Wednesday, December 30, 2009

December 29th

Autumn did not have a great night, too much stimulation from our visitors today. It was rough, only got about four hours of sleep total, not as bad as I was thinking before the baby came.

Work was productive. I was glad to wind down and just get data entered and keep shop repairs moving.

I also got to help setup my brother-in-laws new netbook. It was pretty nice, I made sure he had good antivirus software as well as installed K9 web protection. Verizon is sending a CD and modem to his house so I'll need to bring over an external CD-ROM.

Here's to praying Brooke gets some better sleep tonight too!

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 29th - 0 bulbs
Dec. 28th - 1 bulb and 2 branches
Dec. 27th - 3 bulbs
Dec. 26th - 0
Dec. 25th - 2 branches
Dec. 24th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 23rd - 0
Dec. 22nd - 0
Dec. 21st - 0
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

December 28th

Autumn had a much better night last night. Brooke and I also learned that after midnight, Spike TV is NOT something to leave on while sleeping. Autumn is eating a lot more in the bottles now too, which is great.

Work was nice today. Got things resolved and working. Setup a wireless range expander and tested it, all good. I also delivered a PC and fixed some spam filters. I even reconfigured a customer's iPod.

Got home on time which is a BIG plus. Brooke loves when I get home on time. Kristen brought us some dinner, which was a nice break. Autumn was pretty well behaved for the dinner. I got to eat chicken with just a fork. [Thanks Kristen!!]

Autumn seems to be ready for a better night tonight as well. We'll see how things go.

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 28th - 1 bulb and 2 branches
Dec. 27th - 3 bulbs
Dec. 26th - 0
Dec. 25th - 2 branches
Dec. 24th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 23rd - 0
Dec. 22nd - 0
Dec. 21st - 0
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

December 27th

Today was just a day for rest. Brooke and I were able to sleep in and have some pancakes for breakfast. We also worked on keeping the baby on somewhat of a feeding schedule.

We played the New Super Mario Brothers some more as well. That game is EXTREMELY addicting. Brooke and I had to continue at least 15 times while playing the game today.

Autumn is sleeping and eating well. She does seem to have her days and nights slightly reversed. She also is starting to fight sleep more often. As long as I get about 4 - 6 hours, I'll be good to go.

Work continues tomorrow. So far, things are looking up.

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 27th - 3 bulbs
Dec. 26th - 0
Dec. 25th - 2 branches
Dec. 24th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 23rd - 0
Dec. 22nd - 0
Dec. 21st - 0
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Monday, December 28, 2009

December 26th

Brooke and I went out today.

First, we returned the breast pump we were renting from York Hospital. It wasn't due back until Monday, but we figured we can do it now since we're out running errands. My mom stopped over to watch Autumn while we were heading out. All went well, we returned the pump and bought one a lot nicer than the EvenFlo we picked up at Babies 'R Us.

While we were running around, Brooke wanted to look for a nicer computer desk. We'll be moving the computer room to the formal living room. This gives us another room and allows me to be, "social" while working on the computer. Sadly Smith Village had a really poor selection of home office items. They had a catalog there but it was office supplies so it was even worse.

Disappointed, we headed home. To help boost low morale, I went out and bought a Wii. Picked Super Smask Brothers Brawl and New Super Mario Brothers! I had a horrible time locating remotes though, I broke down and picked up the Wii Motion Plus remote.

Needless to say, Daniel, Elaina, Brooke, and I spent all might playing the New SMB. GREAT GAME! I enjoyed the reshapinf of he original into this new design. :-)

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 26th - 0
Dec. 25th - 2 branches
Dec. 24th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 23rd - 0
Dec. 22nd - 0
Dec. 21st - 0
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Saturday, December 26, 2009

December 25th

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Today has been a great day. Daniel got a Wii and brought it over to play with as we unwrapped gifts.

Autumn and Nona both got little tea sets that sing and count and pout tea!! :-) We watches Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Blue-Ray!

Chinese Food for dinner! Had a blast! Cannot wait until the site is fully operational. mccallum.is-a-geek.com


Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 25th - 2 branches
Dec. 24th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 23rd - 0
Dec. 22nd - 0
Dec. 21st - 0
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

December 24th

Got things settled down after my all-nighter. I called my two customers and got thing rescheduled. I was a danger driving down the road, not good.

After getting things rescheduled, I worked on getting some needed sleep and things finished. I cannot wait until tomorrow! My niece will be coming over to unwrap her gifts!

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 24th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 23rd - 0
Dec. 22nd - 0
Dec. 21st - 0
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

December 23rd

Got most of my appointments in before the heater guys came to check the furnace again. I wanted to get things straightened out before the all-nighter for a customer.

Worked on downgrading Windows 7 Professional to XP Pro for most of the night. Had some early issues with drivers at first, but all came together in the end.

Man, the day was long, but so glad all is finished. I will definitely need to take most of tomorrow off.

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 23rd - 0
Dec. 22nd - 0
Dec. 21st - 0
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

December 22nd

Spent the day calling the software companies to get things working on Windows 7. Sadly, neither support it as of yet.

The one company will not support it unless you have the newest software and install the service pack in about three months.

The other company, software B, has not even gotten Windows 7 through their compatibility testing internally, so is unsure right now where that will lead.

Worked with trying to get software B company because only issue was when the software generated a 'print preview' on PC 3. Other than that, PCs 1,2, and 4 worked fine. They tried a few things but finally threw in the towel.

I did get software C and D setup with little issue. Also made sure printing worked for PCs 1 - 3.

Another late night and unhappy wife. Hopefully the brute force install of Windows XP tomorrow evening will make this all better.

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 22nd - 0
Dec. 21st - 0
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

December 21st

Finally got out to my customer today. I took their new towers out to my car to work on in the office. I installed their software and did Windows updates.

Took all the towers back out and worked on transferring data from the old towers to the new towers. Got the new server setup and running. Cannot get their in software to run correctly on Windows 7!!! A large pain. Got the other software working though.

Left messages for the software companies but had to leave it there for now.

Got home late, the wife was not pleased. I was extremely tired. Almost enough that thoughts of another job occurred quite regularly. :-(

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 21st - 0
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

December 20th

Spent most of the day clearing out the driveway and waiting on the heating guy. Had to call my customer to reschedule for tomorrow.

Shoveling is painful when there is about 20 inches of snow. My brother helped me clear out the car at least. We spent time eating lunch and visiting with the family. My niece got to meet her cousin! It was interesting. Definitely can see the amount that Nona has grown when compare to Autumn.

Eagles played pretty well tonight. I was happy they won. My bother shows up around 6 with his girlfriend's father's snowblower and finished my driveway. I love him sometimes! :-)

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 20th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Sunday, December 20, 2009

December 19th

Snow, snow, everywhere and I can't go where I need. I had to postpone my appointment today because of all the snow this morning and my lack of plowed development in time for me to get out.

As the day wore on, it was going well. Baby is eating fine and disposing of used food just as 'nicely', when the central air unit makes an odd clocking noise. Not the normal single click, a triple or sometimes quadruple click. The heat seems to still be coming out fine so we think nothing of it.

Around 6 pm or so, we notice the overall temperature has dropped from 75 to 73 and the furnace has been running for about 30 minutes, much longer than usual. Then we get to thinking the clicking is not so normal.

Brooke's mom calls and says they were heading out and wandered if we needed anything. Brooke tells them the situation as I Google like I've never Googled before! Her dad seems to think it could be an issue with the electronic eye not sensing a flame. A few things I found online state either the eye or ignitor valve are not working.

Brooke's parents run to Walmart and pick up a spare kerosene heater for us and some kerosene. They bring it by and get it setup in our kitchen / dining room / formal room corner. It quickly helps raise the general temperature to 75. I setup the electric oil heater, my mom brought us last night, in our bedroom.

Brooke's dad and I then look at the area I heard the clicking. He was pretty sure that is the gas valve opening and closing. The eye isn't seeing a flame so it closes the valve to prevent continue gas leakage. He tries to disconnect and reconnect the valve, ensuring the power to it is secure. Nothing right now but things are generally okay.

Overnight, things stabalize and the heater starts to work again. I have already called in some HVAC people to look at it. They'll be here between 9 - 3 tomorrow. This means I'll need to rescheduley customer again. :-(

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 19th - 0
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Saturday, December 19, 2009

December 18th

Followup baby appointment went well. She has gained 5 ounces since Tuesday and that puts her about 0.4 ounces short of her birth weight! :-)

Work appointments went pretty well too. Had a customer make me lunch, it was very delicious. I got an emergency in Gettysburg resolved and setup wireless and a wireless printer for another customer.

Brought home some extra diapers and a tiny ice cream cake for the baby's werthday. (week old birthday) The sad thing is we forgot to eat the cake and the baby slept right through her werthday.

Tomorrows snowstorm looks like it will screw up with my appointment. We'll hve to see how things are going in the morning.

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 18th - 1 bulb and 1 branch
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Friday, December 18, 2009

December 17th

Worked on getting a customer moving after getting DSL re-established in their office. Made the PC talk to the G4 and G5 towers.

Helped get things lined up for another customer and their move to a new CRM system.

Worked on getting the baby changed and fed. Trying hard to get into a new routine for life. Sleep isn't missed, but trying to keep track of feedings and changes is difficult. Thank the LORD for clipboards and time keeping! :-)

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 17th - 0
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Thursday, December 17, 2009

December 16th

Keeping things moving both at work and at home.

Had a few items squared away. Fixed issues with SQL Server not pointing to the correct database. Just needed some sleep on the issue. :-)

Trying to get caught back up after the baby. Things are moving along, but are feeling hectic. The holidays don't help either.

Sleep, not as necessary as everyone thinks! ;-)

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 16th - 0 items
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

December 15th

Okay, so the Christmas tree was not the beet idea, but how can a baby have her 1st Christmas without it?!?

Took her in for her first doctor's appointment, all good. Had to get tests because she was slightly jaundiced, no major worries. Poor girl has pin cushioned heels from all the tests the hospital did and now this lab test. :-(

Work was fun. Things have a tendency to get hectic sometimes. Glad things are working though. Very tired.

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 15th - 9 branches
Dec. 14th - 0
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

December 14th

The night feeding is going to take some getting used to before it all settles. Thankfully her eating habits will change. I had to reschedule some things because mommy and baby needed me today.

Thankfully my mother brought us some Subway goodness for lunch! :-) Brooke's mother stopped over too. This helped us so we could get showers and eat. :-)

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 14th - 0, (nothing new)
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

December 13th

Brought the baby home and introduced her to the cats. All went well. We worked on getting a true schedule setup with the feedings. Things have been crazy!!

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 13th - 6 bulbs, 8 branches, a strand of lights
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Sunday, December 13, 2009

December 12th

Things progressed nicely all through the evening. Autumn did well with feeding and staying latched on. After the nurse shift and the baby check, we lost her for almost four hours. This threw off her schedule.

We got to get her fed a few times before a mad rush of visitors vane in to see our new baby girl!!

As the day moved into night, we kept feeding her and trying to get her on a schedule.

Cannot wait to go home tomorrow!!

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 12th - 2 bulbs
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Saturday, December 12, 2009

December 11th

Went into the hospital today. They had us come in at 8am. We head in and get situated. Brooke gets all hooked up and is set about 9:30am. Around 2pm, she is checked and not too far dialated. Around 4pm, Brooke decides to have her water broken, things start to move fast. Around 6pm the epideral gets administered. When the nurse checks on Brooke around 6:50pm, the baby's head was right there. The nurse gets the bed transformed into a delivery bed. The doctor comes in around 7:10 and things go forward pretty quickly. Brooke pushes for about 40 minutes and out pops Autumn Kay McCallum!

Yay!!!!!!

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 11th - 1 bulb
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Friday, December 11, 2009

December 10th

The appointment fr checking on the baby went well. We are fully set to call the hospital tomorrow.

The day was an odd one. There were definite problems with a few items at work. All in all though, just getting things wrapped up for tomorrow. I'm going to be a father!!!! :-D

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 10th - 1 bulb
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Thursday, December 10, 2009

December 9th

The baby checkup appointment went great. Things are moving and the baby and mommy are both strong and healthy. Mommy is now dialated, about 1 centimeter.

Had some great fun getting a non-steam dedicted sever setup for Left 4 Dead 2. The update they released today caused some of the issues, but it was running and stable by 9:30pm!! Since the gaming server isn't online anymore, we had to do a non-Steam server. Hopefully we can get some general gaming moving in the months to come and get stuff back up and running.

Oh!!! I hate Peachtree, just FYI. :-)

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 9th - 0, (the cats are planning something!!)
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

December 8th

I got several things accomplished today. I ran the outdoor 3-plug outlet, my floodlight, a 7' inflatible Santa riding a motorcycle with Rudolph in the sidecar, and strung the lights on the porch. My goal is to get a ladder tall enough for me to do the gutters as well! ;-)

Most of that assembly took my morning and afternoon. I also got the last of the Christmas gifts finished. Now just comes the task of wrapping them.

The only things left are cleaning out my car and installing the baby seat. The car cleaning will take some time, but it needs to ve accomplished before I van install the car seat.

In general, I'm glad I got everything up before the weather hit, that wouldve been a real pain in the tushy to work on!

Christmas Ornament Totals
Dec. 8th - 0, Nada, zilch!
Dec. 7th - 2 bulbs and 2 candy cane
Dec. 6th - 3 bulbs

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

December 7th

Things are moving quickly now. Brooke had her non-stress test and all looked well. The baby fell asleep half-way through the test though. It was interesting to watch, made me think of the earthquake graphs. :-)

I have most of my Christmas gifts ready for the holidays. I will be working on putting up the lights tomorrow as well as getting my car cleaned out and baby seat installed. I wish I could keep my car clean more easily!

As promised, a running total of Christmas bulbs knocked down.

Christmas Ornament totals:

Dec. 6 = 3 bulbs
Dec. 7 = 2 bulbs and 1 candy cane

Monday, December 7, 2009

December 6

Christmas tree is all assembled!! Just in time for the baby when she arrives later this week.

We strung up four strands if 150 lights. The only problem I noticed during assembly was spacial. We had the tree pulled out but still had to pass the lights back and forth around the fireplace. This made or some long walks around the tree in both directions. :-)

We have about four boxes full of Christmas ornaments as well. Not ordinary boxes either, one is an old Battery backup box, another is an old tree stand box, and the other two boxes are professional paper storage boxes. We can comfortable pack on about two boxes worth of ornaments. The downfall to all of this though, is the cats!

The tree survived last night with only the loss of three bulbs. Thankfully it was only the plastic bulbs we have on the first three feet. Last year we lost at least twenty bulbs. (Leading to the abundance of ornaments we now own.)

As the weeks wear on, I'll keep a running total of bulbs knocked off and bulbs lost altogether.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Findings

Discovered some wonderful oddities today.

We decided the tree needs to be assembled before the baby arrives next Friday. I head out to the shed during the heavy part of the snow. After twenty minutes of searching, I have a flash back to early spring where we decide to throw out the tree because several branches were severly bent (FAT CATS!!) and a few rows of prelit lights were dead. They require th specialty bulbs so I couldn't repair them. Thankfully my grandparents have a tree they'd like us to use since they don't need it anymore.

I worked with a customer remotely, could not figure out why the VPN was not working. Logged into his laptop and found his laptop was using his neighbor's unencrypted wireless instead of the wireless of his VPN router! Fixed that issue to discover his VPN router does not even attempt to create a VPN tunnel with the office!! All other three VPN router work fine!

Running low on space on my computer. Have had a 1TB HDD in a box for about 9 months. Just haven't had any time to install it and move one of my HDDs over to it. Started to do that today to discover, right out of the box and static bag, the drive is bad. Fails the HDD manufacturers HDD tools and several other utilities. Setup an RMA and looked at archiving several GBs if data until I get the replacement.

Installed the car seat in my wife's car today too. Went over the directions a few times to make sure it worked. Picked up the wife from work only to find she didn't want THAT car seat base in her car, she wanted the original. Guess I'll have to switch them tomorrow.


Jut curious of the new things I'll find out tomorrow.

Friday, December 4, 2009

It Begins

As the opening week comes to a close, I realize how much closer my daughter is to being born!! I'm excited and anxious, I cannot wait to hold the beautiful miracle in my arms. I can only begin to imagine what her life will entail and how it will broaden and fulfill my life. One week, and all will change, for the better.

I just hope the cats get over it ;-)

December 3, 2009

Apparently my hope to link Loopt with my blog did not turn out well. I will post what should've showed up yesterday.

UUUUGHHGHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I cannot stand Comcast! Today is just one of the many examples. Allow me to extrapolate upon this statement.

I have a customer who has had intermittent Internet issues recently with Comcast. They called into Comcast because only the Internet was not working correctly, the internal network was working very fluently.

The phone technician logs into their modem and asks if they have a static IP address. He ASKS THEM!?!?! Why is this NOT in their customer records? It should not have to be asked, it should be known. The phone tech looks around their modem and says, "Hmmmm.... it looks like it wasn't configured correctly. You're looking at Pittsburgh, where are you located?" They give him their location. "I'm going to point you to Philadelphia since you are closer to that location." First, this sounds retarded, if they were setup to look at Pittsburgh to begin with (which I can only assume is the DNS settings, it is the only thing that makes sense from what that statement implies) that is poor configuration on Comcast's part and should have been addressed before now. This did not resolve their Internet issues.

Comcast proceeds to send out two useless technicians who grumble about missing lunch for the whole appointment. They test the lines but have no idea about the cable modem/router unit or how to access it. They fiddle with some network cables and take down the whole network. Thankfully my customer would not allow the technicians to leave until they got the network working. Even though the network is working, there are still Internet issues.

Comcast sends out another technician a few weeks later to check things AGAIN! This technician is just a cable technician who checks the line signals. All looks good there but he has to call into the office for help working on their cable modem/router unit because he does NOT know a thing about them or the setup of the units. He proceeds to test a few things but gets nothing and the Internet is lost.

My customer calls me to explain the new situation, it is already 4:30 that evening and they close at 5, I knew I would not make it to them before that, so I schedule to be out there in the morning. I arrive and bring along an extra switch and two extra routers, just in case. The router is a WatchGuard Firebox. All is configured and running properly. Their static IP settings were not reset or altered. I hook up a spare router to the cable modem/router and set the spare modem to receive an automatic IP from Comcast's unit. I use a spare PC and connect it to the spare router and test things. I can see the Comcast unit and the Internet. I log into the Comcast modem/router and look at the network configuration. I find some interesting things. The WAN IP on the modem/router is NOT what it should be** under a normal configuration. The WAN IP is set to 71.71.71.82 instead of the 77.77.77.76 it should be for their static IP setup. This is where more fun begins!

I call into Comcast business support, plug away through the phone menus to be met with a wonderful response, "We're sorry, no one is able to assist you at this time. The building is currently under emergency evacuation. We are sorry for the inconvenience." My reaction is ?!?!?!?!?! WTH!!! I try again, several times. Same response. I try different menus, plowing through trying to get SOMEONE! I called them several times in two hours, same response. First of all, that is poor business; having only one building handling business support? I could not get in touch with ANYONE who could resolve this issue. I ended up configuring the Firebox to use an IP issued by the cable modem/router for now while I worked on getting ahold of Comcast. I gave up after a few more hours of the same response. Since my setup got the customer internet for now, I let it go. I will try again tomorrow.

**Normally, the comcast modem/router is configured to be the gateway for business who require static IPs. The businesses router is setup with their static IP, they have a gateway IP that is the cable modem/router's WAN IP. So if I have a static IP of 77.77.77.77 the modem's IP is 77.77.77.78.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

It's a Small World

When the ultrasound technician not only knows your father from highschool she knows your dentist who was you father's roommate in college, the world feels very small. The ultrasound technician also knows your grandparents because she worked at thier hospital they frequented. Her sister had your elementary gym teacher as her softball coach too.

All the things you learn as your wife gets an ultrasound. :-)


In other news. I am definitely working on keeping blogs upcoming everyday. The ability to post something useful helps. I've been working on several background stories for my Vampire/Werewolf campaign. I have so much back history that I thought I should post it up here to get things worked out. I'm hoping the story itself is cohesive, we'll find out.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Construction

Road construction in York itself is horrible! Jahhhhh! Is it that hard to keep a general flow of traffic when there is construction?

In other news, do people HAVE to fly around lines just to get in alleys to drive around construction?