Although that title is a bit misleading: Friday certainly went well, we went out to a new place - well, new to us - Acadia, which is located up in Hillcrest (one of the posh bits of town, occupying one of the hills). The restaurant is quite lovely, with a series of outdoor decks spilling down the side of the building, woven amongst several trees, with the whole decorated with fairy lights all over. The inside looked pretty impressive, but we - of course - chose to sit outside.
And we had been granted a great night for it, neither too hot&sticky, nor rainy - the rain threatened a few times, but never actually delivered. I don't know how busy it usually is (when I first spotted it 12 months ago, it was packed out), but on Friday they managed to fill all the outside tables (6 or 7), but there was noone seated inside (I guess at least 12 tables), so I guess they are hurting as much as any restaurant.
Amazingly, the restaurant actually lived up to the location, for once - so many restaurants with spectacular locations or views seem to use those as an excuse to be ordinary, or worse. Here the service was impeccable, and the food both interesting and delicious. I had possibly the best Caesar salad I've ever tasted, and a nicely-done breast of duck on the strangest casserole I've ever encountered - more like shredded potato with bacon and mushroom, quite delicious. Cat's scallops were also, she said, delicious (I declined the offer of a taste, feeling about shellfish as I do).
We also had several glasses of dessert wine with our meal (having long abandoned any pretensions to 'good taste' in wine, and all that wine-bluff stuff, we now just drink what we like, and the hell with developing our palates). Of course, this wasn't actually the wisest of choices, as I wound up paying for it the next day.
Sadly, in my case it seems high-sugar alcoholic drinks exact a disproportionate revenge the next day, so I spent most of Saturday feeling quite hungover and ill. Mind you, as Cat got me DVDs of The Sopranos, I could just sit & watch some of those and vege out, which kinda fitted in with my capabilities for the day.
Sunday, unfortunately, I got a phone call at 8 a.m. for work, and had to spend the day in a mixture of working, and waiting for others to fix things so I could do another step. This staggered on until 6:15 p.m., in a most frustrating fashion. If I could have just done my bit, it would only have amounted to a couple of hours of actual work, but of course, things don't work like that.
We did get out at one point to look at an Open Home nearby - someone had gone the extra mile and delivered flyers in all the letterboxes inviting people to come and see it, and find out about 100% financing and 'buying the house at less than market price'. I have to say, wow - what a con job. The couple had obviously bought the place to do a quick flip - tidy it up, give it a quickie facelift, and then sell it for a profit. Talk about bad timing for that manouevre!
The job that they had done was so obviously a completely superifical one, done to the lowest standards - a nasty mid-brown mushroom paint job, the cheapest of carpets, missing handles, and so on. Not that there weren't some nice points to the house, but overall a fairly cramped 3 bedroom house with a nice lounge & no dining room. Then there was the price - $181,000. At that point I just about laughed out loud, as it is so completely unreasonable in the current market. For less than this ($179k), I saw a -very- nicely finished 4 bedroom place with office, playroom and large fully-landscaped & fenced yard, in a nicer part of town ... and that was 2 months ago, so if it's still on the market it's price will have fallen.
I mean, seriously, house prices are just in free-fall all over the US. I'm quite happy to hold off buying for another six months, as I think they'll just keep falling for at least that long. Around then, we can start looking at foreclosures, as these are usually so much cheaper: true, the banks can be harder to negotiate with than private owners, but they are also not emotionally invested, and once the property has been on the market for a while as a foreclosure, you can use the same sort of pressure on the bank - i.e. show them how much they are losing each month it doesn't sell, as a persuasion to cut the price for a certain sale. Or so the theory goes, anyway ...
Oh well, on the brighter side, the 2nd series of True Blood has just started on TV, so we were agog to see that. We were riveted by the first series, so much so that we went and bought all the books the series is loosely based on, and devoured them in short order. I have to say, the books are actually less substantial & thoroughly thought-out than the TV series (which is already deviating a fair distance from the underlying source). Of course, the TV series is made by the brilliant Alan Ball (of Six Foot Under fame), which is why I gave it a look in the first place, & it's not surprising that it is rife with so many levels of meaning and subtext.
Showing posts with label Birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birthday. Show all posts
Monday, June 15, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Birthday time again, redux
Well today has dawned bright and sunny. Prolly get to hot and humid later - that's the weather pattern we seem to be in, at the moment - but then that's what the air conditioning is for.
I cant recall if I've blogged about my work hours, so if this is a repeat, sorry: When I started here, I'd come from working 9 day fortnights (8.5 hours a day) in the UK, and so I asked my boss of the time (Doug), whether that was available here. He said sure, altho - of course - it's 9 hours a day here as they usually work 80hour fortnights. So, I work all of week one, and take every 2nd Friday off: and I work from home on Mondays, and on the Fridays that I don't have off.
However, the DBA who preceeded me here (John), keeps forgetting about this. It's been happening for a year, so I'm starting to think it's not an accident that he keep scheduling appointments & other issues on the Friday I'm not working.
I had planned to ask for leave, to cover my birthday, as I always do, but when I checked the calendar, my birthday fell on a rostered day off, so I thought, great, no need! Steven (the new DBA) then asked if he could take the day off, & that seemed fine - we don't really overlap and John would be here to cover any issues.
Then, yesterday, John sends out an email announcing he wouldn't be at work until late morning on Friday, because he's got a doctors appointment. Hmmf. No real way of saying no - he wasn't asking, he was telling - so, here I am, working from home this morning. I wouldn't mind too much, except I was aiming to sleep in :(
Oh well, so be it. John is old & cranky at the best of times, approaching retirement age and very resentful of having to leave PNM and join SAIC - I think it was a contract condition of SAIC that PNM provide one of their experienced DBAs, if they took the contract - and, given that they had 11 friggin' DBAs, I would guess the resentment stems from actually having to, yanno, do some work for a change: plus, I'll admit, production DBA is the least exciting bit, as you don't get to help out with the coding and design, just implementation.
Even so, he needs to rise above it: all he's doing is spreading his misery, and acting fairly unprofessionally. It's a shame, because when he forgets to be resentful, he's actually quite amiable & pleasant, with a quirky sense of humor. Oh well.
It does remind me tho: after 7 years under Graham the Engineer, and his high standards, I'm actually quite shocked at the lack of professionalism and competenece I keep encountering over here - to quite a frightening extent. I know standards have been falling in IT for the last 25 years, as numbers expand (and intellect decreases), but geez, how do some of these buffoons manage to get out of bed and get dressed each day? I keep looking at their shoes to see if they can tie their own laces yet (mostly, no, they depend on velcro'd sneakers).
Let me provide an example (a rant I already had at Ray):
On Monday I got contacted by 3 new consultants hired by our client firm, to do some programming & set up a new software application for them: they couldn't connect to the (existing) databases on 2 servers, so there must be something wrong with the servers (of course).
Wednesday I was of course off on leave, driving to Memphis & back.
Well, enough blither - one more phone conference, then John should be here, & I'll be able to hand over and shoot off to the Satellite for latte's and brunch :)
I cant recall if I've blogged about my work hours, so if this is a repeat, sorry: When I started here, I'd come from working 9 day fortnights (8.5 hours a day) in the UK, and so I asked my boss of the time (Doug), whether that was available here. He said sure, altho - of course - it's 9 hours a day here as they usually work 80hour fortnights. So, I work all of week one, and take every 2nd Friday off: and I work from home on Mondays, and on the Fridays that I don't have off.
However, the DBA who preceeded me here (John), keeps forgetting about this. It's been happening for a year, so I'm starting to think it's not an accident that he keep scheduling appointments & other issues on the Friday I'm not working.
I had planned to ask for leave, to cover my birthday, as I always do, but when I checked the calendar, my birthday fell on a rostered day off, so I thought, great, no need! Steven (the new DBA) then asked if he could take the day off, & that seemed fine - we don't really overlap and John would be here to cover any issues.
Then, yesterday, John sends out an email announcing he wouldn't be at work until late morning on Friday, because he's got a doctors appointment. Hmmf. No real way of saying no - he wasn't asking, he was telling - so, here I am, working from home this morning. I wouldn't mind too much, except I was aiming to sleep in :(
Oh well, so be it. John is old & cranky at the best of times, approaching retirement age and very resentful of having to leave PNM and join SAIC - I think it was a contract condition of SAIC that PNM provide one of their experienced DBAs, if they took the contract - and, given that they had 11 friggin' DBAs, I would guess the resentment stems from actually having to, yanno, do some work for a change: plus, I'll admit, production DBA is the least exciting bit, as you don't get to help out with the coding and design, just implementation.
Even so, he needs to rise above it: all he's doing is spreading his misery, and acting fairly unprofessionally. It's a shame, because when he forgets to be resentful, he's actually quite amiable & pleasant, with a quirky sense of humor. Oh well.
It does remind me tho: after 7 years under Graham the Engineer, and his high standards, I'm actually quite shocked at the lack of professionalism and competenece I keep encountering over here - to quite a frightening extent. I know standards have been falling in IT for the last 25 years, as numbers expand (and intellect decreases), but geez, how do some of these buffoons manage to get out of bed and get dressed each day? I keep looking at their shoes to see if they can tie their own laces yet (mostly, no, they depend on velcro'd sneakers).
Let me provide an example (a rant I already had at Ray):
On Monday I got contacted by 3 new consultants hired by our client firm, to do some programming & set up a new software application for them: they couldn't connect to the (existing) databases on 2 servers, so there must be something wrong with the servers (of course).
After much fussing about, we determined there's nothing wrong with the databases or the servers, and it must be their connection file that had errors, so I forwarded them a copy of the master connection file, and forgot about it.
On Tuesday they reported that that wasn't working either, they still couldn't connect to the databases, and there MUST be something wrong with the databases, and WE"RE WASTING THEIR TIME AND THE COMPANY'S MONEY so do something about it. Well, after having to verify (and print off a copy for the IT manager) to prove there was nothing wrong with the databases, I tried to analyse what was wrong, and it turned out that they couldn't even connect to the servers or see them on the network at all. Fine, a network problem, I turned it over to Networks to fix it, and forgot about it.
Wednesday I was of course off on leave, driving to Memphis & back.
This morning, I get a phone call SCREAMING that I still hadn't fixed it and my databases weren't working right and I have to fix it RIGHT NOW!
The databases, of course, were fine. I talked to the Network guy, who thought he'd fixed it yesterday (but hadn't of course) ... it turns out that these turkeys were set up on their own (non-company) PCs, and had no connection of any sort to the Clients network. How they thought they could connect to secured databases on our network, I have no idea - magic wands, perhaps, or ESP.
Anyway, it turns out that the network guy yesterday sent them the VPN software, so they could connect via the Internet, except ... they're running 64bit VISTA and the VPN software only runs on 32bit ... which he had explained to them already.
How this is my fault, I have yet to hear, but no doubt they will try to blame me.
What -really- bothers me is, these guys are supposedly IT professionals with tons of experience, and yet it's quite clear that they have not the slightest idea of how networks are meant to work, or simple network connectivity, or even really how O/S's work.
Talk about doomed projects.
End of rant
Well, enough blither - one more phone conference, then John should be here, & I'll be able to hand over and shoot off to the Satellite for latte's and brunch :)
Monday, June 16, 2008
Birthday
Well, my birthday went well, if not quite as initially planned - we had aimed to go to Acadia, a cajun restaurant much recommended, but it turned out they were closed for a private party on the 12th. I tried looking for other cajun restaurants, but all the other listings looked, well, dubious - more on the line of cajun restaurant and budweiser refueling station - except for one, which, despite being listed as cajun, was (on inspection of the menu) just a seafood restaurant, and not a particularly inspiring one at that.
I also tried ransacking looking for a good proprietorial (i.e. not a chain) Italian or French place, without any joy - the few possibilities turned out to be either pretty lowrent, or too far out of town. So, we wound up going to a 'French' style chain restaurant, and were pleasantly surprised.
Not that any Parisian would have recognised it as French, except for the decor - the waiters were neither surly nor superior, the service was in fact excellent, and the food was hot and timely: and the menu almost completely lacked typical french fare & heavy cream sauces, something that didnt disappoint.
We started with the recommended specialty appetiser, pork pot-stickers. I'm not sure what we expected, but it certainly wasn't what we got - parcels of minced pork wrapped in a thin pastry and (I think) steamed then lightly fried. For all the unexpectedness, quite tasty. For a main, I had planned to stick to a steak, figuring that would be the one option on the menu that any chain restaurant would do well.
In fact, to my astonishment, they had orange roughy on the menu - a delicacy I haven't had since we left NZ - so I ordered that, and was utterly delighted: panfried with a simple citrus sauce on the side, it was perfectly cooked and completely delicious. Cat had chicken cordon bleu, which she was very satisfied with, altho the quantity was such that she couldn't finish it (not a problem I experienced with the fish, I hasten to say!
We were so well fed at this point, that desert seemed superfluous, so we decamped home to coffee and some of the excellent fruit cake Cat had baked as my birthday cake.
I also tried ransacking looking for a good proprietorial (i.e. not a chain) Italian or French place, without any joy - the few possibilities turned out to be either pretty lowrent, or too far out of town. So, we wound up going to a 'French' style chain restaurant, and were pleasantly surprised.
Not that any Parisian would have recognised it as French, except for the decor - the waiters were neither surly nor superior, the service was in fact excellent, and the food was hot and timely: and the menu almost completely lacked typical french fare & heavy cream sauces, something that didnt disappoint.
We started with the recommended specialty appetiser, pork pot-stickers. I'm not sure what we expected, but it certainly wasn't what we got - parcels of minced pork wrapped in a thin pastry and (I think) steamed then lightly fried. For all the unexpectedness, quite tasty. For a main, I had planned to stick to a steak, figuring that would be the one option on the menu that any chain restaurant would do well.
In fact, to my astonishment, they had orange roughy on the menu - a delicacy I haven't had since we left NZ - so I ordered that, and was utterly delighted: panfried with a simple citrus sauce on the side, it was perfectly cooked and completely delicious. Cat had chicken cordon bleu, which she was very satisfied with, altho the quantity was such that she couldn't finish it (not a problem I experienced with the fish, I hasten to say!
We were so well fed at this point, that desert seemed superfluous, so we decamped home to coffee and some of the excellent fruit cake Cat had baked as my birthday cake.
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