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.