WOW. Long Week

Well, I got in at 1:30 last night thanks to several flight delays (Denver's wind apparently damaged a frontier flight, so a buddy of mine had his flight cancelled... so I'm complaining too much). So I'm a little sleepy.

After grinding gears this morning I'm finally up and about. Checked TaxCut and my Tax forms are ready and printing away... WOOT!

Overall, a good week. The project is a hair behind, so the hours are looking long. (12 hour days are minimum really) I'm getting up to speed pretty quick, but I still have a lot of reading of design docs this weekend. Overall, I think this is going to be a tough 3 weeks, but nothing I can't handle. (Just strap on the shoulder harness and PULL!!!) Do have a better plan for what to pack and what not to pack next week. Also having my toiletries stored in the office means I don't have to check baggage. The Hilton is a nice hotel though. I was particularly pleased that the alarm clock has an AUX in so I can use Pzizz from my iPod. The part I don't like is that the hotel charges $10 a day for internet connectivity and the project doesn't reimbuse for that, and since I'm only in the room for a few hours tops... it's just not worth it. So Skyping isn't an option. :(

I did get the opportunity to check out Kean coffee while I was there. DAMN. I bought a bag of Etheopian coffee beans that were roasted on Feb 12th. I just brewed my first cup this morning and to paraphrase "Beerfest", I want to make love to this coffee it's so good. E-mail me if you are a coffee fan and I'll bring you some. There's just something dead sexy in REALLY good coffee roasted fresh, then ground and brewed at the same time. YUM!!!

I did get to B2 the Mammoth's 10-8 win on Thursday night. I'm VERY happy with the win to take us to 7 and 1. The reason I'm happy with it is because we flat out didn't deserve it. Portland played an intense game that said very clearly that they wanted it more, and played like it. The Mammoth came out flat and had a truly moribund offense. They just weren't giving it the effort that they should. They let raw talent pull them along to a win. I'm pleased that they are strong enough to do that... but against a REAL contender, like Calgary on Sunday night, that effort will not get the job done. Pleased and dissapointed.

Anyhow. I'm off to try and read some docs and enjoy my time at home. (super snuggly kitties last night... I love going to sleep to purring fuzzballs.)

V

The earths EASIEST job.

The earths easiest job, San Diego weather man. "So, what's the weather Tim?"... "uh, it's nice. Back to you"

Yes, this is a blatant rip off from Lewis Black. But it's apparently true. Check out the 5 day from Santa Ana. I think this may be a nice remote deployment. It looks like I'm going to be in California 5 days a week for the remainder of February... then if I can swing it, from Tues to Friday so I can still make my gaming group on Mondays, YAY!

V

Well, that didn't last long

It looks like I'm shipping out. I've been deployed to a gig in Orange County California. I'll be flying out on Monday morning. While I haven't heard from HR officially yet, the project manager and the DBA on site now have already talked to me and given me the heads up. So, it's off to sunny California for me. YAY!

Looks like a pretty straightforward engagement that will have me there 4 days a week and back home on weekends.


V

YAY, and Booo

So I did my taxes last night. The good news is that, thanks to my EEV credit, I'm getting a large amount back, so yay! But the IRS hasn't finished the portions of the form that pertain to the Energy Efficient Vehicles... so I have to wait until Mid February to ACTUALLY file and get my refund. C'est la Vie.

V

My goal

This, in 2 weeks time.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am no longer staffed on the project I've been working on for the last almost 2 years. It's a warm roll off until the next round of CR's is signed... but that could be a while (month[s]?) My focus until then is training. Unless there is a short term project that needs me at least. I have been made available to Avanade at large for short term projects until this one starts back up.

So, I'll be hitting the books freaking hard until then. I think tomorrow I'll re-build my desktop PC as a full blown dataserver.

V