An (almost total) waste of a day

It was really nice this morning to wake up and see it was so late. I was able to sleep late and did not have any urges to get up or having the kids jumping all over the bed. I knew the wife and the kids had planned to go out but I had to stay in to take care of some unpleasant task. To put it as simply and cleanly as possible, I need to collect some stuff related to my hospital stay a few months ago. That is as far as I will go!

Because we have a DVR, I don’t feel the extreme pressure to watch any TV show the same night it is shown. And waiting for reruns is really not for me. So I had quite a few shows recorded and it was taking too much space, so since last night I started going through everything, deleting things that I will not watch after all and I also watched the pilot episode of Fox’s “Lie To Me”. I liked it, a rare thing since I am very partial to the Peacock network. So I really had to make sure there is enough space available to record that show plus the other shown the SU had also programmed to record. I had my fill today of “ER” and caught the season premiere of “Big Love”. And after all that TV, I am still in front of it with the laptop watching “American Chopper”…

And since I had the house to myself, you’d think that I’d take advantage of that to redo my office space. Yeah, riiiiiiight… That means that I have exactly three weeks to get some stuff done, to put away all the magazines and papers around my desk and get the house spic and span before my birthday and my son’s baptism. Considering that I will be on-call (again) in 2 weeks, this is almost like an impossible task. Hence the feeling of having wasted my day.

Another good thing from today was the fact I was able to straighten things out with a little matter I did mention yesterday. There was some tension and some hurt feelings on both sides but I am glad we finally have said what we needed to say and are back to be ourselves again.

Yesterday, I finally sat down and took a long hard look at our Wii. Now, for an IT person, one of our pet peeves is when we have someone call us because they cannot do something and instead of looking for a solution first, find it easier to call us. And one of the first thoughts we have is “RTFM!” So when my daughter opened her presents and unwrapped the Wii, we went directly to the TV and hooked up the cables, fired it up, stuck the CD in it and started to play. It actually took me a month to hook up the console to the Net and play with the Internet applications. As soon as the console was on the Net, it downloaded and installed the last patch files and now the console is up to date. But the application that really blew me away was the weather application. After getting my local weather, I could get the weather for other cities in the world but the amazing thing is that it’s a globe and it can be turned around and even enough to see the South Pole. Temperatures are not really in real-time but it was really, really cool. Oh, and I am getting my butt kicked while playing NBA ‘09. But I’ll keep on practicing and getting better.

The other thing is the ability to connect to another Wii console and chat, exchange files and play live. I will set it up so my daughter can play with her cousins down in the Caribbean. And I also made sure I have parental controls on because little miss thing is getting to be smart enough to be going to some sites all by herself…

Next week is the last week of January 2009. Really disgusting to see how time is flying so fast…

Till then…

Is this crazy enough?

I LOVE YOU

Till then…

Hodgepodge time

No, you can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
And if you try sometime you find
You get what you need

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed (1969)

Not tonight, dear

I had so many things to say today. I was eagerly waiting for tonight so I could write my post. And after getting home, that was it. I lost all my desire to write. So expect the next post to be one big hodgepodge soon.

Till then…

Yeah, give it to me

4 days since my last post. No, I  haven’t been hibernating but it has been pretty wacky these days.

I am not at my almost regular Saturday hangout, Panera, but home. I was pleasantly surprised to have been able to stay in bed until 10, thing that has not happened in a long time. Actually, I woke up with a terrible headache and went to the bathroom then went back to bed. And in between catnaps, I was trying to check my e-mails and news only to fall asleep again.

During one of these naps, I had a dream about being lost, riding a bicycle on the highway, riding it too fast on wet grounds and downhill, being in a very small village snooping around in people’s houses trying to run away from some people who were after me. It was the kind of dream where it felt my imagination was at work building the story as it went and only to wake up swearing because the climax was right there and I did not, could not, wanted not to get to the end of the story. I had the same kind of dream last week but with a girl and it was so vivid but ended at the very worse time. And when I called her and told her about the dream, I realized I should have kept my mouth shut because I did not tell her what the dream was about and I was feeling quite uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Anyway, work has been a nightmare this week. Before all the trouble started, I asked for Friday off since my kids’ schools were going to be closed. So in the middle of all the action on Thursday, I reminded everybody I was going to be out the next day. Of course, the boss tried to get me to come in but when I usually take a day off, it’s because of children issues. I have not taken a day off for leisure, although I should try and do that once in a while.

The day with the kids was fine. I had plans to go to Miami to take care of some paperwork and stop by to see my friend Cha since she has not seen us in several months now. By the time I got everybody ready, it was already 11 and I did not see how I could make it before closing time that was 12:30. So we ended up running some errands and picking up lunch before going back home. My daughter got me to buy a Bratz game for her Wii and I knew that her mother would not approve of it, but she got her game anyway.

See, when I think of it, I see how things were for me. I mean, we were not poor, far from that. My dad had worked hard and he was able to retire in his early 50s. He bought land, a house and invested large amounts of money so it was not like we were 7 living in a 2-room apartment. And yet, I remember the time when yo-yo was the biggest thing around. I had a classic Duncan yo-yo when everybody else had a Butterfly yo-yo. And we’d be playing with our yo-yos and they made fun of the kids who did not have a Butterfly. I remember this other kid and I ruined our yo-yos when we were told that a Butterfly was basically a classic turned outwards. We tried it and it did look like a Butterfly but it wasn’t and did not perform as well either. And the shame when all of a sudden a piece of the yo-yo would go flying off. And back then, how much do you think a Butterfly cost? $1.50… My mom did not manage any of the finances, so I could keep asking her as much as I wanted, she had her hands tied. As for dad, I think I have talked enough about him to figure out that I was stuck with my mutilated classic.

So I am not saying that I will give in any time my daughter asks for something, but I’ve been through this and as you can see, those memories are still quite vivid almost 4 decades later. So call me softy, yeah, but she is my Princess!

And so being the softy, she insisted for me to take her up and read her a story and tuck her in. Of course I did and she was ever so happy to spend a little more time with her daddy, considering that I hardly saw her for 2 days.

Since I was not on the morning conference call and nobody was there to speak for me, I had no idea what was the plan for the crews working this weekend. Although I said I was going to be available to work, I had hopes to work Saturday and have Sunday off. When I did not hear from anybody and it was already past 10, I called my boss and he sounded quite annoyed. I can understand because he promised that things will be back to normal on Monday and it looks like it is not going to happen. So I asked him what was the plan and he told me I was on for tomorrow. Sigh.

I received an e-mail earlier talking about a chocolate fair and I did not read the whole thing and assumed it was today so I figured we could do that, be in a nice, warm place and have some chocolate. It would have been the perfect thing to do considering how cool it is and also the fact that it is in Coral Gables, meaning a nice change for once instead of always being in the neighborhood. Well, that is not going to happen or at least not with me because I will be at one of our locations, playing Buffy.

I talked to my mother and she already made her reservations for next month. That’s one good thing but it is so freaking ridiculously expensive. I was also e-mailing my son’s godfather and he reminded me of the fact that my son won’t be seeing him that often and that is the reason why. It costs more to go to that tiny island in the Caribbean than fly all the way to Hawaii! Oil prices have gone down but airfare has remained really high. Even to fly in the continental US costs an arm and a leg. I have friends up north I am dying to visit and that has been put off for now.

I had to stop writing twice already. Now the wife and kids are out, enjoying the beautiful day. She was nagging for me to go with them but I will be working tomorrow and the idea of being alone for a while, resting and relaxing was stronger than the idea of going out. I am watching “The Bucket List” and I am really enjoying it. I wish I could do the same when my time to go will come up.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. It’s already half gone…

Till then…

Is it Friday yet?

It was one of those days, where I have been busy all day long but it seems like everything ended kinda sorta screwed. And by the time I made it to my car and left the employees garage, I felt like crap. All those efforts, all that time spent doing something shot down because of one call, because of the trust put in one person. Then, while I am at home, I get paged at 5:35 when I leave at 3:30. Try to return the call to no avail. I am not really concerned about that one but it makes everything feel so sloppy. Or at least that’s how I feel about it.

Before I made it to my car, I also got a text message. I took a long hard look at it and decided not to reply. For such a serious subject, to even discuss it via text messages is downright insulting. For a first step, it was a missed one and I still have and will keep ignoring it until it is addressed face to face.

I got home and right in the middle of my parking space was the garbage can. Now I know the gardener means well, but damn, couldn’t he put it on the side like he usually does? Even the recycle bins were closer to the neighbor’s house than ours.

I guess all that was the reason why I was so cranky when I finally sat down at my desk to read the mail. No, there was no check for a million bucks or a voucher for a week-long vacation in Jamaica. Just people asking for more money, as if I have a tree where I pick up the cash that I need. I am like every hard-working American, doing my best to keep my head out of the water and make sure I provide for my family so they can have a roof on their heads and food in their bellies. So I understand your problems but there is nothing I can do about it, especially since the only link that we have is a newsletter I keep receiving from them that I don’t even read anymore.

So no, it is not Friday yet. And actually, I will be off on Friday because my daughter has early release and that I need to take care of some paperwork that should have been taken care of a while ago. And maybe I will have enough time to go and have lunch with the old gang from my previous job. It will be nice and also weird because I haven’t been back there in a year and a half now!

2 more days to go…

Till then…

Well, whadda ya know?

Journalspace is back. The new owner(s) did not waste any time in getting the site up and running again and old faithful users took the site by storm. I tried to recreate my blog but I received an error message saying that I could not use that name. According to the info on the site, that means that some stuff can be retrieved. How much really? I don’t know and quite frankly I don’t really care about getting my old posts. I basically wanted to start from scratch and I can still do it but under another name. So I will wait until the 13th to see what exactly are they going to put back up.

One nice thing is that JS is now being powered by… WordPress. But have no worries, I am not leaving here!

In totally unrelated news, this is post #200! It comes up to less than a post a day but it’s ok. As long as I can write in peace, that’s what I care about. And you reading my blog!

Thank you!

Till then…

Holy cow!

No, I am not bringing Harry Caray back from the dead but I am absolutely delighted tonight!

A while ago, I talked about the importance for me to choose the right godfather for my son. I went on and on for days trying to figure out from all my friends whom did I trust enough for this role. And I suddenly thought of someone, a close friend from back home that, in my opinion, was the perfect choice. But I needed to talk to him and eventually convince him if needed.

For weeks, we tried to get in touch with the priest where we want the baptism to take place but he would not return our calls or reply to our e-mails. I was not very flexible about the location or the date but I wanted to be sure that everything was ok before calling my friend. And then this past week, everything went really fast. We heard from the priest, agreed on the date and time and everything looked great.

Last Friday, I sent my friend an e-mail wishing him a Happy New Year but also asked him the best time to call him. Now if I had received such an e-mail, I would have been suspicious and I hope he was too. In the afternoon, I got his reply but several things happened and I did not call him until tonight. It was nice hearing his voice and after a little chit-chat, I asked him if he would agree to be my son’s godfather. As I was talking, I was thinking that finally this was a mistake, but he agreed! He did warn me that my son might not see him very often, and I assured him it would be ok. I really don’t expect him to be around every other Sunday, but at least send a card from time to time, e-mail to check on him.  That’s what I ask.

So now the countdown is on. 42 days before February 22nd. My mother will be flying in on the 20th, so I don’t know if they will both fly together or not. And there are so many things to take care of to have both celebrations ready! My mind is already in overdrive, but at least the biggest worry has been taken care of.

Till then…

Blowing a gasket (yet another one)

By now, you all know that I have family and friends in remote places. Unfortunately for everybody, we don’t and can’t see each other as often as we would like to, so we have to rely on pictures to see how everybody is changing. And that was fine until a few years ago. Most people I know have e-mail accounts with Yahoo or Hotmail and my first digital camera was a 2.3MP one. The best pictures would hardly be bigger than 500KB and that was all fine and dandy to be sent to people that were still using (*gasp!*) 56K dial-up. Over the years, we graduated from that camera to a 4.1MP and for Christmas, I got a 10.1MP camera, finally putting me up there with the big boys.

Yeah, but guess what?

Most pictures I’ve taken with my new camera are over 2MB! That means that for someone that has a 5MB account or download cap, they cannot get more than 2 pictures…

Today, I decided to be nice and send a few people some pictures of my kids. 7 pictures to be exact to my cousin who has a Yahoo account. 11.5MB. I received a message saying that she is over the limit. WTH, people? Can’t you get a gMail account? If it is an invite you need, I can get you one. But until you get over your drastic limited accounts, don’t ask me to send any more pictures.

And don’t talk about getting a Flickr or Photobucket or any of those accounts. I don’t have time to sort pictures, upload them, write a description and whatever else. I started a Flickr account and I will eventually get to it one day. But in the meantime, get a serious e-mail account!

I guess I better follow everybody else then…

8:48pm. Everybody is sleeping and I am the only one still awake. Why?

Might as well do the same thing.

Till then…