August 29, 2006

Today began with another busy morning that didn’t allow me the chance to get into the office. What a week this is going to be. I ended up having to work at home until just after noon. Then Dominica and I went to the Omega to grab a quick lunch before I drove into the office and she went to the laundromat to take care of the piles of laundry that we have.

Just like yesterday the morning was so busy that I could barely make it out the door and then, by the time I finally get to the office, nothing is happening and I have lots of spare time. Argh. I finished reading “Embracing Insanity: Open Source Software Development” which is one of those books that I have been in the middle of for two years or maybe more. I am trying to eliminate as many of those situations as possible. I have been on a reading kick recently and I hope that it sticks for a while as I have a lot of stuff to get through.

Today and yesterday have been very dark and drizzly. Almost no sunlight at all. Good thing or the little sleep that I have been getting would be a lot worse than it has been.

Only two more days before another crazy weekend begins. Boy am I glad that I have next Monday “off” or I would never get a chance to get caught up on anything. On Friday morning Dominica is driving to Big Flats just west of Elmira and meeting dad there in the afternoon to transfer Oreo to him to watch until Sunday. Then she is returning to Ithaca to check into our room at the Statler Hotel at Cornell. I am driving up to Ithaca after work in what is bound to be terrible rush hour traffic since it is holiday traffic exiting New York City. Ugh. Our plan is to just relax on Friday night. We probably won’t have a chance to see anyone as most everyone is busy with the wedding. So we are just going to relax. (Well, Dominica will relax. I am driving in bad traffic so it might take me all night to get there.)

Then Saturday morning will, hopefully, be a chance to just relax and enjoy Ithaca. Dominica and I haven’t had a chance to just relax and do nothing in particular in Ithaca in years. That will be nice. The wedding is in the afternoon so we have the morning to enjoy town.

Miranda is coming down to visit this weekend and is able to make it to the wedding. So she and Andy have a room at the Statler on Saturday night as well. I think that we are all planning on doing brunch at the hotel on Sunday before we have to head up to Rochester. Dominica and I are working for TMobile on Sunday in Rochester before going to pick up Oreo and probably meet dad for dinner.

Monday has been reserved for a day of mostly work. I am not sure what work that that will be yet but there is so much that needs to be done that I am not concerned about being able to keep myself busy. I would be really happy if we were able to go down to the school in Castile and get some work done down there as school is starting and there is so much that needs to be done. If we don’t work there this weekend I am not sure when we will get anything done. I also need to do additional packing in Geneseo whenever possible so that will continue as well.

Since we have been unable to sell the Mazda PR5 and since it is really tough to sell since it has two brand new sets of really good tires (that obviously we don’t want to just give away) we have decided that we are going to drop off my Mazda 6 and drive the PR5 through the winter and then try to sell it in the spring next year after we get some miles on those tires. That will save the 6 from a lot of extra miles running back and forth to Geneseo and then once winter hits we will garage the BMW and Dominica will drive the PR5 while I drive the 6. It is a big pain and not as good as if we managed to actually sell the PR5 but at least it will make it so that we don’t feel that we need to get as much money for it and it will be easier to sell in the spring and it will preserve the other two cars a bit.

Andy had an interview yesterday and got the job the same day. He is now back working for a large company that he and I worked for many years ago but he is staying in Rochester. It is a long term contract so this should, in theory, add some stability to his life – although we had long term contracts at the same place many years ago and that didn’t pan out so well. But in a major change of pace he managed to get two consecutive contracts through the same consultancy! This is completely unheard of outside of Manhattan. Consulting companies so frequently think of themselves as nothing but staffing firms that they often don’t view their current consultants to be any more a part of their family than professionals that they are currently interviewing for the first time. So that was very encouraging to hear. He starts work a week from today!

We did receive back our uncashed checks from the attempt to get the condominium in Lebanon. That is a relief that it was so easy to back out of the whole project. The ease with which we were able to cancel will make me much more likely to work with them again in the future if we are ever in a situation where we don’t need to sell a house ahead of time. For now, though, renting seems to be a good option for the next year or so. We don’t know the area well enough to make really good decisions about where to buy and the market seems to be in a state of flux and we need to wait for it to settle down. The housing market can only go up so much before no one can afford to own a home anymore. People always say that housing just goes up and up but at some point there has to be a collapse as eventually there just aren’t any people left to buy houses. And with prices being the way that they are down here it is hard to believe that there is anyone able to buy a home here.

I discovered an awesome website today that helps system administrators do custom Linux builds. I am very excited to give this site a try: InstaLinux.

This week has been crazy so far and is likely to continue. I was stuck in the office until late again this evening. It was almost seven before I had a chance to leave. I decided to post early so that I could stay up and work late tonight without worrying about posting the daily. I will catch up with everyone tomorrow.

Beaming myself out…

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