andy’s place…

Finally had to have a semi-nerd activity after the last few weeks. So I installed the RTM code of Win7 on the work laptop. Ultimate x64 of course, what else.

Early impressions: Other than software that is not compatible, I’m loving it. Beats Vista like a rented mule, was a very quick install like the beta/RC was, and had no problems with any of my hardware. Yay for that.

The pain with this is… all the reinstalls. Management software, productivity suites, all the little things I’ve put on the laptop for the last 18 months or so, the file sync’s… I have to redo everything that isn’t picked up by the roaming profile. Which thankfully does grab a lot, but not everything. I do really need to try and get a master list of everything I do to my production machines put together so I can have it all locked in and documented.

The worst one is my geospatial software…. that one is a solid 90 minute install, plus recaching all my primary PGDB’s and their related files. For those that don’t know, that’s a lot o’ data, and there isn’t a good way to speed that up. Here comes a 50 gb index operation…

Oh, and we got an extension to my grant writing activities, so the fun of that piece won’t end for a couple more weeks. At least it will be better…

As I write this, I’m finding myself more relaxed than I’ve been in 2 weeks.  Work has been very, very busy with crazy, short term deadlines recently, and it’s not letting up anytime soon.  While I enjoy having a long term project with a known deadline, a known goal… I don’t enjoy having a series of short term deadlines for a project that none of us want to be on.  But, sure enough, the top, top brass decided that we need to be the primaries on this.  That, and that he doesn’t want to be involved in much of it…  We got to build a team as we wanted, but unfortunately, the schedule for the project has deadlines when half of the team (the top end of the team) are running a conference out of state, so they are heavily out of communication.  That leaves the top top, a middle guy, one other engineer, and me.  And the skill set required for this project is mine, not theirs.

The positive thing is the universal overtime clearance, so I at least get some cash out of this.  But I’m maxing out on my vacation leave too, so I will most likely lose some vacation time to an overage.  But there is a rule that prevents me from getting OT and taking annual in the same pay period (Week I can understand, but not 15 day pay period).  So, sometime around September 15th, you may find me taking a random trip to SF for a break.  Or maybe I’ll just take a day off and sleep a bunch.  But I do need to get to a Lowes and see the new backsplash I may be putting in into the kitchen.

Outside of the work projects, the diet contest has me hopping…  down 20 in a month.  Not bad, but still got a ways to go, and have to beat the other competitor or I lose some cash.  And I hate losing cash :-(     I did have the dog for the last couple weekends, so I had some company.  Tomorrow I’ll have to run out and hang with my nephews for a little while, as they will be away for 5 days or so.  Gotta get some uncle time in, as I’m sure you new “aunts” can attest to.

Also have had to learn how to fix Mac’s again, and I have a grand opening ceremony for the university location in town on Wednesday.  Given that I was the first instructor in the new building, I better make an appearance.  But that requires a shirt and tie…  I hate those days.

Again, I have a boring life

Another weekend with dog sitting duties, another weekend with a marathon of a show I’ve kinda meant to get into, another weekend where I find myself getting hooked on another show that I really should watch from start to finish.  I know some of you already watch it, but I’m getting started on Burn Notice…

Good characters, enough pseudo action to keep things interesting, random shots of Miami scenery (both the skylines/environment and the other scenery)…  where do you go wrong?  And I’m convinced Fiona does nothing but sit-ups during breaks on set.  That woman has some serious abs…

Of course though, I didn’t get started at the beginning (although I thought about it when I first saw the previews), so I’ve watched a good part of season 3 now, which of course is kind of missing a lot of the story.  A couple episodes in season 2 were on during the marathon as well, watched it all.  Still got 4 to watch on the DVR, so that’s Sunday.  Waiting to get the rest in Season 1 and 2 watched someday.  Should keep me busy until House Season 6 starts…

Well, the petition to take the smoking ban to a vote failed.  After the signatures were challenged, enough got thrown out that they did not have enough signatures to push this to a public vote.  So, the result is, once the AG decides when the ban kicks in, we will have a lovely smoke-free bar environment.

While I’m not much of a bar-hopper, I am happy with this result.  I’ve grown tired of the “coming home smelling of bar” routine whenever we take someone out for a night, etc…

Yes, there are going to be people that are mad at this.  Business owners want decisions to be made on their own property by themselves… I can understand that, but good luck enforcing it.  And a lot of folks think this should be to a public vote…  fine.  Challenge it again at the next opportunity (like we know will happen, abortion ban anyone?), and get it to a vote.  Pay all the costs for it, and still lose.  Last I knew, it was 3:1 in favor of the ban.  And I’m on the side of the 3…

So, next Sioux Falls run I make, I’m hitting up a bar with a crowd.  And coming back not smelling of tobacco…

Happy Andy.

Past week or two has been kind of crazy.  Work wise I’ve got between 15-20 hours of overtime from all the work for our efforts at getting ARRA money and the subsequent side projects during this pay period.  I’ll find out how much I’ll actually get to keep on Thursday…

Started another diet contest, but this time it’s 1 on 1… with my own brother.  It’s a race to a specific weight, with quite a bit of cash on the line.  Besides the main lump of cash for winning, but the loser has to cough up five bucks for every pound they lose by.  Well, I’ve been in this for a week now, and I’m down about 10…  yay for that.  See how well I do in the long time though…  25 to go.

Our golf challenge is coming up again…  August 6th I think if I recall.  Sent the invite onto the mike and the seth…

Oh, and after this weekend, I am back to hating Macs…  Gracias to Lazy for the help on this one.  Ended up doing about 4 disk repairs (still didn’t fully repair it, 4 extra files in the catalog), 3 perm repairs, tried to archive and install but that failed, lots of attempts at software installs that failed, and finally did a full sweep with Applejack and it came back.  The folks I did that for are happy though, so that’s a plus.

And you people still need to tell me tequila recipes…

Those that know me know that while I don’t spend much time in the bars and taverns around here, I do like a very well made drink in the evening (or whenever appropriate).  While out traveling, I love to find the great locations and great drinks to be had.  San Francisco taught me the value of Hangar One vodka (sorry Grey, you lose).  Kansas City had a couple decent whiskey bottles I’ve never seen since, and heck, even Sioux Falls has something once in a while that I haven’t had before.

And those that have been to my home know that I like to keep my home “bar” stocked with some of the better spirits that I can access and afford such as the Hangar One, Grand Marnier, Single Barrel Jack (hey, it’s better than the regular, and everyone needs Jack for a party), etc…  As much as some like beer, I like my spirits.  Scotch, gin, vodka, etc…  it’s welcome here.

Well, my brother decided that, as a thank you for helping him out this weekend with his office migration to their new setup, I needed a couple of new bottles for the collection.  So I now have a brandy addition, and a bottle of Patron Silver.

And being that I previously wasn’t much into tequila, I really don’t have any drinks in mind for it.  Of course, straight is welcome (although I need shot glasses for that, sounds like a SF shopping run) and the Margarita, when made well, is a great drink.  But what else?

And for brandy, any thoughts as well?

Don’t let me down here…  see if anyone earns awesome points

It possibly could be a sad, sad day soon.  Why?  Here’s why…

When it finally seemed like I was going to be able to go into a bar in this town (or Sioux Falls or wherever), have a good time, and not go home smelling of a stale ass tray (ash, ass, same thing).  But no…  as I expected, the mass numbers of old farmers, often drunk office coworkers, and other tobacco tasters have come together en masse to delay what was going to be one of the happiest days of the year for me until some point in 2010 or so.  Sad sad boosh…

Had an argument with co-workers about this.  They argued that “bars are places for people to smoke and drink, if you don’t like that, don’t go to the bar”.  Of course, I reply “there is a reason I don’t go to the bar, and it’s because your smelly self is down there”.  While I don’t go to bars with the same frequency as these folks (2-3 times a week is just a bit too much for swill beer and darts), I would definitely go out more often than I do currently.  Hell, a local organization I’m in is running out of activities and meeting places because they only seem to want to meet in bars, but no one wants to go to a smoky bar (2 of the 4 heads are smokers).

Oh well, hopefully we non-smokers can all come together in 2010 and absolutely crush their attempts.  I would love to see a 95% to 5% vote….  I’d drive people to the polls to get it even.

About 3 PM yesterday, I decided it was time for a personal day.  I was at 94.5% of my max on annual leave (PTO, vacation), and would max out in 6 weeks, and I really didn’t want to do what I had planned to do at work on Friday, so I punched out.  Got the approval about 8:30 Friday morning…  good thing I got approved

Watched two movies (yes two in one day!), sprayed the weeds, got stuff together for mowing the lawn up north, and watched the family puppy.  Think I freaked out Mike a bit when I said I had a redhead that had her head in my lap…  the level of shock that came across MSN lead to a sad boosh.  Funny boosh, but sad boosh.  Thanks Mike for being shocked, lifted the self-esteem.

Still gotta get this place cleaned up, mow up north, maybe practice at the driving range a bit, wrap a Father’s Day gift, and hit up Oahe Days.  Local summer festival where I need to snag my Grandmother a funnel cake.  Good times.

Oh, the class I taught ended up with 7 people, and we had a little photo shoot thing for the fact that I’m the first ever instructor in the new university building here.  Still don’t have my check from it though.  Sad boosh.  But I did get an apple from a student.  That was… interesting.

Last week I called into the academic coordinator for my learning seminar I’m teaching at Capital University Center on June 17th to find out how many students are signed up.  Doing so helps me figure out handout count, demos I can do, etc…  Well, unfortunately, only 2 people were signed up at the time, and 3 people are signed up at the time of this posting.  There is a minimum of 4 people signed up in order to hold a class, so I have until Tuesday to find more students, or my class is cancelled.  Sadly, when I found out that there was a good chance that I’m not teaching on Wednesday, I changed my weekend plans from prepping to teach to anything but prepping to teach.  My luck, we will get enough people, but I won’t find out until Tuesday afternoon, so I’ll be in a mad rush to get things put together and the class will suffer.  Technically, I can cancel it right now if I want, but it’s not that much work, keep my name out there, and a quick 50 bucks for an evening, so I’m still hoping it happens.

In addition, I find out this past week that my new boss (ok, boss of a year) became the regional VP of an organization I belong to, and that he will be in charge of the 2010 Western region conference.  And unfortunately, both he and my former boss (aka the former president of the whole organization) have already said that most likely, I’ll be stuck doing a lot of the work in prepping the conference and making it happen.  i.e. putting presentations together, running the video cameras, webcasting, running the social events, etc…  While this sounds like fun somewhat, those that know me know that I’m not the most social, so setting up social events won’t be my strong suit.  But, most likely, it will be in Rapid/Deadwood (sorry Sioux Falls, but you don’t have enough things to do that out of state folks would be interested in), so I can make do out there.  Casinos, 1880 train, badlands, Deadwood tours, etc… all would be fun material.  At least I have a year to worry about this one.

Our annual golf tournament is changed around a bit this year too.  Instead of a large event, looks like we are scaling things back a bit.  For anyone that wants to play, looks like the end of July will be the tournament.  Rules are simple, 4 person best ball scramble, must use a driver from each member of the team on the front nine and back nine, all kinds of skins/prizes (and not for talent either, shortest drive won 20 bucks one year)…. oh, and drink a lot.  We’ve had 2 beer a hole players before that ran their cart into the clubhouse and other players.  That was interesting…  we loaded 9 people onto a 4 person team once, 5 people on one cart (2 in the cart, 1 on each wheelwell, one hanging on the back, and yes, we tried to roll the cart, didn’t happen).  Even had a guy get so drunk he took off his shirt, swung it around his head, and chased a “mink” into a sleugh by hole 12…

Who wants to play?  Oh, and if I hear anything about skeet, I’m mailing a bomb to Nashville.

Normally not a big fan of these sorts of things (forwards, chains, etc), but given some of the crowd I saw at the airshow back in May, I had to pass it along.

Mullets Mullets Mullets - A Link About Mullets!

And no, that picture is not me, but thank you Wikipedia entry for Mullet.