Had a good first day of re-employment. I think it’ll be a fun place to work. The people are nice and the work will be interesting. I’ll be doing Windows Server stuff and really looking forward to getting back to work.
Today was spent getting familiar with the servers and setting up my workstation. Tomorrow some of the real work begins. Now it’s time for bed. I’m exhausted.
I just realized that with 2009, we’re ending the first decade of the 2000s. It seems like yesterday that everyone was freaking out about Y2K. Time passes too quickly…
We made it to Pittsburgh yesterday afternoon. My Memphis-related allergies weren’t nearly as bad as Teresa’s and were gone soon after leaving the state. Teresa’s still having a hard time with her’s. She was up and around for most of the day, and we were able to go grocery shopping to replenish our kitchen since we pretty much emptied the refrigerator before we left town. Teresa made “Taco Soup” for dinner with a brocolli-cornbread. They’re both things we had at my Mom’s, and Teresa’s versions were great! I’d say they were even better because the soup wasn’t as spicy. The Taco soup is like Chili in taste, but it’s thinner, has taco seasoning, and doesn’t have Chili beans in it.
Today I took the Christmas tree down. I don’t know if I’ve ever taken it down this early in all the year’s I’ve lived on my own. It was a pain to stuff back in the box, and I might have hurt my back again in the process, but it’s done. I miss my little 5 foot tree we had in Memphis. This 7.5 foot one is almost impossible to put up and take down on my own. It’s done though, and now we can finally get the dining room the way Teresa wants it. Before we left we got a buffet from Ikea to go with our new table and chairs (also from Ikea), and it’ll be good to finally have everything where it needs to go.
Other than the tree, I spent the day reinstalling Windows on the old laptop we have hooked up to our TV. I mainly use it for TWiT Live (or did while I was unemployed), but also use it for watching the Memphis Tigers play when they’re not on national TV. We left a Slingbox at my Dad’s before we moved up here and use that or CSTV…er CBS College Sports’ All-Access service to watch the video on TV. The quality isn’t the best, but I take what I can get. Anyway, I was reinstalling Windows on it and just barely made tipoff of tonight’s decimation of Lamar over the SlingBox.
Tomorrow’s my last day of unemployment! I’m excited and scared all at the same time. I’ve got a general idea of what I’m going to be doing, but it’s never exactly what is presented in the interview. It’s going to be good to be working again though. I’ve been going stir crazy. That might be one of the reasons I’ve reinstalled Windows on that laptop. I’ve been working almost 100% on my Mac since we moved, and I need to get back into the Windows world. I haven’t been completely without Windows, as my Apple TV syncs with a Windows PC, but it hasn’t been a major part of my life for about 3 months. It’s been refreshing, and I no longer feel burnt out and look forward to working with Windows again. Maybe after I have had a few paychecks I can start building a new PC to replace Teresa’s computer that is almost 8 years old. I want a good gaming PC, and with Diablo 3 coming out I think I can convince her it’s needed.
Hope everyone had a good holiday break. We’re back on the road heading home. It was a good week back in Memphis, but I’m looking forward to getting back to Pittsburgh. We stopped in Louisville last night. I’m sure it’s a nice place, but I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Too many Cardnial signs for my taste.
My new job starts Monday, and I’m excited to get back to work. It will be good to have a commute again and be able to get my podcast listening back on a regular schedule. Being out of work I got out of the routine I had and if it weren’t for the Christmas trip I probably wouldn’t be caught up.
I’ve got a few resolutions for 2009. The first is to get into shape. We’re going to start walking again and I need to start using the workout room at our apartments. The other one is to learn how to program. I got an idea the other day for an iPhone program and website that I think would be good, so I want to learn how to program objective-c. I might see if my brother in law can do the website, he’s big into that right now and it’d be good for his resume if it works out.
I’m not sure how those resolutions will work out together…one involves getting off my butt and the other involves sitting on it for long periods. Maybe if I just don’t gain weight I can break even.
Had a good Christmas this year. We got to see most of the extended family, and my step-father’s daughter and her family stopped by on the way back from Mexico to their home in Columbus.
We’ve been taking it easy so far, but the next few days are going to be pretty busy. We’re meeting my dad and step-mom at Brother Juniper’s for breakfast tomorrow, then we’ve got to run some errands to close up a safety deposit box, fedex some stuff for my new job, then meet up with Teresa’s old coworkers. Tomorrow night’s Memphis vs. Cincinnati, the second Tiger game I’ll get to see this season in person.
Tuesday we’re getting together with my old work friends, and then eating at Sakura with my sister. Teresa’s been craving their sushi since we left. New Years Eve has another Tiger basketball game, but no other plans right now.
We leave on the 1st, so if anyone wants to get together, time’s running short.
We’re almost to Memphis…finally. A 6 hour drive from Pittsburgh to Louisville took 11 hours. We knew it would take longer due to weather, but we hadn’t counted on the interstate being shut down for 2 hours. After leaving Louisville in a monsoon this morning, we’re finally in the home stretch.
As much as we’re enjoying Pitsburgh, it’s good to be back in the south again where people talk normal (I’ll take “y’all” over “yins” any day). We are looking forward to visiting family and friends, and getting to see a couple Tiger games.
When moving up to Pittsburgh, my wife and I were both warned about the winters. So far it’s been nothing special. Now we’re told that February & March are the big snow months, but I’m still not convinced. One thing I have noticed with the limited snow we’ve had is that the salt they put down in Memphis must be table salt. The stuff they use up here is amazing in how well it works.
I will say that it’s really cold right now. It hasn’t been too bad up until now because there wasn’t much wind, but it picked up last night.
My main resolution for 2009 is to keep up with a blog. I’ve told myself I’d do this the last few years, but was never consistent with it. I’ve started this as a way of expressing my thoughts, and we’ll see how far into 2009 I make it. I also blog tech related things at yakk0.org. I’ll continue to keep the sites separate, at least for the time being. You can also find me on Twitter, TWiT Army, Facebook, Livejournal, and other social networks that pop up.