Friday, June 27, 2008

I wish...

Today's Daily OM really hit home as I feel very much like this is where we are as a people, planet, what have you. I would really, REALLY like to believe that we are all on the cusp of evolving as a society. Read on...

June 27, 2008
Universal Awakening
Rippling And Tipping

A snowball at the top of a mountain has the potential to become huge, just by rolling down the mountain and gathering more snow. In a short time, this tiny snowball can become a force to be reckoned with. We humans are like this when it comes to exchanging energy and vision, and no matter how few people are involved at the beginning, there is the potential for massive change. As consciousness seekers, we are in the midst of this process, and it is amazing to see people we thought might never come around, waking up to their truth. Each time we see this, we can count ourselves blessed to be living at a time when the awareness of humanity seems to be at a tipping point, as more and more individuals open their minds and change their ways.

For some people, this revolves around an awareness of the environment, for others it is a spiritual awakening, and for many it is both. A great change in consciousness is sweeping through us all, as we recognize that things are not what they have seemed to be, that there is more to our lives than meets the eye. Many of us have the awareness and the energy at this time to break through old, outmoded ways of seeing things and to move into a new way of being in the world, and it is essential that we do so. The beauty of living at this time is that even small actions have a powerful ripple effect, and the reverberations of what we do have the power to reach and open many minds.

It is as if a scale is about to tip in favor of higher consciousness, and each one of us has the power to bring humanity closer to that point with the smallest of actions. Each time we move in the direction of our dreams and visions, we can visualize another small pebble dropping into the pond, or another gold weight on the scale, rippling and tipping our way to universal awakening.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

A Stark Contrast

It's a pretty relaxing Saturday. Victoria is out at her TKD class and I am home left to my own devices (tee-he). I was going though some journal entries that I made in google docs. This is stuff that I couldn't post here when I was working for <company that I used to work for> (I still wont mention the name, if you know me, you know who I used to work for). I found a journal entry that I made on 3.20.2008 regarding how I felt about work. It made me really happy to read over again because things are drastically different now. Here's the journal entry, edited only to remove the company's name:

I am really starting to not like myself while I am at work. I am not the person that I am outside of work in any way shape or form. At work, I am angry, pissed off, frustrated, short, and, what really bothers me the most is that I just really don't care about the work that I do. I honestly could really care less about any of the work that crosses my desk.

My only motivation to do any work is so that people will leave me alone. I have little to zero interest in almost any issue that comes into my queue. Couple this with the fact that I have completely fallen into the "cover your ass" mentality at work... I am not happy. I guess another factor is that I can just feel myself becoming less and less of a marketable employee as time goes on. It's starting to sound more and more true, what they say about <former company>. The longer you are here, the longer you will stay here. You get so pigeon holed into your special area that you completely loose site of the outside world.

What bugs me the most is that I can't just go out and get a developer job like I used. I have almost completely lost all of my skills in other areas. I am partly to blame for this as is <former company>. How in the world am I going to work 40-50 hours/week and have any interest in doing anything computer related by the time I get home???

Nothing... and I mean nothing in the world makes me as seethingly angry as work does. I got a god damn flat tire in the middle of Tennessee on the way to Lexington, had to drive an hour to an auto center, and spend $150 for 1 tire... 1 TIRE!!! and I was not even close to being as mad as I get on a daily fucking basis at this job.

So there it is. Let's review what is different:

  1. I am no longer pigeon holed into any particular area or technology.
  2. I am learning new things every day. Since my job now is half development and half services, not a day goes by where I don't learn at least one new thing about technology or web related software development.
  3. Work does not make me angry any more. I now see the daily tasks that I have as challenges that I WANT to work on. There are times when I get frustrated, but in this sense, they are more like growing pains as I am constantly working with new things. I haven't wanted to smash something in months .
  4. I am no longer working for the weekend. What a nice feeling. I can actually enjoy my time between 8am and 5pm everyday. What a concept.
  5. I no longer feel like a worthless cog in a giant piece of shit machine. I actually take pride in the work that I do now. It isn't enough anymore more for me now to do the absolute minimum to remain in good standing. I want to better and I want to do more.
  6. I don't feel the CYA or "if I do this for you, will you leave me alone" mentality anymore. I want to do things well and I want to be proud of what I do.

That's it I guess. It's like night and day.

In other news, I found this recipe this morning that I am going to try very soon. It looks delicious (in order to give proper credit, this came from LivinLaVidaLoCarb):

Mouthwatering Low-Carb Bacon & Cheese Cauliflower Better-Than-Potato Pancakes


LOW-CARB BACON & CHEESE CAULIFLOWER CAKES
1 head of cauliflower
1/2 stick butter (melted)
6 strips of crumbled bacon
3 Tbs sour cream
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large egg
Cheese (optional topping)
Sour cream (optional topping)


Break up the cauliflower and place in a large pot of water. Cook on high heat to a boil for 20-30 minutes until very soft. When it reaches this consistency, put out paper towels across the counter and carefully pull the cauliflower out individually on the paper towels. Take more paper towels and place on top of the cauliflower. Gently press down to soak up the excess water in the cauliflower.

Grab a big bowl and place the cauliflower you just dabbed with the paper towels in it. Using a potato masher, thoroughly mash up the cauliflower until it is smooth. Add butter, bacon, sour cream, whipping cream, salt and pepper, and egg. Whip until well-blended.
Heat up a non-stick skillet to medium high, spray cooking spray or use butter to grease the bottom of the pan, and scoop the cauliflower mixture into the skillet. Cook the cauliflower patties for couple of minutes constantly scraping the sides. Gently flip and place cheese on top cooking for two more minutes.

Plate the cauliflower cake and put a dollop of sour cream on top.

ALTERNATIVE RECIPE OPTION: My wife Christine loves garlic and onions, so I added these to the cauliflower mix before the skillet step. It's not too bad, so you might try it!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Must watch - The Tradegy of Suburbia

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Another political video...

How far are we from this? I know it's a little much at the end there, however, it is interesting to see how little steps lead to a drastic change over time:

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Wha???

As with all videos regarding politics, take it with a grain of salt. Just thought it was interesting.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Just a quickie...

What a weird morning. Both of us were up at like 4am. WIDE AWAKE.

Needless to say, I am hella tired now. I went to class this morning, then over to Sodade for some tea and to hang with Nik for a bit.

I then had to stop at the god forsaken AT&T store. Why?, you ask? Well, I have had no service on my phone for 2 days now. You don't think that has anything to do with my recent switch to UVERSE does it? Hmm. Well, upon arrival at the AT&T store, I tell the sales associate my dilemma. He is very empatheeeetic and does some keyboard acrobatics only to find that my account, has indeed, been canceled.

I can only surmise that things occurred in the following manner. Last Sunday, I had DISH! network, and AT&T DSL/home phone. My cell phone bill is rolled into this bill as well. I received a call notifying me that UVERSE is now available in my area. Woopie!I kindly ask if, once my home phone and DSL are disconnected if I can have my cellular bill rolled into my UVERSE bill. "Sure, no problem. I will make a note on your account", he says. No problem indeed.

Apparently, whatever ape they have processing orders at AT&T interpreted that note as "cancel account... ooo oo oo aaa aaa aaaa". Awesome.

So, after about 30 min of standing around the AT&T store, my service was restored. Thank you AT&T. Can I have my time back now please?

Incidentally, while I was there, I used an iPhone to send notifications to boss to let him know that I was going to be back online soon as I was stranded in the AT&T store, held hostage until this issue was resolved.

I should have never touched the iPhone. Now, I really want one. Sigh...

Back to work...

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Oh ... so ... funny!!

Gummi Lighthouses: When Candy Design Goes Terribly, Hilariously Wrong

Gummi lighthouses

Photo courtesy of Ryland (who has the best sign generator site) and Miss Fipi Lele.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Feeling accomplished...

Finally, I was able to wake my happy ass up at 640am and get to class on a Wednesday morning. Let's try to go 2 for 2 and do it Friday as well.

This morning's class was very good. I finished five directional palm which puts my mind at ease a little bit. Testing is coming up rather quickly and we all still have one form left to learn. I have been a little worried as of late that I don't have all of my material yet, but then again, August 20th is still 2 months away. One month to learn one form and one month to practice them all is a very good amount of time.

I think, at this point, I need to focus a lot more on my physical conditioning and endurance rather than the forms themselves. They will come through repetition. I will be ready, don't you worry.

I am really looking forward to going to the Bleach movie tonight. I, again, have already seen it, but it will be really nice to see it on the big screen.

<Rant>

So, after class I was on my way home and listening to ABC talk radio as I normally do during the day. When the news at the top of the hour came on, I heard the following (which, I can't directly quote, so I will paraphrase):

The Hulk movie coming out on Friday could potentially influence kids to smoke. One of the characters, the army general ALWAYS has a cigar in his mouth. Whether it is lit or not, it is always in his mouth. This could influence kids that smoking is cool. Because of THIS, this movie should be rated R.

Just did a search and found a link to the actual story:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080611/aqw030.html?.v=61

Alright... here we go. Bullet list time.

  • Personal/parental responsibility - Parents, do your fucking job, and parent. They are many many people with kids, and very, very few parents. If you see smoking in a movie, how about having a heart to heart with your kid about how smoking is bad. Tell them how grandma died from smoking. Whatever you tell them, MAKE SURE YOU TELL THEM. Stop putting the onus on raising your children on schools, TV, media, and the Internet. If you don't want to be a parent DON"T FUCKING HAVE CHILDREN!
  • Smoking?!?! Ok, so, the Incredible Hulk isn't about a young boy that takes a walk though a flower field and dreams happy thoughts. It's about a very tortured individual that has been genetically mutated by gamma radiation. He is not a happy person. He is not a stable person. He is a very violent person. If SMOKING is the worst thing that your retarded kid learns from this movie, good for you!
  • DON'T BRING YOUR STUPID ASS KIDS TO MOVIES THAT COULD POTENTIALLY TEACH THEM BAD THINGS. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?!?!?! IF YOUR KID DOES LEARN SOMETHING BAD FROM A MOVIE, IT IS YOUR FAULT, NOT THE MOVIE'S FAULT. TALK TO YOUR KIDS SO THEY DON'T GROW UP TO BE RETARDS LIKE YOU!

</Rant>

Ahhhh, I feel better now.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Worst. Service. Ever.

Firstly, let me start by saying that yesterday's fast went really well. I would venture to say that it was the best one since we started this whole "eat stop eat" thing. I went to my class and taught my own, no problems. After 24 hours, my mind was clear, I wasn't terribly hungry, but, I was ready for some sustenance.

We went to Kerbey Lane, as we always do on Monday nights. We both have class until after 9pm, so it's usually the easiest thing to do. The only difference this night was that some friends from KF came along for the ride.

I'm going to progress this story in timeline format so you can see how ludicrous this is.

9:45pm - We arrive at Kerbey Lane. Request table.

10:00pm - Friends show up, we sit down at table.

10:05pm - We are all sitting around at the table waiting for someone to come over.

10:10pm or so - We order drinks, Ben orders queso.

10:15pm - nothing...

10:20pm - nothing...

10:22pm - Waters come... um... yaaay? Queso comes slightly after. We still have not ordered. At this point I have complained to a manager.

10:28pm - Our waiter prances past our table. We are still all drinking water. We have no yet ordered food. He doesn't say anything to us like "sorry it's taking a while". Nothing. Just a smug "I'm high as shit and I don't care" look at all of us.

10:30pm - V and I get up and leave. On the way out, I talk to the manager and say "I want you to know that we are leaving now and it is because this waiter let us sit at our table for almost a half an hour without ordering. If I DO come back here, I never want to sit in his section again". The manager's response is "OK I take care of him now". Whatever, we are going elsewhere.

You might think that I was in a "lipid fueled rage" (I owe Ryon $0.25 now) as I was coming off of a 24 hour fast, but, let me say that my mind was very clear and I was not feeling irritable. What follows most likely would have happened had I not been on a fast as well. The others at the table were equally as frustrated.

Here are some other random tidbits. He had 4-6 tables, all of which were not filled. The ones that were had 2 people at them. You are not "really busy", you are fucking retarded and need to not smoke weed before you come to work. I don't care what you do at your house. Kill yourself for all I care, but, when your stupid juvenile habit affects my night, we have a problem.

I notice these things. I worked in the service industry for about 8 years or so. I am very tolerant of people in the service industry b/c I know how much it sucks and the BS that you have to put up with on the daily.

For example, we went to Cheddar's for lunch last week. Our waiter dropped all of our food when he brought it out to our table resulting in a big crash. He apologize profusely. He was really trying. It was clearly his first or second day. I left him a larger than normal tip. I felt his pain.

This fucking hippie last night at Kerbey was the complete opposite. Every one of his tables was upset with him and he could not care less. He looked like he was high off his ass. He was slow as shit and couldn't keep up with the smallest workload. He should be fired. Had this been a one off incident, I would be more tolerant, however, this is not the first time we have had him as our waiter. Let's just say he is really consistent. There is no reason that dinner at a restaurant, a NOT EVEN BUSY restaurant should take almost 2 hours.

I have never stiffed a waiter. I have never walked out of a place, until last night. Had I stayed there for dinner, I would not have left him a tip. Yes, he was THAT bad. Victoria ordered a hot tea at 10:06pm and we didn't see it until he was on the way to the table with it as we were walking out at 10:30pm. Unacceptable. Go fuck yourself.

With regard to the manager's response of "OK, I take care of him". How's about taking care of the problem the first time I complain and not the second, third, fourth, or when I am walking out. Get back on the pickup truck with you "Kool" hat and "Garfield" shirt. You have no business managing a restaurant.

Starving, I made, probably not the best choice, and stopped at whataburger on the way home. I am almost ashamed to say it. It was, however, delicious as I had not had a burger from a fast food joint in almost 2 months. No biggie, I will compensate today.

Anyway, that's the end of the rant. Here's what's on the agenda today:

  1. Have uverse installed.
  2. Play with uverse.
  3. Make cream of sorrel soup.
  4. Work.
  5. Make Wendy take pictures of her daybed.  =)

 

Monday, June 09, 2008

Hell yea, Ross!

I love this post. I don't even need to add any comments to it! Enjoy.

Fruit Doesn’t Need Fizz!

June 09th, 2008 | Category: Nutrition

I wasn’t happy when I found this story in my local newspaper.

Carbonation Gives Fruit A Fizz

Twenty Connecticut school districts (where I happen to live) are pushing a new Fizzy Fruit product to our children.  As stated within the story above, Fizzy Fruit are pieces of apples, oranges, and grapes that have been pumped with carbonation to give them a soda taste.  The food management contractor (Sodexho) who added these snacks to the menu hopes that “it will turn kids on to fruit.”

How did kids ever become turned off to fruit in the first place?  My son is 2 years old.  If you lined up 10 different foods, he’ll go for the fresh fruit every time.  In his eyes, fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and grapes are treats.  There is no need to add carbonation to a fruit that is already a treat.

Go look at the junk food at your local grocery store.  Many of the sweets are fruit flavored.  Why do you think the food manufacturers choose fruit flavors?  Simple answer, fruit tastes good (so the kids will like it) and seeing fruit in the label fools many parents into believing the snacks are healthy.  Unfortunately, most of these fruit snacks are everything but healthy.  Need an example?  No problem…

Indiana Jones Fruit Snacks

Let’s look at the ingredients:

CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, APPLE PUREE CONCENTRATE, WATER, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, GELATIN, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF CITRIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, COLOR ADDED, COCONUT OIL, CARNAUBA WAX, YELLOW #5, RED #40, SODIUM CITRATE, BLUE #1.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this snack is everything but natural.

Where do our kids go wrong?  Why do we need to fool them with soda?  Why are kids drinking soda anyway?  Who buys the soda for these kids?  Why don’t parents start leading from the front?  Who does the shopping?  Who makes the decisions?

My wife is involved with two mother’s groups with area kids.  We’ve had several play groups in the last two years.  All of the kids love fruit.  The fruit platters never last long.  It’s clear in my eyes that kids are naturally inclined to enjoy eating fresh fruit.  Fresh fruit is a treat.  Kids shouldn’t need to be fooled back into eating fruit.  We as parents should be providing fresh fruit all along.     

There is no soda in my home.  Fresh fruit is a snack.  It’s a treat for me, and it’s a treat for my son.  My son has a long way to go before he’s doing his own grocery shopping.  There won’t be any soda treats in this house.

It’s one thing to ignore sound nutritional advice when you are stuffing your own face, but it’s irresponsible when you do this to your own kids.  No one is born with knowledge.  Responsible parents need to make some time to learn the facts about sound nutrition.

I didn’t know anything about being a parent before my son was born.  I read everything that I could however to learn as much as I could beforehand.  The information is there if you take the time to look.  The “I’m too busy” excuse is beyond old.  News flash, we are all busy in today’s world.  When it comes to raising our children, busy doesn’t cut it.

Ross

We are all doomed...

I heard this on the radio and HAD to look it up to substantiate. The descends a bit further into shit today.

‘Brokeback Mountain’ to become opera in NYC

Show based on Annie Proulx story is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013

The Associated Press

updated 1:39 p.m. CT, Sun., June. 8, 2008

NEW YORK - The New York City Opera commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on “Brokeback Mountain,” the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx that became the basis for a 2005 movie that won three Academy Awards.

The opera is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013, City Opera said Sunday. It will be City Opera’s second Wuorinen premiere, following “Haroun and the Sea of Stories,” which was based on a Salman Rushdie novel and opened in October 2004.

“Ever since encountering Annie Proulx’s extraordinary story I have wanted to make an opera on it, and it gives me great joy that Gerard Mortier and New York City Opera have given me the opportunity to do so,” Wuorinen said in a statement.

“Brokeback Mountain” is a cowboy romance about two ranch-hand buddies who start a homosexual affair when they meet on the fictional mountain in 1963.

At the risk of sounding politically incorrect or not tolerant, this movie sucked. It really sucked. Aside from all of the gay sex, which, in my eyes was not a love story at all, this movie was just terrible. Why the FUCK would you go see it as an opera? Wow... there are flames coming out of my ears.

 

A very nice weekend and some random thoughts

Well, my mother left yesterday to go back to NYC. It was really nice having her here. I am really looking forward to everyone moving here so that we can all be together again.

At any rate, back to business as usual today. There's lots of work ahead of me today. Also, this week, we are going to be fasting twice. I am looking forward to that. Last week, I learned the valuable lesson of not working out TOO hard when you are fasting. I won't make that same mistake this week.

Today marks 4 months together with Victoria. Quite an awesome 4 months if I must say so. I case any of you have no noticed, I am really happy! Most things in life seemed to have fallen into place. She is awesome. I love her.

I am really looking forward to the Bleach movie on Wednesday night. I have already seen it, but, still, there's nothing quite like seeing it on the big screen. I am not sure yet if it will be subbed or dubbed.

Weekend recap:

  • Friday - V GOT HER GREEN BELT! Mom cooked dinner, but then didn't feel so hot. Just hung out at night.
  • Saturday - Went to the Farmers Market on 4th with V, Mom, Wendy, and Nicky. Later in the day, we went to Ben's house for the next pancake theater. Mom decided not to go b/c she wasn't feeling well, so we ended up just staying for a little bit, then coming back home. We did have a good time while there. V got a ride on Tommy's new bike, we played some foosball, drank some smores milkshakes, and watched almost all of Metalocalypse season one. We stopped on the way and rented The Simpsons Movie, oh yeah... in glorious Blu-Ray. Nom nom nom.
  • Sunday - We took a trip to Macy's @ the Domain in the morning. We ordered some new bed stuff. It came on Saturday and we didn't like it. This trip was to return that stuff. We DID find something that we liked, but they didn't have it in the store. We ordered online. Also, we went out for lunch, mom's treat =). Finally, around 3pm, we took her to the airport, said our goodbyes, and parted ways for now. When we got home, Wendy and Nicky came over for a bit (only to get some rainbow cookies) and hung out with us. We spent the rest of the night doing not much of anything.

I know, my head is all over the place this morning. I guess I'm still sorta sleepy.

Catch you later.

Friday, June 06, 2008

The best part of wakin' up...

... no, there was no Folgers in my cup this morning. There were these:

Fucking packing peanut.

... all over my neighbors yard. Normally, I wouldn't care, except they all came from the garbage that I put out last night. Boxes are never a big deal to clean up, but tons of packing peanuts strewn about! Argh, not fun. Oh... and the grass was all wet? Fun, fun, and more fun...

So, in recap, the best part of waking up, is picking up your garbage that mother nature blew all over your neighbor's yard, not Folgers.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

A very good Daily OM

June 2, 2008
Aligning Actions And Words
Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Words carry a lot of weight in this world, from how we say them to what we say with them, but it is through our actions that we bring things into being. This is what we mean when we say to one another that actions speak louder than words. In many cases, what we say doesn’t necessarily line up with what we are doing, and it is here that it becomes clear that it’s easier to talk about doing something than it is to actually do something. At the same time, it’s easy to keep doing something that we don’t necessarily acknowledge ourselves doing verbally. It’s good for all of us to take a look every once and a while to make sure there is alignment between what we say and what we do.

For example, it’s easy to talk about our dreams, but it takes a lot more energy to take the many small steps that lead to bringing our dreams into reality. If all we ever do is talk about it, we begin to lose faith in ourselves because nothing changes on the external level. In this way, being all talk and no action is actually a form of self-sabotage. It’s also useful to examine our actions to see if, through them, we are following through on our words. For example, in expressing concern about the environment, we can look to make sure that we are taking the simple steps we can take to put that concern into action.

It’s always helpful to observe what we talk about and who we say we are, and then to observe what we actually do in the world. Sometimes we realize our actions haven’t caught up with what we are saying, and at other times we see that we might change our words in a way that it will more adequately reflect what we do in the world. Either way, the more we align our words and our deeds, the clearer we are in expressing our truth in the world, and the more powerful we are in bringing it into reality.

I don't think I need to comment on this one. How many people do YOU know that talk the talk, but don't walk the walk? I have met a few like this in my time thus far on the great planet. Eventually, their words mean nothing to you because their actions are virtually never there to back it up or they are constantly speaking in future possibilities i.e. "I really need to do this", "I really need to <x>".

Moral of the story: make your actions match your words, or don't bother saying them.

Yesterday's Fasting / Last Week Recap

I know, I haven't written in a while, sorry.

I had sort of a hard time last night. I did really well for most of the day. Mostly, it was the typical hunger pangs that would soon go away. I just focused on drinking a lot of water.

I got to my school around 615. I told myself to take it a bit easy, but, I never listen. I started with some moderate jump rope while the kid's classes finished out. When they were done, I, like a raging lunatic covered almost every piece of material that I know at a quick pace.

After the above, I went to Ben's class, then taught my own. By the time I got to my class, I was feeling very tired, and a little weak, but overall still ok. I was really looking forward to going to Kirby Lane, as we always do on Monday night. The drive there was fine too.

Finally, we sat down on the outside patio. It was actually really nice. Then the cold sweat started. I am not quite sure as to what physiologically happened to me, but I felt light headed, nauseous, really hungry, but I didn't want to eat. Just overall, really bad.

I ordered a Hibiscus Fizz thinking some sugar might do me good. It didn't really. For food, I ordered the famous chicken verde omelette with canadian bacon and some wheat toast. The odd part was that I was REALLY looking forward to the toast, I guess because I wasn't feel well. I always associate an upset stomach with eating bland food like toast. Anyway... my food came out, my toast didn't. Damn you, you damn Kirby Lane hippy. I finished my omelette and bacon. The my toast finally came.

I got home and laid down. Finally, I felt better.

Interestingly enough, this morning, thinking I would be starving, I made a 3 egg omelette with peppers, mushrooms, tomato, and cheddar. I couldn't even come close to finishing it. I am hoping that my eating is starting to change.

It is really nice to be back in Austin. Last week, I went to the north east area for work. I got to see my family too, which is always a plus. It was a very hectic week. I flew in Tuesday arriving around noon, saw some clients, then finally got home around 9pm. The next morning I had to wake up early to be off to Long Island. After a full day there, we drove up to NH. You can see some pictures from this on my mobile blog.

After going to sleep close to 2am, we had to wake up at 8am to get to client #2 on time. We worked for most of the day and actually provided all of our deliverables (we had 2 days to do this). Leaving at 545pm or so, we went back to the hotel to relax a bit, then went to a restaurant called "The Library". I would highly recommend this place if you are ever in the Portsmouth area. I ordered an 8oz fillet mignon with with a wine and gorgonzola sauce that was delicious. We shared some sides.

After dinner, I took a walk (thank's to google maps on my phone) to what looked like the town square. Earlier in the day, I had previously emailed one of my former managers from <giant company> knowing that she lived in Portsmouth, to see if she wanted to meet up for a few just to say hi. You know, networking is important. I don't remember the name of the place that we went to, but it was right on the water and you could see Maine from where we were sitting. It was really nice. She was always my favorite manager. It was nice to see her.

The next day, we went in just until noon and then started the trip back to NYC. There were many engaging discussions that one might imagine people in a small business might get in to. Overall, it was a very productive trip.

I finally got back to my parents house around 8am, ate dinner, and subsequently, CRASHED.

Saturday was really nice. I woke up a little early and met Danielle & Lenny for breakfast @ Mike's Place on New Dorp Lane. Yum! I got to see their new house, which is VERY nice and then they brought me back to my parents house where I spent the rest of the day. My grandparents came over as well. All in all, it was a really nice day.

After dinner, we went to a different Mike's Place (this time on Arden Ave) for some coffee/dessert. Good times.

Sunday morning, I awoke to go back to the dreaded LaGuardia airport. I have to say, I was really surprised at how easy parking was. Additionally, check in was a breeze. I guess that is what you get when you have a flight early on Sunday morning. My flight from NYC -> Houston was fine and on time. My flight back to Austin we delayed for over an hour due to some part being broken on the place that needed to be replaced. Sucked, but, shit happens. I'm happy they found it BEFORE we took off =). Finally, around 6pm, I was back in Austin and with my V. I missed her a lot.

I will write some more later. I should probably do some work now...

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