Southern Fried Thoughts

That was closer than I had hoped it would be, but the Steelers pulled it out. It’s gonna be crazy in this town for a while.
WHOOO!

Uncategorized nfl, steelers, super bowl

For my friends in Memphis that are complaining about the cold.

I took this picture of the Monongahela River this morning as part of a continuing series of pictures I’m taking of it outside our front door.

It’s just a little cold up here.

Uncategorized

The shopping center across from our apartment has a Longhorn Steakhouse. If you’ve never eaten there, you should. It’s as good of a steak as I’ve had outside of Texas. There was one that opened in Memphis shortly before we moved and we had great service there in addition to the excellent food. When I first saw the Longhorn here, I decided right then that when I got a job we would celebrate by eating there. 3 months and a couple weeks later (we waited until I got my first paycheck), and tonight’s the night we’ll be feasting on good steak. We’re also going to the movies. I think we’re going to see Mall Cop, but I’m not sure. It’s definately the way to start the weekend in these freezing temperatures. It’s supposed to be -10 tonight, and has been in single digits since yesterday!

Uncategorized

I’ve gotta be careful about not updating or I’m going to stop completely. I’m in the middle of my second week of work, and have already received my first paycheck. I was expecting a tiny check because I have only worked a week, but it’s a full check. That surprised me, but I guess they don’t base the checks on the time sheets turned in. Works out better for me.
I’m fitting right in at work, and am getting a lot more comfortable with the layout. I went to a school on my own today to swap out a PC and didn’t get lost. I’ve also been working on the school district’s SCCM server and its WSUS integration. I’ve got a lot of WSUS experience, but this is my first time really working with SCCM (SMS). I have successfully deployed software, but this update integration doesn’t seem very integrated to me. I’m hoping to find some books or resources online that will help.
Teresa and I think we’ve worked out our transportation. I drop her off in the mornings and she takes a bus home. She usually beats me home by a few minutes, but with this arctic weather, that’ll probably change. It’s 16 degrees right now, and I’m still not that impressed. The streets are generally OK after they’ve been salted, and people are driving safer for the most part. My drive is largely highway, and is pretty easy. I think my commute in Memphis was more stressful. I sat in one place on I-40 much longer on average than I’ve sat on the highway here.
It’s getting time to leave, so I’ve gotta pack up and dig the car out of the snow.

Uncategorized

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.

Uncategorized

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.

Uncategorized allergies, Christmas, food, jobs, Mac, Memphis, new year, PC, Pittsburgh, tech, Tiger sports, Windows

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.

Uncategorized

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.

Uncategorized

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.

Uncategorized Christmas, Memphis

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.

Uncategorized