X-Mas

As usual Christmas this year rocked. After going to a Catholic mass with RB and her sister – who is visiting from Moscow – Christmas Eve I headed to PL. There I spent about 24 hours with the family and had a pretty good time. We went to candle light service at a new church in Burnsville that had a much laid back atmosphere. The first sermon was a little strange but main preacher made up for it. He gave a really good sermon about the Christmas story that seemed in tune with today’s setting. They also had a small band whose lead singer was very good. My dad seemed to like the music the most this year.

RB and her sister KB came over Christmas morning around 11 for gifts so it was nice to sleep in. I remember not to long ago my little sister would wake me up at the crack of dawn to open presents. Though I suppose it is only fair as I used to do it to my folks when I was a wee lad as well. So after 27 or so years my parents finally get to sleep in on Christmas morning! I wonder if this is the way it is in everyone’s family. Gifts is always fun; however, my video taped everything as usual and as usual it got to be a little too much by the end. I kinda went all out this year buying gifts and with one exception I think the gifts went over well. Even that wasn’t a bad idea, just not the proper fit.

Just because I’m almost 28 doesn’t mean I’m not a kid so now I have to quickly describe my booty: I got a really nice Bulova watch, a full set of golf clubs (awesome), a bunch of golf stuff – aka balls and things –, a 3 pack of movies, a shaving cream pre-heater, and other odds and ends.

Over the entire day we watched just about all the X-mas movies out there. It’s a Wonderful life, Miracle on 34^th St., a Christmas Story, and A Christmas Carol we had already watched Nation Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation a couple of weeks ago. So after having a wonderful Christmas dinner that included Ham, Stuffing, Easter Bread (without the colored eggs), Mashed Potatoes, Turkey, and any other goodie you could think of, my Christmas was certainly complete. I guess I will just have to wait a full year for the next one!

X-Mas Lights!

After a couple year hiatus, I decided this year (aka had the money too) to put up Christmas lights again. I think that I put up quite a show. There are 37 strands of lights, 2 lighted deer, a snowman, 4 sections of white lighted fence, a lighted arbor, and a spiral lighted tree. I was able to get the entire house outlined in lights, all the bushes lighted, and hung some snowflakes in one of the trees. It is so bright that the entire corner of the block that my house is on is lit up. This is the second best time of year next to Halloween. The inside of the house is also being decorated, though most of those decorations are sitting in piles around the dinning room right now.

The lights took quite a bit of time to put up. I worked on hanging them all of last weekend, and a few hours twice during last week and yesterday. And to be honest I will probably put some more up next weekend. I was actually able to stick to a plan so I was able to use half as many power cords this year. So that was nice. Also I found some really cool timers that have light sensors on them. You just tell the timer how many hours to stay on after dark and the lights come on at dusk for that many hours.

Well this was supposed to be an update a week and a half ago…. But obviously I forgot. Just a quick update though – I didn’t put up any more lights. But I do plan to buy some on sale this week for next year!

The Farm and UVA

Before Thomas Jefferson was born part of my family – German immigrants – migrated from there settlement in Pennsylvania down to Virginia and bought a farm between Roanoke and Lynchburg Virginia. It has more or less been in the family every since and my grandmother lives there to this day. Last weekend I used one of the benefits of my wonderful job and flew down there to visit. I have been visiting that farm my entire life and there is always a nice peaceful feeling when you are down there. The house that stands on the farm has been there since 1905 (same year my own home was built) but has been remodeled several times over the years. It is unmistakably a picture perfect big farm house with a large kitchen, dinning room, family room, and rooms for lots of guests. Best of all is that my grandmother lives there.

We had a nice visit, nothing fancy or that out of the ordinary. I was very happy to get several home cooked meals and enjoy hours of conversation about the family. We did a little shopping in the nearby town, saw some Christmas lights, and visited my aunt’s new home. My aunt’s new home is really only new to her, it was built in the 1880s, but it has a lot of potential. I also met her new Beau, a very nice and engaging fellow. The two of them seem vary happy and I’m glad of the addition to the family. She grilled me about RB and asked why I she didn’t come, and how come I wasn’t learning Russia. Because it’s really hard – and I have trouble pronouncing the words but maybe at some point I will.

On Sunday I found I had more time before my flight than I thought, plus I had unlimited miles on the rental and a full tank of gas, so I headed up to Charlotte to visit my friend MM who is going to law school at the prestigious UVA. UVA was founded by one of our country’s founders Thomas Jefferson. He actually wanted to create a University with more of a free flow of ideas where people came and went as they pleased and participated not in classes but discussion. Though UVA uses traditional teaching practices it does so with a Jeffersonian influence. The original honor housing still exists to this day, along with the schools honor code, and mission of the free flow of information from those who possess it to those who desire it. The campus is beautiful with traditional Colonial Virginia styled building in the old campus the houses the undergraduate studies and the modern grand halls that house the graduate programs.

MM lives in quite the house. Normally it is rented by 3^rd year law students then handed down to the ‘worthy’. It is a large rambler with a large living room that houses the normal evening entertainment such as; TV, Movies, and Video games. The bedrooms and facilities seem adequate. The real adventure comes when you venture to the basement. Complete with kegorator, sound system, pool table, beer pong table, and other entertaining areas this house was made for college parties. (quote from MM ‘Ahhhh….Now their keeping eggs in the freaking kegorator!!!???’) As fun as the house must be during the occasional party though, it seems most of the time it is empty as the people who live there are vigorously attending to their law studies.

Anyway that visit was nice to we found a place serving breakfast at 1pm (gotta love college towns), saw the campuses, saw his place, and hung out for a few hours. The drive up there and back was also just great. The colors in the trees were amazing and for some reason there was all most no traffic so I was able to ramble on at my own pace, enjoy being in the middle of nowhere and practice a little stunt driving through the mountains. All in all it was a great weekend – After two weeks though I am ready to be home…. At least for a few days.

Update Old Man Winter

Well it’s 7:43 and I should be in Dayton driving from the hotel to the job site. Instead I’m in Atlanta. My flight to Charlotte was canceled and the flight to Atlanta last night (the one I was originally scheduled on) was delayed so that I missed my connection. So I stayed at the Marriot in Atlanta instead of the Marriot in Beaver Creek OH. That’s really no big deal on hotel or the other.

The fun part of this adventure is to change my flight back last night I got to go through security again! And for the third time I got the super special treatment. So this morning when I got my ticket to go through security guess what I saw printed at the bottom….. SSSS… That means Super Special Security Service.; what it actually means is that for the fourth time in four days I got the grand tour of security or more to the point they got the grand tour of my bags!... Unfortunately my flight this morning is also delayed now due to maintenance. I’ll tell I think united is the only airline I’ve flown since starting this job that has been on time with out issue and I’ve only flown them once.

Final Update:

I got in an hour late and to work an hour earlier than usual. I guess it doesn’t matter who you fly chances are 30% of the time things will hit the fan. You can't control the weather.

Old Man Winter isn’t my best friend.

I decided to go to my grandmother’s house for the weekend and to see my buddy Mitch up at law school this weekend. I didn’t know until a couple of weeks ago if our project would be going on or not so I had to buy the ticket later than I thought. I ended up getting a ticket that wouldn’t get me into Roanoke until after midnight. Unfortunately I found out later that the rental place closes at midnight and I needed to get in earlier. Out went the call to my travel folks for the second week in a row. They really are a top notch crew. They got me on a flight that would get in at 9:30. This would work out a lot better.

When I got to the airport in Dayton the connecting flight had unfortunately been canceled do to weather. Apparently parts of the country were in white-out conditions (did you see the plane slide off the runway in Chicago). So when I got to the counter the clerk wanted to get me back onto the flight that got in after midnight. I told him that wouldn’t work because of the rental arrangements and he got me onto a flight through Dulles on another airline. FYI so far Delta had treated me better than anyone else since I started traveling.

I think all of the changes to my travel arrangements triggered something in the computers because I got flagged for an extra special security check. I remember LJ getting the same treatment back when we went to Vegas. Now of days they got it down to a routine procedure. My boarding pass was put into an orange envelope and I was ushered into another line. I put my stuff through the scanner and then they hauled it over to the super special table. I got super special magic wand-ed over my whole body – That was fun – while then went through my bags by hand. Hmm fun. I’ll have to remember not to make some many changes in such a short time. I don’t think I need the super special treatment at security again.

Most flights started getting canceled so I was worried that I would get stuck in Ohio. There was a little scare, I had already gotten onto the plane and it pushed backed and was de-iced, but then we went no where. The city shut the runway down for 20 min. Luckily once it was cleared we took off.

Dulles was a blur, as I got of the plane onto a shuttle then right back onto another plane. No waiting time thanks to the delays in Dayton. The flight to Roanoke was actually about as long as the flight to Dulles. When we landed they didn’t use stairs to let us off the plane they had a gang plank. It was sleeting hard in Virginia and the plank was slippery. We all had to hold onto the hand rails with a very strong grip and shuffle down the plank to keep from falling. I then got to have the fun of spending 20 minutes clearing the ice off the rental and an extra hour driving on slick roads to get to the house. It was 1 am before I finally got in. But I’m happy because I got where I wanted to be and only was delayed by a few hours so that’s ok with me. I’ll tell you what though, at times it seemed like the weather was doing its best to keep me from traveling.

Update:

Before posting this: Currently I am in the Roanoke airport. I don’t know what is wrong with Delta but they moved me to another Airline again. In Dayton they put me on United and now I’m on US Air. That must have cost them twice as much as what I paid for a ticket no wonder the airlines are in trouble. So I got the super special treatment at security again. Whohoo. Let’s stop the terrorist.

Also of interest is the fact that I went to and visited Mitch today at UVA; beautiful school, great area. The funny thing though that I drove 2 ½ hours from Charlotte to Roanoke and now I’ve been rerouted to through Charlotte to get to Dayton!!! Craziness, just plain Craziness. Hopefully I will get to Dayton tonight.

Working at McDonalds

Well I never thought that after getting a college education and being hired by a top consulting firm I would end up working under the golden arches!....

No I wasn’t the fry-cook.

No I wasn’t the cashier.

No I wasn’t on drive-thru.

No I wasn’t even cleaning.

I was telecommuting.

After trying to work at my grandmother’s house with the company dial up I had to find someplace with high speed internet and hopefully wireless. Believe it or not the only such place in Bedford is the McDonalds. I suppose I could have gone to Roanoke or Lynchburg the closest cities and find a coffee shop but I didn’t think I would have much work to actually do. I was wrong! Instead I took a couple of conference calls, worked with several people on project related issues, worked on the Statement of Work for the current project (the one that should have been signed in October), and host of other activities. All-in-all I probably spent 4 hours hanging out in the McDonalds working.

I think it is really interesting thought that with a cell phone, my laptop, and a good connection to the internet I can work from anywhere. A lot of the work I don’t even need the internet. But when I do I can tell you for sure dial up is not even close to sufficient. The tools we use are simply just too bandwidth intensive. These tools, such as eRooms – a place on the internet everyone store project files—take more than five minutes per page to load. If you have to do 30 or 40 activities that is 1 ½ hours to 3 1/3 hours just waiting on pages loads. It’s just not going to happen! Well I guess I should be thankful for the development of wireless and the fact that equipment and services are so available; even if you do have to go to a McDonalds on Friday to telecommute. I personally like telecommuting much better in my own living room.

SOLD and billable

Well it took long enough but the project I am working on finally sold. We have been working on a temporary Statement of Work that has been extended several times. This new Statement of Work will take the project to the finish line next July. This means that I will be traveling to Dayton for the at least the next few months. I also have been working on the task of mapping data which could lead to being put on creating/capturing master data for the customer. This would mean that I may be on the project until the completion of the project next July. I also am now billable on the project as I had been shadowing. That means that I am actually making the company money instead of being a mooch!

It is also time already for mid-year reviews. This means a lot of extra paper work and meetings that don’t contribute to anything but keeping my career on track. I hope that my project manager agrees with my self assessment. We are rated on a five point scale. You want a 1 or 2, 3 is ok, and you want to stay away from 4 and 5; though I have done quite a lot on this project so I am not too worried about it. We shall see after my PM checks off my appraisal my councilor will meet with me and go over it again. Then I think he goes over it with the partners in the office. Then it is put away until the end of the year and compared with the second half of the year. We will have to wait and see.

Utility Door

I finally decided to do a lot of the maintenance on the house that I have literally been putting off for years. The first item on this list was replacing the utility door that leads to the basement from the back of the house. The original door must have been put in back in 1905 when the house was originally built. It was panel door hung in a wood door frame. The door was simply put in on top of a pile of rocks! So over the last hundred years dirt had seeped in under the door and filled the gaps in the rocks. This led to the frame rotting out – it did last for 95 years or so – leaving a gap between the door and the ground about an inch and a half across the bottom of the door. It has probably run the heating bills up quite a bit over the last few years.

After ripping the door frame out of the wall I needed to poor a foundation to set the door on. I had already purchased the concrete but when I mixed it and poured it into the simple 2x4 form I had built I found I only had half of what I needed. So I had to run back down to the Home Depot and buy more. I had planned to have the door out and foundation finished by two in the afternoon. Unfortunately due to having to work that morning (Saturday) and it taking longer to prepare the foundation, in addition to the extra run to home depot I didn’t finish until 4:30 so I was unable to hang the door the same day. Just for some more fun it decided to rain as I was finishing the foundation. But it came out pretty good anyway.

The next day I went to hang the door and Minnesota was experiencing 60+ MPH winds. So after an hour or so of battling I had the door hung. I used a level and shims and got the door basically perfect level. This was only the second door I have hung so was doing most of the work on limited experiences. When the door was hung I was surprised to find that one side of the door was flush with the wall and the other was flush on the bottom and sticking out several inches at the top. I checked with the level and sure enough the door was hung well so I checked the wall and it wasn’t level!!!

Well this was past my abilities (I hate to admit it but I can’t do everything) so I called up a friend of mine who is professional. CQ is as good a carpenter as there is. I did have to wait for the Vikings game to finish for him to come over, but he worked so fast it was absolutely amazing. He first loosened the screws and pulled out the nails I had used and then pushed that corner back in for a bit. After that he re-shimmed the door and tightened all of the screws it took at most 10 minutes and he did it all by eyeball. He then went to the depot with me and cut the cedar to finish the job. It took him less time to cut and install the trim as it took to go to home depot and back. When he was finished the door even swung and latched better.

The finished product is really doing its job. The basement is now noticeably warmer and dryer. I couldn’t be happier with the results. Maybe the third door I put in someday will be an easier job.

Halloween

Last night was Halloween and last Saturday we had a Halloween party. There was a pretty decent showing, except that people don’t seem to stay as long as they used to. I would guess maybe 50-65 people showed not too bad. Unfortunately my younger brother couldn’t make it – I found out later he had car problems – we were really looking forward to having him there. Most people showed up in costume too, which is a good thing; though LJ still hasn’t broken his string of skipping out on the costume. The night went pretty late with most people staying until the middle of the night and others until what we can only describe as early morning. I was in general happy with the turnout and the party. Nothing really crazy happened but it wasn’t boring either, everyone seemed to have a good time.

We even put out a nice spread of food for the first time. RB would let me just through some chips and dip. Instead we had to go to the grocery store and create a nice spread that included: Ship and marinara sauce, cheese – crackers – summer sausage platters (with 4 kinds of cheese and 2 kinds of crackers), pretzels, mixed nuts, 3 kinds of chips and salsa, cocktail wieners, and cheese/chili dip! KS added some veggie dip and we had a ton of food. GM and AL put together a nice little cash bar in back so if people didn’t just want beer they were set there too.

The next day was defiantly as much fun as the night before. After 5 hours or so, it was time to wake up and clean. This was the only time I had as I was going to parents for dinner and flying out the next morning. But it really wasn’t that bad. The new floors clean up really fast, I’m glad I had extra poly put on. The yard only had a little garbage in it and most of peoples empties the night before made it to the trash can or recycle bin. It did take some time to clean the kitchen. The dishwasher was already half full so we filled it and ran it right way then hand washed everything else. That’s ok running on so little sleep my mind didn’t really know what was going on anyway so it was done before I knew it. Next year though I think maybe it should be at someone else’s place! But I’ve said that for the past 5 years!

Entertainment Committee Continued

Well Wednesday night we had another lead. This time a town called Yellow Springs. While it is not the most happening place it is a very nice area and shows a lot more life than Dayton. We were told by one of the clients that we should go to a restaurant called the Winds. It was actually pretty contemporary. They had nice art works hanging over every table, a nicely stocked wine bar, and very good menu to select from. The patrons of the restaurant all looked established and educated and everyone was nicely dressed. I guess this doesn’t really matter but after virtually living at the mall for the last three weeks it was nice to be somewhere that seemed a little less Mc Suburban sprawl. In fact it was the first time we’ve gone anywhere that was not a Chain, fast food, or in a strip mall.

It was also after a long day of work – we left the client sight at 8:30 or so at night after leaving the hotel at 7:45am – that was semi stressful. So the change of pace was very welcome for every one. While the town it self didn’t offer any new entertainment options for the group event it does seem like a nice place to hang out. Nice pubs on a couple corners and several ma and pa stores, diners, and restaurants.

The funniest part of the night was the wait staff giving our partner grief because he wanted a cheese sandwich with his bowl of chili! She asked him where he thought he was eating and told ‘sandwiches are for lunch this is dinner’. We all had a good laugh over that. But of course like anytime you go out with the team for dinner it becomes a long night. I didn’t get back to the hotel until close to 10p. Well we will keep exploring the area and try to find interesting places.

Entertainment Committee

Quite honestly there is absolutely nothing to do in the Dayton Ohio area. Mind you it’s not a metro just an area. You can go to eat, drink, bowl, go to an arcade, go to a mall, or see a movie but that is it. There are some local sports but you can’t get in unless you inherited the tickets. I know this because Mike, the other SA on the project, and I were tasked to find a place to have team event. This would include the Deloitte personnel and the client resources. So a couple nights a week we try to check out some leads. So far however none of them have turned out very well for us. Right now as it stands our options are Bowling, Pool, Laser tag, or just catering a party somewhere.

The first place we decided to check out is called the Oregon District. We were told it was an area of town going through an Urban Revival. Thinking we may have found the place to be in town, we got directions, checked out the website, and drove Downtown to check it out. While the area is certainly going through a redevelopment it is primarily residential. Nice redeveloped buildings and a clean close to downtown neighborhood. The main attraction was a 4 block section on one street that had a few stores: antiques, music, art, and other eclectic venues. Unfortunately the definition of an antique store includes the Goodwill and the definition of restaurant includes a bar with appetizers. There are a couple nice places to dine and an Irish pub but that is it.

Next as we were so close to downtown that night we decided to check it out. They do have a nice riverfront and the local AAA baseball team may be fun to watch; but if you plan to do anything downtown, get there before 5p. They shut everything down. We saw a nice looking diner – closed. We saw a couple other restaurants – closed. Gas stations – Closed. They might as well have slid the sidewalks under the buildings at sun down and closed off the entrances to the area. The only thing open was the hospital. And that is not a place I think you want to hang out at just for fun.

So the next day we looked online and found some listing for go-karting. The partner on the project thought this was a fun idea so we decided to check it out. The only location in Dayton was 20 minutes away and we got lost on the way. Side note I need to trust my own directions, we got lost because I didn’t think the directions I had wrote made sense and second guessed them – I was right the first time we should have just followed the directions! So since we were lost we decided to get some dinner. We found a little diner just outside of Kettering called Marx and stopped in. It may not have been the best idea! The menus were photo copies and they had stop stocking a third of the items needed for half the dishes, the salad bar was very suspect, and menus – because they were laminated – were used as place mats. I had an ok grilled ham and cheese but poor Mike ordered a French toast. It was the first and only time I’ve seen French toast that was fried in oil.. Not good.

So after our fine dinner we turned around corrected our navigation mistake and continued. After another 10 minutes we came to a part of town we were not expecting to. We were after all looking for a go kart track. The area was as close to a red light district as you can get. There were no kidding a dozen adult establishments with in a 2 mile area concluding with a Hooter’s when we finally came to our next turn. At this point it was time to start looking for the address ending in 31. We located 29, 30, 32, and 33 but no 31. We did pass an unmarked garage, but that didn’t look like a go kart track. It wasn’t it was a go kart parts supplier. At the end of this nights strange adventure all we found was Fried French Toast and a go kart supplier.

Another quick note: While we can’t find anything to do there are a ton of place to buy adult beverages. We passed 6 or 7 businesses that are drive through liquor stores. Literally they were pole barns that you pulled up to a cool and ordered a 12 pack and a bottle or what ever, paid, and then drive out the back of the building! What a strange place. I though there wasn’t much to do in Des Moines! Glad I get to come home every week.

Quaker Stake and Lube

So the other night our quality control partner decided we should all get dinner together, a pretty common event that happens weekly. Tuesday night we decided to go to a restaurant – ok grill – called Quaker Stake and Lube. It is an Americana Car/Garage themed establishment that sells stakes, burgers, sandwiches, alcohol, and wings. It is a nice place, large with a ton of parking. I think it probably draws a pretty crazy crowd because it had a lot of motorcycle parking. This chain started in Pennsylvania in an old Quaker State garage, hence the name. They are only in PA, OH, and a store just opened in Madison WI. Apparently the original store still has most of the fixtures and such from its days as a garage. There is a similar themed place (to a much smaller degree) on the border of St. Paul toward Minneapolis on University called Andy’s Garage, though Andy’s is much smaller and has a limited menu in comparison.

Now I had a good sandwich and the experience was pretty good all around. Quaker is known for it wings 16 different varieties from normal to Cajun to hot. Tuesday of course ended up being all you can eat wing night so the place was packed. We also found out that some of the wings require a waiver to order them! They are considered to hot the company doesn’t want to get sued. Well being the tough men that we are (unfortunately there are only men on this project) we had to order the hottest wings on the menu. These are made with the hottest peppers in the world habanera peppers not chili powder. James a Senior Consultant on the project woofed them down like nobody’s business, he has been trying to find the hottest food around since we came into town. For Bob – our resident partner – and I it was a little harder. We had a couple of the atomic wings and our mouths were burning for 20+ minutes. They were HOT. Poor Bob’s Eyes were watering the rest of the night. My mouth didn’t cool off until I finished my meal and a couple of drinks. I fact no one who ate those wings had stuffy noses any more, even the next morning!

The other part of this story is how I got to dinner. Bob doesn’t fly into Dayton as he lives just a short drive away in Cleveland; instead he drives into town. So what then does he drive to Dayton? He drives a very cool Audi TT. I’ve always thought these were cool looking but the other night on the way to dinner I finally got a ride in one. I didn’t have the gall to ask to drive (I already knew what the answer would be) I was plenty happy just being a passenger. It was a really really cool car. The interior is just as nice looking as the exterior and we were defiantly riding in the coolest car in that part of Ohio. The car really feels the road and you can really get caught up in the acceleration. So it was a lot of fun to ride in. So maybe when I get home I will have to see what the Audi dealership will give on trade for my old pickup??!!

Good Weekend.

I really didn’t want to come up with a title for this entry so I didn’t put much effort into it.

As weekends go this was a pretty good one. My flights home were pretty easy going a little late but not bad. I went out to Nye’s Polka Lounge with KS for a few beers and the GF and Karen’s new friend met up with us a little later. We listened to polka till around midnight then turned in, nothing special but a nice evening. I also replaced the part in the dishwasher and got it working before we went out so I was pretty proud of myself.

Saturday I rotated the tires on the truck, got a good run in, revised some documents for work, and then went to a wedding reception. The wedding was last February in Carmel California for a friend of mine from high school but the reception for old friends and extended family was Saturday night at Fort Snelling Air force base. It was fun. It was nice to get together with the old gang again – though there was one notable no show – everyone was there. Of course now days everyone brought a guest (though it wasn’t too long ago when we all went solo to these events and tore up the night) and it was interesting how low key everyone was… How things have changed. Just like at most the wedding we all sat at a table in the back, I think this happens because everyone is worried we will get to rowdy. Instead we all chilled with some drinks and no one got crazy. I think part of that was due to wedding couple deciding on Karaoke instead of a DJ and dancing. I think we even left before bar close!

Today was pretty good too. Woke up late, wrote out $3000 in checks to make the bill collectors happy, took the dog to the city dog run, and had dinner at my folks. Fred was funny at the park. I think it kind of felt like bringing a preschooler to the first day of class. He was really shy around the other dogs and kept running back if there were too many of them running around. At some points he was more interested in sniffing the fence and trees than playing with the other dogs or running around. After about forty minutes it was time to leave but I’m pretty sure he had a good time. Dinner with the folks was fun. My brother one a game of dice and we gave my sister her birthday present, the first two seasons of the original Dukes of Hazzard. To bad the weekend is over and I have to fly back to Dayton next week. Oh well next Friday is only five days away!

Am I still in School?

This week reminded me more of going to school than of working. It is actually quite funny; I always here people say that school doesn’t prepare you for what you actually will be doing in your career. I’ve heard a lot of people also say that they never used what they learning in school either. I may not have used any specific skills I learned in a class in school but all week I have been using skills that I learned while in college. These skills center around what you develop to get by in school rather than the knowledge you gain any in class.

Much like class I spent about 7 hours a day listening to people explain business processes to me and how they work. During these meetings I took massive amounts of notes on all of the subject matter whether I understood what was going or not. I would then spend a couple of hours a day to make sense of these notes and summarize them. Even the assignments I had reminded me of college. I wrote a ½ dozen 3-8 page papers, and put together 2 PowerPoint presentations. And just like college all of these were finished at the last minute. I was even pulling 12 hour days on almost no sleep. All of this could have explained almost any week during college.

The only real differences is I was staying in a comfortable hotel room, all of my expenses were paid, and I dink go out and get trashed. Of course I also had to dress better and be on good behavior because I am working at a client site. However being a consultant – at least doing blueprinting work – is a lot like being a student just not as much fun! Next week should actually be different as we dive into a couple of systems but it sounds like it is going to be more of the same. But at least it is Friday so I can go out and have some fun this weekend… Hmm used to do that in college to…

Dotcom Handyman

Last weekend was pretty good, very relaxing and laid back. The only exception was Saturday when I tried to repair the dishwasher. It is about 5 years old and was never even close to top of the line, but I think it is a little too soon to give up on it. Plus I have no intention of spending $400+ to replace it if I can I avoid it. The problem with it right now is that it is stuck in the rinse cycle, you can try to use the reset/cancel function but nothing happens. The dishwasher just keeps cycling the water and after a few minutes starts beeping at you.

The first thing I tried to do was hold the cancel button for a couple of minutes and see if that would do it. No luck. So then I thought maybe it’s clogged so I checked the screen, again not the problem. The next thought to come to my head was to try to empty the water – maybe that would trigger a sensor – to attempt to force it to the dry cycle. Nope. Well now I was much more determined to get something to happen. I went to the old standby… Take it apart and put it back together and cross you fingers. Nope that didn’t work either. Crap now what. I didn’t want to give up so I figured what the heck lets check online.

Armed with the model number and the symptoms of the problems I went to everyone’s internet friend Google. Actually I initially went to GE’s website and found out their support section simply tries to sell you extended warranties (I assure you this is the last GE product I will purchase if I can help it). After only 20-30 minutes of looking at online repair guides I found a really good handyman forum. Yep even handymen now leverage the internet to gain knowledge from one another. Within a few more minutes I found an entry from someone who had almost the same problem 2 years ago on a model that was only a digit off from my dishwasher. As it was from the same line and used the same parts I concluded that I must be having a similar issue. I was then linked over to a parts warehouse and able to order the part online!! The whole processes took less time than the troubleshooting I had already done.

Now I haven’t made the repair yet, the part should arrive by next Friday when I get home. Therefore the story will continue. What amazes me the most is that I didn’t get the information from a repair manual, a repair man, a service shop, a help line, a dealer, or at the local hardware store; no I found the answer to a pretty tricky repair at an online forum. It is still to be told whether or not the information was correct. I will update the blog with an answer next week.

My First Assignment

I started my first actual client assignment on Monday. I am staffed as a shadow at a firm in Dayton Ohio. Shadowing basically mean I’m there to do shit work and to learn as much as possible. This is a great opportunity. We are doing the blueprinting phase of the project so far we are just looking at how SAP works and how its modules interact with each other. The team is small and everyone is really friendly. I think if I can stay here for the next phase or two a will learn a lot (hopefully I will be able to start billing at some point). Even if the company isn’t that big and the SAP installation isn’t that big it is a great place to start and learn.

The senior consultant I’m shadowing is great. He has been working with SAP for nine years. Unlike a lot of people who are shadowing he doesn’t just give me a bunch of busy work. I get to work right along side him doing the analysis. It probably slows him down a lot because he stops all the time to explain things to me. This is a good thing because so far I only understand about 70 percent of what is going on at best. But they expect that. One of the consultants in the office told me you have to go through the process several times before you really get the hang of things. I only remember some of this stuff from training. I do think that I wouldn’t understand ½ as much though if I hadn’t had the vendor training so I am extremely glad the company sent me.

Dayton Ohio isn’t that exciting yet. So far I have only seen the client site, the hotel, the mall, Chili’s, and Wendy’s. I don’t have a rental so I don’t get to get out on my own. As I am not billable I don’t really think I will push for a car unless I can’t get to the airport without a taxi. If that is the case it would probably be close enough to the price of cab fair to and from the hotel that I could get a car. I really don’t have time to see anything right now as we are putting in some pretty long hours as we are trying to make a good impression and sell the rest of the project to the client. I don’t think that will be a problem the partners and the CIO seem to have a really good relationship.

Hopefully things keep going well and I get to stay on this project. I will certainly write another update after I have done worked on some more tasks and I have learned some more. Maybe next time I can talk more about the city too.

Pumpkins

I thought it might also be fun to mention the fact that I picked up about 400 Lbs of pumpkins from my dad. He had a record crop he set a new personal record with a 70+ pounder that is sitting in front of his front door. I now have some really nice carvers that should be perfect for Halloween, one of his giants and several other large pumpkins. He also planted literally a ton of gourds. In fact his garage is full of them; I think he will have a tough time getting rid of them all. If that wasn’t enough he wants to expand his gardens next year and grow even more! It was fun though going out and picking them and then dropping some off at some of my friend’s houses around Minneapolis. It will be interesting to see what my dad grows next year.

Muzak

First of all the title of this entry is not a typo. I maybe a bad speller but I’m not that bad. Muzak is the system that used to be used to provide music in building lobbies, elevators, and for telephone systems (hold music). For some reason this weekend made me think about these systems; I never worked with them but apparently the old telecom techs used to install and work on them all the time and one had told me about them a few years ago when I worked at Qwest.

Well this weekend was full of music. Thursday was RB’s birthday so Friday night we went to her host families for dinner and a visit and then met up with some of her friends at the 7^th St. Entry. I don’t really think it was RB’s type of music though. Much more what AP and I would have gone to concerts for 5 years or so ago, a pretty good garage band playing speed metal. Watching the kids in the mosh pit was fun I even kinda wanted to join in. Of course we were over dressed for the venue. RB was the only girl in heals and nice pants and wearing nicely done make-up, while I was the only guy wearing nice leather shoes and a button up shirt. We kinda stuck out a little. After that we stopped briefly by the Otter Bar in southeast to hear some karaoke and one last beer.

Saturday was fun. I went over to AP’s house and watched him make a mess of the wiring in their bedroom, went to Chisago Lakes for some Buffalo meat and old Cheese, saw the movie Serenity (it was pretty good popcorn fodder), grilled the Buffalo meat, and went to Oktoberfest. We didn’t stay at Oktoberfest as long as I would have liked but apparently all my friends are getting old. MQ was really itching to go because he had to study the next day so I was home by 12:30, which I guess isn’t all that bad. It was still cool to hear some polka music though. Unfortunately the music was only downstairs in the bar – the place simply to hot to hang out in – and no one was dancing anyway so we stayed upstairs around the tent in the parking lot.

Finally Sunday night RB and I went to the Foo Fighters and Weezer concert at the Excel energy center in St. Paul. It was a lot of fun. We got the tickets through my networking group at work and got to see the concert from the executive box. Unfortunately we missed the happy hour because I was running way behind (and decided to stop at CompUSA on the way home from the gym). The opening band wasn’t really all that good but Weezer was awesome. Again I don’t think the Foo Fighters was RB cup of tea but I think she had a good time anyway. Believe it or not it was her first concert! The executive box was directly in front of the stage so the view was awesome. Besides my networking group a manager from Audit brought her daughters and some of their friends. So, half of our entertainment came from the crazy 13 year olds us who screamed their heads off at the bands. All in all it was a lot of fun and a good kicker to the weekend just before I start my first assignment.

Back to the Stairs

Yesterday I finally got of my lazy but and did some restoration work on the house. I have been working on the stairway since last summer very, very slowly. So far I have repaired the walls, stripped and stained the windows plus the chair rails and trim, and stripped one of the two platforms on the stairs. Yesterday I pulled up most of the remaining carpet and 50 year old padding, pulled out all of the nails and staples, and did most of the taping need to start stripping the majority of the stairs. Once I finally get these stripped, stained, and pollied I can finally paint those walls. Then the only thing left to do on the main floor will be the kitchen and adding the bathroom. Both of these have to wait until I get the roof repaired though – that should happen this spring.

Fred didn’t really know what to do as I kept moving around. Though he is a very mellow animal he kept trying to help me… Though I don’t think there is much a beagle can do to help me on the house he was always willing to be underfoot and in the way! Eventually he did get board and went to his normal perch over in the center of the couch, lounging and sleeping. Hopefully if I can avoid Fred’s help I can finish taping tonight and even to a little bit of stripping. I think if I can get one good day to work on it I might be able to get all of the stairs up to the platform stripped and ready to stain. Once the main stairway is done I will have a pretty big chore rebuilding the wall at the top of the stairs though; as a lot of the plaster is coming away from the lath. Oh well I’m told it will be worth it when I’m finished.

STAFFED!!

I started in back in July, spent six weeks in orientation and training, and then was put on the beach for the last month and a half. Finally I will be productive. I found out yesterday morning that I would be staffed starting October 3^rd. The job as far as I know is in Dayton Ohio and will last at least until the end of the year. It’s a Shadow role so am basically being given away for free. However if they like me I might get picked up as a regular on the project. It’s going to be kind of a pain to get there, I have to connect and take a puddle jumper so I will most likely fly out on Sundays instead of Monday mornings and get in really late Thursday nights. But I can live with that.

It is a SAP FI/CO project so it is a project that is perfect for my alignment with in the company (I am both aligned in EA – SAP and have the FI/CO training). It’s also half way to the east cost so I can alternate travel and hang out with people I met in training. So that will be fun to party in NY, Boston, DC, etc. I am also looking forward to traveling. I mean it is only Ohio… But what the hey; I can check out Cleveland and Dayton. They have to have something worth seeing. It will just be nice to be out of the office and doing something new again. You can only do so many online trainings and so much busy work before it gets old. So hopefully this assignment will lead somewhere.

Fred and a Proposal

Well the cats are gone, but KS decided she needed a little critter to take care of so she went out and adopted a dog; Fred the Beagle. Fred is five years old and at one time was a stray. He is a very good dog though. He has yet in two weeks to make any sort of a mess and almost never barks. He is the mellowest dog I have ever seen, he just hangs out and seems happy to have people around who give him attention. We don’t know what his name originally was and he hasn’t caught on to the fact that when we say Fred we are talking to him but he will. It does cause some problems though as he doesn’t play fetch very well or listen when you get him out of the house. I guess that will all change eventually though.

KS is even trying to figure out what the dog needs to be for Halloween. I don’t know why the dog would need a costume but why not. My favorite idea so far was to dress him up like a cat. She wants to figure something out that they could do together. Apparently there are a lot of dog costumes online to choose from. Who would have thought? I tried talking her into a few idea’s but I guess she would rather make him cute rather that scary.

On the Job front I went to Lake Geneva WI last week for an all hands meeting. It was held at a beautiful resort, though I had to stay a couple of miles away at another hotel. It was a lot of fun to meet all the people in the Midwest who do the type of work I will be doing once I was staffed. I also made a few good connections so that was fun. I was sick the first night so after a long day of meetings I didn’t have the energy for that night’s company entertainment. I was told they had a mock casino, a dance club, and mellow café set up for everyone. Oh well next year.

Yesterday I found out that I have finally been proposed on a project. Though this may not come to anything it was great news because it means the staffing people haven’t forgotten about me! The project would be in Ohio so that isn’t the most exciting place. It would also take ½ a day to get there and require flying a puddle jumper from Detroit. The good news about the location is it would put me in a good location to go anywhere on the East Cost as alternate travel. So I would probably try to get to New York, Boston, Baltimore, DC, and maybe other places while I was on the project. It could last 11 months so I would have the time. Also because there is a connecting flight I should get status with the frequent flyer program in the first half of next year! Anyway here’s hoping.

Being Sick basically sucks.

So from a week ago last Saturday until last Friday I was sick. I don’t know what I had, but it basically sucked. It was some sort of virus and my throat was really swollen. I couldn’t talk, drink, or eat for several days and I had a temperature that ranged from 95 to 101. So it was not much fun. I didn’t really do much all week. I ended up working from home and staying out of the office except for Friday.

At one point I even tried going to the doctor. This as always was just a waste of money. I don’t know why they spend so many years in school; I always get the same diagnosis from every doctor. You have a virus and there is nothing we can do about it. Drink plenty of fluids and Tylenol if it doesn’t go away in a week or gets worse call us. What a waste of $23 bucks. That’s right what a waste of a $20 co-pay and $3 in parking money.

But I feel much better now and even took part in a networking event Friday night. It was fun. We went to a place in Northeast called Let’s Cook. The name basically gives away then idea. They set you up with some host chefs and all the supplies and you group drinks wine and beer while cooking you own dinner. It was fun my networking group includes partners, senior managers, managers, consultants, analyst, and an admin. The admin seemed to know everything that was going on in the company and we heard some really funny stories about some different partners. It was a lot of fun. I made Key Lime Pie, but we also had shrimp appetizers, spicy chicken kabobs, cuz cuz, salad, and some bread. Someone from the group made everything except the bread.

SKYDIVING!!!!!

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and finally was able to. It was actually a birthday present from my parents. We had some extra fun with it because MP set AP up to do it (his birthday is in 2 weeks) with us and we surprised him with it that day! He did figure out where we were going before we got to the airport – even though MP was sure he new nothing – but he was still pretty surprised and thrilled when we got there. KS and RB also came along and proved they are as brave and crazy (if not crazier) than all of the boys. No one had any second thoughts or hesitated at any point we were all really pretty gung ho.

After an hour and a half drive out to Hutch we met the lady who runs the company (Skydive Hutch), she is about as crazy as anyone I’ve ever met. Not that I expected anything else. They took us into a room off to the side of the hanger and explained their safety record how things work and what to expect. Then we watched a really lame video from the inventor of the tandem system. The video is approaching 30 years old and the man giving the lecture is as ancient as they come. He had a long white beard that went to the middle of his chest and talked about the waiver we had to sign that kept us, or our heirs from suing the skydiving company or the equipment manufacture. After that we took twenty minutes or so to fill out the forms and read/sign the waivers.

Even though our appointment was at 11:00 no one from our group jumped for a couple of hours. They split us up into two groups AP with KS and RB and myself. There were only 7 people in the plane when RB and I went up; our instructors, cameramen, us, and one other jumper. I thought at this point I should be scared or at least really, really nervous but I wasn’t. Maybe having flown in small airplanes all of my life has made seem pretty normal but the flight up seemed nice and smooth to me. After about a 10 min ascent it we were at altitude (about 14,000 ft above see level – 2.5 miles or so). At this time they opened the door – kind of a roller door that works like a roller desk top – and the lone jumper leaped out and disappeared in less than the time it takes to blink.

That is when you finally understand you are about TO JUMP OUT OF AN AIRPLANE! First the cameraman climbs out the door and hangs on to the side of the plane. This way they can get photos of you actually leaping. Then you shuffle up to the door with the instructor attached to you back – I say shuffle because the interior of the plane is to short to walk or waddle to the door – at this point to hang your toes over the edge of the door cross your arms to your shoulders and wait. You have no control of when you jump the instructor takes care of it all. You just look out at the ground below and wave at the camera man and then…..then….you are propelled out the door and in freefall and on your way to a terminal velocity (yes that is a title of a crappy movie but it is also a real term) of 120 mph.

The free fall is amazing. It is nothing like you expect. You are moving at 120 mph straight down but you feel suspended in midair. In this case it lasted 90 seconds or so but felt like 10. There was no crazy uneasiness in my stomach. In fact the power tower at Valley Fair is more upsetting. It is more serene than anything. At this time you are in a crazy arching position, trying to kick you instructor in the rear at the same time you are raising your head and have your arms out in a w shape. The g forces make your skin press back on you face but it’s not much different then hanging you head out of a window on the freeway. The view is amazing – at least it was with a crystal clear sky – and the freefall was easily the biggest rush of the whole experience. Though, it is kind of weird to have this camera guy getting into your face for most of the time. After 90 seconds or so the instructor taps you shoulder and then you get jerked upwards as the shoot deploys and you start to slow down.

For the next four minutes or so we floated back to good ole terra forma. We did a few turns which are like a carnival ride you control yourself by pulling down on either control. This dumps air on side of the shoot and you spin one direction or another it is quite fun. I only got to do a couple because we spent a lot of our time actually heading back to the landing zone. RB jumped out closer to the landing zone so she had more time and got to do a lot more turns. It is absolutely an amazing ride coming down. You are still moving fast, I found the experience once the shoot open to be a lot like flying a glider without the glider. You have some control but you still have to be aware that you are moving forward and downward all the time. As we came toward the ground I was supposed to pull my legs up and hold them straight out in front of me. Unfortunately my harness was too tight and holding my legs down so I could only move them a few inches. This combined with my instructor coming down to fast and to soon kind of landed us on our hands and knees instead of on our feet. But that’s ok it was worth it.

With the exception of the jump the day was actually vary lazy. The drive out was uneventful though we were all excited. Then we lazily hung out at the airport for a few hours before suiting up to jump. After the jump we went to the VFW (yeah it’s a small town) and had a quick linner. Then everyone went home and took a nap. Well with the exception of KS who went to her old apartment to clean. Later that night RB and I met up again with AP and MP and went to the Cheese Cake Factory and saw a movie. The movie was hilarious but defiantly not the highlight of the day

Baseball, Baseball, Baseball

The Twins were on a roll. Key operator being “were”! They had one 8 of the last 10 games including sweeping the Chicago White Sox in last weeks series. Unfortunately the night I decided to go to the game with some friends there luck quit on them. We went to the Wednesday night game against Chicago and watched the Twins quit literally stand around as the Sox scored through out the first 3 innings. The next six were basically uneventful and then in the ninth, after most people – including my buddies from DC – had left the Twins rallied. All of a sudden they had scored twice, had a guy on third, and only two outs. But they lost anyway with the next two batters striking out. Bummer. But at least happy hour that day was good. It was also fun to spend the night with both new and old friends. It’s been probably 2 maybe even 3 years since I went to see the Twins so all in all it was a good time.

One thing I did think about while watching the game was how crappy the dome is for baseball. I really hope they build the stadium up in Anoka and move the team. For one thing it would help some of the traffic; not for most people but for me and that’s what counts right! Also then maybe they could lower the city sales tax (dome tax) though I don’t think they ever will, considering the dome has been paid off for years. I would however like to watch baseball in an outdoor stadium.

As if the Twins were not enough for one week, RB and I got to go to the Saints game on Friday night. I was nice; DC rented a tailgating area in the stadium parking lot and supplied us with beer and Famous Dave’s. They also gave us the tickets to the game so it was a fun and FREE Friday night. The Saints also lost. I’m beginning to think I am bad luck at ball games for the home team. But the Saints games are always a lot more fun because of the atmosphere. There are always side attractions going on, the stadium is outdoor like it should be, the fans are aloud to have more fun (throwing beach balls around and being more crazy), beer and food are a little cheaper, heck even the announcer is more fun cracking jokes and making fun of the players. I did have to teach RB about baseball but she caught on by the end of the game and enjoyed it a lot. It was also funny because I ran into people from both CSOM and high school. Some of them I hadn’t seen in years.

New Water Heater

While I was away at training for a month my water heater sprung a leak. That is actually an understatement, the water heater systematically failed. It started leaking from every seam both on the top and bottom. The entire basement had about 1/8” of water in it. – Fun – So for the first week or I ignored like any good home owner what else can you do. That as it turned out was a bad Idea and the water didn’t go away. So the second solution was even more fun. I cut the hot water off to the water heater. This meant anytime I wanted to use hot water I had to go to the basement and turn it back on. I’ll tell you this it was a ton of fun waking up early in the morning, walking into the cold basement, turning the water on, and then turning it off before I left for work. So after these wonderful solutions caused me more hassle then putting a new one in I broke down and bought a new one!

The old water heater lasted about 15 years and the longest warranty I saw at Home Depot or Menard’s was 12 years I guess buying a new one isn’t that big of a deal. Of course now I’ll be short on cash for an extra couple of pay checks but what can you do. Anyway with the exception of Sears there isn’t much of a selection in water heaters at home improvement stores. So I picked one with a nine year warranty that was 25% larger and 25% more powerful than the old one. So hopefully the supply will last a lot longer than the old one. I asked a friend of mine from work to help me out with it and the free labor cost me quite a bit. KW was a heck of a plumber – even if I need to practice sweating pipes – but that man can eat. It cost me 2 brats, 2 big burgers, a half dozen beers, a bag of tortilla chips, and jar of salsa. The grocery bill was pretty close to what a plumber would have cost (I kid, I kid, of course thank KW!)! But now that is finished so hopefully that is the last appliance for a long time.

What a dope.

I don't really have much to say. I just thought anyone reading this blog would be amused by a little story.

At one point in my life I was responsible for a fiber optics ring for a large retailer that included 26 sites thought out the Twin Cities. This ring was probably worth in equipment alone around $130 million dollars. Not to mention the cost to install, configure, run, and of the data on the ring. I've always been pretty proud of this.
I have also always been proud of my technical savvy. Creating the software, hardware, and set for this site and others. Trouble shooting expensive networks and so on.

Today however I was humbled.

For the past couple of months I have been frustrated on occasion because I was unable to log onto the web access of a new checking account I opened. I have tried maybe a dozen times to enroll and get online and never had any luck. Finally today I called tech support......
I had been entering my SSN incorrectly!
I was supposed to enter it xxx-xx-xxx, I had entered it xxxxxxx. No dashes.... All that frustration over 2 dashes!!! Well who knows technology now!..

Fun in Chi-town

RB (my GF) came out to Chicago last weekend. She flew in Friday night and out last night. We had a blast. Of course some people would think we were crazy because we went basically non-stop from the time she came up to when she left.

Starting with Friday night we ended up taking a scenic drive down Harlem St… Hmm it wasn’t really by choice though. We – I should say I – missed the correct turn so I thought I bet this road will get us to where we are going. And sure enough it did – after an extra ½ hour of driving. But it was all fun anyway because I like exploring and RB didn’t seem to mind. We finally got to the train station and found out we needed change (three dollars in quarters) to feel the parking system. So we spent some time asking cabbies and strangers to make change out of a few dollars. We finally got into Chicago around 9p thanks to our misadventures of the night. Honestly though it was quite fun so far and we hadn’t even done anything!

For the rest of the night we dined at Harry Caray’s restaurant and met up with some of my Coworkers at the Fulton Lounge. Harry Caray’s was a great experience, steeped in Cub’s history it is a Steak Chop house with an intimate décor, great service, good food, and it was totally enjoyable; we didn’t even have to wait because we got there so late. Fulton’s lounge was also fabulous. It is located in an old meat packing district that apparently has some of the hottest clubs in town. Very off the beaten path Swinger’s style you have to find this place. Being a swanky place it was very laid back with good music and comfortable couches for hanging out.

Because we had been out so late the night before, we didn’t get into Chicago ‘til around noon on Saturday. So we started our day with lunch at the Billy Goat (a dinner that the SNL skit cheezeboorger, cheezeboorger, cheezeboorger was based on). We – like every other dinner at that meal – got a double cheeseburger and chips whether we liked it or not, but that is the fun of that place. We spent the afternoon at the Shedd Aquarium. That was a lot of fun and now I only have to go to the Planetarium and I have seen it all (along the museum district in Chicago anyway). After the aquarium we took a water taxi up to the Navy Pier. That was fun but a little wet. The man selling tickets reminded me of a young James Earl Jones. He was crooning a dozen different lines to entice potential customers using a very distinctive voice. Navy Pier was busy hosting several weddings and the usual tourist. We took a good look around, walked up and down the dock and then moved on. Navy Pier is easily the most touristy attraction (tourist trap) in Chicago.

We walked around river north (one of the Chicago neighborhoods) for a while then went to Gino’s East for some original Chicago Style Pizza. It was a lot of fun. We had to wait in line for around 40 minutes but they had people come out and entertain everyone. The magician wasn’t all that great but it beat waiting in line with no entertainment. Gino’s East is fun because every inch of the restraint is covered in graffiti. You are actually encouraged to write on the walls, hell they’ll even give you the pen/marker or whatnot. We didn’t finish dinner until around 9p, it just seems to take awhile to get around town and do most things. After dinner we caught an L south to head back to the park and hopefully see some fireworks.

On the way through the park, while headed toward Lake Michigan we noticed a lot off people gathering around Buckingham fountain. We stopped for a while to try and get some photo’s of the fountain all lit up at night when it suddenly went dark. After a moment some music started playing and the lights came back on and a show started. The show was not quite the Bellagio’s Fountain show but it was very well done. It lasted about 20 minutes, consisted of four or five different tunes with coordinating lights, and the various features of the fountains surged and came on and off in a spectacular display. As the last song finished we heard some loud booms and found that the fireworks were being launched over the Lake. After the show we headed over to Buddy Guy’s Legends Café. This is a must see Blues Club just south of the loop on Wabash. We stayed there the rest of the night and watched a show by John Primer, the same bluesman I was lucky enough to see last March while in town with GM and AL.

As if we hadn’t seen enough we finished our weekend on Sunday by dining at my favorite Italian Restaurant The Italian Village. The service is always great, the food is good, and you can’t beat the ambience. It has been built to recreate an Italian Village outdoor dinning setting complete with a night’s sky and white strung lights. They are always playing relaxing music, many times including Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. The service never stops; if your glass is half full it will be refilled before you can even notice the server. The same can be said for bread and used plates disappear in literally seconds. This is the third time I’ve dined here and plan to do so again the next time I’m in town. After lunch we walked around the Loop area of Chicago then headed out of town. Once out of town we took a detour through a small city center in the city of Downer’s Grove, walking around town and having a nice ice cream cone. After that weekend we needed a rest so we spent a few hours hanging out at the hotel, then RB was off – heading back to Minnesota. Though it was a lot of fun I’m almost glad to get back to training just to get some rest..

Cats and the Beach

Finally. I have a cat free living space. It is wonderful. I can leave doors and windows open with out worrying about the dumb animals getting out. Now all I need to do is clean all of the cat hair off all the furniture, out of all the nooks and crannies, and anywhere else it lurks. This will probably take a few weeks. For now though I am in a good mood about them being gone. I don’t think I will ever live with an indoor cat again. I have decided pretty defiantly that at the least I don’t like cats at the most I hate them. Oh yeah and there owner also moved out with them so now for the next week or so I am the only one in my house. It’s kinda quite.

Now I need to get the house ready for KS to move in. If it stops raining I’ll go up on the roof and put in a vent for a fan in the bathroom. I’ve only been putting off for five years. I also need to clean that room up and maybe touch paint up. No biggie the paint held up pretty well over the last couple of years. Now that the cats are gone I finally poly some of the woodwork I finished restoring a few weeks ago with out worrying about them stepping or climbing in it. That will be nice I need to finish the rework on the stairs before winter so I can seal the windows. I read today natural gas is going to be through the roof today so I’m going to need to find everyway possible to save energy.

Work is very different this week. They use two different terms for what my fellow new hires and I doing in the office right now. The first term they use to describe our status is being on the bench this term implies that we are anxiously awaiting our turn to get out there and get some billable hours in. The second term used for the same status – this term is used more often – is that we are on the beach this term implies that we are just relaxing in the sun with out many worries. Interestingly enough both of these terms explain the situation quite nicely when looking at the situation. I finished training last week in Chicago and flew home. I came into the office around 8:30a on Monday – though no one set this time it just seemed right – and have been just doing very light administrative work and online trainings all week. There is no one to report to and no one is checking up on us. So we are taking it pretty easy, however everyone is really anxious and some are attempting to get work. If this goes on much longer I think I will ask for some proposal work so I have something more productive to do! Ahh what a crazy job.

More Vendor Training, Crazy Hours, and Wonderfully Lousy Service

After a brief weekend at home I’m back in Chicago. The second week of vendor training is pretty similar to the first. The only real difference so far is that everyone is running low on energy. Next week I think people will really be dragging. Having all these people in one place is a mixed blessing; you meet so many people but you spend so much time socializing no one gets any sleep. I think everyone is going to be glad to actually get into a project. That being said last night we took an architectural boat tour of Chicago. We rushed downtown right after class and met up with people from the other two training centers. The first half of the tour was really interesting…. the second half is a little hazy due to the open bar! So I guess you could say that the work week went well.

After the boat ride most of the SAP crew went to dinner at a place on the Chicago River. Unlike most bars where the rule is polite and helpful service Dick’s Last Resort has built its reputation on the opposite. You have to get your own drinks, the waiters insult you, yell at you, and they make fun of you so that everyone else in the bar is supposed to point and laugh. As intimidating as this sounds – it is actually a lot of fun. The wait staff also creates these tall white hats out of paper with obscene slogans written on them. As you probably guessed these hats are put onto the patrons at random intervals, and everyone again points and laughs (though not to hard because yours is coming too). I would try to remember a few of the quotes here but they are not at all family friendly! The service was so lousy it wonderful. The restraint is basically a crab house with an attitude. So the food was pretty good to. They also had live music but it was too loud to talk to anyone and too early in the night for that kind of scene so most of the fun came when the band was on break.

Last weekend was a little weird though. One of my roommates moved out. That wasn’t the weird part though; it was the hours that she moved. I had been woken up at around 7:30 in the morning having heard her and a friend moving stuff out of the house. I thought she was just starting so I went back to sleep. Apparently she was finishing up though because when I got out of bed a few hours later all of her gear was gone. I’ve never heard of moving at such an odd hour before, but I guess I have packed up friends late at night and then driven across several states overnight so it’s not the odd. Soon I will be roommateless. This is only going to last ½ week and then I get a new roommate. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to look for a second roommate yet. I guess that will all be decided once I’ve tried to make the bills for a few months.

Vendor Training in Chicago

After a very brief weekend at home I am now in vendor training in Chicago, learning how to configure SAP. SAP is a large enterprise wide software application that can run an entire Fortune 500 company from sales to accounting to manufacturing control to enterprise planning. I am personally being trained on the Financial and Controlling modules. These modules tie into every aspect of the system as they record and control the money flow in the system.

Now over the weekend I really didn’t get much of a break I got in around 9:30ish and just hung out at home and watched movies with R. The following day I had a work BBQ, it was a lot of fun but after doing some online training Sunday I have done something for work for the past 13 days!! Oh well I guess that’s the way it’s going to be. Hehe. So besides work I also had time to visit with my folks for dinner, I went to a fun house warming party, went to Santana’s after midnight Saturday, and went to see The Wedding Crashers.

The Wedding Crashers BTW was a great movie. I certainly due suggest it. Thought it still doesn't top Old School but it certainly is worth going to see.

I never did really get much of a rest though.

I hope the in the next few weeks I have time to work on the house. I’ve got all the drywall finished and most of the wood work; now I have to refinish all of the stairs. It would be nice to get the windows back in before it starts to snow. It’s going to look great if I can get that and the roof refinished next spring I will have made huge progress. I think this is going to be a draw back to my job because I will have so little time to work on the house. We shall see.

So as I have absolutely no sense of organization tonight I thought it might also be interesting to recap the last week of training minus the training. The first night I went out to Champs with just my class there were like 7 of us but they are really fun people. Tuesday night we had a whole fiasco because we got 20 of the 30 people at SAP training out to P F Chang's for dinner. It was really funny to watch the waiters try to keep everything straight and then split the bill 20 different ways. Wednesday night we went to the Navy pier in downtown Chicago and hung out with some people in the Oracle training from the firm. There was a band, a lot of crazy people, and fireworks (though I have seen a lot of them this year I still love to watch)! Finally on Thursday we went out on Rush Street in Downtown. I’ve been there before but it is a lot more fun when it is warm out! People from all 3 Chicago training sites came down and we were 2/3 the clientele at the club we ended up at. It was a blast – though Friday was really hard to stay focused!

This weekend looks to be a lot more relaxed so hopefully I will finally get a rest! I’ll let you know.