Y9 D309

Showered, packed, and ready to go. Still have to get gas. But I will do that much closer to the airport. I am over 30 miles away. I should be fine and have plenty of time.

Day three went fine. No major issues. Finished around 4pm and got the hell out of there. Got back to the hotel, dinner, then "bed" at 8. I had a rough time trying to sleep. This room has been weird. I tried taking a bath to soak my back and that didn't go over well. I made a mess of the bathroom mostly. I am going to tell them downstairs when I check out that I was disappointed.

Land around 9 or 9:30. Take train. Should be home by 11am. Nap time to follow.

Y9 D308

Here's something I don't miss about living down here, the traffic. Not just like stopped traffic either. My room overlooks the 210 freeway. No matter what time of day I look out my window, there are constantly cars on the road. Whether it's 4:30 in the morning or 8:30 at night, there's always people on the road. Just car after car. It never stops. Like when I am in a place like OH and it's 4 in the morning, it's dead, No one on the road, silence forever. Not here. Noise. Always. People going and coming all the time. People say NY is the city that never sleeps but they've obviously never been on a SoCal freeway. Just a never ending flow of people.

I slept like shit, again. I can't wait until I get home and can only moderately sleep like shit. Maintenance was supposed to come look at my AC unit but as I was afraid, they either didn't come, couldn't hear the noise I am hearing, or couldn't do anything about it. Yet again I was forced to sleep with no air because of the high pitched whine.

Class was rough. There are too many people in the room (18 yesterday) and they don't know how to shut up. Plus some of them just don't belong in there. They can't keep up. When you have a room that large it's impossible for me to go any slower. Just one more day.

After class, I went to target to get a nice little gift for the admin who has been taking care of us this week. On that front, this client excels. She has made sure we've had breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks, etc. Total mother hen but I am not complaining. I put together a little bag that has some cookies, some bath products, and a card. She earned it.

Got back to the hotel around 7 after doing all that, ate leftovers, watched some TV and went to bed around 9:30 where I proceeded to sweat to death until 4:30. Fun times.

I go home now?

Y9 D307

Strange dreams. Some day we will figure out how to either recall dreams or record them. They fade too fast when you wake up. So many different images and things going through your head that it's hard when you wake up to remember everything. But there's snippets of things. Being in a bar. Yelling at someone to pull up their damn pants. Yeah, I'm old even in my dreams. Damn kids with their butts showing. That trend has seemed to fade away a bit hasn't it? You see less people with their pants hanging down than you used to. Not a bad thing if you ask me.

Had an okay day yesterday. Way too large of a class and I started to lose control of them in the afternoon. I had to be a bit of a hard ass and get people to shut up with private side conversations. This is why we don't like classes with more than 12 people. I have 17 and it's just a little too big. Plus with a group this size, there's always going to be at least one person who doesn't want to be there, one or two who are moving ahead on their own, etc. It makes it hard to control the room. We did okay for the majority of the day. We experienced some technical glitches near the end of the day and I ended us at 4:30 because I didn't want to deal with it any more. I ended up losing about 20 minutes and didn't get quite as far as I would have liked, but I will make up the lost time today. This is still only 2.5 days worth of material spread over three days. I should have plenty of time come tomorrow.

Got back to the hotel around 5:15, went to dinner, came back to the room, and relaxed. Talked with B, played some video games, and was in bed by 9. I had a bit of a headache so I just needed to lie down. Was able to get much better sleep than the night before. Still not a perfect sleep, but better. I have a bit of a sore throat this morning but I think it's due to snoring too hard. It's dry in here and that pushes me over the edge.

Day two. Let's do it.

Y9 D306

I had the worst night of sleep ever. I wouldn't even call it sleep. It was tossing and turning until it was time to get up again. Too hot. Too cold. The A/C makes this whine that just pierces my ears. Can't turn it off though or I will die. Bed pillows are weirdly shaped and too squishy. Horrible. Add to that the hotel room itself is weird. It's got hardwood floors and a layout that makes no sense. There's no doors on the bathroom just a curtain and a piece of glass. WTF?

Nothing too exciting about yesterday. Got on my flight at 8:30, arrived in Burbank a little after 11, got my car, drove to the store for supplies for the week. Got to the hotel around 1:30, checked in, unpacked, ironed, then headed to the mall nearby.

The mall was weird too. A strange mix of Korean, Latino, and random stuff. Got two bath bombs one for this week, one to take home. Got the manuals from FedEx which luckily is right across the street from hotel. One positive about this hotel/area is there's a lot more options for things in a much smaller radius than the last two trips.

Came back, watched some TV, went to Claim Jumpers for dinner. It's right in the same parking lot as my hotel which means I will probably eat there all week. I get Landry's points and I don't have to drive anywhere. Seems like a win to me. Speaking of driving, my rental car has no AC. I don't know what's wrong with it, but the air is not getting cold. I won't be in it enough to bring it back, but what a pain. I know this afternoon when I finish it will be boiling. Whatever. I will survive.

Man I hate using this laptop without an external keyboard. My fingers constantly stray from the letters and hit the stupid touchbar. Which I can say I never use. It was supposed to 'change our experience' but yeah, no.

Breakfast, drive, teach. Three days of this and then I can put this client behind me for a while.

Y9 D305

Up early, but not too early. I have a 9:15am flight today. Car is coming at 5:30 so we don't have to sit in too much traffic. We will sit in some, but not as much if we left later. I don't mind waiting at the airport.

Did odds and ends stuff yesterday. Tested out a new server, answered random emails, stuff like that. I don't come home until Saturday and I wasn't about to do anything too intense.

We ordered pizza for dinner so I can have leftovers to take with me today. I land at 11:30 and will want an afternoon snack.

Went to bed around 9. Not much else. I am going to fight with these people tomorrow. They are trying to shove 20 people into the class. The contract says 15. I fucking hate this group. Not happy with them at all. Can't wait until the TX group in two weeks. They seem like they have their shit together so much better.

Got to go shower.

Y9 D304

I have a genuine question. This is not me being a smart ass or anything along those lines. Why is spam still allowed to exist? Why isn't it a crime that the US Government is actively handling? Every day I wake up to no less than 20 pieces of unwanted mail across my two primary accounts. That's nearly 150 pieces of email a week I didn't ask for, that are 99% scams, that just shouldn't exist. And they are the same variation of each other. There's really about 4 messages tweaked 100 different ways. Why? Why is this allowed to go on? And don't tell me it's because you can't find them. It would take little resources for them to stop it. But yet it just keeps going. What a load of shit. I could run for president just on the platform "NO MORE SPAM" and get a good chunk of the vote. We need a candidate at some level to come out and start addressing digital concerns as much as physical concerns. Maybe once we stop getting old white people to run...

We had a relatively quiet day. Did some errand running but for the most part stayed inside and read and relaxed. We had breakfast for dinner. Like full on - pancakes, eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. Was pretty tasty. Did laundry, cleaned house, packed.

I leave tomorrow until Saturday so going to be doing personal stuff today whether anyone likes it or not. They can all kiss my ass.

Y9 D303

Yes, it's 6:30am. I slept in! Just like B needs to sometimes go to bed early to reset her clock, I need the opposite. I need to go to bed late. I went to bed around midnight which helped me. I woke up once at 4:15 and said screw it. I got me some good sleeping!

Did wake up to some good news. Got my tax info for the year - Fed owe $333, State refund of $1300. Net of $1000 to the good for us. Game played well once more. I am going to use part of that money to buy my birthday present - a new camera. I have been wanting one for a while and this is a big birthday for me so that's what I want.

We had a really fun day yesterday.

I got up and went to the grocery store to make sure B had food while I am gone this week. I leave Tuesday and am back Saturday so a full week of food is needed. Plus her avocado tree has picked up some fruit flies and needed something to kill those off. Took care of that and was back by 7:30.

Once B was up at 8:30, we took a drive over to the coast. It was okay going over weather wise. There was about six inches of snow on the side of the road and some flurries at the higher elevations. But nothing that slowed us down too much. We got over the hill around 10am.

Our goal going over was to go some place new, specifically Jacobsen Salt Company. We have been watching these Bon Appetit videos and they went there in one. It's a really tiny place when you get there but they have a great tasting room with 20 different salts and 10 different honeys you can try. Because of the weather we were the only ones there which was kind of cool. It's a small building and if there had been more people it would have been overwhelming.

Once we finished with the salt we found a 2nd hand store nearby and browsed around that for a while. B found some salt and pepper shakers for her friend. Every birthday she sends her random salt and pepper shakers. She found some imprinted with NEBRASKA to celebrate their trip across country 5 years ago and their hatred for the state of NE.

After that we went to the Blue Heron Cheese Company for some lunch, cheese, mustard, and jam tasting. We ended up getting multiple jars of mustard, salad dressing, and jam to bring home.

Got home around 1:45, took a nap, and then had good Mexican for dinner. Came back, played some games together, went off to bed.

A nice day.

Y9 D302

Taught my new class. Since it was the first time I expected some hiccups. Mostly what I found were typos in the manual no one caught. I need to run through it and clean some things up. All of my demos worked fine though and there weren't any serious issues. We finished a little earlier than I would have liked and I will probably add one more demo to the material to flesh that out. I think that will work fine. Since I didn't want anyone feeling like they didn't get their money's worth, I spent an extra half hour taking general questions. Worked out perfect for the time.

After class we went and ran a couple of errands. Nothing big, just some small things for dinner. I am going to the grocery store in a little while myself to make sure B has food while I am gone next week. It's one of those weird travel weeks where I am leaving on a Tuesday. Has me thrown off a bit but I will manage.

B made chicken casserole for dinner. After we took care of the cats. They needed furminating in preparation for a bath tonight. This of course resulted in me having to vacuum afterwards because hair was everywhere even though the doors were all closed. Just the way it is. We then watched a little tv and relaxed. Went to bed around 10.

Today we are going to try and take a ride to the coast to go to a salt farm. We found out about it through Bon Appetit magazine. A salt farm right in our own backyard. It will make for a nice day trip.

Y9 D301

Some clients are easy to work with, some are not. The folks in SoCal? Asshats. The ones in TX? So far so good. I had two issues yesterday while working on their stuff and they were quick to respond, able to help me, and overall easy to deal with on the issues. As such, I was able to finish all their material this week as planned. I now have Monday open for changes, and the week after next back for classes. Thank goodness.

Spent the whole day working on stuff. Finished around 4. We had leftovers for dinner. Cleaned house a bit after dinner because the clutter was bugging us both.

Talked to the kid for a while. She is doing well. I am proud of her and her choices. She's gonna be okay ya know?

Went to bed around 10.

Normal class today finally. It's a new class and this may be interesting. We will see how it goes. Then bills. Then laundry. Got to get packed for next week's trip.

Y9 D300

I haven't commented on it up until now, but in 65 days, I will be in my tenth year of writing. That's amazing to me. 3,650 entries. (Not counting the rare day where I posted twice.) Millions of words. Imagine if this was printed out. The sheer volume of it. I will probably archive it at some point just for posterity reasons. And just in case this site ever vanishes. But my goodness. 10 years later. I am still alive too despite some close calls.

I got back on track somewhat yesterday. I decided to work around the client. If they weren't going to respond to me, I would figure a way to get shit done. I did. I managed to backdoor into an older version of their system which allowed me to move forward. Some of the screenshots aren't perfect but to the casual eye, you'd never know. I sent them a new revision of the documents to review around noon and guess what? Haven't heard a thing. What a shock.

I also got to spend a half day on the TX people. I made some more progress there. My goal for today is to finish their stuff to get me back on track and free up Monday. Especially since I travel Tuesday through Saturday next week.

Took the car in for service yesterday morning. No issues. They found a warranty covered repair they need to do but parts had to be ordered. This is why I like having newer cars. The piece they need to replace is $1000 plus labor. Not a cent out of pocket. It's the little things like that people don't amortize into the overall cost of owning a vehicle for more than 3-4 years. This is even worse on newer cars where a headlight assembly is a grand. Thank goodness I don't have to pay for it.

B made peppers for dinner. She finished her blanket and got it in the mail yesterday. We went to the pet store after dinner to get some PH strips. Ended up getting a new snail for the small tank and some plants. Came back, played some games together, went to bed around 10.

Time to get stuff done.

Y9 D299

Another lost day with one client, a productive one with another. I switched gears yesterday and worked on a different group of people's stuff and I managed to get quite a bit accomplished for them. Even with having to have a phone call, I still managed to do more in 8 hours than I have with this other group in days. Some custom stuff isn't bad. It's called knowing how to fucking communicate. Just saying.

Finished work around 3. The weather was nice here and it's about to switch to nasty for the next few days so we took advantage of it. We fired up the grill and had burgers for dinner. Quite tasty. Watched some tv, then decided to go grab some froyo. Also quite tasty.

B finally finished the blanket she has been working on for months. It's a queen size blanket and has been killing her. But it's finally done! Now I get to spend an arm and a leg shipping it. Oh boy! She is actually charging for this one and that makes it a little better.

Today I am taking the car in for service, trying once more to work on the asshole's stuff, and just wishing this week was over.

Y9 D298

Yesterday was a completely lost day. You see, everyone I need to work with, including my boss, is currently in Vegas for an IBM conference. And I can't get on the client's system. I did get some confirmation that it's not just me from my boss last night as he was unable to get on the system as well. Of course one of the idiots there sends a message at 11pm saying "I'm having no problem". Gee, thanks Gupta, that really fucking helps. Are you on clientless VPN? What browser? What OS? A little fucking detail please.Today instead of banging my head I am going to switch gears to a different client's stuff. At least get something done this week. I was supposed to be doing a different class today but nope, stuck doing this bullshit work instead. Fucking hate it.

We made cheesesteaks for dinner last night. Watched some tv. Went to bed around 10.

Y9 D297

I woke up an hour ago or so but I said fuck this. Today begins a week of dealing with those assholes in SoCal who send emails at 1:06am and I will be damned if I let them get to me. I will not jump through their hoops. They will jump through mine. So laid back down for an hour. It was good. I will start in on their stuff in a little while. This is how I work. Not at a desk in some stuffy office. At my pace at my shit.

Somewhat enjoyable day yesterday. I was feeling depressed mostly because I was dreading this week. We ran a few errands,  took a nap, relaxed. After dinner we settled in and watch TLJ. It was acceptable. There were parts I liked and parts I didn't.

Went to bed around 11.

Y9 D296

Boy oh boy did I get a lot accomplished yesterday! Did some major grocery shopping, all the laundry, we went to the garage sale store, target, made coconut chicken for dinner, cleaned, whew! All of those boring tasks that no one likes doing got done. Didn't mind one bit either because I missed doing them the last couple of weeks. Definitely nothing exciting, but felt good getting things done. Especially now that I know I have really nothing to do today. We can relax. I do need to hit the pet store today as it's the one thing we didn't get done, but otherwise, we are thinking today should be a movie day. Close the blinds, pull out my projector, and shine a big ol' movie on the wall. I wish I had something more in depth to discuss this morning, but nope. Just boring household life. I didn't reply to the buttholes who sent an email at 1am. They get a response tomorrow and not a moment sooner. But that's about the only drama going on here.

I like that.

Y9 D295

Okay, I am back home. After a very long day of travel too. I left for the airport at 3:50am, got there about 4:10, security wasn't even open yet. Chattanooga aiport has a whopping 5 gates and at it's busiest has maybe 200 people at it. There were probably like 100 there when I arrived. My flight was about 3/4 full if that. I did doze off a bit between TN and TX, but not real sleep. I landed with an hour to kill so relaxed in the lounge. It's all kind of a blur. Backwards time travel can be rough. You start getting confused what day it is and when things happened. When I look back at yesterday it seems so long ago I was walking between terminals but it was just 24 hours ago. Got on my second flight, had breakfast and then was out cold for the rest of the flight. I was tired enough that I got a full 2 hours of sleep. Landed at about 11am. B was there to pick me up as we both thought traffic wouldn't be too bad at that time of day. We were wrong.

Got home, unpacked, got settled. At 2:30 I took a conference call with the fucktards in SoCal. Boy was that fun! Much sarcasm. We came up with a somewhat plan of action to which they just sent their part at 1am this morning. Yeah. 1am on a Saturday. And they want me to reply acknowledging I got the message. Ha. I sure will. On Monday. You can go fuck yourself in your fat fucking ass.

After my call we went to the mall. B needed to pick something up and I needed a change of scenery. We also had dinner at the fish house. We ended up finally gettting B a new phone. She also got a dress for a wedding we need to go to in July. We will be taking two vacations this year. One for us in June, one for her family in July. Ask me if I give any fucks about what that does to the company. I get six weeks of vacation and I am going to fucking use them.

Got back home around 7 and B set up her new phone. We both were tired at that point and there was some stress. Change is hard for her. But we got through it. I went to bed around 9:30 because I was just done. Too tired thank you very much.

Today I am going to the grocery store. That's about it. I would like to just relax if possible. I know we won't, but I'd like it if we did.

Y9 D294

Finally 3am. I have been waiting so I can post something. Oy.

Yesterday was good. This is such a good group. I never had so many people on the way out thanking me for the great job. It's nice to be appreciated. Finished up around 4 and headed back to the hotel. Went for BBQ for dinner. Came back, packed, and watched tv. Went to bed around 7pm. Up at 1:40.

Now I go to airport. Have a conference call at 2:30. Fuckers.

Y9 D293

Bleh. That sums up how I feel this morning. I don't want to be dealing with anything. But these socal people are looming over my entire week. They have literally ruined this trip for me because every day I have been dealing with their shit. Yesterday it was having to call their tech support at 6 in the morning to get a password reset. This morning it's been sending emails already to try and get them to commit to desired changes. They have completely fucked up my schedule for next week. I can't wait until this training is delivered and done. Fuckers.

As for the group I am here for, they are wonderful. We had a great time in yesterday's session. It was the second group and even though it was a fully packed room, they were great. We got through everything, and we had fun. These people I like. I have one more day with them today and then we're done. A shame to leave them. I truly mean that.

After work yesterday I spent two hours at the spa. It was heavenly. I got a full body scrub down and mud wrap follwed by a deep hydration facial including blackhead extraction. So nice. I walked out of there feeling like a million bucks. I know that with the additional travel I have coming up (booked an April trip to Texas after breakfast yesterday) it will destroy my skin again soon enough, it will at least help for a while. It should act as a nice barrier against some of the damage. The spa was nice, the girls who performed the services were great. I did doze off a bit during my facial but whatever. It screwed up my clock a little but obviously I needed the rest.

Got back to the hotel around 7:30, ordered in, watched some tv, got pissed off about work, went to bed at 10:30. Why was I pissed off about work? In addition to the socal people, it seems that the company owners are pushing back on the whole raise thing again. Fine. Push back. See how that works out for you when I leave later this year. See how things go when I agree to work no more than 8 hours a day. See what happens when I start sending you invoices for excessive hours when traveling. I can play rough too kids.

Sigh. Need to check in for my flight.

Y9 D292

The internet is sucking this morning and it's pissing me off. I woke up pissed off though to be accurate. Why? Because of this fucking client in socal. Yes, the same ones from last week. We tried to get the remote access issue resolved but because they couldn't keep their hands off things, they ended up locking my fucking account out and now I have to call tech support. They couldn't have just left well enough alone. Nope. They had to get involved and they fucked up. God I hate these people. Not to mention I ended up working for hours last night on this shit after teaching a full day already. Needy bastards.

My real day went fine. No issues. Finished with them around 4pm. Brought cupcakes for everyone and made people happy. It wasn't a bad night until I had to start dealing with this other group.

Went to a mayan place for dinner. Not sure why they call it Mayan though. It was more generic Latin American in my head but then again I am in TN and they probably don't know the difference between Mayan, Peruvian, Columbian, etc. The food was pretty good. A little pricey for my tastes, but still good.

Watched tv for a brief time and went to bed around 10. B was in a depressed state which didn't help matters because I was trying to deal with her while trying to deal with everything else. Shit, I just rememebered I need to make reservations for TX. Fuck. One more thing I have to deal with. I will do that after breakfast. Don't feel like dealing with it right now.

Y9 D291

I had a rough night. I fell asleep around 10, but woke up at 12:15 from a pretty intense dream. It involved people from my past, hospitals, drugs, and strange going ons. I woke up from that feeling refreshed and awake, but disoriented trying to piece together all the strange things in the dream. I fell back to sleep at 1 until now. My second sleep was just as weird. More strange dreams. Plus I can't breathe. The weather here is dry and cold. It even snowed yesterday morning. Weirdness.

Bit of a rough start yesterday. We had technical issues in the first room and had to move everyone to a second room. That was fun. We got a late start but I managed to pick up the lost time and finished at 4:30. This group is very good and easy to work with so there was no problem from them. After work was much tougher. I did stop at the spa on the way back to the hotel and make an appointment for a body scrub and facial for Wednesday. My skin is so dry and cracked right now that I need a good moisturizing session. I have two hours scheduled to go head to toe. It should help.

When I got back to the hotel I changed and started dealing with emails. Seems that my boss got to experience first hand the trouble that is the people in Southern Ca. They were bugging him right and left all day. Now they think he is difficult and hard to work with. Ha ha. Not just me buddy. He even at one point told me if he had known how hard they'd be to work with, he'd have turned down the job. Vindication for me. I know I shouldn't gloat about shit like this, but at least I know it's not just me that finds them a real pain in the ass. Seems they are going to screw up my whole week next week with their demands. We shall see how that goes.

I went to Chili's for dinner since there are none by us and I haven't been to one in a long while. Was pretty good. I brought my headphones and tablet and watched some tv while I ate. Came back, dealt with more emails, then dealt with B. She was in a funk yesterday. I tried to cheer her up, but don't think I succeeded much.

Watched some Cougar Town, went to bed. I got my group cupcakes last night which will be fun to distribute today. Also my new jump drives came yesterday. B checked them out and said they are a perfect match for the old ones. But I saved so much money on them it's not even funny. The marketing team loves me right now.

Day two with group one today. This should be fun.

Y9 D290

Ugh, my boss didn't bring me up a server. I am not happy.  With time changes and being in different time zones, this is going to be a bitch. I am about to wake him up at 5am if he doesn't respond shortly with a server for me. Not my fault. He knew better. I am hoping he hasn't gone to bed yet and sees the email and text I just sent him. If not, phone call in 3 hours. Sorry, that's life.

The stupid time change is stupid. Got up so early yesterday. Watched the clock go from 1:59 to 3:00. Such fun. Left for the airport around 3:20, arrived at 4. Boarded at 5:30. Got into TN around 4pm EST. Ordered pizza for dinner so I would have lunches and dinner for a few days.

There was a tattoo event happening at the hotel when I got here yesterday. Bunch of artists and stuff with a giant tent and other things going on. I was too tired to really pay attention, but it looked interesting. Had I known it was going on I might have been interested in doing something, but by the time I got settled in, they were finishing up for the day. Too bad.

Was just a travel day so not a lot to report. Nothing exciting. No delays, no bad weather. I don't mind. Calm trips are better than crazy trips. I am looking forward to this week compared to last week. Back doing what I do well instead of trying to play nice with others.

Now, off to breakfast. Let's see if I get my server.

Y9 D289

Fuck DST. I should be getting another hour of sleep right now, but no. I am up at what is currently 12:45am because at 1:59am, it's going to go to 3. Lovely. Neither one of us felt good yesterday. We both spent the day dragging. Looks like we might have messed ourselves up using the humidifier the night before. Or there might be weird mold in here. We'll see. We might be dying. Oh well. We didn't go anywhere yesterday until dinner time when we went and had fried chicken. We were being lazy for sure. I went to bed at 7:45pm. Wow. That might be the most boring Saturday ever known to man, but that's what we did. I did go to the grocery store early in the morning. Repacked. Cleaned the fish tank. Yep. That's it. I am out of things. Man we're boring. Off to TN now. And if my sister reads this, check your email.

Y9 D288

I had a really lousy day yesterday. I had looked up flights on Thursday to see if there was an earlier flight I could take to get home on Friday. I figured I would just hop stand by or pay for the change at the airport. What I didn't know was that Burbank has different schedules M-Th than they do on weekends. Noise ordinace rules say that they can't fly as many flights early in the morning on weekends. So instead of six flights to PDX, on Fridays there's only 2. I sat at the airport from 3:30am until 11am because on top of everything else, my flight was delayed 30 minutes. I wish I could tell you some exciting story about my 7 hours of waiting, but alas, no. I sat. I waited. That's the story.

I did get a phone call from my boss right before boarding though. That was lovely. Those fuckers I was doing work for decided to go whine and cry and say I was 'too inflexible'. I'm not inflexible, I just know my job and how to teach a lot fucking better than you all do. I know what works for students and what doesn't. This is why I fucking hate custom work. Technical people trying to tell me how to teach. Go away. I managed to keep my cool and speak with him on the train ride home.

By the time I did get home it was 3:30. 12 hours later. When I got home it was a whirlwind - laundry, bills, mail, dinner, woosh.I really didn't get a chance to sit down and relax until 7pm. Just so many little things to do. I am still not 100% repacked. Mostly, but not completely.

We did say fuck it and watched a movie last night. We watched the new Jumanji which was pretty good. It was a sweet movie that was much better than I had expected it to be. I recommend it.

Went to bed around 10:30. I need to check in for my flight at 6, then off to the grocery store. Need to repack fully today, clean the aquarium, and go to bed at 7pm. Fun times.

Y9 D287

Awake. 2am. Leaving in about 90 minutes for airport. Yes, I know that's way too early. I know I will be sitting at the airport for hours. But I'd rather sit at the airport than sit in traffic. Plus there's a six am flight I am going to try and get on. If I can, I will be home by 8:30. If not, then I sit. I am on Alaska which means I have no status and I can't just bump someone out of line. If I get an earlier flight, I will probably have to pay for it and I am not in the mood to do that. So I may be sitting. Cest la vie. Better there than here.

Had interesting dreams. One dream I was dropping off cars of the previous owner of my house. They left their cars behind for some reason and I had to track down the family to drop the cars off. The even stranger part was the house itself. There were like these weird extra rooms that we didn't know about. Like many of my dreams, I have had this one before where I was living somewhere and there were areas I didn't know existed. Where's a good dream analyzer when you need one.

Work was work. Nothing exciting on that front. I sat and did jack diddly until about 2 when I got the hell out of there. I finished enough to make me happy but not enough to really be done. I just couldn't get into it. It's hard for me. I need stimulation. Staring at 4 walls is boring as hell. I did bring some donuts for people because I am nice.

Going to shower now. Then leave soon. I am going to try and do my timesheet and expense report from the airport this morning. It will save me some time when I get home. That way I can focus on doing laundry and repacking. Good times.

Y9 D286

Had a fairly decent night's sleep last night. Not the best because I woke up quite a few times, but overall a decent sleep. I was out of mouth mints but luckily there's a Rite Aid next door and I was able to pick some up. They are the only place that sells them in store that I know of. However, a piece of advice; don't ever buy the generic ones. Always buy the real thing. These are much more chalky, smaller in size, and don't last as long. I woke up around 1 and had to put a 3rd one in. I never need more than two of the normal ones. But now I have ones for travel and ones for home. I can deal. While I was out getting those I grabbed some real Mexican food. The one thing I truly do miss about being a southern Californian is the real Mexican. Better flavor. Better choices. It was quite tasty for sure.

I finished part one of the customization yesterday. Finished around 1 but had trouble getting into the second part. I kind of dilly dallied the rest of the day until leaving around 4:15. If I had been home, I would have taken a nap at 1. No such freedom on site. Fuck that noise. Today I am sneaking out early under the guise of plane to catch. Sh. Don't tell anyone.

Not much else going on right now. I am hoping to get my upgrades for Sunday's flight but nothing yet. I have to remind my driver about the time change. I don't need them showing up an hour late on Sunday because they fucked up.

Leaving here around 3:30 tomorrow mostly because I want to beat traffic. I may go to the counter and see if there's an earlier flight, but whatever. Not the end of the world if I have to sit for a while. Better at an airport than in L.A. traffic.

Y9 D285

I figured out what is is about office environments that drives me so crazy. I also have a mild and tiny understanding of HR kind of people in offices now. It's the silence that gets me. All these people at their desks like good little drones clacking away at their keyboards. Numbers numbers numbers. Business business business. No, what you are is dead inside. Sitting down your tasks like little worker ants all the while making the queen fatter. At least when HR people try to organize events and things they are trying to get people to do more. But it falls flat because they are working within the constraints of the machine. You will have only properly approved fun that does not give you time or energy to think about how desperate and sad your life really is. Back to your cubicle worker ant. The queen needs food.

Got quite a bit done yesterday. Of course I had to work 10 hours to do it. And then of course at 7:30 last night they change the scope. This is why I hate custom classes. This is also why things don't ever get done in these kind of settings. Scope creep delays things. I now today have to go back and change huge swathes of what I did yesterday. Thanks a fucking lot assholes.

Took me 35 minutes to get back to the hotel last night which really sucked. I was so tired and frustrated I just went next door to McDonalds for dinner. Where it seems asking for a double filet o' fish is a confusing thing. Not that hard people.

Watched TV, made my travel arrangements for my trip back, and went to bed. B also had a rough day. She was ready to throw the cat out the window. I feel that. I am staying at a different hotel when I come back here. Why? Because this place really is over doing it with the hipness. Yesterday I wanted to try a waffle to see if breakfast could be any better. You can't fuck up a waffle right? You can when it's "Multi-grain buckwheat" waffles. WTF? Had that with some strawberry-kiwi enhanced water. Yum yum. God I can't wait to be in TN next week where I can have biscuits and gravy. And bacon. And real eggs. Just a few more days. Only two more days here and I can go home for one.

Good times.

Y9 D284

Slept better last night. Much more solid sleep. Went to bed a little later which helped. But more because I kept the air off. I was worried I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep because I learned a few things last while I was in bed. First the walls here are too thin, the lady next to me is loud, and her headboard could use some tightening. Just saying.

Speaking of the hotel, may day didn't start off all that great. I have learned that this brand is not for me. I am staying at a Home2 Suites property and it is trying way too hard to be 'hip' and 'cool' and 'for the young groovy people'. Breakfast was awful. 7-11 style sandwiches you put in a microwave. I followed the directions on mine and was rewarded with a mouthful of frozen food. Lovely. Tried to have a bowl of cereal with fruit instead and oh guess what, the fruit is frozen too. Not a great way to start the day.

Got onsite at the client and had to sit at the gate until someone bothered to let me in. Way too much security at this place in all the wrong ways. I tried asking for my own badge and they sent me medical forms that have to be filled out. I am politely refusing to fill them out. I am not going to give some company my personal medical history for 7 days of onsite work. Kiss my ass. My two contacts are in general useless. Not a good week for me. I just want to go home thank you.

Got back to the hotel around 5:30, ate dinner, listened to the noise outside my walls, and went to bed around 10:15. I can't believe I am looking forward to being back in TN. At least there I know what I am doing.

My jump drives finally shipped from China. They should be here by the time I get home. That's good news. Assuming they don't get stuck in customs.

Our sales VP resigned. Glory days. They're throwing him a party. WTF? I wouldn't get a party. Fuck him.

Let's see if breakfast sucks again today.

Y9 D283

Had a horrible night sleep. Laid down around 9:30, woke up at 11:15, 1:30, 2:30. 3:18, and finally now at 4. Fun stuff. Only saving grace for this trip is it is my normal time zone. At least I am not losing time too.

Trip itself was uneventful. Got to the airport, had 2 hours to kill. Sat in the lounge, boarded my flight, landed in Burbank at 11:30. Had an issue with the parking garage attendant. Normally when I get my car, I get my car and they bloop it at the gate, I show my license and done. Not at Burbank. There it's a shared garage and the gate guys work for the airport, not the car rental. I get to the gate and he demands my paperwork. I don't have any. Well you'd better go back and get some. I then wait in line, get back to the gate, try to make nice small talk with the guy, and he is an ass. Telling me how horrible Avis is and how he would never work or rent from them. Nice. Great way to welcome people to your city douchebag.

Drive for about 40 minutes, find a Walmart near my hotel and get supplies for the week. Get to the hotel around 2, check in, iron, take a nap. I then ate dinner in my room. Watched some TV and relaxed. Not much else to do in lovely not at all scary to this white boy Azuza. Yeah right.

Leaving here today around 6:30. Plan on staying no later than 5 tonight regardless of what these people think. 4 days of this. Then it's 36 hours at home and off to TN. Whee.

Y9 D282

Travel day! But a weird one. 9am flight board. 6:45am pickup. SO why am I up early? Meh. Because I am old and can't sleep any more. Is life.

Didn't do a whole lot yesterday. B did her volunteer thing, took a nap after working a 3 hour retail shift. I cleaned while she was gone. Packed. Got things ready for today.

We had sushi for dinner. Played video games together. Went to bed around 10.

That's it.

Y9 D281

It was a long work day yesterday. 5am class. Followed by conference call with next week's client. I have no idea how I am supposed to finish next week's work in the time I am being given. It is physically impossible to do in 8 hours per day. But guess what? I am not working more than 8 hours per day. You can fuck right off. Can't get my raise done? Can't take care of the shit that's important to me? Then guess how many hours a day you're getting out of me. Fuckers.

Class was okay. They were still frustrating the hell out of me. But we got through it. It was the second group that pissed me off. I was on the call at 2 on the dot. What time did they show up? 2:18. We're going to have issues. I at least got them to meet me between 7:30 and 8 and not 9 and 9:30. Small victories.

After class I did laundry. Then I made dinner. Then I cleaned the kitchen. Then I put away laundry. I was a little pissed off at this point. I felt like I had already done enough but somehow was still doing more.

Did you know you need a visa to go to Australia even to visit? I didn't. Luckily I have a paranoid wife. I am used to just traveling. I have never needed a visitor visa for any of the countries I have been to before. Heck, I didn't need any paperwork to be in the UK, Netherlands, or France. I have had to show a work visa in Canada and Indonesia, but that was for work. I didn't know there were visitor visas. Oh well. It takes one day, costs about $15, and can be done online. I will do it in May. Added to the calendar.

Went to bed around 10. Slept pretty good I have to admit.

Today B is helping a friend out at their shop. They are having a huge event and they need volunteers to do stuff. She is headed downtown in a few hours. I will be staying home packing and playing video games thank you very much.

Then I leave tomorrow for hell week.

Y9 D280

Another early morning. Such fun. Another morning where trying to go to the bathroom hurts. Even more fun! It hurt a little less this morning which means either the rock has broken down more or I am just learning to live with the pain. Why is this taking so long?

In more important news, we booked our trip last night. In approximately three months we will get on a plane and end up in Australia. 8 days, 7 nights in Melbourne. The positive: 2 tickets plus the hotel cost me $220 in fees and $200 in seat assignments. So less than $500 for everything. And the latter was just to make me happy, not because I had to do it. See we ended up having to get economy seats. It was going to be $1200 to do business class on the way there and economy back, or over $5000 for business the whole way. Neither of those options was appealing. Instead, we did economy, then I logged in and put us into economy premium. Not great, but for $200 instead of $1200, okay. We are on the upper deck of the plane with additional legroom and less people around us. That was worth the small fee. As for the hotel, not only was there zero out of pocket, I ended up getting one night free and it was less points than I planned. That was nice. Hotels make it easy (or at least Hilton does) to use your points. Airlines not so much. Regardless, it's booked and done. I promised one spouse France and she wasn't willing to ride or die. This one gets Australia. Plus the exchange rate is in our favor right now which helps. I am going to get $500 USD converted and at the current rate that comes to over $600 AUD. I am also going to cash in all the euro and GBP I still have floating around here. I did some math yesterday and that's like an extra $150 AUD already. 3 months baby.

As for work I dealt with people. Did two separate private Q&A sessions yesterday. One was okay, the other a real breeze. Today I have a 5:30 - 1:30 class, then a 2 - 2:30 session for next week. I don't know why the latter one has to happen. Wait, yes I do. Because some idiot Project Manager has to justify their existence. Asshats.

B was in a funk still since it was her grandmother's birthday on Wednesday. She had made a cheesecake in her honor but for some reason the mix didn't come out right and she was all depressed. I ended up making the cheesecake for her which lifted her spirits. I also took her out for a nice dinner as she deserved it.

The kid was able to back up her HDD and is now going to reformat her laptop. Got through that hurdle too it seems. This has been a crazy busy week with no signs of slowing down.

I also have not received my raise yet. At the end of today I will be throwing a fit about that. This is going to be a shit show.

Y9 D279

I am very tired this morning. Like can't keep my eyes open tired. I had an overwhelming day yesterday. The group I was teaching was less than stellar, but they weren't the worst of it. It was the 4000 emails during class from these other people that were driving me nuts. It was the people in TX, the people in L.A., it was internal stuff, it was today's group. Just non-stop while I am trying to deal with government employees who no can clickie. It didn't help I was up super early and that the emails just wouldn't stop. I essentially worked a 12 hour day yesterday because of these people. I am not looking forward to next week. 4 indian contractors who want to start at 10am. Fuck you. I will be in at 5. Go away.

I did start looking up other job opportunities yesterday. I hate to say it, but the stupid heads down the street have a perfect job for me. Pay is 185-200. I would end up working 1000 hours a week, but it reads as though it were tailor made for me. I would obviously kill myself after six months, but hey, the pay would be good.

Made taco salads for dinner. Actually came out pretty good. I impressed even myself.

After dinner I walked the kid through creating a Linux USB stick so she could rescue her data from a non-booting laptop. That was fun. I was proud and impressed she was able to do it via instructions through a chat window. But we got it booted to Linux and when I left 700gb of stuff was getting copied to an external drive. Success.

We watched a movie and I went to bed.

It still hurts to pee. Actually certain parts more than other so I think the stone is just about out. The infection seems down, just a matter now of pushing the last bits of stone out and I should be able to stop screaming while urinating. Small victories.