Back to the Salt Mines

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2008 is here and will be for a while, so let's make the most of the next 365 days!

But in the real world... Argh, back to work tomorrow after a nice long weekend. Whoever thought working for a living was a good idea was a sick f*ck*r.

New Year's Eve was very nice. Went down to Ocean Beach to watch the sunset and to give an offering to a pagan goddess (goddess of the New Year and the ocean). It was a beautiful sunset and we enjoyed the bonfire, the company of friends and strangers, and several cups of champagne.

Then I headed to the German's house for the evening. Only a handful of us were there, so we had a relaxing evening eating, drinking and playing poker. While I was consistently giving up my chips, at the very end of the night I called a pot in Acey-Ducey which put me in the green and ahead $6.

And now I must go sleep so I can be rested for our first day back at work. Blech.

Turkey Day Passeth

Thanksgiving went well. Andreas, Esther and I cooked dinner and then Thomas and Ben came by to eat. We all got to sit at the table, eat tasty food (turkey breast braised with burboun, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, salad with pomegrante), drink lots of wine, have entertaining conversation. Then we watched The Jungle Book, with Andreas translating the whole thing to Ben (that was entertainment in and of itself). Around 7:30 the rest of the gang arrived for pumpkin and apple pies and more wine. By 9:30 people were gone and I was passed out from food and wine overload. All in all a good day.

Today, well, I didn't do anything! Watched some TV. Played WoW for far too long -- lvld my new character to 17 (I created a human pally, Pirjo, on another server and joined my friends guild). Went through Deadmines in a flash of an eye -- so fast that I couldn't even keep up with the bodies. I suppose that's all I can expect when a lvl 70 is along for the ride. Managed to get some nice weapons, though, and Pirjo is now sporting a blue mace that she will do serious damage with. Plus, lots of items to sell in the AH and lots of extra cash! Ah, the benefits of a guild!

Turkey Day Cometh

Home Entertainment Update: On Sunday I managed to set up my new TV. It was an adventure. Sure enough, Andreas was able and willing to help me get the TV into the house -- which he carried in himself. Getting the old TV out was another task not so easily accomplished. First, the old thing weights a lot! Even with the two of us it was hard to get out to the car. Then, of course, we couldn't fit it into the Germans new-used -- heh -- bright green, window-tinted Cavalier (ewwww). We were, luckily, able to get it into the front set of my car, so now the Germans have a nice TV for their use while here. But we are not getting any younger, that's for sure. Andreas pulled a muscle in his neck and my back is just starting to relax days later. Ah, well, such is life.

My new TV looks beautiful. I was worried about the TV picture, but it's okay. Movies look really good and, of course, the computer connection is awesome.

Turkey Day Planning: I left work early today so I could get to the store before it got too crazy. Once again I have bought way too much food and spent more money than I should. I just can't help myself. I love entertaining and I'm too lazy to go to a bunch of different stores to get the groceries. Andronico's is great, but it ain't cheap! It is money well spent, though. I got a nice Turkey Breast (I found a recipe on epicurean.com that looks tasty without too much work), fish for Esther, stuffing, potatoes for mashing, 5 bottles of wine, two pies, beans, carrots, cheese, crackers, blah blah blah. It will be a lot of food. Only the Germans will be over for dinner, but my usual crew will show up for dessert. By the end of the evening there will be about 12 of us enjoying each other's company.

On that note, I send out joyful greetings and wish all of you who read my blog a Happy Thanksgiving and I send much affection.

New TV

My slacker brother finally decided to buy a bigger flat screen t.v. so I have opted to buy his old one from him. It's "37. Nothing fancy -- no high-end Sony or Phillips, but it should be cool. I'm really hoping to get my mac mini hooked up to it and perhaps even hook my laptop up to it so I can play WoW on a bigger screen. If it looks good, that could totally addictive. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll get it out of my car and into my apartment, though. It's heavier then I thought it would be. I'll find someone to help, but still, I really want to get it hooked up TODAY! Know what I'm sayin'? It's that need for instant gratification. Maybe if the Germans are home when I drive back to the city I can convince Andreas to come by and help me.

Registration Success

Much to my complete joy, we made it through the whole week of registration without any significant problems -- by Friday 5 pm we had registered about 5,400 returning students. Our Registrar got several emails from staff and advisers pleased with the smoothness of registration and then I spoke with a professor who claimed he was thrilled with the simplicity of the system -- and this from a prof who two and a half years ago told me he doubted we could roll something out that would work without problems. Needless to say, I was pleased.

Of course, life on cloud nine was short-lived as our HR folks hit their peak stress level to date and we are now worried they may not be able to go live on January 2. The technical side of things seems to be going well, but the functional and organizational side is having problems with feeling knowledgeable enough about the system to be able to support it at go live. And, of course, no one wants to risk any chance of not being able to have a perfect payroll. Not that I blame them. But at the same time I think the idea of perfection in a new system is unlikely. It won't be my decision, ultimately. If they don't think they can do it, we'll delay. If that happens, though, I will be a very unhappy camper.

On a non-work related note, I'm putting in some good WoW time. Pirjo and Balloch are leveling nicely. I'm enjoying being a paladin for a change. Every once in a while I go in and play Sarilo, but he makes me feel lonely so I tend not to play him too much. I should find a new guild for him and leave Mojo Juju to others.

The last few weeks have been super social and I confess I'm tired out from it all. I've had some nice visits, though. This last Wednesday I had dinner at my friend's new apartment -- complete with a great view of the city -- and celebrated our friend's birthday. This same group will be going to the foothills in a few weeks to cut down our Christmas trees.

Thanksgiving is coming up and I think it will be a quiet one for me this year. The Germans will be coming over, but I don't have much planned beyond that. We shall see. Just a few days to go.

And finally, went to see American Gangster last weekend. It was a good flick. Not great and, despite the hype, not worth an Oscar. Washington and Crowe did good jobs, but I thought the ending was a bit soft. It is worth seeing, though, so check it out. I hope to see Michael Clayton next week.

Busy Week Ahead

This is going to be a busy week for me, both at work and socially. On the work front, we are one week before going live with student registration in our new administrative system. As you can imagine, I'm just a tad bit stressed on this front. Next week I'll be working with the student team in our "registration command center." I can only hope we won't have any major issues, but be prepared to deal with them if we do!

On the social front, except for tonight, I'm booked all week! I hope I will so exhausted that I'll actually be able to sleep this week. Tonight I have to get the house cleaned up a bit for some company. Tomorrow night, my old college roomie comes over for dinner with her 1 year old son, whom I have not yet met. Wednesday I'm having dinner with the Germans. Thursday I'm playing WoW with my slacker bro. Friday a bunch of us are going bowling. Sometime on the weekend I'll probably go to the movies with some friends.

The reason I'm going into such detail of my week ahead? Just in case I don't have a chance to post anything! I don't want you to think I've dropped off the face of the earth!

Drug Induced Sleep is Still Sleep

Well, I did finally sleep, though I fear it was only due to over-the-counter drugs. But, even drug induced sleep is sleep.

Update on World Without End: a collapsed bridge throws the cathedral-town into chaos, political machinations of a monk bear fruit, and a young woman loses her virginity. Oh, the horror.

I got my little old Mac Mini up and running again and am ripping some of my DVDs for playing on my iPods. I keep them backed up on my external drive, and can then play them on my TV without having to find the DVD in the closet. Very handy. Right now I'm watching Pride & Prejudice, the one with Keira Knightley. In all honestly, this version has grown on me and I can watch it over and over again without getting bored.

Tonight my brother and I are going to create some new characters on our WoW realm. This time, we are going to create Alliance characters and play them together. I haven't played my lvl 60 warlock, Sarilo, in a long time, and I kinda miss him. Blood Elves are just so very cute. I did create a new Alliance character on another realm so I could play with my friend's nephews. It took a while to get used to playing again because after not playing for a while I seemed to have lost all my skills. They came back quickly!

Slowly but surely my energy level is getting back to normal. Today I managed to stay at work to nearly 6:00 without feeling like I was ready to collapse.

And the exciting news: the Germans arrive this weekend! Can't wait!!!