Congratulations to Chirs and Lois on the birth of their newest addition, Blake Joseph! He was born on Sept 3rd 2009, weighed in at 7lbs 14oz, and was 18".
[Blake Joseph Jurasek]
In related news, my nephew Logan is well over a month old now, and from all reports, seems to be doing well! I really do hope you be able to visit soon! I was recently sent some new photos of him (click to view them all):
[Grandpa Ralph and Logan]
Anyway, thats all for now. I hope you are all having a great September so far (can you believe it's September alrerady?!)
I found out this morning that someone had managed to temporarily take over a small part of the web server. As a result, it was unavailable. They did this by exploiting a bug in the software for one of the sites I host.
I've corrected the issue for now, and am working to permanently plug the hole they used to do what they did.
Sorry about the server downtime last week. The motherboard for the old server failed abruptly. I tried to get a replacement part, but unfortunately, I live in Eastern Tennessee, and my closest Fry's electronics is 3 hours away in Atlanta.
I considered making the drive down, but since I had company (Chuck and Ediths Dad) I couldn't really break away. Not to mention I had a ton of stuff to do.
So in the end, I just bought a new server at Best Buy. Actually, it was a really good deal too! $369 for a Compaq system with an Athlon 64x2 (dual core 64bit CPU), 3 gigs of ram, 320gig drive, DVD burner, and Windows Vista Home Premium (I dont really care about Vista. I just yanked the drive and popped in my Linux server's root drive instead)
Moving on...
Melissa is due any day now. I'm anxiously awaiting news of baby Logan's arrival!
Also, I found out that cousin Andrea is expecting! SHe's due in December I believe.
Exciting times!
Anyway, As you have likely noticed, I am not big on updating my blog anymore. I have too much to do, and I update Facebook (from time to time) so there's not a lot of reason to keep this going, but who knows, I may transition back to this someday.
I just got some exciting news! My sister, Melissa, just found out that she's having a baby Boy!
Yep, in approximately 19 1/2 weeks I'll have a nephew! (And be an Uncle for the first time)
Here's the proof: Congrats Sis!! I can't wait to meet him!!
In other baby-related news, Cousin Lois has announced that she is expecting baby #3! :) I love this kind of news! Congrats cousin!!
So, I'm sure you've noticed by now that I RARELY update this page anymore. Well, sorry about that. It's because I've become addicted to Facebook (or Crackbook as we like to call it).
Sorry it took me this long to write. I've been a busy guy since Christmas.
So, New Years was fun. We had a quiet one, and just hung out at the house with Edith's mom, step-dad and her Uncle Michael. We drank quite a lot, and watched movies until the ball dropped. We then watched as decrepid Dick Clark mumbled his way through the countdown. (On a side note, I really hope he'll retire after this one. Nothing against him, but it was a little depressing to watch.) Then we stayed up until about 2:30 or so. I hope you all had a lovely New Year celebration as well.
Moving on....
I've been really enjoying my new Springfield XDm 9mm! I took it out to my Mom's place to squeeze off the first few rounds. I actually did pretty well for a guy who hasn't fired a handgun in over 10 years! Although I do need a LOT of practice before I'll say I'm a decent shot. My mom even fired off a round! :)
Yesterday (Sunday the 4th) we took the 2 hour drive to visit Edith's uncle Michael at his place in extreme east Tennessee. And let me tell you, it's AWESOME! He's got some of the best property I've ever seen. And when he's finished with his house remodel, it's going to be incredible!
Uncle Michael is also a gun nut, and has quite a collection of his own. So I took the opportunity to break out my XDm and fire off some more rounds. Edith got to shoot it some as well. She put 10 rounds through the barrel, and did great!
Michael also has air pistols so the kids got to do some shooting too. Both of them did great! I enjoyed the air pistols too. I suspect it wont be long, and we'll have some air pistols of our own.
With the season comes another dance recital for Jessica. This time, they did a slightly modified version of the Nutcracker.
Jessica did so well! She was in quite a few of the dances, and really did a great job (as did everyone). I'm so proud of her!
I've had several requests to view the videos once I'd finished uploading them, so in addition to putting them into the Ammendolias.com video library, I decided to put them on YouTube as well. The YouTube quality isn't all that great, but it should stream quite a bit better.
Anyway, that's it for now. I hope you're all well, and that you've finished your Christmas Shopping. (I nearly have)
We found out today that poor Jessica has pneumonia.
She's been pretty much bed-ridden since last Friday (She missed school), but we just figured it was a cold like the one I just got over a week or so ago. But her coughing was getting noticeably worse, and even though she seemed to feel ok, her fever was staying up around 103! So a visit to the doctor was needed.
We got to keep the X-Ray showing it, and if I can figure out a good way to scan it, I'll post it because it clearly shows the pneumonia.
So, she's on antibiotics now, and should be just fine. She's out of school until next week (Good thing it's a short week). For most kids, that would be great, but Jessi loves school, so being out is more of a punishment for her.
Anyway, moving on, did you see it?!? Huh Huh????? Yep, The Raiders not only won last weekend, they DOMINATED Denver 31 to 10!! I was completely thrilled to watch that game! Between Russel, McFadden, and Fargas, Denver never stood a chance! I wish I could've seen it in person, but I'll take what I can get!
Speaking of football, I'm playing in a Fantasy league this year with some guys from work. My quarterback is Drew Brees (N.O. Saints) who is having a spectacular season! Anyway, Don't know if you saw the Monday Night Football game with the Saints vs. Green Bay. Well, I didn't get to see the whole thing, but I saw the highlights, and Brees was on fire!! He scored me 40 points in my league! Not bad! With that, I'm tied for first place. Playoffs are in two weeks, and I think I stand a fair chance of winning. ($1500 prize if I do, so wish me luck)
Hard to believe it's already been so long since my last posting. I've been unbelievably busy during that time, and just haven't had much free time to post. Sorry :)
Where to begin..??..
Jessica is 9 years old now! Her birthday was on Nov 15th. She decided that for her party, she wanted to go bowling. (I know, an odd request for a 9 year old, but what the heck.). So she invited 3 of her friends over on Friday the 14th for a small birthday party, followed by a couple of hours of intense bowling during Rock n' Bowl at the local alley, and finishing with a sleepover. We let the girls have the entire bottom floor of the house. They had a blast! They set up sleeping bags and a tent in front of the big TV, and played with Webkinz and watched Kung-Fu Panda (among other things). Not sure what time they actually went to sleep, but I know that by morning, you couldn't see the floor beneath all of the stuffed animals and toys they had out. :) Anyway, Happy Birthday Jessica.. Here's some photos and Video for you to see.
The week before Jessica's Birthday, I was out in San Francisco for work. This was my first all-hands meeting with this organization. It was really nice to get to meet everyone. I'd met most of them when I first started, but you know how it is when you're the new guy and are trying to remember 65 people's names. Not easy. I feel like after the meeting, I now know maybe 60% of the people by name. The meeting was held at Fort Mason in the old firehouse. It was pretty neat being there because I haven't been in so many years. I took a few photos of the group, although I wish I'd taken more.
While I was in town, Darren, Tim (another guy from work) and I went to see the Raiders play. The tailgate before and after were fun, and even though they lost, the game was great. We had 50 yard line seats that were 14 rows back. So all the players were pretty much right in front of us. Jamarcus Russel really is a big guy for a QB! And yes, Cable is just as fat in person! ;) I just wish I would have run into Al Davis so I could say "hi" to him in a special, personal kind of way (I don't care for that guy at all).
Incidentally, one night, Darren took me to a place called BoBo's on Lombard st. to grab a steak. It was seriously by far the best piece of Filet Mignon I've ever eaten. Mmmmmm!!!!! Was a bit on the pricey side (my filet was on the order of $38.00 for just the meat), but the steak is worth it, so if you're ever in the city and feel like a good steak, give it a try.
In other news, I got a surprise email recently from my old friend Heith from way back. He lives up in Oregon with his family. I saw him back in 2001 or 2 when I was on site at a vendor near Portland. But we lost touch after that. Ironically, it was maybe three weeks before that for some reason, I though about him, and looked for my old address book with his info to no avail. So it worked out nicely that he contacted me when he did. It's for reasons like this that I keep this site going. It's always cool to hear from an old friend or a family member you've never met.
I've been doing the Atkins diet again. I've been on it for about 5 weeks now, and have lost roughly 16 pounds. Not as dramatic as the first time I did this diet, but it's working none-the-less. The trick is not cheating. and I've been really good about it. In fact, I hadn't eaten anything off-diet until last night.
Last night, we went to a restaurant call Wasabi in Knoxville to help celebrate our good friend Kim's birthday. I didn't cheat too much because I stuck to Sashimi, but I did have a salad with the Ginger sauce. It was delicious, and definitely not ok. And, I had 2 taquitos when I got home. I figured what the heck. I had already cheated, so what would 2 little taquitos hurt. But I'm back on it now. (Until Turkey day anyway)
So as I said before, work had been really busy. We just launched the new Bill Payment system that I've written over the past 8 months. So far it's going very well (knock on wood). The hardest part wasn't writing all of the processes, or the user interface (although that was quite a challenge), or the back office support tools. The hardest part was doing the conversion from the old system. The reason is that the data files I get from the old processor are less than desirable, and it becomes difficult to ensure the payments are converted over correctly. Also, it's been difficult to determine which ones will go electronically vs by Check. The processor took care of this stuff in the background before, and they did not provide that information. But like I said, after a lot of hours, everything has finally come together. In fact, I've only heard one comment about it so far, and it was very positive. :)
Well, speaking of work, I need to get back to it.
Just in case I don't write anything for another month, have a great Thanksgiving!
Bye for now,
~Joe
P.S. I almost forgot to tell you about the Aquarium in Chatanooga! One word. WOW!! That place is awesome! We took this kids there one Saturday a few weeks ago. Between the butterfly room, and the massive walk through tank, this place was quite impressive! Take a look at the photos / videos and see for yourself! :)
Well, things have been really crazy for the past few weeks around here!
First up, I had a MAJOR hardware failure on my server. Some of you may recall that it was a very short time ago that I had a drive fail, and as a result, I rebuilt the system using RAID1 (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, and the 1 means that two drives were mirrored) which basically means all data was written to two disks instead of one, and thus, if one drive failed, the other would in theory be good. In that scenario, the system should stay up and running until I could get a new drive to replace the bad one.
Well, I did say "in theory" :) That's because I did have a drive fail, but instead of working the way it should, it would seem my Raid controller (the hardware that makes it work) also decided to die on me too. It's sort of a chicken and egg thing because I have no way to tell if the drive failed and took the controller with it, or if it was the other way around. Either way, it was disasterous for the server.
The worst part about the failure was that I had several months of work on the failed disk array that couldn't be replaced. Fortunately, after some crafty linux hacking, I was able to pull the data off of the drive that hadn't failed. Thank goodness.
After that, it was a matter of buying a new drive, bypassing the raid controller (temporarily until I can buy a new one) and then rebuilding everything (again). Long story short, it's back up and running now.
Next up...
My mom's 60th birthday was on Sept. 22nd, and this year, Laura (my sister) and I planed a surprise party for her. We decided on a Wizard of Oz theme, and rented a room at the Civic Center which, by the way, was a great idea! big room, and VERY inexpensive! ($31 for 4 hours in a room big enough for a buffet table and 60 people, AND they set up the tables, podium, etc. for us. it was awesome). Laura and Damien drove up here from Myrtle Beach, and brought with them their rendition of "the yellow brick road" which they'd spent the past few days laboring over. It was really cool. Laura and I made a Sams run, and bought a bunch of food for it, and her and Damien made platters with sandwiches and meah/cheese trays. It was all very well done!
We showed up to the room at around 5:30 to start setting up.. We even had a very helping hand from our friend Kim (Who brought a crock pot full of delicious meat balls! Thanks Kim!!). The guests started arriving at around 6:30.
At 6:45, I ran back to my house to meet mom. I'd told her that we had dinner reservations and she needed to be at my place at 7. She was of course. quite punctual. So we loaded up and I took here to the civic center under the guise of visiting an art exibit which included some of Jessica's artwork.
It wasn't until we approached the room that she figured it out. She could see through a window to where everyone was waiting. But the surprise was intact. The party went on for a couple more hours, we ate, laughed, Laura and I read speeches for mom, and we had cake (which, by the way, was decorated with a scene of the yellow brick road fading into a distant emerald city, which Jessica had actutally drawn. So it really wasn't a lie that Jessi had some art on display at the civic center.) All in all, it really was a lot of fun. (see the photos - video coming soon)
Incidentally, the server had died the day before thie party, so the timing really couldn't have been worse.I was juggling fixing the server, visiting my sister and brother in law, preparing for the party, and of course my job. So I was just a wee bit stressed out. But it all came out just fine in the end. :)
Moving on, I'm currently in the process of having a new roof installed on my house. I wish I could have put it off just one more year since I did just spend over $8500 to clear and fence my back yard! But no, it really was time to take care of it. So, a quick phone call to my bank to opt in for a little more debt, and the roof is on it's way to reality. On the bright side, I really feel like I'm getting a good deal. (definitely a much better deal than the Home Depot fence), and I'm really impressed with the guys doing the work.
(A friendly plug for them:) If you live anywhere around Knoxville TN, and are looking to have a roof installed, you should definitely consider Alfonso Quintanilla and his crew (better known as A.Q. Construction). Their number is (865) 806-5578. If you do call, please let them know Joe Ammendolia referred you! You can't go wrong. The craftsmanship and attention to detail that they've already demonstrated are great, and they're really fast!
Well, it's that time of year again. Back to School for the kids. Joey and Jessi both started on Monday August 18th. Joey's in 7th grade now, and Jessi is in 3rd.
Speaking of Jessi, we got her TCAP scores on Monday. (TCAP is the annual testing that all schools perform to evaluate students). Let's just say she's a freaking genius! ;) She scored in the 99th percentile in both reading and math comprehension. Everything else was well above average as well! I find it interesting that she is so artistic (right brain) and yet so comprehending of math (left brain). She's fairly well balanced I guess. Let's just hope she retains it through her teens.
We haven't received Joey's results yet. I know that if he applied himself when taking the test that he'll have score highly too. but he's got a thing about school and anything relating to it (especially tests), so he may not have scored as highly as he's capable. He's really such a smart kid! If he'd just try. (Sounds familiar. I remember similar things said of me as a kid)
Moving on. I'm in the process of re-doing my back yard. It started when we got Talon. I decided that it's time to fence in the yard so he'll be able to go out back off-leash. I decided to go with Home Depot for it (They finance). The guy came out to take the measurements and to set up my contract a couple of weeks ago.
It was then that I decided that I really needed to clear out the overgrown portion of my yard to maximize the usable space. So I hired my neighbor's crew to come over and take care of it. They rolled up with a dump truck and a bobcat, and had the place cleared out in a matter of a day and a half! My back yard got so much bigger after that!
Immediately, I went through and pulled out all the small roots, leveled the dirt, spread fertilizer, grass seed, and wheat straw. 4 days later, I already have grass growing! It's amazing how quickly that stuff comes up. So it won't be long and I'll have a nice LARGE grassy back yard! You can see the progression here, It was a lot of work, but I think it'll be worth it!
So today, the guy from Home Depot came out, and marked off where all of the gates will go, and took precise measurements of everything. Next, he'll order the materials, and shortly thereafter, the crew will show up and do the installation. Yippie!
And now for something different.
Edith, the kids and I went to North Carolina for the annual Camp Grenada trip to her uncle Ray's house on Harkers Island. And as usual, we had a great visit! The kids stayed busy doing various things like fishing, swimming, jet-skiing, crafts, etc. (Ray had put together a whole list of activities for them). Unfortunately for me though, it was a working vacation. I worked the whole time. (Thanks Gigi for letting me take over your desk). But I still managed to have a great time when I wasn't at work. You can of course see the photos and videos if you wish.
That's about it for now. I just thought I should put out a quick update. All is well here. Talon is doing great (although we are still having difficulty with him and the cats. But he's getting a little better. So hopefully in time he'll mellow a bit)
My little Boy isn't so little anymore! Hard to believe he's 12 already! (Let the teen years begin! haha)
We started the day by giving him some of the gifts we'd gotten him. (more video games). But today was a work day for me, so that's about all we did during the day. But after work, we headed up to Knoxville to a place called Laser Quest. In attendance were Joey's friends Quentin and Max, and of course Kim came with her brood; Nick, Emily, Emmy and Noel. We did the typical birthday party (with a couple of laser tag sessions and a party room) where we ate cake and Joey opened the gifts from the guests.
I was majorly bummed though because I forgot to bring a decent camera! (I know, VERY out of character for me!) So the only pics from the party were taken with my crummy camera phone. But it's better than nothing. I did get a group shot of the boys with a decent camera once we got home though.
Anyway, it was a good day, and more importantly, the anniversary of one of the greatest days of my life. So Happy Birthday Kiddo, I love you!
Time to write a little about our California adventure over the past couple of weeks. I'll go chronologically through the people and places we visited.
First stop, June 30th 2008, We flew from Knoxville to LAX where Edith's dad, David, picked us up at the airport. We spent the first 7 days at his house in Los Angeles. During our stay, we visited some of our friends and favorite places, and spent alot of time with David.
He loves to spoil his grandkids! One day, he disappeared with Joey for a couple of hours, and returned with some high end archery gear in tow. Joey is now the proud owner of a high-tech compound bow complete with carbon fibre arrows and travel case. He couldn't be happier! Next, he did a similar thing with Jessi. Only this time, they returned with a very complete collection of art supplies, all packed neatly into an art supply travel case. He really hit the nail on the head with her! She's an art fanatic! (Actually, he nailed it with both of them because Joey is a huge bow and arrow fan. He spends a lot of his time at home crafting bows and arrows from sticks and string.) Thanks David!
On the 4th of July, David threw a BBQ/party at his place. The turn out was great! Lots of old friends, and some new ones too! All-in-all, a really great bunch of people! We had a great time.
Have a look at the photos and videos of the LA portion of our trip.
Next stop, San Francisco. On July 8th, we flew from LAX up to Sacramento and rented a car. Then we made the short drive up to my friend Darren's place up in Novato where we stayed for three days. Darren and Lisa have two girls. Brittany and Nicole. Brit is Joey's age, and Nicole is a couple years younger than Jessi. But Jessi and Nicole became instant BFFs (Best friends forever)! They really hit it off. Joey and Brittany got along great too, but not to the same degree of inseparableness.
We spent our days down in San Francisco, doing the tourist thing.
Our first stop, The Exploratorium. This was a special treat for me. I remember Grandpa Ammendolia taking me there as a kid. And I loved it! I attribute my eventual geekdom to this place! So it was really neat to take my kids there and watch them play.. er Learn! They really enjoyed it. It's interesting to see how two kids with different interests can each find things to enjoy there. Jessica was all about the artistic. If it had to do with making something, she was all over it. Joey on the other hand was more rounded in his interests. He tried just about everything that place has to offer. We spent a little over 5 hours there, and almost got through everything. We didn't get to finish the last part of the upstairs portion (The audio stuff), but we got through everything else.
The next day, we paid a visit to Lucasfilm (now located at the Presidio) and took some photos of Yoda, Darth Vader and Boba fet. After that we paid a visit to my place of employment so that Edith and thie kids could meet everyone that I work with. Then we went to Fishermans Wharf and Pier 39. Again, it's fun for me because I remember going to these places so many times through my childhood, and now I can share it with my kids. Mainly, we just shopped on Pier 39. We managed to find a few things to bring back home with us.
Once we were done with the pier, we hopped the bay bridge for a trip to one of my all time favorite eateries. Bob's Hoagy Steaks in Fremont. I love this place! I've blogged about it in the past because I always make that a destination when I'm in the Bay Area. This time was a little different though because I decided to start building my hot sauce collection, and they have a huge selection of various hot sauces to choose from. (Actually, Edith decided this for me, and she bought several interesting bottles for me.) Everything from pure Jalapeno sauce to "Colon Cleaner". My taste buds may never be the same again! (That's a good thing)
Have a look at the photos and videos from our San Francisco adventure.
Next up - Sacramento. The weather in Sacramento was very wierd! All of the fires in Northern CA have generated vast amounts of smoke which in-turn cause an eerie haze in the sky. The reflection of the sun in a car window looked very similar to the reflection of one of those orange street lights. Was kinda creepy.
Out first Sac stop was at the airport where we picked up cousin Aaron. Then we all headed down to Phil and Laura's where we were treated to pizza and Martinis. (Laura makes a wicked Martini! yummy!) Phil also played some music for us. Mostly though we just sat around and enjoyed each-other's company.
Later that night, Edith, the kids and I drove up to my friends Chris and Jodi's place up in Orangevale where we stayed for the remaining days of our trip. It was so great to see them again! They have two kids, Becky and Tim. Joey and Jessi have met them before, but it's been a while, so it was neat to re-introduce them. And I'll take this opportunity to say that Both Tim and Becky ROCK at guitar hero and Rock Band!
On Saturday, we all made the required Jimboy's run (a fast food Mexican place with incredibly bad for your heart food. But it's oh so delicious!) This place is to me sort of what Bob's Hoagys is. Chris and I go there mainly because we ate there so often back in the early 90s when we were in school together.
Later on Saturday, Edith, the kids, and I made the short drive up to Lincoln where we attended cousin Kari's wedding to Nathaniel (welcome to the family new cousin). The wedding was very nice! There were a few minor mishaps with the audio not working right, etc, but they made light of it and it worked out great! The reception was very nice. I really didn't know very many people. But that's a good thing because it gave me the chance to meet some new friends. And of course, I got to spend some time with the Family! This was the first time the Kids have seen the family sins Kristen's wedding! So it was great to get them all together even if only for a short while.
After the wedding, Aaron came back to my friend Chris' place. Chris, Aaron and I decided to head back over by the hotel where the cousins were staying to have some drinks. Cousin Jenna, Frank and cousin Andrea met up with us and much (er.. I mean not too much) beer was consumed. ;). This is when Jenna told me that she had to find a home for Talon. I'm so glad that worked out!
Anyway, go browse the photos and videos (The wedding stuff is in there too),
Well, that's about it. (Unless you want to hear about our flight home which is really pretty boring, so I'll skip it). So there you have it! Our trip all summed up. We had a blast!
I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made this trip possible!
First to David for paying for the bulk of the tickets, being such a gracious host, and for spoiling my kids!
Next, to Darren, Lisa, Brittany and Nicole! Thanks for letting us stay with you guys! And for putting up with us!
And last but not least, to Chris, Jodi, Becky and Tim! You phemtos are awesome! So Thanks again for letting us crash there, and for being such great hosts. (and for upgrading that air mattress! the first one was a bit rough) :)
We got back yesterday from out whirlwind tour of California. But I'll blog about that later.
First, I wanted to let you all know that Talon has arrived safely here in Oak Ridge. Edith made the 3 1/2 hour drive down to Atlanta to pick him up today, and got home just a little while ago.
He seems to fit right in around here. Although his first encounter with Brandy (one of our cats) was a little rough and he got his nose scratched.
But him and Bobby (our other dog) are getting along great! There's been a little posturing, but we expected that. Overall though, they're great playmates, and are sure to be best friends in no time!
I took some pictures and video of him meeting the family. So check them out and enjoy!
Again, I'll post all the info about out trip and cousin Kari's wedding later (once I've sorted all of the video and pics)
Sorry it's been so long since my last update. No excuses.. Just Laziness! :)
Where to begin....
1. The 2008 Kentucky Derby
What a total blast! Here's the list of events in chronological order:
On Thursday, May 1st, I made the 2 and a half hour drive up to Lexington where I picked up my friend Darren from the Bluegrass airport.
From there, we drove the remaining 2 hours over to Louisville where we promptly went downtown to locate a little BBQ shack known as Right-Way.
Right-Way had quite a lot of charm for a place that's been serving BBQ from the same location since 1942 (or was it 1941?). The food was pretty good. (No J.B.'s house of fine BBQ mind you, but not bad either)
We both had the pulled pork sandwich and received some strange looks and numerous warnings when we asked for them to be hot (as in spicy). I guess they just couldn't believe that a couple of white boys could handle the heat. We proved them wrong.
The service was great, and the people (the employees and the regulars who apparently just sit around gabbing all day) were really nice. A bit on the talkative side, but that's ok, it just adds to the ambiance.
If you're ever in Louisville, you can't really go wrong with this place. Just be sure you order a Coney too or you might get run down by the manager/owner/?? lady as we did (don't worry, they're small).
After eating we proceeded to the hotel to get checked in. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. Nothing great, but it did the job as far as a place to crash and shower goes. Although they did go a bit above with the nightly "gifts" we found in the room.
(Night one's gift: a set of thirstystone coasters with horse racing photos on them.)
The first night in the hotel was spent writing code to convert Darren's Horse Racing Odds calculator from Excel to php so that we could run it on my ipod touch. Woo Hoo!
Friday, May 2nd, was the Oaks. The day started off quite nice. We got to the track around 10:30 I think, and found ourselves a nice cozy spot on the infield on which we set up our chairs. I spent the first hour or so finishing up the Odds Calc code, then we input the numbers and started placing bets.
Then it happened. The rain came. And oh boy did it! Of course, we were dressed for warm sunny weather, so we were pretty miserable once we were soaked. But hey, we're die hards. The betting continued. We just tried to stay dry by hanging out in the tunnel to the stands.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, the odds calc worked! (not all the time, but it did the trick for us in the last 3 races.) We made enough with our pick 3 to pay for the trip! Cant go wrong there!
After the track, we were running short on time, so we had to high-tail it over to the Phoenix Hill Tavern where out night of musical debauchery was set to begin (We had stopped in earlier in the morning to get our tickets). First up: Saliva! Oh Yeah!! Wait.. What?! They canceled?!! Dang it! Guess they should have used one of the ample sized stages indoors! But no, they had set up a meager outdoor venue for that evening's entertainment. But, and I said above, it had been raining all day (And still was just a bit). So, no Saliva for us. At this point though, we had been expecting it though, because Finger Eleven was supposed to play earlier on the infield. They too canceled due to rain.
No worries though! Sevendust was set to come on stage after Saliva, and much to our approving surprise, they got up there and ROCKED THE PLACE! Those guys put on one heck of a great show! It really made up for the earlier disappointments.
Right as Sevendust were coming on stage, our friends Jason and Susanna showed up. They had each flown in to Louisville and cabbed it over to Phoenix Hill. So after the show, we all hung out at Phoenix Hill for a couple ('er few) more hours and had some drinks.
On our way back to the Hotel, we decided to take a daring chance, and stopped in at the local Whitecastle for a 30 pack! YIKES!! I could only stomach 5 of em. But between us all, we managed to knock out a significant portion of the case. On to the hotel..
(Night two's gift: A 7 inch statuette of a Fleur-de-lis I know.. huh?! we don't know, but it was a nice gesture on the hotel's part, and is currently making a wonderful addition to the Derby memorabilia shelf in my office.)
Saturday, May 3rd, Derby Day Arrived! Yippee!!! Ok, so today, we didn't want to get caught in the rain again so I hit up the local dollar store and picked up some crappy ponchos. Nothing spectacular, but they'd help keep us dry.
Anyway, after much winding and weaving through insane traffic, we managed to find a parking spot at a church near the track. (A surprising find actually because it was less than a quarter-mile to gate 3 (the infield gate).
Once inside, we found the infield to be a muddy mess! fortunately for us, there was a great spot on available on a brick-paved section, so we grabbed it!
The rest of the day was typical of any Derby adventure. LOTS (and I mean LOTS) of people all just partying their hearts out! It's a bit like mardi-gras I suppose because from time to time, you would be treated to some young lady lifting her shirt and showing off her jumblies. (Yes, I got some on film. I know, I'm just a sick pervert. But what the heck. If they're gonna show 'em, I'm gonna film 'em!).
While we did bet on pretty much every race, the odds calc failed us this day because I don't think we won a thing! But no worries, The Oaks win had already paid for the trip.
I nearly forgot to mention a newfound tradition that began this trip. Chair Acquirement. You know those folding cloth chairs that you can buy at Wal-Mart for like $10 or so? Well, MANY people travel to the Derby from far away places, and pick up a chair on their way to the track. When it's over, they don't much feel like trying to lug that chair to the airport and fly it home, so they just leave it behind on the track. That's where we come in. Since I'm driving, it's no big deal for me to haul a few extras home. Which is exactly what we did. So the new rule is this. We will arrive with enough chairs to seat every person in out group. But then, every person in the group must acquire one additional chair from the field. What started as four chairs on Derby day became eight when I returned home. The plan is to collect them every year, and date them with a sharpee. We should have quite a large collection in a very short time! (So hey, if ya ever need to borrow a chair, I'm your guy)
After the Derby, we made our way back to the car, and went looking for food. Whitecastle? NO WAY! Nope, tonight's pleasure was a little off the beaten path. We went to a place called Skyline. If you've never been, well, I'll just say you should try it once for the experience, and leave it at that. I had a dish known as a three way (Spaghetti smothered in chili and cheese) and a coney. And yes, it is a nasty as it sounds. We hadn't intended to eat there, but my GPS batter was running low, so we had to find something quick if we were gonna have enough juice left to find the hotel again. Which we did.
(Night three's gift: a crystal rose [yeah, random!])
Sunday morning, we all got up, got ready, and checked out. Destination? breakfast! We wanted something good for our last meal of the trip, so we ventured downtown in search of a "Brown" We ended up at a cafe next to the "Brown" hotel and enjoyed what we'd been searching for (We attempted to eat at the brown hotel, but they were only serving $30 buffet. blech!) At this point, I couldn't take it anymore. I skipped on the "Brown" and had what I expected to be a healthier option. A turkey sandwich. But except for the name and the fact that it contained two slices of bread and some turkey, it was about as far from the healthy sandwich option as it could be. The plate that arrived contained a smothering of the aforementioned turkey and bread covered with neon yellow gravy and some mashed potatoes. Not what I had bargained for at all. But like any former Army man would, I sucked it up and marched on.
Next stop, the Louisville airport where we dropped off Jason and Susanna. Then, Lexington where I parted ways with Darren. And finally home.
Videos: here (Not safe for work, children, the elderly, or most barn yard animals)
Derby trip: complete.
Moving on... 2. Absurd weather.
Twas a blissful Friday eve. (May 9th) Our friend Kim and her Daughter Emily were over for dinner / drinks / movies. The kids were all playing blissfully, while the adults (cough cough) were enjoying several fine episodes of Dexter. Then it came. The thunderous tap tap tap of hail hitting the exterior of the house.
We all jumped to our feet and ran to the door. What I saw then surprised even me. You know those newscasts when you see some poor reporter who can barely stand upright while covering some hurricane? Well, this is the scene outside my front door. The wind was blowing so hard from left to right that the rain was falling pretty much parallel to the ground. The trees were pushed so far over that they nearly touched the grass, and the hail was pummel ling away at everything in it's path. It's amazing nothing got broken! (i.e. windows, cars, skulls, etc...)
But the damage was done. You see, much like our day at the Oaks a week earlier, this storm came with little or no warning. Kim had parked her relatively new Escalade in my driveway, with the sunroof still open. Ruht Ro Raggy! Yep, her car was pretty much soaked inside. Not to mention the piles of pea sized hail on the seats. It ok though. once the fury had died down, we all went out armed with towels (and a video camera) to clean up the mess.
Definitely check out the videos though. I didn't have the camera during the peak, so you don't get to see everything I've described, but there's still some pretty amazing footage.
3. Gatlinburg Cabin Trip and Scottish Fair.
After work this past Friday (May 16th), Edith, The kids, and I jumped in the car to head up to the Great Smokey Mountains for what has become our annual family mini vacation.
In attendance were Edith, Joey, Jessica, me, Patty, Paul, and Patty's boss John, his wife Melonie and their daughter Alex. Whew that's a mouthful (not to mention a lot of people in a cabin). Not to worries though, it was a large cabin. There were three bedrooms, and a couple of fold out couches. So everyone had someplace to crash out.
On Saturday, we all went to the Scottish fair in Gatlinburg. There were many men in skirts (kilts) and much bagpipe blowing. It was actually pretty neat. Some of the traditional Scottish games are quite interesting (not to mention damn hard).
Also, there were tents for many of the original Scottish clans. Edith happens to be descended from the MacEwen clan, so we located them and had a chat. Nice folk they were.
For meals, we went the frugal route and BBQd steaks at the cabin. Mmmm mmmm good!
On Saturday night, we had a bear rip into the "bear-proof" trashcan pin outside. If you peruse the photos, you'll see on that I snapped of the pin after it's assault. Glad I wasn't out there when that mayhem ensued! Ouch!
Sunday, we got up, cleaned and packed, then headed back down the mountain. All in all, it was a nice trip. And the hot tub was just what the doctor ordered for me! :)
Videos: here
Photos: here
4. Dance Recital.
On Sunday (May 18th) the kids had a dance recital. (Which is why we had to high-tail it down the mountain after the cabin.)
I love seeing my kids dance. it's so cute! And it makes me so proud. Joey even had a solo tap number this time to "Make me laugh". I was laughing, so I guess he did a good job. (Actually, he did a fantastic job! which is sort-of amazing considering how little he actually practiced for it. haha) Jessi did both Ballet and tap this time. She was in several of the skits, and did a wonderful job! This was her second year in dance class, and it shows. She's really getting better!
Anyway, you can see the pictures (not too many) and the video by clicking the links below. (I hope to have some more still pics in the near future when I get my hands on the ones Patty took with her digital.)
Anyway, that about sums up the past few weeks. The next few will be no less intense for me.
I'll be in San Francisco for a week starting on May 27th, then in Phoenix for a week starting on June 3rd. Should be another in a long line of great times. :)
So with that, I'm out. Time to get some real work done (side job work that is).
Hope you all have had (and continue to have) a great may!
Hope you all had a great April Fools Day! I was expecting the worst, but nothing happened here. Although Jessi wanted to play a prank on Edith by reporting that she'd been sent to the Principal's office. She NEVER gets in trouble at school. Quite the opposite in fact, so this would have been a good one. But in the end, she forgot (and I forgot to remind her).
So, why the title you ask? Well, I'm sitting here writing this with very little ability to actually lift my arms. I started going to the Gym again a couple weeks ago. Nothing over the top, just 3 to 4 times per week. But this time, I employed the help of a trainer for a couple sessions a month. Hopefully that'll be enough to keep me motivated. My first session was early last week. It was a freebie session to get me back in and motivated. We worked my upper back and shoulders. I couldn't straighten my arms fully for 3 days afterward! Then I had another session last Monday to work my legs. It still hurts to go up the stairs. And today, we worked my chest. I wonder what the next couple of days will be like. All I can say is that I feel completely worked! I've also been getting a lot of cardio in. I'm already back up to 3.5 miles on the elliptical.
You know, I had a different trainer today, and he asked how old I am. When I said "37" he said "Oh, so you have the age thing working against you". WHAT?! Ok, I know I'm getting older, but come on. Then again, maybe I should take it as a compliment because he seemed surprised that I am that old. I'll say this, I can definitely tell a difference between my abilities now and 10 years ago. My endurance is still ok, but I'm MUCH weaker. (Yeah Phil, you'd probably kick my butt in an arm wrestle now)
On to other things...
I've been really busy lately with the new job. One of the things I've had to do is learn a new programming language called Ruby. It's been an interesting challenge. The language itself is pretty easy. In fact, it's actually quite elegant. I like it a lot. The challenge has been trying to interface it to a custom web service. The web service is non standard in the way that authentication occurs, so I had to figure out how to do some fairly advanced hacks to get the core Ruby libraries to inter-operate with it. The real problem is that while there's adequate learning resources on the net for beginners, I couldn't find anything to help with more advanced topics. So I had to resort to posting questions in Google groups, and to digging through the core library code to figure out where I could hook in. In the end, I was finally able to achieve my goal. I'm not 100% complete yet, but it is working now. So I guess I'm still competent. :)
The weather here has been all over the place. On one hand, spring is definitely in effect. My yard is beginning to erupt in new growth. A-lot of my neighbors have Bradford Pear trees, which resemble giant Q-Tips now. It's really quite beautiful. But as the saying goes, April showers bring May flowers. And, we're definitely getting our fair share of rain. (It's pouring as I type this). On the down side, with the new growth, it means it's yard maintenance time again. I'm going to have to get crazy on it because it's a little out of control at the moment. I've wanted to get started on it, but the only times in the past couple of weeks that it was dry enough, were work days, and as I said before, I've been really busy. So here's hoping for a clear weekend.
Anyway, that's about it for now. I need to get back to work. Hope you all have a great weekend, and don't forget, The server will be down on Saturday night for an hour or two.
As some of you may have noticed, the server was offline for a little while this evening. I apologize for that, but we were trying to do our part to support Earth Hour by turning off the lights, and just about everything else that uses electricity in our house. We even decided to go a little further by having everything off for two hours tonight instead of one.
It was actually a good idea because it gave us an opportunity to spend some good family time together. We lit some candles, and played some games. We enjoyed it so much that I think we're going to do this once a week from now on.
It was weird not having the computers running in my office. It seemed so eerily quiet. I've grown so accustomed to the constant hum of the fans and disk drives that not hearing them seems odd.
Anyway, in keeping with the spirit of things, I plan to shut the server down once per week on Saturday evenings. It'll be down for somewhere between one and two hours. Don't worry, you won't lose email or anything during that time. Anything that comes in during the outage will be redelivered later in the evening, and will end up in your inbox.
Sorry for the inconvenience, and I hope you'll all understand. In fact, I hope that you'll all participate! Let's try unplugging ourselves once a week. It's good for the family, and ultimately, it's good for the environment.
Today, I turned 37. Yep, I'm getting up there. It was strange because I stopped by the Liquor store tonight, and saw the "you must have been born on or before" sign and it struck me. I turned 21 sixteen years ago! Not a big deal or anything, but it just seems odd because it really does seem like yesterday.
While I'm on the subject of my birthday, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who sent a card, or emailed, or called. It's appreciated! And I'd like to thank Edith for taking me out for a nice dinner at Red Lobster. mmmm.
Moving on to more important news, Cousin Lois gave birth yesterday! A baby girl. Join me in welcoming my fellow Piscean, Brianna LaVelle Jurasek to the world. She was born at 12:30pm on March 13, 2008, was 8lbs, 3oz, and 20" long. I hope to have photos to post soon! Congrats Lois!
Anyway, I'm gonna go have a drink, watch a movie, and try to enjoy the rest of my birthday.
I had a great trip to California! I got to work on-site with my new employer, I got to spend time with my good friend Darren and his family, I got to spend time with my good friends Chris and Jodi and their phemtites (kids), and last but definitely not least, I attended Phil and Laura's wedding reception!
This was my first time on-site with the new employer. What a great place to work! I only wish I could live locally so that I could actually go into the office every day. (I know! Weird, huh?!)
It was neat being in San Francisco. I sorta feel like I've come full circle now that I'm tied to the SF Bay Area again. I remember when I was a kid, and would visit my great grandma's place in the city. Or when I was a little older, and would cross the bay on a Bart train with friends to just walk around San Francisco. What a cool city!
While there, I stayed with my friend Darren and his family at their place up in Novato. Darren and I go way back, and have a mutual love of good food! (I said good, not healthy). The day I arrived, we started off by driving across the bay to Fremont to visit one of my personal favorites, Bob's Hoagy Steaks in Fremont. Mmmmmm!! After that, we worked our way up the east bay, and stopped for tacos from a taco truck that Darren knew. It was delicious! We ended up in Vallejo, looking for more tacos (see the vanishing taco truck incident), and rounded out the mini-parlay with a stop at Black Angus for drinks.
I car pooled with Darren each day to work. It's kinda neat because we drove across the Golden Gate bridge each day, followed by a quick pass through the edge of the Presidio. It's interesting because at the Presidio, George Lucas has set up his headquarters. One day, Darren and I stopped by and paid homage to Yoda. Then finally, we arrived at the office.
Staying at Darren's was great. (Thanks again Darren and Lisa). It was really cool to see their kids Brittany and Nicole, and to meet their cat Sparky.
Next, I made my way up to Sacramento to visit with Chris and Jodi and their kids, Becky and Tim. The first night there, Chris took me to his cousins place to hang out, drink beer, watch UFC, and to have a rock band-a-thon. What a blast. And the Jimboys was excellent! Hanging out with them was great as always! Tim was grounded, so he didn't get to participate in the Guitar Hero fest that Chris, Jodi, Becky and I had. And I must say, Becky is awesome at that game! Becky, you better be playing on Expert next time I come out! :)
To wrap up my trip, I had the immense pleasure of attending Phil and Laura's wedding reception (Videos and Photos). Thanks again U.P.! And congrats to both of you! It sure was great hanging out with the family! Unfortunately, I don't have too many photos or videos because I spent much of the time taking pics with Laura's camera. I'm in negotiations to get copies of those pics to post. :) As always, it was awesome to see the Family. This is another reason I'm happy to be anchored in San Francisco, because I'll likely see more of them than I did before.
I'm really looking forward to my next trip. (End of May for Iron Maiden in Concord) Jenna and I talked about planning a Cousins day in the City. Would be a lot of fun! I'll send out an official invite to everyone once I have made my travel plans.
Anyway, I need to get back to work, so I'll wrap this up with a little blurb about Comp-USA. (Yeah, a bit off topic). Before my trip, I had purchased a 1TB external drive from them for $300. Seemed like a good deal at the time. But, buyer beware. CompUSA is going out of business. All sales are final. I asked them what I should do if the thing turned out to be bad. They said that the manufacturers Warranty would cover it. Cool I thought.
Well, while at Darren's house, it started making some unusual noises, and stopped working. No problem I thought, I'll call IOMagic when I get home and send it in for RMA service/replacement. So, when I got back, I called them. I quickly learned that Comp USA has apparently stiffed IOMagic on over $900K of drives, and has no intention of paying. Therefore, IOMagic has removed them from their list of authorized resellers. What does that mean? Well, it means that if you bought something from CompUSA, that IOMagic will not honor the warranty.
I feel like I'm getting the shaft on this. As of right now, I'm out $300! I'm going to write some letters and see if I can get them to honor the warranty. After all, the dispute is between CompUSA and IOMagic. It's not my fault, nor was I aware, so why should I have to eat $300. In fact, when I registered the drive on the IOMagic website, CompUSA was still an option in the "Where did you buy it" dropdown.
Oh, and one last comment about Comp USA. During my call to IOMagic, the guy asked me how I had formatted the drive. I said that I hadn't, and that it came pre-formatted. He said that means it's used and they must have re-packaged it. Hmmm ok guys. Re-packaging and selling used items as new is flat out illegal. But they know they can get away with it because the company is dissolving. So who can you sue? Oh well. Hopefully I'll be able to talk IOMagic into being helpful.
Happy Presidents day! Today is one of those days that it's nice to work for a financial institution because it means a day off! Back in California, the kids had this day off from from school. But that isn't the case here in Tennessee.
And, happy belated Valentines Day! I trust you all took your special someones someplace nice. ;)
Also, I thought I'd post a quick update on how things have been going with the new gig. So far, I'm enjoying it. I've been really busy working on my first big project. It incorporates a lot of Ajax and DHTML. Good stuff maynard!
I've been in touch with some of my old friends and co-workers from Kinecta. It sounds like they are managing without me. Although I have heard of some challenges they've had in doing so. I'm sure they'll be fine though. It's just going to take some time to adjust.
Anyway, today is VIP day at Jessi's school, and guess who's the VIP again this year.. yep. me. This means that I'll be spending some time in her classroom today, and will be having lunch with her. Sounds like a good way to spend part of my day off :)
Take care everyone, and I'll blog atcha again soon.
I just got home from my California trip. I am officially no longer working for Kinecta. And I start San Francisco fire tomorrow.
The trip was good, but it was difficult saying goodbye to so many great friends and co-workers. I know it's not forever (I'll probably drop in from time to time) but it's still hard.
My flights were OK up until my layover in Chicago today. They were in the middle of a snow storm when my flight landed. Because of this, my connecting flight to Knoxville had been cancelled. Fortunately, I was able to get on a flight to Nashville several hours later.
That last flight was a pain though. First, we sat on the runway for roughly 1.5 hours while they de-iced the plane, and who knows what else. I was waiting for them to say "ok, everyone off" but luckily we eventually took off.
Due to the storms, the entire flight was very turbulent. I don't mind it so much (I just close my eyes and pretend it's a roller coaster) but after sitting in that tiny, cramped seat for a total of three hours, I was ready to get off!
Finally, I was able to rent a car from Hertz, and then make the 2 hour drive home from Nashville.
Anyway, I'll write more later. I need some sleep! I just wanted to post that I made it home safely.
Wow! Two blog posts in the same day! I think I'm setting a new personal record!
Well, this news is too big not to share!
I have been in negotiations since early December to work out a change of employers.
Today, I gave my "final" notice. I say final only because I actually gave notice back in late December, but due to extraneous circumstances, and the general desire of my current company to make things right, I told them that I would reevaluate and give them my final decision by today.
First off, I want to express how grateful I am for Kinecta (my current employer) stepping up and enacting changes to address the concerns that originally led me down this path. I have noticed a marked improvement! That said, my ultimate decision to take the new position was not solely based upon the issues I had with my previous one. In the end, it really just came down to me deciding upon what I felt was the best move for me.
This has been a tough decision on so many levels. I have been with Kinecta for 9 years, and they have been VERY good to me! I have grown so much (both professionally and personally) during my time there! I've made some of the best friends I've ever known. They've honored me on several occasions for my performance, and for my contributions. They allowed me to "put the feather in my cap" when they gave me the online banking project. When I moved away, they kept me on as a telecommuter. And most importantly, they made me a part of the family. So I have absolutely no regrets for the time I've spent with them. And while I know it's difficult for them to lose me, I hope they still feel that I helped make Kinecta a better place during the time that I was there. I will definitely miss them.
So, as of Feb. 1st, I will become the newest addition to the team at San Francisco Fire Credit Union! I'm REALLY looking forward to it! I'll be a Sr. Architect/Programmer (well, the only programmer for now), and will have the opportunity to build up the development infrastructure, as well as to enhance their existing systems (i.e. Online Banking). I already know about some of the initiatives they have in mind, and quite frankly, they're going to change the way people think about online banking. And I'll get to implement this stuff! So yes, this is a very good opportunity for me, and I am very excited!
Anyway, I'll likely be flying out to Los Angeles in the next week or so, and will be finishing my time at Kinecta on-site. I'm happy about that because it'll make for a much smoother transition for those who will be taking on my workload, and also because I'll get the chance to say goodbye to all of my friends in person.
This morning, I dropped Jessica to school as usual, but as I was driving home, I got caught at a red light and noticed a large amount of what appeared to be smoke billowing from under my hood. My heart started to race as I tried think of what to do. I had left my cell phone back at the house, and I had my dog in the back with no leash. What to do... Well duh! get out of there!
I pulled quickly off the road onto the shoulder, popped (but did not open) the hood, grabbed the dog by the collar, and literally got the heck out of Dodge. Immediately, I started sniffing to see if I would detect any noxious odor, of which, there was none. But just to be safe, I waited a few minutes before I actually opened the hood.
While waiting, I noticed a fairly large amount of liquid pooling beneath my truck. That's when I knew what had happened, or at least what caused the "smoke". So I went ahead and opened the hood, and my suspicions were confirmed. There was coolant all over the place under there. Looks like one of my hoses sprung a leak.
This morning was somewhat chilly, and the hot coolant hitting hot surfaces surrounded by cold air, produced quite a smoke show. So no caffeine needed today! I had enough of a kickstart from the adrenaline! Yee haw!
Well, to wrap it up, I was only about a mile or so away from home, so I closed the hood, put the dog in the back, and got home asap. All that's left is for me to figure out which hose popped, and go get a new one. But that'll need to wait until tomorrow when I can use Edith's truck.
Today was a late start day for me at work (Tue. and Thu., I start later in the day so that I can be available during afternoon hours on the west coast). Anyway, I took the opportunity to add another new feature this morning. It's not very productive, but it is sorta cool. If you look down towards the bottom of the page on the right hand side, you will see a small version of this image:
You can click it for a larger view. Notice the red dots (with white centers). They indicate the estimated location of the visitors to my site. Currently there aren't very many, but going forward, the map will automgically update as new visitors arrive.
The location information is obtained from which is a free tool that performs IP Address to location lookup information. Please take a moment to visit them by clicking the logo, and ensure that it correctly recognizes your location. If not, please take a moment to correct it by clicking the "Make a correction" link on their site. It's totally anonymous, and really helps build an accurate database.
Today, I finished the migration from the old server to the new one by migrating the website content over and updating the DNS.
Along with this, I have added a new feature to the blog. You can now add comments. You should see the "speak up" link below this (and every other) entry. To add a comment, just click it.
If you don't see the link yet, it's probably just because the DNS change hasn't made it to your ISP's servers yet. This can take up to 72 hours, but in my experience, it usually happens much faster than that.
Anyway, my eyes are crossing from strain, and I'm ready to crash.
This morning, Edith said to me that she saw a mouse in the bathroom. Yep, there's a gap behind the toilet next to a pipe. She said that she heard something, looked, and saw the mouse jump quickly back into that gap.
Then, Jessi was sitting quietly at the table while I made her breakfast, when she suddenly started sqwaking "A Mouse! A Mouse!". I ran in to look, and sure enough, there was a little mouse scurrying along the baseboard.
Now, considering that we have two cats, either those cats are just too darn lazy, or that's the luckiest mouse alive. I'm leaning toward the latter because when I finished making her breakfast, I returned to find both cats eagerly stalking the little guy. They were coming at him from both sides and cutting off his escape route. But he managed to get by one of them, and quickly scurried away behind the television.
When I returned home from dropping Jessi off at school, I sat down and began my work day. A few minutes later, I saw movement from the corner of y eye. There he was again! Of course, once he saw me, he scurried away to the relative safety of the space behind the television. But this time, I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped some photos.I know some of the the photos are blurry, but it was a tricky shot to take because it's back where I cant gain easy access. So I had to hold the camera at arm's length and try to point and shoot without being able to see the viewfinder. (As I was writing this, the mouse decided to come out of hiding long enough for me to take some additional photos that are of better quality).
Some people are really freaked out by rodents. Fortunately for this guy, we're not. I think he's sorta cute. But we don't necessarily want him living with us either (unless he starts paying rent). And of course, where there's one, there are sure to be many more living in the walls. So now I need to invest in a couple "humane" traps so we can catch them, then take them out into the woods and let 'em go.
Actually, as I've been writing, the mouse came out again, and this time the cats saw him. So they've been stalking like mad. A couple of times I thought they'd catch him. But he's a quick little guy. I don't want him dead, so I've set up a small cardboard box with a hole cut in the side that should be just big enough for him to fit. I placed it in a spot where the cats had him trapped earlier thinking that it may be an easy escape should he get trapped there again. I'll be sitting here all day, so if I hear him go into it, I'll quickly grab the box and take him outside for release.
And with that, the holiday season draws to a close. And what a season it was! I hope all of you enjoyed yours as much as we did.
Edith and the Kids spent the week leading up to Christmas in Los Angeles and flew home on Christmas eve, just in time for Santa's debut. They had a great visit with David (Edith's dad), and were able to visit with friends. I stayed behind to prep for Christmas, and to keep the animals company. I really enjoyed the peace and quiet, but quickly found myself missing the munchkins. But I did have the opportunity to get some things done around the house. I was also able to hang out with my cousing Greg one night for a 3 hour Guitar Hero fest.
Santa was in a pretty generous mood this year. He magically installed cable TV in Jessica's room (wonder how he did that without waking anyone up). He got us a new Blue-ray dvd player. And (my favorite) he brought us the game Rock Band. Of course that's not all. He also brought assorted things for the kids like heelys and Wii games. Even the pets scored. Bobby, out dog, got a new bed, and the cats got a new tower to play on (it's huge!). The ferrets got some treats and even our fish, Daniel, got some food.
Christmas day was great. It started with the traditional opening of presents. Afterward, we had a little get-together here at our house. When everyone arrived, round two of gift opening began.We decided this year to have a non-traditional meal for Christmas. And since it's now been two years since Grandma passed away, we decided to honor her by having a delicious Italian meal complete with her famous sauce. And delicious it was! (I love you grandma!)
Moving on... Laura and Damien had visitors this season. Damien's parents, Gilles and Claire, came all the way from Paris to spend the holidays with them in Myrtle Beach. Laura and Damien surprised them with the gift of a cabin rental in the Smokey Mountains. So they drove all the way up to my neck of the woods for that. It was nice because it afforded us the opportunity to get together for Dinner. So on the 27th, we all met at a place called Misaki in Knoxville. Misaki is the same idea as Benihana, where you gather around the grill, and the chef does a show for you while he prepares your meal. We had a GREAT time, and it seemed that Gilles and Claire enjoyed themselves as well (Although Gilles didn't seem to care much for Saké). After our meal, they headed back up to their cabin for a couple more days. We had hoped to meet up for brunch before they left, but unfortunately, it didn't work out. But they're family now, so I'm sure we'll have another opportunity to spend time with them in the future.
For New Years eve, we had a fairly quiet night at home. Joey got invited to a New Years party with his friend Quenton. (Yes, you heard right. Joey got invited to his first real party! haha) As I write this, I still haven't heard from him, but I'm sure he had a blast (him and Quenton always do). Edith, Jessica and I spent the evening here at the house with Edith's mom and step-dad. We watched Harry Potter (order of the phoenix) on blue-ray, right up to the ball drop. Then we drank our champagne and toasted the new year. Within about 1 minute of the ball dropping, my phone rang, and I was suprised with a call from my good friend Chris in Sacramento to wish me happy new year. (Thanks for the call Chris, I miss you guys!)
Anyway, I think I'll wrap it up now. You can of course see the plethora of photos and videos from the past couple of weeks. I'm gonna head back upstairs and have some breakfast. They say it might snow here today, and I know a certain little girl who would be very excited if it does. :)
So here's wishing each and every one of you a wonderful 2008! May this be the best year ever!!!
Just wanted to give you the heads up that I am in the midst of switching over to a new email server,
I have copied all of your existing mail over as of about an hour or so ago (roughly midnight).
It will take several days for the change to be complete. during this time, you will still need to check the old server for new mail. You can do this by logging in as usual. However, you will also start to recieve mail on the new server. To access it, click the "New Server" link beneath the login box,
When you get to the Squirrelmail login screen, you will need to specify you username followed by the @ sign and ammendolias.com. So, it will look like "username@ammendolias.com". Your password should still be the same (assuming I remembered it correctly) If not, let me know and I'll set a temporary password for you and you can change it once logged in (on the options tab).
The new server is much more powerful than the old, and has the latest versions of everything installed. I am hoping that I'll be able to implement better (more effective) spam control software on it.
I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas shopping season! I cheated a bit this year, and bought 90% of my gifts on amazon.com. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. I'm generally so busy that I simply don't have the kind of time required to go to the mall during this time of the year. It's not a "lazy" thing. It's a practicality one.
First off, I want to announce to everyone the arrival of a new Ammendolia! Cousin Tina had her baby girl, Sasha, last Tuesday (Dec 4th). She weighed in at 7 1/2 pounds and was 19.6 inches long. Today I received photos of her, and believe you me, she is ADORABLE! Pending approval, I will post them on the site. Congratulations Tina! * UPDATE *I have posted the photos for everyone to see. :)
Moving on, today was a special treat! Joey and Jessica were in a Christmas dance recital! This was Jessica's 2nd (here's the first one: [photos] [video]) but this was Joey's first. They both did exceptionally well! I am very proud of each! That's not to say that every kid there wasn't great. They all were! But of course I'm going to favor my two. There are many photos and videos for you to see. (Note: It seems that my Camera is dying. The auto focus seems to have taken a drastic turn for the worse. So I apologize up front for the number of blurry shots. But there are a lot of good ones too.)
Anyway, I need to cut this one short as I must run upstairs and prepare my (not so) famous "crock pot pulled pork" for Edith's pot luck at work. (mmm yum!)
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here at my place, we cooked a bird and had a little get-together with my mom, Edith's mom & step-dad, and their friend Art. I took some pictures and you can see them here.
Poor Jessica didn't get to enjoy the day as much as she wanted to. She came down with a bug the day before. We'd been going through our normal morning routine and I had just made her breakfast when suddenly she started crying and said that her head hurt. I felt her forehead and was surprised a the warmth. It almost stung. I took her temperature. 102.3 degrees. Yikes! Grab the Motrin! Well, needless to say, no school for her. Yesterday, she seemed to be feeling a bit better, but still had a fever. At one point, it got up to 102.8! More Motrin! But even with the fever, she seemed to feel a lot better. I went in and felt her forehead this morning on my way to work, and the fever seems to be gone. Whew...
Speaking of Jessica, We had her birthday party last Saturday. She had a bunch of friends over. They played games, decorated cookies, and reveled in birthday glee. Several of the other kids brought their webkinz toys. It was a veritable invasion of plush toys! And of course, Jessi received several more for gifts (I think her running total is now up to 18 of them!) Of course there are photos and video.
Anyway, as I said before, I hope everyone had a great Turkey day! I would have loved to be in Patterson with the Family. Maybe next year. And thank you Marianne and Phil, for the ecards. They really made my day.
Oh speaking of going to Patterson. I had mentioned to some of you that I had high hopes of coming to California for Christmas this year with Edith and the kids. Well, as fate would have it, there was no way to coordinate it. Oddly enough, it came down to who would take care of our animals while we were gone. Normally was ask our friends Mark and Kim, but they are going to be out of town themselves. Edith's dad was even willing to pay for the flights for us. Well, I felt bad because I know how much it would mean to Edith and the Kids to be able to go visit, so the plan now is for Her, Joey and Jessi to fly out for a week. They'll be flying to L.A. on Dec 19th and returning home on the 24th.
I'm really sorry. I can't tell you how much a Patterson visit during the holiday's would have meant! I will make something happen though. As soon as possible. I really want to bring the kids over there so they have an opportunity to visit with the family. I can't express how lucky I feel to have such a great family, and I want my kids to know that they're a part of it too.
Anyway, today is a work day for me, so I'd better get back to it.
Take care everyone! And LET THE HOLIDAY FRENZY BEGIN!
I just wanted to post a quick not to wish my baby girl a happy 8th birthday!
We surprised her this morning by waking her up and giving her some of her gifts. You can see the video here.
It's difficult for me to believe she's 8 years old already! Seems like yesterday she was born. I remember that night vividly. From walking into the hospital to cutting her cord. Now, it's 8 years later. Wow.
We'll be having a birthday party for her on this coming Saturday. I'm sure the Webkinz fairy isn't finsihed quite yet.
Jessi with her new Webkinz on the morning of her 8th Birthday
I made it safely back to TN. Actually managed to catch an earlier flight home from Chicago which got me in 2 hours early.
The remainder of my trip was great! I left Patterson, and drove up to Elk Grove to visit Uncle Phil and Laura (or is it Lora? sorry, I don't know for sure). We had a nice visit. Cousin Jenna had mentioned something about how we'd end up in the garage smoking a nice cigar and sipping a cocktail. Well Jenna, you couldn't have been more right! haha
After Elk Grove, I made my way up to Orangevale (suburb of Sacramento) and spent my last couple of days visiting my old friends Chris and Jodi (and their kids, Becky and Tim). It was funny. I got there, and within mere minutes, we were engrossed in some head to head Guitar Hero II that lasted until we'd finished every song. (2AM or so). The next morning we got up at 6:00ish and took Tim to his football game. After that, we went to Becky's soccer game.
Next, I had the pleasure of lunch with Cousin Kari (she lives about 2 miles from my friends). It was great!
I left Sacramento on Sunday, and flew back home. The trip was smooth and uneventful.
Now that I'm home, I have to deal with some crummy stuff. Murphy's law went into effect while I was away, and my water heater decided to spring a leak (It flooded my office). Now that I'm home, I've been trying to get this thing fixed.
I started with my home warranty but they'll only cover $500 to replace my type of water heater (Direct Vent). I was bummed, but figured "ok" and called the local gas company to come give an estimate (They sell and install water heaters). The guy came and said something that gave me a little hope. He said that my tank should still be under warranty, and he gave me the name of the only distributor for that brand in the area. I called them, gave my model/serial numbers and sure enough, it's covered! yay! The down side was that they didn't have any replacement units in stock. Two more days they said. Well, 2 days was up today, and as of late this afternoon, we still have no hot water (over a week now). The installer is a one man shop named "Larry's odd jobs and plumbing" (oh great!). Anyway, he's the only one authorized to do warranty replacement installs in our area. And worse, he informed me that if the heater wasn't here by today that he wouldn't be able to install it until Friday at the earliest.
So, it looks like we wont have hot water for at least a couple more days. At least my gym is close by and they have showers.
Anyway, that's about all. I'm on a phone meeting while I type this, so I better start paying attention. I'll update again when my water woes have been resolved.
Hello all! I know I've been terrible about updating this, but it's really just a matter of having time. (it's a lousy excuse, but I'm sticking with it for now)
I've been on a Whirlwind tour over the past few days.
I attended our company's annual employee meeting last Monday in L.A., and then worked on-site for a couple of days.
During this time, I had the opportunity to visit with quite a few friends.
It started Sunday when I arrived. I spent the afternoon hanging out with My good friends Shannon and Debbie. Then I went to Hermosa Beach to visit my buddy Dave (bartender at Club Sushi). Shannon and Debbie joined me there for a cocktail. Next, we were joined by another friend of mine, Marquis (and his fiance, Paris). We all went to Mediterreneo for dinner, then called it a night.
Monday was the day of the meeting. So not a whole lot of extra curriculars occurred this day. One thing I'll say though is that I am astounded at how many new faces I saw this year! There was a time where I knew pretty much everyone that worked in my building. But, in the two years I've been telecommuting, the guard has changed quite a bit. Very strange feeling.
Tuesday and Wednesday were more or less on-site days. I am still considered valuable though because they couldn't seem to get enough of me (in meetings and such). So it re-affirmed my value to the company (well to me it did).
Tuesday night was great because I was able to spend some time with David (Edith's dad). I had a great time hanging out with him. Talking, eating some awesome pizza, and playing a little guitar. He offered to fly my family out for the Holidays. We're still trying to see if we can coordinate it, but I think there's a good chance it'll happen. Oh, and Thanks for the IPod David!
Wednesday night was special because I had the opportunity to stay the night at Shannon and Debbie's house. It was sure nice. And I enjoyed talking to Deb on the phone during part of my long drive up north. Thanks Deb. :)
Thursday was the start of my mini vacation. I left LA at around 6:30am and started driving up I-5. Since everyone in Patterson works, I decided to kill some time. So I hopped over the hill to the Bay area for a delightful treat. My old High School Haunt, Bob's Hoagy Steaks in Fremont. Mmmmmmmmm!!! Anyway, Uncle Phil happened to be in Santa Cruz for work that day, so we managed to hook up for Lunch. It was delicious! Afterward, we started heading away fro the bay. He, to Elk Grove, and me to Patterson. Fortunately, this meant we'd be going the same general direction for a while. So we chose Niles Canyon (that really brings back some memories!) and then a connection across Valecitos Rd. into Livermore. After a quick stop at the Harley store, we were on our separate ways.
I arrived in Patterson around 4pm. And shortly thereafter everyone started arriving. It was so good to see everyone! I have really missed them all! Not to mention, I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of new cousins (new since I was last here). Lainey and Samuel. There are some great photos of them in the album. So I am completely thrilled with my trip so far. I'd like to take this opportunity to say thanks to everyone for having me over, and for taking the time to hang out with me for a visit. I love you guys!
Today (Friday), I plan to hang around Patterson for a little bit, then I'll be heading up to Sacramento (Elk Grove actually) to Visit Phil. This evening, I'll be heading up to visit my good friends Chris and Jodi. I fly home on Sunday from Sacramento. I'm sure I'll have more photos by the time I'm done, so I'll follow up with another posting once I get back home.
To everyone who has put up with me on this trip, a very heartfelt thanks!
I've been wanting to post since Monday, but haven't had the time. So, here we go...
We drove down to Myrtle Beach for the Holday weekend last week. Was Edith, My mom, the kids, and of course me. We stayed with my sister and brother-in-law.
The drive was about 8 hours (including food and potty breaks) but really didn't seem too bad. I always enjoy driving places that I've never driven. This time it was I-26 from the 40 down to Colombia. SC. Then the I-20 to Hwy 501 into Myrtle. Along the way, we passed Fort Jackson which is where I did my basic training.
Fort Jackson stirred up quite a few memories. Both good and bad. I made some great friends (in particular, Dave, my battle buddy) and had some great times (training was fun, and sumo suits w/ Dave at a bar one night, was a blast! He really is a king!). On the down side was the memory of when Grandpa died. I was allowed to go home during basic because of it.
Back to Myrtle... We had a great visit. Laura had some stuff planned.
We went to The Aligator Adventure where we save a plethora of Alligators, Crocs, Snakes, Tigers and even some Leemurs. If you're ever in town, check it out!
We also spent an afternoon at the beach. Joey and Jessi got to boogie board and play in the sand. Much fun. Although the currents were getting a bit strong, so towards the end, we didn't let them go back in.
And of course we spent some time at the pool.
Overall, we had a great time, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Laura and Damien for having us down.
Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the video camera or even a good digital, but I took some pich with my cell phone. See them here.
Anyway, work has been crazy, and I need to get back to it. So I'll close here.
It's been darn hot here in Tennessee!! They keep talking about records and such on the news. Well, I have been places that are much hotter (Like 126 degrees in BDUs when I was in the Army, stationed at Ft. Irwin which is near Death Valley) but when you throw in the humidity factor, it sure feels a lot hotter here even when the thermometer only reads 104.
So, yes, it's been hot. Not unbearable, but definitely uncomfortable. I have a small air conditioner in the window of my office (which is built in the back of my garage, so it doesn't share the AC of the main house), and it doesn't quite help. It does take the "edge" off, but in general, it's still hot in here.
Enough about the heat. So, things have been pretty much status quo lately. I've just been working alot as usual. The kids started back to school this week. So far so good. And Edith started working at Joey's school. (poor kid! hahaha I wouldn't have liked it too much if my mom worked at my school when I was a kid.)
Speaking of the kids...
Joey lost a tooth the other day. It's not as earth shattering as when he was little, but it's still noteworthy. And the tooth fairy sure is a lot more generous now than when I was little. I think I got 25 cents for a tooth. He got $5.00! dang!
Jessi finally learned to ride a bike without training wheels. Her bike is too small for her now though, so she had to ride Joey's old bike. But she's so cute. She announced that she's saving her money (about $100 now) so she can buy herself a new bike. She didn't even ask if I'd buy it for her (which of course I will). How sweet is that?! :)
I've started planning my October California trip. We have a company meeting on the 8th, so I'll be flying out on the 7th. I got to thinking about it, and I'm going to try to take some time off while I'm there, and drive up to visit the Family and some friends. Then I'll fly home from Sacramento. The total cost to do that only adds about $40.00 to the total cost, so, I'll ask work to pay for what it would've cost, then I'll pay the difference. I sure hope it works out. I'd love to see everyone!
Well, I need to get back to work, so with that I'll close. Peace, and stay cool!!
Well, we're back from our little week-long vacation. And what a great time we had!
We left on Saturday the 14th of July for a brief 10.5 hour drive to Harkers Island NC. Which is where Edith's uncle Ray lives.
I stayed one night there, then I left for Myrtle Beach SC to go visit my Sister and Bro-in-law at their new house.
The drive down the coast to my Sis's place was great! The first time I've ever driven down the east coast! As I approached Wilmington, NC, I decided that I should find the east-coast end of the I-40
Pretty cool! Now I can say that I've driven the I-40 coast to coast.
Anyway, I arrived at my Sis and Bro-in-law's place on Sunday afternoon. Damien was still out of town for work. But Laura and I managed to have a good time.
She showed me around their house, neighborhood, and town. We went to the beach, swam in the ocean, walked around an outdoor mall (where they even have an ultimately cool Kiss Coffee Shop), and played Wii. The next day, we hung ceiling fans around the house, went shopping, swam in the pool, and played Wii. (oh, and Guitar Hero too, which is next on my must have games list)
I stayed in Myrtle Beach until Wednesday. Then I returned back to Harkers Island to spend the rest of the week with the family
After all that Wii playing, I decided that we needed one. (if you haven't tried it yet, you really should! That thing is going to revolutionize gaming). So I decided that I'd get one for Joey's birthday. Easier said than done though! Those things are scarce! Luckily though, I pulled into a Wal-Mart in some small town along the coast to find that they had a full compliment of them available. Score! So I picked one up and got the Wii-Play kit (extra controller) and an extra nunchuk. Life is good!
So, I got back to Uncle Ray's house that afternoon in time to enjoy Aunt Gigi's cooking for dinner! And let me tell you, that woman can cook! (Thanks Gigi!)
The next few days were filled will fun activities for all. We went Surf Fishing on the Atlantic side of the Core Banks. Did a little Jet Skiing, and Uncle Ray taught the boys to Scuba Dive (in his treadmill pool).
The kids had a great time! This really was a summer camp for them. Uncle Ray had everything planned out. From Kayaking to woodshop, there was plenty to do.
We also had the opportunity to visit Beaufort, NC (which is the closest city to Harkers Island). This is a beautiful little coastal "fishing" town. Very historic. One of Edith's dad's friends (Ed) owns a bar/restaurant know as the Royal James Cafe. Aside from visiting the James (and having a few beers), we did a little shopping among the various small shops that line the main drag.
On last thing that I'll share with you was Joey's 11th Birthday celebration, which we held a week early so that we could share it with family. Joey had a blast. Not only did he get his Wii, he also got some collectible Spawn action figured, a map of the "Graveyard of the Atlantic", a tee-shirt, and some moolah from Ray and Gigi. (Sorry if I missed anything). And for the coup de gras, Gigi made him an absolutely scrumptious chocolate cake!
Anyway, you can brows all of the pics and videos, and you'll get the idea of what a great time we had.
Oh, and one last thing. VZ Navigator ROCKS!!! $10/mo, but well worth it if you're traveling to parts unknown!
So that's it for now. Cheers, and I'll catch ya' on the flip side....
I got a new Cell Phone yesterday. My 2 year contract with Cingular ends on the 15th, and now that they have (re)merged with AT&T, I decided it was time to switch carriers. (I'm not a big fan of AT&T)
My main choices were between T-Mobile and Sprint/Nextel. I will NEVER be a sprint customer again (They are the evil that soils the fabric of all that is right in this world), and although I've never had TMobile, my sister has, and they don't sound to good either. So, since I had them before and never had a problem, I chose to go back to Verizon.
Also, I decided not to keep my old number. This means that my old number will be inactive as of the 15th of July. I will be sending an email to everyone with my new number, but feel free to shoot me an email, and I'll reply with it.
That's all for now. I have a busy day, and need to get back to it.
I made my usual call to Best Buy this morning to see if they had any in stock, and much to my surprise, they had 13 (how lucky!) So I spent my lunch hour today running up there to pick one up. 45 minutes later, I was back home, connecting it so that Joey would have something to do this afternoon. (He's a happy camper)
It's interesting that just yesterday, it was announced that Microsoft was extending the warranty to 3 years. I've read a great deal of comments where people are commending Microsoft on this move. And I too think it's great! But what does this really mean? Sure, if your 360 breaks within 3 years (more like 3 months I think) then they will happily repair/replace it. This too is great, but I have read (no personal experience here) that the way it works is that they send you a prepaid postage box (aka, the coffin) to send the unit back. Once they receive it, they'll do what they do, and send you a unit back. Problem is that due to the apparent backlog, people are reporting that it can take more than 3 months to get your replacement. And on top of that, it's going to be a refurb.
Because of this, I opted (again) to get the Best buy 2 year replacement plan. Yes, it cost another $60 but I happen to know that the next manufacturing runs (this fall) are going to have many improvements (a 65nm die process for one which will make the thing run much cooler). So I decided that when this one fails, I want to have an opportunity to get a new one rather than a refurb. So to me $60 is worth it (although barely)
Anyway, the new console is up and running. So all you gamers that I used to play with, I'm ready to go ;) (assuming I can find time between jobs to play)
So there you have it. A (marginally) happy ending.
Ok, yeah. I'm a day late with the Father's day greeting. but hey, I'm a very busy man! :) I hope all of you dads out there had a great day! And I hope all of you kids out there were mindful enough to wish your dad a happy father's day!
Dad's day was really nice for me. Granted I had pulled an all-nighter the night before. But after a good solid hour of sleep (ok, 45 minutes), I was awakened by the sound of young voices wishing me a happy fathers day, and with the bearing of gifts.
From Joey, I received a card, and a new wallet. (Much needed too! The one I have been using is somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 to 7 years old, and is MUCH worse for the wear)
From Jessi, I received two cards (one store bought, and the other made by her), a coffee mug (decorated by her) and a picture frame (you guessed it, made by her) She's so creative! :)
From Edith, I received a card, a new shirt, and a new Norelco T980 Vacuum Trimmer (actually, she said that this one is from the whole family) This thing is gonna rock my face!
From Bobby (our dog) I received a nice heartfelt card.
All in all, I was overly happy with everything. It's good to be a dad!
In other news....
The Best Buy drama continues. I've been patiently waiting for the store to replenish their stock, but was told on Saturday (my 3rd attempt) that according to their inventory system, they're not even scheduled to be receiving any for the foreseeable future.
This prompted me to write them a letter. (It's pasted below. Read it over. I think it explains the situation adequately.) Hopefully I'll get some resolution soon. (Although, I don't think I'll hold my breath.) Wish me luck!
Not much else going on. Just work work workin' my life away! :)
And with that, I'll close.
Peace in the east!
J.
Best Buy Letter
Hello,
I am writing to express my frustration with the replacement of my XBox 360 console, and to request some form of resolution to the issue.
When I originally purchased the XBox 360 on 12/4/2006, I also purchased a product replacement plan, as your sales associate made me aware of a history of problems associated with this console.
I was relieved that I had done so because in May, the console did fail. On May 25, 2007, I filed a claim and sent my console in for replacement as instructed in the product replacement plan brochure. 12 days later, I received a best buy card with the replacement value of $436.78 on it.
Unfortunately, when I arrived at the store to purchase a replacement unit, I found that they were out of stock. I asked when more might arrive, and if they would kindly hold one for me, to which I was told they "did not know when more would arrive", and that I should "check back on the following Tuesday", followed with the statement "store policy forbids the holding of video game consoles for any reason".
My frustration grew because I felt like my request to hold an XBox 360 console which I had already paid for, had been fair. So I asked if I could have my money refunded so that I could purchase a replacement elsewhere.
I was told that it is "against store policy to give cash refunds for a gift card". This was followed with the statement that I could "use the card to purchase a different console". I replied that due to my large investment in game software and add on hardware, this course of action would not be acceptable. I was then told "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do for you".
I left the store feeling quite unsatisfied but with the hope that I could purchase a new XBox 360 on the bestbuy.com web site. Unfortunately the site was, and still is, out of stock.
As instructed, I attempted to contact the store on the following Tuesday, and again was informed that they were out of stock, and that I should try again on the following Saturday.
Saturday arrived, I called, and was again told that they are out of stock. This time however, the woman volunteered that she could see in the computer that no XBox 360s are scheduled to be delivered for the foreseeable future.
I feel it is quite unacceptable that:
1. I have paid $436.78 for an item that stopped working in 5 short months of use. (Not Best Buy's fault)
2. There is no replacement as promised in the "product replacement plan" that I purchased to cover just such an eventuality.
3. There is no answer as to when I will be able to purchase a replacement using the gift card that was sent in lieu of a true "replacement".
4. Best Buy's policy disallows the release of the funds from this gift card even though items #2 and #3 above are in effect.
5. Best Buy's policy will not allow the reservation (or holding) of one when they do become available even though the funds used to purchase it are effectively unavailable to me, due to item #4 above.
I understand that your company has no control over the rate at which these units are manufactured. But I feel that I am at least entitled to know when this issue will be resolved with either a new XBox 360 console or with the release of my funds so that I can purchase a replacement elsewhere.
Thank you for your attention and quick response to this matter.
Hello all, I trust you're enjoying the summer so far.
I just felt like throwing up a quick post to vent about my frustration with Best Buy and Microsoft.
Joey's Xbox 360 that I bought for him back in December (a Christmas present) died last month at the ripe old age of 5 months. I'm not too surprised though because every single person I know who has purchased one of these things has had the same thing happen (And by that, I mean several people, not just one or two. And it seems we're not the only ones). So, when it happened to us, I was relieved that I had spent the extra $60 to buy the replacement plan. They said "If it dies, just bring it back here and we'll give you a new one).
HAH! what a load! The reality is that I had to call a number (they have a web site too, but it wasn't working) and give them all of my info and the replacement contract number, after which, they emailed me a shipping label and instructed me to package everything up (EVERYTHING including the hard drive which means we lose all of our downloaded content and five months of achievements). Luckily I had kept the original packaging. So I boxed it up and shipped it. The shipping they provide is minimal though. No insurance, no tracking, and no delivery receipt. The best I could do was to pay for "shipment confirmation" which basically just says "yep, he shipped it". I would have added insurance and/or tracking, but then I would have had to pay full price to ship it (which I would have done, but they were VERY specific that I had to use the shipping label they provided, so...). The whole process was going to take up to 10 business days from when they received it (which I had no way of knowing). Fortunately, it only took a total of 12 days (including weekends), so at least that part was true.
Here's the kicker though. Did they send me a new one? no. Did they give me a check to buy a new one? no. They gave me a Best Buy gift card for $436.97. Ok, fine. so after dinner tonight, I said "Hey Joey, let's run up to Knoxville and pick up your new Xbox". He got very excited. So we drove up there (about 25 miles away) just to find that Best Buy was sold out. I asked if they could just give me the money from the card so that we could pick one up down the street, and not have to make the drive again (Hey, gas is expensive!). Nope. I can only use it to buy something in their store. I went a few rounds with a manager to no avail. So Joey and I drove home empty handed (except for a $436.87 piece of plastic).
The moral of this story? well, there isn't one, I'm just ranting. But they should do something to make it right. They wont even hold one for me when they come in! Heck, they already have my money, Why should I get priority over some schmuck off the street who wants to give them more.
I sure hope someone files a class action. I'd be all over it! Best Buy AND/OR Microsoft! I mean come on, I think it's pretty obvious that M$ has released a faulty product. I wonder if anyone has actually run the numbers to see how many of the consoles actually ended up faulty. I'm sure M$ knows! Just check out all these poor saps. That's just the top of a google search I did for "Xbox 360 return policy". And if you google around for "xbox 360 problems" you get 13,400 hits!
At this point, I am considering dropping the 360, and using that gift card to buy a PS3. I hear they're pretty much flawless (not to mention, they're actually a better platform. more powerful, blue ray, etc..) But, if I do that, then I'm essentially throwing away hundreds of dollars in game discs that we cant use anymore. (Maybe it'd be worth it though because we could trade them in for credit toward PS3 games).
Well, as usual, I have let too much time go by without an update, so here it is.
School's out for summer. Yep, it's not just a classic Alice Cooper tune anymore. Both kids finished classes on Friday, much to their approval. They both had great years. Up's and down's of course, but overall, it was good. Jessica has been accepted into the gifted program. (I always knew she was more than just a smart ass. ) Seriously though, we're very excited. And now we begin with the summer ritual of staying up late, having sleep-overs, and various other summer-type activities. Of course, this means a dent in my pocketbook because summer activities never come cheap.
Laura and Damien bought a house! Yes, it's true! They just spent a few days in the Myrtle Beach area looking, and definitely did not go home unsatisfied. I'm anxious to see the photos! (update: As I was typing this blog entry, Damien sent me a text message to let me know the photos have been posted! So I'm going to head over to their website now and have a peek.) The place they bought is still under construction, and will be finished by the end of June, so in about a month, they'll be making the cross country trek (I know it so well) and will move in. Congrats to my sister and my bother (from another mother)!!
Work has been excessive as usual. Between my day job and my current side project, I've been bordering on burn out for a couple of weeks now. I seriously think it's starting to affect me. I've been gaining weight (sitting on your butt for days on end will do that to ya) and I've felt unusually tired the past few days. Not to mention the headaches. Oh well, if everything goes as planned, only a couple more months of this lifestyle, and I'll be sitting pretty. (Not enough to make me leave my day job mind you, but it could turn into a nice supplemental source of income.)
Mark and Kim have left for their honeymoon cruise. I think they're going to have a great time! One of their stops will be a tour of the Bacardi distillery, If only you couild've seen the joy in Kim's eyes when she found that part out. I'm jealous! Joking aside, I know they'll have a great time. But I also know that it'll be over too quickly and life will get back to normal. (Yep, that's the pessimist in me talking)
I'm contemplating the purchase of a boat. I've been looking at some on Craigslist and at a local dealer. It's a tough decision because I know we would use it to death, but the expense of it.... I don't want to spend $30,000 on a summertime toy. It just doesn't seem prudent. So, I've been looking in the sub $15K range. So far, I've only found a couple that interest me in the least. But now I wonder to myself, "Why are they so cheap? (relatively speaking)". Well, the fact that they were both built in the mid to late 80s probably says a lot to answer that, but now I wonder just how well maintained they were, and how long they'll last. Not to mention how much will it cost to keep a 20 year old boat running. Anyway, I don't know. I'll need to think carefully about this decision.
Anyway, Happy summer everyone! I hope you have a blast!
A lot has happened over the past month or two since my last post. I'll give you the highlights:
I got my right eye laser'd. All is well. I will have new reading glasses soon.
Our friends Mark and Kim got married. (see the photos and videos)
The ceremony was awesome! Very well done, and probably one of the nicest I've ever had the privilege of attending. The reception was wonderful. Great food, good people, lots-o-fun. The after party... well, check out the videos if you wanna know more about that. (unfortunately, I had to stay sober. I was the designated driver. But that's ok. Better safe than sorry!
Last weekend (May 18 - 20) we stayed in a Smokey Mountain cabin, (see the photos and videos)
It's located up near a place called Pigeon Forge which is a little like Vegas sans gambling.
The cabin was incredible! (even though we had issues with the hot tub not working) We all had a great deal of fun. The cabin was actually Mark & Kim's, but they couldn't make it in time to check in (due to their Relay for Life commitment) so while they walked all night long on Friday, we went up and checked in, then they joined us on Saturday. If you look through the videos, you'll see some of us enjoying ourselves at an amusements place. We rode go-karts and some of us rode this giant swing-o-death contraption (about 1/3 of the way into that vid)
Anyway, there's a high-level overview. Other than that, the usual stuff has been happening. Lots of work. more work, and after work is done, more work. The past weekend was a really nice break from routine.
Well, I just had my left eye zapped with the laser. I'm actually sitting in an exam room right now, waiting for about 15 minutes so they can re-check the pressure before they send me home. (I brought my laptop, and they offer free Wi-Fi)
The proceedure was very quick. It took maybe a total of 30 to 45 seconds. The first zap was the most uncomfortable. It felt almost like an electric shock in my eye. After that, the remaining zaps (five or six total, I didn't count) were a non-event.
Right now, my left eye is very blurry, and I do feel a little bit of pain (nothing to write home [or blog] about though). The doctor said the blurred vision is due to the goopy drops they put in to help the lens make better contact with my eye.
So, assuming everything is ok, I will be coming back in one week to have my right eye done. That's the one I'm nervous about because if anything goes wrong there, I'll be in big trouble because that's my dominant eye (like 85% dominant). But I'm sure everything will be fine.
I took some close up pics of my eye this morning. When I can, I'll take the "after" set, and put up some photos. The doc said the holes will probably not be noticable though. I sure hope they are ;)
Thats it for now.
Joe
update: After looking at my eye, I can now see that the doctor only made one hole. I guess the other laser zaps (there were actually 13 of them!) were just cartorizing it and/or cleaning it up. This would explain why only the first zap actually hurt. My next appointment (to get my right eye done) is not until May 8th due to doctor vacations and such. Here's the comparison pic. (Click it for a larger view) The top pic is before, and the bottom is after. The new hole is circled in white.
Tomorrow morning, I go in for my laser surgery. I know it's not a big deal, and that it's a very safe proceedure, but I can't help but be a little concerned.
The opthamologist said that it will take about 30 minutes, and that I should be able to go right back to work after. He said that about the worst that generally happens is a slight headache. We'll see.
So, this time tomorrow, I'll have a series of new holes in my iris. I wonder if they'll be visible upon close inspection (that'd be cool). I'll try to take a close up picture in a mirror, and post it.
Please click the banner at the top of this page and sign the petition to help save internet radio.
I don't know who of you listen to internet straming radio, but I definitely do because in my office, I cant get radio reception. So I am left with no choice but to use internet radio.
Besides that, I often find new artists that I enjoy, only because an internet stations will play them where a local "top 40" station wouldn't think about playing an unknown.
If you've never tried it, head on over to http://www.shoutcast.com and give it a try. (While you still can that is) You might find something you like.
For the unititated, the Copyright Royalty Board has more than tripled the amount which internet radio stations must pay in royalties! The new royalty fees go into effect on May 15th, 2007, and are so exorbitant that there is no way the internet radio business model allows the stations to pay them. What's worse is that the fees will be backdated to Jan 1, 2006! The stations will simply go bankrupt and silent.
So please, take a moment (less than 5 minutes) to click the banner, and sign the petition. They also send a letter on you behalf to your congressman/woman. The letter is prefilled, but you do have the ability to edit the contents. I left mine unedited.
I, as many of you I'm sure, have spent the past couple of days pondering the tragedy that happened yesterday morning at Virginia Tech. What a sensless thing! I followed along in disbelief yesterday as the varied thories and reports came down the wire. It felt somewhat reminiscent of how I felt on 9/11. Gut wrenching. My heart and prayers are with those affected.
Now that the ashes are settling and we know who did it. The next question is why. Well, it sounds like we may never have that answer. He was a loner, without many (if any) friends. What could cause someone to take such heinous actions against virtual strangers? At least with terrorists, they have a belief that drives them to do terrible things and to take innocent life. What was it about this guy?!
I'm sure there are a lot of people wondering what could have been done to prevent this, and future incidents from happening. Well, my answer has to be "nothing". There is no way to know when someone will crack. There's no way to know who is capable of something like this. And therefore there is no way to prevent it (short of having a swat team in every classroom waiting). No, unfortunately this is a very real risk that we take every day when we go to work, school, the bank, etc.. (the list goes on). You know, there have been several occasions in recent memory that I have thought of the Columbine tragedy when I'm dropping Joey off for school in the morning. I make it a point to tell him that I love him right before he gets out of the car. I want to be sure he knows, just in case. Not that I think it will happen, but I don't want to be the person who wishes they'd said "I love you" one last time. I'm sure there are some of those people from yesterday's tragedy.
So again, my thoughts are with the grieving. I hope you can find some comfort somewhere.
Ok, on to other news;
I went to the opthamologist this morning. I've developed a "floater" in my right eye that really drives me crazy. It's situated itself almost dead center in my field of view. Also, I have noticed that I've been squinting a lot when reading my computer screen. So I decided it was time to pay him a visit. The technician wanted to dialate my eyes so the doctor would have a better look, but said to me "Hang on, I'm not sure it's safe to dialate. Let me get the doctor". The doctor arrived. poked and prodded my eyeballs (yippy fun!) and deduced that it was not safe, and that I have a condition known as "Anatomic Narrow Angle". Yeah, I'd never heard of it before either. Aparently, there are small vents around the circumfrence of your iris, which allow fluid to flow. In my case, my iris has started to protrude forward at the edges which is pinching off these vents. If they should all close, it would spell Glaucoma!
So, next Tuesday, I'll be going in for a procedure called a "Yag Laser Iridectomy". They will use a laser to poke holes around the edge of my iris. The idea is to bypass the vents and allow the fluid to move freely. I'm always nervous when it comes to my eyes (I couldn't make a living without my vision) but I have read up on it. Overall it's considered a very safe proceedure. As with any surgery, there is a chance that something may go wrong. I've read of cases where this procedure actually causes an increase in intraoccular pressure. Or where a laser burn on the cornea and / or ghosted images, etc. have occurred. But I suspect this risk is present for every laser eye surgery, and there are thousands of these every year with very few problems. So I'm not overly concerned.
We had a nice Easter this year. I posted photos and videos, so feel free to take a look.
Otherwise, things have been pretty much status quo. Various little things like getting my garage doors fixed, and having a plumber fix a leaky pipe. woo hoo!
And with that, I'd better get back to work. I hope you are all well, and are having a wonderful April. So, until next time....
Our trip to Los Angeles was quite a lot of fun. We did so much that I'm not really sure where to start.
So I'll go somewhat chronologically, and will only touch on the major events.
For my birthday (March 14th) Edith, the kids, Laura, Damien and I all went to Medieval Times. The show is a must see. Spectacular in every way! I wonder what the job experience requirements are to work there. The horsemanship is astounding, and the act is very well done. This time was especially neat because our knight (the Red and Yellow knight) chose Jessi from the crowd as the girl for whom he would do his sport. He rode up and lowered his lance (which had a banner attached to the end) to Jessi. The look on her face was priceless!! She was, for a moment, the happiest little girl on the planet! That alone made the high price of admission completely worth it to me.
Next, we were treated to a gig that David's band was doing for St. Patricks day. The show was cool, I think Jessi had the most fun because she got to dance to her hearts content. The show was great! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The next thing we did was to spend two days at Disneyland in Anaheim. The first day was spent entirely at California Adventure. We rode many rides. Some of you may have read a previous blog post of mine where I talked about Jessi being a thrill seeker like her dad. Well, this trip was no exception. She loved the scary rides. The scarier, the better. Her and I both thoroughly enjoyed the Tower of Terror, on which you are hoisted up in a mock elevator car, and then dropped, raised, dropped, raised, dropped, and so on. It's pretty intense. Joey was even excited to ride the Californa Screamin' roller coaster. The first time, we had to bribe him with a Churro, and Edith fibbed to him by saying we would go on the track that didn't go upside down. But once he'd been on it once, his fear was gone, and it was nothing but excitememnt. One cool thing they did was to play some Red Hot Chili Peppers music while riding it. The music was pretty well synced to the coaster. This added a whole new dimension to the ride. In the Evening, I had a special surprise. Uncle Phil and an old friend named Chris Valdez came and met us for dinner at downtoen disney. It sure was great to see them! I know the kids enjoyed it too. (And Phil, thanks again!). Day 2 was mainly for the original Disneyland park. We did the usual stuff (Materhorn, Indiana Jones, The Tiki Room, and so on) but we were bummed because Space Mountain was shut down. So we decided to head back over to California Adventure for the day. We returned later though, and were able to ride Space Mountain afterall. Here too, they were playing a Chili Peppers tune. It was awesome!
The final big thing we did was to have a BBQ at David's house with a lot of really cool people. Laura even managed to make it. We had a great time. If you check out the videos from the trip you will see one particular guy whaling on the guitar and the ukulele. This guy is in fact Jesse Bradford. Man he can rock it!!
This brings me to the bummer part of the trip (besides the fact that it rained on us both days at Disneyland). David (Edith's dad) had to go in for hip replacement surgery this week. Unfortunately, he had no one to help him out with watching his house and dogs, etc. We were scheduled to leave on Tuesday, so, we frantically tried to figure out what to do. In the end, Edith ended up extending her stay for an additional week. This has worked out well, but it has been somewhat difficult here at home. I flew myself and the kids home as scheduled on Tuesday. (by the way, L.A.X. SUCKS! 3 hours from when we arrived until we got to the gate! Good thing I arrived extra early!) Edith will be taking a red-eye next monday night. In the mean time, I had to get back to work. So between work, running the kids back and forth to school, ballet, photos, back and forth to knoxville to see Joey's doctor, etc.. It's been a careful balancing act. This is why I am just now writing this blog entry. I simply haven't had time until now.
So, David's surgery was a success. He's been in the hospital for 3 days, and will be going home tomorrow morning. Not too shabby considering they replaced his hip joint) I know everyone is quite relieved.
So, that about wraps it up. Obviously, there were a lot of other things we did while we were there. Feel free to check out the Videos and the Photos to see more.
We leave tomorrow for a vacation. Edith, the kids and I will be in Los Angeles for 2 weeks. Why L.A.? because when given the choice, the kids (and Edith) unanimously chose L.A. so they could visit their friends. We will be doing the Disney thing, Medieval times, and probably Universal too. I'm sure we'll have a good time.
My birthday is Wednesday. Yippee.. I'm 36 now. Ok, enough said..... ;)
I got a call from the transmission shop where Edith's car is currently resting. (quick background: Her transmission started having some pretty severe issues last month. To the point that it overheated and wouldn't shift into overdrive). Anyway, soundls like there was a lot wrong with it. The total bill: $2675.31 OUCH! I mean, come on.. the car is only worth $7000 or so. Seems a little ridiculous. I almost wish we could cancel the trip to L.A. now so I could use that money to pay for it. Oh well.
Anyway, not much else going on. I've been working at fever pace for the past few months (seems like that's the way it always is) so I am really looking forward to not having to stare at the computer screen for a couple of weeks.
Oh yeah, we went to a party last Saturday night. It was an early St. Patrick's day party. The house we went to was amazing! The basement has been converted into two distinct areas. Area #1 is a full sized pub! Complete with bar and TV's hung at the ceiling in every corner of the room. Very nice indeed! Area #2 is a movie theater. Yes, theater. not just a room with a big TV. No, this one has four rows of chairs on an elevated slope (just like a real theater) with an incredible sound system and ginormous projection screen. The chairs are all leather recliners, each with a cup holder. The projector is really just an HD TV projector, mounted on the ceiling and projecting onto a screen that is probably at least 10 feet wide by 7 tall. Again, most impressive. It's hard to fathom how anyone could put this much money into their basement, but I guess if I had it, I'd do something equally ridiculous.
Anyway, that's all for now. I'll post pics and vids from the trip once we get home.
I have spent the past nearly 3 years growing my hair out so that I could donate it to Locks of love. They make hair pieces for children who have lost thier own hair due to chemo-therapy. The requirement is that your hair be 10 inches in a pony tail.
Well, today was the day. I went down to a local salon this morning and had 13-1/2 inches of hair cut off.
It feels so strange to have short hair again. A little sad even. I know, "it's just hair" and "it'll grow back", but it still seems a little sad. I actually think I'm going to miss it. It has been through a lot with me. The move to Tennessee, buying the house, etc.
Another strange aspect is that everyone here in Tennessee has only known me with long hair. It'll be interesting to see thier reactions.
I'm also amazed at how much grey hair I have now! I knew I had a lot when it was long, but now that it's shaved so short (a #1 on the sides and back) I can really see it! yikes!
I had my mom video the event. Watch them here. (as of this writing, I am having a problem with my video encoder, so only one of the videos is currently working. I should have it fixed soon though update:All of the videos should play now.)
My mom also had an idea for some photos that we should take before I cut the hair. You can see the results here.
In other news, Today was Edith's 31st birthday (well, the second anniverssary of her 30th as she likes to say). We had a small get together here at the house. It was a surprise for her. Didn't really get any pics or videos though. We had some food and drink, and everyone there seemed to have a good time.
That's it for now. (sniff sniff) sure do widh I had long hair still. ;)
I hope the New Year has been treating you all well.
This morning was interesting. After taking Joey to school, and seeing Jessi onto her bus, I started work as usual. About an hour later, I got a phone call from our friend Kim announcing "Look at the Snow!!". So I got up, opened my office door, and took a quick video of what I saw.
I was impressed with the size of the flakes that were falling, and how thoroughly it was covering everything (even the street). I thought to myself "winter's here", and returned to work.
About an hour or so later, I took a quick peek outside to see how much had fallen, but to my surprise, there were no signs that it had even snowed at all! Not even in the shade. The temperature was only 36 at that point, so I was amazed at how quickly it had melted. The kids will be disappointed for sure. They got to school just in time to see it snow, but won't actually be able to play in it.
Anyway, I'm sure there's plenty more on it's way.
In other news, I wanted to let you all know that I'll be maintaining information regarding the Ammendolia family reunion, on this site. I'll post more info as soon as I have the section finished. So stay tuned.
and most importantly, Ammendolias.com has a new Video Library
Ok, maybe the video library really isn't the most important thing that has happened in the past year, but I'm proud of it. ;)
I threw it together pretty quickly, so please go have a look and let me know what you think. It's pretty rough right now, and there's only a couple of folders worth of content, but I will be converting alot more video soon.
The actual player was my first "flash" endevour, so let me know what you think. All coments and suggestions are welcome!
Anyway, I'm going to head inside and hang out with the kids before they go to bed.
so, Happy new year! "Have a blast!" and I'll tyalk to ya next year!
The day started off at about 8:30am when Joey got up then proceeded to wake everyone.
Joey made a B-line for the wrapped Xbox 360. (He suspected). He couldn't have been happier! Jessi's first gift wasn't as exciting as Joey's but she seemed happy just the same (it was a box of Crayola crayons and some washable paints). Photos available here
In general, Joey's theme was Video Games (of course) and Jessi's was anything art related. Both of them got a lot of new clothes which thrilled Jessi to no end, but melted Joey's brain.
So, after the morning's festivities, Joey and I spent the rest of the morning setting up the 360 and playing games, while Jessi played with her various new toys and Art supplies.
Around noon, round two started with the arrival of assorted other family members who brought with them a combined metric tonne of assorted gifts for everyone. It really was something to behold! These kids are so spoiled! :)
The day wrapped up with a traditional Turkey dinner with all the fixings.
All in all, we had a very nice Christmas. For three nights in a row, I had a driveway filled with cars and a house filled with family and friends. It makes me feel really great that I was able to host all of these in my home. I hope all of you had an equally nice Christmas!
Well, it's very late and I have work in the morning, so I best get to sleep.So goodnight everyone and a final Merry Christmas to all!
According to the Norad Santa Tracker, Santa was last sighted in Paris France! That means he should be arriving here in the US in just a few short hours!
The holiday's have been quite nice so far! It's been great having Laura and Damien here. Laura and Damien's Reception / Christmas party was really nice. A good number of family were there, and it seemed that everyone had a nice time. (Click the link to see the photos)
Tonight, we are having dinner with some friends at my house, and are just relaxing until bed (Santa) time. :)
I hope you all are having (or had) a great Christmas eve! I'll post again tomorrow with photos of our Christmas day festivities.
~Joe
P.S. I just wanted to say a quick word about Grandma Ammendolia. It's hard to believe it's been a year since she passed away. I really do miss her, and think of her very oftem. (Mostly when telling stories of my favorite childhood memories of which she was a very large part). So, Grandma, I know you're are checking in from time to time, and I hope you're proud of me. Merry Christmas to you and Grandpa. I love you both.
My Sister Laura and her hubby Damien are visiting starting tonight. I had planned to take some time off around Christmas so I could spend it with them. But as always seems to happen, something came up at work.
Basically, as of last Friday (the 15th) I was told that I had to have a large piece of new online banking functionality implemented by year end. The timeline is about the most aggressive I've ever seen! They're not leaving any room for real testing, etc. I've voiced my concerns, and will do my best to make sure there aren't any bugs, but if this thing blows up and people can't access online banking, then... Well I guess I'll be able to say "I told ya so", but in the end, it'll be me getting the 2am wake up call and having to fix it.
At any rate, because of this, I guarantee there won't be any room left for me to spend time with my sis. Considering how little time I take off from work, and how much PTO I have accumulated, (and the fact that I was recently "talked to" about the need to take time off soon), I find it funny that the very time I had planned to take off has been taken from me by the very people who have been telling me to take time off. What's worse is that I'm really the only one affected. The other members of the team who had scheduled time off will be able to happily take, and enjoy it. While lucky old me get's to keep on working. Oh well, I'm ranting now so I'll stop. I guess it's a risk of my line of work. It reminds me of 1999 New years eve. While the world was celebrating, I (and others in my line of work around the world) had the pleasure of celebrating from a data center while we watched as absolutely nothing went wrong for Y2K. Chalk it up to an occupational hazard I guess.
I digress. So, Laura and Damien will be flying in to town tonight. I wont see them until tomorrow sometime because they'll be staying with my mom tonight.
We will be having a party on Saturday at my house. It's actually Laura's party (I talked about it in my last blog I think). I've been trying to get things in order at my house for it, but with the new work (see above), I haven't really had any time to work on it. Hopefully Laura will be able to make some headway while I work on Friday.
Christmas is almost here! I still have a couple of things to buy too. YIKES! but it's not procrastination this year. again, it's work. no time!!
Speaking of no time, I better get back to it. so I'll close by saying:
Merry Christmas (or whichever holiday you enjoy) to everyone! I'll post again before New Years!
I hope you're all getting your Christmas shopping taken care of! :) I'm not completely finished yet, but I've managed to get most of it out of the way.
Well, Winter is finally upon us. The past week here has been quite chilly. At our coldest, we were sitting below 13 degrees (F). At one point, we saw some pretty good snow flurries. It even stuck to the ground a little (but was gone the next day). I went outside this morning and snapped a few pictures of my frozen ponds. In some of the shots, I had taken a bar, busted through the ice and pryed it apart to show it's thickness. (About an inch and a half). I might have even been able to walk on it but I learned the hard way last year, that walking on ice can lead to a very soggy (and cold) shoe. So I refrained.
It's supposed to warm up today. The forecast is calling for 62 deg. That's a huge jump considering we havent been above 40 in over a week. I wonder how long it will last. It'll be downright hot! ;)
One nice thing about this time of year is the lack of insects. It's a welcome reprieve from the summer months when they are literally coming out of the woodwork.
Last night, our friend Kim came by with her kids. Joey and Jessi had a great time playing with them. The girls had fun dressing up as princesses and baking gingerbread cookies, while the boys were busy playing the way that boys do (nerf guns mostly). It's nice to see them having a good time.
I'm anxious to get the video streaming working on the new web server. Actually, I have managed to get it working to some degree, but it's not ready for prime time yet. Once it's up and running, I'll be setting up a video album (much like the photo album I have now). I have collected quite a lot of video since I purchased the new camera.
My sister Laura and Brother-in-law, Damien will be arriving in 10 days. I cant wait to see them. It'll be nice to have them here for Christmas. I talk to Laura quite frequently, but it's just not the same as actually seeing her.
On the 23rd, we will be having a holiday party at my house. My sister sent out invitations to all of the local family. We haven't received confirmation from most of them, but I suspect the turnout will be pretty good. Although as I've mentioned before, the Knox side of my family isn't as close as the Ammendolias. So we'll see.
Anyway, that's about all for now. So again, happy December, and I hope you all are doing really well!
The holidays are upon us! It always starts with Thanksgiving of course. This year was mellow here at home. We had Me, Edith, Joey, Jessica, my mom, Edith's mom & (step)dad, and one of their good friends (Art) join us at my house. The food was great as was the company. Pics are here.
I got an email from Uncle Paul which included some great photos from the Thanksgiving in Patterson. I really wish I could've been there! I miss the family so much! It makes me sad to think about how far away I am now. Anyway, thanks for the photos Uncle Paul!
Moving on, We spent the past couple of days gearing up for Christmas. Yesterday evening, we put up our tree and decorated the inside, and today was spent decorating the outside (hanging lights, etc). There are a couple of photos of the tree, but that's about all so far. I will send an update when there are more pics to see.
All I know is that so far, between the tree, lights, and odds and ends, I've already spent about $250 on Christmas and haven't even bought a single present yet! (ouch!) But it's all worth it because it makes the kids happy. (Mainly Jessica this year. Joey doesn't really seem to care too much.)
Well, that's all for now. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and for the family, I really hope to get to see you all very soon!
Today marks the first snow of the year for us. It's a balmy 36 degrees, so it's not sticking, but there are some pretty large flakes falling.
Poor Jessi though. She was going on a field trip today which supposed to end with lunch in the park. The same thing happened to her last year. (First snow, field trip, etc..) I'm starting to think that a good way to predict when the first snow will be is to look at Jessi's field trip schedule.
Anyway, I just noticed the snow falling and thought I'd blog a little about it. Back to work.
Today (Nov 15th) is Jessica's 7th birthday! All I can say is wow! She's growing up so fast :)
We had a party for her last Sunday with several of her friends. The theme was Barbie in the 12 dancing Princesses. It was the usual type of occasion. There was much playing and cake eating, and gift giving. :) Jessi made out quite well. (As she should have).
The store messed up on the cake though. Jessi had wanted a filled cake (and that's what was ordered) but it was plain cake whn they cut into it. So, the store is making us a new one and we pick it up today. So she'll be having cacke twice this year. :) (Wish I could have some cake! darn atkins diet! hahaha)
Anyway, I've posted some pictures. I took them with the new video camera, so the quality isn't as good as usual. But I also have a ton of video that I'll edit together and post later on.
Halloween this year was quite a lot of fun! Edith's mom actually made all of our costumes from scratch! Joey was a knight, Jessi was a cat, Edith was a mermaid, and I was Captain Morgan.
(click one of the images to view photo album)
We took the kids Trick-or-Treating then went back to our friend Mark's house for food and drink. Fun was had by all!
I took some videos and hope to post them soon.
I have actually been taking a lot of video with my new SONY Camcorder. This thing is great! It records video directly to a 60Gig hard drive. In other words, no tape! And I can connect it to my computer and edit the video / burn it directly to DVD. I love this thing.
I'm looking into a new way to post the video here so it will play over the web without the need to download it first.
In other news, my new server is coming along. I havent had much time lately to work on it but it's getting close to being ready.
Anyway, thats about all for this installment. I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!
Hello all. Sorry I wasn't posting during my trip to L.A. but there really was a lot going on which left me little time for blogging.
I was lucky enough to have been there for both my sister, and my brother in law's birthdays. Unfortunately, I left the day before the big surprise party for Damien. But I'm told it went well, and that there are many photos.
Visiting can be difficult sometimes. Mainly because you have to leave at the end. But sometimes it can really cut into your soul by reminding you of the things and people you gave up.
The trip home has been interesting. It turns out that United had overbooked the Denver->Knoxville leg of my return trip. They asked for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for a free round trip anywhere in the continental U.S. So, I jumped on it. The down side is that I am currently sitting in Atlanta. I have been here for 5 hours so far, and have 4 more before my final flight. Ideally, I'd like to sleep (it's 4:30am right now) but I don't think I could in this place. So, I sit here, sipping coffee, and waiting for 9am.
I'd like to thank everyone in L.A. for making my stay so enjoyable. And especially to a certain person for really making me feel special and missed. I miss you too. Blue rocks someday! I promise! :)
Anyway, My battery is running low, and I have yet to find a plug. So I'd better close.
Once I sift through and edit everything, I will post the plethora of video that I took onto the site. There's some good stuff in there!
I don't know what I was thinking. In my last post, I said that I was going to California in May. Well, I'm going tomorrow (October). I have no idea why I said May. Guess I have Derby on the brain.
So anyway, I just wanted to make a quick post before I go to sleep. Tomorrow morning will be busy. I have to get up, get the kids off to school, then make a b-line for the airport. My flight leaves at 9:20, so I should have plenty of time.
Talked to my Sister Laura earlier and I think she's more excited than I am. She'll be picking me up at LAX around 1:00 tomorrow afternoon.
I'll be there until the 20th, so 15 days in L.A. I'm looking forward to the change of pace. Although I'll be missing the kids for sure. I think they're both a little upset that I wont be here when they get home from school tomorrow. But it's ok, I'll be back before they know it.
Anyway, I need to finish packing and get to bed. So I'll talk to / see you all later. :)
I got my motherboard from ASUS yesterday. This one works. So I now have my 64bit Athlon 4000+ box back up and running. (yay)
I've made a decision though. Since the system was down for more than a month, I got accustomed to not having it. But I became much more reliant on my Linux box. (The server that is hosting this site) So I have decided to turn my high end 64bit machine into a new Linux box.
Why? well, that's easy. Here are some highlights:
I am tired of Microsoft! Sure they make life easier for many people, and I'm not totally knocking their products (if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have my current job) But (for example) as soon as I powered up the machine, Windows XP 64bit started nagging me saying that my hardware has changed drastically (new motherboard) and that I now have two days to re-validate with them. No big deal, but it's the principle I have trouble with.
I've been a Linux fan since 1994, and have been running it since then. (but never as a primary desktop system). Well, it's come such a long way in 12 years!
And I'll still have a dual core intel Viiv (Dell) to play games on :)
I'm anxious to do the upgrade! I'm going to take my time and set it up just the way I want it. Eventually, the current server will probably go away. I'll let you know when (for those who get their mail here) and dont worry, I'll copy all of your existing data to the new server.
In other news, I've won an award at work. It's called the Circle of Excellence. This is the second time I've been nominated and won. (The first time was back in 2003) I'm the 3rd person to have ever won twice. I've said this to several people, and now I'll announce it here. While I am honored, I don't feel that I deserve it. By that I mean, there are other's I feel deserve it more than I. But again, I am honored, and am proud to accept.
I'm sure most of the normal readers of my blog won't know what I'm talking about, but do any of you remember the PC Demo Scene from the early to mid 90s? For those who dont, it was an annual competition where various programming groups (crews) would create "demos" that would push the hardware to it's limits by rendering graphic animations usually with music tracks. Well, I remember those days, and was very impressed! Often I've wished that I could load up one of those old demos just to see it one more time. The problem is that finding the demos can be difficult, and even if you do find them, they were designed to run under DOS (who uses DOS anymore?!) and even if you boot into DOS, today's hardware is simply too fast. Well, I decided to see if I could come up with a way to relive those great demos, so I made a bootable CD which will allow you to play the demos. It was a challenge, but I think it was worth it! Check it out here: http://demoscene.ammendolias.com
Lastly, I'm all set to visit California in May. I'll be in the L.A. area from May 5th through the 19th (my flight leaves early on the 20th). I'm going for work, but it's always nice to see old friends and visit the places that I miss.
Today is a day that lay heavy in my thoughts and in my heart.
I'm sure everyone remembers the tragedy. My memories are crystal clear! I recall that morning as if it were yesterday.
I woke to a beautiful morning. I specifically remember looking out the window and seeing how gorgeous the sky was. I took a deep breath of the fresh air, and said to myself "this is going to be a great day". I didn't know the reality yet.
It was when I got into my car for the morning drive to coffee, then work, that I found out. I turned on my car stereo and Kevin and Bean (KROQ morning show) were covering the event. Now at first, I wasn't sure if it was real. These guys are known for their ability to "pull the wool over our eyes" but it wasnt April fools, and if they were joking, it would have been in such poor taste. I could tell by the tone that it was real.
Everything was confirmed when I arrived at SavOn to pick up some cigarettes (I smoked back then) and they had it on a TV. I was blown away!
As I left SavOn my phone rang. It was my good friend Dave (my battle buddy back in ARMY basic training) calling. He gave a stern warning that I should prepare for anything. He said that it wasn't over yet. Since he was still in the military, I took heed of his warning, and went back to SavOn to get water and first aid kits.
I proceeded to work where I found the tv in the break area on, and a crowd gathered to watch the events unfold. I watched as the buildings collapsed.
Fortunately, Dave was wrong. Nothing happened on the west coast. The rest of the day was rather un-productive, but most of us stayed at work. Most of us did little more than talk about the tragedy, wonder if we were next, and try to make sense of what had really happened. There had been speculation of terrorism, and we all believed it. But at that point, no one knew for sure.
This morning, cnn.com played the tape from that morning in it's entirety and in real time. So I set up my laptop with the stream playing. I watched as the second plane crashed. I watched as each tower fell. I relived that morning.
Now, five years later, I think about the unfortunate state of events in the country and the world.
I love my country. I am proud to be an American! My flag is flying as I type this. But I am ashamed at what has been done in the guise of preventing terror. Our very freedoms have come under attack.
I'm not just talking about the hassle of flying these days (although if any of you have had to endure the security checkpoint lines, or have been pulled aside for a search, then you know just how difficult it can be). No, I'm talking about the new lack of privacy. If you weren't aware, the USA Patriot Act has opened the door for the government to bypass our civil liberties and to invade our privacy without due process. For example, you may want to have a look at NSAT&T - aka the national surveilance agency which provides a searchable database of information regarding the monitoring of individuals. And in case you weren't aware, the NSA has been partering with AT&T to covertly monitor U.S. citizens without their knowledge. There are many lawsuits currently going on about this.
I guess my point is that it seems our current administration has used the "terror card" to strengthen it's hold on our country. So again, I am proud to be an american, but I wonder how much longer we will really be "free".
Anyway, I hope you will all join with me in a prayer in rememberance of thos tragic events five years ago. I'll defniitely never forget!
Today I received the RMA replacement for my motherboard from ASUS. Right out of the box, I noticed that the retention clip on the primary video card slot was broken off. No big deal because the video card seats firmly into the slot, so I decided to go ahead and build the machine.
Once built, I powered on, and... no video. 1 long beep, then 2 short ones. So I googled. 1 long and 2 short means video problem. duh!
I tried reseating the card, and checking all of the connections, but no luck. I can only assume the board is bad. (sounds familiar. exact same problem as the first A8N SLI Deluxe I bought and is currently collecting dust in a box somewhere in my garage [see my last post])
So I called the RMA department. The woman that answered said "They must have put something heavy on it when they shipped it that broke the clip, would you like us to send a new clip?" Uh, no. First off, the clip is part of the connector. I'd need to de-solder the whole socket to replace it. (no thanks!) and secondly, THE BOARD DOESN'T RECOGNIZE THE CARD! I dont think replacing the clip will fix that. "Well, you'll have to call technical support to open a ticket. would you like me to transfer you now?". but... a quick "get rid of him as fast as possible" click and I'm on hold with tech support. Expected wait time, 8 minutes which turned into 15! I can tell you all about the three products they adversize on the endless loop they call hold music. They really should have a little more variety.
Tech support answers. I explain the situation. He gives me a reference number, then transfers me back to RMA. On hold for a few more minutes. A different woman answers. I give her the info, and voila, an new RMA number is born.
This time I ask if they can expedite since I've already waited 2 weeks. "Yes, but we will need to charge your credit card for the purchase price ($250) then we will ship the product to you. You will then have 14 days to send the other board back at which time we will credit your account" Yikes! like I really want to be in to this thing for another $250!! (even if they promise to pay me back, I dont trust them to do it in a timely manner) So I decline and accept that it will take another 2 weeks.
At this point, I think the next one will be bad too. Maybe I should just bite it and buy a new motherboard and write this one off.
Well, I'm off to the UPS store to ship it back to them. Stay tuned....
I entered my office this morning to be greeted with the startup screen for one of my computers with a nasty little message informing me that one of the fans in the system had failed.
Apparently, Microsoft issued some patches in the middle of the night which required an automatic reboot. When the system started up, it hung on the startup screen to warn me that there is a problem.
The system in question is my main (non-work) computer, an Athlon 64 4000+ running on an ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe, The fan in question is the chipset cooling fan. I've noticed over time that this fan was starting to have problems. There have been a couple of times where I had to reach into the case and give the fan a little nudge to get it going. Once started, it was fine. Well, not anymore. It's dead as a doornail.
All of this prompted me to do a little googling around to see if anyone else has had problems with this motherboard/fan. Lo and behold, MANY people are out there complaining about exactly these circumstances. The general concensus is that when you spend more than $250 just for the motherboard, you expect that they used quality components to manufacture it. (You can get motherboards in the sub $100 range that generally work just fine). But as it seems the fan problem is chronic for this board, they must have used substandard parts to make it.
So I called ASUS tech support this morning and the guy said I could call the RMA dept. and they would ship me a new fan (I already knew this from the messages I'd read earlier), While I'm happy they'll replace it, there's still one thing that really irks me. The motherboard that has the problem now was originally purchased to replace another A8N SLI Deluxe that I bought from Monarch Computer about a year and a half ago. That one had a problem with the graphics card slot. At first I thought the graphics card was the problem, and Monarch happily exchanged it. When the second one arrived, I still had the problem. So at this point, I knew the problem was most likely with the motherboard itself. I went back and forth with Monarch about it several times and each time they said I needed to take it up with ASUS, So I did, and after many unanswered emails and many unresolved phone calls, I went to Frys and bought another A8N SLI Deluxe (just to prove that the problem was the motherboard and not the graphics card). Once I had the replacement (which worked perfectly), I shifted gears from getting the board fixed, to getting it returned, and getting my money back (at this point, I'm in for more than $500). Again, many unanswered email and pointless phone calls and ultimately, they won. I got sick of dealing with the incompetence so I ate it, and gave up. (not really because even though the PCI-e slot doesnt work, the motherboard is in otherwise great condition and works perfectly. so I plan to use it with an older PCI video card so that I can build a new 64bit server for this site)
Anyway, the moral of the story is... well, I dont know. I guess it's that even though the performance specs for the ASUS boards are probably some of the best out there, they appear to use shoddy components, and (with the exception of replacing the fan for me) they are unresponsive (even combative) when it comes to RMAing a bad board. So I think this will be my last ASUS purchase.
This weekend ended up being a lot of fun. We went with my Uncle Greg, Aunt Debbie, and cousin Gregory (family from the non-Ammendolia fork of my family tree) for a boating/jetski trip on Lake Norris. Fun was had by all!
Jessi was in true (daredevil) form! She asked me to take her for a ride on a Jetski. Once there, she couldn't get enough! On even breaths, she would scream bloody murder. And on odd breaths, she would scream "FASTER!!!". When she started screaming, I thought she was scared, but I guess that's how she expresses excitement! I also took Joey out a few times, and taught him to drive it. He did great! by the end of the day, he was practically a pro!
Unfortunately, I forgot to grab my digital camera! I coulda kicked myself! There were so many great photo ops! sigh.. next time...
On the downside, even though we applied sunblock regularly throughout the day, we all managed to get a little burned. (Me more than anyone). But everyone took it in stride, and we all agree it was worth it! :)
So, today is the first day of school for the kids. Jessi starts 1st grade (she'll be one of the oldest in her class because her b-day is in Nov. so even though she could have started last year, the teachers said it would be better to wait). She's thoroughly excited about it too! I've never seen a kid so eager to have homework. Last year, she was so jealous of Joey's homework that we ended up making up assignments for her to do. She loved it.
Joey starts 5th grade (middle school). Unlike Jessi, he's no fan of school. But I'm sure he'll do great anyway (as if he has a choice muahaha). I took him to his orientation last week, and I am impressed so far. One thing in particular, being the geek that I am, I love that they are using the computer more and more for school work. They even recommended that he have a USB flash drive to take assignments back and forth. Also, the principal said that some of the texts will be available on CD for him to bring home. Sure wish all of this had been available when I was a kid! (I tried to do my homework on my old Commodore 64, but they would never accept the work turned in on the 4 inch wide thermal paper from the printer that I had). Times are changing! :)
In other news, I just finished playing through my entire MP3 library sequentially! took approximately 4 months to complete, but it's done now. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 13000+ songs. Some are dupes, some are messed up (partially downloaded) MP3s and some just plain stink (a lot of them were contributed by former roommates and such) so I skipped some here and there. At times, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a song that I'd forgotten about or couldn't remember the name of. It was an interesting experience.
Also, (almost in unison with the MP3 completion) last night, I finished the coding phase for a side job I've been working on for several months now. Now it's officially in beta test mode, and should be live soon (I'll post a link to it when it's ready for prime time). I guess this means I'll have more free time at night (until the next project starts). I'm looking forward to getting a normal amount of sleep at night. I'm going to continue working on the ammendolias.com enhancements, but I'll probably hold off on any more side jobs for a couple weeks just so I can recoup. :)
Tonight (9 Aug 2006) she lost two of her upper teeth. not the middle two, but the ones on either side of the middle two. Well, When the "tooth fairy" came to deliver her reward ($5.00) a note was found with the teeth. The note said simply "I Love You".
I know to most it wouldn't seem like a big deal, but to me, it's another example of how truly sweet of a little girl she is. She's always doing things like this. So how about it, can I get an "Awwww"? ;)
In other unrelated news, I joind a local gym today. I figure it's time to reverse the effects that life as a telecommuter has caused, and get rid of the belly I've been growing. The gym is called National fitness center. They've just completed building a new location about 1/2 mile from my house. This gym is great (albeit a little pricey). They offer up everything you could want in a gym. From a great environment to child care. They even have programs for the kids to attend while you work out. They have what they call "the theater room" which has a bunch of cardio machines facing a large projection screen where they put on DVD movies to watch while you do your cardio. It even has a great surround sound system. They also have a nice 3 lane olympic style pool, and a half court BBall court (not that I'll ever use it, but it's there) And as part of my membership, I'll get to work with a trainer once a month to come up with a plan and a diet to go along with it. And Ievery 45 days, I'll get a fitness assessment so I can track my progress.
All I have to do now is actually go ;) (After seeing myself in a mirror, I tend to feel pretty motivated.)
Anyway, that's all for now. Still working to get the new version of this site put together. But I'm still juggling a few jobs right now, so it's hard to find extra time to work on it. Hopefully soon tho.
Uncle Phil sent me an email yesterday to tell me about his interesting time this weekend. Attached to the email were a bunch of pictures from his trip.
here're the contents of his message:
From: Phil Ammendolia
Sent: Mon, 31 July, 2006 10:31am
Hi all,
I met with Evel Knievel over the weekend. Laura and I spent about 10 minutes with him and he arranged VIP passes for us to watch his son, Robbie, jump. We sat with his wife and grandchildren about 15 feet from where Robbie's rear wheel touched down.
Evel was very gracious, in spite of being VERY ill. He has pulmonary fibrosis, a terminal lung disease. He is no longer able to ride and can stand for only a few minutes at a time. He has never smoked. He's been sick for quite a while, but it hit him hard a day or so before we arrived, so I wasn't able to spend as much time with him as I'd hoped.
In the photos, he is the gray-haired man in the shirt of many colors. I've also included photos of the trip, and the custom helmet I presented to him.
Enjoy,
Phil
How cool is that?!? (not the illness part, the meeting and hanging out with part)
Here's the link to the pictures.
It's hard to believe, but true, Joey turns 10 today! A decade old! How did that happen so fast?! :)
We had a birthday party for him yesterday. Several of his neighborhood friends showed up, along with his Grandmas. The theme was Pirates of the Caribbean, and along with a delicious chocolate pirates cake, assorted pirates themed swag were also abundant. Here are the photos.
I realize it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry. I've been so extremely busy lately. Mainly with a cool new feature for online banking that I've been developing. (major timeline crunch though so it's been eating 16 to 20 hours per day for the past couple of weeks). And when I can squeeze it in, I've been working on a side project which is also coming along nicely. It's been difficult juggling the two. And of course the online banking one take priority because it's the one that pays my mortgage. ;)
Nothing much else to report. But I will say this. Keep an eye on this site. It's been very slow going, but I've nearly finished wirh some minor changes. You'll see what I mean. If all goes well, my next post will be about the new stuff. (and no, I hope it doesn't take another couple of months until I post again)
For now, it's back to work for me. so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOEY! I love you buddy! and peace to eveyone else!
As usual, it's been a while since my last post. Not much has really been happening so there hasn't been much to write about.
Yesterday, we took the kids to Dollywood. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was actually a pretty cool place. It sorta reminds me of Knott's Berry Farm in California with better rides.
Jessi is finally tall enough to ride all of the "cool" rides, and announced that she wanted me to take her on the Tennessee Tornado. This ride is not for the faint of heart! While it's not the craziest roller coaster I've ever been on, it's quite a leap for the first-time coaster rider like Jessi.
Look at the terror!
Now before you go thinking how mean I was to take her on it, just know that afterwards, she said to me "That was sooooo scary! Can we go again?" HAHA. She's a little adrenaline junky! She couldn't get enough! She even wanted to (and did) go on the Thunderhead which is a classic wooden roller coaster that won the top honor at the 8th annual "Golden Ticket Awards" for best wooden roller coaster. This one is psychotic! I loved it. It has that classic "rough" feel to it that only a wooden coaster provides, but man it feels fast! (They say 55mph, but it feels much faster) and it whips you through some incredible banked turns and whoopties. It's a real adrenaline packed treat. And yes, Jessi loved it as well! Maybe someday I'll be able to take her skydiving with me. :)
Anyway, thats about it for now. Time to get back to work.
Ok, now that the jig is up, I can announce the latest news.
I am currently in California with my mom to attend my sister Laura's wedding! I've been keeping this trip a secret because my being here was meant to be a surprise.
When Laura first told me a few weeks ago that she was planning to get married, I immediately knew that I would attend. I also knew that our mom needed to be there too. So, I booked the flights, and made the plans. But, I didn't tell Laura. A few days later, Laura informed me that her and Damien needed a witness, and how much they wished I could be there. So I came clean with my plan to attend. But I kept the part about mom coming a secret.
Laura was expecting me to arrive on Wednesday, but we got here Tuesday night instead. We got in at 9:30pm, rented a car and drove to the house. Mom waited in the car while I went to the door and rang the bell. Laura and Damien were both shocked that I was here. I went in and chatted with them a couple of minutes when.. ding-dong. Laura opened the door and there was mom. :)
Yesterday (Thursday May 11th 2006) was the ceremony. We drove to the courthouse in Norwalk where they tied the knot (at 3pm). Afterwards, we drove back to the house where a reception followed.
The reception was really nice. A lot of good friends were there. Laura and Damien seemed very happy. I'd like to say thanks to everyone for being there and helping make the day so special for them.
I made it home. The drive from Louisville to Oak Ridge is short and painless (shorter than driving from Vegas to L.A.). I made the trip in just under 4 hours.
The Derby trip was a blast. Chock full of Greasy Eats, and Fiery Output! I've already written a bit about the first couple of days in my last post, so I'll finish up with the remainder.
Most of our time was spent on the infield at Churchill Downs. Each day, more people would arrive. On Saturday, I understand there were over 160,000 people at the track (a good portion of them were in the in-field). It was literally a sea of people. We met some cool folk. There were the New York Guys, John Tran, Dave, Jolly Green, Pat McAullife, and Cousin Aaron (the funny thing here is how the guy is holding his hand up. This is a typical cousin Aaron trait, but we didn't prompt the guy to do it. He says he normally doesn't, but for some reason he just felt the need. Hmmm..). This lady said I look exactly like her brother. Funny.. we do exactly the same scam! haha. I think she was serious though.
You can paruse the entire pic library, but be warned. it's not safe for work or youngin's! (Some women tend to get a little over-zealous, and lift thier shirts for beads. Of course we, being the kinds of guys we are, are right there with a camera when they do ;)
The off-track venue of choice (for me anyway) was Phoenix Hill Tavern. This place rocks. It's rather un-assuming from the front and entry hall, but once inside, you are treated to not one, not two, but three themed areas. two of which are full blown stages with live bands playing. On the second floor, overlooking the stage from what appears to be a dizzying height (above the bar), stands a [Bobs][Shoneys][Frisches] Big Boy statue. This place has great ambiance! The first time in, there was a metal band playing on the first floor stage. All cover tunes, but done pretty well. Darren and I stayed, listened, and watched a drunk girl get freaky with a brick post (dont ask) but since we got there late, we ended up not staying too terribly long. The second night there were two different bands playing. (pretty much simultaneously) on the first floor and second floor stages. They were both pretty good. Mostly metal covers.I really did enjoy this place though. If I lived closer, I'm sure I'd be a regular.
Overall, this was such a good time. Thanks to Darren and Chuck for inviting me along. Let's get that property guys! I'm in!
That's it for now. Wish I were still chillin' on the infield with an ice cold beer, but it's time to get back to work. Gotsta make money somehow BOL! :)
We're currently on Day 3 of our Kentucky Derby adventure. This place is crazy! We've (Chuck, Darren and I) enjoyed many gluttonous culinary treats. Everything from Frickles (fried pickle chips) to a 5 way (Spaghetti noodles smothered with chili and cheese), mmmm so much for the atkins diet.
We've seen a couple of good shows at the track. Yesterday started with Better Than Ezra followed up by the Violent Femmes. Today's headliner was Everclear. Chuck and I managed to get right in the front row for the last one. I've got pics that I'll share when I can.
I had my first Mint Julip today. What a nasty drink! A little on the sweet side for me. But I guess it's a requirement for Derby attendance. So I sucked it down.
Yesterday, we tried to get a tour at Fort Knox. But I guess they don't have tours. So we ended up going to the Patton armory museum.
We followed up yesterday with buffet at Caesars in Indiana. Nice place. A little bit far away from EVERYTHING, but very nice none the less.
Anyway, tomorrow is the main day for the Derby. I understand that tomorrow's when it'll really be going off. So, I'll take lots of pics, and post when I get a chance,
Today brings us yet another surgery. Edith is having a host of procedures performed today. Luckily, her's will be outpatient. I dropped her at the hospital this morning, and hung out with her until they took her back for prep. The hospital is about 2 miles from my house, so I left my number with the waiting room guy and ran home to update the blog and get a little work done. I'll be heading back to the Hospital in about an hour and a half. She should be out of surgery at approximately 11:15. I'll keep you all posted.
Mom is having her staples out today. She's been doing great with her recovery. Since last Friday, she's not been staying at my house. Yay
And finally, I have the flu. It's been a long time since I've been ill. Fortunately, it seems to be short lived. I started having symptoms Sunday, and was really a wreck all day Monday (after work, I went straight to bed) and now today, I feel somewhat better. Still not 100%, but definitely better.
That's it for now. I'll keep you updated regarding Edith's surgery, later today.
And remember, no gnews is good gnews with Gary Gnu
This year, since mom is not really up to the task, the "bunny cake" resposibility fell on me. So, I baked the bunny cake, and Jessi helped decorate it. Joey did his part too by cutting out the cardboard base for it. It has blue eyes, a pink nose, red (twizzler) whiskers, and a light blue bow tie.
I'll post pictures later today after the day's festivities have ended.
Appologies for not updating yesterday, but things have been very busy.
The big news is that Mom got to come home yesterday afternoon! Her doctor said that her progress has been stellar, and asked her yesterday morning if she felt up to going home. So I went and picked her up yesterday afternoon at about 4pm.
She's now staying here at my house, and is doing great! She was even able to walk upstairs, and around the outside of my house today. I think she'll not be staying here for as long as I'd originally thought.
So, today was the first time I mowed the grass at my house. It wasn't too bad, but every tree is surrounded by a ring made of rocks. So, it's imposiible to get the lawnmower in close enough to cut the grass right at the edge. Guess it's time to invest in a gas powered weed eater. ;)
Anyway, I have a thousand things still to do today, so I'd better get cracking.
Everything went fine, and Mom is resting at the hospital.
Yesterday was quite a long day. We arrived at the hospital at 5:10am and sat in a small room for approx. 3 hours while we waited for them to start prepping her. Apparently, the doctors office had made a mistake because there was no reason for us to be there that early. They didn't even have the orders from the doctor telling them what prep needed to be done. So we had to wait until the doctors office opened at 8:00 to get the orders.
They took her into the prep are at 9:00. Since family members aren't allowed to go into the prep room with the patients, this was the last time I saw her until after the surgery.
In the waiting room, there was a large screen showing the status of each suregery being performed so the families could track the status. All it told us was the basics. i.e. The patient is in the room, Surgery started, Surgery stopped, and patient in recovery. Mom's surgery started at 11:15 and went until 2:44pm. I stayed in the waiting room for most of this time with the exception of running to the store for a minute and grabbing a salad for lunch. I also donated blood while I was there as the hospital was sponsoring a blood drive for O+ and O- blood (I'm O+).
After the surgery, her surgeon came into the room and told me how the procedure went. He said that there were no surprises, and that the tumor looked benign, He had removed approximately 3 feet of her colon, and repaired a couple of hernias.
After the surgeon left, I waited and waited and waited, She was supposed to be in recovery for just an hour, then they would move her to her room. But, the hospital was exceedingly full, and there were no rooms immediately available.
At 5:30, the waiting area receptionst left for the day and left instructions that if the phone rang, one of the people in the waiting area should answer it. By now, I was starving, but since I was alone, I didn't want to leave in case they called. So again, I waited and I waited some more.
Finally, at around 9:00pm they moved her into a room. I took all of her things up there, and waited for her to arrive. Once she did, they got her set up in the bed, and I was finally allowed to hang out with her. She was a little loopy, but surprisingly alert. She's attached to one of those morphine pumps to help with post-op pain. Her spirits seem high, and I think she's doing great. She says that this surgery was easier than her last. I hope she feels that way still. (it always hurts more the next day, right?)
For the rest of the week, I plan to work partial days, and then visit her for the remainder.
I'll post more as it happens. until then, thank all of you for your support and prayers.
Bye for now.
update - Mom just called. she's feeling well, and is definitely alert. She says the tube should come out of her nose today (yippee) and that she needs a shot in her stomach every six hours (yucky). But with the morphine, it sounds tolerable. She said they will be getting her up and out of bed today as well. I'll post later to let you know how that went.
First off, tomorrow is my Mom's surgery. Up until last night, I'd been dealing with it pretty well, but last night, it started hitting me pretty hard, and I'm more than just a bit uneasy about it. She'll be coming to stay the night here tonight, then I'll be taking her to the hospital at 5AM tomorrow morning. Her surgery is at 10:30, and it should last a few hours. If anyone is interested, she'll be at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center. She will be in the hospital for post-op recovery, until next Saturday or Sunday. After that, she will be staying at my house for the remainder of her recovery. Of course, I'll keep the site updated as things progress.
Next, Spring is here! I guess the recent storms were Winters last stand. (hopefully there wont be any more). Fortunately for us, there were no problems here. But about 150 miles west of us, there was much damage and loss of life. The storms were amazing! I've never been in a storm quite like either of them. I watched a bolt of lightning strike about 100 yards from my house! During the last storm, I took the kids downstairs, and we slept in the newly built basement room because there was a Tornado watch in effect until 6AM. I thought it better to be safe than sorry.
I went down to Home Depot yesterday and bought a couple of springtime necessities. First, I bought a new lawn mower. It's a TORO Recycler with extra large back wheels. It has front wheel drive to help with mowing up the hill, and mulches, collects, or spreads the clippings. Next, I bought a new BBQ. it's a 32" Ducane Stainless with an infra-red rotisserie. I got it home, set it up, and cooked up a few Bubba Burgers. Everything works great except the knob for the simmer burner is messed up. I'll go down to Home Depot later today to get them to replace the knob assembly. Hopefully I wont need to take the whole thing over there! it's pretty big, and was a pain to move from the truck to my back porch. I've posted some pictures of them in case anyone is interested.
Work is going pretty well. My boss, Willis, has gone out of the coutry for the next couple of weeks. He's on a whirwind tour of Asia. I'm sure he'll have a lot of fun!
Speaking of work, I'd better get back to it. I'll post again tomorrow after I have more info about my mom.
Oh, one last thing. Edith asked me to post something for her. Over the weekend, her dog Kahlua passed away. Kahlua has spent the past few years living with Edith's dad, David, up in L.A. but even after that long, Edith still loved her, and is very saddened by her loss. It sounds like Kahlua had been deteriorating for the past few weeks, and finally passed on Saturday night. Here's a picture:
As usual, it's been a while sine I've posted, so here's an update on the latest.
First, My sister Laura is getting Married!! No date set yet, but Damien proposed to her last Sunday, and she said yes. I couldn't be happier for both of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
My Mom is getting ready to have surgery. She's having a Colonoscopy. This is why I rushed to get the new room built as she'll be staying with me while she recovers. And while I know everything will be ok, my nerves are worn ragged over it.
Laura and Damien were here for a few days visiting. During that time, we all got together for a picnic up in Cades Cove up in the Smokey Mountains. Most of the local family were in attendance. It was great to see everyone, and we all had an awesome time! Here are the Cades cove picnic photos for your browsing pleasure.
I am now a DirecTV subscriber. I finally got fed-up with Comcast! They had made so many mistakes with my account (incorrect billing, incorrect box configurations, etc.). I have been paying for High Definition for several months, which has never worked properly. They have been to my house numerous times, trenched my yard to run a new line to the street (the wrong way I might add) and have never given me a break on the bill. In fact, I just received my closing bill, and yet again, they have messed up and are over charging me. Sigh.. There are many many more issues, but I don't want to fill up my blog with them all, so I think I'll write up a page with a timeline outlining all of the issues I've had with them and post a link. For now, I HIGHLY recommend anyone stay away from them!
I have been working on the new site engine that I will be using in the future for this site. When it's finished, I'll be able to set up user accounts for others to have their own blogs and photo albums, etc. No firm estimate on when it will be done yrt, but I'll keep you posted.
Anyway, I need to get back to work. Take care and I'll blog ya later...
Hi All. As usual, sorry for the length between posts. The week since I returned from California has been completely insane! (mainly because of work)
I had a great visit to L.A. (as usual)! My sister is always so accomodating when I visit. As is Damien (her live-in boyfriend). Also, I was able to spend time with some great friends (thanks Shannon and Deb) and I saw some other friends whom I hadn't seen in quite some time. (Dave at Club Sushi).
My big news at the moment is the remodelling I have decided to do on my house. Before I left for L.A., I had been looking at my giant basement room, and got inspired to build a 4th bedroom by splitting the basement in half. So, Friday (March 10th) My uncle Roger came over to help me get things rolling. He has been so helpful in getting this project going. First, he gave me a list of supplies I needed to buy from Home Depot. Basically, the wood needed for framing, the drywall, electrical wiring stuff (wire, plugs, switched, etc.), and various othe "must-haves" when doing construction.
Saturday morning, we got started at 7am. He primarily worked on the framing, and I followed behind and installed the electrica components. By the end of Saturday, we had a completely framed bedroom (including a closet) and 99% of the electrical work finished.
Roger came over again this morning (Sunday) and started hanging the drywall. I, meanwhile, completed the electrical and tested everything. The hardest part of the electrical was disconnecting the ceiling fan/light from it's existing circuit, and then re-routing it to the switch I had installed in the room. Fortunately, with the way this house is constructed, it didn't prove to be too much of a challenge. Everything is working which is good, and I have tested every outlet to ensure the plug is hot, and that the ground is properly connected. Getting the ceiling fan wired up went amazingly well. (no cutting required). But next, I had to cut a hole in the ceiling in what is now the hallway, to install a can light (recessed). Once I got the hole cut, the rest was easy. And again, everything works as planned.
All that remains now is to hang the drywall on the exterior of the walls, and then complete the long and arduous process of finishing the room (drywall tape, mud, painting, etc). Roger says this will be the longest part of the ordeal because we need to apply the drywall tape over each seam, and then mud over that and all of the screw heads. This should take us a couple of weeks to complete.
Overall though, I am amazed at how quickly we were able to get the room built. Having a seasoned pro working on it definately has advantages.
For posterity (and to show the inspector if needed) I have taken quite a few photos. You can see them here.
Anyway, I am exhausted. my week and weekend have been quite tiring. So I think I'll call it an early night and get some much needed sleep.
First, we woke up to more snow. It's strange going from 65 or so degrees a couple of days ago, to the wintery conditions we have now. But it's nice! The kids and I were out playing in it this afternoon. I did something that I haven't done in years. I rode a sled! Yup, I started at the top of the hill in my front yard, and slid down toward my driveway. In fact, I weigh enough that I gained quite a lot of momentum. I slammed into the brick trim edging my driveway and tumbled across the cement. No pain though. Just a good laugh. I also go to help Jessi build her first snowman. We had a lot of fun doint it too.
But. before all of the fun in the snow, we spent the first part of the day driving up to Kingsport TN (About 130 miles from here) to pick up the newest member of our family. So, I'd like to introduce Bobby our new Black Lab.
He's a big guy (Hard to tell from the pics though). He weighs in at around 85 pounds. And he's strong! We took him to PetSmart on the way home to get his food and other goodies, and it was all I could do to keep him from running off. I'm not sure who was really in control. But, now that he's home, he's proving to be a great dog! We call him Velcro-Dog because he's gotta be by someone's (mostly my) side at all times. He's really good with the kids too. The cats are a bit unhappy at the moment, but they'll adjust. He just wants to play, but they're very NOT interested. He LOVES riding in the car! Every time we get near my car when we're out walking, he runs up to it, and begs for me to open the tailgate so he can jump in.
Anyway, it's back to Cali for me next week. I leave on Thursday, and will be gone for almost 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to the trip. And even though I'm going for work, I'm sure it'll be fun. After that, it'll almost be my birthday. I'm the big three five this year. I guess I really fall into that "thirty-something" crowd now.
After that, my friend Darren will be coming to visit for a couple days. I'll be driving down to Atlanta to meet him, and then we'll be driving back to my house from there. He'll be at my place for a night, and then I'll drop him off at the airport. I'm looking forward to it!
Sorry it's been so long since my last posting. Ever since I got back from California, I've been really busy with work.
I felt this night was worthy of a quick posting though. Tonight, it's started snowing! This isn't the first time I've seen snow here, but it is the first time that it's actually stuck! I took some pics and posted them here.
So, it looks like I'll be heading back to Cali in a couple of weeks. The project I've been working so diligently on will hopefully be launching live. (I say hopefully because I've already bought the tickets) :)
Everything else is going well. the house is still awesome! Although I really need to build some storage cabinets and a workbench in the Garage. The kids are great! They've both been busy with school, etc... Jessi has become quite the little artist. I think see art school for her in my crystal ball. :)
I found out the other day that I have asthma. Not bad or anything, but the doc put me on some inhaled steroids. (I hate taking anything at all, but I must admit. my wheezing at night has all but stopped)
I'm also getting fat! (ok, I'm not really fat, but I'm definiately not in shape) Again, all the time I've spent working lately has kept me from being very active. I'm looking forward to getting this project behind me so I can start going to the gym again.
Well, that's enough for now. Hope everyone is doing well! Take care!
update - I've added more pictures. The kids went crazy over the snow! This is the first time either of them has seen it snow and actually stick to the ground. So they are both very excited. Although a bit bummed too because they still had to go to school.
After a week and a half in California, I am back home.
Even though the circumstances were very sad, my trip was great! Seeing all of my old friends, working on site in L.A., seeing family, seeing my Dad, all of it was great!
Here are the pictures of Grandma's funeral. Again, awful circumstances, but it was really nice to see everyone in one place. I'm sure Grandma was looking dowm, and saying "that's wund-a-ful" at seeing us all together. I only hope that it's not too long before we can all get together again (under better circumstances).
The following week in L.A. was awesome! Spending some time with my friends, and more importantly, my sister. It really put in perspective all that I've given up in moving to Tennessee. But no regrets. I can (and will) still visit frequently. I'd like to say thanks to everyone.
First, to Laura for putting me up for the week and keeping me well fed. and everything else you did for me!
To Shannon & Deb for everything! You guys rock! I had a blast hanging out with you!
To Heidi for giving me rides to and from work and for hanging out with me at Runaway Bay. It was great seeing you and Charlie!
To Lance for driving all the way down to Manhattan Beach for a drink. I'm really sorry about Saturday night! I felt helpless since I had no way to charge my phone (or even turn it on to get your number).
To Willis for driving to Lunch and hanging out all week at work.
To Rel for driving all the way down to see me and Laura, and bring us coffee! You rock too!
And to everyone else I saw/hung out with for making my trip so enjoayable.
Anyway, I have posted other pics of the trip throughout the album. Some in Laura's folder, and some in mine. So dig around if you're interested.
I've received some communications from our Boston based family (Cousin Jay and Grace) It's great to hear from you! I hope to get up that way soon to meet you all! I am going to work on updating the site so that you can all have logins and post your own photos and content.
Anyway, that's about it for now. I need to get to work. I'll keep you all posted.
Hi all. I just want to make a quick post to let you all know whats up.
I flew out to California last Wednesday, then drove from L.A. up to Livermore for Grandma's funeral services. The service was very nice. There were quite a few attendees. It was great to see everyone even though the circumstances could have been much better.
After the services and our post-funeral get together at Chevy's restaurant, Laura and I went over the hill into Hayward to visit her father's grave. I hadn't been there in close to 20 years I think. The last time I saw it, there was nothing more than a small nameplate where he is buried. But now, he's got the biggest headtone around. in fact, it's not really a headstone. it's a large obelisk. I took pictures of everything (Grandma's funeral, Laura's Dad's headstone, etc. but I have no way to upload them yet.)
Thurday night, we drove back down to L.A., and have been here since. It's strange to be here. I'm staying at Laura's place (my old house) and it seems so strange because it's not mine anymore. But it's good to be here. The weather has been amazing, and I've spent a lot of time at the beach enjoying it.
I'll be working here in L.A. for the next week, then heading back to Tennessee on Sunday the 15th. So, I probably wont post again until then.
Apologies to everyone. I've spent the last couple of nights building a new server to replace the one that died. It's been an interesting adventure because so much of the configuration was made up of hacks and such, I really cant remember everything that I did over the years to get it working just right.
Luckily I was able to salvage the data from the old drive. So, all of the email accounts that I host remained intact. One thing, for some reason, a few of the database tables were corrupted. It took me a while to get that back up and running. But again, no data loss (so far) :)
Well, I'll be flying out to California next week so that I can attend the service for Grandma. I've really been a wreck over this. And I know that I'm not alone in that. It will be nice to see everyone, but I really do wish it were under better circumstances.
I have a bunch of pictures from Christmas day. I just haven't has time to post them yet. (with the server crash and all ya know) :)
ok, it's late and I have work tomorrow morning. So, goodnight.
Uncle Phil called me a little while ago to give me the bad news. Grandma passed away this morning.
This really is a sad day for me. I have been close to her for as long as I can remember. She has always been such a large part of my life. Admittedly, I hadn't been able to see her as often as I would've liked over the past few years. But at least I was able to see her one last time before I left for Tennessee. Still, I feel such an overwhelming emptiness right now.
Grandma, if there is some sort of heavenly internet connection, I hope you'll check in and see this. I want to let you know that I love you so much, and am going to miss you terribly. You have been one of the greatest influences in my life. I owe so much of who I am and what I've accomplished to you! I hope you are happy now, and free of burden. I'm sure that you and Grandpa have re-united, and will be happy together forever more. One day, we will see each other again. Until then, God bless and keep you. I Love you!
We've officially been in the house for more than a week now. And it's coming together slowly but surely.
Tonight was spent preparing for a family (Knox side) Christmas party tomorrow. This is probably a good thing because it put some fire under us to get the place a little more "set up". Things like hanging pictures, organizing the garage, and getting my office set up nicely. So yes, definitely a good thing.
Pretty much the entire local family will be here tomorrow. For most of them, it will be the first time at my new house, so I'm excited to show it off a bit.
I'm done Christmas shopping. Actually I have been for about a week now. Thank goodness, I feel sorry for all the people who wait until the very last minute, and have to deal with the insane crowds. There's nothing like Christmas shopping to bring out the worst in people. For example, I was at Wal-Mart last week to pick up some lights for the house. I parked my cart out of the way of other people while I looked at the plethora of light offerings. A couple minutes later, I turned around to put my selection in the cart, but it was gone. Maybe an employee took it thinking it had been abandoned, but I was standing less than 5 feet away obviously shopping, so I suspect someone just saw an empty cart, needed it, and took it. I was left to walk all the way back to the outside front of the store to get another. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that it amazes me how people can be so nice and respectful of others until it comes to Christmas shopping. What is it that brings this out in them? It's supposed to be a happy time, not a stressful one. But thats just it I suppose. There's no escaping the stress of Christmas.
Enough ranting. I'll be taking lots of pictures tomorrow, so I'll be posting them tomorrow night most likely. Then Santa will come for the kids, and then bed. It's good to have a plan I think. :)
Anyway, it's late and I have an early morning. So merry Christmas (or whatever other holiday you celebrate), and good night.
I had a couple of hours of unexpected downtime today. It killed my work VPN, and effectively shut me down.
Here's the scoop (I'll try to keep it short) Yesterday, I upgraded my TV service to include HDTV. However, nothing I did, nor how many attempts they made to download configs to the cable box, would make it work, so today, they sent a tech out to see what was the matter. He was able to fix my HDTV by adding a signal amp to the point where the cable comes into my house. Before he left, I said "Let's just be sure the modem is still working". and it's a good thing I did because it wasn't.
The long and short of it is this. When I moved into my house, they had to create a new account for my service. But, before they did this, I had already relocated the modem, and was online. Whenever they finally did create the new account, they forgot to put the modem under it. This means that the next time the power cycled, or signal was interrupted, the modem couldn't re-connect. (Because the account it was still under had been de-activated). Since I had connected the modem before they closed down the old account, it was configured, and kept on truckin' after they closed it. But today, when the tech had disconnected everything to install the amplifier, the cable modem lost signal. When it tried to re-connect... well, it didn't.
Anyway, it took a couple of hours for them to figure it out and get me back online. (Mostly time spent on hold, waiting for the tier 2 support people to answer the phone.) All the while, I was unable to work (no VPN). So it'll probably be a late night, just catching up.
On the bright side, the tech that was here is a really cool guy. He explained the Oak Ridge cable system, and how it has evolved over the years, and where it's headed. Aparently, my sub-division is on an older "node" and they will be upgrading it soon. This will most likely mean better service and faster speeds in the future. YAY.
Well, thats about it for now. time to get back to work.
Just saw the email that Kristen had her baby!! CONGRATS to the whole family!!
Here's the important info:
Name: Lainey Kathleen Ross
Weight: 7lbs. 12oz.
Length: 19.5 inches
Born: December 14, 2005 @ 2:27 pm Photo: Here
That's so great!! This really has been a great month! I just wish I could be there to meet her in person! Soon though...
In other news, The house is coming along nicely. I took a few more pictures of the house this morning. As you can see by my white roof, and frozen truck, everything iced over last night. It's so strange to not be able to open the door of your car because ice has filled the gap around it and frozen it shut. I'll be glad when we're done moving and I can store the trailer and start parking in the garage. Should be this weekend if all goes well.
Christmas is a-foot here at the new pad. We finished setting up the tree last night, and I started to decorate the outside of the house. I've set up a couple of those lighted reigndeer figures in the yard, and put a swag (wreath looking thing with draping lights) under the window where the tree is visible from the street. And finally, I put some lighted candy canes by the steps leading up from the driveway to the front door. I think it all looks pretty good, but tomorrow will be the icing on the cake. I spent the evening hours today perched precariously on a 24' ladder, and up on the roof, installing gutter clips all the way around the front of the house. If I hadn't run out of daylight, I would have finished today, but by the time I was done with the clips, the sun was gone, my hands felt like popsicles, and the roof seemed to be getting a bit slippery. So, tomorrow I will climb back up there and hang the lights. pics to come...
As a last little tidbit, here's a pretty neat video of a house that went overboard with the lights. The video quality is kinda poor, but you still get the idea. After seeing this, I started looking into how it was done. The hardware side of it is simple enough. It's just a bunch of relays/triacs that are controlled by a computer to switch on and off the lights. The tricky (and coolest) part is the way they synchronized it all to music. In theory, it would be pretty easy, but I bet in practice it's a real pain (the article says it took about an hour for every 10 seconds of music to get it sync'd right). Anyway, I have a couple of USB digital IO boards here (packed away somewhere) that would serve the purpose quite nicely, and I'm confident that I can write some decent control software So, next year, I am going to try my hand at something like this. I promise it won't be anywhere near as crazy as that video, but I think it will be fun. Maybe I'll even try to write a WinAmp plugin to control the lights with whatever music is being played. Oh, and in case you are wondering, they didn't have the music playing outside on an endless loop. Instead, they set up a low power FM transmitter, and had a sign out front telling passers by which station to tune their radio to. Pretty cool idea which I'm sure the neightbors appreciated more than anyone!
With that I'll close. Again, congrats to Kristen and Rob and the Grandparents, and to Luke!!
Well, the first night in the new house was.. uhm.. interesting. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my new house! It really is AWESOME! But, Murphy and his laws paid us a couple visits last night.
First, I had just finished telling Jessi the rules about taking her shoes off before she goes onto the carpet if she's been in the back yard. Just then, Joey comes running in and tracks mud into the downstairs living room. Kids will be kids I suppose. Next, Joey left an open can of soda sitting on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. Granted, it was out of the way of normal traffic, but Jessi isn't exactly normal traffic. So, soda ended up on the carpet right next to where the mud had been. Luckily it was clear soda, so no stain. And for the grand finale'. About 11:30, I was downstairs finishing up the wiring for my sound system when I heard a strange "whoosh" sound. I looked in the garage, but nothing, So, I went up the stairs to check. As I climbed the second flight, I could hear gagging sounds from just around the corner. I flipped on the light, and whammo! the whole end of the hallway was drenched in puke! and I mean DRENCHED! Poor Joey was huddled over the toilet, still heaving. He seems to have caught the stomach flu (it's going around here) Luckily, he had made it as far as the hallway before erupting, and the hallways are all wood floor. None got on the bedroom carpet. So with some soapy water and lots of paper towels, everthing was good as new.
Aside from these adventures everything is going great. There's a TON (probably three or four tons) of stuff still to be moved, and thusfar I've been the only one able to work on it. So I'm a little burnt out. But we're supposed to be getting some help later today. My Mom did help me quite a bit yesterday with getting the trailer unloaded, and I'm so thankful for that.
Yep, more downtime... Right about now, you're probably saying "What is it with this downtime lately?!?!" Well, to that I say "and how much am I being paid for this again?!?" haha, no, I'm just kidding.
In theory, this should be the last downtime for the foreseeable future. This one is needed while I relocate the server to my new house.
Yep that's right y'all, I am moving everything to the new house tomorrow! I close tomorrow morning at 9am, after which I will have the keys. So, this time tomorrow, I'll be the proud owner of a nice new (well, to me anyway) house! YAY
I'm not sure what time the cable company will arrive to perform the move, but I expect it sometime tomorrow afternoon.
Just got word from my real estate lady that I have an appointment next Tuesday (the 13th) at 9:00am to close the house! I should be able to move in right away! I'm really excited now!
Winter has set in a bit early (or so they tell me). We had a storm blow through here Sunday that was supposed to drop some snow. The kids were excited at the prospect! I'm not sure what they were more excited about though, snow on the ground, or a day off from school. Jessi keeps talking about building a snowman, so in her case, I think it's the snow. Joey, on the other hand, seems more interested in having a day home to play Rune Scape.
The storm that was supposed to drop snow here, skipped us and skirted up north. I called Uncle Phil this morning to see how much snow they had up at the Cape. He says they've had about 4 inches, and that he and A.J. are enjoying it.
Today is nice. The sun is shining, but it's quite chilly. They say we'll get another storm through here on Thursday that may put some snow on the ground. I'm hoping it will.
That's about it for now. I'll keep everyone posted on how the house is progressing.
I got a call yesterday from my agent. It was time for me to get my homeowners insurance in order. So, I called my mom (who is currently in Puerto Vallarta enjoying the timeshare with Laura and Damien) to ask her what company she recommends. She turned me onto Liberty Mutual. So, I've got it all set up. If you're ever in the market, I recommend them. First off, I had gotten several quotes online, and Liberty is the cheapest (by quite a margin). Secondly, I switched my Auto insurance from Progressive to Liberty and I'm now getting MUCH better coverage with a lower deductible, and the best part, it's costing me less than HALF of what Progressive was charging me!
So, as I said above, I called my Mom and Laura yesterday down in Puerto Vallarta. I was going to just use my cell phone or landline, but then I remembered that I still have credit on Skype. So I connected my cordless phone to my PC using my Phone Connector device. Then I dialed. The first time I called, I think I got a bad connection because although they could hear me just fine, I could barely make out what was being said. But, when I called back a little later, the connection was flawless! I even put my phone on speaker so the kids could say hi. And the best part, after being on the phone for probably better than 30 minutes total, it only cost about 3 euro! Today, Skype announced a new version, 2.0 beta, which has videoconference capability. So I have downloaded it and cant wait to give it a try. You can call me on Skype by clicking the "SkypeMe" button at the bottom right hand of this page. Or, just enter my username "jammendolia" into skype directly.
Also, be sure to sign the Guestbook when you have a moment.
Anyway, we're definitely on target to close on the 13th. That's less than two weeks away! I'm so excited! Things haven't changed here at the apartment. The guy next door (with the loud bass) just doesn't take a hint. We knocked on the wall last night, but were greeted with a loud thump in response. The people directly above us thought that the bass was coming from us, and started pounding on our ceiling. So we went up and talked to them, to let them know it's not us. In the end, we called in another complaint, as did the people above us. After about an hour, the bass level dropped a bit to a nearly acceptable level. We'll see if it stays down this time.
ok, enough complaining. Besides, I need to get back to work (as usual). Talk at y'all later. (practicing my southern language skills)
Since I've been so busy bragging about my new house, Uncle Phil decided to one-up me and post some pictures of his new house. Just kidding. there's no competition... right U.P.?!?! ;)
I'm still waiting to get the word from my bank that we can close. It's agonizing... Especially now that my neighbor has decided that he has some sort of grudge against me. I have no idea what I may have done to upset him, but he insits on playing his music at high volume with his subwoofer pointing toward the common wall. My apartment rattles constantly. We have complianed several times to management. But still.. the thumping continues.Sigh. I'll be glad to get out of this place!
Anyway, I love the place U.P.!! Congrats to you and A.J.! Can't wait to come see it in person.
We had a nice casual Turkey-day. Patty and Paul (Edith's mom and step-dad) came over bearing an already prepared bird. We supplied most of the fixin's.
We ate ourselves silly, then lounged around for the rest of the afternoon. Everything was as it should be. :)
I really do miss having Thangsgiving up in Patterson with the usual Ammendolia crowd. I called and spoke with Grandma last night though. I could tell that she has mixed emotions about me moving to Tennessee. But I think we all agree it is for the best.
I found out that my home loan has gone to docs. So, I suspect we'll be closing soon! YAY!! I'm anxious to get settled in and decorate for Christmas.
I'm finding out more and more just how many people have been visiting my site, and keeping tabs on my life. I'm really glad that I put this together a few years ago!
Anyway, I'm going to sign off now. Turkey Coma is still in full effect! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!
First off, It looks like I got the house. The current owners have agreed to the repairs and home warranty extension. So with that, all that remains is for the home loan to get funded. I spoke with the lender yesterday, and they say it should happen very soon. (She's just waiting on the title paperwork, apraisal paperwork, and three signatures.). After that, we meet the title attorney, and I give them a nice hefty down payment check.
Second, I finally got the VPN working for work. It's nice to be able to develop on my desktop PC again. Citrix is great, but it's a little akward. Now, it's just like I'm sitting at my old desk in California.
Speaking of California, as much as I like it here, and am happy that I can buy a home here, I do miss the weather in Cali. This morning, I went outside to drop my son off at his bus stop, and it was 26 degrees! Yikes!! That's a bit colder than I like. And to add insult to injury, Cali is in the midst of a heat wave at the moment. Since I'm on the phone with them all the time, I get to hear about how nice the weather is. Oh well...
Jessi turned 6 on Tuesday (the 15th). We had a small party for her. A few of her friends came over, she opened presents, ate pizza, and had cake. I've posted a few pictures. I can't believe she's 6 already. They grow up so fast!
Had the home inspection today. Let me just say that anyone buying a house should be there for the inspection! You learn so much about your new home! Anyway, a few things turned up during the inspection. The roof will need to be replaced wihin a couple of years, and the air conditioner is close to it's end as well. The heater is in good shape even though it's the same age as the A/C. No water damage was found (well, a few trivial spots, but nothing serious). Overall, the inspector gave the house a good review.
Here are the pictures that I took today. They show the house in pretty good detail. a few of them are showing the minor things found during the inspection, but those are just so that I'll remember what was found. Please go have a look, and let me know what you think.
Just got back from Vegas this morning. I was there all last week attending the DevConnections launch event for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. The event was great! The sessions were outstanding, and I can't say enough about how excited I am to start using it! My favorite things about it are the introduction of Web Parts to ASP.Net, and the new membership system, These guys make creating a portal site almost too easy. You almost have to write no code at all! Even better though (because personally, I enjoy writing code) is C# 2.0! I can sum it up in one word, Generics! Say goodbye to boxing types and hello to much higher performing code!
I took a red-eye flight from Vegas and came back a day early so that I could attend my cousin Jessica's wedding. The ceremony was beautiful, and the reception a blast, but the best part was getting the chance to meet (or re-meet) distant family . Well, not so distant anymore now that I live in Tennessee. I've always been close to the Ammendolia side of the family, but distance has kept me from getting to know the Knox side. I plan to set up another site similar to Ammendolias.com for the Knox family. For now, I'll get it started with the photos from the wedding. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died halfway though the ceremony. But uncle Mike took a bunch and I should have them added tomorrow.
Well, I have an announcement to make. I am buying the house (see my previous blog entry) it's in escrow now, and I expect to close by the 13th of December! I'll get to spend Christmas in my new house! I have the home inspection on Monday morning. So, I'll be taking a bunch of pictures to post. so stay tuned!
Anyway, I'm beat! so, I'm going to crash. Goodnight!
update - The pictures from uncle Mikes camera are posted now. You can see them by clicking here.
Apologies for the recent downtime. My domain registrar is having issues. I updated the IP addresses for my various domains last monday, and after 3 days, the changes had still not taken effect. So, I called them to find out what had happened. According to them, the zone file for my domain(s) had somehow gotten corrupted. Sheesh! Buggy software??
Well, I have some good news! I'm looking into buying a house! I've looked at quite a few online, and have been working with a listing agent to see a couple of them. Here's my favorite so far.
Unfortunately, I dont have any better pictures of it yet. But believe me, this place is nice! It's a little over 2600 square feet, has 3 bedrooms, an office, a large living room, and a HUGE family room downstairs. The garage is large too! for perspective, the driveway is 75 ft. long. So you can get an idea from the satellite image how big it is.
So, wish me luck! I've got my application in to the bank, and hope to hear back today!
Anyway, that's about all for now. I need to get to work. I'll keep you posted!
The drive was quick, and even though I was a good citizen and obeyed posted speed limits, I managed to arrive in just 2 days time (48 hours and 13 minutes to be exact). I would have been here about 3 hours sooner, but I had a mishap with the trailer which required some assistance before I could proceed.
I've spent the last week trying to set up an office space to work from, but Oak Ridge isn't exactly the technology mecca I thought it would be. None of the buildings I've looked into are wired for cable (nor can they be for one reason or another) so I've decided to work from my living room for the time being. Should be interesting.
The site is up (duh!) and should be working. I will be changing the IP again next week. It's unavoidable unfortunately. Additionally, there's a chance that my upstream bandwidth may be lowered to a meager 384k. sigh. Oh well, nothing I can do about it for now. But I'll always be on the lookout for better service when possible.
Anyway, thats about it for now. I need to run. So stay tuned for updates.
I am planning to cut the server over tonight, and will be cancelling my internet service effective tomorrow. Please check your email today and print/save anything that you will need for the next week. Any new message received after I cut over, will be delivered to the temporary site. Due to DNS propogation delay, it may take a day or so for you to be able to log in. Typically, it will start working overnight, but the standard "up to 72 hours" disclaimer applys.
I am nearly ready to leave. I have the trailer 90% packed. My office is empty (except for the web server, UPS, and cable modem). My bedroom is empty except for some clothes, and I have managed to empty out almost all of the cupboards and storage areas. I am amazed at the amount of junk that I've accumulated over the years! I guess I really am a pak-rat. :)
This will most likely be my last post before I leave, so wish me luck! I'll post as soon as I get the site back up and running from TN!
Ok, disregard that last post. Thanks to my buddy Chuck and NoWakeZone.net, I will have a temporary solution for your email while the site is down during my move. What will happen is this; Just prior to leaving, I will redirect all traffic for ammendolias.com to a new address. That site will then receive email on behalf of ammendolias.com, and will host a page explaining what is happening. You will be able to log in, and check your email there. note: any email received there, will be lost once I bring everything back up the way it is now. So, save any messages you receive if you want to keep them.
Sorry for the inconvenience, but at least it's better than not being able to receive emails while the site is down. :-)
Important notice to email users! - I was supposed to have a place to relocate my server to while I make the transition to Tennessee, but unfortunately, it has fallen through. This means that I will need to take my server with me. So, the site will be down starting next week. (I dont have a specific date yet. I will try to keep the site up through Wednesday, but as soon as I cancel my cable modem service, it will be shut down).
I should arrive in TN by Sunday, and will immediately set the server up. Any emails that are sent between now and then *should* still get delivered. Most servers will re-try sending an email up to 5 days before they give up.
I apologize for this, and hope it's not too much of an inconvenience.
I've set the date. I will be leaving California on October 19th (Wed.) and driving to Oak Ridge. I spent part of today trying to secure an office to work from while I'm there, and I think I've found the one. It's got 2 rooms, and is a mere $285/mo. Utilities (except phone and internet) included as is maintenance and janitorial services. Sounds too good to be true!
In related news, I am going to be cancelling my internet service effective next Monday afternoon So, I will be relocating my servers to another location this weekend. READ THIS IF YOU USE EMAIL ON THIS SITE!! When I make the move, this site (and all the others that I host) will be unavailable until DNS has had a chance to propogate!! This usually only takes 24 hours or so, but it can take up to 72! So, be prepared.
I will be in Las Vegas from Nov 6th to the 12th for a Microsoft developers conference. Work is footing the bill! :) I'll be staying at the Mandalay Bay. Should be fun! (All work, no play, and all of that...)
Well, it's been a while since my last posting (almost a month I think) so I thought I should give a quick update.
There's really not very much new happening. My departure from So. Cal. has been delayed. I'm now targeting an Oct. 15th departure. I have started loading my junk into the trailer. I think I'm going to have ample room to carry everything. The only question that remains is "will I be able to afford the gas to get there?!". I'm sure I will, but I fully expect it to cost over $1000.00!
After Sedona's (my ferret) death, We got a new one. Her name is Angel. She's with the Kids in TN and I haven't met her yet, but from what I've been told, she's a real sweetheart.
Work is going well I suppose. My current #1 project is entering the test phase. This project is to implement ACH transfer capability into our online banking project. This time, it's just me working on it. So far, I've spent a couple of months writing the code for the screens, and scheduling engine, and architecting the database schema and stored procs. The most difficult part has proven to be the generation of a NACHA compliant data file for transmission to the Federal Reserve Bank. It's just a plain ASCII text file, but the formatting is crucial, and has proven challenging to implement correctly. As of last Friday, I am able to successfully send files to the FED. So today, we are performing some user testing, so that we can send a much larger file through. Fingers crossed! For the uninitiated, ACH is the process by which financial institutions "wire" money to eachother. What I have done is to create a process where an online banking user can "wire" money to an account at another institution. Pretty neat stuff.
On the home front (in L.A.) Laura is doing well. She is taking over the house that I've been in for the past few years. Her boyfriend, Damien, has moved in as well. He is from Paris, but works alot here in the U.S. so this arrangement seems to be amicable. Damien and I hung out for a good part of Saturday, working on the house, etc. Then later, drove down to Huntington Beach to visit Laura at work. During this time, I got a chance to get to know him better, and I think he's a great guy! (A requirement if he's going to be living with my sister) :-)
So that's about all for now. Oh one other thing... The Raiders won yesterday against Dallas!! Yee Haw! It was close, and towards the end, I was sweating a bit as Dallas came within a few yards of the touchdown+field goal that would have won the game, but the Raiders defense managed to hold them off!! right on!
Last night at around 10:30 pm, my ferret Sedona passed away. Aparently, he swallowed something that got stuck in his stomach. He was in a great deal of pain. I only hope that now, the pain is gone, and he can rest in peace.
I was cleaning house, and came across my skydiving videos from 2001 (viewable by clicking the links at the right under "Video Album"). Watching these things really gives me the itch. I wish I could have finished my AFF training before I had to stop jumping because now I'll have to start all over again. But that's ok. When I get moved out to TN, I'm planning to get back into it. I found a place called Skydive Smokey Mountains and will hit them up to (re)start my training. In the words of the cameraman Keith (on my first jump) "Oh Yippeeee"! :)
In other news, I am planning to head down to Louisianna when I get to Tennessee at the end of September. My cousin Greg will be going, so I'm gonna to try and tag along. I'll just take an extra week off from work to do it. I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'm sure there's plenty to do and not enough people to do it, so...
The cousin camping trip was this weekend. Unfortunately, with the move coming up, I couldn't really afford to go. I am so bummed! but the cousins promised to drink a few for me. I hope you all had fun!
So, I plan to leave California on the 24th of September. I bought a carcgo trailer for the trip. It's a brand new 7'x10' Carson trailer. I think it will do quite nicely. And it w
There are many 
) Seriously though, we're very excited. And now we begin with the summer ritual of staying up late, having sleep-overs, and various other summer-type activities. Of course, this means a dent in my pocketbook because summer activities never come cheap.
