Sheep Guarding Llama

I woke up a little early this morning and got a jump on the day.  If I manage to get up and get out the door in the morning before Dominica and Liesl wake up then it only takes me about one hour to leisurely get ready and get to work – and I arrive at work just five minutes later.  Today I was up at seven and, even after taking Oreo on a longer than usual walk, I was to the office by a few minutes after eight.  If Liesl is awake before I leave it easily takes another hour to get out of the house.  I like seeing her in the morning but she cries when I leave and makes me very sad.  Sometimes sneaking away early just works out better.

With the extra time this morning I got caught up on SGL.  Finally.  Now to get to work on my paper for RIT.  That is going to be my big project.  That is going to be extra tough as I have very little time to sleep tonight between driving to Houston tonight and then having to start work at seven tomorrow morning.

To make things harder at RIT, and this seems to happen each class that I take there, I have very little feedback on my work coming up on the final.  I have not gotten feedback on my midterm or over half of my weekly coursework or my last reflection paper yet.  Not that I am concerned about my work on any of them but it means that I am doing my final mostly blind.

The major news today is that Lindy Matsko and the Lower Merion School District near Philadelphia, PA got caught using district funds to buy laptops, supposedly so kids could stay connected to school even when home, so that they could watch children in their bedrooms at home.  The school got caught when Lindy decided to yell at a boy for his behaviour at home and claimed that she had taken photographs of the boy doing “inappropriate things” in his bedroom.

The thing about pedophiles, I guess, is that they aren’t very smart.  So Lindy and the Lower Merion School District are now facing some pretty insane federal charges from some pretty irate parents and teens.  They are now looking at a minimum of eighteen hundred accounts of everything from invasion of privacy, violating constitutional rights and, of course, collecting child pornography is a real possibility (or at least the attempt to collect it.)  This is a major embarrassment for the state of Pennsylvania and the entire US education system.  Not to mention a sickening display of felonious behaviour.  How people like this aren’t caught before being allowed to work around kids is unbelievable.

If anyone ever wonders why Liesl isn’t going to public school, now you know.  This person, Lindy Matsko, beyond being sick and needing to be locked up forever, is clearly a complete idiot and having a person like this be in charge of educating anything smarter than a snail is a serious educational oversight.  What possible educational advantage does having this person running the school serve?  I realize that Lindy is likely the scapegoat for a child pornography ring being run by the school administration or some other seriously nefarious activity – someone had to approve the purchasing of eighteen hundred overpriced Apple laptops – but still, getting into that position isn’t one that any halfwit would make the mistake to do.  Maybe Lindy needs to take an anonymous suitcase and embark on a trip to China to start a pop singing career.

Today was slower than the rest of the week.  Thank goodness.  Final a chance to catch up a little bit.

I found out this afternoon that I get to take a Red Hat Architect training class.  That is pretty cool.  I have not had training from work in a few years.  Nice to take a break and take a class now and then.  Not a real class where I get to go somewhere, just one where I have to take it from my desk but better than nothing.

I completed writing another article this afternoon although it still needs to be proof read and edited.  A lot of work completed though and one less article rattling around in my head that I am trying to hold on to before forgetting what I might have wanted to have said.

I got a start on another article as well which I really hope to be able to have done by the middle of next week.  This weekend is going to be crazy so there is not all that much that I can do before Monday and writing during the week is pretty hard although Dominica’s idea of having me use the bar stool as a mini desk will help quite a bit.

I managed to finish all of my reading for my final paper so I will be able to get to work on it first thing tomorrow while thinking about it on my drive down to Houston tonight.  Work slowed down this afternoon which was great.

At just a little after six I was able to leave the office and head for home, on foot of course.  Dominica should be ready to go when I get there.  We are driving right down to League City tonight since we missed Madeline’s birthday last weekend.  It will be nice to do something different this weekend.  We haven’t been down to League City for several weeks.

It will not be a relaxing weekend for me but getting a jump on the travel by getting out of the office at a good time tonight is going to make it far better than it usually is.  Driving down to League City on a normal, two day weekend is a ton of driving for very little time spent down there but getting out early makes it not too bad.

This is our last chance to make it down for several weeks.  Next weekend I have to be in Austin and Round Rock and then the weekend after that Dominica, Liesl and I will be in Las Vegas for Andy and Miranda’s wedding!  Then back to Houston not long after that.

I am posting early tonight as I leave the office so that I can close out the post and get a jump on the weekend.

My latest article, Trends in Thin Client Computing, was published on Datamation this morning.  I am the top headliner of the day and my article is also the top of the “Networking” section and my picture is on the “front page” today too.  Triple win for me.

The weather is much, much nicer today and I was able to walk into the office without a jacket.  It is amazing how rapidly you go from “too cold to walk” to “don’t need a jacket” in Dallas.

Work is continuing to be way too busy.  I am very much behind on SGL and I have some other writing that I am trying to get to plus this weekend I have to turn in my final for my class at RIT and getting time to do that is proving to be rather difficult.  I have to write a real paper by Saturday night.  Tomorrow night we are planning on driving down to Houston after work so my night is going to be really, really late.  Then Saturday morning I have a lot of work scheduled so my whole weekend is going to be crazy between work and paper to write.  No time off for me.

I tried to go out to lunch today but work was so busy that I missed going with John and was still stuck in a meeting when he got back.  I ended up just walking home after two in the afternoon!  I had a quick lunch with Dominica and Liesl.  We ate lunch while watching an episode of Primevil and then I walked back to the office.

The afternoon, what was left of it, was not as bad as it might have been and I was able to head home at six thirty.  I had tried to get out around five thirty but someone called and kept me on the phone for a really long time (for no reason, of course, and for an issue that wasn’t mine or even something that I could help with.)

We spent the evening relaxing.  I played with Liesl for hours.  She was in a great mood and wanted to play and snuggle for a long time.  We watched several episodes of Primeval and are into the third season now.  So far each season has gone downhill quite a bit from the previous season.  The very short first season really started off strong and had some serious potential.  We really liked where they were going.  Then after about six episodes they decided that they didn’t like the story and they pulled a bad plot device and “reset the universe” and started a new show at the beginning of the second season.  It appeared to be really going somewhere, although never as strong as the first season, and then in the third season they changed a whole bunch of things and made the show even cheesier than it was the first two seasons – which was hard to believe.  So the show is not holding out well at all.  It is sad because the first season did really good character development and while the writing was pretty bad it was enough to really hold your interest.

We went to bed around midnight.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, I can just tell.

I drove to the office again this morning.  I still have a pretty bad cough.  Work was super busy, yet again.  This week has been awful thus far and looks like it is going to stay that way.

At lunch I drove home and dropped off the car.  We had sandwiches at the house and I played with Liesl.  Then I walked back to the office as it had warmed up a bit.  Finally the chance to walk again and get back into getting some exercise.  I have not really been able to walk for the past week and that does not make me happy.  I really need the walks to and from the office.  I feel much better when I walk back and forth all day.  I am not going to be happy when it is too hot to walk.

Work was incredibly busy today but I did not have to stay too late like I did last night.  Dominica was out shopping this afternoon and just got home around five.  She picked up a new entertainment center today at Walmart while she was out getting soda and snacks for this evening.  She also bought a vacuum cleaner which we desperately need.  It is awful buying yet another vacuum when we own several and just donated one.  Our collection just keeps growing no matter what we do.

I walked back home around six and spent an hour helping Dominica to clean as quickly as possible.  The apartment is looking pretty good.

Maggie, whom I know from SpiceWorks, SpiceWorld and SpiceCorps DFW, came over at seven.  She brought us our first houseplant and a new learning toy for Liesl with buckets and shapes that fit through a lid (I don’t describe children’s toys very well.)  Liesl had a lot of fun playing with her new toy right away and was able to fit the shapes through their slots in the bucket lid on the very first try!  She is really growing up.

We had a really good time hanging out.  Maggie’s husband had to work late and wasn’t able to make it to visit with her.  We ordered food from Blu Ginger and I walked over to pick it up.  We all had Pad Thai which was delicious as always.  We eat at Blu Ginger enough that the owner knows me now.

Maggie hung out until around midnight.  Then she went home and Dominica and I headed straight off to bed.

My latest article went in to Datamation tonight so I am hoping to see it “in print” tomorrow.

I am feeling rather a bit better today.  Far from perfect but well enough to go to work.  It was a bit chilly today yet after we had a very cold weekend so I decided that it would be smart if I drove to the office rather than walking and making myself cough all day.

Dominica’s back is still really hurting today so she does not have a way to be driving anywhere so she will not miss the car.

Work was really busy today.  Long weekends do this to us.

I was able to get my latest article submitted today so hopefully we will see it published tomorrow.

Sorry for the short update.  It is a busy week!

Today I am definitely showing a lot of improvement.  The antibiotics are making a difference.  I actually felt the turn happen yesterday afternoon.  Within an hour I went from massively sick to not feeling half bad.  I still have a horrible cough and can barely breath today because of it but the improvement is dramatic.

For the most part we took it easy today.    Watched a lot of Prehistoric and tried to get better.  I don’t have to work at all today so I got to hang out with Liesl a lot.

I did have some writing that has been needing my attention.  I have an article due for Datamation that I was supposed to get done this weekend but being sick I never even got a chance to look at it.  So I am attempting to get that done today.

This evening, in order to actually work, I ended up having to barricade myself into the bedroom and working with the laptop perched upon a barstool.  Oreo lay on the bed while I sat in an office chair typing on my laptop on a barstool.  It was an entertaining sight to behold, I am sure.

Dominica’s back is really bothering her this evening and we are concerned that it may mean that I cannot go to work tomorrow.  She had a really hard time watching Liesl this evening as she could get up to chase her or to pick her up.

I got most of my writing done tonight and I was able to watch Liesl again.  Luckily no homework due from me this week.  But my final is due this week so I have a lot of writing to do later in the week.