at 1am. 1 to 9. This will be interesting.

Spent the day waiting for people to respond to things. I didn't hear anything from my boss all day which worries me. Either he was too swamped and nothing I sent him was that important (which it wasn't) or something happened over the weekend to him or the kids. I worry.

Either way, I spent the day waiting for the answers to questions that never came. At 6 we went out to have dinner with B's cousin and her parents. I don't say aunt and uncle because technically their no longer related. B's cousin's mother was only B's aunt by marriage and she is now remarried. Therefore technically while still the cousin's parents, there is no blood relation to B. Make sense?

We met up around 6:45 and had a nice dinner. I was in 'going out to dinner with clients' mode where I was polite, funny, and made sure everyone had a good time. I know I did well because on the way home B thanked me and said I didn't give her anxiety once during the dinner. Meaning I didn't talk about the wrong things, etc. I did good.

Got home around 9, put things away, got into bed around 10. Again, I fell right to sleep thanks to NyQuil. I am feeling better so it's doing its job, just getting me up too damn early.

Not sure what today is going to bring. We shall see.

Y8 D151

Slept in a bit this morning. Got up at 5:30. I was supposed to have classes all week and would have been up early but thanks to the UK folks being stupid, I didn't have to get up with an alarm. I went to bed around 10:30 so 7 hours of sleep is what my body needed. The NyQuil didn't hurt either. Yes, I am still sick. Even though I am pretending I am not, I can still feel it. My throat is scratchy, my head is hurting, and I can't breathe out of one nostril. Totally fine. Nothing to see. It's fine. Everything is fine.

As expected, didn't do much of anything. I cleaned, a lot. Especially here in the office. Biggest thing I did was finally hang my pin boards. This room has been in flux a couple of times and I didn't want to go through the hassle of putting these giant boards on the wall. Well I haven't moved anything around in quite a while and got sick of them leaning on my dresser in here. On the wall they go. I then rearranged the bookshelves to fit another Disney statue which cleared up the whole top of the dresser. Things look very organized and neat in here now. That makes me happy. A well organized work area puts me in a better mood. I also vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen, and went to the store in the morning for stuff like kitty litter.

B is 99% over her cold but there's enough lingering that she spent the day in pajamas on the couch. We both played a bit of WoW. I was impressed at how fast she got through one set of quests that had me seriously frustrated when I did them. She managed to get through it in a third of the time. The advantage she had though was me telling her exactly what needed to be done. Part of my problem was not knowing where to go or what to do. I ended up having to look it up online.

Honestly that's about it. I made chicken for dinner, we watched some tv, and went to bed. Today I am going to see about rewriting one of our classes and then tonight we're having dinner with B's cousin and her parents who fly in from IN yesterday. THAT should be interesting as they are both younger than me. Not by much mind you, but this is going to be a bit weird for sure. Oh well.

Y8 D150

Almost had another 3am morning but luckily I feel back to sleep until now. Because 4:40 on a Sunday is much better. Yeah right. My cold is not any better nor is it any worse which sucks. It's kind of stuck. I am sucking down cough drops like crazy trying to keep my throat from killing me. That's the main focus of this cold for me - the throat. It's really hurting.

I keep seeing people post pictures of halloween parties and costumes. Um, still another week to go? Why so many parties this weekend? Eh. Who am I to judge.

We did some Christmas shopping yesterday believe it or not. Saw a couple of things, decided they were good gifts and didn't want to take the chance that they wouldn't be available later. Plus I ordered some stuff earlier in the year which is just now coming and needs to be wrapped up for Christmas. Yep. I am officially nuts.

Didn't do much of anything. Cleaned the house a bit. B caught up on some TV. We both played WoW. Went out shopping. Had Mexican for dinner. That was actually really good. We have been lucky in finding a place we both like that has good food. It's hard sometimes with Mexican places. It's either really good yet dumpy and not a sit down, or it's a sit down and it's too white washed. We have managed to find a place that fits both.

One thing interesting we did yesterday was go to the social security website. B got in the mail a summary of benefits letter and out of curiosity we created accounts on their site and reviewed our standings. If I work until 72 as of right now, I will get about $3800 a month in SS benefits for retirement. That's actually not bad at all. Better than I would have expected. B gets about $4. It's all good. Most important was when we looked at my reported income. I complain that in 2010 I took a huge pay cut and it's part of what screwed me over because I had to learn a different lifestyle. To be exact, I took a 95,000 pay cut. Yep. I went from 198 to 103 over the course of one year. Talk about a huge hit. No wonder I struggled so much. It was pretty amazing seeing it in black and white.

My buddy got his new car finally and sent some pics. Looks really good. Plus he looks really good. So much weight loss for him. It's nice to see him looking healthy and happy.

Went to bed around 11 but not before almost killing the neighbors below us. We couldn't figure out what the fuck they were doing at 10:30 at night to be making so much noise. Banging, dropping, etc. I was two seconds away from going down there and having it out. They need to learn to chill.

Not much going on today. Not sure if we have any plans to be honest. Don't think we do. Good.

Y8 D149

Not happy this morning. Not only because I woke up at 3:04 and managed to fall back to sleep for only 30 minutes but I caught B's cold. She came home with a horrible code from MI and I have been doing my best not to catch it, yet here I am at 3:53am with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and no will to sleep. Lovely. The throat part is the worst. That's my bread and butter people. God this room is a mess. I need to clean things in here. Anyway, here I am with a sore throat dying. Happy Saturday.

Yesterday it took everything in my power not to lose my shit with the UK client. I got up early to work on their stuff, managed to get a good chunk changed while waiting for direction on another piece. Around 7 they email me saying that the part I need isn't ready and won't be ready in time for next week's class so let's just postpone for a while. WTF? They were originally three days of booked training next week and now it's down to one. On top of that it's at odd times. 2am - 10am. I politely yelled at the PMs on our side about this. That once my time is booked, it's booked. We don't work the same way on the training side that they do on the consulting side. My boss is in agreement with me and he is wording his own response with a little more force than mine. They just totally fucked up my whole week next week. We could have given this time to a different client. We could have rescheduled some public classes. Now, I have multiple dead days next week. Fuckers.

I had another document to work on which took up the rest of my day yesterday. I finished around 2:30 with it. That part made me happy at least. Big chunk of work off my plate. Ran to the store to get some stuff for dinner and some juice for B. Came back, we watched some TV, had dinner, caught up on a couple of shows, then we both played WoW. She is almost caught up to me as far as her character level. That's good because when her and I are closer we can run dungeons together. She just needs a little more.

Went to bed around 10 as I was dying. I know I was doing bad as when I woke up, B was on the couch. Doesn't surprise me. I was probably snoring like crazy. Sorry.

Not much going on today especially now that I am sick. Lazy day ahead.

Y8 D148

My biggest problem with the new RHPS isn't that they shouldn't have made it, it's the casting. Specifically the casting of Laverne Cox as Frank. Now hold on before all of the SJWs in the world come after me with their pitchforks, I am not against the casting of a transgender person in a trans role but that's the point. Frank ISN'T a trans role. Frank is a bi-sexual transvestite. He is clearly a male person. One step shy of a drag queen to be honest. For all intents and purposes Cox is a woman. It's bad casting. They should have found the burliest beefiest guy out there and cast him. That would have made more sense. It's the whole vaguery of Frank that makes the character. Someone at Fox should be bitch slapped. End of rant.

Worked on more stuff for the UK yesterday only to be told we might not do the class after all. Um, that's not how it works on this side of the house folks. You can't book my time and then decided a week out we aren't doing the class. I sure as hell hope that we still bill them for my dead time. Annoying as fuck. I was able to work on some other stuff in the downtime at least. The annoying part is I have been getting up early each day to work on this stuff because I am trying to align my time with the UK in case there were questions. Fucktards.

Around 1 I called it a day and we went out. B needed to bring some stuff to her cousin that she brought back from MI. We headed on over there and man, I am so glad I am not them. When they moved into their place, we noticed there was some roof work being done. That work is STILL going on and the lack of speed has caused massive amounts of water damage in their apartment. The heaters aren't working, there are large chunks of the ceiling coming out because of water damage, and the noise from the construction was unbearable. I would be complaining a storm if it was us. So much that we would have moved by now. They are not in a position to move again so soon after but to me, the complex should be paying in some way. These are unacceptable living conditions. I know that I wouldn't be able to work in that environment. I feel bad for them. You all know I am the least empathetic person around and if I am feeling bad, it's got to be a serious situation.

We stopped at the mall on the way back for B to get a second pair of PJs. She really likes the ones we got her and she wanted a second pair so she doesn't destroy the first pair by living in them 24/7. On the way back we both were hungry and decided to have a late 3:30pm lunch. There goes dinner. We stopped at Firehouse Subs which neither of us have ever been to. Apparently there's 900 of them across the country. Who knew? Pretty good sub to be honest. I would go there again.

Got back home, answered some emails, relaxed, and then B and I played WoW for a while. I helped her with a couple of quests then did my own. She got tired around 9:30 and went to lay down. I followed suit around 10. She is still a bit on EST and is waking up early and getting tired early. A couple more days should put her clock back in order.

One week until our 2nd anniversary! Wow. Time. Flying. Banana. I already have her present. No issues there. Just amazed at how on one hand it feels like we have been together forever and then on the other, it's only our 2nd anniversary.

Time to see if the UK sent me anything.

Y8 D147

Ah yes, nothing like waking up 20 minutes before your alarm is supposed to go off. Too late to continue sleeping, too early to want to get up. Lovely. Obviously I got up. The upside in these situations is you can move slowly. Don't feel rushed. I have custom class changes to make today for a UK client and I want to start them as early as possible. Of course nothing is ready, but no one can accuse me of not being ready and prepared at least.

Taught a class yesterday. Two students one of whom was a bit annoying. He was a non-muter which was a pain. Luckily it was just two people. If there had been more he would have been a real thorn in my side. As it was, I made it through with no issues. Finished class around 2:40. B went to the doctor while I was teaching. She is 100% sick. We needed to hit the store after class to get her some meds and comfort food. Came on back and we ended up eating dinner at 5pm because she was both hungry and cranky at the same time. By the end of the day though she was improving.

We watched some tv as we are both very behind on everything. Need to catch up on a few shows. The worse case scenario is we fall behind but it gives up plenty in our queue for those times of year where there are no new shows. Heck, we have years of stuff to watch at this point to be honest. Never lacking for stuff to watch, just the time and motivation to watch it all.

After, we played WoW together. Okay, she played while I helped guide her through some quests, figure out where she was, etc. I am glad she's enjoying the game, just need to get her skills up at playing it a little improved. Part of the problem is she is playing on her laptop which doesn't have the world's greatest resolution options. When she tries to bring up the map it covers too much of her screen and she can't see her toon. It's a catch-22. She needs the map to figure out where she is, but she can't see where she's going when the map is up. Argh. In the end we completed one of the Halloween quests which got her a new pet (Creepy Box) which made her happy. There ya go. Desired end result achieved.

While all that was going on, I was reviewing 2017 insurance options. It looks like we are changing our providers by changing our external HR firm. That worries me. I never like changing anything that could impact my checks. The upside is it looks like I can switch from UHC to Kaiser. That makes me happy. A better plan with a better monthly cost. There are MANY Kaiser facilities up here and that will make my life simpler. I am supposed to talk to the HR person today to see if I have everything nailed down. I think I am okay but he wants to talk for whatever reason. Fine, we can talk. It does look like my month premium will got down about $40 a month if I go this route with a 0 deductible plan. I could lower it even further if I choose the $1000 deductible plan. I might do that, but probably not. Probably stick with the nicer plan. I don't have any issue with Kaiser (as a medical provider) so why not. This year I have gone to the doctor once and it cost me $500 on top of insurance. If I can save money monthly and it costs me $0 to go to the doctor? Sound good to me.

Talked with a friend who I haven't seen in forever. She broke up with her long time boyfriend and is moving to NY. Big life changes but good for her. I am both excited and scared for her at the same time. She has family back east in MD which will give her a buffer if something goes out of whack. I can't wait to hear how this adventure turns out for her.

I think I just got an email from the person I am waiting to hear from. Let's see if I have what I need to get shit done.

Y8 D146

And life is back to normal. For the most part. Git up early yesterday to work on a custom class for a client. Managed to get everything I needed done by 1pm. We took a short break at 10am to hit Costco while it was still empty. Smart move. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes and that included grabbing food. B is really sick right now too.She isn't in the mood to be doing much of anything but she is trying. Of course you know how it is when a sick person tries to pretend they're not sick. They push themselves and get cranky. Okay woman, you're "fine". Sure.

She decided we needed to go to the mall and off we went. We walked around for a bit. Found new pajamas, a bag, a new ring for B, and had a pretzel. Got back around 3. The day finally caught up with her and she went and laid down. Didn't sleep though because the constant coughing and hacking out a lung stopped that.

I made chicken and potatoes for dinner. We watched some TV, then I helped her in WoW. She has been wanting to learn how to pet battle. What we did is we took my laptop, moved it into the front room, and turned on air play. This way she could watch on the screen while I watched and guided her on the TV. Worked out pretty well actually. Managed to get her a few pets and showed her the ropes on that. I have 36 pets right now, she has 4 but knows what she is doing. Watch, she is going to have like 50 pets by the end of the week.

Around 9:30 she gave up and went to bed as the meds were kicking in big time. I stayed up a little while longer and went to bed around 11. I just wasn't tired. Of course I am paying for that right now. Insufficient sleep. I have a 2 person class today. It should finish around 2:30 which means I foresee a short nap in my future.

See? Back to normal. Nothing exciting happening here. Move along.

Y8 D145

The woman is home! WOO! Been alone for so long it's weird hearing someone else in here. I just heard her making noise in the bedroom and it took me a second. But I am so glad she is home.

I sat around for most of the morning waiting. I was supposed to be working on customizations for the folks in England and had expected to wake up to a list of changes. Around 10am when I still hadn't heard anything, I was starting to send an email when surprise surprise here comes an email from them asking if I had time to do a voice call. As usual there was a huge disconnect between what the PMs had told them I could do and what I can actually do in the small window I have available. They wanted broad sweeping changes to the class and I am like no, I have two days. I can update the demos with the new screenshots but that's about it people. I made sure one of the PMs was on the call so they could hear what was discussed and expectations managed. Something they don't seem to be able to do on that side of the house. The biggest disconnect always seems to come in with how much time is spent on these things. On the consulting side most of the employees are hourly and there's no problem working 10-12 hours a day as they get paid for it. I don't. That's not how we operate on the training side. I work 8 hours and I am done. Hence the need for them to hear what's really possible in the allotted time and what isn't.

Finished that up around 11 and started to work. Unfortunately for them, I didn't get much done as I had to leave at 12:45 to go to the airport. Got to the airport around 1:30 and waited for B. She landed at about 2:40. Got her in the car and headed home. 20 minutes into the drive she realized she left a small bag on the plane in the back of her seat. ARGH! It contained some rings and other stuff. Fuck. We pull over into a parking garage off the freeway and start making calls. The plane has already left PDX and is inbound to Phoenix. We tried getting messages sent to the plane, to the PHX lost and found, everywhere. Nope. As of now, she lost about 5 rings, 3 of which are replaceable, two not so much. She was obviously upset as would anyone be in this case. We got home around 4:30 and she unpacked then we went out for some comfort food.

There was an odd package in the mail that neither of us was expecting. Turns out it was a new work shirt for me. Except... the marketing team decided that for trade shows everyone should wear lycra bicycle shirts. WTF? I sent a message saying their must be a mistake as I would never wear a shirt like this. The response was "oh well you can wear it to clients!". Um, this is the most unprofessional looking thing ever. I wouldn't wear this to take out the garbage. Plus it's short sleeve. I can't wear that in front of a client ever. Too many tattoos. I may have offended someone by saying I am sending it back, but seriously this thing is a joke.

B continued to unpack, put things away, etc. We sat and relaxed for a while as she told me all about her trip. Around 9 she gave up and went to bed. She had been up since 2am local time and was just done. Everything finally caught up with her. I putzed around for a little while and went to bed around 10.

Today is class changes. I should be able to get stuff done by 1 or 2. That's the goal. Let's see how much I actually get done.

Y8 D144

Have been up for a while but been busy already this morning. Mostly making sure B is at the airport and all settled. She should be boarding right now. I managed to upgrade her first flight so she will at least have no issue on this first part of her journey. Breakfast, overhead space, the whole shebang. She just confirmed she is in her seat and ready to go. Next I checked on a package that's supposed to be here today and supposedly it was delivered yesterday. Um, where? Just walked to the mailbox not there. I was home most of the day, not here. It better be in that office. I won't know until 10am and now I am stressing.

Got up yesterday, checked B in, cleaned the house and went out at 7 and got some stuff at the store. Mostly flowers and a small heater for my office. I swear this room has the worst temperature control ever. But now with the AC unit I am ready for anything.

I decided to go to the mall to get out of the house but it was boring without B. I have reached the point where I don't like shopping alone any more. Too many staring eyes. I know people aren't really looking at me, it just feels that way, but still. It bothers me.

Got back home around 11:30 and played WoW for a while. Took a little nap, watched some TV, and mostly tried not making a mess. I did all the laundry, changed the sheets, and washed every dish I used by hand. This place is spotless and will remain so until B gets home. That's the plan at least. Went to bed around 10.

Heading out to the airport around 1pm. Can't wait to see her!

Y8 D143

Yes, I am up at 4am on a Sunday and I am not traveling. But B is tomorrow. So I am up to check her in for her flight and make sure she has her boarding passes. Her flight is 8am tomorrow morning EDT. I can't believe it's been 9 days already. So much as gone by.

Yesterday was a bit of an adventure in the afternoon. I went out early to run errands and get things taken care of. Powell's books has a great service where if a book comes into their used inventory that's on your wishlist, they will email you. Whenever a book on my Amazon wishlist goes out of print or becomes unavailable for some reason, I move it to my Powell's list. I got an email earlier this week about such a book. Best part is because it's used, it's priced much cheaper than the original. In this case, it was a cheese book, hardcover, that was $17.95 originally on Amazon. Used, I paid $3.95. Yeah! My plan was to go grocery shopping, then go to Powell's. While I was out at the bookstore, the weather reports started coming in. Tornadoes on the coast. 90mph predicted later in the day. High surf warnings. Inland, 50mph winds predicted. Ugh. I got all my errands done and hurried home to hunker down.

Good thing too. At 1pm the winds starting howling like mad. A couple of brownouts. Nothing major until POP! A tree fell across the street taking a transformer with it knocking out our building, the one next to it, a bunch of houses, and the businesses behind us. Luckily I have this stupid UPS. I still had internet and power. I started gracefully shutting machines down except for one which I used to report the incident (first one to do so), and to monitor the progress. That UPS just paid for itself. First time in almost 2 years I had to use it full load, but it did good. With machines in idle, I had 75 minutes of power available. The power was out for 40 minutes. I had to go to the office and get the manual override key for the garage too. I wasn't going to leave the car inaccessible in case there was a real emergency.

I felt pretty good about being prepared yesterday. I had power to charge my phone, I had internet longer than anyone else, I was ready to pull my car out of the garage. Not too shabby. Power obviously did come back on. I could hear the crew sawing trees outside in the rain and wind. Felt bad for them, but glad they were working.

Didn't do much of anything else. Made a steak for dinner, watched some TV, played some WoW. I am almost up to level 50 on one of my characters. Not too shabby. I started it clean and am doing really well I feel.

Today's plans include going and finding a small heater for this room. We got rid of our big portable heater before we moved but the way the desk is in here I can't turn on the wall heater without fear of melting something. I just want a small little one for under the desk. It was down in the 50s yesterday and it's not getting warmer any time soon. I may also go to the mall today just to get out of the house. Take some wander time. I am going to be doing laundry in the morning, cleaning, and of course in 40 minutes, checking in B for her flight. Let the fun begin.

Y8 D142

My day went from great to annoyed in a heartbeat yesterday. Remember how I said my class got canceled? Well, at 7:30 we start getting emails from one student who originally had been in the afternoon class that we moved to December in the morning class who thought she was being moved to yesterday morning. Fuck me. I ended up doing a 4 hour private session from 8:30 - 12:30 for one person. What a pain in the ass. Since it was one person she wanted to blah blah blah the whole time too. I had to leave her unmuted and talk to her. I fucking hate that. She wasn't dumb or anything just had a lot of questions. We should have been able to get through the material quicker with just one person, but nope. All the questions in the world.

I was going to go to Costco yesterday morning when they opened but that got thrown aside. I tried to go at 1 when I was done with class but the parking lot was full and they were in the overflow lot. Nope. Not happening Sally. I then tried to go to store to get some stuff to take care of me until I get to Costco and it's packed too.

I get back home at 2 and the emails from the stupid PM I hate start rolling in. He is expecting me to do massive changes to a private class in two days and they haven't even sent the requested changes yet. I have two days next week to make all these changes before I teach it the week after. I was polite yet firm in my replies. He annoys the fuck out of me.

Had leftovers for dinner, watched a little TV, played some WoW, and went to bed around 10:30. Just was in a lousy mood and still am.

I think I want a new phone in January. I am in love with the Google Pixel. I love that thing. It's good looking, it's a clean Google phone, and it comes in blue. I can't wait to see one in a week when it's released. That may be my Christmas present to myself. We will see. I was thinking about it yesterday because my buddy was having a struggle. They have officially banned Note 7s on all airplanes. He has one and is not at home right now. Man that would suck ass. He was trying to deal with Verizon yesterday and it was a pain. No envy on that for sure. But it got me thinking about new phones and the Pixel is the shit as of right now. Serious desire.

B's anniversary present arrived yesterday. The fluffiest thickest robe I have ever seen. It better be for $120. Plus the monogram looks cool. She will like it. Bitch to wrap but it's done. I need to get cards still. I might leave the house today. Go to the bookstore and the card shop. Maybe. Depends on how I feel. I might just hide inside all day.

Y8 D141

My class for today got canceled last minute late last night. Not complaining. Instead of being up at 4 today I was able to sleep until 5:30. Look out! Best part is I don't *need* to leave the house for the next three days. Anything I do outside is by choice not mandatory which is nice. I do have some other stuff to work on today, nothing tomorrow, then cleaning on Sunday. Although B is not feeling well and doesn't want to travel with an ear infection. She is considering extending her trip. I told her she has until tomorrow to tell me as I need to check her in on Sunday morning.

The wind and rain are howling outside my window. It's been raining non-stop since late Wednesday night. Didn't let up once yesterday that I noticed. I love it. Makes me very happy. I taught my class yesterday listening to the rain outside.

My class was a pain in the ass. 15 students, 3 late, but worse it was a quiet group. Only like 4 of them were regularly providing me with feedback. You know how much that drives me nuts. Damn east coast people. Regardless we got through it. 6am until about 1:35. About 5 minutes faster than the group the day before.

Am talking to B right now and her ear is causing her to be real short tempered with me. Don't need this at 5:45am. She is in a lousy mood and I am not in the mood for it. Plus her mother is being her usual loud self which is not making things any better. I love how B gets to see first hand how loud her family is when she is away from it for a while. She used to be that loud too. Not any more. We're quiet people these days. Yeah. I am quiet in comparison to these people. Believe me. They're yellers. I may be boisterous, but I don't yell.

After class, I was tired but didn't want to sleep. Instead I took a nice hot bath to soak and rest my body. That was nice. I made myself some pork chops for dinner with a salad, then I watched a little tv, played some WoW and went to bed around 10.

We just ordered a new heating blanket which came this week. I put it on the bed last night, set it to low and oh yeah. I love heating blankets. I grew up with one of my bed and sometimes forget how much I love them. Especially up here where it's cold in the mornings. So cozy.

Off to shower then work on some stuff. Let's see if B's mood improves.

Y8 D140

Ugh. This is why I don't drink any more. 3 drinks last night and I feel like mud this morning. Well that will take care of me for a good six months minimum. Not to mention how much it adds to your bill. Not fun at all. I enjoyed dinner, I enjoyed the company, I am just not enjoying having to be at 3:45am when I got home close to 10pm. That part is not fun.

Taught my class. Almost everyone made it on time. Only one officially flagged as late. For these classes I have to return an attendance list back to the coordinator. She is in Ireland and doesn't know who is showing up or not without me. I try to be nice and let people slip, but if you're late, you're late. Class went from 6 until 1:40. I was supposed to go straight downtown but I decided to wait because otherwise I would be wandering around doing nothing. I am glad I did. I accidentally fell asleep on the couch while I was waiting and woke up stressed. I thought I was late. I wasn't. Nope. Even with my micro nap I was still downtown 2 hours before dinner. Whew. I went to the mall, got a couple of things at Bath and Body for travel, meandered in the clothing stores, then headed to the restaurant at 6:18. The reservation was at 6:30. Unfortunately my buddy got stuck because of some stupid ass protesters blocking the train lines. I sat at 6:40, ordered a drink (my first mistake), some smoked escolar (not a mistake), and waited until 7 for him to arrive.

We had a good time. I had the smoked escolar, salmon tartare with foi gras and strawberries, steelhead gravlax, freekah, and for dessert, a peach shortcake. The food was awesome. The additional two drinks I had (apple cider sangria) I could have done without. Left the restaurant around 9, hopped on a train, hit the station at 9:40, and was settled in at home around 10. Talked to B briefly and went to bed.

Speaking of B, she had a rough morning yesterday. She was supposed to hang out with one of her friends and go to a cider mill but, like most 20 year old irresponsible stoner boys, he flaked on her. "oh I have to work, I thought we were going tomorrow". Good job butthole. From what I can tell the rest of her day was better. I think she met up with the friend she reconciled with the other night. I need to warn her. Just because she reconciled with one, she needs to be careful not to drop the other ones who DID stand by her for the last two years. It's easy to get caught back up in the primary friendship and forget the ones who were there the whole time. She is going to need to watch that closely.

Another 6-2 day. Same class as yesterday, different group. 15 students today. This time if I nap after, it will be okay. One more day of this early stuff. 6:30 - 10:30 tomorrow. Then it's the weekend in my book. B will be home Monday and all will be right in the world.

Y8 D139

Yesterday was rough. Up super early. Class was supposed to start at 5:30 but everyone was late and they had technical issues then we had microphone issues on their side ugh. We didn't start until 5:47. Which was okay because the class does run short. We still managed to finish up at 12:40. Even with my demos being screwed up and one of my servers not responding well. Man what a pain. Today I am hoping will go smoother. Different class, different group, and everyone is on their own local machine, myself included. Today and tomorrow are the same class, different groups. This will bring the number of people I have trained for this company to about 150 in the last three months. Damn.

After class I took a brief nap. I mean come on, it wasn't even 1pm yet. Why not? Around 2:30 I went to the store for something for dinner. Got a nice piece of salmon. Had that with grits and a salad for dinner. That was pretty good. Played some WoW and found my sister had rejoined. Yay! One more person to play with now. Heck, we get enough we can start our own guild. Look out world, here we come.

Talked with B; she had a great night. She made up with her best friend who had turned her back when she decided to move to CA. I don't know the whole story yet, but I do know they spent time talking last night about everything. I am sure I will hear the details today.

I am excited about after class today. Heading downtown to do some hunting, some shopping, then dinner with my friend. We are off to one of my favorite places downtown. 14 hours from now. Hurry up day and be time. I plan on heading down right after class which will put me in the middle of commuter time. That part will be a bit of a pain. Oh well.

Y8 D138

3:45am. Whee. At least I am not going anywhere. Just awake. Plus I don't have to worry about waking anyone up. At least anyone I care about. If I wake the neighbors up, fuck them. They bang so much stuff around I don't care.

Spent the day reviewing and working on documentation. Talked to my buddy as he traveled yesterday. He shared some good news with me, which I won't repeat until it becomes more public, but I will honestly say I am happy for him. I will elaborate more this weekend. Played wow, had leftovers, watched some TV. I did piss off the friend of another friend on facebook. One of my friends posted about an opening at their company which will require eventually moving to FL. I asked why they hated this person and wanted to send them to hell. That rubbed one of their friends the wrong way and basically thought I was the biggest jerk in the world. Heh. I am. Amused me.

Not much else going on. Went to bed at 9:30 since I had to get up so early. Around 11 I woke up to an awful cacophony of sirens. Not sure where they were going, but they sure did make a lot of noise about it. Shhh. People sleeping.

B's cousin is having serious problems at their apartment complex. They've been working on the roof over there and I guess they didn't get it finished in time. Huge amounts of water damage in their front room on a load bearing wall. That totally sucks and I hope they don't have to move after just getting everything put away.

Today is 5:30 until honestly probably 1. Then a nap. Then nothing.

Y8 D137

I HATE walking through spider webs. That feeling that it's all over you. Ick. I just walked through one taking the kitty litter down and now I can't shake the feeling it's all over my face. Nasty.

My friend unfortunately had to cancel last night which meant I pretty much stayed in the house all day. Not a bad thing really as it was raining pretty good all day. I got laundry done, watched some TV, played WoW, talked with B, and went to bed around 11. I did go out once for dinner as I was craving some mexican food. That was it. My big adventure outside. I was out of the house for maybe an hour. What I did listen to all day were the fucking neighbors. They are so noisy I miss our mean old lady below us. They have two small children and they "bang" things a lot. Cabinet doors, bedroom doors, running across the apartment. Just SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY. I need to be in a house. A house with no one above me, below me, or connected to me at all. Silence is all I want. This is one of the reasons I like this time of the morning so much. It tends to be silent. Just me and the sound of a clicking keyboard. No noise. No banging.

Today I am taking the car in for yet one more repair. This time the horn. I have to be there by about 7:30 and hopefully will be done quickly. It's just a horn replacement. Then the rest of the day is document work. Aka, not much. Our public classes are light this quarter so far. It will pick up in November and December as people spend their budgets, but if it weren't for all the private classes I have scheduled, this would be a worrisome time. As it stands, private training will keep me pretty busy this month and at least one week next month.

That's about it. Need to shower and get ready to head out soon.

Y8 D136

All the sleep. So good to be home and cozy in my bed. Once I fall asleep in this new bed, I am asleep. Almost no restlessness, no awake. Damn, I love this bed. Now to pay it off.

Did pretty much nothing yesterday. Went out in the morning to run a couple of errands. Needed razors, milk, butter, and some dumb stuff like that I forgot at the store on Friday. Was back home by 10:30am.

Played some WoW, watched TV, vacuumed, then made Bahamian food for dinner. I made chicken souse, Johnny cake, and grits. I ate so much I literally fell into a food coma. I was right about the times I would hear from B btw. I heard from her around 1, then nothing again until 9:30. She sent me one video of her aunt drunk and high which was hilarious. We talked around 10. She had a really good time and everyone was so surprised she made it. I am glad we could make that happen. Really feels good. Am I sorry I'm not there? Nope. Not one bit. Not my thing. I need this time alone. I need some down time. I have four days of classes this week all of them early too. A 5:30am on Tuesday, 6 on Weds and Thurs, and the 6:30am on Friday. And the Friday one is a half day and I will be done by 10:30. No complaints. I would be struggling to do those from MI. Here I get to be finished early and relax. While I am sorry her family didn't get to see me, not sorry I don't have to be in MI.

Went to bed around midnight. Just kind of happened. It's cold and raining here (YAY!) which is throwing me off light-wise. Like right now it's still pitch black outside. I didn't realize how late it was until I went to bed. Instead of having to go to bed because I need to get up, I got to go to bed when I was tired. Slight difference but huge in terms of my sleep. No forcing myself to sleep.

Today I am doing nothing in the morning, then I am heading downtown to have dinner with a friend. Going to take the train a little earlier than we're supposed to meet to do some walking and hunting. Nothing will compare to the hunting I did last week, but there's a couple of things I am hoping to catch. Other than a cold. We will see if the hunting is any good. Worse case, I will hang out in the mall until he gets there.

Y8 D135

I love how even though B is in EST time right now and even with me sleeping in, I still manage to be awake before her. Go figure. So I guess I needed the sleep eh? Almost 7am. It doesn't hurt that I have every drape and window closed making it pitch black in here plus the sky is grey and overcast making it that much darker. You look outside right now and it looks like 4:30. Not complaining mind you.

Left the hotel at 3:30, got to the airport a little after 4 after stopping for gas. Nothing was open yet. No security, no one at the car counter, nada. I was able to print my boarding passes but then I had to sit. The Admiral's Club didn't even open until 5:30. Not a busy airport I guess. Unfortunately there were no earlier flights and I had to sit until 9:20. I sat in the lounge and watched a lot of Luke Cage. I managed to get through all but one episode. Some emails came through but nothing I could deal with until I got home as they came at 9:10 and it was too late. Boarded and landed at 12:15. B and I were crossing paths a bit at that point. She was about to board her flight. She was supposed to board at 12, but thanks to equipment issues she didn't board until 2 as I was getting home.

I debated wether or not to nap and instead ended up taking care of all my responsibilities. I did my timesheet, expense report, unpacked, went grocery shopping, started the oven cleaning process, paid bills, and general household stuff like that. By the time I realized how late it was, I was hungry and getting cranky. I had a turkey burger with cottage cheese for dinner and watched the last Luke Cage. Good show. They did a good job with it.

Played some WoW, upgraded to Legion which gave me a new mount and some other goodies. Managed to make 3 levels. Talked with B who is seeing just how loud her family is by being away from them. It always cracks me up when she goes back because she sees how much they yell and how much she has changed. Made a cream cheese and cool whip strawberry pie for myself. Plan on eating that tonight with some chicken souse and johnny cake.

Relaxed on the couch and went to bed around 10. Slept pretty damn solidly too. I missed my bed. Most sleep I have had in a while. Let's check the numbers. 7h and 58m per fit bit. Wow. That might be a record for me. No complaints for sure.

Thanks to doing all my stuff yesterday when I got home, I am responsibility free today. I will be doing absolutely nothing except oven cleaning. I already sprayed it last night and I just need to wipe it down this morning. Other than that, no need to even leave the house. Go me. Tonight's B's grandparent's party. She will be out of contact from probably 2pm until 9pm my time. I don't expect to hear from her much today. Busy time for her. Not for me baby. I see a day of TV, video games, and cozy clothes. Boom.

Y8 D134

HOME DAY! YAY! Up at 2 in the morning but I get to go home today. I am really hoping there's an earlier flight but I am not counting on it. I expect I will be sitting for 4 or 5 hours waiting at the airport. Oh well. It is what it is.

Finished what may have been my last day ever with this group. Not because I did anything wrong, but because this was all they had paid for in 2016 and we are going to revisit their contract for 2017. Based on where their at now, I may not be the right resource any more. And that's okay. We were all good with this. It wasn't a big deal, just a fact of life. To underscore the point, we started on Tuesday with a list of 32 tasks we wanted to accomplish in the 3 days. By 3pm yesterday we had 29 of them done. The final 3 were all around the same issue and they were beyond my capabilities. It's okay. I don't know everything. I tried my hardest but wasn't able to get things working. But we discussed having a more specialized resource look at the issue and take it from there. All good.

Got back to my hotel around 4, had dinner, then went to bed around 8. Talked with B and sorted out some stuff for her trip today. Made sure she had boarding passes printed, files copied to her tablet, etc. She should be waking up right... and there she is. Her car comes at 3:30, I am leaving at 3:30. We will drive at the same time so we hit airports at the same time. She boards at 5:30, me at 9:30. Oh well. The way things line up we won't talk again until 3pm. She will be in Detroit, I will probably be at Costco. I have to go at some point, and I don't want to go tomorrow.

This week is looking light which will be nice. I am hoping to do dinner with my buddy one night this week. He needs to pick a night and let me know. Sunday maybe? Heck, tomorrow? Just let me know. I will head downtown if needed. I may go downtown anyway tomorrow. I need to get some walking in.

Y8 D133

Very tired this morning. I don't feel like I slept well at all. Let's check the fitbit, shall we? God sometimes this thing takes forever to synch. You're sitting right on top of it, come on dammit. I will keep typing while it's doing it's thing. Okay, done. 5 hours and 16 minutes. Doesn't feel like it. Hm.

Spent the day dealing with my client. Worked our way through one major report and then some side topics. We got through quite a bit. Was there from 6:30am until 5pm. I hate "mentoring" over real formal training. Training has a set start and end time. This shit just kind of goes on all day. Especially when you're dealing with people who work 10 hours a day. They don't respect my time in some ways. It's like I should have been out of there by 3. But nope. We sit and sit.

Got back to the hotel and walked over to the mall for some food. Had chipotle. Nothing exciting but it was quick and easy. Came back, had dinner, watched Luke Cage, went to bed. Talked with B in between. One more day and I can go home. My flight tomorrow isn't until 10, but I plan on being at the airport by 4 to see if there's an earlier flight. If so yay, if not, I will have missed traffic at least. Either way by 1pm tomorrow I will be on the ground at home for at least 3 weeks. I can handle that.

Y8 D132

You know the bar is pretty low when you wake up and you're happy to have power. Look out world, I have electricity! Yesterday was a complete clusterfuck. Showered in the dark, got ready in the dark, left here at 4:45 because no internet, no breakfast, etc. I still don't have what I feel is a good resolution to the issue. In my mind, I paid Hilton for a service. That service included things like a bed, indoor plumbing, and oh I don't know, how about power? And they failed. Therefore they owe me for at least one night where they didn't live up to their end of the bargain. I don't think that's asking for much at all. I tried explaining this to the night manager last night but he was only half paying attention. If I don't have a resolution by tonight, I am going up the food chain. Ugh. So tired of this shit. Just want to go home for a while. Three more days and I can be home.

Anyway, got on site at 5:10am, sat in the car for a little while, then I walked around catching Pokemon. I did manage to catch a kabuto and evolve my ponyta which made things a little better. Not great mind you, but a little better. I then sat in the lobby until someone showed up at 8. We went off to a conference room and then at 9:15, they all let me because one of the 'big bosses' demanded a meeting. I sat there until almost 10 twiddling my thumbs.

We then spent the rest of the day working on one report. We managed to get it all done at 4:30 when we decided to call it a day. Got back to the hotel around 5 which is when I tried to speak to the manager who only half ass listened to me. Around 6, I went for a walk to El Pollo Loco and had the chicken for dinner. THAT was good. I haven't had that in a while and it was certainly tasty.

Watched some tv, talked with B, played some WoW and went to bed around 10. Today promises to be more of the same. Except of course, I have power and don't need to leave here until 6:30. Small victories.

Y8 D131

I am already sitting in the lobby of my client. Why? Because I woke up this morning to no power. Yep. Pitch black hotel. Apparently it was the whole area, but I looked out my window and saw power across the street. Who opens a hotel without generators? There were lights in the hallway so I know they have some backup power. This is what I get for staying at a new hotel. When I checked in yesterday the shower and bathroom floor were wet as if someone had just taken a shower when they were cleaning. I wrote that off to new hotel mistakes, but the no power issue is another story. I had to shower in the dark, put in my contacts with no light, and make sure I look presentable all without any power. And yes, I chewed the shit out of corporate on twitter as at least my phone still works. What a pain.

This trip started out like shit. I was anxious because it was such a later flight than usual but I got to the airport with more than enough time because my flight got delayed by almost an hour. I was scheduled to have lunch with my boss and that meant thanks to the delay, no Disneyland. Had I tried driving there and back in time I would have had 22 minutes at the park. Useless. I am debating staying later on Friday to go in the morning, but at this rate, I just want to go home. Now. I ended up being an hour early for lunch which sucked but I made do.

Lunch was pretty good. I blindsided my boss by turning what he thought was a social call into a salary discussion. I felt bad, but I knew it would be my only chance. We came up with a number he is going to try and shoot for starting in 2017. He has three months to deliver. Let's see how he does.

After lunch I headed to the hotel. Traffic wasn't too bad. I made it in about 45 minutes which is a good time in SoCal. Checked in with no problems and took a nap. I walked around after to find dinner and ended up with cheap chinese food. It worked. The fun part of the night was me and B playing WoW together. She had a bit of drama in the morning as someone hacked her account already out of the gate. I was really proud of her for dealing with Blizzard on her own and getting it resolved. A few hours with live chat and she was back in action. We did a bunch of quests together and I headed to bed at 10. Then I woke up to the above mentioned fiasco. I have essentially asked for one night refund in points. Let's see what they do.

Y8 D130

Given how early I have been leaving the last two mondays, I feel weird still being here at 3:15. I have a 7am flight today and don't have a pickup until 4:30. Odd. I figure screw it, I don't need to be there too early because it's just a quick flight to SoCal and if for some reason I were to miss it, there's one every hour basically. I can hop on the next one. Hell, I could drive and still be there in time for the client tomorrow. Hence, whatever. Plus this is Kaiser. I have dealt with them so many times. It's not even real training. It's three days of BS mentoring. Whatever times two.

Did nothing as planned yesterday. Laundry. All the laundry. Had more than I thought. Oh well. Went to the store for a couple of things for B for the week. She was craving apples. Get the apples. She needed raw honey. Get the honey. At 6pm last night, brownies, go get the brownies. I do what I am told because it's what I do.

One fun thing is I convinced her to play WoW. She now has a level 8 gnome hunter. Whee! She needs to get out of the starter areas for us to play together, but once she does that, we'll be good. I may create a gnome of my own to run around with her. That would be interesting. We are pretty short in real life.

Went to bed around 9 but not before watching some drama across the street. 3 fire trucks at a house over there. I looked it up online and it was an electrical fire. Contained, but still a little scary for a few minutes. If it had spread it would have been really bad. Lots of trees on that side of the street.

That's it. Off to the airport soon. Oh yeah, going to Disneyland today. I am apathetic about it to be honest.

Y8 D129

Long Travel Day. If I ever started a band that's what I would name it. Long Travel Day. Because if there's one topic I know a lot about, there it is. I got up around 2am EST, left for the hotel at 2:45am mostly because the internet died and headed for the airport. Stopped for gas on the way. Was at the airport super early. Found a supposed Admiral's Club. It was pretty janky to be honest. I know they're doing renovations, but this was some chairs and a tv. Felt more like a doctor's waiting room. Turns out, I was at the old club and there was a nicer one nearer to my gate. Sigh. Okay. I ended up there until time to board my flight. Got to Phoenix at 8:45am PST and killed an hour until my next flight. As I was boarding I got my upgrade. Yay. Had a nice lunch of BBQ chicken salad and was able to sleep for an hour.

Landed at PDX at 1pm PST. Finally got home around 2:30. So 14 hours from get up until get home. Then we did mail, unpacked just so I can repack for tomorrow, made B's car reservation, dealt with some stuff for her like her insurance policy changing, then we went to dinner. Had German food at a place we like. It was pretty good. At least mine was. Hers was a little off. Sorry.

Got back home and relaxed. We got into bed around 10 and I promptly fell asleep. Today is check in, laundry, pack, and then who knows. Some tv and nothing? Okay, that sounds good to me. I leave in 23 hours so let's make the best of it.

Y8 D128

Finally after midnight back home so I can post. I left the hotel at 2:50 partly because internet went down. I was planning on leaving at 3:30, but there you go. I am currently sitting in the world's worst admiral's club. There wasn't even anyone at the door. I just walked right past the rope. Yes, a rope. Sad.

I did a whole lot of nothing yesterday. Prepped for Kaiser next week, set up a lunch meeting with my boss for Monday. Played WoW. I am hoping to convince B to play when she gets home. If she likes it, then I will have someone else to play with and that would be fun.

Packed all my shit by 3pm. The sky opened up around 4 and it's still insane outside. The thunder and lightning have me worried. I am 4th out of 4 on the upgrade list so I will be in the back. No food. No comfy seat. Life sucks.

Home for less than 36 hours then I leave again. So much fun. At least on Monday I am going to Disneyland for what may be the last time in a long while. Not much else to say right now. I am about 20 minutes away from my gate so I will leave soon. Going through PHX this trip. A little nervous as I have only 30 minutes between flights and I don't know the airport. This is shaping up to be an interesting day.