Kevin's Ramblings…

OK, let’s see if my Internet connection in the hotel will stay active long enough to make an entry…  The Internet sucks here…  Oh well…

Day two down here was yesterday.  Started early, not sure why I was up at 5:30am but I was.  Decided to go to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.  Very cool indeed.  I will post some pictures.  You don’t realize how big the space shuttle is until you are standing next to it.  Great displays – lots of planes, jets, etc.  They had a concorde, an SR-71 (stealth bomber), several fighters…  Admission was free, parking was $15.  Going back to the hotel was a LONG trip – for some reason I wasn’t able to drive any faster than about 5kph.  Again, oh well…

Went to a place called Mike’s American Grill – AMAZING food.  I had jumbalaya – excellent, excellent, excellent.  It is almost worth the drive down here just for the food.

Today I am planning on touring the DC area – there is a bus tour that you can get on and off as often as you want – sounds good.  It is a cold day though, high of -4 or something.

Speaking of cold, they have posted a winter storm warning.  The DC area is supposed to get up to 5″ of snow.  Oh no, the city will be closed.  What will I ever do?  Do we even send plows out when we get 5″ of snow?  LOL  I am sure that the people down here will totally forget how to drive with snow on the ground which is a scary thing…  They can’t seem to drive on dry pavement.

Leaving tomorrow for Charleston, SC.  It will surely get a bit warmer as we head south but the forecast is calling for mid-teens.  Not too bad for this time of year – better than the temps back home I am sure.

Anyway, more later 🙂

Posting from Springfield, Virginia (just outside of Washington DC)

Haven’t posted for a couple of days…  It has been busy.  We moved into our new office area at work – great area, looking forward to spending some time there in the New Year – that’s right bitches, I am off until January 4.

Monday night I satyed up WAY too late, went to bed @ 3am, got up at 6am.  The plan was to stay up late so that on Tuesday night I could go to bed WAY too early and sleep well until, again, I got up WAY too early and leave for Virginia.  Well, I ended up going to bed at 9:30pm on Tuesday and up at 2:30am this morning – left the house at 3:30 and arrived here 10 hours later.  The drive was pretty good all in all.  Drivers in the DC area are, I’ll say interesting…

Great scenery along the trip.  Moutains, lakes, rivers – very nice.  Drove through the longest tunnel I’ve ever seen…

Anyway, heading out for dinner with Kim tonight – Outback perhaps. 

More later…

Another Sunday, another Sunday that I, yet again, didn’t clean my home office.  I had a nap instead.  For some stupid reason (as I noted in a previous post) I woke up WAY too early this morning.  So, I slept for about 2 hours this afternoon.  What time will I get to sleep tonight…

Oh well.  I guess it’ll have to wait until I am off at Christmas.  I also have some work to do for SCMBA.  I don’t know why I find it so hard to motivate myself…  I guess I really do take it easy in the winter – and it’s not even winter yet…

I think that I will go and make some dinner – leftovers again.

What a day Saturday was…  My sister moved into a new place, great.  We decided to bring her a futon for her living room.  For some odd reason, my brother in law wants to go to Toronto leaving St. Catharines at 7am.  I do like to sleep in on occasion, although since I was up at 5:30am today, not sure when that happens any more…

So, we disassemble the frame and load it into his car.  We cram the mattress into my Jeep and off we go.  We get to Toronto, no real issues and we are setting it up.  Where the hell are the locking brackets that the screws connect to?  I take a look in the car, not there.  OK, off we go to Home Depot – thankfully someone invented GPS’s that can search for stores, etc.  An hour later we return, finish setting it up – Dave is outa there – can’t blame him, I hate Toronto too… 

Barb and I take some stuff to storage and pick some new stuff up.  Do a little grocery shopping and I realize that I don’t think ANYONE who drives in the city of Toronto actually knows how to drive.

Anyway, I just want to get back to St. Catharines where it seems normal…  I’ve driven in some big cities in the US, New York, LA, Vegas – I never seemed to see the craziness I see in TO.  Oh well, at least I am not there on a regular basis.

I get back to St. Kitts around 1:30.  I zip up to the Pen to get a new pair of glasses that are ready.  A new store has opened and they sell designer frames.  I bought a pair of Oakley glasses, look pretty good and my plan at work covers $350 of the $400 they cost.  The guy gave me a pretty good deal too.  I think I saved $79 off the regular price.  It did come to $412 originally and I asked him to lower it to $400…  I must have picked up some of my negotiation skills from my Dad.  I don’t think he ever paid full price for anything…

The rest of the afternoon is sort of a blur – I should have had a nap but I didn’t.  I LOVE Saturday afternoon naps, they are a good thing. 

Dave came over for dinner – Joan was at a Christmas party for her work, not sure why Dave didn’t want to go, but hey, his choice…

Anyway, pretty well brings me to today.  Again, no idea why I am up at 5:30, well now it is 6:11…  I have to drop into a baseball meeting at 10 in the Falls and then will likely go to work for a bit and do some unpacking.  We’ve moved into a new area and I think it’ll be great all of us being under one roof.

I have only two more days of work to get as many requests caught up on that I can.  I have about 20 remaining in my list – gotta try to shave that down…

Anyway, have a good Sunday all – gotta head to Church…  LOL, right, me at church…

Today is my brothers 50th birthday.  Happy Birthday Craig.  He isn’t much on birthdays and we don’t really talk either – I did call him last year and I had to add “your brother” when I said it was Kevin calling…  Oh well, we were never close at all and he lives in Edmonton (as far as I am aware).  At any rate, I hope the first 50 turn into another 50 🙂

IT moved at work today into our new area.  Very nice digs I think.  It’ll be good to have everyone in the same area for once.

The weekend is here and only two more working days until I am on vacation.  The weather today was rather cold for mid-December, it is currently -5 degrees C.  That would be 20 farfegnovun for your old school people.  I am heading to South Carolina so I am sure it’ll be about 20 degrees warmer there – perhaps more?  I am hopeful anyway.

Nothing really planned this weekend for sure. I think that my brother-in-law and I will be heading to Toronto with a futon for my sister as she doesn’t have anything to sleep on in her new place.  Other than that, I am planning on taking it easy, perhaps sleeping in tomorrow.  Breakfast out with J&D on Sunday perhaps?  I’ve been better about eating out recently – of course, I was trying to save some $$$ for my trip.

Have a good Friday night.

I need more time in my days to get things done.  It looks like I am going to have a crap-load of requests left at work when I am finished for the year on the 16th.  Oh well, what can ya do. 

Our new office area is shaping up quite nicely – it is going to be good for the entire group to be under the same roof.  It’s going to make things easier I think.  We move in tomorrow and Monday.

Went shopping again tonight.  Got a great deal on a sweatshirt at Old Navy for $10.  Can’t wait for their Boxing Day deals.

Nothing else much went on tonight – same old I guess…

The meeting this morning was pretty good.  I was pleasently surprised.  A good sendoff to the AMOH.  Lots of IT issues that I was able to resolve.

I freaked out a bunch of people at work because I wore a suit and tie today.  I was told that I clean up fairly well.  People asked if a) did I have an interview b) funeral c) court date.  Ha ha ha, co-workers are funny, aren’t they.

Uneventful otherwise – going to the Pen tonight.  Hope to see Sam there perhaps.

For those of you who are interested, I have a new Twitter address, http://twitter.com/DancesWithZeus.

OK, so I go to bed WAY too late and I am up WAY too early.  What’s up with that?

I am attending the PH Annual Meeting this morning.  I have never been to one, have no idea what to expect.  I doubt that there will be any technical issues and apparently I get fed so that will be good.  I plan on actually wearing a suit and tie – I will ask if that is more appropriate.  A few people will get that reference.

I also have a couple of other systems to deploy today so it should be a quick day.

I absolutely MUST finish cleaing my office tonight.  Why do I put these things off for so long?  I have to find some sort of method so that I don’t become so damn lazy…  The solution escapes me though.  I guess that I am little busier in the evenings than I have been so perhaps that is partially it.  TONIGHT, I will do it TONIGHT.  I think…

Well, it is almost 7AM, gotta jump in the shower and get ready.  The meeting is in Niagara Falls so I have to leave a bit early.  Wish me luck.

Well, it is now Wednesday but I am posting for Tuesday.  I have no idea why I am still up this late – I am going to be tired tomorrow, or today since it is already tomorrow…

Yesterday (that was Tuesday) wasn’t a bad day at work.  Started out getting my windshield replaced.  The drove me to work and I was only a few minutes late.  Prepped a couple of laptops, had a meeting, picked up my fixed Jeep (WOW, is the windshield ever CLEAN), went to Welland and Port Colborne and made sure not to follow any dump trucks back.  Another longer day, started at 8am and finished at 5:15pm… 

Got home, took Zeus out for a whirlwind walk around the big block and then went out again.  I do feel bad about leaving him along all day and then most of the evening.  Wayne did come over to let him out at least.

I had a coffee with AD.  Cleared the air.  Had an SCMBA meeting – good meeting.  Asked RS if she would be the secretary for SCMBA.  I am hopeful that she’ll say yes.

Anyway, tomorrow I am at the PHAM.  Should be interested.  The day will zip on by I am sure.

I am out – gotta sleep…

Why was I awake at 5:30am this morning?  That is way too early…  Oh well, took Zeus out for a walk, not a bad morning.

Getting the windshield replaced at 8am so I’ll be late into work.  Meetings and off-site stuff today, should zip by pretty quickly. 

I am meeting with Al Dobbin tonight for a coffee before my SCMBA meeting.  It has been long enough, gotta bury the hatchet.  It’ll be interesting to see what his reaction is to my question though – I am looking forward to it.

As I mentioned, baseball meeting #2 tonight.  I think that the Board will shape up nicely – people don’t seem to communicate as much as we did on the “old” board.  Of course, at this time of the year we don’t have a lot to discuss.

Look at that, a post with no real ranting or anything and nothing that I have to edit.  Isn’t that special?