Y11 D188

I swear, I am going to check in for my flight and go back to bed. I am tired AF. Had a rough sleep night. More weird dreams.

Here was our day:

Yep. It's that time of year. I get to enjoy it for a whole two days. Whee. B took her sister's bowling and gave me the best gift - alone, quiet time. I enjoyed it so much. Took a bath, had a nap, watched my shows on the big tv. It was wonderful. I made tacos when they got home. They left around 8, we went to bed shortly thereafter.

No plans for today. Just checking in, then leaving tomorrow around 3. All day travel. But with backwards time travel. Good times.

Y11 D187

FINALLY! I got to sleep in. Oh man did I need the sleep. I didn't fall asleeo until almost midnight so it's not like I got a huge amount of it, but I did get some deep sleep. I know this because of all the fucked up dreams I had. Just a ton of bizarre shit. From almost burning down a wedding to strangers in my house. Multiple weird dreams.

Got paid this morning and also finally hit the social security cap. They keep raising that shit and it's getting harder and harder to hit. Extra $300 on this check. Thank god.

To be fair (to be fair, to be fair...) yesterday was only moderately painful. Made a cake in the morning, cleaned the house during the day, then we went over to B's dad's around 3. The food was awful save for a couple of things. Like my cake. But god midwest food is so bland. Well, it's either bland or oversalted. There doesn't seem to be any inbetween. But I stayed and made small talk and acted like the good husband. We got back home around 7 or so with B's sisters in tow.

I heard from my sister. She is alive. That's good. I also got a text from X1 who isn't blocked on my new phone. Remedied that shit quickly. Heard from the kid. She had tacos. Make me proud. Heard from my buddy, he had hamburgers. Also proud.

Today Christmas arrives. Only 25 more days people! Woot! Then tomorrow I am up at 5:30 to check in for flight and I leave Sunday. Whee.

Now to go pay bills. Fun.

Y11 D186

The only thing I care about today is I finally have a day off from work. Everything else is irrelevant. Fuck your good housekeeping holiday which is 99% lies. Thankful? Be thankful every fucking day you're alive.

Got through the last day with my students without yelling at any of them. Thankful. Scared someone who was loitering in my driveway. Thankful. Not dead. Thankful.

Have to leave in Sunday. Not thankful.

Booked my first trip of 2020 to Seattle. Not thankful.

Bah humbug.

Y11 D185

Somehow yesterday turned out even worse than Monday with these people. One didn't show. One shouldn't be in the class. 3 of them had to go to a coffee shop to get on a network that would work. Oh and they didn't show up until 9:10. These people have such little respect for my time it's ridiculous. Thank goodness this is the last day with them. I don't think I could take much more.

B's friend had another close open situation so guess who stayed the night AGAIN. I mean she's nice and all but sheesh. Move closer to work already. Do something. Her car situation is screwed again. Sigh. I miss being in OR where we knew no one and didn't have any obligations to other human beings. Made life much simpler. Just saying.

Get through today. Have three days off. Rain has started. 45mph winds forecasted for today. Maybe I will get lucky and the power will go out.

Y11 D184

Fuck this customer. They didn't show up until 9 even though I told them I wanted to start at 8:30. Half of them didn't pay attention and kept leaving. Then they had a fire alarm at 1:15 and didn't come back from lunch until 2 (30 minutes late). Fuck them. But oh wait, I have two more days with them. Oh boy.

7,400 flights. 3.4 million people. That's what I have to look forward to on Sunday. 30 minute layover in Dallas. 8 hours of flights. I don't know which is worse. This client or dealing with that. Then I don't get home until Saturday and I leave again on Monday. So very tired.

That was my day. Ate leftovers last night. Had no energy to do anything else. B is sick. She is cranky. Fun times around here.

Y11 D183

Slept much better last night. I turned u;p the humidity in the house. Finally I could breathe. Fuck dry climates. Fuck them hard.

B got up late so we didn't do much in the morning. I washed blankets, wrapped presents, put away all the shit she had out still like the folding tables and the extra leaf for the dining room table. When she finally got up we went to the grocery store. I picked up six pounds of apples and am making apple butter right now. I let it cook overnight. I need to take the immersion blender to it this morning. Then find something to put it in. We forgot to get jars yesterday. Oh well.

B made soup for dinner which was good. Played some video games and went to bed. A somewhat relaxing day.

Now begins three days of teaching Canadians. Whee.

Y11 D182

I got up when Julio called me and stayed up. I left for the airport around 2:30. Had to wait forever for the fucking valet to get my car. Do not put some old ass dude on valet and have the cars parked three blocks away. Took forever to get my car.

I put in my phone MSP Airport and a gas station near there. I started to leave and it had me going down these weird streets. Dammit. I had 'avoid highways' on. Ok. Pulled over, fixed that, got going. Got to the gas station okay and it said I was 2 miles from the airport. Hmm. Nothing is looking airport like around here. I go to where it says to go and guess what? It took me to MSP Airport OFFICES. MOTHER FUCKER. I was actually 9 miles away from the airport still. Son of a bitch. It's a little after 3 at this point. Finally get there, drop the car off, and get to the terminal. 3:20am and it's a mad house. Oh boy. Things will be even worse on my next trip. Oh boy. I go through security at 4, and look for an admiral's club. Nope. Delta and United are primary at MSP so no club. There is an Amex club however. Fine. Day pass me. I have 5 hours to kill. Very nice club and believe me, I ate $45 worth of food.

Head to my gate and am waiting. They call pre-board and O.M.G. 2 wheelchairs, 4 elderly with canes, and then a party of FIFTEEN mentally challenged. It took about 10 minutes before they got to my group and we're group 1. Wow. Get boarded, get to Chicago. We managed to get into Chicago early so I have an hour and 20. Nice. I go find my next gate and it is right next to the admirals club. Sweet. I stay in there until about 10 minutes before boarding. I go out and wait at the gate. While I am there, I am watching the two gate agents. I can tell they are making the best of a bad day. So I give them each one of the little "you did good" things American sends elite customers. These are important to employees because they get recorded in an employee file. When review time comes around, these help give them better reviews. Both of the agents love me for it. In return, when they call Concierge Key to board, they also say, by name, I can board. Everyone there is looking at me as I go first before everyone else onto the plane. Neener neener. Even though it was a short flight, I also gave one to the flight attendant when we landed in Detroit. She was happy too.

B gets me, we get going, and on the way home we stop at her grandparent's to return the folding chairs B borrowed for her Thanksgiving thing. We end up staying for dinner and finally get home around 6. I then do laundry, timesheet, expense report, put things away, dishes, bills, mail. Sigh. All the things.

At 8:40, I give up and go to bed. But I slept rough. My nose thing wouldn't stay in. The pressure in this house is off. I need to go check the humidifier. It's not putting out enough. Just not a good night's sleep.

Now to enjoy my one and only day of rest.

Y11 D181

And here's the icing on the cake of this week - the front desk just called me. They woke me up an hour earlier than I needed to be up because they had the wrong room number. Seriously? The one time I have a decent flight time out and I STILL can't sleep because now the front desk is calling me?? Are you kidding me? Worst stay of the year. Congratulations Hampton Minneapolis on winng this prestigous title. Good job.

Sigh.

Yesterday was okay. The group had a good time and lavished me with compliments on the way out. That made up in part for the otherwise clusterfuck this week has been.

Got back around 5, packed, ate, went to bed at 7:30. Tossed and turned until 9. Woke up at 12:45 thank to Julio.

Get home around 3 today. Have a 30 minute layover in Chicago. Fun.

Y11 D180

Yesterday was better. Not great, but better. I didn't have any traffic issues this time and managed to get back to the hotel in 15 minutes. That was the acceptable part of the day. During class though it was a bit rough. Still had folks lost as shit. We didn't get through all of the material as expected. Same issue today unfortunately. Plus in the background a bunch of stupid emails were happening. I am now fully booked next week. I have remote classes for people in Canada M-W, Thursday and Friday are holiday, then I leave again on Sunday. I am getting pushed too hard. Getting frustrated.

Not much else going on. B had her bingo Thanksgiving and from what she told me it was a roaring success. I have like 5 pounds of turkey left at home. Joy. That was sarcasm by the way. In case you missed the nuance of that. I warned her it would be too much turkey but she was so stressed about things going well she bought more than she needed. Okay. It's all good.

Paid some bills. Our gas went up from $20 to $70. Yay winter. More sarcasm. Yes. It's dripping this morning.

One more day. I have a reasonable flight tomorrow. 9am. Get home at around 3 so not bad. I can handle that.

Y11 D179

I was ready to murder someone last night. The client site is 4.4 miles from my hotel. While my hotel is downtown, it's not that hard to get around down here. At least under normal circumstances. My hotel is about a half block away from the Target Center (don't get me started on places named after corporations, that's a whole different rant). Last night apparently there was a sporting event occurring there. Some wolves were playing jazz, I don't know. Regardless, my trip home coincided with the start of said sporting event. On top of that, there was a major accident about 2 blocks away from the arena AND there is construction going on downtown. In the end, it took me over an hour to go those 4.4 miles, the majority of the time spent in the last .4 miles. I nearly left the car in the road and had me a Falling Down moment. I just wanted to put the car in park and walk to the hotel. I sat through one signal nine times. I was surrounded by buses the whole time too. It was just pure hell. The real fun started around 10pm when everyone was LEAVING the arena and decided that was the time to test their horns. Good times.

My class was okay. I have 12 students, 9 of whom are doing good. 2 are struggling but still keeping up. One I lost at lunch. Like she is so far gone it's not even funny. I am cramming six and a half days of material into three so needless to say the pace is brisk. She couldn't keep up at all. Mostly it's just computer skills. She can't move her mouse fast enough to follow along. Sorry. I was told this might be the case and to push forward. So I did. Not much I can do. Two more days of the same mess.

Talked with B last night. Ate my dinner in my room. Went to bed. Listened to horns. What a glamorous life I lead.

Y11 D178

This trip sucks. Everything is frustrating me. There was no car when I got to Minn. I ended up in a Jeep Compass when they finally brought one around. My biggest complaint though is the hotel. The room I booked was a studio suite with fridge. I bought $50 worth of groceries expecting a real size fridge like I had in Seattle. The picture and description between the room there and here was exactly the same. Come to find, it's a mini-fridge. Fuck me. I had to have them bring up a second fridge to fit my shit. Even then I know the frozed stuff is ruined. I will do my best, but I am not happy. Add to that, the website said self parking. But nope. The "self parking" is at a janky ass lot across the street with no security and no in out system. So fine valet. Except valet is not available from 11pm - 5am Sun-Thurs. WTF? I need my car at 2am on Saturday. This better not be a problem. I swear. The room is awful. The noise outside is horrible. I couldn't sleep worth a damn. Plus I forgot my mints and can't breathe. I need to find a rite aid but there's none around.

On top of all that, B is yelling at me that she doesn't have enough time to go get cat food and it's my fault we're out but she has enough time to go help her friends with their crisis? Um no. Not going to happen.

I did have dinner with an old friend and that was nice. We haven't seen each other in 4 years and she is doing wonderful. She lives about 20 minutes away from where I am staying. Smart, sharp human being. She is doing great and that was nice.

4 days and I am back home just to do it all again. Shoot me.

Y11 D177

I woke up 8 minutes before my alarm this morning. I rock.

Yesterday was annoying. B's bleeding heart caused her to be gone most of the day and for me to have a houseguest AGAIN. I get that the poor stay poor because the minute they get ahead, something happens, like their starter goes out. But dammit, this isn't a charity. It's my home. I'm not Downton with 10,000 rooms for people to stay in.

Then the person taking over one of my classes this week is being a pain in the ass. I had to deal with that shit all day.

3 trips. 4 weeks. Two private at home classes. Then I am done for the year.

I did finish all my christmas shopping yesterday so there's that.

Y11 D176

I had the freakiest dream last night. In it, I learned the date of my death. Yeah. BUT I also learned that if I altered the timeline I could get another 20 years minimum. I figured out how to manipulate the timeline in my dream. So don't worry. A quick tweak to the timeline and I will be around for a while. At least another 20 years. Long enough to pay off my mortgage. Good times.

Baked as planned yesterday. My cake came out REALLY well. I was really proud of it. We took it over to B's grandparents and between the four of us we ate half of it. That's saying something. I expect the rest to be gone in a day or two. We left it for them obviouly but I wish I had taken one more slice home for me. I have to make another one.

Continued to clean the house for B's big turkey day. She got an 11 pounder and I have been thawing it because she wants to break it down before cooking. That's my job for today. Make sure this thing is thawed enough to break down. Such fun.

Checking in for my flight, my hotel, etc today. Leave tomorrow at 3:30am. Oh, I did arrange while I am in Sacramento to see the kid. Wow that will be three times in one year since we moved away the first time. Nice.

Y11 D175

What day is it? I think it's Sunday. Pretty sure.

B is having her bingo ladies over on Thursday for a bingo thanksgiving and has begun the process of stressing out about cleaning the house. At 8pm last night she decided to start cleaning the kitchen. When do I leave? Tuesday. Ugh.

Didn't do much yesterday. Visited her grandparent's to borrow some chairs. I agreed to bake them something. Going to the store shortly to get ingredients. Making an apple pecan bundt cake for them. Yeah, I'm a nice person.

I'm tired and cranky today. Not looking forward to the next four weeks.

Y11 D174

I slept and slept this morning. Went to bed around 10 and got all the sleep! I needed a good long night's sleep. Let my body recuperate. I had an extremely busy day yesterday. I had 11 things on my main to do list and got them all done.

First I paid bills, then went to the grocery store, started laundry, worked on docs for next week, vacuumed the stairs, did more laundry, got more groceries, hit the vape shop, weather strippped a door, pulled out tables and leaves for B, packed, booked Sacramento, and had a team meeting. What a day.

So some specifics. Like the 'team meeting'. Ugh that was a waste. This is what happens when sales people drive teams. It was a 40 minute demo from one of our other trainers. Cool and all, but only if you didn't know what she was showing. I have spent the last four weeks explaining the same topic to my students. What we did agree on is stuff like this should be at the end of the meeting not the start so people can drop off if they want.

When I booked Sac, I ended up spending a SHIT TON of money on flight. I don't think it's sinking into anyone's head that THIS IS THE SUNDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING. Flights are through the roof. It's the busiest travel day of the fucking year. I am going to hate every moment. But it is what it is. I have 2 open days between now and 1/6 counting my time off from 12/20. That's it. 2 days. I am going to be exhausted.

For dinner last night we went to our favorite Italian place to celebrate 'houseiversary'. Had a great dinner. We had a wonderful time.

Came back, relaxed, went to bed. Now for the weekend we have no obligations, nothing planned, and the snow is finally starting to melt. I can handle this.

Y11 D173

At 8pm last night, after already working a full day, I get notification that stupid City of Minn approved the submitted contract at the last minute. I had to book all my travel for next Tuesday last freaking minute. They still are being stupid and wanting me to fly some ridiculous route that only costs $450. Kiss my ass. I booked my normal flight through Chicago. It was $650. But they allow $57 per day on travel days and $76 per day normal for food. They also allow $130 a night for hotel. I got a suite for $102 and I will spend $57 for the whole damn week on food. We plan to bill them at their max allowed for hotel and food which will more than cover the $200 difference in flight. $76 per day in food. Where the fuck you think I am eating in Minneapolis? Sheesh. I am stopping at Walmart on the way in to the hotel and getting lunches and dinners for a fraction of that. Per their allowance, my food for 5 days should be $342. Literally, I will spend under $50. So yeah, I will recoup the flight and the car service with no problem.

On top of that, at 9pm Sacramento was approved. I have to book that today. So between next tuesday and December 20th, I will spend three weeks on the road. MN, CA, and PA. FML.

My second day with my group went fine. No issues to report there. Good group. I like these people for the most part. They don't ask much of me, they pay attention, they want to be there. You know, a good group.

Had leftovers last night. Wasn't hungry for real food so I ate some pasta with butter and called it a night.

Today I have to work on docs for next week plus 11 other things on my to do list. The biggest ones are laundry, packing, and bills. No paycheck yet though which pisses me off. I hate that my check can come late sometimes. I don't see what it can't just be here at 3am. I get they are west coast, but there shouldn't be any reason why it isn't posted by like 3:05am EST. Fucking assholes.

In bigger news, today marks exactly one year since we rolled into town and moved into this house. Seriously, one year. How amazing is that?? I can't believe a year has gone by. A year ago we had no furniture, just two cats, 4 fish, and a blow up mattress. Now, if I live here 5 more years, it will be the longest I have ever lived at a single address. Only about 1700 more days to go.

Y11 D172

First off let me tell you about these new pajamas I got from Target. One piece long john style with butt flap. OMG. I feel like a backwoods country person but damn if I didn't sleep like a log all toasty and happy. Winter is tough. You can't sleep naked because you'll freeze your ass off but then again you can't sleep with something that's going to ride up like a t-shirt and shorts because then there's that one spot that gets cold in the middle of the night. Nope. These are perfect. Full coverage always, breathable material, but dang if I aint warm! Go Target.

It's good that I am warm because the snow has started again outside. Funny enough, yesterday around 3, our admin sent me a message asking if the material were ready for Minn next week. I replied that not only are there no materials, I don't know if it is happening, and I haven't even booked anything yet. I am supposed to leave Tuesday. The salesguy responded a few hours later saying yeah, it's still stuck in legal. The funny part is I don't know if I would even be able to get to them. Flights are probably getting canceled and changed right now. Another tricky thing about living in a place like this in winter. Frankly it wouldn't matter where I lived if the destination was still in snow. How many times in the past have I been stuck at DFW or ORD because of weather? In this case, I just can't even get out, let alone get stuck somewhere. The salesguy also sent his message around 6:30 EST which means it was 5:30 CST where the client is and no response was going to be coming from them last night. Today or tomorrow if we're lucky. But regardless, I am at the 'last minute booking' stage and that shit is going to cost.

Taught a group of 14 yesterday. Day 1 of 2. Only two gave me trouble. The rest were fine. We finished around 4:40 which wasn't bad. I don't foresee any issues out of them today. Should be a straight-forward day with them.

Tomorrow is bill day and grocery day. I can't wait.

Y11 D171

I am getting nervous about next week. I haven't booked anything but the client is acting like everything is done and done. They want me to help them test, prep the materials, asking questions, and I don't have anything ready because the salesguy has explicitly said it might not happen. We are still dealing with their legal team on finalizing the contract. Yep. With 6 days until I am supposed to be onsite. This is going to cost them through the nose if I have to make last minute plans. I will not take the heat for this. Then I still have no clue on 2 weeks from now in Sacramento. Same issue. Stuck in legal. That one has travel the Sunday after a holiday too.

Speaking of T&E, I did some of my own analysis yesterday. I estimated that a typical trip costs us about $1800 in travel and expenses. After reviewing every expense report from the year, I was so close. The actual average is $1825. We should be baking that into every single contract. Expect that I am going to spend $2k and we can stop some of this nonsense. I plan on presenting this on Friday at our team meeting. Fun times abound.

Yesterday was pure hell for me. 11:30 - 7:30. I was pacing most of the morning like a caged cat. It was driving me nuts. I did have one student who was also east coast that felt the same. She was just hating how late the class was happening. I keep fucking telling marketing we need two sessions, one PST and one EST, but noooo they think it's fine. Whatever. Maybe that's why our attendance numbers are down? Ever think about that?

That took my whole fucking day and when it was over I pretty much watched some tv and went to bed.

At least today and tomorrow are normal 9-5 days. I can handle that.

Y11 D170

It snowed ALL day yesterday. Like non-stop. My backyard went from nothing to this in 24 hours:

Good times. Solid blanket of white. I went out to the grocery store VERY early yesterday and I am glad I did. I wouldn't have been able to go later. I think it's finally stopped for a while. But it's 17 degrees outside so who knows. It might just keep going.

Ironically, or serendipitously depending on how you look at it, we also had a furnace inspection yesterday. They found a gas leak and worn out capacitor on our system. $260 later things were back. The gas leak was tiny and probably wouldn't have caused problems, but it was a gas leak. So no fucking around with that. The capacitor was a small add-on to the bill and will help the furnace work better so fuck it. We only have a few more years left on that furnace so might as well make it work as well as we can.

Built new docs for the folks in PA. Didn't hear from Minn but that's not surprising as technically yesterday was a holiday for them. Of course, the longer we delay, the more it's going to cost them. Sorry, thems the rules. Should also hear back about Sacramento today. Looks like I will be heading out there the first week of December for 6 days. I will break 100,000 miles. FML. The hard part is I have to travel the Sunday after thanksgiving. Seriously? Of all days. Sigh.

Today is 11:30 - 7:30 which sucks in its own right. Then two 9-5 days. Then who knows what.

Y11 D169

And so it has begun. The white stuff is falling from the skies. It doesn't look like it's really sticking, but it is falling. Thank goodness I don't have to go anywhere this week. We will see if I am going anywhere next week. I was supposed to go to Minn, but they are being stupid and I haven't even booked anything yet. So we shall see what happens. I am assuming today is a holiday for them since it's Veteran's day, which means no communication from them today. I have an 11:30 - 7:30 class tomorrow, then 9-5 on Wednesday and Thursday. If they don't get back to us quickly, then I am booking whatever I can last minute. Their screw-up, not ours.

I am loving this Tool hoodie I got at the show. It's so warm and cozy. Smart purchase. A t-shirt is fine, but sometimes you need to be warm.

Stayed inside yesterday with one trip to the grocery store. Otherwise I went nowhere. B went and met up with our friend for a Pokemon raid. She did take my phone with her so I ended up getting a Mewtwo as well. I just didn't want to leave the house.

The kid made it home after a long day of travel. I am sure she is feeling it today too. I didn't hear from her until almost 5pm my time. I dropped her off at the airport at around 7. So a long day for her. Been there. Constantly.

I have furnace guys coming at 8am this morning to do a review of our furnace. This should be fun.

Y11 D168

Last night was hands down one of the best concerts I have ever been to in my entire life. I spent way too much on merch but holy crap. Our seats were incredible. Not a soul in front of us. We were spitting distance from the stage all night. This was our view:

Not bad eh? I have a couple of 'complaints' if you will. First off, I felt bad for anyone in the cheap seats. There were no giant screens for anyonein back to see what was going on. The screens on the stage played nothing but the music video from whatever song was playing. So if you couldn't see, you couldn't see. Second, Maynard is such a goober that there was a STRICT no phone policy. You could use your phone outside the seating area, but otherwise, they were kicking people out for pulling their phones out during the show. For the VERY LAST song only, did they allow pictures and recording. I know that most concerts have a no photo policy, but this was the first time I saw people being kicked out for even having their phone in their hand. For me this was an issue because I was supposed to text B at a certain point in the playlist so she could be ready to pick us up. I had to tell her before hand that I couldn't use my phone at all during the show. So that was a little rough. Luckily it all worked out. She dropped us off and picked us up about .5 mile from the show. We missed traffic in and out of the venue. That was nice. It's been a long while since I stayed at a concert to the very end.

The rest of the day was pretty good too. Got to spend a lot of time with the kid and catch up. We headed to the show about 5:30, got there at 5:58, and got home at midnight. That was the majority of our day. But the earlier part was nice too. I miss seeing her a lot. She's a good person and I am very proud of the adult she has become. She done good.

I am up early to drive her dumb ass to the airport. Only have about 3 hours of sleep under my belt. Hopefully I can nap sometime today.

Y11 D167

Sorry for my brevity yesterday. B got up right when I was typing in some bad pain. We took her to her chiropractor and she somehow pushed a rib out of alignment. Only her, I swear. So some more on Thursday before I get into yesterday.

Got to SEA-TAC at 3am, boarded my flight at 5. The first flight wasn't anything special. My second flight out of Dallas was luckily right outside the Admiral's Club doors so I sat there for three hours doing not much of anything. I did have a decent seat mate though. He works for IBM and actually understood what I do (and vice versa). We were both pleased to meet someone who understood us that we talked for like two hours. Was kind of nice. Made the trip a little easier. Got home, did laundry, ate some random food, and slept.

Now yesterday was fun. I finally had my meeting at 5:30pm. Yep. All day I waited. I did work on some other stuff, but mostly I waited. Waited for my call. Waited for the kid. Put B back to bed with an ice pack after the doctor.

As for my trip to Minn, they are being dicks and I am not to do anything until I get a 100% greenlight. They are trying to own our IP, hold us to Federal travel guidelines, and now wanting shit to be customized. No, no, and no. We resubmitted a document to their lawyers on Friday. If they don't get this shit turned right around, it may not be happening. It does look like I will be going to Sacramento the first week of December though. So Sac, the PA, then December is done. Glory be.

We had pizza last night so we had something waiting for the kid. I knew she would be hungry due to the time change. She was. We talked and caught up until midnight.

Today we're not doing much during the day because tonight is TOOL! I am so excited now that it's finally here. They have a STRICT no photos policy so we shall see if I can share anything tomorrow. Unlikely, but I will try.

Y11 D166

I am home and the kid comes today!! WOOO! Boring travel day. Spent the majority of it in airports and planes. Nothing exciting there. Up to 91,000 miles though. Sweet oogly boogly. I did get one trip for December squared away. Am supposed to have a meeting today to discuss the other. We shall see

Y11 D165

I finally yesterday morning dealt with a travel person who knew how to back down. I got into it again at like 5am with the travel person from the PA client. The client wasn't budging and was trying to get me to stay in some hotel I know nothing about that is some ridiculous little boutique bullshit because they can get direct billing. I kept pushing and finally the travel person stepped in and said "your rate at the hotel you want is much better than ours, please feel free to book it". Bam. This is why I don't fucking back down. Ever.

Sadly, we're not having the same luck with the group in MN. They are a local government (city, not even state) and they are trying to force me into Federal travel guidelines. For example they only pay up to $300 for a flight for me. Um. No. They want me on Spirit. I would walk first. I looked it up and if I suck it up and buy a coach American, it's only $380. $80 more to fly my choice of airline and not deal with a ton of bullshit. That shouldn't be a big deal. Oh but it is. For hotel they allow $93 a night max. WTF? You're downtown MN in the largest city and that's the rate? Go fuck yourselves. It may not even happen because now they are demanding worker's comp insurance and they want to own our IP. These are deal breakers for us. So who knows. I may not be going anywhere else this month. We shall see.

Yesterday's group went fine. No issues. We finished right on the dot at 4:30. Back in the hotel at 5, packed, booked PA, ate dinner, went to bed at 7. Barely slept. Tossed and turned. I am so frustrated right now I can't get to sleep. I woke up multiple times and just gave up around 11:45. Yes, I've been up for almost an hour already. Showered, finished packing, etc.

Out of here around 2, flight boards at 5, Dallas at 11, leave at 3, land at 6:45pm, home at 7:30. So there goes my Thursday. Tomorrow though, the kid arrives!! Then it's Tool!! Woooo!

Y11 D164

The conflict between myself, upcoming clients, and the salesperson hit the fan last night. Hard. Both of the two upcoming folks want me to use their travel agents and I am not backing down. The sales guy is nowhere to be seen and hasn't had my back. One of them wants me to fly Spirit air (yeah right), use some car place I have never heard of, and stay at a No-Tell Motel. Um no on so many counts. The other because they want to be directly billed, is pushing me to stay at their choice of hotel. No. I won't do it. I have too many problems with my back, noise, room comfort, etc that I am not taking a chance staying some place I have no familarity on. Fuck them. I am holding off until friday before I do anything because I just can't deal with this shit right now.

This week's group is good. Couple of duds in the room but overall they're okay. We got through a good chunk of material at a faster pace than the other group. Still had some network issues but we managed to get through them. We finished around 4:30.

Got back to the hotel, ate, steamed about this travel shit, resolved myself to doing nothing, and went to bed.

I slept like shit. Stress. Time changes. DST issues still. Fuck all this. I can't wait until 12/20. Hell maybe sooner if this travel stuff isn't resolved.

Y11 D163

Right when I was trying to go to bed last night I got into it with one of the salespeople. It's times like this where they show they don't understand how to sell, deal with, or manage trainers. From pushing on my travel booking, trying to shove 6 days of training into 3, expecting me to have time to develop custom work, Any time I tried to rebut anything, all I got was "it was our worst August ever!". Don't care. Pushing me harder is not going to make it better. Believe me. It's going to make it worse because I am going to turn bitchy. Not to menion I still haven't hear back about my raise request. Sigh. I am going to have to do what I don't want to do. Find a new job. It's been overdue. I have been whining and bitching for six months now. Time to act whether I like it or not. You're all tired of hearing me complain. But it's safe, albeit annoying, where I am and it's scary the thought of putting myself out there. Better the devil you know? But not any more. I can't keep going on like this either. I need some more stability. There's my first goal for 2020.

2020. WTF? 1980 is about to be 40 years ago. Millenials will be in their late 30s, early 40s. Boomers will start dying. There's the plus side, right? Speaking of Boomers. Fuck them. Waiting for my flight yesterday in Seattle and the majority of us our standing politely off to the side but here comes privileged old white dude who isn't going anywhere the rest of are going but HE has to be first on. Whatever bitch. 16 seats in 1st class and 12 of them were filled with old white men. What a shocker.

Overall my day was fine. I did have one issue when I hit Seattle. Went to where my car was supposed to be and there was literally no car in the spot. I walked the entire parking lot only to have to walk back. Pain in the ass.

I am in the same room as last week. I made a calculated risk that the construction moved. I was right. No noise this time.

Two days of BS here, then home. This year can't be over soon enough.

Y11 D162

A screwy day to say the least. DST messed with both of us. B ended up sleeping weird times. We went grocery shopping. I obvisouly couldn't nap because I had to go to bed at 7. We started introducing Chili to the wider collective and that was an adventure. But we are keeoing her in the bedroom at night. She was crying and made my amount of sleep minimal. Stupid cats.

Travel day. DTW - Chicago - Seattle. All day. Land around 1pm PST, kill three hours, go to hotel. Go to grocery store. Two days of training, home thursday, get kid Friday, go to tool on saturday, drop kid off sunday, go to raid on sunday, never rest. Yep. sounds good.

Y11 D161

Fuck DST or the end of DST whatever just happened overnight. Thank god I don't fly out until tomorrow when people will have had a day to adjust their stupid clocks. I didn't realize how much manual shit we have to adjust until I just walked into the kitchen and had to change three fucking clocks manually. I also will have to adjust the stupid fish tank timer. An outdated concept from outdated people in an outdated world.

We spent all day outside yesterday walking our little tushies off. It was a community even day in Pokemon so we met up with B's friend, went to the major park where people go, and spent from 11 until almost 5 catching the legendaries and raid quests. We ended up with all the Regi forms, steel, ice, and rock plus the big Regi. Don't feel bad if you have no clue what I am talking about. I don't really understand either.

It was a bit rough though. The cold is starting to come in. We were all freezing. B's arthritis in her knee kicked up and made things rough. We had to take a lunch break in between. We did find a decent sushi/korean place as a result. I am happy about that.

Random topic change - We are one week away from the kid being here and TOOL! WOO! I leave tomorrow for the last trip to Seattle. Oh speaking of flying, WABAM:



I fucking did it. I made the next level. I leveled up at American. That's right. I am now Platinum Pro. I get all the cool stuff. I won't make it to the last level. I might actually hit the miles, but I won't hit the spend. It's just too much. I need 100,000 miles and $15k in spend. But, it would be intensely cool if I did. I still have two more trips after this one and MIGHT come close. We shall see. Just checked in for Seattle. That's another 8,000 miles. So yeah, it's possible I will hit over 100k but I will fall short on money. Maybe 12k spend, but not 15. Oh well.

Anyway, we got home around 4, B soaked in the tub to ease her knee pain, had tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner. B read, I played games, went to bed around 11pm.

Nothing on the schedule for today thank goodness. Can just stay inside and take it easy.

Y11 D160

Reports of snow were grossly exaggerated. It did "snow" but it never stuck. Boo. The kid is here next weekend for the Tool show (ONE WEEK FROM TODAY! WOOO!) and I hope there's a little on the ground for her. Not a lot mind you, but a smattering just to show her life in the tundra.

Why am I up so early on the one day I could have slept in? Well. Life. Because B has 10,000 things she wants to do today. Which means if I want to get anything done I need to get it done early. Groceries. Expense report. Timesheet. All of that needs to happen now. Good times.

Left for the airport around 2am yesterday. Sat and did bills while I was waiting for my flight. I need a raise. We have added almost $1000 a month since we moved here. B's chiro, doctor's bills, AC unit, furniture, and now our mortgage went up because insurance went up. I know a lot of that is temporary and I am aggressively paying off the things we financed (like the $6200 AC unit) but it still is hurting. Plus I haven't had a tangible raise in years. I sent my boss an email at 3am yesterday to that effect. Let's see if anything comes of it. I doubt it, but we shall see.

Had a 3 hour layover in Dallas. Landed early - 6:10 instead of 6:45 - so I had to wait for B. Got home around 7. Laundry. Settled in. Visited kitties. Answered emails. Went to bed around 10:30.

May have ANOTHER trip this month. MSP. Whee.

Y11 D159

I slept like shit. Tossed. Turned. Got maybe four hours total sleep. It's 1am and I have to leave in about an hour. Just to come back here Monday. Maybe I will get the same room. I will request it to be honest. Better the devil you know kind of thing.

Worked on my new class, played Skyrim, watched some tv, ate dinner, went to bed. The life, living it am I.

All day travel. Land in Dallas at 11 something, leave again at 3, land in Detroit at 6:45. Home by 7:30 is the hope. Dinner, bed, rinse, repeat. One more week of this. Then I get a break until December and it's off to Philly. Then two glorious weeks off. The 20th of December until the 6th of January. The world can kiss my ass.

Happy Christmas 1st. I hear it's snowing at home. Fun times. Only 54 days until Christmas and two weeks until it's been one year since we moved into the house. One year ago tomorrow we closed escrow. Damn.