All Hallows Eve

Our son had a great time at family Halloween parties over there in Utah. He was dressed up as Superman.

The next thing will be Thanksgiving. I don't know if I'll be able to make arrangements to head out there for a few days.

I'm going to have to pick up the pace a bit if I expect to sell this place off in eight weeks or so.

Need sleep

I managed to pack most of what remains of my wife's clothes. I packed up 7 large boxes. One box was solely for her shoes.

It's time to turn the clock back one hour. For the most part there are only two clocks I need to turn back: my alarm clock and the kitchen stove. Oh ya...me wristwatch too.

I didn't get to sleep until 3:00 a.m. and then I woke up just a little while ago. Again I only get a few hours sleep.

Lack of sleep...again

I got up at 3:00 a.m. this morning because I couldn't sleep yet again.

I managed to pack 12 boxes and ship off 2 to my wife. They are filled mostly with our son'e toys and some of my wife's clothes.

All in all a boring day. I managed to get the grocery shopping in too.

Pathetic

I saw the saddest thing in the world today. I was on my way to the highway and I was slowed down because someone in a Hummer was driving slowly trying to avoid potholes.

Let me repeat that.....SOMEONE IN A HUMMER WAS DRIVING SLOWLY TO AVOID POTHOLES!!!

What the hell is that all about? I don't get it. Did they buy it to go over anything or just to look cool?

Either way you look at it it's pretty sad.

What a day.

During this bidding session I'm working with a completely different staff than the last time.

Previously all I did was take-off the projects and the rest of the staff would give me the values to assign to the units. That staff is no longer working on bidding.

We have been reduced from a staff of 7 or so people to a small group of 3, myself included. I'm no longer taking off jobs but now I'm contacting sub-contractors getting quotes, calling the owners for any addendum to the projects and sending out drawings and specifications to various bidders.

The big problem I'm having right now is that I'm forced to reduce the cost of mailing out of drawings and specifications. To do that I began e-mailing the drawings and specifications after I had them scanned into our system.

Unfortunately for me the size of the files can be large. Not everyone can receive a 10 megabyte file. Our consultant gave us a solution, a localized FTP server. The downside was the cost at $20,000.00.

Our company is watching costs and they are not willing to spend that kind of money on hardware for a site that might not get the use we're expecting. I got the idea of web-hosting. It seemed like a good compromise and it only cost $40.00 a month.

We got the go-ahead and arranged everything except for the site design. Our IT guy wimped out on setting it up because he didn't want to get involved with it.

That left me holding the bag. Once again I get the work that no one wants to do because they think it's beneath them (which I guess means there's no one lower than me in the company) or they don't have the time to do (which translates to "I'm not doing anything").

I set up the website to function but I'm not a web designer. I don't have the creativity to make a beautiful site. I don't have the technical knowledge to make it secure and up to date. All that considered I got a basic site thrown together.

All in all it's the best I can do, which is a far side more than anyone else did.

So instead of people giving me some kind of acknowledgement, I get criticism on the overall site structure, design and appeal.

That's when I decided to go home early.

Not cool

I woke up at 2:00 this morning and I just couldn't get back to sleep.

After tossing and turning I gave up and got out of bed at 3:00. Now I'm in the office and tired as all hell.

To make matters worse I forgot my cell phone, I'm going to have to call my wife from my office line, I prefer not to. I don't want anyone to say I'm abusing the company's resources.

But then again, I'm using our resources to post this message.

Oh well..... In for a penny, in for a pound.

I could use one of these

It supposedly relieves stress through sound waves. Fact or fraud? Who knows but I can't afford one at this point in time.

Price of gas

It appears that gas has dropped 20 cents for mid and high grade and 10 cents on low grade at this station in the past week.

It's not yet at it's lowest for the year but it's getting close. All I know is that filling my tank today cost me less than $20.00. I can't remember when the last time that was.

Dilemma

My wife called me yesterday a little panic stricken. She's feeling anxiety staying at the house. She doesn't like the sounds that come from a house. She's not sure that the sounds are normal sounds that travel through the house.

She's doing so bad she asked me to come out there to help watch the baby while she deals with what she has to do for herself and for her mom. I knew at some point she wouldn't be able to handle living there alone with the baby but I tought it would last longer than 10 days.

She has a small idea of what it will cost us for me to go out there. There is a possibility I can lose my job over this. This is a heavy bidding period and they need me to help out since they don't have enough people to handle the flux right now.

I don't know what to do just yet. My gut instinct is to tell her she has to deal with it but I don't know how constructive that will be.

MSNBC - News of the Weird

Now this guy is commited. To have his finger amputated in lieu of surgery. This way he doesn't have to miss any games and deal with the aches and pains of physical therapy.

Also look at Ronnie Lott, he had the tip of his finger amputated because he didn't want to miss one game. I hope he got a bonus for that.

Punisher

For you punisher fans here is a wallpaper a friend e-mailed to me. I think the image is from Welcome to Big Nothing.

Feel free to e-mail me your faves.

Chance meeting

I spoke with my wife today. She went to church with her mom today. She said a typical Sunday service in the Mormon church lasts about 3 hours.

Her mother hasn't been to this church yet since she just moved to her house. After the service they spoke with the Bishop or Deacon of that particular church.

During their conversation my wife mentioned we were considering moving to Utah and I would have to find a job there. He asked my wife what I did for a living and when she told him I am a project manager for a construction company specializing in public works he was very interested.

It turns out he owns a construction company that is opening a branch in Utah and is looking for project managers for the company. He handed her a business card so I can give him a telephone call and discuss it with him.

It was a lucky break their speaking with him. My mother-in-law swears she had not met him before and doesn't know him. She thinks it's a sign from God that we were meant to go out there.

I don't quite believe that but one never knows.

Early day

I didn't sleep more than a 1/2 hour at a time last night. I eventually gave up trying to sleep and got out of bed at 2:00 a.m.

I spent more time trying to get the matting from the cat and I did the dishes. Not a very exciting time I had.

Small accomplishments

I only got a few things conpleted today.

I shipped out 2 boxes to my wife that she was looking for which she couldn't pack on her flight out. I sent her some clothing for the baby, a few Baby Einstein DVDs and a couple of bottles and sippy cups and spoons for the baby.

Not alot of things but some things she was looking for.

I also got the grocery shopping done, aside from that I only got one other thing done: I groomed the cat.

Our cat had some heavy matting of her fur on her sides. I usually stay away from her so I hadn't noticed it.

Having no knowledge of how to care for her I did a little research online. While it may be an indicator of a worsening condition I have to groom her anyway. However, she doesn't like me and that required me to gain her trust enough to allow me to take care of it.

It took all day of slight contact and attention. She finally allowed me to touch her and inspect the matting. Using the scissors was a different matter. That she didn't like one bit.

She gave me a good scratch, and basically put our relationship back to square one. After more time she let me touch her again. I had to use my fingers to pry apart the matted fur and use a brush to work it out. She could only tolerate just so much so I had to let up and hope she'll let me finish tomorrow.

Finally

I spoke not too long ago. Just as I thought, her mom had created an amergency situation. She gave a handyman a check that would bounce.

Something like that is embarrassing but not an emergency normally, however, this handyman is a genuinely nice person and mom-in-law can't afford to lose him. Other handymen have taken advantage of her.

So straightening that out created a domino effect that's normally reserved for motion pictures.

I feel better speaking with my wife. My anxiety was starting to get the better of me, I don't like it when routines are altered. It's usually because bad things happen.

Hm.......

My wife hasn't called me yet. We normally speak 2 or 3 times a day but she hasn't called me yet today.

I'm 50/50 on worrying and not worrying. It could be an emergency is keeping her from calling me because she's in the middle of something or maybe she's in a location that doesn't have reception.

When I call her, her phone goes straight to voice mail and there's no answer at the house.

I'll hope for the best.

Knucklehead

This guy complained to me because I parked too close to him. He didn't see the irony to it when I showed him this picture.

He still thought I was in the wrong.

Mel Blanc

Looney Toons is one of my favorites as it was when I was a kid. With the passing of Mel Blanc, the cartoons produced since then have lost a certain luster to them, even though his son picked up from where Mel left off.

I suppose I'm a bit biased for the animations than remind me of my youth.

Long days

I'm starting to lose my patience. We have 16 bids about to go in and I'm getting frazzled cause the Chief Estimator keeps changing my focus.

I will kill him if he keeps it up at this point. I don't like doing this and I don't believe I'm saying this but I want to go back to my usual grind.

Wacky inventions - again

I don't even know what the hell this is for.

Is it for keeping you standing as you sleep? Is it for auto accident victims? Is it for people with no neck?

WHAT THE HELL IS IT FOR?

At the office

Work has been brutal. Since I'm now working with the estimating department on bids I dont have a lot of time to dedicate to my other duties.

Of course they have to get done but I don't relish the idea of working 20 hour days so my company has to compromise. They accept that my work will be a bit behind.

What sucks for me is that I end up playing catch up for 3 weeks pulling 13 hour days after this flux of bids is done.

Wacky inventions - again

This was designed to keep the sleepy subway riders from laying their heads on the shoulder of the person next to them.

To me it looks like the user is getting some kind of brainwash treatment from a cheap baseball hat they sell at the stadiums for kids.

I hope the sign says I'm a light sleeper so don't go through my pockets.

Sleep

I got more sleep last night than the last couple of nights. I fell asleep at about 8:15 p.m. which was not what I expected since I had laundry in the dryer and I had to pick it up at 8:45.

I quickly woke up at 9:50 and rushed down to get the laundry. I folded it, put it away and went back to bed somewhere around 11:00.

I didn't get back up again until 2:30 a.m. and fell asleep again until the alarm woke me up at 4:15.

That was the most sleep I've had and I'm glad I'm starting to sleep again cause it's been murder at the office.

I've been getting groggy and dozed off a couple of times.

Price of gas today

Queens Boulevard
Rego Park, Queens, NY

It's been a week since I've last gassed up the car and there has been no change in the price.

I guess I should be grateful that it hasn't gone up again.

Changes at work............Again!

Yesterday my boss let me know because of shortage of manpower I would be working on estimating bids again.

We have 16 jobs on the board with another 12 coming on and they are all due between today and 3 weeks from now.

The next two ro three months will be a bit frenetic at the office. I have alot of work ahead of me since my regular duties have not been taken off my hands.

So that leaves me with change order follow up on 8 existing HVAC jobs, change order follow up on 18 new GC jobs, regulatory follow-up on the HVAC jobs and the GC jobs with HVAC. regulartory follow-up on a Plumbing job, preparation of safety plans for 14 of the GC jobs and now the estimating. I'm sure I forgot about something but then again I never have too much time to think about anything else.

Long days indeed.

Sleep is dwindling

This is the 4th straight day of not sleeping well. I woke up a 2:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I got up once before at 11:00 p.m.

On a positive note I only got up twice last night. That's not so bad. I just wish I was able to sleep without waking. I'm really tired during the day.

Monopoly

According to a Discovery television show this guy is THE guy for taking new baseballs and rubbing mud on them before they are sent out to any professional baseball game.

It's something about the "uniqueness" of the mud in his state that chose him. It's been a family business going back a couple of years. When it started I'm not sure. I wasn't paying too much attention to it.

I kinda zoned out when I learned that this guy is the sole entity for doing this. It seemed like an arbitrary choice.

Sony changes strategy

In a reverse of their usual designs, Sony decided to stop making their game consolse smaller but to begin focus on making them larger.

Blog spam

I have to watch and maintain vigilence what with the bots that automaically attach spam to my posts.

I thought that once I set the blog to accept only registered users it would clear it up. I notice some blogs have the authentication script to weed out the bots.

I have to figure out how to use that.

Sleep

I fell asleep somewhere abut 9:45 or so last night. I woke up again at 12:30 and 3:00 before falling asleep again. Unfortunately my alarm went off at 4:15 in the morning.

That plus my wife called me and left a message on the answering machine. I missed her call and with the two hour difference she probably fell asleep about 3 hours ago.

Now I'll have to wait until 11:00 this morning to speak to her.

Tonight

There's a full moon out. This is the best I can get out of my camera. I know very little about the technical qualities of photography so I didn't play with the focusing of the camera (digital) or with the ISO (I think it has to do with lighting).

I guess I'll learn something as I keep playing with this.

One of my tatoos

My friend asked me about one of my favoite tatoos. This is the Tasmanian Devil with angel's wings and a halo. It just seemed like a great combo. The devil as an angel.

I have it on my right calf. My son is always touching it looking at it on my body, noticing he doesn't have it.

Our cat

Ever since our son started crawling the cat has ensconced herself in every nook and cranny she could to avoid him. On the unusual occasion that she would venture out of her hidey holes our son would walk/crawl or maybe the word is meander towards her and proceed to get acquainted.....slapping, pulling or petting.

Needless to say she didn't like it. Him being a baby and all he wasn't aware of how close he was to getting scratched or bitten every time he approached her.

Now that my wife and son aren't here our cat, Gwendolyn wanders out of her hiding spots more and more often. Last time my wife went away for more than a few days Gwen would come into bed with me and nuzzle in my arm. She wants contact. She thinks she's a human being with all rights and priveldges and I kinda think she considers our son an intruder that we have givent preference over her.

Of course she would be right as far as I'm concerned but that doesn't mean I'm cuel to her. I'm just not a pet person. I hate having to clean up after them. And with Gwen approaching 15 years she's gonna need alot of attaention soon. I just hope she doesn't get ornery in her old age.

Er....

At a younger age I would find this pretty cool, but now I just think it's annoying.

What do you think about this?

More lack of sleep

I just work up about an hour ago and I can't sleep.

I didn't do much of anything yesterday, grocery shopping, little laundry and cleaned some dishes.

A friend called in the morning to invite us to a Tech Expo at the Jacob Javits Center but I wanted to get a few things done first. I have to get a few boxes so I can ship out some things to my wife.

Artist's Rendition

This is supposed to be the aids virus.

Photo found

NYC during the big blackout of the NE 2 years ago. The lighting you see in the background are the buildings that are using emergency generators.

The next day

I woke up this morning without a startle. I would consider that progress on my part. Except for one small detail: I woke up a 2:00 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep.

I hope this does not become a habit with me.

Sin City

I fully watched the DVD of Sin City.

My wife and I tried to see it on Sunday but she felt it was too over the top with violence and I couldn't watch it because my son was disruptive that night. I watched it today.

It was a great film. The most faithful rendition I have ever seen of a comic book movie. This is pure Frank Miller, I loved him from the Daredevil work he did but this is his Magnus Opus.

I think that the film worked best as a black and white film with the color splashes. If it had been done as pure color it would have been a shameful copy of a Sam Peckinpah film.

The casting is star studded with Bruce Willis as the virtuous cop; Micky Rourke in my opinion what is his best role since Pope of Greenwich Village as the tough guy loser who's trying to get justice for the one person who gave him a peek into love and Clive Owen as the killer trying to start over facing a turf war that will have repercussions beyond his existence.

Not just them but also a few other folks: Benicio Tel Toro, Jessica Alba, Rutger Hauer, Powers Booth, Rosario Dawson, Josh Hartnett, the kid from Gilmore Girls and even Frank Miller himself gets into the game as a priest that gets whacked.

If you're not too shy on violence and you get a kick out of the grittiness of graphic comics give this movie a try, I think you'll get a kick out of it.

The real new James Bond?

This should be the guy!!!

New James Bond

They can't be serious that this is the guy who's the new Jimmy Bond.

Shaken not stirred indeed.

Wacky inventions - again

Is this really a good use of children? It kinda looks abusive, takes away a child's dignity.

Frantic call

My wife called me at 12:00 p.m. Utah time crying because her mother locked them out of the car while they were going out for a few things.

She was tired from the flight and stressed from her mother and she had no supplies or stoller for the baby because they were going out for a fast run. It was a bad time for her. I tried to calm her down but I wasn't successful.

She called me back an hour later and she was better. She managed to get a few items from a local store and her mother had Roadside Service come and open the car door for her.

I warned my wife to carry the spare set of keys in the future just in case it happens again.

Smurf is Hell

You have to admit the creative force behind this ad looked beyond the regular "We do good things" mindset.

Not a good feeling

The alarm clock went off this morning as it does every day at 4:15. I opened up my eyes and jumped with a startle because my son wasn't sleeping next to me as he usually does.

I thought maybe he was in the living room with my wife. Then I slumped back onto the bed remembering that they are out in Utah now.

They are such a large part of my life that I will probably jump like that for a few more days until I'm used to the fact that they are not here.

This is the part that sucks.

On the way

My wife has boarded the plane and our son is still kicking up even though it's an hour passed his usual bedtime.

I told my honey to call me when she lands in Utah. It will be 2:00 a.m. here but what the hell.

Wacky inventions - again

OK, it looks to me like it's the anti-shower for public use. It's more than a little too ridiculous.

Heading out to help mom

I drove my wife to the airport and expected to get a Security Pass allowing me into the gate area to help my wife to get through security and onto the plane.

Unfortunately the airline did not grant me a Security Pass, they cited and elevated security level...I don't know, what is it nowadays? Armageddon Red? Who knows?

Anyways, my wife went through the gate without me. I watched from a distance and made sure she went through without a hitch.

I drove home and called her when I got home. She said the security folks were very helpful and courteous.

Thank you, JetBlue.

My son at the office

I brought in my son to the office since he won't be back until January of next year of never. I wanted my co-workers to meet him. Several of my office-mates from our Brooklyn office already met my wife at our wedding so that wasn't my main focus.

All in all my son was the life of the party so to speak. Everyone loved him.

They said he looked just like me except he's cute. I'll take that. I'm not a great looking guy but I have a certain charm about me. Everyone loves me.

Maybe it's my pheromones. I sweat like a pig.

Yet one more thing

Either George Lucas is licensing the hell out of Star Wars or things are getting way out of hand

Wacky inventions - again

What's more important, dry shoes or your dignity?

Wacky inventions - again

I see a terrible glue stick/butter stick confusion in the works.

Isn't butter too hard right out of the fridge for this to work? Or if it's too soft won't it just plop out?

Wacky inventions

Maybe it's just me but I prefer the little packs of tissues. Especially on a rainy day or a windy day, nothing more embarrassing than TP'ing yourself and still having a runny nose.

Price of gas

Queens Boulevard
Rego Park, Queens, NY

Continued preparations

I have to talk to my boss and let him know that I will be taking a half day on Thursday so my wife can take care of last minute things.

I'm also going to bring our son into the office too that way people can meet him before they leave since it's theoretical that they might not come back.

Columbus Day

Wy wife had her last appointment with her OB/GYN here. My wife prefers him to any other doctor whe's had before. He's the one that picked up the cancerous tissue, who recommended the gall bladder surgery and delivered our son.

As you can see in the short time that we've been in contact with him we've developed quite a history.

After that we went home where my wife took a nap while my son napped. After a few hours my wife got up and prepared a turkey for us for dinner. With carrots pototoes and onions and stuffing it was very filling. Since we won't be together for Thanksgiving we had it early as a family. We didn't have any dessert but that's ok, we were done.

Our son doesn't eat much solid food anymore. I gave him fruit which he liked. He wasn't too crazy about the stuffing, although he did enjoy the BBQ potato chips that my wife had on Sunday for lunch. Of course it gave an interiesting hue and aroma to his stool.

Sunday on the move

A few things can take up all day. We got up this morning at 8:00 and sat for a bit before we headed out for our day.

We went grocery shopping, had lunch, picked up a book we left at our friends house and visited my sister so that she and her kids can see my wife and our son before they leave on Thursday.

After all that was complete it was 5:00 in the evening. We drove home and picked up KFC on the way so we wouldn't have to cook. My wife is starting to pack tonight. We started to watch Sin City but my wife thought it was a bit too brutal.

I was getting into it though. I guess I'm the Dirty Harry type.

Watchmen

Nothing like a happy face with blood on it.

Another day of shots

We took our son to the pediatrician today. He got his 15th month vaccination and his first round flu shot.

We'll have to wait until they get to Utah to get his second round shots.

My son cried alot after getting the shots but he handled it well. After a short while he fell asleep. We went to lunch where he slept. He woke up shortly during our lunch.

The shots and the Tylenol we gave him is affecting him because he was lethargic for some time.

He is currently asleep, as is my wife.

Anomaly?

Is this the next step of the Darwinian evolutionary ladder or is it a genetic fluke? Is there such a thing? We're a short lived species. Do we really recognize in one instance the product of millions of years of evolution?

It's all set

My wife and son are heading out to Utah next week. They won't be back until the end of January.

I'm gonna miss them but I'll be really busy because I'll be preparing our co-op for sale. Not alot of work to do to the apartment itself but alot of clutter cleanup.

I have to call my sister and see if she'll let me stay with her during the time the place is empty and I'm at the apartment showing it.

Not so long ago and not in a galaxy far away

I bet George Lucas never envisioned this when he wrote any of the Star Wars scripts.

Bush's selection of friend raises questions of cronyism - Yahoo! News

I assume this is coming up because Republicans aren't too crazy about this niminee.

Either that or I am completely off the mark on the last 5 years.

Errr

There's a reason why Pirates of Penzanz doesn't have the longevity of denim.

Price of gas today

A change of 4 cents from two weeks ago, very slow pace. The experts are saying that we won't see a decline to pre-Katrina prices for six months. So they're saying that in the two weeks they were effected, we see an immediate spike and a 8 month decline.

So in the times they have a glut, where's our vig?

Queens Boulevard
Rego Park, Queens, NY

Moving right along

Over the weekend while I was sick a few things also came about. Saturday night my wife's sister and mother called us.

It turns out her mother is not as good as we thought. Her vision is getting worse, her eyesight is getting worse to the point she can no longer drive herself. She needs help taking care of her day to day activities. Bottom line they would like my wife to go out there for a few weeks and help her out.

My wife offered to do so weeks ago and her mother told her she doesn't need the help. Things have changed and her sister is working so she can't put her job on hold to take care of her mother, added to that she's a Muay Thai fighter so she is training ptractically on a daily basis. After discussion we decided maybe it's better if we were to move out there.

It would make taking care of her a bit better. There's not really much keeping us here, my sister and her kids are here but we don't see each other as much as we speak to each other on the phone. My wife doesn't speak to her half-sisters as much as she would like. The relationship between the sisters is strained really. However before we can think about going forward I think my wife has to concentrate on helping her mom, at the same time she can get a feel for Utah.

The way I see it, my wife is the more even tempered of the both of us, so if she can't handle things in Utah there's no chance that I could deal with it out there.

Right now my wife is set to fly out to Utah next week and she'll return, if she returns, in late January. Once my wife calls and gives me the word I will start packing things and arrange for a truck to ship our belongings to Utah.

I'll sell our co-op and then arrange for the transition between me and my replacement at work.

This is the biggest thing I've ever done in my life but if it makes our life better than we do what we have to do.

Back to work

I'm heading back to work today. I'm feeling a lot better. Of course I haven't eaten much during the last 4 days. I'll take my pills and we'll see how I'm doing.

It even has accessories

The carrying strap is the AC adapter and power cord. It kinda looks like one of those inventions you would expect to see on a late night informercial....For 3 easy payments of $33.99

Versatile

The folks at MIT made it very versatile. It can be a laptop, a tablet or an e-book. Depending of the stats I might be very jealous.

Model T Ford laptop

A $100 laptop with a crank for poorer countries. I could use one of those. My laptop's battery doesn't hold a charge for more than 20 minutes.

Maybe it runs on the Palm OS to minimize memory needs

Down at the farm

My wife took our son pumpkin picking today. They toured a farm and had a great time petting several barnyard animals. They brought home a pumpkin too. My son had so much fun running around he fell asleep at 5:00 for the night.

He's still asleep.

Dumb is everywhere

This link was passed down to me from a friend.

Aches and pains

I may have to see a doctor, which means a trip to the emergency room today. I'm getting some severe stomach pain.

I thought it was because I forgot to take my medication, I did take it last night once I remembered but it's been almost 8 hours and I'm still experiencing a little pain.

I took my dose for today and we'll see how it turns out.