September 2005 - Posts
Well, I am working on about 3 hours of sleep (on the flight) but I am back in the Eastern Time Zone, and hopefully can head home in a couple of hours for a nice nap.
My temporary career as a consultant is on hold for the time being, and I think I am okay with that.
Well, I knew it was going to happen, but believed it wouldn't. They have asked that I stay on for another week at the client, and went to my boss to get it done. I just talked to her, and we think we have an alternate plan that gets them someone onsite (not me) with some transition so the person can hit the ground running. The downside is that I get to take the red-eye home tonight and go into the office in the morning to work with that person to get them spun up. It is still better than having to fly back next week. I guess I shouldn't say that yet -- it isn't totally settled out at this point.
It doesn't look like we're going to have any time to see the area at all here. We are supposed to be done with the implementation by Friday, and there are still a lot of tasks remaining and a lot of input needed from the client before we can sign off on anything. Long days and being away from home are equalling a grumpy Chris. Add the fact that it sounds like we are having to pull a patch from circulation back at the home office because we missed a serious problem, and you get a rather stressed Chris.
Just for good measure, I am still wrasslin' with my bank over a check (for a somewhat substantial amount) that was issued to me by a Canadian bank that I am now informed may take 6-8 weeks to post to my account. How is that possible? I know I certainly can't write a check to that Canadian bank and expect it not to be withdrawn from my account for 8 weeks. It must be that we still use Pony Express to move funds internationally, because I know there is no way it takes 8 weeks for ANY kind of electronic funds transfer. Maybe they have university students backpack the check from Detroit to Toronto and hand deliver it to a bank there. I understand a business day delay, for good measure, but honestly -- the check was in US Dollars, there isn't even currency exchange in the picture! I need to get myself my own bank so I can institute an "Idiocy Charge" that I can charge other banks for being stupid asses.
WAH. This is not the best morning.
On another note, this is the 8th straight day in Seattle that I have seen sunshine -- which seems wierd to me. I'm not complaining about that, though.
I've always been a west-sider (of Michigan, anyway), but that doesn't count in the context of the extremes of the nation. Being on the West Coast, when you're used to being in the Eastern time zone, is a little curious in a couple of ways.
1. Live Sports. Since sports aren't time delayed like primetime television, everything starts three hours early. For random stuff, this is fine, but college football saturdays starting at 9 am, and Monday Night Football starting at 6 pm just don't work for me.
2. Mountains. The one major thing Michigan lacks is mountains. In Seattle, you can only see the mountains once in a great while, but when you can, they are gorgeous. You have Mount Rainier to the southeast and you have the Olympic range to the west. Yesterday they were all visible, and really quite beautiful.
3. Sleep. I love coming out here because I don't have to adjust my sleep schedule -- I just get up at 8:30 or 9 AM (EDT) and I am good to go! (Just don't stay up too late!)
Make sure the kids are asleep or outside the building.
http://www.slimdaddy.com/img/link/309.avi
Well, I am back in Seattle. A little bit of fun with credit cards when I tried to rent my car, but in the end, I made it onsite, and in theory I am working.
I am definitely not enjoying myself this trip, as I pretty much have had a really crummy start, and now that I am at the customer, I am getting the idea that the stuff that we were waiting on the client for late last week still isn't ready for us (I'm glad I didn't stay here to work over the weekend!). Oh well, maybe I can leave a little early this evening and go watch Monday Night Football somewhere.
Last night I decided that I needed a beer (after my third straight 14 hour day), so I went to the
Taphouse Grill in Bellevue. Good stuff, Maynard. 160 beers on tap and it is only about 3 blocks (large blocks, mind you) from my hotel.
I had:
Pretty big beer. Big malty flavor and aroma, mild hop bitterness, no hop flavor or aroma. A little too strong for hanging out.
I was talked into this over the Elysian "The Immortal" IPA. Nice big malty and hoppy IPA. The hop flavor wasn't as clean and crisp as an APA, but I couldn't put my finger on the type of hops. Definitely very good IPA, but again, a little too strong for drinking more than one.
Good clean flavor, lots of malt, lots of hops. Not as impressive for style as the Boundary Bay, and it doesn't hangwith my favorites (Sierra Nevada, Bells Two-Hearted). Definitely a nice drink, though.
- Mac & Jack's African Amber
Bartender talked me into this instead of another pale, and I was a little disappointed. Definitely a good amber, but I was sort of enjoying the hop-o-rama '05 I had going there, and my palate wasn't ready to shift back to big malt with lighter hopping.
- Leavenworth Whistling Pig Hefeweizen
Bartender suggested this over Matt's longtime fave Widmere Bros. It was good, although typically simplistic -- as most American hefeweizens are. No phenols at all, and the wheat flavor was completely overrun by the lemon in the glass when he pulled the pint (oh, Lord have Mercy! Why must people do such things!?). I enjoy the addition of orange or lemon to an american wheat, but I like it a little more subdued than this ended up. I'd like to try it again, poured properly, to see if maybe the more complex grainy flavors are there, but were just masked by the overpowering lemon. Than again, maybe the lemon is there to protect me from some vile flavor!
Anyway, it was a couple of hours of relaxation and great beer. The atmosphere was nowhere near what
Falling Rock in Denver has, but the beer selection was pretty impressive. I chatted with a dev on the Office team (Frontpage, specifically) for a bit, which was a pretty good conversation, although I think I talked his ear off a little bit (sorry, dude!).
Well, I was just started to get a little bit excited about heading home this weekend, when we had a call at 1:30 PM local time, and it was decided I will be back for 4 more days next week. I guess I am learning what it's like to work as a consultant -- and I'm thinking I don't like it much. Oh well, at least my third straight 13+ hour day is almost done -- that's nice!
I am at the 45 hour week mark, and it is 9:30 AM on Thursday. Yikes. Things are actually going fairly well, we are making progress, and I have been able to spin up fairly quickly and contribute a fair amount of implementation to the project. There is still a LOT to go, so I am guessing I am back onsite next week, but we'll see.
I haven't been able to get out and see any of Seattle this trip yet, to my chagrin, but perhaps tonight I will get some time to do that (hopefully!). The weather has been outstanding, and I have been trapped inside :( I wish I were hiking at Mount Saint Helens or Rainier instead of sitting in here poring over last year's budget for this (customer) company, figuring out how to best make it all better using our product. Oh well, someday I'll get to actually *enjoy* a visit to this part of the country. Maybe when Mike and I come out to Microsoft in October...
I am on the road for work, and I am definitely not used to these hours.
Yesterday I was on the plane by 9 AM ET, and onsite in Seattle by 1PM PT. I went to the hotel and collapsed around 9 PM PT. I was back onsite at 7 AM this morning, and it is now 6:40, and I am starting to lose steam. I was hoping to make it until about 10 tonight, but I might need to turn in so that I can get up and be productive tomorrow.
This is actually kind of fun and interesting, but at the same time, I definitely am not going to be in a hurry to move into consulting. I'd be happy to get paid for all these hours, but I don't really care to work all of these hours all of the time.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Jesus H. Christ in a Chicken Basket!
The Spartans defeat Notre Dame in OT!!! At South Bend!!!!
W00T!!!!
I guess I had the weekend wrong -- Michelle and John aren't coming until next week. And I won't be working on the house this weekend as I am watching Caleb this morning while Jodi takes Joshua to a tumbling class, and I don't want to get knee deep in anything since I will be on an airplane to Sea-Tac first thing Monday morning. Unfortunately, I am not going to Microsoft this time, I am going to a customer site to try to help out with an implementation that needs to be ready for live rollout by October 1. It should be interesting.
On other fronts, I can now post this without worrying about it: Jodi's pregnant again. Yup. #3 on the way. I sort of said it here, but I am not sure if anyone got what I was saying, and it was before we had told anyone officially, so it was my little secret -- well, sorta, anyway. We figure sometime in April or May, but we don't really know, as once again, the normal ways you figure out these things were not at our disposal, and the ultrasound that Jodi already had wasn't clear enough to give us an 'age,' so to speak.
The week is cruising by, and that's fine with me. This weekend, the Buntons (John, Michelle and Noah) are probably visiting, so that is something to look forward to.
I have been spending most of my time at work getting some consultant training together and trying to rest in between. I've finally gotten the training done (and gave it on Tuesday -- all 5.5 hours!) so today I can start working on the list that has been building up in the meantime.
On other fronts, I ran/walked 4.5 miles last night, in an attempt to get back to doing that on a regular basis. I ran it like a regression workout. 8 minutes run, 4 minutes walk, 8 minutes run, 4 minutes walk, 5 minutes run, 3 minutes walk, 4 minutes run, 2 minutes walk, 4 minutes run, walk for warmdown. For the first two running bits, I covered the first two miles (and a little extra), so that was a pretty good workout in itself. Hopefully the little bit of extra running when I was tired will be a step toward getting some additional endurance.
I have been trying to get myself psyched up to work on the house some more. I think I will be trying to do that a little bit tomorrow night while Jodi is at Yoga, when I can do it without worrying about aggravating anyone. Maybe this weekend, John and I can go get some flooring for the bath...
I am all fired up for the game against Hawaii this afternoon. Pretty sad, really, since I'm not even going. However, I woke up and Jodi found my CD that has a bunch of marching band stuff on it and Joshua and Caleb rocked out to the fight song. I haven't started drinking beer yet, as that will set the whole day off, but it is tempting... Man, sometimes I miss the college years...
Well, I missed the first game last week, since I was out camping with Matt. I checked the score Saturday night on my cell phone, but we obviously didn't get to see any of the game.
This week is the grudge match against Hawaii after the collapse in the late season game last year. I am looking forward to sitting on my deck, playing guitar, grilling some food, listening to some tunes, and watching college football. Maybe I'll convince Mitch to come over and watch the UM/ND game (not sure who I'll root for/against in that one) at noon followed by a little MSU romp at 3:30. We'll see what happens!
Anyway, Go Green. Destroy the rainbows and get your 2-0 start to the season. I know against ND we're going to have problems, but let's leave that until next week. For now, let's get another W.
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