Dumber Came to Visit

Tuesday I took in an 8 mile run in the morning. I followed this with a 2 mile run with my son that evening. I hope he will want to begin running again as it will help him with his weight and thus allow him to enjoy the pool this year more. I got up this am and did only 4 miles as I hope again to get him to run 2 tonight. Get him going slowly and steadily.

The other reason to get him running is there is a half marathon in Disneyland in September that I really want to do. It is the inaugural event so to have the medal that is the first year running of this race in 20 years I think would be a cool thing. I think my son would love to have that medal also and if we both are going to run it that makes it an easier sell to the wife to go. There is always a method to my madness.

Dumber visited today for his interview. I think he liked it. I was able to show him around a little and he got to see where I work and the cool server room we have. I am sure he would agree it is a DEFINATE move up with computers from Addroc. I tried to put in another good word for him so we will see.

The gal I work for is getting all kinds of grief. She is like a grizzly taking care of her cub bear, me. The people are all opening up or I should say I am more and getting to know them better. I really do like them here so far something I never really felt at Addroc.

Today work load is crazy. I have to set up 6 tablet pc’s to work on 3 different servers for a customer. I have to have it all done so that tomorrow’s lake trip happens. Tomorrow afternoon there is 6 of us from the office going to the lake for a get away. The owners have boats that will be there to party and ski on. Drink some beer and enjoy an afternoon away. But today lots to get done.

Memorial Day weekend

I had a great weekend. I am back at my desk and in a way wanting to be outside again and in a way loving the feel of my chair just like Dumber. The reasons you will soon find out.

On Saturday I ran with my club for a short 7.5 mile course. Was wanting less but that is what we ended up at. Came home and did home work around the house and then headed over to a friends house for a BBQ. The BBQ started at 3pm and I finally ended up back home at midnight. Another friend from the neighborhood brought over his guitar and he played for hours. It was amazing that he was able to play almost anything we tossed out and we could all be heard singing at one point the theme to Gilligan’s Island. Yes, we had lots of drinks at this party. It ended when I lost my $20 at the poker table.

Sunday we had to be up early to go and clean my grandmother’s garage out. It has not been cleaned in 20 years and the mouse turds were overwhelming, and this is coming from me the watcher of the turd cam guy. Lol. After we took everything out, cleaned and put stuff back we had a family BBQ there. I then came home and the kids, wife and I went to our pool that we belong to and broke it in for a couple hours. I was going to get in but it was cloudy and cool and ended up just watching the kids play. I will get in this week sometime. We ended the day with an Italian dinner to ready myself for my race on Monday.

On Monday again we were off early, had to leave the house at 6am to make it to the race. As it was I barely made it to the race in time, like only with 5 minutes to spare and that was with a run to get there. I ended up running the Bolder and pulled out my best time ever. I shaved off 18 minutes from my best time. Last year I ran the 6.2 miles in 1:06:13, this year in 0:48:36. I was very pleased with that time. That equates to around a 7:50 minute pace per mile. Not bad for a fat nerd.

Today at work we had a BBQ. Flank steak, chicken, brats, salads and Momos (a Neapolitan food) that reminded me of another persons cooking at the company before Addroc. It was really good.

Memorial Day Friday

Nothing happened yesterday. I worked all day setting up a couple of new pc’s for the local users. I will even continue that again today. We did have a small champagne party to celebrate a new client. My wife came in to visit me and I showed her around my new office. She loved the layout and décor.

Last night was spent at my son’s school. There was a talent show put on by the students. They had some local celebrities as the judges as well. It was a cute show.

The gardening Penguin has his hands full with my buggy. He thought he found the problem but it didn’t work. Now he thinks he has again found it in a worn out part of the carburetor. I don’t know yet but we will see as we try to find another carb for it now. Darn toy cars cost money to keep running but the good side is it is really easy on fuel when I am driving it.

Today is FRIDAY!!! Yayyy. I am looking forward to this long weekend. I plan on a run tomorrow morning followed by a party at some friend’s house. Sunday will be a work day at my grandmothers. We plan to clean out her garage that has not been touched in 20 years. It is going to be a dirty long grimy day. Monday I will run a local race. We will have to get up at 5:30 am to head to the race. I will tell more about it on Monday or Tuesday.

Friday mornings at my new company is breakfast day. There is a rotation of people who all bring in food. Today’s two people brought in biscuits, gravy and scrambled eggs. Was very very good.

I was able to install a second flat panel monitor for myself today. I now have a 19” and a 20” LCD flat panel at my work station. I LOVE the ability to have duel screens and so much monitor workspace. I also got a NEW chair delivered today nice fully adjustable. I feel like I am sitting on air. :)

Work Keeps Coming.

My cohort at work was gone this morning. I had to cover anything that was broken and I was amazed I was able to do everything that came in. Late morning the owner came running in the door and yelled rally everyone to the front desk. Everyone came in and she announced that we just got a contract for more work. This is a major contract as it is for a customer that was going to go with a competitor but at the last minute liked that our company is more people oriented. One of the factors was that we are out to help people and take care of people and not just take the money for the product. That feeling was a factor. There will be a celebration tomorrow for this contract so everyone will be able to attend.

My buggy is over at the Gardening Penguins (Addroc) being worked on. Her husband is getting it running smoothly and ready for a summer of fun. When I go over tonight or tomorrow to pick it up I am going to try and get the changes that are happening at Addroc.

After work I have to go to two different clients and try and fix their computers. One is a monitor warranty; the other is fixing some server issues and looking at a VPN setup. Once those are all done I am planning on a Wednesday night dance night. Leaving the kids at home and going out to the local bar for a drink and dancing with the wife.

Still Meeting People

Today worked on a bunch of training laptops. Made sure the connections and software was all correct for the next training in a little over a week. I think I am learning quickly what is going on here and for the most part enjoying it. I love working with windows all around me to look outside is a real benefit. The picture is of the corner of the building where I sit.

We had the May Birthday Party today at work. Each month they have a party to celebrate all the employee’s birthdays for that month. It was an ice cream social and everyone had some and hung out for a bit and talked. I remember these same things happening at the company I was at before Addroc and it was a nice touch.

I am getting to know a few more of the people a bit better and that is nice. So far things look more like a normal work place, or at least what I consider a normal place and I like that. I still hold my reserved thoughts though for something to happen to freak me out. I guess I am used to Addroc where trauma, drama, scheming and underhandedness happens on a daily basis.

Today I think we received yet another order from my product. Have been working with a repeat customer on a new style and it has come finally to be made to what she likes. Now I am just waiting to get the final word and the order. I am seeing a different feel to the orders coming in now and more people knowing about them. I have to find the right marketing and advertising and I believe it will become a huge success.

Tonight is run night with the club and after I need to take my buggy to be worked on to get it to pass some tests that it is due soon. Other then that it should be a normal quiet night at home.

Quiet Weekend

Wife and daughter left on Friday for a Girl Scout camping weekend. So it was just my son and I all weekend. He was a lot of fun to hang with and we got some work done around the house and did some playing. My son and I even attended the softball games of my daughter’s team on both days. The team lost the tournament and I hope they learned something.

We live near some mountains so Saturday I went out with a group and ran 8.5 miles of mountain trails. My legs were beat. My right knee’s tendons are bothering me and tightening up making it hard to walk for a while after running. Saturday it bothered me all day. I turned around and Sunday morning went out again got ½ mile in and thought I can’t do this today and turned around. I returned making it a mile and everything seemed to work so I kept on going and ended up going another 6.5 miles.

I was working away today and suddenly my past came back to bite me. I was entering a login and password to a server here and I could not get in. It finally hit me I was entering the administrator password for Addroc. What an ID10T error I was making.

I am slowly working into my new company. There was another new hire today so now I am not the newest employee anymore. Everything is still very relaxed and I took my first user call today. I was happy I was able to go in and make the corrections without any help. I also set up another laptop that had a bad HD in it today. Things are moving along pretty smoothly.

First Week

I had a very busy day at the new job today. I moved into place 2 laptops I had been setting up for users and set up a new desk for a new employee starting Monday. I will not be the newest member here next week. The move up in seniority has already began. In some ways it kind of feels like the company before Addroc. I am going to call it ITcompany1. It is kind of funny but ITcompany1 is literally across the street from where I am sitting in my new company. ITcompany1 started as a small business and grew and each employee was like family and knew what number of hire they were. That is how it feels here now. I am number 36.

My daughter and wise are headed out camping for this weekend. It will be just me and the boy hanging out. I think we will try to go golfing at some point. I think it could be a good weekend.

So with a mild weekend planned my first week end in a lot of upcoming work to do next week. We will see how it goes.

Have a great Weekend.

More Work

Today I had a meeting with the owner of my new company. I was very excited when I left the meeting. She told me about the company and their goals and expectations. One of them was the company believes in family and the needs of the people taking care of their families. She almost put an expectation on me to make sure I make it to my kids functions as much as possible.

I was very impressed with this owner and this meeting. I even brought up I took this position trying to make a family decision and was less money then other opportunities. I mentioned I hoped to negotiate some of the money issues in the first reviews to which her answer was that sounds totally feasible and there is some room there for that. Again I was surprised and amazed.

Sounds like my new job is going to have some travel in it. I will be heading to another state in two weeks with the owner to do a client install of hardware. Most people this will be a week job but for the part the owner and I am going on it will be just an over-nighter. They even asked if it would fit in my schedule to go on this one with such short notice. It does so that is good and I will get some good learning in.

As for my private businesses they have been picking up also. The product I am trying to get off the ground is still growing. I am working with a gal that purchased from us at a local home show and loves the product and wants more. I also sold my product to a restaurant in New Jersey. I talked to the owner and people are loving them and he needs information and brochures. He is also looking at them still to go nationwide with my product in all his stores. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I also do private consulting in IT. When Addroc ended I again started pushing it just as I did between jobs when I started at Addroc. I picked up clients and they have all stayed with me and been extra money the whole time I worked at Addroc. Now I am again from being in between jobs picking up new more new clients. I took care of one at noon today, one I picked up while off called for more work, and another totally new client called today needing work.

With all the school activities right now, the new job, travel plans, new clients needing work, my product still growing I am getting worried. I might become to busy again. Guess time will tell.

My kids are growing up.

Today worked out okay at the new job. I was able to leave in and attend my daughter’s field day without any worries. I am getting my hands wet now with doing some Oracle installations. I have never been able to do much with Oracle in the past and that is going to be a great thing to get to know. Today was my first day to wear shorts to work in over 3 years and that felt really good to do. I didn’t realize how much I missed being able to work like that. Even the owner was wearing shorts today.

Like I said my daughter had field days for her class today. I have 1 more year of that and my kids will have out grown those. It kind of made me sad the rest of the day knowing that part of my life is coming to an end in the next year. She has girl softball practice and girl scouts yet tonight to attend making it another busy night.

I turned in a resume for Dumber to apply for a position here at my new place. I told a gal I run with that I actually met at Addroc when she was doing some temporary work for Addroc about Dumber applying. She laughed and though how funny that would be to lose both IT guys at Addroc to the same place. I personally hope it happens as I know Dumber would love it here.

I noticed there was at least 1 interview here today and I think it was for the same position Dumber is applying for. Wish him luck and that he gets a call.

Day 2

Day two worked out very nicely. I got to meet with the HR gal and work through all the stuff. The more I am here the more I am seeing it is like a place I worked prior to Addroc. I just found out today that I can again wear shorts to work as my attire. The frig is stocked with yogurt and drinks galore and there is even birthday parties each month that if the people having the birthday wish they have brought in marg’s for everyone. Treat day Friday consists of everything from eggs and bacon grilled by a person to donuts. Depends on who is doing the treats that week.

Every year at Addroc when I set up that I wanted certain mornings off to attend my daughters swimming meets I got nothing but grief and pain. I had set up where I would work certain hours to be able to take the hours off I wanted on those days. This made sure that all my work was done and I got to attend what was important. Each year they complained and made it harder for me to do by changing the rules as each year I did it according to the rules in place that year.

Here at the new company I asked about it. She said whatever. It is all honor system for you to put down your vacation and or to make your time work. Talk with the person to make sure coverage is happening and have fun was the answer. I am almost in shock. Can it be I found a company again with the values that I loved at a company previous to Addroc?

We had my son’s Jazz Band concert tonight. It is amazing how much better he has gotten over the three years he has been playing. I like listening to the Jazz band. He will play in the Symphonic Band on Thursday and that music to me gets boring.

I ran 8 miles tonight. My right knee was tightening up so I will have to ice and heat it tonight and try to keep nursing it along. I found out there are runners at the new company. Might have some new running buddies in time.

Day 1 of New Job

Today I started my new job. So far it has been very relaxed. Met a bunch of the people and everyone seems to be welcoming me aboard. Literally, almost everyone said “welcome aboard.” Other then that seemed very slow and I have a lot to catch up on with what and where stuff is at in their system. I am dealing with my first VOiP system and it seems very easy. As the gal I am learning from was going through some stuff I did a quick little thing to reset the IP on a computer and she was looking at me like what am I doing. She had told me to reboot to fix the problem that I did with this command.

One thing that has me so gun shy is the ease of lunches and time off. I mentioned I wanted a couple hours off for my daughter’s field day on Wednesday. I wanted to use my hour lunch for that and I was told just put it on my calendar, it is no problem. I am at this point a little in shock. I am home for lunch right now and heading back for the rest of my day.

I sat in a meeting this afternoon and was assigned to a group that is studying a book about business. We had to go over a chapter that covered behaving like your in business for yourself. I think I have been through this book before at a previous company. This was a good thing to me. I also noticed there is TONS of food around the company on counters, such as pretzels, dried fruit, nuts, some candy etc. The coffee is always made and a refrigerator is totally stocked with drinks. I have not figured it all out yet but I think the company provides all this. I also heard of monthly birthday parties and lots of get together for the employees. This new company might actually care for its employees. A new twist that has me still wondering and time will tell as we move forward another day.

I was watching the gal I am taking over some work from as she was helping the lady owner. I offered some advice to what she was working on and the lady owner said wow 1st day and your already a benefit and contributing and was happy I was there. She happened to say this just as the other owner that hired me entered the room. I smiled at him and he seemed happy to hear that.

Softball Weekend

Saturday my daughter played 4 games of softball. We tied the first game followed by a 2 run win in the second game. Had a small cook out and grilled some hamburgers and wieners before another set of back to back games. The 3 game we lost and the 4th game we won and played really well.

I share my duties as 1st base coach with another guy whose daughter is on the team. At the beginning of the day I made sure of a rule on how I could have the girls steal second and planned on a very aggressive day with stealing second. The head coach asked me to tell the girls what I was planning and how they should be listening to me. I told them and the other 1st base coach seemed to get a little offended. I tried to include him but he is just not as aggressive as I am and holds the girls more then I do. That kind of set a tone for the day.

My daughter was put by the head coach to play 2nd base. The other 1st base coach’s daughter played that spot all last year but was moved to an outfield position. When his daughter missed a pop fly the head coach told her what she did wrong and the dad yelled that is not her position. Oops wrong thing to yell. The next game his daughter was in the line up for hitting only. The whole family got upset and he left and didn’t do any 1st base stuff so I did every inning from that point out. My daughter played pretty much every inning at 2nd also and another dad even said she must have a vacuum since she was stopping most everything that came her way. The head coach even said that my daughter is doing the best there and with a little more experience she will just get better. For the most part my daughter doesn’t care where she plays, she is happy anywhere.

On Sunday we went into the bracket plays in 3rd spot from the pool play on Saturday. We had to play 3 hard games as we know most of the teams and how they play. The first game went really well against the Lady Warriors. We shut them down the whole game. We had an hour off and then had to play the Red Wings a team we tied on Saturday. This time we pulled off a 1 run win in the end to go to the finals. In the finals we played a team called the Blue Jays. We played the Blue Jays for the Championship two weeks ago and they won. We wanted this win as we know we are a good team. We got ahead by one run with time running out and held them to no runs to win the game as time ran out. We ended the day the Mothers Day Tournament Champions.

We then ran to my parents and had a buffalo steak dinner with them to end the day. Time to go watch the Survivor finale and get ready for my first day of work with my new company tomorrow.

Last Day before the new Job

I was talking with a friend yesterday about my new job I am moving to this next week. She sensed that I didn’t seem happy that I found a new job in under a month. It is not that I am not happy it is just the change that has me confused.

The place I came from was so dysfunctional that in a way it has me very cautious about the next company. This new company seems to have very low turnover and people I have talked to that are there are all very excited and seem to love working there. Unlike the place I came from where you could talk to people there and they all hated it but like me were to scared or comfortable and didn’t want to take the change.

So here is the question and feeling I really hope that the people of the new company can help me overcome. Why do I almost feel like today is my last day of freedom? I mean in a way I am excited to go and meet these new people, to learn some new stuff like Oracle, to talk to people both inside and outside the company. It still comes back to Addroc and the way they treated people that is scaring me.

I think the Lord moves us in strange ways sometimes. For instance I was applying and looking to move out of my old company for a while. If this opportunity had come a long while I was at my old company would I have accepted this new one? Like a co-worker there that had an offer and stayed I might not have taken it. I think that by being out of the old one when this opportunity came along forced me to make the change.

My daughter said it this way. “Look Dad it is like changing schools and you get to make new friends.” I think she summed it up the right way. At this point I am trying to hold open my thought and go with a positive attitude and see what and where things go.

Went and saw the movie Mission Impossible 3. It was pretty good and full of action. Also worked a lot on the pressure washing of my fence. Making it all fresh looking and pretty again.

Have a good weekend.

Manual Labor Day

Now I know why I chose a career in computers and business. I do not like that manual labor stuff much anymore. I mean I can do it and for short periods of time I don’t mind it but after a full day of it today in my back yard I am beat tonight. My back is killing me from pressure washing my deck today. What a job getting it all prepped to get it stained again. It is all washed though. I will begin washing the cedar fence tomorrow to get it back to pretty cedar color. Remember that jingle for hair coloring? I’m gonna wash that grey right out of that wood. I am going to go watch survivor that I taped and die in bed before I go out running in the morning again.

I need some Ibu and a heating pad I think. :)

Beginning Post

I don't know how often or what I will type in here but I am sure in most cases it will be boring on most accounts. The idea is this blog is not intended to be anything more then a place for me to still write things I wish to capture. It could contain a joke, stuff I am doing with sports, my kids, my wife or anything that makes me feel like I need to capture. Call it a partial diary in a sort.

Here is what I am feeling and why this blog site is started. I have written in a blog everyday almost 11 months. In that blog I wa living in what I called the prison for a work place and the blog came about with another friend of mine as a way to relieve the stress and share the antics and idiot things that happened in that company. Last month I was fired, yes fired from there which they, the management team, had been trying to set up for over 6 months. In a way I think I gave them all the reasons as I was so close to quitting there numerous times for 2.5 of the 3 years I was there.

With the blog though I got attached to writing and capturing things that happned but when your unemployed there was not much to capture each day. With my moving on to another company now and a new job I am ending my other blog with most readers knowing I am okay an will live happily ever after so to say. I though still wanted a place to post my thoughts when I want and thus this is the new forum and place for me.

If you are so inclined feel free to leave me a comment and I will always answer them in my postings.