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.