December 22, 2017: Web Site Migrations

Friday.

Truman Enjoying the Houston Sun

SW was still down today.  They eventually came half up, but were unable to keep their systems working.

I spent much of my day migrating workloads from A Small Orange over to Hostadillo.  That was a lot of work but is going to save the company a lot of money.

For dinner tonight we got Marco’s Pizza which is what the family in Houston eats now.  We have some Marco’s that have opened up near us in Dallas but we have not had a chance to try them out yet, so we don’t know how they are.

Luciana on the Laptop

The pizza was decent, nothing super exciting but quite good for a chain.

Luciana Always Uses Two Devices at Once

December 21, 2017: Wrapping Day

DuoLingo Streak: 110 Days

Thursday. The Steam Winter Sale started today.

Today is present wrapping day.  Have to get the bulk of that done so that there is time for all of the last minute stuff.

This evening I took all of the little kids down to the playground in the neighbourhood.  It’s a hefty walk to get down there with all of them.

I got some quiet time at the house this evening because the kids all went out to look at Christmas lights.

Using the Internet down here has been horrible.  It’s Comcast xFinity, some of the worst Internet in the developed world and certainly worse than we’ve had in Central America.  It’s ridiculously slow and unreliable.  Nothing ever works.  And no one fixes it because this is just how it always is, everyone has gotten used to it.  This alone is a reason to never live in the Houston area, no reliable Internet.  And it costs quite a bit more than our screaming fast, rock solid Frontier fiber in Dallas.

Spiceworks went down today, like hard down.  Down down, to the point that they are all but out of business.  It’s laughable.  Everything is down, their website, their applications that users use, and they didn’t even have monitoring to know about it.  And all of this after their epic outage a few months ago where everyone found out that they had no redundancy and no failover plan and no IT staff to deal with anything and now, months later, nothing has been addressed.  What incompetence!  It’s ridiculous that anyone has the cluelessness to think that they are in any way a technical organization.

Tonight we watched The Santa Con.

December 19, 2017: Maniac Mansion Releases

DuoLingo Streak: 108 Days

Tuesday.

Maniac Mansion, the classic LucasArts point and click adventure, has finally released for the first time in decades.  It is available now on GOG and, of course, I had to pick it up.  This is one that I have been waiting for for a very long time.  I never got to play it when it was new, and it has never gone back on the market since the 1980s!

The Steam Winter sale starts in two days.  In the mean time the GOG Winter Sale is underway.

This morning I went out and picked up Taco Bell for breakfast.  They do the best breakfast.  Their California crunch wrap is amazing.

This evening, the girls requested that we go out to Denny’s for dinner.  So funny how much they love it there.

Luciana and Liesl at Denny’s
Liesl at Denny’s
At Denny’s for a Daddy – Daughter Outing
Luciana at Denny’s

I discovered that while I often struggle to find something that I want for a meal at Denny’s that I could put some things together and make something that I really like.  So I do a double side salad, with ranch dressing, and get their side of fried shrimp and have them put it all together.  It looked so good that the kitchen came out to check on it because they wanted to try it, too.

Fried Shrimp Salad at Denny’s

It was a nice outing for dinner, just me and my girls.

Liesl After Dinner at Denny’s

December 18, 2017: First Day in Houston

DuoLingo Streak: 107 Days

Monday.  I am down in Houston with my family!  I really miss the kids when they are away.  It’s very tough being away from them.

It has been good that Liesl has Telegram now because it is much easier for us to talk to one another when she is away.  But Luciana cannot read or Telegram yet, so we lose contact.  And she does not have her own phone yet, either.

A light rain here in Houston today.  It is not nearly as cold as up in Dallas.  Although it did freeze last week and the girls got to play in the snow here!

The girls are still doing school every day while down here in Houston.  Since I am here now, I am helping out with classes.

Luciana Doing Class with Daddy

There is Crown Royal and Egg Nog here in Houston, so that has been enjoyable.  Perfect for the chilly weather.

Rain in Houston

It was in the mid-fifties today.