Christmas tree purchasing, before and after.

Well, this weekend started off with all the best intentions of getting a Christmas tree on Sunday and doing our Christmas cards then too. Alas, it didn’t happen.

Friday we had two parties to go to, the office Christmas party was from 3 until 5 (two hours, that was just wrong). We held it at a restaurant across the street from the office in the Washington Harbor. It was good enough, I ended up winning the first prize giveaway right when I was commenting on never winning anything. Two $50 gift certificates for BP gas. This was nice but I don’t drive that much, sooooo I swapped with a friend who got a best buy gift card. Everyone was happy.

After that we went to the Bench Gym Christmas party. It was fun and we enjoyed it. It was a bit weird drinking wine at the gym. Great new space they moved into. There old place is now just a hole in the ground.

We then got food at Duplex dinner with Brett and Daniel and went to bed. We had to get up early as we were having a dinner party and we hadn’t gotten anything yet and the main course (BB-Q pork ribs) took close to eight hours to cook.

So off we went to Harris Teater at 8 in the morning on a Saturday morning to go food shopping. $450 dollars later we had everything, shrimp for a pre-dinner shrimp plate, scallops for the starter, apples and cranberries for the desert and 14 bottles of wine for the whole meal. Here was the menu:

Amuse bouche was a collie flower with cumin and parmesan cheese soup.

The starter was seared sea scallops on top of potato cakes on a bed of an assiago, peppercorn sauce with drizzled olive oil topped with cream freche and caviar.

The main was slow cooked pork ribs with mashed sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts cooked with bacon.

Desert was an apple and cranberry crisp with vanilla ice cream. And some chocolates that Derek brought over.

The next morning we counted the bottles, I think it came out to 15 bottles for 10 people with one not drinking. Well that was definitely what I would call a successful party. I ended up going to bed before most people did. I was just exhausted after cooking all day and I was l little too drunk to stay awake. Mind you it was twelve midnight and I had been up since six that morning. I was going to take a nap but our friend Evegeny from VA beach came up for the party and showed up right with I was drifting away.

Oh well.

Sunday wasn’t our usual Sunday. Thanks goodness. I think we’ve gone off the whole drunken brunch thing at our house. We had a full house at that point as a few people stayed over. We agreed to go to brunch at Logan Tavern, some more friends came over and we headed that way. When we got there the was a 45 minute wait so we went to Makato instead. Ten of us total and we got sat right away. It was fun.

It’s amazing how quickly a buzz will come back when you have a cocktail the day after a heavy night. We were supposed to go get a Christmas tree and do the Christmas cards but that wasn’t happening that Day. We ended up going back to Rob’s house and having a sauna. We then got invited to another friend’s house for another party. We stayed there for a bit and then I was ready to go home but got talked into going out for Thai food. That was a very good thing. I came back and enjoyed the rest of the night. Dave and I were in bed by 10:30 so everything was good.

Monday I get to work and get a message from one of the guys I work with

Him “you here?”
Me “Um, yes, why?”
Him “When are we leaving”
Me “oh shit, I forgot about that”

Anyway, we updated some software on Friday here at our main office. Everything went pretty well except we forgot about a remote office in Arnold MD. That office is connected to our servers by a dedicated t-1 line. It’s not fast enough to install software over. So we had made plans on Friday to go to Arnold on Monday to sneaker net to the computers.

I walked home and got the car. Came back to the office and picked up my coworker. We drove out to the eastern shore and did the install on their computers. We were done and back at the office around 3ish so I dropped my coworker off and went home.

One thing I forgot to mention was that Dave had tasked me with getting a Christmas tree while I had the car and was out and about. On New York avenue there is a place but unfortunately I drove right by it and didn’t think about it. I tell you this because it fits into the story latter. So as I said before I dropped my coworker off and really didn’t go home, I went Christmas tree shopping. On a Monday, after a big Christmas tree buying weekend.

To say depressing is an understatement.

I first went to the local charity lot on 17th street. Oh my god, it was picked over like a turkey on thanksgiving. That and the fact there was no one there to give my money too made me decide go to the Home Depot.

It wasn’t any better. Dave and I went there two weeks ago and it was packed with good looking trees. We decided we didn’t want the tree in our house that early so we didn’t get one. I finally found one that might do, tried to get someone to help but no one was around. I picked it up, went inside and then got into a line that was the shortest of three huge lines. All the construction workers where there buying stuff for their projects so they had lots of stuff. And there were at least 8 or more people in each line. I gave up and took the tree back and went home in despair.

By the time I had gotten home I had decided that we didn’t need a tree and the it was the most bizarre custom anyway.

Take a perfectly good LIVE tree. Kill it, Bring into your home, put lights on it, and then bizarre ornimates. Throw out in two weeks.

Repeat process next year.

So anyway I get home, Dave listens to this and says that we can go back out to the New York avenue place and get one later. After all we do have the niece coming over and we needed to get one for her sake.

So at 7:30pm we head out there. All the trees they have and standing in stands with water in them. The trees a beautiful and in good shape.

But not cheap.

We pick one and this guy comes to help us. He’s talking to us with an east Indian accent, island accent. I talk to him for a bit without making eye contact but when I finally do I’m little bit freaked out. One of his eyes was completely white. I’m not sure what causes that but it freaks me out when I see it. So from then on I had a hard time looking at him. He finally get the tree and cuts off the bottom part and off to home we go. Total price with tipping him, $80. It will be worth it when Dave’s niece comes over.

So we now have a Christmas tree in the house, tonight I will put lights on it that I purchased on the way to work. We then have dinner with friends out. Wednesday we have a friend’s birthday party to go to and then a stopover at Dave’s brother’s new house. Thursday I’m having a dinner party for some people from work and then Friday my mom arrives for the holiday. We’ve decided to have an open house on Saturday for drinks and help on decorating the tree.

So, if you don’t hear from me for a week or two I think you’ll understand.

Happy holidays.

Coffee talk, err bitch!

Ok, so for the last couple of months I’ve been having an extra cup of coffee at work. I didn’t use to do this but the stress from working got me doing it again. So to get an understanding for my morning I’m going to write down my average schedule.

Get up at 6-6:30.

Go down stairs and start the coffee. Empty the dishwasher from the night before while the coffee is brewing.

Get the news paper from downstairs next to the front door.

Make a cup of coffee and then check work emails to make sure that Europe is doing fine and that there are no other big problems.

After coffee starts to work, go upstairs to the bathroom and start getting cleaned up.

Sometimes I will do some stomach exercises if I have time before the shower so I don’t have to do them at the gym later.

Finish getting dressed and say good bye to Dave and head to work between 7:30 and 8.

I arrive at the office and if it’s Monday I buy a new 1.5L bottle of water, if it’s not Monday I go to my cube and get my bottle from the day before to fill it up in the kitchen with our filtered water machine. While I’m in the kitchen doing this I will get a cup of coffee.

Well the last bit has changed a bit and I’m not sure what happened. I use to come in and there would be plenty of coffee made. I could get my cup and not have to worry about the next guy because there was enough. But not anymore.

I’ve had to change my whole routine in the morning to stop by the kitchen before I do anything else and make a fresh pot of coffee before I even make it to my desk because I know there will not be any there waiting for me. I know this is a small thing but It’s gotten to me the last couple of months.

I know I’m not the first one there to make the coffee and that other people are drinking it but just leaving the pot empty or close to it. What happened to human decencies. Thinking of your brother sometimes. Maybe going out of your way to do something nice for someone that isn’t, oh I don’t know, YOU!!!

It’s not the coffee that’s the problem, it’s the total disregard of anyone else other then one’s self that bothers me. UGH……

I’ve gone to the kitchen late to get coffee before and watched someone leave with two cups in their hands. When I went to the coffee machine, it was empty. It was all I could do not to follow this person out and tell them off. And the thing is, it probably didn’t even occur to this person to even think about making more coffee.

This is what the underlying problem is about, the fact that our society has raised our children to be so damned self centered.

It’s not about the coffee.

But boy would it be nice to see someone else making a new pot of the stuff at work every so often.

The Sound of Music and other wonderings.

I think you will find this quite interesting.

Our friend Derek invited Dave and myself over for dinner last night. We had no idea who else was going to be there but graciously accepted. One thing you need to know about Derek is that he has had a fascinating life and has meet all kinds of people from his time working at Cambridge and after from his church goings.

Of course Dave and I get there first, we were running a little bit late too. It just meant more Veuve Clicquot (Champaign) for us. Derek already had his friend, Ralphie baby, there. He is staying with Derek visiting from London where he is retired from the BBC as an actor and producer.

Now being as bad as I am with names I don’t remember the rest of the cast of characters name’s there at the dinner. And this isn’t because I had too much wine or anything like that. I’m on the end of a very bad cold and had a hard time going to begin with so names were going in one ear and out the other. We had a mother show up with her 8 month old absolutely adorable baby. We also had an older, very eccentric lady that use to work for the Washington opera.

All these people with the most entertaining stories. Ralphie baby (whose name I do remember for some reason) had all these great stories about when he was in school for theatrics and who his class mates where. Mind you, I didn’t know most of them because they were English but every so often he would spit out a name that I knew. We also came to find out that he was the producer on Doctor Who, the third rendition. Now if you are an American of my age group, there is only one doctor who and that’s the one with the really big nose and really bad curly hair played by Tom Baker. Well Ralphie baby produced the one before that played by Jon Pertwee. Jon is the same person that comments on the Little Britton comedy show from the UK.

Such great stories.

Now for the interesting bit.

Seems that the lady who was sitting next to me all night does some work for the Kennedy center. She use to be really big with the opera here but retired so now she’s doing part time work. When she worked for the opera every so often she would have to get some “extras” for the shows. So she’s telling about going to JR’s (local gay bar) and going up to boys and telling them that she’s casting for some opera but that she needs men without hair on their chest.

She said she had never seen men pull their shirts off so fast. That had me in stitches I thought it was so funny.

But this is the bit that really got me.

Every since we were children we watched the Sound of Music almost every holiday season. It was a tradition and we can sing all the songs. So there she is in the middle of JR’s getting guys to take their shirts off for an audition when she notices that the Sound of Music is playing. She comments “Oh, the Sound of Music, I was in that. I’m the short nun behind the head nun in the climb every mountain song.”

Well, she was popular before but after that the boys were all over her.

My jaw dropped to the floor. There was someone who was in one of my all time favorite movies sitting beside me for a casual dinner on a Monday night in Washington DC!

I do have to say, my life is never dull.

I'm backkkkkkkkkk!!!

Ok, it’s been awhile.

Just haven’t been in the mood to write. But now I have a little bit of time. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

After getting back from my Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Los Angeles trip Dave and I had a pretty quite two weeks at home. Always nice because it doesn’t happen often. We then headed off to London in November, me the 22nd and Dave the weekend before. We had Daniel come along too. It was a real whirlwind of activity. Daniel and I get off the plan and decide to take the tube into town instead of my usual (and much favored) Heathrow Express to Padington and taxi to SOHO.

I don’t think I want to do that again.

The tube took over an hour to get to Lechster Square. After being on a plane for 8 hours I was ready to be there. Once we got there we get out to the street and I’m completely lost. Mind you, I know London so this surprised me. We were staying on Old Compton street and I started us in the direction I thought it was but got confused when we ended up in China town. I didn’t remember there being a China town there. So I stopped and called Dave. He walked me the long way around to the flat.

I was headed in the right direction but had only seen those streets in the dark and with most of the Chinese stores closed with no lights on. That’s where I got confused.

We go up to the flat, take a shower and then head out for lunch. I’ve been in London for two hours at this point. We meet up with our friend Derek who lives in DC and is extremely British and was in town visiting the same time we where and Diago, another friend that lives in London. After our quick lunch we realize we need to make it to the train station to go visit mum.

We’re running late.

We still decided to get some beautiful flowers on the way. It takes forever for the girl to arrange them, but it’s well worth it. We finally get a cab and make it to the train station on time to sit down and leave. Luckily we had assigned seat as the train was packed.

We make it to Bedford and Dave’s mum is waiting for us. Off to the house we go. Auntie and Uncle show up and we have a great meal. Decide to go back to the flat at around 10ish. We get there and for some reason I now have energy. We go out to G-A-Y late until about one. I don’t know how I did it but I did.

I did get some sleep that night.

The next day is Friday and we have a party at Ian and Darryl’s that evening. They have this great place near ST Pancreas that they purchased three years ago. What planning! They now have the Euro Star a 15 minute walk away from the house. Did I mention it’s a penthouse with great views of the city? We’ll it is.

We stayed there until about 11, around 20 people showed up by the time we left. We then cabed to the last ever night of Fiction nearby. What a fun night. We stayed until 3ish. We more or less just stood around and talked, not really dancing at all. The funny thing is that as the night went on the more I talked to people. By the end of the night I decided to chat up this guy that had looked at me a couple of times. I go over and introduce myself, bring him and his friend over to say hi to Dave and chat for a bit only to find out, get this, that he was

Straight!!!!!

Just my luck, picking up the one bloke in the place that wasn’t really interested. Oh well.

Saturday wasn’t really that eventfull. We did end up staying up in our flat until 3ish with some friends. But that was about it.

Sunday was another clubbing night. We got invited to a 60th birthday party by Diago and Mark. I don’t remember the name of the venue but it was cool. We had the whole place to ourselves and it was right down the road from DTPM so after the party we all walked there. Daniel and I didn’t stay very long as Daniel picked up. We went back to the flat and Dave stayed for a bit and danced with our UK Daniel friend. It was a good thing to do because Dave could relax at that point and not worry about US Daniel so he could dance.

About 3am Dave shows up back at the flat, we’re all still awake and end up staying awake talking. Dave and I end up getting breakfast at Balains’s café that morning because neither of us was sleepy. Daniel had already taken his boy back into the bedroom.

So that’s Monday morning. Here’s when I get a little bit confused. We had dinner with Andy either on that night or the next. When we did have dinner with Andy, Paul came by after buying 25 pounds (UK Money not weight) of grapes at Harrod’s. It wasn’t that big of a bag either. That’s some expensive grapes. We ate at Balain’s.

At some point we had dinner with Laurence at Caffe Bohim, I don’t remember if it was Saturday or Tuesday night or maybe both. It all runs together. I did work on the later bit of Monday and all of Tuesday, travel home on Wednesday.

We always leave wanting more, that’s a good thing.

We get home, poor Dave has a cold/flu and I’m just worn out. I go to the office the next day. I might as well not been here I was that out of it.

Butt….

I still had the strength to meet Kiat out for drinks and dinner, (just because I don’t think I spent enough money in London$$$$) I meet him at Halo for happy hour at 6ish, Dave had a networking thing in Tyson’s that night. We stayed there waiting for some of Kiat’s coworkers that never showed up. Finally we take a cab (it’s Kiat, remember) and high tail it to this new restaurant that opened in the Ritz on 24th and M streets, the Blue Duck Tavern.

Us- Do you have a table for two walk-ins?

Lady Hostess – (Looks us up and Down) No reservation, I’m so sorry, we can’t seat you without a reservation.

Kiat- Sweet talking- Awww, come on. You don’t look that busy.

Lady Hostess –No!

So we leave and go to another new restaurant down the road at 22nd and M. Just opened up and took over where David Gregory was.

See conversation above but replace lady with man.

So we end up going to Pesce on P street near the house, we meet Tony there and proceed to have a really good meal. As consolation prizes go we did ok. I had Scallops in the shell with spinach and garlic butter to start and for the main I had tuna encrusted in pepper with slices of Grapefruit and a passion fruit sorbet. Very scrummy.

So remember, this is the day after I got back from London. The day before I was eating at Zuni fish with Dave in Soho. I mention this and Kiat reminds me that he had been in Sydney the Sunday before. Too funny.

Ok, Friday at home with my man watching an Italian movie where I understood about half of what was being said. The movie wasn’t so good, Dave fell asleep.

Saturday we had the most productive day. Up early because we had stayed home the night before. ( I think that will become our date night from now on) We went to Home depot and finished getting things for the New bathroom that Dave is having put in his rental. We then went to Harris Teater(Tosco for you brits) and purchased $500 in groceries. We hadn’t been in a long time. We helped our friend Brett pick up some art that he had framed. Cool Stuff.

We then had a party at Rob and Mikko’s. We all know how those go.

Sunday was brunch at the house with some friends over.

Monday was work and then an event for the Williams Institute. Dinner after at Hank’s oyster bar. Bed by 11, which is one hour later than normal for me.

Work today, Dave’s brother, sister-in-law and niece are coming over for dinner. I’m cooking. I need to get home early to do that. Going to stop by trader Joe’s on the way home.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on in my life. Never a dull moment for the wicked.

Blogg Love

Not feeling the blogg love right now, hopefully it will come back later. Sorry

LA bound

Well, I’m at the Palm Springs airport waiting for my flight. I changed to an earlier flight for a few reasons. My checkout was at twelve anyway so it just kind of made sense. That and I had a stalker that wouldn’t leave me alone in the place I was staying.

Onward and upwards to new locations.

I’m really ready to be home to tell the truth. As it looks now I will be back in DC on the 7th but…..

The LA office might not be ready then, they’re having a few issues with the phones and network. I will be able to set up the computers but we need to make sure the internet works and the VPN is up and running. I might be in LA a few more days then I wanted. UGH!

I use UGH a lot lately.

I want my bed and my boyfriend in my bed.

When I get back we already have a very full weekend. I forget what happens Friday night but I know it’s something. We have a good friend’s 60th birthday on Saturday and on Sunday we’re having a dinner party for David and Anton. Anton is from Cape Town SA visiting L’David. I was going to ask for Monday off but I don’t think I’ll be able to do that after being away for so long. I’ll just have to behave myself on Sunday night.

Last night, Tuesday the 30th was nice. I took Simon and Jeremy (visiting Palm Springs from the UK) to my Corporate Secretary’s house out in the dessert. It’s an amazingly huge house that they just had build right outside Palm Springs. It was perfect.

The boys always wanted to see a huge USA house out in the dessert and we showed it to them. Lloyd pulled out the stops with Filet and shrimp. We ate outside by the pool and looked at the stars (the ones in heaven, not the ones walking the streets). It was just perfect. I behaved myself because I was driving so I have three drinks over a four hour period.

I think the boys were just gob smacked. (British term here)

When I got back to the room I just went to bed, it’s been a long two weeks.

Got up this morning and just took it easy. I was going to work out but just decided to chill instead. I packed, called the airlines to change to an earlier flight and then said goodbye to the boys. I have to say I was quite sad saying goodbye. They are the kinds of friends that you only see once a year or so but you pickup exactly where you left off.

Now for the LA experience. We’re going to have dinner with Mike and Gary tomorrow, Thursday NOV the 1st in their Hollywood hills home.

I might be working the weekend, we’ll see.

Until next post, take care.

What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas!

Ok, so now let’s just talk about Vegas.

What a pit.

Maybe it was because it was work, but I don’t think so.

It’s everything I don’t like about America rolled up into one hideous place.
It’s expansive and expensive, it’s tacky, it has the whole of Middle America visiting it. They are taking pictures of the fake Paris with no one wanting to see the real one.

The native girl sitting next to me at the info desk (actually more like old hag but that’s another story) keep going on about how great this city is. Did you see the piazzita san marko? She asks me, it’s just amazing. I then realize that she talking about the fake one in the Venetian, the one with the fake outside sky. I did say yes I had seen it but the real one was much more impressive. Ugh, that’s the way everything is here.

I did have a spa day on Saturday. Started at one and didn’t finish until six thirty. That was ok actuall. But yes again very expensive. A message and facial and manicure and pedicure cost around $600. The Same treatment in DC would be half that price. The message ended up with a happy ending, at the VENETIAN!!!!

Friday I did the strip with some work friends. We went to the Bellagio (sp?) to see the fountains. That was cool. We then went to some of the other casinos around. All I have to say is that if it’s not one of the newer nicer hotels, the casinos are just tragic. Scary Middle America with Middle America middles. Smoking and drinking. I ended up gambling some at Harrad’s on the $10 table. I put in twenty.

I won $120!

I lost $100!

I left with my original $20 and three free drinks, so not really that bad.

I then went back to my room and crashed, my work colleagues stayed up until 8am on Saturday and when I saw them in line for a cab to the airport they said they didn’t sleep at all the night before. That was at 10:30am. I’m so happy I went to bed.

The rest of the week we pretty much stayed at the hotel and worked the show. 6am until 7:30pm every day except Friday when I got to leave work at 1. I did go to the young leaders event on Thursday night. It was at Tao in the Venetain and was pretty cool. Because we were staff and they didn’t think that they had enough drink tickets I had to pay for my first drink. I got a martini; I was immediately $18 poorer.

Holy Jesus batman!

Luckily, or not, my boss came through before I needed another one and handed out the tickets to staff. The event was from 7 until 9. At around 15 to 9 we decided it was time to use the rest of the tickets, and we now had lots. I think I had three martinis before this. So we go up to the bar and order shots, we don’t do shots here but I can make you a martini sized lemon drop shot.

We bit.

I don’t remember about an hour of stuff. When I saw the girl I was working with the next morning I asked here where she was the night before I missed her. She was like “you said hi and we talked for a long time” I was like, Shit. One of my other friends walked be back to my hotel room. I came too during that walk.

But I wasn’t the worst.

This other girl that works for my company tried to and succeeded on grabbing a bottle of gray goose vodka from behind the bar. She had it for about five minutes when they discovered she had done it. She got thrown out of the bar and was marked with a black sharpie X on her wrist.

Didn’t make me feel so bad the next morning about my predicament.

I guess what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

I’m not coming back though.

OMG! Las Vegas on a Sunday!

This was amazing. I decided to go to the airport early because I was over the whole Las Vegas thing after a week of working a conference.

Boy am I glad I did. It was just a zoo. I’ve traveled all over the world and I’ve never seen an airport so crowded. The line started all the way on the other side of the airport. I made it to a point where I thought I was getting close only to have to turn the corner for another line that bended back around again. That happened three times!

I’m never coming back to Vegas, that’s all I have to say.

Travel, travel, travel.

Here is my schedule for the next two plus weeks. Ugh..

Leave for Dulles at 6am on Sunday the 21st for a 8:30am flight to Las Vegas. Staying there until the 28th.

Catch plane from LAS to Palm Springs to sort out our corporate secretary’s internet access. 28th throught 31st. Paid for by work think you very much.

Leave Palm Springs for LAX on the 31st to set up new LA office. Work Thursday, Friday and Monday and come back on the 6th.

Weekend with Dave in LA.

I was supposed to be back on the 28th, 29th and 30th but they decided to send me to Palm Springs.

I will have 50089 points after this. Just making gold by the skin of my teeth.

I'm tired!

I’ve gotten a few messages about not updating my blog, so here we go.

Friday night we took L’Alex out for his birthday at Monsire. It was a nice little dinner and everyone left with a full belly. We didn’t go out because we had to get up early the next morning to drive to a birthday party in North Carolina.

It was a five hour drive down there on Saturday and 5 hours back on Sunday. The surprise was that the party ended at 8. I suppose this was going to happen considering that Ivy just had an emergency c-section two Wednesdays ago and the baby was still in the neonatal care unit. That and the fact she had to “pump” her breast for the new baby at 8. (I wasn’t sticking around for that one) I was surprised that they still had the party to tell the truth. We ended up going back to the hotel room and watching the Simpson’s move on pay per view afterwards and got home kind of early on Sunday.

The weird thing is seeing all these people that I spent my twenties with turning 40ish. We starting tell stories from college and our younger years. It was just bizarre. I still think of myself at 20 something, and I’m not. It’s better than the alternative I suppose.

On our way home, L’Dave asked us to come pick him up in Alexandria. He had spent the night there with a friend after going dancing all night. We ended up going back to our house and drinking wine on the roof until it was close to time to go to dinner at Derek’s house that evening.

So to put everything in perspective, we had a birthday dinner with L’Alex on Friday night. Got up on Saturday and drove 300 miles to Durham for a BBQ\Birthday from 3:30 until 8, watched a movie, got 8 hours sleep, drove 300 miles back to DC, picked our friend up and went back to our house for wine on the roof followed by dinner at a friend’s house.

All in a typical weekend at Crave’s

This week I’m getting ready for the Fall meeting at work. I’m trying to get some computers set up and shipped to LA for the setup of the office there. I’ll be in Las Vegas from the 21st of October to the 28th for the fall meeting. I’m back in town for two days and then I’m off to Los Angeles to set up the new office out there. I’ll finally be home on November the 6th. It’s all such a whorl wind. While I’m in LA I’m going to have dinner with some friends who live out there and Dave should come over for that.

Once we get back we have a 60th birthday bash to go to on the 10th of November and on the 11th we’ll be having a dinner party in honor of L’Dave’s love interest from South Africa who is in town for three weeks. Oh, and we’re going to London for Thanksgiving.

Luckily we staying home for Christmas, I might get some rest then but probably not. The family is supposed to come visit then.

I love this girl!

Just watch the video below. She pretty much says it as it is. What a gal.


Jennine Garolafo, i want to have your baby.

And, another busy weekend with lots of stuff I can't put up here. It's a family blog don't you know.

Ok, another wacky weekend.

I had to work the whole weekend. Not happy about that.

On Friday at 4:15PM the network in our DC office just went tits up. We didn’t make any changes or anything (I ain’t done nothing or nothing). So, instead of going to the movie with Dave like I had planned, I ended up staying at work until around 8:30. At that point I told my boss that I need to have dinner with Dave and I would be back in the morning.

Next day I’m in the office from 8:30 until 6:30 redoing the whole network. Dave (the contractor) comes in and helps upgrade the firewall and pull a bunch of cables. We think it’s all good and I go home and then go to Rob and Mikko’s for a party. 2:30 that night we finally get home.

Only to get up and work again.

It wasn’t fixed at all. So I had to come in on Sunday and work again! Seems that a switch on the network was taking over the network. I finally figured it out. It was either my computer or my switch at my desk that was causing the issues. This after two days of work and reconnection all the physical equipment. I do remember it looking like I had got a virus on my computer but that it was caught by the virus software. Guess not. I’m scared to plug all that stuff back in so I’m in the server room on my laptop right now.

And then we went drinking again on Sunday night. Ugh.

I think I’ve had about four hours sleep over the last weekend. I’m so tired now.

On to the joke of the week.

So on the way to work I saw a car accident. Rear end thingy. The guy in the car that hit the truck got out and walked to the truck. Out from the truck stepped this dwarf who proceeded to cross his arms and proclaim that he wasn’t happy!

The drive of the other car said, “so which one are you?”

That’s when the fight began.

Tell me it's not so Spock!

Just when you didn't think it could get any weirder.

Lary Craig (I'm Not Gay)

Only in America would this happen....
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/159879.html

Boy oh boy, is it just me or does it seem like the republican party are all closeted gays?

Italy, 2007 with the moms

OK, it's been forever since I've updated this. So with no further ado, here are pictures of our Italy trip. Have fun.

Italy 2007. Dave me and the moms

While I wait

I'm uploading pictures from Italy to picasa web alblums, while I'm waing I thought I would try something and show pictures from Capetown though a link. Have fun.

Life at 40 and other tales of the mildly cranky

What a weekend!

Well we keep doing it, good on Friday and then BOOM!

Of course this time we facilitated it by having a small (30+ish) party on Saturday night. I’m not sure but I think we went to bed around 3ish on Sunday morning. It was great fun but it was also very drunken.

We should have just stayed in bed the next day, but no…. It was brunch time and Lil’David was bringing over the Champaign. So We had Evegenny, Cole, Jason, David, David, Craig Dan and myself getting slowly toasted again. Mind you, one glass of mimosa after the drinking done the night before was all it took. We sat around talking shit for about three hours.

Then Dave and I took a nap.

Only to get up and go to Brett’s for dinner and get more drunk. Dear me what a weekend.

So, anyway I’m sitting at my desk really just wanting to go back home and sleep right now. I think next weekend will be just a little bit more tame.

Sydney the long way.

Well the story turns out ok, but only after weeks.

I’ve been trying to get award seats in Business of First for the last few weeks to Australia in February. There is absolutely nothing going out of the west coast on United for the times that I wanted so I started looking at going through Europe. I had done some searches on the ANA tool and came up with a good itinerary in first on Thai out of London. Called up the to make the reservation. Sorry Mr. XXX, we don’t show any of that being available. United can’t get that from Thai airlines. We can get you there through Asianna on Dates that you don’t want or we could get you there in coach.

I’m not doing a 20+ hour flight in coach, isn’t gonna happen.

So I call back over and over again. Most of the time it’s very nice people with the name “Bob” who you know are sitting half way across the world from you and who will follow the rules to a tee and not go out of their way to be helpful. This happened many, many times to the point where I was just going to give up on the whole idea. Then for some reason I called today to enquire again.

I got a very helpful person who was sitting in Chicago I’m pretty sure. I told her what I wanted to do, LHR-SIN or BKK and then Syd and back. I have looked at these routes and Singapore Air and Thai Air service the routes but the many people I had talked to before just couldn’t find any premium seats. Somehow this person did. I now have two Business class tickets on Singapore Airlines from London to SYD. I’ll purchase a ticket from IAD to LHR for around $600.00. So a 9k ticket for about $900.00 total and a couple of days of my life

It’s all a mystery to me.

It’s been awhile.

I’ve been busy beyond belief. In the build up to moving all of our servers to an offsite hosting facility, I had been neglecting to update the blog. I finally have a little bit of time to write.

We had a big outing yesterday at work. It was the summer retreat and it was held at a bowling alley. I was great fun but I had a little too much fun. The weird thing is I didn’t drink all that much but it really affected me like I had drank gallons. There is a reason for this. I’m on antibiotics because of a root canal (more on that later) that I got on Monday. These antibiotics are really nasty and they mess up your stomach something fierce. So I had been going to the bathroom a lot and had gotten somewhat dehydrated. Add to that the fact that I had woken up at 4 yesterday and you have the recipe for disaster. I had 5 beers between 1 and 4 and half a bottle of wine after with my friend Melanie. It might as well been 10 bottles of wine by the way if affected me. I pretty much came home and crashed big time.

First thing I did this morning was write an email to Dave apologizing. We’ve decide that drinking on antibiotics is a really bad idea and that I will not do it again.

As for the root canal, I had gone to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned on Monday of this week and had mentioned that I thought the tooth was ready for the canal. We’ve know that I needed one for about two years but was waiting for it to pop through the gum like a blister, and it did. He said that he had an opening that afternoon otherwise it would be about a month. So I showed up at 12:30 for the procedure.

An hour later he was still working on it. He told me that normally it only takes about 15 minutes but I had a really tight canal (who knew) and he really had to work on it. They get to the canal and then insert a file into it and start to file the nerve out. This is fine so long as I was numb but by the end of it I was starting to feel things.

Not a good thing.

Anyway, I have to go back. He put me on the antibiotics to take care of the infection and that takes about a week. Meanwhile he has a temporary filling in that on the first day disintegrated while I was eating. Nasty tasting thing. So I had to go back for a third time in one day to the dentist to get the temporary filling put in again. I have to go back on Monday of next week so that he can put the regular filling in and shape the tooth.

All in all this is not a pleasant experience and if you can avoid it, do at all cost. There was one benefit though, seems that the infected tooth had been wearing me down over the last two years and I didn’t know it. I just attributed being tired to having turned 40. After taking the antibiotics for one day I felt great! It’s made a world of difference. Wish I had done it sooner.

Off to lunch now.

The joys of home ownership.

This is the drama that I've been going through for the last three to four weeks. I've had a leak in my rental unit for the last couple of weeks and I couldn't get the condo association management to look into it. I finally got an email address of the owner of the business that runs this thing and sent him the email below this morning. I got a call within an hour after I sent it.

As I write this it is being fixed. I've gotten quite a few phone calls from Gerald to first appoligize and secondly to say that it was all being taken care of. The people upstairs will be responsible for fixing my unit because it seems to be thier tolet that was causeing the problem.

I can only guess that Gerald got his ass chewed up for this. He didn't respond to any atempts to contact him se we could fix the problem. He only started doing something when I sent something to his boss.

Go figure. Enjoy the following. This is leaving out alot of stuff too.

Yes, I spoke to Gerald about it. He said that they apartment above is responsible for the fix.

-----Original Message-----From: ********************************** Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 3:12 PMTo: Chris ***********Subject: Re: FW: Apt 809 leak

just spoke to the plumber and it looks like it is the toilet in 908.
they are fixing it now. the lady from the mgmt co. said 908 is paying
for it.

On 7/24/07, Chris **********************************wrote:
Sorry, they said in about an hour and that was about an hour ago.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew **********************************

Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 2:01 PM
To: Chris*************

Subject: Re: FW: Apt 809 leak

what time do you think they will be stopping by?

On 7/24/07, Chris ********************************** wrote:

They are going to look at the leak today. Seems that calling the owner of
Piercom got his but in gear.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew **********************************
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 10:29 AM
To: Chris ******************

Subject: Re: FW: Apt 809 leak
that's great news. i'll clear out the bathroom tonight so if they need
to do anything right away they can. I'll keep you up to date on the
progress. Thanks a lot chris, i appreciate it.

-AW

7/24/07, Chris K. ********************************** wrote:

Just got off the phone with someone from Pierlink who wasn't Gerald.
They will be coming over with a plumber to look at it tomorrow. They
apologized profusely. I sent an email to the owner of the company. Looks
like it will be taken care of now.
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew **********************************

Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 10:16 AM
To: Chris *************
Subject: Re: FW: Apt 809 leak

The bathroom is still 100% functional, just an eye sore, but i want to
make sure it is solved before there is any structural damage. having
dealt with mgmt companies on a day to day basis in my previous career
for 5+ years i feel your pain

On 7/23/07, Chris ********************************** wrote:
Just called and left a very not happy message. Don't understand what
we are paying these f*ckers for.

Frank,

I’m only writing you because I’m not getting any information from the person below. It involves a leak in the bathroom of unit 808 in the Saint George, a condo unit the pierlink oversees. I found your email address on the internet. Please read all of the correspondence below. If matters are not resolved I will be forced to seek the services of a lawyer.

Chris *********************


PS. Please see the damage in the pictures attached.




let me know if you need me to do anything.


On 7/23/07, Chris ****************> wrote:
> Are you kidding me, nothing!!! Ok, I'm getting a lawyer.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: *********************]
> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 6:23 PM
> To: chris *****************
> Subject: Re: FW: Apt 809 leak
>
> Chirs,
>
> Have you got an update on this situation?
>
> -Andrew
>
> On 7/15/07, Chris ********************* wrote:
> > Gerald,
> >
> > Are you guys going to do anything about this? Seems that the water isn't only damaging my unit but the fabric of the building. I would think that because of this it would be high on your priority list. Please let me and Andrew know of your plans and progress on this matter. Thanks.
> >
> > *********************
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: *********************]
> > Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 5:42 PM
> > To: *********************

> > Subject: Re: Apt 809 leak
> >
> > Chris,
> >
> > Any word yet?
> >
> > On 7/10/07, Chris ********************* <*********************> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Amy,
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Thanks for your diligence in this matter.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Gerald,
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I need to know where to go from here. It looks like it is a
> > > building problem and not one that Amy is responsible for. My tenet
> > > has been patient with this for long enough and I'm starting to get
> > > significant damage. Thanks for your help and response.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Chris
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > From: *********************

> > > Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 9:30 AM
> > > To: Gerald Sullivan; *********************; *********************

> > > Subject: Apt 809 leak
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Dear Gerald -
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > As discussed, I checked my bathroom for any leaks, and could not find any.
> > > Furthermore, I have put a tarp around the wall of my shower for
> > > the past week, and the leak still continues. The leak is
> > > particularly strong in the late afternoon when I have not used any
> > > water, so it is not likely that the leak is coming from my shower.
> > > Therefore, the leak appears to be coming from a common element.
> > > Please have someone inspect 809 to determine the cause of the leak.
> > >
> > >
> > > Thank you
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Best,
> > >
> > >
> > > *** ***

> > >
> > >
> > > PS - The owner of the unit - Steven ***, is not my father. He is
> > > my brother.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 7/3/07, Gerald S******* <*********************> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Mr. Cost*****:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > The owner of UNIT 908 is listed as follows:
> > >
> > > 908STG
> > >
> > > *********************
> > >
> > > *********************
> > >
> > > #908
> > >
> > > Washington, DC

> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > His daughter Amy ********************* is resident there. She
> > > has spoken with her father. She will be speaking with you to solve this.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > If it is not from the deeded Unit above your Unit, then the
> > > Association looks to the common elements and pays for any repair of a common element.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Thank you for your help with all the information you provided.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > *********************************
> > >
> > > Gerald J.*********
> > >
> > > *********************
> > >
> > > *********************

> > >
> > > Washington, D.C. 20007
> > >
> > > *********************
> > > *********************


> > > **********************************.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > .......................
> > >
> > > Saint George Apt 908.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Hello, I'm the owner of Apt 808 below yours. We seem to have
> > > another leak coming from your bathroom into mine. Please contact
> > > me so we can discuss fixing the problem. Please also find a picture of the damage attached.
> > > Thanks.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > *********************
> > >
> > > *********************
> > > Unit A
> > >
> > > *********************
> > >
> > >
> > > ********************* (Home)
> > >
> > > *********************(Cell)
> > >
> > > *********************(Work)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > *********************
> > >
> > > *********************
> > >
> > > *********************
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > >
> > >
> > > From: *********************
> > > Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 2:33 PM
> > > To: Gerald Su*******; *******************
> > > Cc: *********************
> > > Subject: Let's try this again.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > The pictures and letter.
> > >

London Heathrow

Well here I am again in the Red Carpet Club in London. Getting here and check-in was quite easy. I came a little bit early because I had to be out of the hotel by 11. Thought about shopping but decided it was too expensive now that the dollar is at a 30 year low against the Pound. This trip hurt.

The trip has pretty much been straight forward. It was a pure business trip. I came in on Monday on the day time flight, it was three hours late. I didn’t get to bed until 2ish that night and had to be at work the next day . I ended up showing up at 12ish.

I did all of my network stuff and then headed off for a drunken lunch with my co-worker Melanie. We sat outside and drank blush wine for about three hours. Gret lunch but I didn’t get much else done that day. I pretty much went back to the room and slept until the next day.

I went into work and fixed all of the little issues that happens when you do a major network change over. The printers didn’t work right, the polycom system was screwed up and various other small issues. Before I got there I remember to go to the Teb Baker store and switch out the shirt I got for Kiat for a larger one.

I SMSed the boys and meet them out last night. We went to Rupert Street’s and then Balian’s for dinner. It was fun and it was great seeing all the boys again.

Not really into writing long drawn out witty blog posts right now so I think this will be it.

Can I get another opinion?

Where to begin, not much has happened this week. Just waiting for the big move and squashing small fires at work.

I’ve been going home and watching movies this week while Dave is in Jamaica. Superman returns, Ghost Rider, and some weird movie on HBO call happy ending. I’m also studying my Italian. So very exciting I know but it’s keeping me out of trouble. I’m going to have sushi with Kiat tonight which should be fun. I need to wash clothes too.

It’s so exciting I just don’t know what to do.

I got an email from my long lost friend Colleen today. It was good hearing from her. Seems she’s had another baby. Last time I talked to her she was pregnant and now there is this little human being. Amazing really. I’m trying to set up a time to go out to Virginia and see her and the family. It will be good to catch up.

So here is our schedule for the next couple of weeks.

Dave gets back on Friday and we have a quite weekend planed because the week after is going to be very hectic. I’m going to London and Dave is going back to Jamaica for the week. I get back on Thursday and he gets back on Friday. We then turn around and go straight back to the airport to catch a plane to New Burn, NC for my family reunion.

The next week Dave leaves for Jamaica for the week again and our friend Alex comes to stay with us for a bit. He’s looking for a place to rent here in DC and we’re putting him up until he finds it.

The weekend after that I will be moving my servers from our current location to an offsite facility. This is going to be fun but a mess of pain. Hopefully it will all work very easily. Keep your fingers crossed.

We then don’t really have plans for August except for Italian classes two times a week until we go to Italy at the end of August. Dave will probably be called down to Jamaica again. We’ll see.

Now on to another topic….

My mind is a little bit butterflyish today, it’s all over the place.

Work, I had the opportunity to think about it the other day. My boss and I had discussed me taking over some responsibility and getting a promotion. I thought this was going to definitely happen around review time.

And then I got my annual review.

It was a good review and I got the max raise that I could get, and then was told that they would be giving me the responsibility and NOT the promotion. We would look at the promotion again in three months. My boss said that he had proposed it too late to the powers that be.

I found this very funny in that the powers that be can make things happen the same day, I’ve seen them do it.

I was not happy at all. I left my boss’s office and went outside. I sat on a bench for three hours thinking.

It was like someone had punched me in the stomach. I had tears coming up and felt sick.

I’ve been at this job for over 7 years. I’ve seen many, many people promoted that do ¼ the work I do and who have been there one or two years. It just told me how appreciated I am here, as in not very.

This makes you reevaluate your life and what’s important and right now work isn’t it. I’m 40 years old and the idea of doing this for the rest of my life makes me feel quite ill. The stress from work has been affecting the rest of my life drastically, and not in a good way. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it yet but I’ll keep the blog posted.

Enough for now.

3rd Time at the Inn and we didn’t strike out!

Oh what a wonderful experience we had. It was amazing. We were a bit worried because you never expect something to be better the second time you go let alone the 3rd.

We left the house around 3 in the afternoon and arrived at little Washington around 4:30. We settled in and went for a walk just to get our blood pumping, dinner wasn’t until 8:30 so we had time. When we checked in the Innkeeper at the Gay Street inn asked if we would like some wine but we declined at that point and did the walk. By the time we got back he were ready for the wine but no Inn keeper was to be found. They went to dinner at a friend’s house and left a number to call if anything was needed. We decided we could wait for the dinner.

We really wanted the wine at that point, because he had put the idea in our head, so we walked back up to the Inn at Little Washington to the store that they have. Which happened to close about ten minutes before we got there. We knew that they had wine but it was too late. Nothing else was open so we went back to our inn to take a nap.

The nap was good, we woke up refreshed and decided to take showers and go earlier to the inn then our reservation was for. We were told earlier that they where kind of slow that evening so we could come in earlier if we wanted.

So we dressed in what I would call fabulous conservative, with sports coats and cuff links and walked on over to the Inn.

When we got there we where met at the front by the doorman who knew out names and asked us to come in. Once in we were asked if we wanted a cocktail, which we declined because we knew that we were going to have copious amounts of wine once we sat down. Three to four people greeted us and we were then lead to “the most romantic table” table by a very happy headwaiter that exclaimed this as we walked past quite a few other tables. Kind of funny and a bit embarrassing, we just smiled and headed toward our gorgeous table.

Once we settled in at this most amazing table, we ordered Champaign. One rose for me and one White for Dave. This was a repeat of the 40th birthday dinner for Dave that we had at the Plaza Athanade in Paris. The table was at the end of a long corridor with windows on both sides and a little creak running underneath with gold fish swimming below. We then started reading the menu, oh my goodness what a menu. We had already decided what we were going to do, which was the tasting menu but it was a hard choice. Here’s what we had, and we paired it with wine.

1. A quartet of Island Greek Oyster Slurpees with Grosset-Hill Smith, Mesh, Riesling, Eden Valley Australia, 2005 as the wine
2. A Tin of Sin: American Ossetra Caviar with a Crab and Cucumber Rillette with Feudi San Gregorio, Pietracalda, Fiano Di Avellino, Campania, Italy, 2004 as the wine
3. Morel Dusted Diver’s Scallops and Louisiana Crayfish on Carmellini Beans Dress with summer truffle Vinaigrette with Domain Chapoutier, La Bernardine, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Rhone, France 2004 as the wine
4. Potato Crusted Tuna Wellington with Caponata Rivioli and Bearnaise with Westbrook, Blue Ridge, Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand, 2005 as the wine
5. Braised Veal Cheek with Saffron Risotto with Hillinger, Hill 1 Burgenland, Austria, 2005 as the wine
6. Lilliputian Passion Fruit Dreamsicle No wine
7. A Limoncello Souffle with Lemon Ice Cream with Vietti, Moscato d;Asti, Cascinetta, Piedmont, Italy, 2005 as the wine.

We also had an amuse bouche to begin with that consisted of one small shrimp dish, one small tuna dish, one small beet and caviar dish and one small mango Virginia ham dish. These all came out in small spoons. They were wonderful. We received a plum soup to try and to cleanse our pallet too. So if you think about it we had nine courses and life was good.

At the end of the meal one of the waiters quietly came down our corridor and opened a door onto the garden to my right, she opened it just a little bit but both Dave and I noticed. A little while later I see a figure in the garden moving toward the ajar door, he was coming from the kitchen across the way. The next thing I know Patrick O’Connell opens the door and comes over to our table. What a great surprise. He chatted with us for a good ten minutes and wished us a happy anniversary. That is one of the reasons why the Inn at little Washington is such a wonderful place to go, the personal attention and the thought put into everything.

We stopped by the Monkey bar an had a single malt scotch just because we had to. Not that we needed anymore drink but it was fun and we then paid.

OUCH!

But worth it.

We stumbled back to our Inn at around 11 being one of the last to leave the restaurant. Went to bed and got up around 8ish this morning to have a wonderful breakfast at our Inn. I’m fooded out at this point but Little Dave is coming over tonight for more food and wine.

Like I say it’s a hard life but someone has to live it.

Oh, and I think I fixed and issue with the exchange server. All in less then 36 hours.

10 Year Anniversary, or 4th of July

I’ll pick the 10 year anniversary over the other.

Today 10 years ago in on a small island called Key West Dave and I meet. It was only supposed to be a very short term thing and we're still together.

We met in a bar ( I know, I know but hey…. It can work) and that night was supposed to be it. The next day we got together and had a great time. Dave was there (key West) visiting form the Cayman Islands using up an airline voucher that was about to expire. I had just been to a company pick-nick that got rained out and had gone home. I decided that I didn’t want to be home alone on a holiday so I got dressed and headed out to the local bar Bourbon St.

I thought it would be dead, who in their right mind would go to Key West in the middle of the summer. Turns out lots people did. It was packed, totally nuts to butts packed. I didn’t want to be alone but I didn’t want a huge crowd either. So I looked around and saw a seat at the back bar that was open. I quickly grabbed it and then ordered a beer. I then looked at the guy next to me (Dave) and said hello. He then answered with a heavenly British accent.

That was all she wrote.

I learned how to scuba drive and then went to the Cayman Islands to visit Dave. This was the first time I had ever been outside the US. We had a blast. I did the turtle farm with Dave along with some of the best scuba diving in the world.

After this we talked almost every day. Cayman is very expensive to call but luckily Dave worked for the phone company there so he could make cheaper calls if not free.

We both had made plans to move from our perspective locations, me to Charlotte, NC and Dave to Washington, DC. I had already moved up to Charlotte when Dave came for an interview in DC. I was at a family reunion in the mountains of NC and had decided that DC wasn’t that far away so I would drive and come see Dave. After about an 8 hour drive I showed up. Dave thought that was the most romantic thing every. I guess you could say I got lucky that night.

Dave got the job in Washington and I had a job in Charlotte. We did the long distance thing for about 2 and ½ years until I couldn’t take it anymore. I told him I was coming up and bringing my two dogs. That was close to 8 years ago. Lots has happened since then.

We still like each other.

Dave has shown me the world. Sydney, Cape Town, London, Venice, next up Rome.

Dave now works at home and I’m the one going into the “Real” job every day. I did think it would be the other way around.

It all just kind of works, very strange really for something that was never supposed to work at all.

Tonight we’re going to the Inn at Little Washington. This is one of the best restaurants on the East coast if not in the US. It’s about an hour outside DC in Washington VA. We’ll be staying nearby in a B&B that is owned by friends of friends of ours. It’s way too expensive to stay at the actual Inn. We fully expect to spend at least $500 on dinner alone tonight. It better be good.

Did some Italian today and will finish my home work tomorrow for the upcoming weekend class. We’ve decided to double up on it during August before the actually trip. And to do it during the week.

Dave will be gone next week to Jamaica for the whole week. I have a physical on Wednesday of next week. I figured I turned 40 I better get it all looked at. Dave comes back for the weekend and then we both leave for the next week. I have a business trip to London. I need to get that office ready for the move to the off-site location coming up. When I get back from London we then go to Newburn NC for my family reunion. The next weekend will be the move of the servers to the off-site. Hopefully August will calm down a little.

‘till next time.

Chris

Exchange Server go blewie!!

Here I sit at the office hoping that the restore I’m doing from tape will get the exchange server up and running. Please oh please let this happen.

I got into work with the news that email was down. This was at 7:30am it’s now 6pm and I’m still working on it. Thank God for backups. This has kind of been how my week has been going.

The beach was fun last weekend. Not sure I want to write about it though. There was some drama too.

Not feeling very chatty right now, just felt like putting something up on the blog.

Off to the beach this weekend

We’re off to Rehoboth beach this weekend. Our friends Rob and Carlos invited us down. Kiat and Tony will be there along with little David who is catching a ride from us. We’ll be leaving around 7-7:30 tonight to let all the traffic die down before we go. It’s a mad house getting over the Bay bridge on a summer Friday from DC. It should be good fun.

Dave will be in Jamaica next week for work. We’ll be getting back from Rehoboth late Sunday night and he’ll get up early on Monday and take off. It’s a crazy wild world but someone has to do it.

Today is my day not to touch anything at work. We don’t want to break something because it means that we would have to abandon our beach planes because I would have to work the weekend to fix it. So I’ve been told not to start any projects on Friday and not to change anything big unless we have a working weekend planned.

The hazards of being a computer geek.

Have a good weekend all.

Well, Blackberry do da, do da da daaaaaaa…..

What a fiasco! All I wanted to do was set up a blackberry for our new Atlanta guy. Really, that was it. Nothing special or anything like that.

Who knew it would take two weeks for me to get it done, and it only got done because I walked down to the Cingular-AT&T store in Georgetown to get a new SIM.

Here’s the story. We hire a new guy in Atlanta and he wants a blackberry. We get him a blackberry with an Atlanta phone number. The next day he emails me to say he wants his old phone number with the new blackberry.

It’s too late to change the number at this point so I figure we’ll fix it when I get the device. I always make sure I get the new blackberries so I can set them up correctly and then send them on their way.

I get the blackberry and then proceed to get very busy for the next couple of days and a weekend comes along. So I get back from fire island after the weekend and decide it’s time to get this thing going for our new guy. I call Cingular- AT&T and ask about moving the number over to the new phone.

No they can’t do it.

Why?

Well because he’s already a customer of Cingular&T but at a regional level and because of this he would have to call and “release” his account so that the National Business unit (the one we use) could take over the account.

Fine, GA boy, get in touch with your Cingular&T peps and I’ll get in touch with mine. Another two Days go by and I get an email from my GA guy saying that it’s all ready to be switched.

Now at this point you have to remember that I called before but didn’t think I had activated the old 770 number that came with the phone. But I had. Who knew.

I call and ask to have the phone account switched over to the corporate account. The nice rep says that will be fine can I wait while she fills out some forms. She comes back on and tells me that because it was a regional account that it would take 24 to 48 hours to have it added to our National account. At this point the poor guy has been without the device for almost two weeks. I tell the nice rep that I’ve had an easier time moving another carrier’s phone numbers over to our master account. She laughs and says that yes that’s true.

So we wait two more days.

I call today to finally get it set up and ready, four times I called! The first person can’t help me because the phone had been activated and the 770 number was attached to the new SIM card. I said that I hadn’t activated it, she says I had and that the only way to make it work is to send the device to GA guy and have him switch out the SIM card with his old unit’s SIM. I told her I can’t do that because I have to configure it before he gets it. I thank her and then hang up thinking that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

I wait about 20 minutes and try again.

I’m on the phone for about 7 minutes talking to another rep when all of the sudden I get this feeling that I’m talking to myself. And I was. The phone had been disconnected. I call back and the exact same thing happens.

At this point I’m thinking that the first rep had put a nasty gram in the file saying that I had been rude to her. I don’t think I was but I did hang up kind of fast.

So I call back and it happens again BUT this time the rep called me back. Turns out it was our phone system. It’s been on the sprits for about a month now. Anyway the nice rep tells me I can’t use the SIM because it’s associated with the 770 number. At this point I believe him. So I hang up, get on line and find the closest Cingular&T store. It’s just up the way. It happens to be a nice day so I take a walk up and get a brand new spanking SIM with no number attached. I get to the office, call back and get it all working!

It was only 10:15 at this point of the morning. It’s Fedexed and on its way to Atlanta Ga as I write this. What a relief.

Oh and I’m still sick.

Boy am I ready to go home. Cio

Tuesday and it's 100!

Ok, just enough time to update a little bit.

I’m in-between trying to fix my rental bathroom’s leak from above and getting the new Exchange server up and running and trying to port a phone number over to our corporate account. All I have to say is it doesn’t pay to get to work early to do this as no one is open. So I have to wait until 9 before I can get anything done.

So I’m at home yesterday with Bronchitis which I had all weekend but choose to ignore and go out with friends anyway because I’m an Idiot. So it didn’t get better. I stayed at home and took a real sick day which I never do. I usually will work from home if I’m not feeling well. This time I just vegged in-front of the TV and tried to feel better. During this time I would check my emails and this is when I found out that my Rental apartment had the leak. I just wasn’t up to confronting anyone about it yesterday.

So this morning I try to tackle it. The office isn’t open yet. I’ll call after 9 and hopefully someone will call be back. I hate our new condo association people.

I did however get in-touch with AT&T to move one of their numbers from a private account to our corporate account. Turns out to be harder then moving a number from another carrier. Because it’s a private number the person who has the number has to call and give permission for us to take over payment. Once this has happened I have to call and tell them we want to take over payment. They then tell me because he had a local account in GA and we have a national account it will take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to do it. A-FREAKING-MAZING!!!!! So my guy in GA has to wait for another couple of days before he gets his blackberry. I don’t think he’s too happy about that.

Waiting for the new Exchange Server so I can finally build the new instillation and test it before we move it to the off-site location. It should arrive today. I should be busy for awhile getting it up and running. Still, the people that we’re moving over to have this uncanny nack of not getting back in-touch with us or not giving us information that they promise us on time. Not having a good feeling about this.

Ok, off to work again. Hopefully I’ll be able to update this a little bit more regularly.

Fire Island, we’ve made a friend.

Well we finally got invited to Fire Island, which if you don’t know is the gay Mecca beach community for all the New York boys, and we loved it!

It was pretty amazing actually considering that it rained most of the time we were there. We just relaxed. We never relax. I like relaxing.

We need to do it more often.

Anyway, I’m back at the office after an amazing weekend. We even flew on South West and it wasn’t that bad. My favorite comment about the service was “the trainee was so chirpy that it became my goal to make her cry” not that I would ever do that but it was still funny.

It did get sunny for a little bit on Sunday before we left to come home. We had a BBQ on the deck with about 12 people. All in all a good time.

I am however looking forward to have a weekend at our house this weekend coming up. Sometimes staying in for a weekend can be the best thing in the whole wide world.

We’re going to go see Mika at that 9:30 club on Tuesday night this week. I think I’m going to be late to work on Wednesday.

I’m not in a very big writing mood so I think I’ll stop here. I just felt like I was ignoring my little blog and had to write something.

So, nobody told me……

That the older you get the busier you get.

What’s up with that, I thought you were supposed to slow down? I’m not sure I like this.

First things first. Dave and I now have Andy living with us for a few weeks. He arrived while we were in London with a friend of his; Antony and they had a good time. Unfortunately Antony had to go back to London because of work but has another ticket to come back here this weekend (I know, it’s kind of crazy but he wanted to do it). Anyway poor thing got back home (in 1st class) only have an a cysts start to grow very fast on a certain part of his body. This was causing pain in the extreme so he went to the doctor’s right away.

Emergency surgery!

And he still plans on coming back to DC this weekend after this ordeal, how crazy is that?

Anyway, I’ll get to meet Antony finally after reading his blog for a couple of months now. I think we’ll be walking gingerly around him while he recovers.

We will be having a 40th birthday celebration this Friday. Our friends Simon and John are back in town and it’s Simon’s big 40 so we’re having a surprise party Friday at 5 for him. Hopefully it will not turn into a complete blow out because we have our Italian lesion in the morning and I don’t want to miss it.

Saturday is pretty much clear except for the Italian lesion. We’re having a brunch on Sunday in honor of Simon and John. A friend from the UK was supposed to make it but he’s gotten an ear infection and is grounded. So that’s it pretty much for the weekend to come, now for some stuff about the past last two weekends.

First off two weekends ago was Kiat’s 30th birthday. Can you believe we’ve known each other for over 8.5 years? Isn’t that amazing. I never knew I hung out with such chicken back then. The party was great with a little bit of drama. Seems that the caterers said they would make one drink and then tried to come out with another one when they actually got there. Kiat was not a happy camper. Luckily they mostly fixed the situation. I ended up staying there until about 3:30am. Had a blast and wasn’t too trashed which is always a good thing.

The next day we did brunch and then went to Kiat’s house again. I stayed until about 6 at which point I just couldn’t stand it and had to go home. Bed was calling my name.

I’ll write more about the next weekend and the London trip a bit later. I’m swamped at work right now and my Italian hasn’t been getting the attention it needs in the evenings.

I'm alive, just bloody busy!

I'm in London this week. Work and pleasure.

I have lots to talk about from the last post, here are some bullet points

Kiat's 30 birthday party
Matthew's first day at the job
Busy, Busy, Work, Work.

When I get some more time I'll expand on the topics above.

Until then,

Slugs and Hisses,

Chris

Spring meeting hell, or Chicago in the spring.

Sitting in the Red Carpet Club at O’Hare.

Well, well, well. This wasn’t my average week at all. I’ve been in Chicago all week working our spring meeting, and surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. Although it seems like I’ve been here forever, but that’s because of the five hours sleep every day since Tuesday. Tuesday and Wednesday were quite busy. I ran around and set up all the computers to be able to access our network and our database.

I was also on hand for some of the big wigs meetings. Mainly to make sure things went smoothly. It’s fascinating to hear all the stuff they talk about. Not going into that here though.

Thursday wasn’t so busy in that all the setup was done and there were no more meeting that I need to be in, and I question why I was even there on Friday (today).

I don’t think I mentioned this but I didn’t know that I was going to be here until last Thursday so it was a very last moment kind of thing. I’m glad to be going home now.

Now some thought on Chicago in general. I like the place but I couldn’t imagine living here. I’m not sure what it is but there is just something that’s not quite right.

It might be that most everyone here is large, having eaten in a few restaurants here I understand why. The amount of food served here is beyond belief. There is no reason for anyone to eat a 22oz steak, none. And then if you want some greens you have to order them on the side. I’ve seen this before in places in the rest of the US but in Chicago every other restaurant is like that. It’s also very expensive. Seven of us went to a steak house and it was $800.00, and I only had two appetizers.

Another thing. Why do all the bathrooms have attendants up here. I find this a bit creepy. Someone is paid to sit in the bathroom and wait for people to finish their business, he (men’s bathroom) will then turn the water on for you and squirt soap in your hands and hand you a towel to dry with. Then you reach into your pocket and take a nasty ole paper bill and give him a tip. I just fine it strange that someone is paid to watch you pee.

If you think you have a bad job, just look at what I wrote above and thank god you’re not doing that.

Lastly, everyone smokes and I mean everyone. You can smoke in almost any venue. It’s just strange seeing it after DC banned it in-doors. Now, I am one know to partake every so often (the weekends) but it was just gross.

Oh yea, Chicago has really tall building too. Kind of cool

Don’t stay at the Hyatt Regency on Wacker drive. It’s a dump. That’s where our meeting was. Needed updating badly.

I also didn’t get my upgrade on the way home. Too many people and a full plane of people with status.

Dinner parties galore

It’s been a week since I last wrote, a very hectic work schedule is the cause.

The girl that works for me is out for a funeral in Jamaica so I’m doing her work along with mine. We also have the spring meeting coming up this week and I found out last Thursday that I would be going this Tuesday to provide Tech support. Just another example of my work’s brilliant planning skills. All of this and the fact that I had a gourmet dinner planned for Saturday evening made me wake up at 2:30am on Friday night. Ughh. I “computed” for about an hour and had a very strong gin and tonic thinking that would help, it didn’t. Dave ended up waking up and coming to find out where I was, he was smart enough to recommend a sleeping pill. I took one and was asleep within 15 minutes.

The only problem with those things is I don’t feel like I really sleep when I take one. So even though I was passed out from the pill, I felt like I only had 3 hours sleep the whole day. It was horrible.

Anyway, we had Robert and Kathy, Ralph and Amy, Mikko and Rob, and Maria for dinner on Saturday evening. One of the reason I couldn’t sleep the night before was the dinner and who was going to be there. Mikko is the chief at the Finnish Embassy so I always try to cook something impressive when he comes over. Also Robert and Kathy love to go to good restaurants and know their wines, they even own some land in California growing grapes for wine making. So I was worried everything would turn out well. This is what we had.

Seared sea scallops atop wilted spinach with a calvados cream sauce for the starter.

Grapefruit and Gin sorbet for a pallet cleanser.

Lamb chops done French style with saffron rice and grilled asparagus for the main. The saffron came from our friend Andy direct from India.

Homemade cream cheese ice cream (sounds funny but it was amazing) with half a poached pear cut into a fan, poached figs and a red peppercorn sauce.

Very rarely does everything go right and Saturday night, it all went right! I was thrilled with the results and there was nothing left on the plates. I love having dinner parties because it’s one of the few things in life that I get instant gratification out of. One day of cooking and happy people at the end of it . Always good.

For the nine of us, we went through 3 bottles of Champaign, four bottle of white wine, 5 bottles or red wine, a whole bottle of Pear Williams brandy, and most of a bottle or regular brandy. This doesn’t even include the shots (grapefruit and gin sorbet) that where served before the main. We were all very happy by the end of the meal.

I got up on Sunday before Dave which is very unusual for me. I had my coffee and then ended up munching on the rest of the sorbet. So I got a bit toasty in the morning and started making calls. We ended up at Tony and Kiat’s house after I picked up lil’David from the circle. So it’s Tony, Michael Mathews, lil’David, Rob and Mikko, Dave, Kiat and myself sitting on the back deck drinking for the whole afternoon, and it was a gorgeous day. All of this before we go to Brett’s for dinner at 6 that evening.

We get there and we have exactly the same thing I served the night before at my dinner party. Scallops to start with, lamb for the main and ice cream for dessert. It was all quite good but very funny. We meet some interesting people whose names I can’t remember. Mind you I was pretty tanked at this point to the point that remembering the meal was pretty amazing.

We then leave that party and remember that Rick has a come meet the mother thing going on at his place which is on the walk back home. So we stop in for yet one more drink. We stay for just a little bit. I was exhausted at this point so we take a cab back home.

Next thing I know, it’s morning and I have to go to work. I’m moving a little bit slow today. Tomorrow I’m off to Chicago for my work’s spring meeting. Hopefully I’ll be able to write some where I’m there.

Excitement on the 6th floor, or how I spent my Sunday night.

Monday morning, yawn. Not lots happening today so far but I expected it to be a mad house today. Why?

Last night I get a call from my boss. The internet is down at work. We can’t get to our web server and the VPN server is down too. So I take another sip of my wine, because it is the weekend and we just had lil’David, Alex from London and my mother (who is in town visiting) over for dinner, and ask Dave to drive me to work after saying a few choice cuss words. This is 9:30pm.

I’m very happy to say that there was nothing that I could do to fix the situation when we got there. As we got closer to work we noticed flashing lights and as we got to work we noticed about 12 fire trucks surrounding the building. Seems that a electrical transformer caught fire on the 6th floor and they had to turn off the electricity. I wasn’t able to get into the building so I just came home after calling Paul and letting him know what had happened.

Up early this morning. Dress in Jeans and casual shirt, I’m sure I’m going to be doing battle with the Dragon when I get into work….. at 7am this morning. Walk in, look round, what do you know? It all looks good. Every server came back when they turned the power back on, the internet came back. It all came back?? After the last couple of weeks I fully expected to open the server room door to a couple of inches of water on the floor and all dead drenched equipment.

This was just amazing to me.

There is a smell of burning electrical wires in the building but I can live with that.

Now here’s the funny part. I sit down at my desk and Melanie from the London office calls. Seems that they have been evacuated from the office because of a fire nearby. She needs me to send a logo out. How freaky is that, fires at both big ULI locations. Strange.

Anyway the weekend was a great success. We had the most amazing dinner on Saturday night. It was supposed to be just five people and it grew to nine by the end of the evening. We had Jon and John, Tony and Kiat, Todd, Rob, Mom and Dave and myself. Salmon for the starter and lamb for the main. Fresh strawberries on pound cake for dessert. And about 10 bottle of wine. LOL.

Saturday morning started out with getting up at 6am, Italian classes at 8am (Stanania said I’m doing really well), go pick mom up at BWI at 12, stop at the Whole foods on the way home to get dinner for the evening. Get home and start cooking. I finished cooking just a little bit before the guest started arriving at 7PM. It was a very long day.

I’m meeting mom and Dave for lunch in Georgetown today. We going to go have dinner with Brett someplace close by his house tonight. Dave has to pack tonight because he’s going to Jamaica for work Tuesday. I’m working from home on Tuesday because mom is there the whole day. She leaves Tuesday evening. I then will need to plan for the next dinner party on May the 5th. I think Dave gets back on Friday.

Somewhere in there I get to sleep. LOL.

Busy weekend.......................Again.

Just for those of you who think we’re too busy. Here are the weekend plans so far…..

Tonight when I get home we’re going to study Italian until around 8. We tried to do it the last two evenings but work got in the way and by the time I got home I couldn’t focus on studying. After studying I’m dragging Dave out some place to eat. I don’t want to cook tonight at all. It will be an early night because of what we’re doing tomorrow.

Saturday morning Stefania is coming over to the house for an Italian lesion at 8 am, yes you read that right, 8 am on a Saturday. We’ll finish the class at 9:30 so she can make it to the school for her regular class. We’ll walk her over and pay for it there.

We then head off to Baltimore International Airport at around 10 to pick up mom. Her flight gets in a little after 11. On the way home we’re going to stop at Whole Foods and pick up dinner for a dinner party that I’ll be cooking for that night. Still not sure what I’m going to make but I’ll know when I see it. We’re having Tony and Kiat, Jon and John (hopefully), Mom and Dave and myself. So I’ll be spending most of the day cooking and talking to mom. I have an opening between the kitchen and the dining room so she can sit there and talk to me.

Sunday we’ll be figuring out accommodations for our trip to Rome, Italy in September. We’re still trying to figure out where to spend the most time and exactly what to do while there. We’ll be in Rome and Florence. Not sure if we want to do the hectic tourist thing or if we want to find a villa in Chianti and take it easy. I’m thinking the latter one for my mom and the hectic tourist thing for Dave’s mom. Conflict, I love it.

We also have Alex coming over for dinner Sunday night, I think I’ll invite Lil’David too, it’s a good chance for mom to meet some more of our friends. It will not be as elaborate as Saturday night’s dinner. More like comfort food that’s easy to make and good for you.

We had some good news I suppose. Dave is going to Jamaica early on Tuesday morning instead of Miami on Monday. Now he can be in the house while mom is there on Monday. I’m working from home on Tuesday so we’ll have someone there at all time. This makes me feel much better. Dave has to work in the morning but we’re talking about mom and him walking to Georgetown and meeting me for lunch on Monday. I like that idea.

And, you guessed it again, we have another dinner on Monday night. Brett is coming back into town after being away for a good long time(about a month it seems like). Now that Dave will be there too, it will be a nice sit around, chat and have dinner. I might have to put my foot down and “suggest” we go out. Since Brett is just getting back I’m thinking maybe meeting him closer to his house. He’ll be tired and it’ll be better for him and everyone else all around.

Tuesday, I’m working from home and that night I take mom back to BWI to go home. I might have my mac mini by then so I’ll have a project while Dave is gone. He’ll be back on Friday.

And you thought this would be a computer free blog entry. Hehe.

I hate computers part I

Ok, I’m ready to cry now. I just spent the better party of late yesterday and all the morning up until 1:30pm trying to install the new helpdesk software. It’s supposed to be easy. You just install it over the old version, right? Nope. First you have to install the service pack to the old one. Then you have to install the new one and import all the information into it. But the new one will not install on the same server as the old one even though they tell you it should. So I installed and uninstalled over and over again and finally gave up on it and went home for the evening last night.

I wake up at 5:30 am this morning so I get up and start working on it again from home with terminal services (remote control). I do that for a bit and then decide to come to work after getting ready. I’m here by 7 this morning. I decide the best thing for me to do is take one of the old servers and reformat it and start from scratch. I decide on the old Dynamics server. This is our old financial software server so I decide to make a full backup of is first. This takes most of the morning.

I then proceed to reinstall windows server 2003. It goes pretty smoothly. I tell it to use the whole disk for the install and then keep installing it. After a couple of hours it’s installed and the computer comes up to the blue screen and a desktop. I’m happy and then start to look around only to find that it hadn’t erased the partitions form the old install. So I still had a small c drive and a big d drive. I decide that I can live with this and that I will proceed with the new install.

I install the service pack 1 for windows server. I install SQL server. And then I start to run the automatic updates. Goes for a bit and then tells me the c drive is running out of space. It’s taken me all morning to find out that there REALLY isn’t enough space on the c drive. I then spend 50 bucks on a disk partitioning software to try and make the c drive bigger without having to redo everything I just did. I download it and then try to install it only to find out that I had downloaded the workstation version, not the server version.

Ok, I go back on-line to find the server virsion------$499!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I almost cried. IT really shouldn’t be this difficult at all. Anyway, I’m here right now reinstalling windows server 2003 on one honking huge c drive after I made for damn sure that it was erased and remade. Hopefully I’ll be done by the end of the day. Trying to get my serial number off of the eopen Microsoft website right now and it’s giving me grief. It’s been that kind of day.

Did I mention I woke up with some major allergies this morning? This only makes it ever so much more annoying.

P.S. Just a little request, if you read this leave me a comment. I do enjoy them. Thanks.

Lots to talk about this time.

Computers at work.

Computers at home.

Mom coming for the weekend.

Dave and my 50 year retirement plan.

Fist off I got everything up and working - at work - yesterday. Finally. The last server was much kinder to me then the first. It still has a few kinks to fix (maybe) but it’s doing what we need it to do right now and that’s a good thing. Hopefully nothing like this will happen again for a long time. It makes my blood pressure go up until I tell myself no one will die because of this.

We also got some more good news - at work. We’re hiring the new guy from Ohio. He starts on May the 21st. Iyante is thrilled to death about this. It will defiantly help in the transition to off site server hosting that we’re talking about. She’ll also be able to get to some paper work that’s fallen behind. Keep your fingers crossed he works out.

Now for the home computers. It’s starting to get warm here and I can hear the old Mac that’s my server making a lot of fan noise. Usually I hear this at night when I’m trying to go to bed. So what did I do, I purchased another Mac Mini. I did it with a friend of mine’s help. He works in the apple store on the weekends and can get a decent discount of 25% off. The only problem was that it was a custom order so it had to be assembled and it just finally got released for delivery today after being ordered on the 21st. (no I’m not impatient). So it should show up tomorrow or Friday.

Once I get it I have to transfer everything from my old Mini to the new one (I use carbon copy cloner) and then wipe the old one and put Mac Os X server on it. I then need to setup iTunes again on both computers and get email and my website working on the New(OLD) Mac Mini server. Once this is done I can decommission the old Mac server and we’ll then have a nice quite and cool office to work in again. Now all I have to do is find the time to do this. I need to learn how to live without sleep, that would solve a lot of my time problems.

This segways into mom coming for the weekend. I’m very excited about it. Dave and I talked about going down for the weekend but figured it would be cheaper to have one person come here then to have two go there. And get this, the airfares to charlotte (an hour flight) cost $375 from DCA (downtown DC). We have mom coming into Baltimore on Saturday morning for $198. I’ll be picking her up. I don’t know what’s going on with the airlines but the prices now-a-days are insane! You get treated like crap and get charged twice as much for the pleasure.

Unfortunately Dave now has to go to Miami on Monday for a meeting on Tuesday. I’m going to see if I can work from home on Tuesday so I’m at least there while mom is in town, she goes back on Tuesday evening.

I think Saturday might consist of the Portrait gallery followed by Tapas at Jalao and then a quiet evening at home. We might get the Italian class in early if Stafani can do it early. Sunday I think we’ll just lay low until the evening when Alex comes back into town. We’ll do a nice simple dinner with him. On Monday Brett comes back and he’s supposed to come over for dinner. Dave will be leaving for Miami that day to so there should be lots of excitement in the air. Hopefully I’ll be working from home on Tuesday. We’ll then take mom back to BWI for her flight back.

All this and I still haven’t gotten to Dave and my plans to retire by the time he’s 50. That’s what we’ve been working on the last few days. I think we’ve about decided we can do it when I’m 50 but not when he is. We have a spread sheet out with all kind of scenarios, some involving not spending any money and not working, some involving spending money and working part time. It’s very much a moving target but one that I think we can manage. Dave is calling it the next 50 years plan.

I don’t like thinking about it but it’s good we’re doing it.

I use to wonder what the heck I would write about in a blog, now I can’t figure out when to shut up. Go figure.