justice7

justice7 @ 2007-11-26T23:50:00

2007-11-27T06:23:45Z

I'm back from my visit to Chicago for my yearly AMUN conference and visit to the parents for Thanksgiving dinner.
AMUN went well. From what I could tell, comments were extremely positive in general. No one disappeared from the conference this year. I sold lots of souvenirs, including almost my entire stock of new shirts (sold 157 of 160).
I also got selected for the position of Under-Secretary General of Development. Not entirely sure what I've gotten myself into there, but I'm sure it will mean a little more work this year. But I also get a really cool title :-).
Thanksgiving with the family went well. Food and company was good. Also got the much needed R&R. Didn't even bother getting up for Black Friday.
Now back to the usual day-to-day grind.
That's all for now.

justice7 @ 2007-06-27T23:04:00

2007-06-28T04:15:54Z

Been a bit since my last post, so I'll summarize the last two months.
Memorial Day was cool. Had the AMUN people in Champaign and we did bowling, kick ball, BBQ, and got a little work done.
Been up and back to Chicago a few times. Went to see a comedy show at the Improv in Schaumburg. Visited people and actually went to a kegger downtown. Also first time going to the bars in Chicago.
Been traveling for work here and there too. It's been keeping me busy, though not as much exciting work for the last two months. Should be picking up here soon, starting with a kickoff in Albuquerque.
Seeded the yard and been spending a bunch of time watering it every day. It's grown in decently for how dry its been, but now I have to clear out the weeds. That's what lawn care people are for.
Been playing the Wii. Need to get a few new games here soon. Been trying to get better at Guitar Hero, which is definitely a challenge.
Still go out swing dancing every once in a while too.
Got a packed weekend. Going to be out celebrating Friday night. BBQ at parents for visiting relatives. Maybe the Taste of Chicago on Sunday. Then 3 days off back home.

Toys

2007-04-30T02:31:25Z

Today I got a Wii and a new cell phone.

Sweet!

MUNI's Over!

2007-04-24T02:39:38Z

Glad that that's over. Now I have free time again - sort of. Time to start planning for the next big event - Memorial Day weekend.
But to sum up the weekend, things went quite well. I got my stuff up in time, which is a record, and it all worked pretty much without trouble. I averaged less than ten minutes on turn around time, which is probably unheard of for conferences like these.
On the downside, I stayed up all night on Saturday. On the upside, I slept 14 hours after I got home around 6 on Sunday. Just in time to go to work.

Charmed

2007-04-02T04:26:21Z

The last week or so has furthered convinced me of the truth of a favorite quote of mine - "if it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all". My two favorites from last week were gas prices going down 20 cents an hour after I fill up and splattering my tirami su on my garage floor (same night btw).
My favorite from today is that I had a meeting with people to train them on some software that I wrote for these guys. Happens once a year. All I need for success is for my computer at home to stay on-line and be a dumb server while I'm at the meeting for thirty minutes. Last year, when having the same meeting, my internet went down. This year, my power went off every five minutes for an hour. I repeated this cycle 5 times before giving up (turn computer on, log in, check internet connection, power goes off, repeat).
Needless to say, I am annoyed. Apparently my power didn't stabilize for 4 hours, but I wasn't around. I just went out shopping for the afternoon. Picked up Guitar Hero 2. Power stayed on for me to play it :-).

The DST2K7 Bug

2007-03-11T23:36:29Z

Somehow, I think the DST bug was more annoying for me then the theoretical Y2K bug. I woke up to the power having gone off, with the only thing potentially telling me the right time was my TV. I couldn't access some of my e-mail (web-server crashed?). And I had to install all these annoying patches to get my digital calendars (outlook) to sync up right.
I can't wait to see what other random things come up, like F-22 Raptors and the International Dateline Crash. Thanks Congress for an extra 28 hours of sunlight.

Congrats

2007-02-20T04:30:03Z

Congratulations go out to Val and Renee. They got married yesterday. It was nice. And good times were had by all!

Snow!

2007-02-14T03:54:17Z

Well this has certainly been an interesting day.
I decided to take a personal snow day. I actually did work from home most of the day and actually got a lot done. I think only a few people went to work. Those of us who lived far enough away have such high winds that we accumulated huge piles of snow in parts of our driveway.
What's kind of weird is that I have about a 3 foot stretch in front of my house that has absolutely no snow on it. In the back, I have about a foot stretch of space, and then a 3 foot tall pile of snow. And a foot pile between the screen and the glass of the door.
What really sucks is being on the other side of the street - they have 4 feet of snow piled in front of their garage doors. No way they're getting out. They can't even get the snow blowers out to the snow...
I wish I had a snow blower...
Also, been having trouble with the heat. For some reason, it looks like the pilot light goes out and won't relight. It's automatic, so it should relight on its own. I got pretty cold in here before I realized it. But if I flip the power switch, it comes back on. Anyone heard of anything like that?
Anyway, an interesting start to a crazy week. I hope the weather gets better before Thursday. Two friends driving in from a distance, more on Friday. Bachelor party, swing dances, rehearsal dinners, and weddings. Not fun in this weather...

Break Time

2006-11-29T05:13:59Z

I haven't had much time to post anything. After I got back from vacation, I got busy getting ready for the conference. Now that it is done, I don't have much to worry about for a little bit. Time to enjoy the holidays. But first - random thoughts.
Conference went well I think, with the exception of a certain news story. As usual, I didn't get much sleep, which I made up for by sleeping for half days all weekend. Thanksgiving was nice and enjoyed time with family. Didn't buy anything interesting on Friday. I wandered out to the store at around 9 or so, but didn't really want anything and didn't find anything. Friday was pretty lame from my point of view. The stuff I'm usually interested in wasn't really on sale, and there was no way I was getting up early to get my hands on a Wii or PS3. So not worth it.
Other than that, it's now time to do a whole lot of nothing for a while. Lazily putting up Christmas decorations and doing other things around the house.
Went to my first Illini basketball game. Not sure how I hadn't gone to one before, but it was a neat experience.

Aloha

2006-10-10T01:25:19Z

I've returned to the mainland again after my two week stay on the Hawaiian islands. It was a great time and I wish I didn't have to come back so soon. The four of us did a lot in our two weeks there and our fifth had a great time on the second week. It was my friend from college, his wife, her college friend, and her college friend's brother (who came for a week).
We did snorkeling, submarine tours, swimming, beaches of many colors, luaus, submarine and helicopter tours, volcanoes - active and not, kayaking, hiking in mountains and rain forests, and star gazing. Went to Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian cultural center, and many other interesting and historic sites. Too many things to mention here and more than enough pictures and movies to occupy several DVDs.
I'm going to try to put together a vacation log or something that talks about what we did along with some pictures once I get them back or sent to me. Anyone have a recommendation for a good site or engine for things like that?

Anyway, I'm stuck back in the midwest, where the whether changes every five minutes. And back to the normal grind. I even got hit with things to do within 5 minutes of walking into the office. Fortunately, I worked only a half day due to long travel times over the weekend. I guess it's back to the usual.

Almost...

2006-09-20T04:18:34Z

Only 4 days until I'm going on my vacation. Can't wait!
Yaaarrr!!!

LD weekend

2006-09-05T04:16:51Z

Just had a good time up in Naperville this weekend for conference training. Much fun was had.
Since I didn't have a lot of training myself, I did not choose to make positive sleep choices. So as a result, I'm now exhausted. Much sleep will be required to recover again, though I did grab a few hours earlier.

Otherwise, been busy with work and house things. And generally hanging out with people I know, some who are just back from their summer breaks. As for house, been generally doing yard related things. Haven't really had a chance to buy any new furniture or get any more settled in. So much to do, so little time.

That is all for now. Time to sleep.

Better now

2006-08-09T05:41:47Z

My dad is back home today. His orders are to rest up and take it easy for the next four weeks. Then they'll check to see if he's ready to go back to work. It will still take 6-9 months for the clots to completely break down, but there really doesn't seem to be a problem there. He'll be going in for checkup frequently to double check everything.
Apparently this Coumadin or whatever he's taking is fairly common. It's a blood thinner. It's possible my dad may need to use it from now on. But it sounds like this runs in the family as one or more of his siblings use it apparently.
So there doesn't seem to be too much to worry about right now. And at least my dad is back home where he can relax better and still do some things. Yea!

Updates

2006-08-06T18:01:32Z

Like I mentioned in my last post, I went to see my dad on Friday. He's generally doing quite well. He's in pretty good spirits and looks healthy. He looked tired, but that's because it's apparently really hard to sleep in a hospital. On the down side, my dad doesn't like being stuck in the bed all day. He gets really bored. I guess the first doctor told him he could go home in a day or two. This was dumb - there was no way. It just bummed my dad out when he found out it was going to be about a week.
On Saturday he was looking even better. They were starting to let him get up and walk around a little bit. It was just my mom and I and so we just sat around and chatted and ate lunch together. I left late afternoon and got home pretty late.
As for his condition, I guess it's mostly just a waiting game. His condition isn't really threatening right now, as the blood thinner is doing its job. It's going to take about six months for the clots to dissolve on their own. The doctors don't seem to think surgery or stronger (dangerous) medicines are necessary. Mostly, there is just a risk of the leg clot breaking off some more and causing more trouble, and they're monitoring pretty closely for that right now. They're saying he can leave in 5 days, but I think he'll have to be back often for checks even then. They also want to see if they can figure out what caused the clot in the first place.
In short, outlook is good, but still worried about potential complications.
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers while I was away, and asking how he's doing. My family appreciates it too.

Bad news

2006-08-04T07:15:22Z

I got a phone call from my mom late tonight. My dad is in the hospital in ICU right now. He got a blood clot in his leg and didn't know about it (he thought he pulled a muscle at work). Part of the clot broke off and traveled up and got caught in the arteries that go into the lungs, somewhere near where it splits into two.
The good news is that he is doing OK right now. They got him on several medications such as blood thinners and the like. So he is able to breath OK and his heart is only slightly running faster than normal.
The bad news is they don't really have anything to get rid of the clots. It's kinda going to have to dissolve on its own. If any more breaks of the leg clot, they will probably have to operate.
Kind thoughts and/or prayers for the quick recovery of my dad are appreciated.

I will be heading up to Chicago after noon and I don't quite know when I will be back. I'll have my cell with me as always.

justice7 @ 2006-07-30T21:45:00

2006-07-31T02:46:41Z

I finally got to see my niece yesterday. She's already four months old, but it took a while for my brother and I to coordinate something. They came over from Bloomington to my place. Parents came down and we had dinner. I got to hold and play with my cute little niece for a while too.

Today was productive. I weeded some of the back yard with the intent of filling in gaps with seed soon. Mowed the front for the first time - it's been like 20 years since I've used a mower. It was not too bad. Takes like 5 minutes to mow the main section of my front yard. Probably 10 total.

Also went to go look at furniture again. Still not quite sure what I want yet, but getting there. That stuff can get pretty expensive too.

Water

2006-07-21T06:26:51Z

Yea for rain!

color blind delivery people

2006-07-10T02:55:40Z

I got my new washer and dryer delivered yesterday. Everything seemed to go reasonably smooth, until I actually tried them.
First I used the washer. Let it fill up a bit and tossed in detergent. Reached in to mix it up and the water was hot. I checked my setting and it said cold. So I looked at the back of the washer. To my dismay, I found the cold input was connected to the hot faucet. Forced the machine into spin to drain, almost overflowed due to hot water rinsing detergent, unplugged and disconnected the washer and hooked it back up. Works great now. Strike 1 for the delivery guys.
I put my clothes in the dryer and set them on auto-dry. Came back like 2 hours later to find it still running and the clothes not getting any dryer. My vote is they hooked the power cable on wrong (they don't come with a plug - it comes separately and wired in by the delivery guy). Strike 2.
They cracked the plastic plate under the washer that acts as the drain in case the washer ever leaks. They dropped the washer on it the wrong way. The plate is now useless, though I can probably seal the cracks with something. Strike 3.
The delivery company called not long after the delivery to ask if everything went OK, but I hadn't had a chance to use them yet. I'm calling them back tomorrow and explaining how well the delivery guys really did.

Update: So far it's not the dryer - seems not enough juice in the outlet. Having the electrician come by. I'd say they're down to 2 strikes, but I didn't mention they were supposed to level both of them, and they didn't.

Final Update: The breaker for the dryer wasn't screwed in all the way, leading to a loose connection. I could have fixed it myself had I known where to look. Dumb... Back to work.

4th Plans

2006-07-04T16:51:47Z

In case someone is still looking for something to do:
I will be going to the fireworks near Memorial Stadium tonight, unless it looks like it's going to get rained out. Call to catch up or perhaps I'll see some of you there :-). Hopefully this rain trend will hold off for the night.
Also, will be going to one or more friends' BBQs before the fireworks.
Happy Independence Day to everyone!

Home Owning Fun

2006-07-04T05:08:16Z

The move in went well thanks to the help of friends. Still took me 5 trips to grab the rest of it (mostly kitchen stuff I didn't have time to pack before hand due to being on travel)
Finished moving and cleaning on Thursday, and gave the keys back. It was almost kind of sad moving out of the place where I lived for five years. Lots of memories. But it's good to have my own place now.
Now I get to buy all sorts of exciting new things. Like today. I bought a washer and a dryer. Good times :-)
On an even more amusing point, it takes 5-7 days to get my mail forwarded from my apartment a few miles away. Apparently, it goes back to Chicago to be forwarded to the new address. Awesome.
Anyway, that is all

Home Owner

2006-06-23T04:26:18Z

It is now official. I own a home. Closing was a relatively painless process and I didn't come out of it with a sprained wrist or anything like that.
Planning on starting to move Saturday morning. I got a U-Haul so hopefully it will be a single trip.
My packing tonight was going well, until it was promptly ended by running out of packing tape. Without said tape, I can't put any more boxes together to fill. It was getting late anyway I suppose (I know I could get more somewhere).
Off to go sleep in my house. Later!

Almost...

2006-06-22T04:03:00Z

The day has almost finally arrived. I close on the house tomorrow at around 3 with the walkthrough at 1. Everything and everyone is ready. Work off tomorrow, so I don't have to worry about that.
I however, am tired. Just got back from a business trip about an hour ago. It was the trip of random detours. Trips to pick up big boxes, stuff lost last week, and airport runs. I should have been home around 5 or 6.
But anyway, besides being tired, am excited. Still have a bunch of packing to do. Planning on moving Saturday.
More tomorrow when it's all official.

long commute

2006-06-13T04:24:15Z

Flew into work from DC today. Made it quite the long day. Up at 6am EST for an 8am flight and got to work at 11am CST and worked til around 6pm. Weekend was fun. I got to see many AMUN friends and just kind of chill. I got to sight-see around DC for the first time even though I've been there many times before.
I am super tired though. Fell asleep on the couch to wake up like 3 hours later. Unfortunately, I get to unpack only to repack, as I am headed out for business and a big presentation on Wednesday.
As for the house stuff, things seem to have magically worked themselves out and I think I'm still getting the house after all. My closing is rather soon though due to the July 4 weekend, and I have a short amount of time still to get everything done. Got some crazy stories to tell about buying a house now.
Moving day is currently scheduled for Saturday June 24th. Dates apparently subject to change w/o much notice as it was the following week when I talked to several people last week.

Dilemma

2006-05-31T04:18:09Z

So I have an update on the house. Theoretically, I should have had a contract signed by now. Unfortunately, I've been getting the run around. There is language in the contract which would put me in a bad situation if something goes wrong. Of particular note, if my home inspection finds something really wrong, I still can't get out of the deal. Anyway, my lawyer and their lawyer discussed changes and came to an agreement. But apparently, the buyer's contract agent was out due to surgery last week and when she came back, she declared that the contract is non negotiable. So I lost a weeks worth of work for nothing.
Apparently, the what-you-see-is-what-you-get attitude is how things work in Chicago, and they've decided to maintain that mentality elsewhere. But no matter how good (or bad) they built the house and their claim of quality, and even knowing the skill of one or more of their contractors, they don't seem willing to back it with anything other than the legally required one year warranty. And even more annoyingly, they changed this recently. Additionally, most builders do not apparently have this language in their contracts.
This being as it is, I have been advised to walk away. Now as my friends know, I really like the house. But I'm almost inclined to agree at this point. Not really sure what to do. Looks like a possibly restless night.
Anyway, throw any thoughts or suggestions out there. They're always appreciated :-)
Later!

justice7 @ 2006-05-21T23:06:00

2006-05-22T04:11:44Z

Now I'm a little bit paranoid. There's a lot of stuff on the internet about the increase in mold problems in new construction. Pretty scary and expensive to fix stuff. And my contract goes through great lengths to shift all liability to me (which made me look it up in the first place). I have my lawyer looking into it, but how annoying. I don't want to be worried about this kind of crap. I just want a nice place to live for a while...