Sheep Guarding Llama

After working very late, till nearly three, last night, I was up at seven thirty and starting the day early today.  I am working from home today and tomorrow is a holiday.  As far as I know I will be home on Friday too although I am not certain of that.  I have to work Friday but I think that nothing will be going on, going into the office would be silly.  So for all intents and purposes, today begins a five day weekend.

My first project of the day was to upgrade my desktop from Linux Mint 13, which I have been running for a couple of months, to Linux Mint 14 which just released and to document the process.  I like running on the latest all of the time.

Katie got a new job today and is working on her paperwork this morning.  She is moving from New York City down to Tampa Bay and moving into a more senior role there.  She is very excited.  She has been job hunting for a while trying to find something that was a good job, had good pay and were relocate her someplace that she wanted to go.  A tough combination.

It was a super slow day at work today.  It was awesome.  I got to be home and it effectively felt like it was a holiday.  I am sure that I am home on Friday as well.  So this is like a five day weekend!  There will be nothing happening on Friday whatsoever, that I can be sure of.

This afternoon Dominica and I have tons of work beginning as we each begin migration projects so our evening was super busy as well be the next few days as we work on that.  So starting at four this evening we started our work and were super busy.

Late tonight Dominica, Francesca and Emily watched the last released Twilight movie (I know, I’m embarrassed for them too) so that they can go to the theater tomorrow to watch the last one that just came out.

I ended up working very late tonight, till probably two in the morning.  I am very anxious to get this project over and done with.

Another day of being on top of SGL.  I could get used to this.  Once upon a time I was on top of these posts every day.

I got into the office at nine this morning.  Not too busy of a day but I wanted to get as much done as possible as Dominica and I are going to a place in Carrollton today where I am demonstrating a MediaWiki installation on CentOS while she is “interviewing” for a part time desktop support position.

I ran home at lunch and picked Dominica up and then we ran in so that I could work and she could interview.  We ended up being far busier than I had planned but did the MediaWiki install, even though they were not ready for me at all without knowing their IP addresses, user accounts or anything.  And Dominica’s interview seemed to go really well and, if all goes well, she should be getting scheduled for work starting next week.  Fingers crossed that everything gets approved.  It is only ten to twelve hours a week but that would be really helpful and nice for her to get some time out of the house too.

Back to work and the afternoon was actually decently busy.  I wasn’t able to get out of work until nearly six.  It was already dark and I was running really late for meeting up with Dominica and Francesca and the kids for dinner at Brookhaven so I drove straight there.  Traffic was pretty heavy since it was rush hour but I got over there just as they arrived as well.

It turns out that Brookhaven was completely packed and our reservations were lost.  So we had to find alternative plans.  No one but me had thought to bring a jacket so sitting outside was not an option.

We decided to go try the new Diner of Dallas up on Beltline.  On the way there we stopped for a while and checked out the massive Christmas lights display that we saw last year too.  It is a little larger this year and mostly set up.  The guy who runs it was running the trains tonight and the kids got to ride the train for a while.  We got some pics and video and got them uploaded.

Dinner at the diner was good.  We ate then came home.  I spent the evening working in the office.  Got a lot done.  I will be working from home tomorrow.

Got up at seven and got ready for work but ended up working from home for several hours before heading in.  Today is a great day because, for the first time in what seems like forever, I am writing SGL “as it happens” rather than attempting to recreate events from memory, my calendar and FourSquare records.

I got into the office around ten thirty.  Slowish morning.  The office is rather empty with many people out for the holiday.  Spiceworks is slow too, not much going on there.

Danielle is at the doctors this morning because of ulcers in her eye.  She thought that she was going to be going in for surgery sometime in the next few weeks but now it appears that the surgery is at least a year away.

Worked with Dominica on her resume this morning.  It is horribly out of date (although I am pretty sure that this is because a more recent copy of her resume has disappeared and that we are working from an older one – it is missing a lot of stuff that she has done over the last five years.)

I am purging myself today of the curry that I had for dinner last night.  Evil, evil curry.  But so yummy.  So no food today.  For lunch I decided that I would go for a walk up to the corner to get something to drink rather than staying at my desk or driving somewhere.  Might as well get some exercise.  The walk is about thirty minutes round trip.  Not much exercise but a little something to help in the middle of the day.  It is just a little too warm, still, to go for a walk outside without getting unnecessarily warm.

Dominica and Francesca took the kids to the Gaylord in Grapevine today to check out the ice sculpture exhibit that they have there.  They decided to try that this year rather than trying to do the Polar Express which was a big disappointment last year after having been mildly fun the year before (when I danced on stage and won the daddy dance off.)  Not sure if the event has gone downhill or if it just isn’t the same without me dancing.

I forgot to mention in previous posts but our renters in New York have found work and we are going to be getting full rent again starting in January.  What a huge relief that is!  We have really been worrying about that for a while.

I had some work to do for Previsor today but I made good progress on that.  This week is turning into a massively busy one all of a sudden.  I have a Linux and MediaWiki installation to do tomorrow, Dominica has an interview, we have to work on an email migration for John and I have to work on an application migration during Thanksgiving proper.  What a week!  I am hopeful that I can turn out an article or two as well plus I’m keeping myself busy keeping SGL updated.

Dominica said that the ice sculptures were not a good venture with the kids.  They were unable to keep them warm enough so Liesl and Garrett were quite unhappy.  Liesl said, “I do not like cold! I am not having fun.”  And they were unable to use a stroller so Luciana was not happy either.  After getting done with that they went out to Denny’s for lunch.

I worked until about a quarter till five.  There were a lot of deployments this evening but overall not too much work, just deployments.  I did those and rushed on home getting home at just about five thirty.

Chris came over about fifteen or twenty minutes after I got home so that we could do a little work.  We worked for about an hour and then he, Dominica and I all headed down to Las Colinas to go ballroom dancing for the evening.

Chris ran into Shea at the Studios at Las Colinas.  That was incredibly random.  She was at a modeling job in one part of the studios and they ran into each other in the parking lot or something.  Pretty weird.  She came over after her modeling to see us dance for a bit and we found out that she is not at Redneck anymore.  Such a bizarre coincidence running into her, for the first time ever away from Redneck, right as she wasn’t there anymore and a few cities away from there.  Just bizarre.

Dancing went well tonight.  Dominica and I left just a slight bit early so that we could get home and work on a MediaWiki installation that I wanted her to run through.  On the way home we stopped off at Subway at Josey Ranch and grabbed subs for us and for Madeline for dinner.  We brought the food home, ate and got to work doing the MediaWiki install which took no time at all.  I also managed to go in and tuck in Liesl who was in bed but was still awake and ready her a story from one of her story books so that she could go to bed happy.

Then she was off to bed at eleven.  I stayed up working just a tiny but after that but was off to bed before midnight.

For the first time in a very long time, I am actually wrapping up an SGL post for the day in question as I am wrapping up the day itself.  A very good feeling.

I will be in the office tomorrow.  I think that everyone is planning on staying around the house as they are all pretty worn out from their ice cave adventures today.  After work tomorrow we are all headed to Brookhaven for Kids’ Night dinner there.

Got up this morning and pretty much just got the cars packed and ready to head back up to Dallas.  Dominica, Francesca and I had a New England breakfast of the leftover pies and deviled eggs this morning.  That was awesome but a ready bad idea.  At least the food won’t go to waste!

I drove the Acadia with Emily, Liesl and Luciana up to Dallas.  The drive went well.  We hit some really bad traffic on the south side of Houston but overall, it was good.  Heavy traffic but nothing awful.  We listened to a bit of music in the car and bopped along.  Liesl had her new Midnight Moon My Little Pony with her in the back seat and was very happy about that.

Dominica and Francesca beat us back to Dallas even though they left after us.  We have no idea how they did that.   We made good time and were all back before three.  Not too shabby.  Plenty of time to still relax and enjoy the day.

The kids had a ton of fun ripping the house apart.  Madeline, of course, just hid in the back room reading.  Emily and I went out to Walmart to do some shopping.  We got screws and zip ties with the intent of installing a small television to the underside of Liesl’s bed so that we can hook up the Nintendo Wii under there as we don’t use it anywhere else and we think that she will really enjoy having it there as she is starting to be able to play video games pretty well now and we want to get her access to games like her Dora game, Super Mario Kart and the Super Mario Bros. games.

We picked up some Indian take away from Eat St. Kabob Factory and brought it back for everyone.  It turned out to be too spicy for Francesca, though, so I ended up getting some even though I had intended to skip eating tonight.  Oh well, at least I totally love Eat St.’s food.  It is so good.

I went into my office and worked from there most of the evening.  Got tons of stuff done including catching up on emails and a lot of SGL updates and Spiceworks stuff that I have been getting behind on all weekend since I never got on a computer at all the entire weekend other than checking the iPhone for updates.

Clara ended up getting sick this evening and throwing up several times.  That came as a complete surprise.  We thought that everyone was healthy.  We were not aware of any of the kids having even been exposed to anything let alone having caught something.  No good. Clara has been sick every time that we have seen her for almost six months now.  So the fear is, of course, that everyone is going to be sick all week now.

After everyone went to bed, which was crazy early with no one but Liesl still awake by a quarter after ten, I grabbed the laptop, tablet, phone and headed out the door to set up and work from Redneck for the evening.  They know me well enough that requesting a table with a power outlet and just hanging out and working isn’t a problem at all, especially on a Sunday evening when hardly anyone is there.  It is like being at Cheers.  I was expecting Chris would come out tonight but I never heard from him.  Dan is in Tennessee all week.

Grey was online so we got some work done too.  I ended up working till a quarter after two but getting a lot done.  So much, in fact, that for the first time since Europe I am actually caught up on SGL.  It is a miracle!

Today is our only full day in Houston.  I woke up early but didn’t think that I could get out of bed because Dominica and I were sharing a room with Luciana (Liesl slept in Madeline’s room having a mini-slumber party) and any little sound or movement wakes her up and Dominica was sleeping between me and the door so I just lay there for about three hours waiting for everyone to wake up.

All morning and the early afternoon was spent cooking and baking for tonight’s Thanksgiving dinner.  Francesca and Dominica worked all day on that and I hung out in the kitchen and did the pie crusts.  I only had four crusts to make today and one pie filling – of course I had to make the apple pie.  That is now my annual job.  The pie crusts were a huge pain today, I am blaming that on the weather or something.  They just would not hold together and in the end I resorted to piecing together the top of my apple pie.

Boy is there a lot of work that goes into getting Thanksgiving Dinner together.  At four we heading over to the Toccos’ for the actual dinner.  It took about an hour before we were all ready to eat so between four and five we all went nuts on Francesca’s new bread dip which is the best I have ever had by no small margin.  Spinach, mayo, water chestnuts… I’m not sure what else.  I am working on getting that recipe.

Dinner was awesome.  I did my best to eat healthy but really, there was not much hope of that.  I will be working hard all week to purge myself of this meal.  But it was worth it, I think.  I hope so.  Hopefully I did not gain too much today.

After dinner was over we celebrated Liesl’s birthday.  This was her My Little Pony birthday.   Aunt Brittany got her a My Little Pony t-shirt that she had to change into before opening her presents.  For months she has been asking for Midnight Moon, a rare, highly collectible My Little Pony and Dominica has been telling her that a big item like that would have to wait for her birthday so she is really looking for that.  She was so excited to get the huge collector’s pack in which that pony came.  Her pony collection is now significantly bigger than it was before.  She got a really good haul of stuff that she really likes this year.  She was so happy.  She is just adorable.

Francesca made pink and purple vanilla cupcakes for Liesl’s birthday cake.  Everyone loved those.  After the party was over most everyone headed home to bed.  Liesl, Emily and I went out to Joe’s newly completely theater built in the garage to watch some of Jurassic Park which neither Liesl nor Emily have ever seen.  I have been thinking that it is about time to have Liesl watch that.  She was very excited to watch a movie in the theater.

We didn’t make it too far into the movie before Joe, Britt, Dominica and Bennie came out to watch a movie so we turned that one off and put in Brave the new Disney Pixar film that none of us have seen yet.  That was a very cute movie that we all really liked.  Dominica and I couldn’t get over how much the star of the film looked like a red-headed version of Liesl.  We were just dying with how much alike they were.  Liesl herself moved around the room snuggling first with me, then with her mom and then Emily for a while before coming back and snuggling with me again for the last half of the movie.  She is such a little sweetie.

It was back to the Grices’ and right off to bed after the movie was over. We are driving back up to Dallas as soon as we get up in the morning so we want to get our sleep and get back home.  Francesca and the kids are coming up to spend the week.  Bennie is coming up later in the week and is going to do some work on the house while he is there.