It is Tuesday and that means that Dominica and Oreo have to return home to Geneseo this afternoon. 🙁 She has decided that even with the extra driving on her part that the amount of time that we get to see each other when she comes down here is worth the drive. When she comes down here we see each other from Saturday night until Tuesday afternoon. That is a ton more than when I drive up there. So she might be coming down a bit more than half of the time now. Especially now that the apartment is a little bit more comfortable than it has been. Now that we have the futon she has a place to sit when I am in the apartment working. Yesterday was tough because I had the folding chair in use so that I could sit at the computer and that left her with no chair at all. That makes it tough. Oreo is happy anywhere there is a pillow, fleece blanket, binky and sunlight.
Our big expense that is going to hit us this week is Dominica’s tires. We have been holding off on dealing with them because it is such a big expense but it has to be dealt with. I need to figure out to deal with it from here this week. Luckily she has small, standard sized wheels so her tires should not cost anywhere near as much as mine did. Mine are a pretty rare size and that is a pain. Always some major expense. I can’t sneak through a week without something needing to drain the bank.
Today is a super busy day at the office. Yesterday ended up being so unproductive that there is a lot of stuff backed up and waiting for me this morning. I am still hoping to be able to get into Manhattan this afternoon to get to the Hewlett-Packard Blade show but that is still up in the air. It would be fun to go to but it will also be a logistical hassle as I don’t know the process for getting into the city from the office (we have a shuttle) and I don’t know my way around very well so there is a lot that I will have to figure out once I go. But it has to be done at some point so better sooner than later.
I thought that this morning was going to be busy but it ended up being REALLY busy. I was running ragged all morning. Boy was that fun. It is a real relief to be really useful and productiv and to be doing real work and not just “educational” work learning processes and stuff like that. Today I got to actually work like a part of the team doing the same kinds of stuff as everyone else. That was a really nice change.
There is an article in eWeek today about Red Hat’s use on Wall Street. I thought that this was perfect since this is exactly what I do.
I finally managed to get some Dr. Scholls insoles into my work shoes today. I have been meaning to do that for a month now and haven’t remembered to pick any up whenever I was at a store. My feet are thanking me all ready. They don’t hurt nearly as much today as they have been for the past month. They still hurt but far less. Maybe this will start me down the path to recovery. I only got a set for my work shoes which I wear the most and they have the least built in padding. I need to get a set for my sneakers as well.
I was so busy today that I had to cancel my trip into the city. 🙁 But I am happy to be able to get lunch with Dominica and to see Oreo before they go back to New York. Being able to do lunch on Tuesday on her way out of town really helps to make her coming down here a lot more valuable. And it is especially awesome that her coming out here is only barely out of her way so it is a great use of the time and mileage.
She got into Warren around 1:30 and I headed out of the office to meet her at the Thai House in the Warren Plaza. They have really good food there and the location is really convenient to work and quite easy for her to find. And Dominica never gets too much Thai food so it works out well to help curb her cravings.
We ate lunch and walked Oreo around the plaza’s small grassy area. He was glad to get out of the hot car. It is tough being a black dog. We said goodbye and went our separate ways. It was about 2:45 as Dominica headed home and I turned into the driveway of the office. It is nice that we drive together for about a mile after leaving the restaurant. Her entrance onto the highway is right next to the office.
My busy morning continued on to be a busy afternoon. In fact I didn’t even look at the clock until it was 5:00! Dominica was probably nearing Kirkwook (the southernmost suburb in the Binghamton metropolitan area) by the time I even thought of looking at the time. I bet that she has felt the time passing. The drive isn’t that bad but it isn’t fun. Especially once you have done it a few times and you have a good feel for the scenery. Then it starts to wear on you. Especially that stretch up US380 up to US81 and on up to Binghamton and then again once you pass Corning and push your way northward. Ugh. That northwest facing US86 and splitting off to US390 is torurous at best. It goes on forever and the scenery is so familiar to those of us who grew up along that corridor that it doesn’t do anything for you. And there is just nothing going on out there. No traffic. No towns. No lights. Nothing. Just boring.
The weather was really nice today and just perfect for Dominica’s drive home. Sunny and warm but cool enough to be comfortable. Perfect for driving. You can always open the window or do without. Nice and clear but not hot. Not too fatiguing. That will be over soon enough as we head towards summer.
I had a full day at work today. It was pretty much busy all day long and I was at the office for ten hours. But it feels good to be useful. For so long I was just a blob in the office. Now I am a semi-useful blog. Basically a limbre blob that can get out of the way quickly. It was almost 7:00 when I left the office to head for home.
On the way home I made a quick stop off at Barned and Nobles on Route 1. I picked up some books on learning German. I figured that I could use some “Learning German” CDs on my commute and in the office since I have headphones now. I grabbed a small English-German dictionary, a Berlitz learning German book, the 501 German Verbs book and a set of learning German on CDs.
It was a little after 8:00 when both Dominica and I got home – her to Geneseo and me to North Brunswick. She called around 8:30 to let me know that she was home safely and that she and the puppy were just going to spend the evening relaxing after their long drive.
I took the evening lightly as well. It was a short evening at home – just three hours from arrival to bed time – and I am pretty tired anyway. I spoke with Jeremy who is in the process of deciding on parts for building his own computer. He is building a fast AMD Athlon 64 machine with NVidia SLI using dual GeForce 7600GS cards. Or at least that is the plan. That will be a screaming machine! I am planning on buying his old machine off of him – an HP D325 commercial small form factor desktop with an AMD Athlon XP 2800+, 512MB, 160GB and an NVidia GeForce FX5200. I am planning on switching my main, 64-bit desktop over to Linux full time and using the slightly older, 32-bit machine for Windows XP Pro. That way I will have both at my disposal all of the time. Now that I work on Linux absolutely all of the time I don’t want to go home and switch back to Windows. I am sure that being on Linux full time will be much more valuable. Besides, SUSE 10.1 is due out in about a week and it is really supposed to be rockin’!
I went to bed around 11:00. I read a little in my Berlitz book in bed but not for very long. I was asleep in no time.