New Year's Eve

Inside again - too cold to do anything outside, although we do have to make a quick run to the store tomorrow.

Finished all the Alphas episodes today, watched Iron Chef America, an animated movie called The Pirates about a pirate trying to get the Pirate of the Year award - it was the same animation company that does Wallace and Grommit

Watched the ball drop in New York.

Did some more genealogy online during all that as well.

Another stay at home day

Played AC2 and Eve in the morning, as well as some LOTRO.  We watched a few episodes of Alphas in the afternoon, as well as bits and pieces of the Vikings game.  We had pizza for dinner.

I watched a few episodes of the Clone Wars, and worked on her online genealogy.  Tomorrow is supposed to be the coldest day of the season so far, so I doubt if we're going to go out - it's New Year's Eve anyway, so we'll watch the ball drop on tv :)

Indoors day

Well, almost.  I did go out and shovel, and I ran to the pharmacy for meds, kleenex, cough drops...but that was it.

We watched an old movie we recorded a long time ago, called the Lost Future, and two episodes of Alphas.  Other than we just kind of lazed about the house all day.  Same plan for tomorrow.

Being sick stinks.

Sick Day. again.

Got no sleep last night, thanks to all the medicines, so I didn't start work till 11, and then I only worked for an hour or so.  I tried to get some sleep in the afternoon, but didn't help much.

Spent the afternoon just zoning.  After dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup, we watched some tv- America Unearthed, Ancient Aliens, Ghost Adventures - kind of all over the map.

I hope this goes away quickly.  I have to shovel in the morning, because we got more than an inch last night/today.  Yay.

Thanks, Wife

Now I've got her crud.  Constant coughing, congestion, achy bones, cough drops making me woozy... not fun.

Wednesday

Another cold day.  Meetings got cancelled at work, so I had plenty of time to get some work done.  I had leftover yesterday for dinner, T had chicken noodle soup, as she is still sick.

We watched a documentary about Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison during dinner, then I came in the computer room, played LOTRO for a bit and watched a few more episodes of Firefly.

Merry Christmas

Didn't go to the movies today - wife is sick.  Played LOTRO in the morning, watched Indiana Jones 2, 3, and 4 on tv. we had ham and scalloped potatoes for dinner.  She went to bed early, and I played some more LOTRO - and I found my Firefly discs, so I watched the first three episodes before I went to bed too.

I get to go to work tomorrow.  Woo hoo.  Just a couple of meetings and catching up on whatever I missed over the last 5 days or so. :)

Christmas Eve

We almost didn't make it to the bank today - somebody takes a really long time to get ready, even with a deadline.  We did, with 5 minutes to spare.

We stopped by Best Buy, and dropped off the DVD player.  It'll be at least a week before we hear back.  When we got home we watched the finale of Next Iron Chef, a Christmas Story, and just wandered around the dial.

After dinner I played LOTRO and watched the last episode of Caprica.  Too bad it got cancelled when it was getting interesting.

Tried looking for Firefly - I think we need better organization of our collection, as I couldn't find the discs.

Tomorrow is Christmas, and we're going to go see the Hobbit again as well.

Sunday

Today was a stay indoors and try to keep warm day.  I played AC2, DDO, Eve and LOTRO most of the day.  I also caught up on my tv shows.  I watched Restaurant Impossible, Good Eats, Ancient Aliens...all across the board.

We had a yummy pasta primavera for dinner.  Tomorrow we have some errands to run - drop off the DVD player, pick up the Pandora beads, a couple last minute groceries, then we'll be hanging out at the house.  I go back to work on Wednesday - don't plan on going shopping until at LEAST Saturday :)

Sick Day

Woke up with an awful headache.  Took most of the morning for it to go away, and by the time we were ready to go, it was too late to visit the bank.  We did stop by Best Buy to verify our DVD player is under warranty, so we'll be taking it in to get fixed.

Did some grocery shopping, bought the wife her christmas present - a couple of pandora beads.  When we got home, we watched a little tv, and then we had a conflict over what to watch, so I came in the computer room and watched the Wizard of Oz and played LOTRO.

and started to get congested/sore throat/etc.  In other words, sick.

I really don't want this.  I'm going to be downing a lot of NyQuil in the next few days!

Training Day 3

Last one for a while.  Hopefully I'll be able to use some of this new found knowledge!

Class ended early today, so I got home pretty early.  Aggravated my back moving boxes around in the basement to avoid the overflowing washer, so I sat on the couch most of the afternoon.  Took a pill to help, and now I can't keep my eyes open.

We had ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner, and channel surfed.  I played LOTRO for a little while, but got so tired I just want to bed.

We have some running around to do tomorrow, but after that, I'm hoping it's a quiet weekend.

Training Day 2

The snow was hardly nothing here.  Added only about an extra 5 minutes to get to the classes this morning.  I am spoiled tho - I'm used to a 20 minute commute, not a 40 minute one.

After I got home, we had a little breakfast for dinner, and watched Dark Matters and Buying and Selling.  I played LOTRO for a little bit, then paid some bills and went to bed.  One more day of training, then a hopefully quiet weekend.

We'll see.

Training Day 1

Training was ok - a lot of information covered, but some of it was simple.  Took a long time to get home, tho.

During dinner we watched a SyFy special - 20th anniversary special of the Sci-Fi/SyFy channel.  Some of it was old news of course, having watched a lot of the shows they covered.

After that I played a little bit of LOTRO and watched one episode of Caprica.

Supposed to get some snow in the morning, so my drive in may be a little more difficult and slower than today's.  We'll see.

Early Day and Early Night

I left work early because my knee and back were hurting so badly I could hardly stand it.  Took a painkiller when I got home, and they slowly stopped hurting.  We had leftovers for dinner, and watched Next Iron Chef and Hawaii 5-0.

I have to get up early tomorrow to head downtown for my training.  It's going to be interesting.  Hope I don't start hurting again!

Wet Day

Started the day with a leak in the basement - one of the pipes had rusted through.  We had to call a plumber to replace a pretty big section of pipe.  That was fun.

After work, we shipped presents.  That was almost as much fun as the plumber.

We had leftover pot roast for dinner, I played LOTRO for a while, while fighting a good sized headache.  Hopefully a good night's sleep will take care of that.

Sunday

Work took about an hour and a half longer than it should have, and all I could do was sit and listen while other people did what they needed to do.  My part took all of about 5 minutes.

Played some DDO, some Eve, some LOTRO, some AC2....watched some TV too.  Pretty much a do-nothing day, which worked out ok, because my knee was giving me fits again.

Tomorrow I'm hoping will be a quiet day, because I"m on call all week.

Ok day

...till the DVD player broke.  11 minutes into Star Trek, it froze.  Then it won't read the dvd, so it think's there's no disc, so it won't eject it.  I hope we bought the protection plan on this.  I'm tired of our DVD players always breaking.

Worked for almost 3 hours this morning, then played some Asheron's Call 2, some LOTRO, and some Eve Online.

Did a little bit more web genealogy.

Tomorrow, I get to work again.  Yay.

The Hobbit

Yes.  Go see it.

I did that and renewed my driver's license today.  Working from home tomorrow.  Beyond that, I'll probably play on the computer a lot :)

Thursday

Work was ok. Took my car, as the roads were clear enough for that.  Friday/Saturday we're supposed to get another storm, this one with rain/sleet, so we may be stuck in the house over the weekend.

We had chicken picatta for dinner, and watched CSI, Person of Interest and Elementary.  While doing that I worked some more on web genealogy.

I also learned that my favorite game is being re-released.  Asherons' Call 2.  Which means I'll be playing computer games even more than before :)

272

That was my bowling score today...across 3 games :)  We had a holiday outing today at work.

It was a very unproductive day.  An hour into work, we had an hour and half meeting to talk about an upcoming reorganization.  After that, we had lunch, then we went bowling.

Then I came home and did some work that needed to be done today even if we were at a party.

THEN I was done with work.  We had leftovers, and I played LOTRO till bedtime.  I watched 3 episodes of Caprica as well.

This is a picture overlooking the western part of Rohan in game.  The designers did a great job translating the mental images from the book into the videogame, I think.

Tuesday

The roads were really bad going in to work today.  I slid a couple of times.  They were just as bad coming home.  I hope the crews do a good cleanup job tonight.

We broke down and had pizza for dinner, watched a couple of cooking shows, but not much else.

I played LOTRO after dinner, watched a couple of Storage Wars, and a Diners Drive Ins and Dives episode.

Then I called it a night.  Getting old makes me tired I guess.

Snow Aftermath

Worked from home this morning for about 4 hours.  Got some work done, had to deal with a server not working.  The morning went by pretty quickly.

Before I dialed in to work, I did go out and shovel for about an hour, and knocked the snow off the satellite dish so we could get reception again.  After work, while it was still light out, I spent about an hour and a half on the driveway.

I definitely got my workout today, even in temps that were about 10.  After I got the driveway done, I came in and took a painkiller - my back and my knee were screaming.

That pretty much wiped out the afternoon.  I played some LOTRO, but I was kind of in a fog, so I don't remember much details about the quests I did (of course, this is the third time I've done them, so details aren't quite as important.  I also half-watched a Restaurant Impossible and several Undercover Bosses.

After dinner, we watched Hawaii 5-0 and a few cooking shows.  I worked some more on the web - genealogy stuff while we watched tv.  My wife has a HECK of a lot of cousins!

After she went to bed, I played a little more LOTRO, and then went to bed.  Hopefully I only have 4 hours of work to catch up on tomorrow, and not a full day's worth!

We got snow

Boy did we get it.  Probably a good 12 inches.  I played on the computer a little this morning, then spent a good chunk of the afternoon using the snowblower and the shovel...and I'll have to do it again tomorrow.  I got rid of 6-7 inches, but by the time I finished clearing one end of the walk, it was already piling up on the other end.

I'm going to work from home tomorrow morning, so I don't have to drive in the mess, then take the afternoon to re-shovel, and probably clear off the end of the driveway where the snowplow will plow us in.

Welcome to winter.

Not much snow

at least, not yet.  We got a little bit last night, but barely enough to worry about pushing around with a shovel.  Most of it melted by the time we left to go shopping this afternoon.

I worked on genealogy this morning, putting some of T's family on the web.  Eventually we went shopping, visiting Lane Bryant and Ulta, and then Walmart.  We bought groceries, household stuff, ink for the printer, a few Christmas presents...and the whole time, my knee was complaining.

When we got home, I took a painkiller and played LOTRO.  I didn't watch any shows, though I probably should have.

If all goes as predicted, I'll have 3-4 inches of snow to shovel/snowblow in the morning. Then it really will feel like winter is here.

Snow

or at least a taste of it tonight, only about an inch - supposed to get the real snow tomorrow night.

Made it through work, went to barnes and noble afterwards, and visited smashburger for dinner.  now I smell like onions.  Watched Elementary on the couch when we got home.

Then I played LOTRO for a little bit and watched one episode of Caprica.

Tomorrow we plan on visiting the grocery store and getting a few christmas presents before the snow really starts.  I imagine Sunday I'll be breaking out the snowblower for the first time this year!

Thursday

Work was work again - nothing too stressful, although I ended the day tired and with a headache.

I hope I'm not getting sick.

Decent Day

Today was busy at work, but not so swamped overwhelming busy as it's been.  I actually felt like I worked today.  (hard to imagine, I know).

We had fish and brussel sprouts for dinner, watched a couple of cooking shows, and one episode of Dark Matters.

After that I played LOTRO and watched two episodes of Caprica.

Tomorrow, more of the same.

Cold Again

We might get snow this week - maybe it'll start to feel like winter.

Work was pretty tough today - trying to figure out why accounting was off in their figures.  Not easy for a non-accountant.

We had chili for dinner, watched Bones and Hawaii 5-0, then I played LOTRO and watched one episode of Caprica.  I'm officially halfway through the first season now.  Well, the only season.

Still hoping to get some rest one of these days.

Grey, Fog, Rain

What a way to start the day.  Almost didn't go to work today, because I had a headache, but I went ahead and dealt with it.  Most of the day was working on more Disaster Recovery paperwork.  I eventually had to leave early because my knee was troubling me something awful.  I came home and put it up and put an ice pack on it for a few hours.  That helped.

We watched Iron Chef America, Next Iron Chef, and a couple cooking shows.  We had pork chops for dinner, and after that I played some LOTRO and watched two episodes of Caprica.  I'm almost to the point where we stopped watching when it was on the air.

Game Day

Played DDO, EVE, and LOTRO today, so a bit of variety.

Also had to log in to work and verify some things for the big project that went in this weekend.  Didn't take long, and I'm glad I didn't have to actually go into the office.

We had ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner, watched Elementary and CSI NY, after wich I surfed the web for a little while, and decided to head to bed.  Tomorrow's the start of another work week.

Yay.

Bond...James Bond

Finally got to see Skyfall today.  Went to one theater, the one I want to buy Hobbit tickets at, and there was no place to park.  So we drove all the way across town to see it.  It was a pretty good movie, and had some good Bond easter eggs in it.

We stopped by Walmart after the movie to get a few groceries, then came home and watched Person of Interest.

We're supposed to get freezing fog tonight, so I don't plan on going anywhere tomorrow!  Play some games, watch some tv, and do some laundry.  "Normal" stuff!

Foggy Friday

Didn't get much past 35 the entire day.  Luckily, except for lunch, I worked inside all day.

After work, we ran to the Mall of America to do our shopping.  I think I overdid dinner a bit, as I ended up with a stomach ache.  Either that, or it was the food.

I played some EVE when we got home, with my friends.  It's quite different from the other games I play, so I don't know how into it I'll get.  It is a break from LOTRO, tho.

Long/short day

Work was busy, but cut short because we had a company meeting, then a get-together as a happy hour afterward.  Had part of an acorn squash and a hamburger for dinner.

Played a little LOTRO after working on cleaning up the dining room a little bit. 

Watched a couple more episodes of Caprica as well.

Middle of the week

doubt I won Powerball - I'm sure I won't be that lucky.

My friend Mandy got a job tho - glad for her!

No real news around here. Tired, ready for the weekend.  Half of tomorrow is a company meeting, so I'm sure I won't get much of anything done.

Ouch

Well, the locksmith came today - he couldn't pick the lock, he couldn't use the master key - the deadbolt mechanism had broken, and even though the key turned with the master, the bolt didn't.  He ended up drilling it out.  200 bucks for that.

The worst part?  There was nothing wrong with the garage door.  Apparently the opener was broken.  The light works when you press the button, but it doesn't send a signal, or enough of a signal, to open the door.

We went to Menards to get some stuff to fix the door, went to Culver's for dinner, and caught up on some tv.  Hawaii 5-0 and several cooking shows that we've been letting set.

Tomorrow, I have a pretty full day at work, and then I'm going to try and work on the garage side door some.  It's so stinking cold, tho.  Not sure how much I'll get done.

What a mess

Got home from work tonight..and the garage door wouldn't open.  Apparently, no power. again.  And earlier this year, I had locked the other deadbolt on the side door, because the bottom deadbolt wouldn't work correctly.  Problem is - we don't have a key to the top deadbolt.

So tomorrow I have to call a locksmith to unlock, and re-key the top deadbolt, then I have to figure out what's going on with the garage power.  If I can't then I have to call an electrician, probably the same folks that fixed it last time (that time it was a line cut by the landscaper).

I'll have to work from home to do this, because T has to go to a funeral, so she'll have to use my car...which is parked on the street, where I'm hoping it won't get stolen from.

Gah. What a mess.

Twilight

Woke up today and started the day off with some DDO.  After we finished the quest we were on, I started playing a new game called Eve - it's a spaced based game.  It's really complicated, so we'll see how well I do.

I played that up till the time we left to go to the movies.  We went and saw the last Twilight movie.  Except for the big fight scene near the end, it was a snooze fest for me...but the wife was totally into it, so I guess it wasn't a wasted trip.  We were going to see Skyfall too, but the timing overlapped by just a couple minutes, and the first few minutes of a Bond film is not something to miss.

So, instead we came home and watched some TV.  Two Next Iron Chef Episodes and a cooking show.  After she went to lay down, I watched two Restaurant Stakeouts.  Don't have a big day at work tomorrow, but I do have work, so I do have to get my beauty rest!

Brrrr

Cold morning this morning.  I got up and had a doughnut for breakfast, and played LOTRO most of the morning, and a good part of the afternoon, with a space heater blowing on me.

By the time she was ready to go, we decided to skip a movie today.  We went to MOA to use a coupon I had that expires tomorrow.  We stopped by Long John Silver's for dinner, then went to Walmart to get a few groceries.

When we got home we watched Wednesday's CSI, and that was it.  Maybe, if certain people can get moving tomorrow, we can go to the movies.

Black (Ice) Friday

It snowed up north, and for some reason, my snowbrush/scraper was not in the car.  Luckily I did have my gloves!

We left the hotel about 1030, and decided not to go to Duluth.  They had quite a bit of snow up there, and with the wind chills in the minuses, we just decided not to deal.

We came home, unpacked, and then tried to go see Skyfall. Couldn't even get into the parking lot of the theater - traffic was terrible, even at 3pm.  We went to Best Buy, as I wanted a program they had on sale (today only).  They were out, of course.

We visited Half Price Books to get some books for the wife in the series she's reading, and then came home.  We watched one episode of Next Iron Chef, Hawaii 5-0 and a cooking show, and pretty much called it a night.   We didn't win any money at the casino, so I guess we have to win the powerball instead.

Long weekend

Our director let us go early today, so I got to start the weekend at about 3, instead of 6.

I surfed the web a little before dinner, then we watched one cooking show.  After dinner we watched Quantum of Solace (so we can watch Skyfall this weekend), and the Jeff Dunham special Minding the Monsters that we bought on DVD.  There was more on the dvd than there was on the show we watched on tv last month.

Tomorrow, we're going to the casino for dinner at the buffet, and we're staying overnight.  Friday we're going to visit Duluth and see Skyfall while up there.

then who knows what we'll do the rest of the weekend.  It's supposed to get cold again, so it may be a whole lot of nothing!

Tired

Work today was a lot of different things.  As such, I really didn't feel like I accomplished anything.

We had BLTs for dinner.  I thought about playing LOTRO, but I just surfed around the web for a while instead, thinking about all the things I want to do, but don't have the time or money or skill to do.

Great.  Now I'm tired and depressed.

Just another day

That it was.

We had left overs for dinner, then we watched a couple of cooking shows and Bones.  Then I played LOTRO, finished the Caprica movie, and then started watching the series.  There was only one season so it shouldn't take too long to watch.

Plans? What Plans?

Got up this morning, and started playing DDO.  Got a call about halfway in from work - emergency issue that I had to help with.  So that killed the gaming plans.

We had planned to go to MOA and visit Lane Bryant and Barnes & Noble (hoping to find a blu-ray at the bigger store), but I had to remain on call the rest of the day in case the issue returned.  So that killed the shopping plans.

I played LOTRO for a while, watched a couple of Undercover Bosses and the movie Aliens.  We had dinner of pasta and red sauce, watched a couple of cooking shows and Friday's CSI NY.  No work issues returned, but I had to sit here the whole time 'just in case'.

I guess that's why I get paid 'the big bucks', right?

Shopping Day

My friend and I couldn't play DDO this morning because it vanished from his computer.  We ended up playing WoW for a while, and he reinstalled it later, so we'll play it tomorrow.

We went shopping today - visited the comic book store, and I got almost all the back issues of Human Target.  The show was pretty close to the comic, at least for the first season.  We stopped by Trader Joe's but there was no parking, again, so we visited Target and picked up a bunch of groceries.

We had turkey and stuffing for dinner.  That's what she wanted, so that's what we had, even though we're having it on Thursday.  We watched a couple cooking shows, Person of Interest, Elementary, and part of "Who Discovered America" on the History Channel. 

Then I played LOTRO and watched an old episode of Undercover Boss, ad a few minutes of Back to the Future before heading off to bed.

Argh

Got our estimated tax bill in the mail for 2013... the taxable value of the house dropped 30%.  We now owe almost 3 times what the house is worth, according to the county.  Unless we win the lottery, we're never moving.

Went to the comic book store after work - no place to park.  Again.  We went to Barnes & Noble, picked up Brave on Blu-ray, then went to Ulta for some hair spray and other girly stuff, then stopped by Wendy's for dinner.

Came home and just kind of vegged.  Watched a couple of those Time-Life infomercials about country song collections.  We watch the weirdest stuff sometimes :)

No Cavities

So there's that at least.

Pretty low on energy today.  After work we had a simple dinner of sausages and kale.  We watched a couple episodes of Trisha Yearwood's cooking show, yesterday's CSI, and that was about it.

I played LOTRO for a little bit and started the Battlestar Galactica movie "The Plan".  Didn't finish it before bed, though.

Tuesday. No, Wednesday

Holidays mess me up sometimes.Had a hard time remembering what day of the week it was!

Work was not difficult today, though I was there longer than I expected.  We had a simple dinner of ham and cheese sandwiches, and watched Hawaii 5-0, both CSIs, a cooking show, and called it a night.

I get to go to the dentist tomorrow. Yay me.

Tired

Well, I got my haircut at least.  Also put air in the tires, since the cold weather change had made them lose some pressure.

We got a new phone system at work over the weekend, and it worked on and off all day.  After I got home from work, we had dinner - a chicken/artichoke thing.  We watched a cooking show (Sandwich King), Bones, and a special about the TV show Firefly.  I may re-watch that show after I watch Caprica :)

Cold Snowy Day

We had about a half inch of snow last night, and lots and lots of cold.  I stayed home rather than going out and getting a haircut.  I played LOTRO most of the day.

Later we watched a couple CSIs.  Tomorrow is a heavy meeting day, and after work I'm getting the haircut I really need. :)

Veteran's Day

Hung the flag out today, then we went to the comic book store and then to a couple of movies: Wreck-it Ralph and Looper.  Between the two of them, it took up most of the day!

On the way home we saw snowflakes.  Supposed to be cold tomorrow, but then slowly warm up again, but not to 70!

When we got home we watched Elementary and Iron Chef America.  Then we went to bed.  Tomorrow it's a few more errands, enjoying my three day weekend. :)

Sleeping in Day

Slept in, which means we started the day late, and missed part of incredible weather.  When we did finally get going, it was 70 and sunny.

We went down to the casino for T's birthday, and came back with 80.00 more than we started.  A very good thing.

We came home, watched some tv, until the satellite went out because we began getting thunder, lightning, wind, heavy rain...

Tomorrow's supposed to be much cooler.  I still want to go see a couple movies, but we might have to bundle up to do it!

Friday

Work was ok. I gave another training session today, and got some other work done.

After work, we went to the comic book store.  Well, we tried to, but the parking lot was full, so we skipped that.  We then went to Barnes and Noble, picked up a couple books and DVDs.  Then we went to Applebee's for dinner.

After that we watched Person of Interest and surfed channels for a bit before heading to bed.

Weird Weather

It's more like March than November right now, with temps in the low 50's and approaching 60.  At least until Sunday, when the high is supposed to be 34.

Work was slow today.  I got a few things done, assigned to a new project, and that's about it.

We had ham sandwiches for dinner, watched a little tv, and called it a night.  Hopefully, with the 3 day weekend coming up, I can get some rest!

Ugh

Left work early today as I hurt all over. All my joints just...hurt.  I took a painkiller when I got home, and sat and pretty much stared at the computer screen for a good long while.  I did clean up some emails (slowly).

I had a salad for dinner, with some grilled chicken on it.  After that, we watched a Trisha Yearwood concert I had recorded a couple weeks ago, then she went to bed.  I started feeling less like a zombie, so I played LOTRO for a little while before I too went to bed.

I voted

... not that it means much when there's only one choice.  Whole lot of judges to be elected, and my choices were limited to one per court, and there was only one candidate per court.

I did vote in the presidential race, and for senators and for/against the proposed amendments to the MN state constitution.  Every vote counts, right?

After work, we had Chinese delivered for T's birthday, and we watched Bones and Hawaii 5-0.  I debated playing LOTRO.  Pretty tired, which might be because of the time change, or the fact that it gets dark so early.  I may just surf the web for a bit then go to bed.

Boring

Sorry - I live a really boring life.  When I restarted my blog, I thought it might be 'cool' to list my activities, you know, a web log of my daily life.

It's not that cool.  Pretty much the same thing every day. work, tv, game.  Rarely do I get to do things like travel - once or twice a year. 

I know - be careful what you wish for.  I guess I'm just noting that if updating the blog is getting boring for me, I can only imagine what it's like reading it (for all 3 people that read it).

Two more days

and this political crap will be over with.

Played DDO this morning, and finally updated my DDO blog with the quests we've been doing for the last few play sessions.

We tried to go to the movies, but someone couldn't get going in time, so we showed up late to the theater.  Rather than hang around for another 2 hours till the next showing, we stopped by the grocery store, got a few things and came home.

I surfed the afternoon away, and played LOTRO after dinner.

Not an exciting day.  Just a normal one.

Saturday

Played LOTRO for a while in the morning, then we ran some errands in the afternoon.  After we got home we watched quite a bit of TV, catching up on a lot of the shows that recorded while she was out of town.  Still have quite a few to go.

Friday

Am I glad the work week is over.  The disaster saga will continue Monday however.

After another long frustrating day, we stopped by the comic book store, Barnes and Noble and Famous Dave's for dinner.  Dinner was not very good.  Rather disappointed in that - they used to be very good.

When we got home we watched a little 20/20, because she wanted to see an interview with Kirstie Alley.  We missed it.  We watched an episode of Elementary and called it a night.

Continuing Disaster

Another day of disaster recovery testing, with progress only made late in the day.  I suppose this is all good, for if we did have a disaster, at least now (or soon) we'd have some place to actually to our work.

After dinner, I played LOTRO while she watched the Country Music Awards.  Tomorrow, hopefully, I can put this disaster testing to rest, and start all the documentation on what went wrong, how to fix it, and how to prevent it for the next test.

Middle of the week

The disaster test (delayed from Monday) was a disaster.  Either nothing worked, or my helper wasn't helping.  6 and a half hours of pretty much wasted time.

Very frustrating.

Rough Day

It was one of those days where I learned more and more about how useless my job really is.  No matter what I do to try and make things more efficient, more productive, there's someone elsewhere that decides that it needs to change - right or wrong, good or bad, it's got to conform.

"If it's not broke, don't fix it" doesn't apply here.  It's more "change it because I said so".

Needless to say, I ended the work day on a not happy note.

After dinner we caught up on 19 kids and counting, Hawaii 5-0, and Elementary.  As late as it is, I probably won't even play any LOTRO.

Thus ends the quiet time...

...the wife is home.  'nuff said.

Sunday

Today was movie day.  Watched all the Indiana Jones movies, and the last Matrix movie.  Marathons are easier when you can pause the movie :)

Played a little bit of LOTRO, did some dishes, but that was about it.  Tomorrow is my last disaster prep test.  Hoping it goes fairly well.

Saturday

Ran my errands this morning - CVS for prescriptions, Best Buy for a DVD binder and Quantum of Solace for 10 bucks, convenience store for lottery ticket (100 million is nothing to sneeze at!).

After that, I played LOTRO for bit.  Later, I spent the afternoon and a good part of the evening reorganizing some of the DVDs, putting series and seasons together a little better.  With over 3000 DVDs, it's a massive job to reorganize.  In fact, later I had to run to Target to get two more binders, since I needed some more organizing to be done!

While I did all that I watched the really old TV movie TekWar - I liked it the first time it came out, but it's a little dated now.  Then I tuned in to Galaxy Quest and watched that all the way through.

I thought I'd play some more LOTRO, but not really enthused for it, so I'll probably just go flip tv channels and then head to bed.

Pay Day

Work was ok - had to go back and re-review one of the documents I had written, as it got converted to a different format and somethings didn't work right.  Didn't finish that, even after 3 hours!

After supper, I just surfed the web for a while - looked at Mom and Dad's pics of their trip to Estes on Mom's birthday, read some news...just vegged.

Played LOTRO for a little bit while I watched an episode of Dirty Jobs and two episodes of Property Brothers.

Tomorrow I have some errands to run outside, even though it's going to be cold.  At least it's not supposed to snow... yet.

Snow Day

Well, sort of - we had a few flakes at lunchtime, but it was mostly rain till then, and then it cleared off after that.

Made it through another day of work.  Stopped by the store to pick up a few more groceries, but I didn't really have much for dinner.  Not feeling hungry, surprisingly.

Watched the final bit of Battlestar.  Not sure if I liked the ending or not.  It was an ending at least.

Now I can start catching up on the shows that recorded while I watched BSG :)

Better Day

Felt better today.  Work was ok.  Got my report documenting the exercise finished, so I actually felt like I accomplished something.

Dinner was chicken and rice.  The chicken was marinated in chardonnay and had some spices.  After dinner was LOTRO and Battlestar again.  Getting close to the end.  (after a few years!)

Foggy day

Woke up sick - flushed and upset stomach.  Worked from home part of the day (did the exercise over the phone).

Started feeling a bit better late afternoon, so I had a little dinner, played some LOTRO and watched some more Battlestar.

Kind of a crappy day inside and out.

Routine Day

Meetings went well, although we didn't really accomplish anything.

Stopped by the store after work, got some dinner and lunch for the next few days.  Had a dinner of salad and sushi.  Played some LOTRO and watched some more Battlestar.

Tomorrow's my next disaster exercise - hope it goes well!

Sunday

Quiet day - played DDO in the morning, LOTRO for most of the day, watched a lot of Battlestar - finished season 3 and the first 2 episodes of the final season.  I'll finally learn how it ended :)

Tomorrow is a day full of meetings, but this time I don't mind.  They're about things I'm actually interested in.

Saturday

Laundry, LOTRO and Battlestar - that was pretty much my day.

I did take a couple of breaks to go get gas and lottery tickets, and to go get a malt from a local ice cream shop that the last day of the season was today.  (I only got a small).

Beyond that, it was pretty much sit in my chair all day (except for switching loads of laundry).

Tomorrow should be pretty much the same!

Nothing much

Stopped by the bookstore and the comic book store after work, picked up a new book and a new cd.  Had salmon and Brussel sprouts for dinner.

Did some laundry, played LOTRO, started watching Battlestar Galactica again, started season 3.

Went to bed. Tomorrow is more laundry, but probably not much else!

I've had better days

Came home early from work today because my sight got really blurry. Couldn't really read, which makes working with emails difficult.

Sat on the couch for a while this afternoon, just kind of resting my eyes.  Later, I had a salad for dinner, watched some tv - Restaurant Impossible and several episodes of Dirty Jobs, played some LOTRO and headed to bed.  My eyes are still kinda blurry/watery.  We'll see what a full night's sleep does.

Amazing

It's amazing what I can get done when I have a block of uninterrupted time.  I got about 3.5 hours of 'free' time today, and I wiped out almost 400 pending emails.  Yes, I was that far behind.  mostly filing or deleting, but still.

Stopped by the store after work, picked up some dinners and breakfasts.  Visited the Dr this morning (for insurance), and he gave the ok for me to try a new food plan.  we'll see if that helps with me being tired all the time and better control of my diabetes.  So I had grilled salmon for dinner.  A treat for me because the wife doesn't like it.

After dinner I played around on the web, browsed through Mom and Dad's pictures of their trip to Taos last month, played a little LOTRO and then headed to bed.

Tomorrow is another day of few meetings, so I might get some more work done, including emails!

Jinxed myself

Got a wake up call at 5am.  That was fun.  Work had issues.  It was all resolved by about 930, but still - a few hours lost sleep makes a lot of difference.

So, left work after putting in 8 hours or so, came home, had a little dinner, played a little LOTRO and went to bed really early for me.

Not much today

Relatively quiet at work.  Thankfully.

Stopped and picked up a few groceries after work today, including dinner - balsamic and rosemary grilled chicken.  It was pretty good.

After that I played LOTRO and headed to bed.

Like I said - not much happened today :)

Sunny Day

...after I get home from all my errands.

Ran to Best Buy and picked up a couple of DVDs.  Went to Menards to get some birdseed.  Went to White Castle for lunch.

After I get home, and hang my coat up, I see the sun shining.  Of course.

Other than those errands, just played LOTRO on and off all day.  I did watch the first and second Matrix movies the TiVo recorded for me.

Tomorrow starts another week.  Since I'm on call, I hope it's a very uneventful week!

Game Day

Played DDO for a while in the morning, then played LOTRO.

Took a break from that and watched a little TV while trying to get my upset stomach settled down.  It didn't, not very much.

Went back and played some more, and watched the 2006 Family Activities DVD while playing my game.  Decided to call it an early night and see what else is in the medicine cabinet.

Travel Day

Got up at what seemed like the crack of dawn to pack T in the car and send her off to her mom's for a few weeks.  I went to work, and got some work done.  A couple of my meetings were rescheduled, so that freed up my time to work on other things.  I got assigned to assist on a few other projects - the fun never ends!

When I got home, I had leftover yesterday, and played LOTRO.  Instead of festival stuff, I visited an area I hadn't been before with some of my gaming friends.  We did ok, except for this one huge monster spider.  Kicked our tails three times...so we gave it a rest for the night. :)  It was fun grouping up for some quests.

Long day

Busy in the morning, then busier in the afternoon - late afternoon I got to working on an excel document, and needed to delete an extra 41,000 columns.  It wasn't done deleting by 7, so I left the computer to work overnight, instead of bring it home.

We ordered Pizza for dinner, and she did some last minute packing (ok it was all last minute).  We watched CSI and that Elementary episode we missed (via the laptop, and a cruddy connection to the tv).

Tomorrow is a full day of meetings, although I did cheat a little bit and scheduled a 'meeting' so I could get some work done.

quiet day

finally. no fires at work, nothing urgent or out of the ordinary.

Had a pasta and butternut squash dish for dinner.  We watched a couple episodes of 19 kids and counting, then I played LOTRO for a while and watched a couple episodes of Dirty Jobs.

the only thing I can't yet figure out is why my antivirus program just gives me a blank white screen, instead of a menu with actual options...

eventually I'll get it.

Crisis day

So the first big part of my day was working through the crisis that I got the email for last night.  Then I got to take a quick class (I passed with an 81%), then I moved on to the next crisis that someone else was supposed to be working in the morning.  Of course, they waited till near the end of the day to actually start working on it.  After working on it for a while, I found out it wasn't a huge crisis, although I did leave instructions to call me tonight if it happens again.  So I might get a call at 3am.  I hope not.

We had turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner.  The turkey was a tad dry, but pretty good.  Our first time for trying to make it.

After dinner, we watched Hawai'i 5-0 and Bones.  Then I came in to play LOTRO for a little bit before bed.  We'll see if I get any sleep.

On Schedule

Today actually went according to schedule at work.  The exercise went well. I got some other work done.  I felt pretty good when I left for the day.

We had a small dinner - some chicken and sliced sweet potatoes.  T wasn't feeling well, so we didn't watch much tv.

I played LOTRO for a while, till the computer locked up, corrupted the antivirus again, so I had a fun time rebooting, uninstalling, rebooting, reinstalling...got it back working again tho.

Just read an email from work.  1) why am I reading work emails this late at night?  2) why are they sending me emails this late at night telling me to drop everything and do this one task tomorrow?  I really need to look into this whole work/life balance thing.  It's really out of whack.

Technology...

...I have it, but I don't understand it.

After a night of being unplugged and turned off. the DVR worked this morning when we turned it on.  I don't get it.  I'm glad, though - we only missed a couple of cooking shows, and all of our other recorded shows were still there.

We still went out shopping today, though we didn't need to stop by Best Buy.  We hit Barnes and Noble, because I had a coupon.  Picked up Person of Interest on dvd :)  We swung by Walmart, picked up a few things, then came home.

We had a 'mocktatta' for dinner - a mock fritatta - the pasta from the other night, with some eggs and cheese.  It wasn't too bad!  During dinner we watched the season finale of Warehouse 13, CSI NY and Last Resort.

I played LOTRO for a while after dinner, catching up on a bunch of Good Eats episodes.  Tomorrow's my disaster exercise at work.  I hope it goes well.  I'm a bit nervous about it.

No words.

The living room's DVR hard drive crashed, so we lose 50 season passes, and a boat load of shows we haven't watched yet.

I'm grumpy.

Well now...

Had a lunch meeting with my boss(es) - the working relationship is kind of hard to describe.  Explained some of my problems I'm having with my job, and we talked through some things that might be done to make me, well, happier.  We'll see if they actually get implemented.

After work, we had BLTs again, and watched Person of Interest and the next How Booze made America.  We would have watched Elementary, except it didn't record.  We'll have to watch that on the web instead - hook the laptop up to the tv and do it that way.

After that, I played LOTRO and watched a couple of Property Brothers and an Ancient Aliens episode.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to visit a comic book expo, and maybe we'll see a movie.

Blustery Day

Windy all day today.  And cool - Fall is definitely here!

Work went ok today.  Learned what I need to do for insurance next year, got some more disaster work done, worked on a training plan for a new hire, got a training class in.

Tomorrow is meetings all day, on a wide range of topics.

Tonight we had pasta with the leftover sauce from the other night.  We watched Restaurant Stakeout and the first episode of How Booze Built America, with Mike Rowe.

After that, I played LOTRO for a little while and headed to bed.  We might go see a movie after work tomorrow.  haven't been to a new movie in a while, so hopefully we can make it!

BBQ

We had a cookout at work today to celebrate the end of summer.  Supposed to be fairly cool tomorrow, like in the 50's.  I did get some work done, around all the eating :)

We just had hot ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner, and watched 19 Kids and Counting, and a couple of cooking shows.

After that, I played LOTRO for a while and watched Restaurant Impossible and a show on the History Channel about the 10 commandments.  It was an old show, so I really only paid half attention.

One thing after another

Spent part of the day cleaning up yesterday's mess, part of the day working on updating my disaster document, and the last part of the day watching another crisis unfold.  Not much I could do on that one, other than watch folks try and figure out how to fix some servers, so I went home.

We hada vegetable dish for dinner - roasted tomatoes with sliced squash and zuchinni.  We watched Hawai'i 5-0 and Last Resort.  Haven't decided if we'll keep watching that.

I played a little LOTRO after that, then headed to bed.  Nothing too terribly exciting at home, which was nice considering all the craziness at work.

Yet another Crisis

Another day at work dealing with an issue that took all my time, which meant I had to cancel the disaster test.  Don't know when I'll be able to reschedule it.

Still didn't feel all that great after yesterday, so we had a light dinner of cheese and crackers.  Really good cheese.

We watched the finale of Food Truck Race, Bones, and Elementary.  That last was a pretty good show, so we'll probably keep watching it.

After that I played LOTRO and watched a Triple D and an old Iron Chef America.

The new pillow seemed to help some last night. We'll see if it continues to help!

Fall

It's nearly October, but you wouldn't know it from the temperatures.  It was 80 today.  We took our fall colors drive today - we took highway 10 up to Little Falls, then highway 238 down to Albany, then interstate 94 back home.  Round trip, about 225 miles.  Thank goodness we have a hybrid - we got right at 50.0 miles per gallon for this trip.

We stopped at Perkins for a late lunch, and I think it made me sick.  I felt terrible for the last leg of the trip, so T had to drive us home, well to the grocery store at least.  We picked up a few things we needed, including a new pillow.  I really hope it does some good.

When we got home, we just kind of puttered around.  I played LOTRO for a little bit, but felt too bad to play it for long.  I sat on the couch and watched the end of Mr Holland's Opus, then Star Wars the Clone Wars.

I started feeling a little better, so I went back and played LOTRO for a little while longer before heading to bed.  Tomorrow is our first disaster response test, and I'm the host, so I have to be on my best behavior!  :)

Inside day

Woke up with a headache again.  This is getting old.  Took some tylenol, and surfed the web till it went away.  When I felt a little better, I played LOTRO for the rest of the day.

After dinner, we watched Warehouse 13, catching us up, and a couple of cooking shows.  I went back to LOTRO till bedtime.

Tomorrow, we do plan on taking that drive.

And maybe getting a new pillow.

Friday

Work was crazy at times, slow at others.  It was kind of a relief to end the day.  After work, we went to the comic book store, then Barnes & Noble.  We had chinese for dinner, then went to Best Buy to get the Indiana Jones movies on Blu-ray - they were cheaper there than Barnes & Noble.

When we got home, we watched Person of Interest and CSI NY.

I went into the computer room after that and watched an episode of Undercover Boss, the White Castle episode - it was interesting, especially since we visit White Castle quite a bit.

Tomorrow we might take a drive to see if we can see some fall colors.

Powerball Winner!

not me.  Dang it.  200 million would have helped a lot of things.

ah well.

Why?

Why do some people think women shouldn't get an education?  I saw an article on CNN about that - people overseas think it's normal.

I don't get it.  This isn't 5,000 years ago.

Stress - It does a body good

Oh, wait.  That's milk.  Very stressful day today.  Found the rush job I did yesterday, I broke something (copy and paste is my bane!).  Then something else was broken (not my fault, but I should have caught it).  Then the client was all over us to get this done, why is this like that, and just...ugh.  I left early just to clear my head.  Tomorrow I'm going to write up what I'm calling an 'incident report' to document what happened when, and maybe why.  So it doesn't happen again.

We had leftover yesterday for dinner.  I played LOTRO on the laptop and half-watched Dancing with the Stars with T.  After that, we watched a couple episodes of 19 Kids and Counting, then I moved to the main computer to play a little more.

Tomorrow, I have a lot of meetings, so hopefully I'll find the time to write that up.  And hopefully nothing else will go wrong.

Welcome to Monday. Again

Cleaning up leftover issues from Friday's emergency issues took a good part of the day.  I had to do a little training, and to work more on the Disaster Recovery plan.  It was a long day.

After work, I just kind of vegged till dinner, which was a home made pasta dish. Spinach pasta, chicken, artichoke hearts, capers, lemons. Pretty good stuff.

After dinner, I played LOTRO, doing the Harvest Festival things (bobbing for apples, playing tricks on folks) until bedtime.  I did watch Diners Drive Ins and Dives, and they did a deal on Providence...where we just were!  Now we have to go back!  T watched Dancing with the Stars.  woo. :)

It was a nice idea

Just as I was getting ready to play DDO this morning, I got a call from work - they were having problems and needed my help.

So, I logged in, did what needed to be done, and then went back to DDO.  I finally updated my DDO blog with the past couple of weeks.

We had leftover chili (the last of it) for lunch, and then I played LOTRO in the afternoon.  For dinner we had ham and cheese sandwiches, some cottage cheese and some chips.  Nothing at all exciting.  We watched a show called 'drain the great lakes', where they simulated draining the water from the lakes and looked at the geology underneath.

After that, bed.

Saturday, finally.

Played DDO in the morning.  After that, we took a shopping trip to MoA.  I got the Fringe Season 4 dvd set, and priced a new phone.  Since it's going to be 200, I'm going to have to save up a little.

While there, we ate at Crave.  I had the Agave Caramel Chicken.  It was really good, but spicy.  Eventually, the people got to me, and we had to leave.  We stopped by Target to get groceries, and by that time my knee, back, and shoulder were all hurting me, so we came home, and I took a painkiller and sat in my semi-comfortable chair to play LOTRO. 

I semi-watched Restaurant Impossible and Property Brothers, and did a bunch of exploring in Moria, killing orcs and slimy worms, and all kinds of stuff, including one big scary, fire-breathing dragon-thing.  I also participated in a treasure hunt for a while, and found some treasure :)

Not sure what tomorrow will bring - hopefully it will be a quiet, relaxing day.

Hectic Day

Non-stop at work from 830 to 6.  They brought in lunch, so we could work straight through.  I can't complain, at least not overly much, as a lot of people worked on verifying this fix for an issue was working.

Needless to say, I was pretty drained by the time I got home.  We ordered pizza and wings for dinner.  I had the wings, since I had pizza for lunch.  We watched a couple episodes of Warehouse 13, a show called Buying and Selling, and a couple cooking shows.

After that I played LOTRO for a while, and watched two episodes of Battlestar Galactica as well.

Tomorrow is some DDO (I still have to blog last week's adventures), and maybe a quick shopping trip for some additional groceries (we're out of mayo of all things!).

Started out as a good day

even with the little headache I had.  (stupid pillow).  Got some work accomplished for a couple of different projects, stopped by Target after work to pick up a couple of things to finish working on my office.

As we were getting ready to have dinner, worked called - I need to go in early for a meeting to deal with an issue.  I'm being 'drafted' I guess is the word, to work on something that someone else can't do in time for the deadline.  There might just be a thing as being too good at your job.

That kind of put a damper on the rest of the evening.  We caught up on Great Food Truck Race, and I logged in to LOTRO, but I didn't play much. My heart wasn't really in it.

I made this update, then went to bed.  I'm no good that early in the morning, but I said I would go, the more fool I.

Mental Health Day

I took today off from work, just to clear my head.  I also cleared my desk, and part of the office.

I played LOTRO on and off today as well.

For dinner we had homemade chili - yum!  Of course, that usually means we'll be having chili for the next week or so, unless we freeze it.

During dinner, we watched another episode of the Great Food Truck Race, and two episodes of Warehouse 13.

Tomorrow, it's back to work to see what exciting things happened while I was gone!

Tuesday

Work was ok today, although the training session was only half effective, because only one of my two trainees thought to show.

When I got home, I just kind of vegged.  We had pork chops and stuffing for dinner, and we watched one episode of Food Truck Race, one episode of Bones, and two episodes of 19 Kids and Counting.

After dinner I played LOTRO and watched an Undercover Boss and a Property Brothers episode. 

Tomorrow is a mental health day.  I'm not going to work, and I'm not checking emails.  I'm going to work on my office here at home, cleaning and organizing - it's been put off for a long time.

Welcome to Monday

Today went by pretty fast actually.  At work, I spent most of the day working on the Disaster Test Plan.  I think it's in pretty good shape.

After work, we had BLTs for dinner, on pretzel rolls, with applewood smoked bacon and yellow heirloom tomatoes.  Pretty tasty.

After that, I worked on the wedding DVD some more.  I got the credits done, more or less, although I still need some names to fill in.

That took a couple hours.  When I got to a good stopping point, I played LOTRO for a little and watched a couple more Undercover Bosses.

Then, I went to bed. :)

Sunday

Completely forgot the Pinball event that was happening this weekend.  I wanted to go to that, and obviously didn't. :(

Today I played DDO in the morning, then we went and ran some errands.  Got lunch at Arby's, got a haircut, got some birdseed - just stuff.

When we got back, I worked a little bit on a DVD project.  Here's a little teaser for it.

We had leftovers for dinner, and I played LOTRO till bedtime while T watched the final Harry Potter movie.

Saturday

Decided to skip the marathon. T wasn't going, and it's not as much fun by yourself.

I ripped some CDs to iTunes in the morning, then played LOTRO a good part of the day.  The character I'm playing currently just entered Moria - pretty cool wandering around places so prominently mentioned in the book!

We had home made beef stroganoff for dinner, then watched a couple shows we had recorded.  After that, we watched the first of the Daniel Craig Bond films, Casino Royale.

That took us right up to bedtime.

Friday

Full day of work, even though I did wake up with another neck ache.

After work, we stopped by the comic book store, the book store and then Chili's for dinner.  After that, we watched a couple of recorded shows and pretty much called it a night.

Still haven't decided if I'm going to the movie marathon tomorrow.  See how I fee in the morning, I guess.

Pain in the neck

again - woke up at 2 with a bad pain in the neck.  Probably because I have a crappy pillow.  I may have to spend some big bucks and buy one of those expensive pillows that's supposed to solve all your problems.  We'll see.

Anyway, didn't make to work till noon, so I only worked a 4 hour day today.  Several (actually productive) meetings, all related to disaster preparedness.

After work, I surfed the web for a little, then we had leftover Wednesday for dinner.  I played LOTRO till bedtime.

Wednesday

Not much to say - work was work.  We had homemade burritos and spanish rice for dinner, and we caught up on some tv.  Started on Warehouse 13 - we're only 6 episodes behind now.

After that, I played LOTRO for a while and watched Restaurant Impossible and an Undercover Boss.

Tomorrow is another day.

Future Retro

It was 94 officially today.  The 31st time this year - and a little too late in the season for my taste.

After work, we went to see Raiders of the Lost Ark on the Imax screen.  It was fun to see the movie again on the big screen, this time an even bigger screen than 30 years ago.  The conversion was pretty good, though there were a few blurry spots.  The soundtrack was amazing, tho.

I'm tempted to spend Saturday at the theater - they're doing a maration of all 4 movies.  That's a lot of sitting in a dark room, tho, so we'll see.

What a disaster...

...preparation day.  I spent most of the focusing on creating a test plan for our disaster recovery test coming up later this year, and a meeting about some of the software concerns we have.

For dinner, we had salad, and we watched some tv, finally catching up on a few shows.  After dinner I played LOTRO for a little while, but then I had to log off to dial in to work to complete a restoration test I had initiated this afternoon.  At least it only took a half hour (on my part - it took them several hours to restore the data).

Tomorrow, I have only a single meeting, which means I can finish the test plan.  Tomorrow's also 9/11.

Inside Day today

Played DDO in the morning, then did some laundry, and had lunch.

After lunch, I played LOTRO till dinner time.  We had homemade gyros and a greek salad.  During dinner we watched some of our shows (still catching up from before vacation), and then I played LOTRO again while watching most of Tron: Legacy.

Tomorrow I only have a few meetings at work, so hopefully I can get some "work" work done.  Sometime this week we are going to see Raiders on the big screen, an Imax.  Looking forward to that!

Saturday

Played some DDO in the morning - haven't done that in a while.  After we finished, we went to the comic book store, where I got a couple comics with alternate covers, and a new game to play called "Gloom".  Then we stopped by Barnes and Noble and bought a couple books and a dvd set.  We stopped by McDonalds for dinner, which we probably shouldn't have, but oh well.

We kind of napped the afternoon away, then I played some more DDO after dinner.  After my guildmate went to bed, I played LOTRO for a while, while watching Stripes on tv (edited - not quite as much fun).

See Yesterday

Pretty much says it all.

At least it's Friday, and I don't have to work tomorrow.

Same Old Thing

Nothing much new today.  Which is kinda sad in a way.

I really need to win the lottery so I can stop wasting my time and do things I really want to.

Enough griping - off to bed.

Back to work

I was going to make a longer update, but I'm tired, so a short one will have to do.  Spent a good part of the day catching up on emails, and learning what happened while I was out.  Tomorrow I have a good block of time tied up in meetings.

We had spaghetti for dinner, and watched several episodes of the Bates and the Duggars (my only reality shows).  After that, I played around with more LOTRO festival, watched Restaurant Impossible and called it a night.

Home again

Seems like we just left!  I was only gone from work for 3 business days (thanks to the holiday), but it felt like longer (thanks to being out of state).

The flight home was ok.  It was nice to be in my home state again, and in my home, and soon to be in my home bed.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day at work, catching up on all the emails and other things that happened while I was away - I've gotten better about not reading work emails when I'm not working.  Of course, that does leave me with the potential for 9 am meetings on my first day back, but oh well :)

Lighthouses galore

On our little sightseeing tour today, we ended up seeing 10 lighthouses, lots of boats, some of them America's Cup winners, and even an aircraft carrier.

For dinner we went to a place called "Not Your Average Joe's", and I had something called Peachy Keen Chicken.  It was ok.  It had sweet potato fries, but they were more like wedges, and one wasn't completely cooked all the way through.  T had chicken piccata and really liked it.

After dinner, we stopped by walmart to pick up a different bag for our carryon, stronger than the Barnes and Noble bag we used on the way out.  We came back to the hotel, I played LOTRO for a while, we watched some tv, and during that we also packed most of our bags.  We have to be out of the hotel by noon-ish, but our flight doesn't leave till 6, so we have some time to kill tomorrow.  We might do some driving - who knows :)

Sun, Sand and Salt

Spent most of the day driving across Cape Cod.  We picked up my friend after breakfast, then drove all the way from Providence Rhode Island to Provincetown Massachusetts.  P-town was insane - people walking in the middle of streets, which were about 3/4 of a car wide, not getting out of the way, really stressful.

So, we didn't get to shop or eat in Provincetown.  We didn't even stop.  We headed over to Race Point Beach, and visited the Atlantic Ocean.  T spent a little while playing in the surf, while I stood on the beach and took some pictures and video.  Walking across the sand was a bit tough, but it was worth it to visit, even though it was a little hot.

 After we left the beach there, we drove back down the cape, to see if we could get to a lighthouse on the coast.  We found that, then we went looking for the old Air Force Station where I was for a couple years in the early 80's, which was pretty close.  We found it - after 30 years, the place was still there.  It wasn't in the shape I remembered it though.

After that, we stopped and had some pizza on the cape, and drove back, dropped my friend off, and went back to the hotel.  I played LOTRO while she read and fell asleep.

Tomorrow, we're taking a tour of the lighthouses of Narraganset Bay.

Short Update

It was a long day today - driving all over the state, visiting beaches and lighthouses and small towns.  Tomorrow is the same - driving along Cape Cod.

I'll upload some pictures of today and tomorrow when I can.  Now it's bedtime though.

Long Day

Got up not-early, visited the nearby Newport Creamery for breakfast.  I had a short stack of blueberry pancakes, she had the cream cheese stuffed french toast.

Then we headed to downtown Providence, parked at the mall (a mega-mall), and went outside to see what we could see.  Ugh, tho.  It was hot and humid.  We managed to visit the Oldest Baptist Church in America, and got close to the Biltmore before we ran out of steam and went back to the airconditioned mall.  I found a comic book store in the mall, though they had more movies than comics. We ate a late lunch in the food court, a sandwich from a place called CheeseBoy - grilled cheese sandwiches.  For dessert we had ice cream from a Ben and Jerry's store.

After that we just walked the mall a little, till my friend could come down via the bus, then we drove down to Warwick (pronounced war-rick, go figure) and visited Iggy's.  The chowder was very good.  The fish was fresh.  Overall, it was a lot of food, and we sent our leftovers home with our friend, since there's no fridge in our room.

Tomorrow, we're going to the south side of the state, and drive along the shore, check out some lighthouses and beaches, and NOT do as much walking.

Made it

(like I had anything to do with the flight!)

We arrived at MSP early enough to have lunch at Chik-fil-A, probably the only time we'll get to have that in Minnesota for at least another year.  The flight was fine, getting the rental car was smooth (used the kiosk instead of waiting in line), eventually found the motel (yay for the iphone and the mapping feature).  I have to say that the motel6 we stay at in Avoca has us spoiled.  Here, we get a single queen, a musty smelling room, no wi-fi (well, we can pay 2.99 a night), no pool.  For the same price as the Avoca one.  Well, it was better than spending 100 bucks a night!

We stopped at a place called 99.  I had a panko encrusted cod, she had the plain old fish and chips.  Both were good, but way too much.

After dinner we swung by Walmart and picked up a few snacks for the room, and an extension cord for all the electronics (there's only one plug in the whole room).

Tomorrow, we're going downtown Providence, park at the big mall, and walk around downtown, hoping to see the Oldest Baptist Church in America, and other sights.  We're going to Iggy's for dinner with my friend, then we'll see what's up after that!

Ready to go...

...I think.  We're all packed, except for the electronics, which I'll do first thing in the morning.  We went to Outback tonight, so we wouldn't have to cook and clean before our trip.

Watched a couple Restaurant Impossibles after we got home, and played LOTRO.  Looking forward to the trip, and taking lots of pics of the ocean and history.

More of the same

Work was work.  Did some things I didn't want to work on, but isn't that always the case.

We had BLTs for dinner, she watched news about the hurricane, I updated some of the comics I bought last week into the computer, then I played LOTRO and watched Storage Wars.

After that I played Star Wars for a little bit, then went to bed.  Tomorrow is packing, making sure I have everything printed and ready to go, and then we're off!  Starting to really look forward to this little trip, even if it is on a budget.

Quiet Monday

Nothing exciting today.  Spent most of the afternoon working on creating a new report, a pretty complicated one.

Came home, had supper, watched a little tv to catch up (still playing catch up, and we're going to get more behind when we go on our next trip).

Played a little LOTRO, talked to my friend Mandy for a while, tried to cheer her up. No job and no market is kinda depressing :(

One event down, one to go

Today was fair day.  We spent about 8 hours there - could have spent more but I got overheated and we came home.

I'll be blogging about the different foods we had later this week.

After we got home, we just hung around the house.  I played LOTRO, she watched some tv.

Now we have to get ready for our next trip!

Nothing happened today

Woke up as if it were a weekday, and didn't sleep in.  I played LOTRO in the morning, then we went to MOA in the afternoon for a little shopping and then to Target for some groceries. 

After that my knee started to hurt again, which tells me I'm not yet 100% - but it didn't hurt at all at the mall, so I started out ok :)

Tomorrow is State Fair day.  We're going early, I'm renting a scooter (I'm sure we'll share throughout the day), and we're going to have a good time.  I'll take pictures of the new foods we sample, and anything else that catches my eye, including some of the animals.

I bet we'll be tired at the end of the day though!

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday was fair day for work - we had an activity in the morning, fair related, then we spent the afternoon at the fair.  I didn't eat much, and I didn't walk much either - kinda painful to do that.  I plan on renting a scooter when we go on Sunday - a half day (7-3) and I should survive the rounds a bit better!

Today I went to the orthopedic doctor, and he gave me a cortisone shot that should help.  I didn't stay long at work after that, as my leg hurt worse and worse.  I came home and put it up in the afternoon which helped.  The drawback to the shot is that it spiked my blood sugar really high.  He warned me it would do that, so now I'm just sitting here kind of bleh, with a headache.

We watched some tv this evening, catching up on a few shows, and I've been playing around in LOTRO in the summer festival - which mostly involves fishing and a lot of "You have acquired [Weeds]".

Finally

Got some commitment from others at work to get moving on this project I've been assigned to, that I spent part of a week in Denver talking about.  Now, I can start seeing some progress.  I hate projects like that, where I get thrown at something and get told 'do this', without help, without guidance, without support.  I was told today I'll get all that now.  Finally.

After work, we ran to the pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions and update our insurance information, since we finally got our insurance cards this week.  We had leftovers for dinner, watched a behind the scenes edition of Restaurant Impossible, and the premier of the Great Food Truck Race.  Sometimes on that show we have an early favorite we want to win, but not this time, at least not in the first show.

Tomorrow at work we have our team outing at the State Fair.  At least it's only half a day.  Sunday, the wife and I will take nearly a whole day, and after which I'm sure I'll be taking a painkiller!

Another day, another dollar

Or two.  Got some work done today, mostly on a document I wanted to work on, as opposed to the document I don't want to work on :)  Left a bit early so I could just rest - this cough is messing with my sleep.

We watched some tv and ate a little dinner, and I played on the computer and watched a little tv.

Hopefully, I'll sleep a little better tonight.  I am so ready to be over this cough.

Monday

Worked at home today - no point in needlessly annoying my coworkers with this cough that won't go away.  I'm feeling better, except for the cough.

One of the benefits of working at home was that we could order pizza delivered for lunch, so that's what I had.

After work, we ran to the store, picked up a few things we needed, I put gas in the car, since the trip back from grandma's pretty much emptied the tank.  When we got home, we watched some shows that recorded while we were out of town, had a small dinner, and then I played LOTRO till bedtime.

Tomorrow, I am going in, even with the cough, which will probably irritate some people.  I don't really like working at home, since I don't have a desk for the laptop - it's just easier to do a lot of things in the office.

I may be having a cough drop every couple hours - I'm sure my tummy won't like that!

Home again

Spent the morning visiting with Grandma (well, sort of visiting - still not feeling well, and the chair I was sitting in was pretty painful, so mostly I sat and listened to others visit), then had lunch with my uncle and aunt (on Mom's side).

then came home.  the drive wasn't too bad - didn't hit construction till we got close to home.  Actually made the drive in about a half hour faster than normal time.

Had a little to eat, and since there was so little unpacking to do, I played LOTRO and chatted with my friends in the game.

Then went to bed.  Tomorrow will be interesting, catching up on whatever I missed on Friday.

Saturday

Went to Embers for breakfast - I must remember to never have their hashbrowns again.  Yuck.

After that, we visited with Grandma till lunch, then we kids went and played at a casino on the river for a while.  None of us won anything.  Sigh.

Fired up the computer to find it has only 10 minutes of life left on the battery, so I figured I'd update my blog now, even though I probably won't be going to bed for another couple of hours.

Tomorrow, it's visiting again, then lunch with my Mom's brother, then the drive home.  First thing I'm doing when I get home is plug in the laptop :)

I hate it when I do that

I forgot the power cord for the laptop for this little weekend trip.  So, I won't be playing LOTRO much, if at all.

The drive down was a little tough, being sick and drowsy still, but we made it, and managed to visit for a little bit before dinner.

After dinner, we visited a little more, then pretty much called it a night.

Nothing much today

worked on some documents - one I didn't want to work on, and one I did.

When I got home we packed for tomorrow's trip, had some dinner, watched a little TV, then I played LOTRO till bedtime. 

Probably won't play much LOTRO this weekend, unless it's later at night.

Not much of an update

sick as a dog.  went to the doctor, got checked out, got some drugs, tried to work for a while, and just couldn't, so I came home and just hung out.

I really hope this quits soon.

That stinks

...catching a cold/sinus something or other at work in the middle of the day, AND not being able to eat or drink after 830pm thanks to my pending bloodwork tomorrow.  Total stinki-ness.

Dentistry

Well, at least I didn't have any more cavities.  My mouth hurt most of the day though.  After an afternoon of meetings, I came home, took a painkiller for my mouth and my knee, and kind of blurred through the evening.  We watched a couple of tv shows, then I played LOTRO for a little while - nothing complex because my brain and my eyes are tired.  Hopefully I'll be able to wake up tomorrow!

Tabletop fun

Played DDO this morning, then some Star Wars.  Then we headed over to our friends' place and played some games - Redneck Life and a card game called Dominion.  We had a great time - we're going to get together soon and play some more.  It's nice to have someone to hang around with and just have fun.

We stopped by the grocery store on the way home, had a little snack, then pretty much called it a night.  Tomorrow I get to go to the dentist. That should be fun!

Yep, lazy day

Played DDO in the morning, some Star Wars in the middle of the day, some LOTRO in the afternoon and evening.  Watched some TV, had some dinner, played some more LOTRO, went to bed.

Snuck a little laundry and birdfeeding in there, but that was it for today,  Nice, non-stressful day.

Another Nice Day

I actually drove to work with the windows down.

Spent a lot of time organizing/cleaning up something that I thought was already done, and trying to scramble to solve a problem that should have never been a problem.

It was nice to leave for the day.  We stopped by the comic book store and the book store, visited SmashBurger for dinner.  Went to Target to get some groceries and some goodies for Sunday, then watched some TV and I played LOTRO till bedtime.

Probably not going to the Pirates exhibit tomorrow.  Probably just going to laze about at home.

It was a nice day today

Too bad I was inside for nearly all of it.

One more day till the weekend.

Finally.

Never wish for Excitement...

...because you'll get it.

Woke up with a neck ache at about 545am.  Laid down, and it turned into a fullblown headache by about 730.  I let work know I wouldn't be in (took me forever to even peck out the letters on the keyboard).

About noon, I could start functioning again, but ugh, it was still 'not fun'.  Played Star Wars for a little bit, did some other stuff, then my computer started acting up, rebooted and when it came back, I had lost connection to the network, and the internet.

Laptop worked fine, so it was isolated to the main computer.  So on top of the headache, I had to deal with rebooting the computer multiple times, messing with the BIOS multiple times, messing with the modem/router multiple times..  About 7, we ran up to Best Buy so I could get a replacement NIC.  They don't carry them any more.  Sigh.

We stopped at Noodles and got some dinner, then ran across town to Micro Center.  They had a card, so I got one, and a cheap network cable, just in case.  Got home, put the card in, and...nothing.

Spent some time on the laptop searching for other people that might have had the same problem (by which time my headache was starting to come back), and found someone had had this problem because of a bad McAfee install.

Sure enough, uninstalling McAfee worked wonders.  I've since redownloaded and reinstalled it, and things seem to be working ok.

So, I started the day with an awful massive headache, only to have it finally clear up in time for a headache of a different sort.

The Usual

Haven't you ever wanted to walk into a restaurant and order that?  It doesn't work so well for work.  Did have a little break in the day with sitting in on an interview for a new hire, so that was a change of pace.  Tomorrow, more of the same (no interview, though).

We had leftover Monday for dinner, watched a little TV and I played a little LOTRO befrore heading to bed.

Not so exciting.  At least it's going to be cooler soon, and I'll be able to work in the yard after work, instead of putting it off till weekend mornings.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Work, dinner, tv, gaming.  Starting to get in a rut.  Hopefully, we'll be able to break that a bit this weekend.  Want to visit the Science museum on Saturday, and go over to a friend's house on Sunday to play some board games and just hang out.  That would be a nice change!

Ugh

Spent some time in the yard today, chopping, pulling, whacking.  After resting for a good while after that in the nice cool indoors (comparatively speaking), we watching some tv, I played a new game (well, new to me) Star Wars the Old Republic, then we had BLTs for dinner, watched some more TV, and called it a day.

Pretty mundane stuff, except for the part about not really being built to do this anymore.

Jeff Dunham

We saw Jeff Dunham last night at the casino, and stayed for all the other stuff afterwards - drawings for signed stuff from him, and free pull tabs and such.  We also gambled a little bit after the show, and actually walked away with $50 more than we started.

Jeff was really funny, and gave a few bits from his new show coming out in October.

Today, we slept in really late, since we didn't get home till almost 2 am.  I played LOTRO for a little bit, then we went shopping.  I got a few new books to read, and we got some groceries.  After shopping, we caught up on our shows.  Then I played WoW for about 15 minutes, before realizing that I'm still really tired from yesterday.

Tomorrow is some yardwork, and maybe some homework from work - doing some work I have no idea how to do :(

The Dark Knight Rises

Long movie, but a good movie.  A few plot twists I didn't see coming.  Very intense in some parts, dragged a bit in a couple others.  Worth seeing on the big screen, though!

Another one of those days

After a frustrating day at work, I came home, had some dinner, tried to play LOTRO on the laptop, which just aggravated my shoulder.  We watched a couple of cooking shows, Lost Girl, Dark Matters.  I moved to the main computer to play LOTRO a bit more - the festival is much easier on that computer.

Tomorrow, we're going to see the new Batman movie after work, which means the wife has to take me to work in the morning.  It'll be an early day.  And a long one.  The movie is at 7, and it's 3 hours long.  Hopefully I won't fall asleep!

Friday, we're going to see Jeff Dunham.  That'll be another long day, although at least I won't have to get up quite so early.

I'm really hoping tomorrow will be a productive day at work.  I need one.

Tired

Physically, yes.  But also, I'm tired of a lot of stuff.

I'm tired of the hoopla about Chik-fil-a.  Give it a rest already people.
I'm tired of calling someone who killed a dozen people, and hurt scores more, 'accused'.  As if he might not have done it.
I'm tired of aggressive drivers (sick and tired of them).
I'm tired of living in such a small house, compared to the amount of *stuff* we have.
I'm tired of being a homeowner, actually - all the yardwork I'm not able to keep up with.

And more.  I'm just tired.

Working From Home

Is convenient some times.  Like today, when the furnace estimate guy had to reschedule for later in the day.  I worked in the morning instead of the afternoon, getting some more organization done, and working on another test plan.

After the repair guy came, we watched some tv, catching up on shows that recorded while I was gone, and I played LOTRO, doing some festival things that didn't kill my main computer.  After dinner, we watched a couple more shows, I played some more LOTRO, then went to bed.  Tomorrow is a busy day, lots of meetings, starting as soon as my shift starts, which means I have to go in a little early.  Yay.

Touchdown

Pretty uneventful flight.  landed, came home, had a little 'dinner' (what do you call the meal at 11pm?) watched one episode of "Dark Matters", and went to bed!

Homeward Bound

Tomorrow. :)

Went to a couple comic book stores, but they didn't have much of what I was looking for.  After lunch we watched Thor, I did some laundry, we watched some TV and had some dinner.

After the news, I watched 3 episodes of Table Top, and went to bed.  I'm mostly packed, so tomorrow should go smoothly!

Opening Ceremonies

Work was ok - a couple of meetings in the morning where I actually got some useful information, then most of the afternoon was spent working on a test plan for another project that I volunteered to help write.

After work, I stopped by Krispy Kreme and picked up some donuts for breakfast - we don't have any at home, so I thought it would be a treat.  After that, I visited with one of my oldest friends, and half watched the Olympic opening Ceremonies.  Her daughter graduated this year...She was pregnant with her when I got married!  We had a lot to catch up on (actually she did most of the talking - she's had a more eventful life than I have).

Drove home (it's a looooong drive), read my emails, and decided to call it a night!

Almost There

Thursday. One more day of work, then the weekend.  Today was another bunch of meetings, although I did get some work done.  Tomorrow is meetings in the morning - we'll see how the afternoon goes.

After work, we had dinner, I watched a little tv, checked my email, watched a little more tv, then played a little bit of LOTRO - there's a festival going on, and it was really crowded, causing my computer to bog down, so I logged out.  I'll do the festival on the main computer when I get back.

I watched another episode of Battlestar Galactica, then went to bed.

Exciting stuff, I know :)

Good Friends

Work was half and half today.  Some productive things, some non productive things.  After work, though, I got to have dinner with a good old friend and her son.  Her sun was a bundle of energy sometimes, but it amazed me how proficient he was with his mom's iphone.  He could find videos and watch them all by himself.

We spent a couple of hours just chatting, covering all sorts of topics, catching up over the years we've not been in touch.  I had a really good time, making up for the so-so day at work.  When I got to mom and dad's, I had to log in and check on some things...I couldn't do everything I needed to, because of timing issues, which means I'll have to do them first thing in the morning.

Tried to play LOTRO for a little bit, but the bad guys got the best of me, so I decided just to log off and read for a bit before bed.

Tuesday

Another day of meetings, talking about things we'll probably never do.  Very frustrating sometimes.

After dinner, we watched a little tv, I checked my emails, we watched a little more tv, and the 9 o clock news.

Then I came downstairs, played some LOTRO and watched 2 more episodes of Battlestar Galactica.  After that, I read a little bit and went to bed.

Monday

Quite a few meetings today, including one long training session.  We had pizza for lunch.  I'm kind of tired of pizza now :)

Afterwords, we went to a happy hour and chatted for a couple hours.  I came home, watched a little bit of a Antique Roadshow, and a bit of news.  After that, I played some LOTRO and watched a couple episodes of Battlestar Galactica again.

Oh, and welcome to my 200th blog entry!