July 20, 2008: Garrett’s Baptism

Today is Garrett Grice’s baptism which is why Dominica, Oreo and I are in Frankfort this weekend. We all had to be up fairly early this morning so that they could get off to church for the nine o’clock mass. I couldn’t make it to church with them because I was scheduled for a nine o’clock conference call (or bridge as they are called around here) that was supposed to last until eleven. Nothing like last minute migration work on a Sunday morning 🙁

So while everyone else is at church, I am left home with the Boston Boys (that makes Oreo and Dexter sound like an old west stagecoach-robbing gang.) They appreciate not being left completely on their own.

Last night, I forgot to mention, we had a little Oreo incident here in Frankfort. When we arrived home from the Kitlas, Oreo got left out of the front door to come see everyone. He was not wearing a harness or anything. He came out and said hello and usually is quite good to stay near us, but just as he got to the sidewalk he spotted a large, young black lab walking down the street. Like a shot, Oreo was off and on that lab before we even knew what was happening.

Oreo, even at around eight years old, had that lab fleeing as best as it could (it was young but definitely full grown and many times Oreo’s weight) but it was leashed and trapped. The lab ran around its owner in circles trying to get away and Dominica’s father and I tried as best as we could to catch him but without a harness on he was all but impossible to get a hold of. It only took a few seconds before he had the lab down on its back and was on top of it. He wasn’t being vicious – just playing really, really hard, but the poor lab was in quite a panic.

Our saving grace came in the form of a flying Dexter who came full tilt from the house and plowed into Oreo knocking him off of the lab and then stood between them keeping Oreo away long enough for us to scoop him up. Oreo loses all ability to comprehend what is going on once he gets into his “hunt” mode even if he is just playing.

We were hoping that my conference call this morning would be short as we thought that the work was just going to be canceled.  So there was some possibility that the call would only last ten or fifteen minutes for me but it ended up taking more than forty-five minutes before they even mentioned getting to my stuff so that idea was right out of the window.

By ten o’clock we had only confirmed some work that was canceled yesterday and were not even up to the point where we could talk about work being done today.  It was a bit after eleven when I finally really pushed the point and got them to start on my work as I could not hang around for forever.  It was after eleven thirty when we finally wrapped up the morning work.

Needless to say, I was unable to make it to the church service or the baptism service that came after it.  I was still on the conference bridge long after everyone got home and after most everyone had left for the baptism party in Utica!  What a morning.  I am told, though, that the church was so hot that I would have been all soaked with sweat and feeling sick and that it turned out for the best that I couldn’t go or I would have felt awful.

We left for the baptism party at Grimaldi’s in Utica before noon.  It was a nice party – twenty five of us were there which was what was expected.  All family.  We had a nice time visiting with everyone.  Dominica and I have been so busy that we have barely had a chance to see anyone in quite a while.  As we get farther along in the pregnancy it will get harder and harder to see people as well.  Already we are having to place a hard limit on doing no additional traveling that is not already in the schedule or needed for the baby and/or house.  We just don’t have the time or energy.  Dominica is really, really sick with a bad cold and it is going to turn into a sinus infection or worse if she doesn’t stop doing more things than she should.  She isn’t getting anywhere near enough sleep.

After the party we got back to the Tocco’s and I was getting paged out, almost as soon as we arrived, to do more work for the office.  So I logged in and worked on another conference call for well over an hour.  What an exhausting day.  At least during the time that I was working this afternoon everyone took naps so I didn’t miss any “visiting” time.  Dominica got an hour and a half nap probably.  That will make a bit of a difference.

After nap time we had to hit the road so that we could get back to Newark at a reasonable time.  We hit the road just as the rain began.  It was a really heavy rain that caused all kinds of driving problems.  We were not able to get the car up to full speed due to the rain until almost Albany.

We got home to Newark a little before ten.  It is going to be another really hot week in New Jersey.  Temperatures expected in the low nineties tomorrow as well as rain.  Shortly after we arrived home the rain and thunder began here as well.

July 19, 2008: To Frankfort for the Baptism

On the way home from work last night I stopped off at Blimpie on the corner and picked up dinner for Dominica and I. Then we watched some Third Rock from the Sun and were off to sleep. It was a very early night for us and we did absolutely nothing. I never even sat down at my computer. We just went to bed. Dominica has a pretty serious cold and I am fighting it off so lots of sleep is very important. I’m sure that we are getting sick because we are so run down with lack of sleep this week.

We got to bed around ten and didn’t get up this morning again until ten. Almost twelve hours of sleep. That was awesome. I did have to get up at midnight and take Oreo for a walk around the block which is a pretty big sleep interruption but still, it was a lot of sleep.

Both of us felt much better this morning when we got up. Dominica still has a really bad cold but at least she is rested. With all of that sleep it appears that I managed to keep the cold at bay. I am not showing any signs of the cold this morning.

This morning I finished reading “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Foreign Currency Trading.” Since I work in the Forex market primarily I thought that it would be good for me to know more about the business side of things.

I had to do some work for the office this morning after getting up and also we had to pack to get ready to head up to Frankfort. For us, packing is really out of control. In this trip, for example, we are only staying for a single night and yet we still need to pack: a full bag for Oreo (because of his dietary and medical requirements), a laptop, three BlackBerries, iPod, Camera, chargers for each of the aforementioned, a suitcare for our clothes, toilettries, CPAP and books (just in case I have time to read) and my SafeWord (so that I can log in to the office to work remotely.) It is rather a bit of an ordeal just for the simplest, one day trip to Dominica’s parents’ house that isn’t very far away and has most ammenities that we would need!

All of that is for a single night and assuming that there is no time in which we would need to entertain ourselves. If that is the case then we need to start thinking about book(s) for Dominica, a means for me to work on projects, Nintendo DS, PlatStation PSP, etc. We even have the Nintendo Wii system portable-ized so that we can travel with it.

Dominica had a dream the other night that the baby was born and that we had an eight pound, one ounce baby girl – which supports Ramona and my belief that the baby is going to be a girl. Everyone else, and I mean everyone else, thinks that the baby is going to be a boy. Although I had a dream last night that we had quintuplets but the doctors have assurred us that that is not the case. (I also dreamt that to save money we bought a house in northern Panama so that the children could grow up with access to both coasts simultaneously.)

I did the dishes today which sorely needed to be done. The dishes have been sitting since late last week. We have been so busy this week that we just have not been able to get to them.

I worked for the office until almost two in the afternoon when we just couldn’t stay in Newark any longer and had to get on the road so that we could meet Dominica’s family at the Kitlas in Utica for our six o’clock reservations.

The drive up to Utica went pretty well. We didn’t hit any traffic or congestion and made quite good time. It is pretty rare that we are able to drive during the day which is a nice change.

We were running a bit late which could not be helped as I had to work before we could leave Newark, so instead of going to the Toccos’ house we went straight to the Kitlas to meet the family there. We called but could not reach anyone so we assumed that their mobile phones had died. We were just about to the restaurant when Dominica managed to reach Joe and discovered that he was still at home waiting for the family to return from their day at the lake. So we turned around and drove back to Frankfort to wait for them. Apparently they were missing the six o’clock schedule for dinner.

We hung out at the Tocco’s house until seven thirty when people returned from swimming.  It appears that Dominica had some bad information about the dinner plans and we raced all day to get here but no one else knew that the dinner plans were at six – although Joe was under the same impression and was also wondering where everyone was.  So we aren’t sure what happened.

So at seven thirty we all left to go to the Kitlas for dinner.  Dinner was awesome as always.  Then it was back for an evening of baptism party preparations and me racing Madeline and Emily on Mario Kart Wii.  Madeline kicked my butt in every single race!  I am getting seriously old.

Apparently I need to start playing video games more often as I have completely lost my edge and I need to be able to play against my own child in a few years.  I will be much older by the time that they are ready to play games against me so I need to be honed now or I will never be able to keep up.

July 18, 2008: Wow, is it ever hot!

This entire week has been really, really hot and today it is much hotter than it has been.  Dominica and I were hoping to have started our mortgage process today to get things lined up as quickly as possible so that we could make an offer on the townhouse in which we are most interested, but our loan origination person is out of the office today and we can’t do anything until Monday.

Oreo went to daycare today.  It is a good thing.  Who knows how crazy he would be if he didn’t get to go in and burn off some of his extra energy.  He has been couped up far too much this week.  He needs some time playing with his doggy friends.

My walk into the Wall Street office today was really awful.  Walking through Newark wasn’t bad at all.  Hot, but it was fine.  I did decide to play it safe and to walk through the Gateway Center, though, which is air conditioned so most of my walk was “inside”.  Normally I just walk outside along Raymond Boulevard.

Once I was into Manhattan the real heat hit.  In Manhattan everything is warmer because of all the people, buildings, vehicles, etc. plus there is seldom any air flow.  The difference in effective temperatures from Newark to Manhattan is staggering.  I was quite uncomfortable by the time I got down to the end of Wall Street.  I did grab an ice cream cone from Mr. Softee to cool me off a little.

If you are a Starbucks Coffee Fanatic (for the record, I am definitely not) then you have probably been waiting on pins and needles to know if your Starbucks is one of the six hundred that are being closed this summer as Starbucks shuts down five percent of its operations.  Well, I found the list and now you know: The Starbucks Doomed 600.  If you are from my hometown, and too lazy to look through the list yourself, Geneseo Starbucks is on the doomed list as are many in Upstate New York – where people have never even begun associated good coffee with the Starbucks brand like they do downstate.  The Starbucks in Geneseo opened right as Dominica and I moved there in 2003 and we said to ourselves that that was a crazy location that couldn’t possibly make money.  I went in there once and there was no one there.  Just a few weeks ago we said “It can’t possibly still be open, can it?  The place is always empty.”  We were right.  Now it is closing.  So now Geneseo will have yet another vacant building.  Although the old “Del Taco” building, now Starbucks, has been an empty building for such a large percentage of its life span that it just seems natural to have that spot be an empty – strangely architected building.

Starbucks in Geneseo was really hurt by the fact that it is on the “wrong” side of the road.  It is in a spot that has so long been ignored that you don’t even realize that there is a business there now that there is one.  Then, just after they went in, Tim Horton’s (with better coffee and more food options) came in in a far more visible location, had a brand new building and was open twenty-four by seven.  So Starbucks just completely lost any mindshare that it might have had.  In Upstate NY, people just don’t “think” about Starbucks.  It doesn’t occur to most people that it is even a coffee option.  Heck, I lived within an easy walk of it for several years and I bet I never went there even once.  Now that I live in Newark I am literally next door to a Starbucks and have only been there two or three times at most.  Being an upstater, it just isn’t something that you do.  Back in Rochester, Eric and I used to make coffee runs to Bruegers, right next door to the Starbucks, and never once even though about going to Starbucks instead.

Now that I have mentioned it… I am seriously missing living right next to the all night Tim Hortons.  Argh.

For those who don’t speak fluent Spanish, “Del Taco” is Spanish for “of the taco”.  Clearly it was intended to be “Mexican food for middle-America where multiculturalism is a foreign concept.”  Ha ha.

While doing a search for something unrelated, I came across a great image of Fall Brook Waterfall in Geneseo on Flickr.  I’ve been to the waterfall a time or two but it has been a really long time.  Never saw it when the foliage was so lush.

By four thirty the humidity had dropped enough that even though it was even warmer than this morning it was actually quite nice outside.  At least it was pretty nice just sitting outside.  Hard walking, like I have to do to get to the World Trade Center to catch the train, is still way too hot.

My day was not overly busy but this lulled me into a false sense of “going home security.”  I thought that I was going to be done really close to five.  All of my work was scheduled to complete right at five.  I was fooled.  The call for the release at four forty-five ended up lasting until almost six thirty!  Argh.

Dominica is feeling very under the weather.  She has a headcold or something similar that is affecting her sinuses.  It might just be allergies.  So her plan is to get home and to get to bed right away in the hopes of getting enough sleep to start getting better.  So I am tasked with getting dinner on my way home which will be from Metro Cafe if I make it in time and from McDonalds if I don’t.

I am exhausted and don’t have the energy to write more tonight and don’t want to leave y’all (to practice my Texan) without an update so I am posting before leaving the office.  I will probably just watch some Third Rock from the Sun with Dominica and Oreo and get to bed early.  I have some unscheduled work to do tomorrow morning whenever I wake up and then, in the early afternoon, we are driving to Frankfort for Garrett’s batism on Sunday.

July 17, 2008: End of House Hunting?

I had to be up before six thirty this morning as I am covering the early morning shift and boy am I ever tired.  I am glad to be home today especially because it is extremely hot here in the New York Metro area today and walking into the office would be awful.  I am not looking forward to tomorrow when it is supposed to approach one hundred degrees in Newark.  Ugh.

Oreo really didn’t need to be home today.  He had tons of energy all day and really wanted to play.  He was so adamant about getting my attention that he actually barked at me several times!  He has only done this two or three times in the three years that he has lived with us.  So he was really worked up today.  He is so cute when he gets so excited that he barks at you to make you play with him.  He actually took a run at me, jump up and bounced off of me while I was in my office chair and barked in my face and then stood over his binky ready to play!

Dominica had a doctor’s appointment today, but not an ultrasound, to check up on the baby.  Everything is good.  She has another appointment in four weeks.

After her doctor’s appointment, Dominica came home and picked me up and I took her to work and then came home so that I would have the car in the afternoon.  We have to drive up to Peekskill this evening and I have to have the car as Dominica’s work is on the way and it would take an hour or more longer for her to pick me up and then go all of the way back past Totowa.

I left Oreo at home as it is so hot outside and I drove up to pick up Dominica at four thirty.  From Totowa, New Jersey we drove on up the Palisades Parkway and over the Bear Mountain Bridge on the Hudson River to Peekskill, New York.  Today we are looking at one townhome that we had looked at previously and liked as well as four additional townhomes in a different development that we had not looked at before today.

It was way too warm for looking at houses.  Half of the houses had no air conditioning and being in then when they have been shut up and are all musty and hot and humid with no air movement at all is a bit much.  It was quite uncomfortable.

We really liked the new complex that we looked at.  It was gorgeous.  We did not like the homes themselves as much.  The prices were all over the place.  There is one home in that complex that we would consider, but we are pretty sure that we are actually most interested in the one that we looked at for the second time today.  Our plan is to make an offer on that house as soon as possible.  If that doesn’t work out as we hope then we have a perfectly viable option in the other complex.  We are definitely glad that we took the time to look in the other complex as we got a better price comparison and more of an idea of what is available in the area and how long things are typically sitting on the market.  There are several townhomes that have been on for over a year!

On the way home we stopped off on the Garden State Parkway and ate at Burger King.  That is really handy and we seem to always do that on the way from Peekskill back to Newark.

After we got home, Dominica went straight to bed and I did a little work and then was in bed around eleven thirty.  I would have been asleep long before but Oreo decided that he wanted a late night walk before turning in for the night.

July 16, 2008: Getting More Tired

Something happened and I got stuck writing yesterday’s post twice.  I must somehow have never saved it or something, which is strange as the system saves automatically.  Or maybe I did something weird causing the post to get overwritten.  Either way, I thought that I had Tuesday’s updates already posted and discovered that they were missing and wrote them again.

In the rewriting I forgot to mention that Socks, the little baby Boston Terrier who lives down the hall from us, came by after his vet appointment this evening to meet us.  He is so adorable.  Just three months old.  A tiny little Oreo.  He and Oreo played for a little while.  Oreo loves puppies and is so gentle with them.  It is incredibly cute watching Oreo play with the little, tiny Boston puppy.  It is so sad that we never knew Oreo at that age.  He must have been the most wonderful puppy ever.

I had to be up early this morning so that I could catch the train out to Warren.  I was completely exhausted.  We tried to go to bed early last night but I wasn’t able to fall asleep as early as I had hoped.  So I am short on sleep again.

Today was another busy day for me.  I was hopping all day from one thing to another.  That was good because it kept me awake.  Otherwise I would have been fighting not to fall asleep at the office.

I took the five o’clock shuttle for home and made it to Summit Train Station just in time to step right on to the Hoboken Express with no stops from Summit to Newark Broad Street Station.  I was home in no time – well okay, about an hour.  But much faster than usual.  And I made it just in time for Dominica to pick me up on the side of the road about halfway to the apartment so I didn’t have to walk as far as usual.

Dominica went to bed early and I stayed up late talking to Andy on the phone.  We started talking around nine thirty and ended up on the phone until after two in the morning!  I am going to be even more exhausted in the morning.  Tomorrow I am working the early morning shift so my day starts very early and then in the evening Dominica and I are going up to Peekskill to look at four more houses and one that we have seen before.