Sheep Guarding Llama

I was up very early this morning.  I got started around five thirty.  Was up and ready and even did some work before leaving the house.  Had to get Dominica up and get Liesl and Oreo packed up and into the SUV by a quarter to seven this morning.  Now that is a challenge.

We made it to the train station just minutes before the train came down to Peekskill Station to whisk us early commuters off to Grand Central Terminal for our days in the city.  It was perfect timing although Dominica was driving like a mad woman to get me there.  We had thought that I had missed the train because the platform was empty, but, as they often do in Peekskill, the train had switched tracks and there was no sign notifying us of such.  So I bought my ticket and went over to the track with all the people hoping that that was what had happened and, sure enough, the train was there in just a few minutes.

I would have really enjoyed the train ride into the city had it not been for my tailbone issue.  I need to be able to sit forward to keep pressure off of it but the train seats are designed for you to be leaning back at all times.  It was quite uncomfortable for me.  I was aching by the time that we reached the city.

I got to the GCT by eight.  Way earlier than necessary but I was not familiar with the area of the city where I was headed so I figured better safe than sorry.  I hopped on the 6 Local down to 28th street and it was about a ten minute walk from there to the Antique Cafe at the corner of 26th and 6th.  It was a gorgeous morning.  Exactly the kind of morning that I would want to be my morning in Manhattan.  Slightly cool with a nice, slow drizzle.  Just cool enough that you don’t get too warm walking around.

It was eight thirty when I got to the Antique Cafe.  I noticed Jay was already there so I just grabbed a coffee and a croissant and took a table outside in the drizzle to relax.  It is not very often that I have enough downtime to just sit at a cafe and enjoy the weather and some coffee so I was thrilled.

I relaxed for about forty-five minutes.  I tried to set up my laptop but discovered that I had accidentally run the battery down during the night while I thought that it was charging.  I am not used to the wall plug in the living room being connected to the light switch.  So the computer had shut itself off during the night when the battery had run down.  So I brought my laptop backpack and my heavy laptop and power supply into the city with me for no reason.  Now that is a pain.  But it kept me from working for a little while so I just used my two BlackBerrys and did what I could from them.

Jay was done with his other meeting and came outside to meet with me around a quarter after nine.  In about ten minutes we had other people join us.  We ended up being four for coffee.

It was a good meeting this morning and very productive, I think.  I left the Antique Cafe around eleven thirty and went down to the office on Greenwich in West Tribeca.  I ran into some friends outside and chatted for a bit.  Then Shreyash came out and we went down Greenwich to near World Trade to get some curry.  I got the salmon curry that I love so much.  Oh boy was that good.  Somehow I have to get Dominica down here to try this curry out.  She would love it.

After lunch it was back to the office but I did not end up even making it in the door.  Dan wanted to meet for coffee so I just waited outside in the nice weather.  I had been wanting to have gotten my badge working again today as it has been deactivated for quite some time but that did not work out either.  So I just skipped dealing with going inside.

Dan and I went across the street for coffee.  I ended up just having tea and he grabbed a quick lunch.

Back to the office where we ran into John.  So John and I went out for coffee and chatted for a while.  From there it was back on foot up to the subway and up to Grand Central Terminal to catch the four o’clock northbound back up to Peekskill.  I was originally going to stay in the city for several more hours but a server that I have been waiting for months to build and that is desperately needed arrived this afternoon and I would never be able to build it working in the city.  So back home it is to work all evening.  I got to the train station with twenty minutes or so to kill so I picked up a blood orange sorbet down in the food court.  That was awesome!

The train ride was fine and then Dominica, Liesl and Oreo picked me up at Peekskill Station just after five.  I got right to work and worked for most of the evening.  I knocked off around nine and went to bed shortly thereafter.  Server is built and ready for me to do the final touchups tomorrow morning.

Today was a great day.  Very relaxing and a complete change of pace.  The weather was perfect for a trip into the city and it turned out that just about no work piled up for me while I was out of the office so I was able to keep meeting with people all day without having to find some way to get to a desk and log in.

The rain continued.  In fact today it is very, very dark outside and has been pouring all day long.  Today was another long day of just work and nothing special going on.  Tomorrow I am going into the city and it will be an interesting day.   Is this my shortest post ever?

This week is looking really good.  Busy but the good kind of busy.  The weather is nice and cool and rainy.  Work has slowed down enough that I am able to make progress and really keep up with things which is awesome.  I love being busy as long as I am not falling behind or feel like I am spending all of my time context switching between “high priority” items.  Things have slowed down enough that I am able to focus and knock things out one after another.

Today was dark and rainy all day.  Not too much really happened, though.  So I am going to keep today’s update short and sweet and just move on.  No reason to worry about writing an update when there is little to say.

We did our best to sleep in this morning.  It is just about the only chance that we are going to get this week.

I got up and got working this morning.  I have a big gap in my work day this afternoon so I need to make sure that everything is caught up this morning before we leave so that there are not any complications with taking time off for the baptism.

Work ended up going quite smoothly.  Sundays are generally very quiet but you just never know.

We were all set to get out the door to go to baby Sam’s baptism reception when Liesl decided that she needed to eat right away and there was no other option.  So we had to stop getting ready and instead feed Liesl so we were pretty late getting over to the country club for the reception.

We had a really good time at the party.  The food was awesome and we so seldom get to see everyone.  It is nice to get out to these events.  That and it is just nice to have a break from work for a little while in the middle of the afternoon and just relax.  It was also nice to get to see all of the new kids.  Liesl has several cousins and second cousins almost exactly the same age as her which is really great.  She will get to grow up with family her own age around.

We hung out at the party until around three thirty and then went back to the house and I got back to work.  Two more hours of work before I could call it a day.

Right as five thirty rolled around and it was time to go I manage to score seventy thousand points moving me to the level of Ghost on SpiceWorks’ forums which is the highest level ever achieved on there with only one person having done it before and the next level – quite a ways away yet – is a long way away yet.

Dominica had packed the car while I was working so when the work day was over we were able to just walk right out the door and get in the car and hit the road.  Dominica was very impressed that we were able to leave at the very first possible moment.

We stopped at the Mohawk Service Center and got McDonald’s as that is the best McDonald’s anywhere.  We don’t eat at any others now.  That one is so consistently good that our small allotment of McD’s food is best spent all at that one location.

It was not all that late by the time that we got back to Peekskill.  Around nine in the evening.  Liesl was able to get to bed at a normal time and our schedules are not all messed up from the trip.  We actually had time to relax and to get some stuff done after returning home which is very rare for us.

I slept in as late as I could this morning which was until eight when I needed to get to work again. It is Saturday today. I slept with both BlackBerrys right by my head on the basement floor (dad put down a futon mattress for Oreo and I) so it is easy to push the sleep right up to the very last possible minute as I am checking my emails from bed.

I got up and worked.  Today turned out being a very busy work day.  Extremely busy.  I was working at eight in the morning and ended up working until about four in the evening.  Rather a ridiculous amount of work, in fact.

Dad, Dominica and Liesl all went out to breakfast sometime between nine and ten.  I did not manage to really keep track of the time.  They went to the Omega in Geneseo and brought me back an egg and cheese on English muffin sandwich which was very good.  They also made a stop at Tim Horton’s where Dominica got us coffee and a half dozen donuts.

The hilarious thing that happened yesterday just before most people were calling it a day, someone posted the topic “Is Scott Alan Miller Multiple People” on the SpiceWorks forums.  This turned in to a really hilarious thread.  I really enjoyed discovering that I was a mysterious topic on the SpiceWorks world.

Aunt Sharon and Uncle Leo came over to see Liesl this afternoon.  This time she was awake and they got some good, quality time with her.  That worked out well.

Around four, I think, I was able to wrap up work – much later than we had been expecting – and then we headed out onto the road to drive out to Frankfort.  The drive went well.  Pretty easy.  Going from Peoria to Frankfort is so short compared to our other drives that it really isn’t worth thinking about as a long drive.

It just occurred to me that the distance from Liesl to my father is almost exactly the same distance as from my father’s house out to my family in Ohio.  So, at the moment, Liesl is growing up the same distance from my family as I did at her age.  Liesl has family much closer, though, than I did when I was young with cousins her own age under two hours away and Dominica’s whole immediate family within three and a half hours except for the Grices in Texas.  Of course I didn’t have any cousins at all until I was seven whereas Liesl already has first and second cousins already with some just months from her in age.  It will be a very different world for her than it was for me.

We got to Frankfort just after seven.  I jumped in to take a quick shower and then we were all right out the door to go to the Kitlas in Utica for a late dinner.

After dinner we came back to the house where I worked for just a little while before we turned in to get some sleep.  We have been sleeping on the living room floor (on a futon mattress) recently at Dominica’s parents’ house because it is safer for Oreo since he is now blind and will get confused and hurt himself if he is sleeping on a real bed upstairs.  First he will have an accident trying to get off of the bed in the dark with furniture to jump into and then he will venture out and try to go down the stairs which he cannot navigate safely.  So he is at risk and then I don’t sleep because I get up with every twitch that he makes so that I can watch him.