Sheep Guarding Llama

Today is my first full day in Maryland. I got a good night’s sleep last night which is rare for me being in a hotel room. I think that the level of this hotel helps a bit. The beds of firmer and the air conditioning works better and I have the curtains pulled back because I am on the sixth floor. We get a decent rate here because I am not the only employee living in the hotel so it is not too expensive either.

I headed into the office late morning. Spent most of the day acclimating to DC. Everytime that I am here there are tons of different people. It has been so long since I was down here for any length of time that I really didn’t know anyone this time and the people that I did know weren’t people who had been working for us for some time anyway.

After work, John and I went out to Ruby Tuesday’s in Bowie and later met with one of the drivers. Then we drove out to Arnold to go get dinner at Deep Creek.

Nolan Silcox, over at Lifestyle Properties in Ithaca, has been really sick the last couple days and had to go into the hospital yesterday. He is going to be out of work for the next few weeks or longer (five weeks minimum they think.) So, Min is heading down to Ithaca starting on Saturday (really early in the morning) to help out in the office while he is out. It wouldn’t have been so bad but they are in the middle of the busiest season and being short staffed is really rough now. So she is going to be working like seven days a week for the next month or two. Luckily, the hotel has its summer help back so they might be able to let her have a little time off during the week so that she can go to Franfort and visit her sister and the girls while they are up which is very soon. The timing couldn’t have been better, though, with me being out of town during the same time period that this work opened up for Min. And to make it even better, he subbing work was just about to end because it is the end of the school year. She would have been lucky to have been called in one or two times yet this school year.

Busy day today. I got up this morning and packed the car. Min got home an hour before I left so she made me breakfast while I was getting ready. Then I headed out.

My first stop was a quick one in Dansville to see a client and then on to Ithaca.

I got to Lifestyle Properties around 3:00 and worked for almost an hour. I had to drop off a new multifunction laserjet – HP has a new line that really rocks. Everyone has been starting to use the deskjet multifunctions recently but they are pieces of crap because they have a really cheap black and white inkjet printer inside of them that prints like crap and costs a fortune to operate.

I called Nate to see what was going on this afternoon but both he and Bob were busy so I just drove down to the commons and got some pizza from Sammy’s all by myself. Man their pizza is good.

Then it was south to Bowie. It has been a while since I made the drive from Ithaca. It was nostalgic. I have been making that same drive down the US81 corridor since four years ago! Man it has been a long time.

I didn’t arrive until late. I listend to “The Cat Who Talked Turkey” in the car on the way down. I just love murder mysteries on CD. It is one of my favorite things in the world.

I got to the hotel and checked in. The place is nice. Eric and I have stayed at this hotel before but it is almost always full so we almost never manage to stay here. We prefer it because it is easy to get to, it is half the distance from DC as the Bay Dale hotel that we normally use and there is all kinds of great stuff right next door. Having shopping right next to a hotel is a really big deal for business travellers. You never know when you are going to need something and if you are any place for an extended period of time it gets to be critical. I have a Wendys, Ruby Tuesdays and a few other things in walking distance, a gas station which is really important, a Walmart, Target and Borders. Only the Walmart requires driving and only because there is no sidewalk out there. So everything I need for survival is right at hand. And there are lots of other stores nearby but none of them are so useful for a traveller. Nothing that I need to pick up at Pier One, for example. Another good thing here is that there is a restaurant in the hotel so drinks and food are really easy to get to AND there is room service. Plus, the hotel offers free wireless Internet access AND Verizon wireless has this in their test zone and you can get amazing service from them. So this is THE spot to stay out here on the east side of DC.

Very little going on today. I am just getting everything ready so that I can leave in the morning. I was planning on leaving today but things just weren’t going to work out that way.

Dan Mayne came over this evening with Dad to look at the basement. Dan is going to be starting work on the basement this coming Monday. He is going to be adding a wall to the server alcove so that the noise is contained and that the area can be locked. I really want to have electronic locks that read your fingerprints for the doors but those will probably prove to be cost prohibative. There is going to be a 6’x3′ glass window looking into the alcove so that we will be able to check up on things without having to open to door and going inside where the noise is terrible. Dan is also going to be building the theatre room in the basement. He is not going to be completely finishing it but he is going to be getting to a state where we can move all of the stereo and projector equipment down into the basement and really start watching movies down there. So we are pretty excited about that.

Its a warm one again today. I had to pull my lazy butt out of bed early this morning and head up to RIT to meet with someone to talk about me entering the grad program there in March. The program is looking good. All is moving forward smoothly at the moment.

When I got back from the city, Min, Andy and I went out to Denny’s for some lunch. I have hardly been eating anything the last couple of days because the medication that I am on is lowering my stomach acid levels and making me digest food much more slowly than I normally do. At least it is a handy weight loss plan.

Andy’s new copy of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 arrived today so we drove over to dad’s to pick it up. I had a load of stuff waiting over there for me so it was good to get it all. I am planning on leaving town on Wednesday so I have been trying to get everything possible into place before then.

Min tried playing Empires today. We have had the game for a while but have hardly played it at all. Min didn’t like it very much. I think she has reinforced the decision that it is okay but just not going to cut it as a game that we will all want to play. Empire Earth 2 has been announced and we are hoping that maybe there is some chance of that being a good game.

Min and I watched Star Trek VIII: First Contact tonight. It is the last of the Star Trek films for Min to see.

Dad is already addicted to having wireless Internet access at home. The wireless is a bit faster than his best dialup connections. And it is always on which is pretty awesome.

Well, the site is back up today. We have been down for the past week because of a server reinstallation. We fought to keep the critical systems online but we lost a few things here and there and this site and MincaKnits were the ones that we couldn’t get back up for a while. But we are back up and functioning just fine now.

Min and I slept in late today. I have been staying up really late trying to get things working. We have tons of cool new services running in the company and they have been demanding a lot of attention.

Min and I went down to grandma’s house to help dad set up his wireless networking on his laptop.

This evening, Andy, Min and I went over to Denny’s for some dinner. I haven’t been hungry though so I just had a little bit of what Min couldn’t eat of her meal.