Sheep Guarding Llama

Today was a lot of working on catching up on projects and playing video games with Liesl.  We were all pretty tired today and didn’t do much except the work and games.  Liesl and I moved on to Ankh 2 which she likes a lot too.

Not much news for today.

Today is Friday.  I got into the office normal time and had a pretty busy morning.  Nothing bad, just on the busy side.  Sometimes that means that the whole day will be busy and sometimes it means that I am getting all of my work out of the way so the afternoon will be slow.

Dan and I tried to go to lunch today but there were “complications” at the office and we weren’t able to go anywhere for a long time.  We ended up missing lunch completely and finally made a quick run to get coffee at least since we had had nothing all day.  But there were no seats inside of Starbucks and it was pretty hot outside.  Not horribly hot but the cafe seats there are completely exposed and the sun was really beating down and the humidity was high.  So we didn’t want to be outside.  We tried it for a few minutes and then both had the idea of going to get frozen yoghurt.  So we did that but got cut short because I was needed back in the office.  So after three hours of trying to go out we managed to get thirty minutes.

Worked wrapped up around five thirty and I came home.  The family hung out this evening.  Ciana was in bed pretty early.  Once Ciana was in bed Liesl and I played about an hour of Ankh 2: The Heart of Osiris that she has been playing.  It is definitely not as good as the last games that we have played but she likes it.

Watson and I went out this evening to Redneck and hung out for a while.

I found out this morning that I was awarded the 2013 VMware vExpert award.  Only 581 people received the award this year.  Definitely a major career moment.  I’m pretty excited.

Had to be up early this morning as we had a seven o’clock global conference call at work where we were sure that they were announcing big layoffs.  The rumor mills for these “secret agenda meetings” always crush moral and remind people to keep their resumes polished and never fully leave the job market.  Why the company is so keen to keep the employees on their toes and ready to leave at any moment is beyond me.  A few internal things even require you to have a resume ready internally so pretty much every employee has a ready resume sitting on their desktop that they can access at any time with no notice.  Foolish to a degree I cannot even imagine.

So I worked from a quarter till seven until after nine from the house.  It was a very busy morning.

I got the girls ready and took them up to daycare for the day.  Then into the office.  The office was pretty busy too.  Dan and I did a quick lunch next door to the office.  I got stuck working a bit late, though, so it was nearly a twelve hour day for me.  I didn’t get home until pretty late so I only had about an hour with Ciana before she was in bed.

Worked a bit tonight and then played half an hour or so of Ankh 2 with Liesl.  She continues to noticeably improve day by day as she learns more and more about the game interfaces, puzzle solving, etc.

We watched some Arrested Development tonight.  Still catching up so that we can watch the new episodes soon.

In the office today.  Had a busy morning working from the house so didn’t get physically into the office until lunch time so just worked through lunch and got out at a good time and came home.

Dominica was home with the girls today.

Got coffee with Doue today.  We went to Starbucks for a change.  It was gorgeous out today, not so warm and heavily overcast with just the slightest rain.  So we sat outside and ended up sitting next to someone from the FAA, Ralph, who regaled us with stories at the coffee shop.

This evening we watched just a tiny bit of Arrested Development and then once Luciana went to bed Liesl and I tried out a new game, since we had finished the last one last night, and started playing Ankh 2 via Steam.  It is a similar point and click adventure game, a lot like the last two that we have played, but with a slightly different interface so she is getting a chance to try learning a new interface so she doesn’t get stuck thinking that things always behave the same.  She picked up the new game almost instantly and is doing really well with it.

Liesl is liking this new game, she can really navigate on her own and I am really letting her drive this time.  She is mostly sitting at the computer on her own from the beginning and I am sitting in the rocking chair.

Dominica and I actually got some time to hang out tonight too.

I am back in the office today.  Dominica had to work today instead of yesterday because of the holiday so I had to take the girls to daycare this morning.

Worked a long day today.  After work I went to Brookhaven and met the family there.  Turns out that the girls were really, really tired, though, and it probably wasn’t the best idea.  They were pretty unhappy during dinner and it was rather stressful.  So maybe not the best idea.  Dinner was good, but we had been hoping to check out the extensive fish specialist menu this week but it turned out that that had been published in error – even the servers were surprised as the were handing out menus and then had to take them back.  But we are excited for when it comes out next week now.

Luciana was straight to bed when we got home.  Then Liesl and I played the end of The Book of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles which she was really happy to finish.  After this she has now played forty hours of adventure games in the last week or two.

Dominica went to bed and I went out to Redneck to hang out with a friend who is considering a career switch into IT.  He and I ended up talking about his career plans until four thirty in the morning.