January 21, 2020: Finally Caught Up on Videos, Too

Tuesday. Another busy day, no rest for the weary. I got up to a bright morning, but it is expected to rain and possibly snow tonight. A storm is pushing in from the west.

I got right to work this morning. No chance to go anywhere today. I got in to my desk, and it was a full day of work, work, work, for me.

It was, overall, a good day. We did our first real pitch of Vetastic this afternoon. That was very exciting, and took over two hours! Hard to believe that just showing it off and talking about it would eat up the whole afternoon. But it did, really quickly. The whole thing went really well. The pitch is to a hospital here in Texas and they were actually so impressed that they are presenting it to the board to consider for immediate deployment! It’s a huge long shot and we totally understand that there is no realistic chance that it is going to get selected. But the fact that we were able to put on a two hour demo, show a fifteen thousand dollar cost savings to the clinic to happen immediately, and have them actually be willing to take it to the board for further consideration is effectively a slam dunk at this stage in our process. We are very excited.

About four hours of my day was spent on the phone with a customer in Utah who has been hacked, or at least believes that they have been, and needed walked through many different aspects of what was happening. But after all was said and done, we aren’t sure if she didn’t imagine or make up the entire set of events. It’s been going on for nearly a week, and the story is never consistent nor does it make sense. She will tell a very detailed story over and over again, then explain that none of it happened and she made all of that part up. So weird.

I got stuck working super late tonight. Till way after three. But I was making great progress and I got a chance to work

January 20, 2020: Grices Return to Houston

Monday. The Grices left early this morning to drive back down to Friendswood. Work was very busy all morning for me today.

Early this afternoon Paul and I had to go up to Plano for a business meeting that went well for a few hours. Then back to the house to cover for the office more as we are just so busy.

No Dungeons & Dragons tonight, planning on Wednesday instead. So since we didn’t game I worked all evening to try to keep up.

Watched a little Star Trek: Voyager this evening which we have been watching for a very, very long time at this point making super slow progress through it.

Rachel surprised me with wanting to go out tonight. Very late, around midnight. She called and we went out to Katy Trail to check it out as a venue for her upcoming birthday (which is two days before mine.) She is twenty nine and turning the big three-oh in just over a month so she is planning a big party. The kitchen had already closed by the time that we arrived so we didn’t get to check out the food. We got beers and sat outside enjoying the fresh air, beer, and the outdoor heaters. It was nice to get to catch up as we’ve not really seen each other for a few weeks.

January 19, 2020: Liesl’s Birthday Party at Freeplay

Sunday.

We were unable to schedule all of Liesl’s birthday party people at the same time, so after going to Freeplay with her friends a few weeks ago, today it is Freeplay with her cousins. Dominica and Paul decorated a My Hero Academia cake for her.

While at Freeplay, all of the kids managed to get into a Street Fighter 2 Tournament which was really cool. Luciana ended up losing to Clara.

Liesl ended up going to the very final of the tournament and did exceptionally well – she came in second which is amazing considering she is so young and it is a game that she has only played once or twice before. So well that the tournament organizer came and talked to us about having her join a weekend arcade competition league that they hold there. He said that she was a natural and was winning consistently because she was actually playing the game really well and not just mashing buttons or getting lucky. He does this full time and was really interested in having her game there.

Our video of her playing had over 4,400 views by the time that I posted it here (months later!)

Dominica and I ended up playing Time Crisis 3 from beginning to end. That was an exhausting game.

Francesca really wanted Fuzzy Tacos, so she and I ran out and got lunch there and ate and brought back food for those that wanted them. Francesca really liked her food from Fuzzy’s. We got to hang out for a while and caught up on what all was going on with work and everything. She’s super excited about all of the stuff that we have going on in Nicaragua and is actually interested in looking into it more.

After Freeplay, Dominica and Francesca were out shopping again. Then the kids were all doing VR all evening again. It’s amazing how popular that is with all of the kids (and Paul.)

The Grices are leaving early tomorrow morning.

I got a new video game tonight that is from Level 5 that I’ve been waiting to play for many years. I’m looking forward to playing it with the girls when we have time.

January 18, 2020: Grices Visit, VR, and Station 4

Saturday.

Francesca, Garrett, and Clara drove up to our place this morning and are staying for the long weekend. Dominica and Francesca went out to go shopping as soon as they arrived. Francesca really prefers our shopping up here and always has a list of things that she wants to go to when she gets here.

The VR was a big item today, being very new, and was in continuous use all day long.

I spent the day working as the week has been totally crazy and I had so much stuff still to do that I kept myself pretty busy.

Paul watched the kids tonight. Kat and Taylor came over and around nine thirty Dominica, Francesca, Kat, Taylor, and I went out to the Rose Room at Station 4 in the Gayborhood in downtown Dallas.

It was a nice night out, something we rarely get to do and very needed after this really busy week for me. I needed to disconnect a little.

Tomorrow we are going to Freeplay in Richardson to celebrate Liesl’s birthday (very late, almost two months late) which should be a lot of fun.