Sheep Guarding Llama

I was a bit tired this morning after having worked until three in the morning last night but I feel much better knowing that the web-based chat client that I needed to have working is now in place.  That is going to make life a lot simpler.

Since I was up so late last night and since tomorrow I have to be in the office all day I decided that today was definitely a work from home day.  Oreo needs as much attention as I can give to him as this has been a really tough week for him so spending time with him is my plan for the day.

I started work nice and early this morning and Oreo just curled up in his car seat that I brought into the bedroom so he was just behind me all morning where I could just reach back and pet him periodically without moving away from my desk.  He likes that arrangement.  He is quite enjoying having me be home today.

For lunch, Brian and I ran out to Rockfish to meet up with someone to talk about some “talk to the expert” stuff for a major website.  We were not prepared for how serious or major the project was.  It is sounding like something extremely interesting so we will be following up and hearing more early next week.

After lunch it was back to the apartment for an afternoon of work.  We started talking, Brian and I, and we realized that the only reason that he and Tara were remaining in Texas was so that Brian could go to La Cima with me on Monday to talk to them about membership which doesn’t even have anything to do with him at all because I am getting information to present to my current office.  Brian was just coming along for the ride. Of course, without Brian being around I don’t have a ride to get to La Cima on Monday but I will figure that out at that point.  That is pretty minor in comparison to holding them in Texas for the better part of another week.

So we decided to get everyone together tonight: the other Brian, Daniel and his wife, Maggie and the three of us already at the house.  It was our last chance for everyone to see each other before Brian and Tara returned to Pennsylvania without any solid plans for them to be returning to Texas at any point in particular until late October.

Everyone hung out till seven or so when we all walked over to La Joya for dinner.  It was a gorgeous evening so we just ate outside on the patio.  That worked out really well.

I went to bed early.  It was probably eleven or so when I actually managed to get to bed.  Have to be up early tomorrow and work a very long day so getting sleep tonight is pretty important.

Nothing builds an ego like not having anyone around to tell you when you are being a moron. – Adam Walter

Today Tara is staying home all day with Oreo so he doesn’t have to be alone again.  He has been having a very stressful week with Dominica and Liesl being gone and no one being home with him all day long.  He will be very happy to be able to snuggle with someone all day today.

I was off to the office today.  Work ended up being crazy busy.  It was so busy that I had to skip lunch.  I grabbed a quick bite but just ate at my desk without ever getting a break.  It was very good that Tara was at home with Oreo or I would have had to have run home just to walk him and then run back to work.

I got home at a halfway decent hour and Brian, Tara and I went out to Firehouse Subs for dinner.  I wanted to do something fast as our evenings have been devoured by meetings and dinner plans every night and it is killing my schedule.  I am getting worn out going out every night.  I’m looking forward to just staying home for a little while!

After dinner we walked over to Marble Slab Creamery and got some ice cream for dessert.  Then it was back to the house where we would stay in for the rest of the evening.

Brian spent the evening playing Oblivion, surprise surprise.  He has been playing it a ton recently.  I think that he is further through the game now that I am.  I am quite looking forward to getting to play it again myself although I am not really sure when I will have the time or the opportunity.  At least the Platstation 3 that has my game saved on it is at the house now so there is some chance that I will get to play.  Now I just need to get that hooked up, find some free time, find my copy of Oblivion and then I will be all set.

I spent this evening working on getting an AJAX XMPP client set up and working.  I’ve had this on my docket for way too long and tonight I decided that it just had to be completed.  Too many things lingering for too long.  My first task was finding an XMPP web client that could do what I needed.  There are tons out there, including iJab, that look great but are “JavaScript clients” which is nice and all but are just replacements for installing Spark or Pidgin which isn’t my goal.  I am trying to get XMPP to be usable to people who only have access to HTTPS on port 443 and can’t use the XMPP protocol directly.  I thought that this would be a very easy task but it turns out that almost no one makes this type of tool even though it is insanely obvious.

So after much research I decided to go with Claros Chat which requires a Java Server container like Tomcat.  So I had to start by installing Tomcat and then installing Claros.  Claros was pretty easy to set up and worked quite well.  It also has built in support for Google Talk which is an added bonus.  So now, in theory, I will be much more accessible during the day than I have been for the past several months.  This is going to make life much, much easier.

It was three in the morning when I finally wrapped up and tested everything and was confident heading off to slumber.  Time for Oreo snuggles.  He has been extra snuggly since Dominica and Liesl are not around.  I get all of the puppy snuggles now.  I could hear that Brian was still up playing Oblivion when I went to bed.  He is really addicted to that game.

After work today Brian, Tara and I went over to La Cima with Brian.  Brian had told us that this was his “private club” and we really had no idea what to expect.  I am used to the term “private club” from South Carolina where you pay a lifetime membership (of like $5) and you can drink all night without having to worry about when the bars have to shut down.  Nothing fancy. We were thinking jeans and t-shirts.  Brian had invited us for $1.99 pasta night so that helped move our thinking in that direction.

Just before he arrived to pick us up, Brian called ahead to tell us that we couldn’t wear jeans or t-shirts.  We were pretty shocked.  We had been planning on “dressing down” after work not “dressing up” for dinner.  So we changed and he then picked us up.

Brian’s private business club, as it turned out to be, was La Cima at the top of the tower at Williams’ Square in downtown Las Colinas.  This is the tower whose courtyard has the famous “Mustangs of Las Colinas” statue with several wild horses galloping across some water with fountains beneath each of their feet.  A very cool monument indeed.

We rode the elevator to the twenty-sixth floor to the highest point in Las Colinas and possibly in Irving, Texas.  Not exactly tall for those of us coming from the New York City area.  Dominica and my last apartment was in a thirty-four story building, but in Texas this is rather tall and the view was spectacular.  From the dining room at La Cima there is a panoramic cview from Dallas to the east all the way around to Fort Worth to the west.  It really gives you a feel for the layout of the metroplex.

We had drinks in the lounge before going in to the dining room for dinner and wine flights.  Dinner was great and the wine was excellent.  The atmosphere at La Cima is great.

The idea of a “business club” is something that we don’t have back in New York so this is what was really surprising to Brian, Tara and I since we had never heard of such a thing before.  La Cima is basically a country club without the golf and tennis.  It is a private, members-only club open for breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week with its own bar and restaurant plus private rooms and amenities.  It is a place, in the heart of the new tech corridor in Irving, for business people to go to escape the office or to treat as a home away from home and to meet up with other business people in a relaxing but very upscale environment.

We had a really nice time at dinner.  Brian Souder and I have a lunch appointment at La Cima on Monday now as well.

Off to work this morning.  After work Brian, Tara, Brian and I went over to The Ranch to get some drinks.

My niece Clara Grice was born today down in Houston!  Daughter and mother are doing well.

Today is my last day to panic to get course work done before the mid-semester deadline.  At the end of the day I need to have had submitted forty papers!  What a massive project this has been.

I had to go to work today, of course, so getting my papers done was a major scramble.  I did not have until late tonight, like I would have hoped, because I had a major dinner event to attend at seven thirty.  Fortunately it was right around the corner from home and work so there was basically no travel time involved in the getting over there.

I was writing papers like crazy right up to the last second when Brian, Brian and Tara pulled up to the office to pick me up at a quarter after seven.  I submitted the final paper just in time to walk out the door and to get into the car.

The dinner meeting went well.  Met lots of people and had a good time.  After we were done eating at the BBQ place the four of us decided to get drinks at The Ranch which was just across the parking lot.