Sheep Guarding Llama

I woke up this morning, on my own, around eight thirty. It was perfect timing since I had to go down and get the car parked in the garage instead of on the street this morning. So I got up and went down and put a little money in the meter and took a walk to see where we were in the city and get a feel for our location.

I came back to the hotel but Dominica and Oreo were both still fast asleep so I headed back out, got a garage spot and got the car parked. Then I went for another walk and stopped at the patisserie across the street and stocked up on some amazing pastries to bring back to Dominica for breakfast.

Breakfast was amazing. After eating we relaxed for a while and got ready to face the day. Then, around noon, we took Oreo out for a long walk (between three and five kilometers) up the av du Parc to Parc Mont Royal and took a long walk through the park. Then back to our hotel. Oreo had am amazing time and it was after two when we finally got back.

This walking trip gave us the very first opportunity to try out Dominica’s new Kodak V1003 camera that she just got this week. As soon as we got back from our walk Dominica and Oreo took a nap and sat down and transfered the first few pictures from our trip up to Flickr so that everyone can follow along with us. I have started using Google’s Picasa 2 photo editing software to make cropping and touching up a lot easier. I have used GIMP in the past and it is an amazing program but way too heavy for me. Picasa is very simple and fast for me to just pick up and use. So now I am starting to not post raw images to Flickr but edited images much more of the time.

Dominica slept for about an hour and a half. Then we put Oreo in the car and headed out for a late lunch or early dinner.

We went to Asha but it was four thirty and they don’t open (ouvert) for dinner until five so we took a long walk around the block. While we were walking our friends coming up from Newark called from the customs line on I87 to let us know their status and to make some plans for this evening.

At five we got into Asha and had a great dinner. Dominica has been going crazy wanting Indian for days so this worked out really well. The price was really good too.

After dinner we came back to the hotel room and I took a nap this time and Dominica watched a French language program telling about the making of the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. Now she wants one. I can’t believe of all the Ferraris that we always talk about – Ferraris being possibly the most beautifully sculpted pieces of serious engineering on the planet – that she picked out the one truly unattractive Ferrari made in the past three decades or more.

A little before nine, when we were supposed to meet our friends out at Bily Kun, we started out walking from the hotel. The bar is far enough away that it is a serious hike but not so far that we could justify not walking. So walk it we did. It took about forty-five minutes to go from our hotel to the bar. We didn’t walk quickly but took a nice, leisurely stroll through some really cool Montreal neighbourhoods along the way. We got up to the district a bit ahead of everyone else so we went to Cafe Noir and got some coffee while we were waiting.

We met everyone around ten and decided to look for a place to eat. We ended up eating at Lychee which was very nice and stayed open late for us which was awesome. After dinner a bunch of people were exhausted and a few weren’t feeling that well so six people, including Dominica, headed for home. Dominica was one of the four that traveled back via a cab. So she was home with Oreo just before midnight.

The four guys who were left went on to Bily Kun where our mission was to try real absinthe which is still unavailable in the United States even though it has been legalized almost everywhere else in the world.  We tried it, at $14 a drink, but we were not impressed.  It really tastes disgusting.  I can’t believe that people get excited about this.

The guys stayed out until the bar closed at three in the morning and then we took the long walk about to the hotels.  It was around four when I finally rolled into bed.

The drive up to Montreal was excellent.  We didn’t get to leave Newark until late – closing in on nine in the evening.  But there was no traffic at all and we made great time the whole way.  In total, the drive time itself was under six hours.  Not a tough trip at all.  Customs was not as friendly as it was back when I was younger but it wasn’t bad.  They didn’t give us a hard time at all.

During the drive we stopped at a rest stop and ate dinner at  Nathan’s which serves fish sandwiches much to our surprise.  They were quite tasty.  We are very glad that we discovered that they have fish as quite often they are an eating option when traveling in New York.

It was around two thirty in the morning when we pulled into Montreal and got to the hotel.  There were some issues with our reservation at check in and we had to switch rooms but we ended up getting upgraded to a business class king room (smoking but we couldn’t tell) that is perfect for Oreo because we are on a high corner with lots of sunlight during the day and windows from two directions so that he can get plenty of sun whenever he wants it.

Strangely, Oreo loves hotels and is very excited to be here.  He really enjoyed the drive too.  He doesn’t get a chance to ride in the Mazda very often and his favorite car seat is in there so he appreciated the change of pace.  Riding in the Mazda’s car seat is like visiting an old friend for our Boston Terrier.  He misses it when he doesn’t ride in it for a while.

The street that we are on is very nice and there are lots of all night businesses here including a 24×7 Werby’s restaurant attached to the hotel which has a very wide menu.  Lots of coffee shops around as well.

It was almost four in the morning before we actually managed to get into bed and start attempting to drift off to sleep.  I set up the laptop and made sure that we were online before going to bed.  The Mazda is parked on the street tonight – making us glad that we didn’t bring the BMW this time – but we should be able to get it into the hotel’s garage in the morning or early afternoon.  It is full for tonight though.

I have to be up by nine in the morning tomorrow to deal with the car before I get a parking ticket (you have to pay after nine.)  So there won’t be a lot of sleep for me tonight.  We are planning on trying out the local Montreal patisseries tomorrow.  That is one of the big draws of this city.  We are very much looking forward to breakfast.

I had gone to bed last night thinking that I would probably get up early this morning and leave before Dominica had a chance to get up but I was tired and I have to be up very late tonight so I slept in a little and didn’t get up until a more normal time. That will probably work out better as today is bound to be an extremely long day as I don’t get to go to bed until we have arrived in Montreal and traffic is expected to be terrible today.

My movies database is finally back online after many months of being down. Maybe even a year of downtime. Ouch. Things have just been so busy that it is difficult to take care of these little things. It is in exactly the same state that it was a year ago but at least it is useful again. My next task is getting it set up so that dad can do the administration on it as he has direct access to the actual collection and is the one watching the movies the most.

Nothing very notable to mention during the day today. Dominica and I both had to go to work as usual. Nothing crazy going on there. This is a three day weekend for both of us as it is Labor Day weekend. We are both looking forward to our four day weeks next week. I am working the early shift next week all week.

I am going to have to post tonight before I leave the office as there won’t be any time to even fire up a computer at home before Dominica, Oreo and I have to be on the road to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Google Maps says that the trip should take around six hours and eleven minutes but with the traffic expected to be so bad it is completely possible that the trip could end up taking twelve hours or more which we are very afraid of. The entire distance is just 374 miles. But hopefully traffic will thin out as we head north and it will only be bad right in New Jersey and the immediately lower Hudson region of New York. I did remember to print out the directions before leaving work today.

It was a pretty slow day at the office today with as many people as could manage to not be in the office not being in the office. I was the last person in today except for the one person who works the evening “shift”. I was alone for quite some time before I got to go home. My evening work ended up being quite a bit later than it had originally been expected to have been.

I got stuck doing deployments so late (as always happens when I am going to travel) that I had to run home before doing them!  At six thirty I ran home in the hopes of working from there.  That is when I am posting.  More details from Quebec!

Oreo decided that he hasn’t seen enough of me recently and so he slept all night pressed right up against my side leaving me barely any room at all making it quite hard to sleep. He put his little head on my shoulder and snored the night away. He is the most loving dog that I have ever seen.

Since I couldn’t sleep too well once my shoulder started to pull out of its socked trying to keep from jarring poor Oreo in his sleep I decided that I should just get up nice and early and leisurely get myself into the office. We have been quite busy and getting in extra early wouldn’t go amiss this week as I could use the quiet time to do some catching up on things.

I got into the office around a quarter to seven which is half an hour earlier than my usual early morning target of a quarter after seven. I am wide awake and feel good though and am very happy to have my car back and working well.

Jeremy has a new blog so that people can keep up with him at college.

I ended up working a long day. It often happens when I get in early. There is always work to be done at the end of the day.

Food for Life was so good last night that I was able to convince Dominica to go there again tonight. Yummo.

Tonight was a chores night since we are leaving town tomorrow. Dominica did laundry and cooked meals for Oreo so that we would have plenty of supplies while traveling. We haven’t done any packing yet but there will probably be time to do that tomorrow night after work.

We are expecting the drive to Montreal to have some really horrible traffic and we have some concerns about that but we have learned time and time again that it is better to just hit the road on Friday night rather than trying to do anything on Saturday morning. No matter how bad the Friday night traffic is the overall situation is just better than trying to cram things down into one less day.

We are really excited about Montreal. This is our first time going there as an actual destination and not just driving through. Dominica’s new birthday “pink” Kodak V1003 camera arrived today so she got it plugged in and charging so that she will be able to use it while we are in Montreal.

We watched a couple episodes of The Cosby Show while we took care of other things. The HP DC7700 arrived at dad’s today and he set it up and checked it out enough so that I could log in remotely and check it all out over the Internet. It looks like it is a really nice machine. It took a few hours, as usual, to get the requisite software installed onto it and all of the regular Microsoft updates (it is a Windows XP Pro machine) and the setting set correctly, etc. So that was my main project of the evening. I am extremely happy with the purchase though. That worked out great.

I went to bed a bit earlier than Dominica did and Oreo came and snuggled with me under the covers.  I read for a little while, maybe twenty to thirty minutes, in “Solaris 10 Internals” before falling asleep.

My car wasn’t done yet as of last night so this morning I have the challenge of getting out to Warren without a vehicle. This is going to be bad.

I started the day by walking out to Penn Station in Newark and taking the PATH train into the World Trade Center. Then I walked up Greenwich to the office there where I am able to catch the shuttle that will take me to the Warren campus. I hate doing this walk in the summer. I always end up getting way too hot. The walk takes a minimum of twenty minutes and might even take half an hour. Today it took longer as my normal path up West Ave. was closed off and I had to take the skyway and walk around a full block that I don’t normally need to do.

I got to the office on Greenwich just in time to see the shuttle down the street. 🙁 So I had to wait almost a full hour before there was another shuttle for me. At least it gave me a chance to sit in the little park that the office has there, enjoy a sesame seed bagel with cream cheese and an apple juice, catch up with emails on the Blackberry and do some reading in the “No Fluff, Just Stuff 2006 Anthology” that I had thought to bring along with me. (Sounds strange but it is a collection of essays on software development.) While I was waiting for the shuttle I got an email that the repairs on the car were finished and I can pick it up today. Pheww.

The shuttle came and thankfully was very well air conditioned. The ride takes about forty-five minutes from Manhattan out to Warren at this time of day. It was a quiet ride and I got to read more of my book.

It was a busy day at the office if only because it took me a while to get in so there was a backlog of things saved up for me and the office is pretty thin in general so we are all covering as much as we can. Not the best day to have no car to get in.

I didn’t get a chance to pick up the car until mid-afternoon. I had a lot of work done but mainly a new headlight, the tires rotated and balanced, the gas tank replaced and the fuel pump replaced. Almost $1,700 in total. Ouch. The car is just about to turn 101,000 miles and Min and I are planning on taking it to Montreal, QC this weekend.

I worked until six thirty or so and then was off for home.  Dominica came down and met me after I arrived and we walked over to Food for Life and stuffed ourselves.  It was especially delicious tonight.

It was late, after eight, by the time that we got home.  Boy the days do fly past.  I had a little bit of work that people had requested after having left the office so I logged in and took care of that while Dominica did a little laundry.  We did a small amount of organizing filling up the new “under the bed” plastic bins that Dominica picked up two days ago.  Then we hopped into bed and read for a while.  Dominica read her “Network+ Exam Cram” and I read my “Solaris 10 Internals” book.

Dominica wanted me to tell everyone about the most awesome place to shop for shoes: Zappos.  They have free overnight shipping which is a huge deal.  It is the ultimate way to shop for shoes.  And they have great prices too and a huge selection.  Check them out.  Well worth it.  You will never go to a shoe store again.

I had a good eBay day today.  I got a HP D530 SFF desktop and a SUN SunFire V100 650 2GB 1U rackmount server as well as a rackmount kit and an HP Vectra P4 1.7 for the school in Castile!

We were off to bed early.  We were both tired and didn’t feel like watching DVDs.