Monday, April 30, 2007

I hate mosquito's!

This past Saturday I went on a little tourist attraction called the Jungle Queen with the in-laws. The ride itself was pretty cool, it was on this old boat that resembles an old paddle boat and it went down a small river in the Ft. Lauderdale area. The bad part about the trip was when we got to this island to sit down to eat. It was all you could eat chicken, ribs, and shrimp. Sounds good right? Normally I would have enjoyed something like that and eaten plenty but there were mosquito's under the table biting the crap out of my legs. So in the end I was more annoyed than anything else. After we got home I counted the bug bites on my legs and it numbers at around 21 bites on my legs. Now I'm out at my client in Michigan and my legs still itch like crazy. So far after studying things a little bit, I don't see how mosquito's are useful to the planet. They should be exterminated!!! This way no more bug bites for me.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

California Pizza Kitchen

California Pizza kitchen is one of those places that you just have to love. The last time I actually went to one was when I lived in Tampa. There wasn't a California Pizza Kitchen there I think, who knows! But the one that I normally went to was in Orlando FL at the Millennium Mall. Granted that was a bit far to go for pizza but I was already at Disney so a little more mileage on the car never hurt anyone.

I went to one this weekend with my wife and it was awesome. We tried two different pizzas, the Wild Mushroom and the Shrimp Scampi. Whoever thought of putting shrimp on a pizza needs to be hailed a genius! I will definitely be ordering both of these pies again. I'm hoping that my next assignment takes me to a place that has one readily available so that I can try the different pizzas offered. I don't go to California Pizza Kitchen all that often because its expensive so its a treat for me whenever I go. Almost makes me wanna move to Cali........... hehe NAH!!

Treo Case coming today

When I went out and bought my Treo 700WX, I also bought a case for it because the one I had for my Treo 650 wasn't doing so hot. My old case was a vertical pouch type but the Velcro on it just wouldn't stick anymore. Lo and behold, about a month or so ago I was in the car with my wife and I got out. My case had rotated on its clip so it pointed DOWN instead of UP like it normally does and my phone fell out because the Velcro was crap.

I returned my Treo 700WX today because I didn't like some of the features. However I am keeping the new case that I bought for it because I'll need it for my Treo 700P. The best part is that it has a magnetic clip so I don't have to worry about the Velcro wearing itself out or anything like that. The clip also doesn't rotate so that should help things out too.

Now I just need the UPS guy to knock on my door so I can finally get my new case instead of keeping my phone in my pocket.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Good Bye 700WX

I had the Treo 700WX for about 5 days and after tinkering with it for that time it just wasn't for me. I will admit that its a very cool phone and everything with plenty of good features like multi tasking and background synchronization with Outlook for PIM stuff.

The area where it lacked, and this was the deal breaker for me, was the email. I thought that pocket Outlook would at least have the features that VersaMail (which is what I'm using to write this post) had right out of the gate. I have a complex routine in how I get my email and my old Treo was able to do this no problem. I have a primary and secondary Gmail account. Since you can only download mail once from Gmail I had to set things up this way. In Pocket Outlook, three critical features were missing for me. The first was the notifications while my phone is off. I get a decent amount of mail throughout the day and being able to know when I get something is important and the 700WX just couldn't do it. The second feature was a different reply to address. I like people replying to a single address or emailing one main address because it the forwards itself to both of my Gmail accounts. Why this easy thing was left out I don't know. And last but not least was the BCC's that were sent out with each email to myself. This was important because I liked beibg able to download my email to my home computer and to have a proper history of everything.

Now I probably won't be able to download my email from work to my phone but I really don't want to anyway or be able to sync up with my work contact list or to do's (again do I really want to do this??) While I do believe Windows Mobile is the future, I don't think its at a point where I would be willing to leave the Palm OS. So after I send the phone back I will go ahead and get a Treo 700P and download all my free programs to it once again :)

Friday, April 20, 2007

New Treo!

This past week I upgraded my phone to a new Treo 700WX. I used to own a Treo 650 (actually its sitting right next to my 700WX on my desk) and I must say that I'm definitely going to miss it. There were quite a few things that I liked about my older Treo like all the short cuts I could put on the front of the screen, the higher resolution screen so I could read things better, and all the free applications that I was able to get.

Since my contract was up, I decided to get a Windows Mobile phone this time around. It's quite different from the Palm OS and I'm still deciding whether or not I like it. I haven't had a chance to play with a lot of the functions like Excel and Word but I will say that as a personal info device and email client it kinda stinks. The Calendar function is not as good, the tasks are about the same, and the notes are alright, nothing stellar to report there either. The email function is where it is totally lacking. Normally the built in functions would be fine like they were on the Treo 650, but Pocket Outlook is missing some things that I needed to have like a BCC copy of all my outgoing mail, a different reply to address, and of course custom filtering for all my email messages. I'll admit that I probably should have tried the phone out more in the store or something but not that many stores had one for me to mess around with and you'll never know if something fits your needs until you actually own it sometimes.

I did buy (yes I actually purchased software for my phone) a new email application called FlexMail 2007 which does everything I need it to do and then some. I can get my Hotmail email on there as well as my Gmail and if I really really wanted to, my work mail too but I don't think I'll go that far. I've been testing out the software and for $20.00 its doing a pretty good job, almost as good as having real Outlook that resides on my PC. All I need now is some good application to replace my Calendar and I think I'll be all set.

The verdict is still out but I can't go back to Palm OS since most of the corporate world is using Windows Mobile or Blackberry at this point. Well thats not true, there's supposed to be a new version (finally) of Palm OS thats being developed using a Linux kernel thats supposed to be bad ass but we'll see if anyone actually adopts it. Hopefully I'll be out on an assignment in the next week or so.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Damn vandals!

This week my wife told me that the TV's that were in the gym in our community were stolen. Now that just totally pisses me off. I have paid a lot of money for the convenience of using the gym and watching TV at the same time and now some ass has taken them and if my theory holds water, the residents are going to end up paying for it by raising the community fee's. If that happens, I'm going to get even more pissed because its not my fault that security here sucks balls. One man running around in a golf cart at night isn't going to stop someone from taking stuff from the pool/gym.

What they need to do is enhance security. It doesn't cost a lot to get some night vision cameras that are motion sensitive and have it hooked up to a security feed that can be accessed on the internet. They're pretty cheap on TigerDirect.com You can even have the alarm go off if someone tries to use the gym after hours or something or put security locks on the TV that sound off an alarm if someone tries to take it. All really simple cost effective stuff!! I'm pretty decent with coming up with security solutions for simple stuff like that. If they can pay I dunno how much for a security guard to lift the gate up and down, I think they can shell out a one time cost for some extra gear to help keep the stuff the community pays for safe.

Monday, April 09, 2007

I can't find a church that I like

Easter has come and gone and it wasn't all that eventful. I normally go to this church in Weston but for this particular holiday I attempted to try a different church closer to home. I should just have gone to the Weston church instead. The church is called St. Edwards and its been a long time since I've seen a church this ghetto. There weren't any real pews to sit in, no where to kneel, and the staff there was plain rude!

Upon first seeing it from the outside it didn't look so bad, but then me and the wife went inside and we decided right then and there that we're not going to this church again. For those of you not versed in the way a Mass goes in a Catholic church, there's a lot of kneeling, sitting, and standing involved but when you leave out the areas where you kneel, it gets kinda difficult to get the full experience. It was kinda dark inside as well as a little bit dirty too. I could barely see the alter since I was in the reject area that they opened up so people would have a place to sit if you didn't arrive early enough.

The thing that gets me the most, and this is just personal, is all the singing that goes on. I'm used to really subdued psalms and the like that involve organs or pianos, maybe even the occasional trumpet or guitar. Down here they seem to think you gotta add some drums or something and maybe a better beat to get people involved and maybe a little bit of clapping too. BOOO!!!! Maybe its because I'm a little traditionalist when it comes to church even though I don't go that much anymore but I do know that clapping during a psalm isn't what I used to experience back north. And one thing that totally killed me was that they were spelling Hallelujah phonetically so people could pronounce it better during the singing parts of the Mass. LOL!! Thats just terrible!! Not only did they misspell it, they misspelled it two different ways!!

I also wanted to jet out of the church after communion only because it'll be a pain in the neck to leave when everyone else does and I know what the priest is going to say anyway. This lame usher had the balls to tell me and my wife that we're not allowed to leave! Umm hello, I've sung my praises to God (without clapping my hands!) and I got my communion so I wanna go, and I damn well will go if I want to! We ended up going out through a side door but I gotta tell ya, you're not supposed to be rude to the parishioners that are donating money to the church, that just makes me want to take my worshiping and my cash elsewhere.

I should commission a church down here, and I mean a Gothic cathedral with ONLY an organ and no room for a band, drums, or whatever other instruments they seem to be allowing in churches these days. I'm gonna get some NY Irish priest that likes to put the fear of God into people during his sermons by telling the people that we're all damned to hell unless we pray for God's forgiveness. Yeah thats the way to go, then I'd be happy to attend that church for sure. I'd also want it to have a school thats staffed by Jesuit priests and Franciscan nuns and I'll send my kid there so he can suffer as I have suffered.

OK thats my rant for Monday, time to do more work!

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Holy Week

This week happens to be Holy Week which means that meat can not be eaten for most of the week. Thats kind of hard for me to accomplish considering I normally have some sort of meat in one of my meals on a daily basis. It's hard trying to find appropriate sea food to eat because there's only so much of it that you can eat. Today is Good Thursday, tomorrow is Good Friday, and of course Sunday is Easter!

There was a South Park episode last night that was awesome. It attempted to explain why rabbits were associated with Easter. It was basically a spoof on the Da Vinci Code where there was a secret society (The Hare Club for Men......LOL come on thats funny right there!) and the fact that St. Peter wasn't a man at all but a rabbit (Peter Rabbit???) It went as far as to suggest that the hat the Pope wears looks a bit funny on a human but its just right for a rabbit because it fits over the ears perfectly! LMAO!!

I don't know what I'm going to be doing for Easter this year, hopefully it won't involve an egg hunt or anything lame like that. I'm just looking for a nice relaxing weekend at home before I go off to who knows where for work. At least that part of my life is exciting and ever changing. If I don't blog anymore this week, Happy Easter everyone!

Monday, April 02, 2007

Delayed at home

It doesn't look like I'll be leaving the Miami area for at least a week. I'm still waiting to hear about my new assignment but since I'll be able to stick around here for a little bit, I'll be able to relax at home and watch TV at night with my wife. Not to mention my cats will probably enjoy me being at home for a little bit because I give them lots of treats and play with them when I'm here. Another big plus, I'm not going to need my coat because I won't be frozen in the North East. :)

Tribune Sold

Some big news today is that Tribune was sold today to some real estate billionaire that used to own Equity Office. Now why am I writing about this? My wife used to work for one of their subsidiary companies so it'll be interesting to see what happens to the different parts of Tribune. The Cubs are going to be sold regardless but I'm looking to see if there are going to be any major job cuts since Tribune has a lot of properties down here in the South Florida area. Should be interesting in the next year or so.....

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Verizon is slow

I've been cruising on the net and everywhere I look, there are newer Treo's being added to Sprint and Cingular. TMobile doesn't seem to be interested in Treo's so I'm not going to mention them too much. Almost every new Treo that I see recently in the news is for either Sprint or Cingular.

Lets take a couple examples shall we? First up is the Treo 680, a nice Palm based Treo thats exclusive right now for Cingular. It's been out for a few months already and it's supposed to better than the 700p that is available currently (and for over a year I might add) for Verizon. I haven't seen any plans for this device yet for Verizon. I also just heard that a 755p is coming out for Sprint, again where is the new Treo for Verizon? I know it took almost a year from the Treo 650 release for Verizon to get it. The only thing they ever came out with first was the 700W but since then, the two other carriers have had the great releases.

The Treo that I want is probably going to be a Palm based one, the 755p if I can hold out long enough since I'm eligible to upgrade in about 17 days. Failing that, and if it comes out sooner, I'll get the Treo 750 which is Windows Mobile based since I have this feeling that it'll get to Verizon sooner. What I really want is for Verizon to pick up the pace so that I'm not compelled to switch to Cingular because of roll over minutes and the better phones, oh and GSM too :)

Saturday, March 31, 2007

New DVD Burner for me

It would appear that my DVD burner in my beat up Dell has finally decided to die. Well it hasn't died completely yet, its just on its way out. The inner track of all the data and music dvd's are fine but when I try and get stuff thats on the outer track it just doesn't plain read on any compuetr that I use and I have a lot of computers too so I know its the burner. I forget what brand it is, all I know is that its a cheap one and its actually the second one that I've had.

Since its not working, I went out and got a Sony external DVD drive. This is one that I used at my last job and it was only $100. I remember when this particular drive cost somewhere along the lines of $300 when it first came out. It's ultra sweet and looks nice on my desk at home. If I get a new computer, I'm just going to hook this bad boy up as the secondary drive instead of getting an internal one. It doesn't eat my PC's resources when its burning since its doing it all on its own and not really stressing out the PC because its directly attached the the motherboard. Ahh to have good data discs again! :)

Ohio no more

I'm finally free from Ohio! I met a lot of great people while I was working out at my client in Ohio so thats one downer about not giong back but I can fully say that I'm ready for a new assignment. I know where I'm going too, its in the greater Boston area but I'm not actually going to be IN Boston. I'll fly in there but then I'll have to drive about an hour to reach where my client is.

The only thing that I can see as bad is that its COLD up there now. It was getting really nice in Ohio, about 70 degrees almost daily and I looked up the temperature at my next client and they're reporting mid 40's to maybe even lower 30's! A couple weeks ago I bought a winter coat, you know one of those long executive ones from JoS A. Bank and I even left the tags on it thinking I wouldn't need it until next winter. Guess I was wrong on that account! I'm not leaving on Monday because I'm waiting to hear when I'm supposed to go so it'll be nice to not wake up at the crack of dawn and head to the airport.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Fun time at the Fair

This past weekend was pretty enjoyable. I decided to go shopping but I didn't buy anything because they didn't have the sneakers I wanted in my size but the best part of the weekend was going to the fair. Miami-Dade has their own county fair which is a smaller version of the state fair that I attended back in 2004.

The Miami-Dade fair was kind of far though, it was all the way in Coral Gables but I did pass through a really lovely neighborhood on my way there that had nice tree lined streets and fabulous looking mansions, you know the kind of houses that I can probably afford by the time I'm 50 or something like that. There was an entrance fee but it was relatively cheap. There was a ton of food everywhere! I think ever other vendor was some sort of food vendor. Like fairs everywhere, the food really isn't that cheap but it was still some really good food none the less. What my wife and I enjoyed were the shows that were playing here and there. We didn't hit up any rides because I really didn't want to go on any. One of the funnier things I did see was the enormous ass of a bear as it made its way into a wading pool. My wife got a cool shirt while we were there but I won't post whats on it since its a surprise. I'll take a pic of her wearing it later on.

This is my last week in Ohio, I think I'm going to Boston next week which should be exciting. I'll take some photo's there and if I'm lucky, maybe even catch a game at Fenway. :)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Hockey Fun

I went out last night with my team from work to a minor league hockey game here in Ohio. It wasn't bad and the place wasn't crowded at all. I had a pretty good time but what was really interesting to see was a group of fans that were really cheering on the home team. One of them had the best jersey that I have ever seen so far. It was a hockey jersey with HecklerFromHell where a name normally goes with a jersey number of 666 on it. To make things even funnier, he wore a Jason goalie mask. I wish I had a camera to take a picture of this guy but he might have noticed me taking his picture and come over to kick my ass or something. Needless to say, it will be one of the more memorable moments I'll save from my time in Ohio. LOL

Monday, March 19, 2007

Airport crowds

This weekend there was a major storm that hit the North East and man were there a lot of people at the airport on Friday. I was in Chicago and it was totally packed with people because of all the canceled flights.

Today when I left for Ohio, the Ft. Lauderdale airport was equally packed with people because they were still trying to get home. I also forgot that it was time for spring break so a lot of people were clogging the security lines. It still went by pretty quickly but over all I didn't like seeing so many people in my way so early in the morning. I'm hoping that since the Ohio airport that I go to is in the middle of no-where that there won't be any spring breakers there to clog up the security lines and delay my getting dinner on Thursday.

A short weekend

This weekend was pretty short. I had a conference to go to for work in Chicago for about two days but it was pretty fun. I was able to meet a lot of the members of my specific organization while I was there and learned a little more about the company that I work for. The only downer was that it reduced the time that I spent at home this weekend. Normally I'm away Monday mornings through Thursday evenings but this time I had to stay away from home an extra day.

Perhaps its just me but there is a lot of extra packing that goes into staying away from home an extra day. I had to pack extra shirts, pants, etc. just to cover the extra day plus I had to bring some other clothes since there were networking and social events while the conference was going on. Those were fun because I got to see a little bit of the night life of Chicago which isn't bad over all. Except for the fact that at night it was bone chilling cold, I had a really good time.

I also got a little bit sick last week so I didn't feel so well this weekend. I mostly tried to stay home and get things done around the house that I normally do before I go away again. I did manage to get some DayQuil and my cold is feeling a lot better but I sort of feel cheated because I wasn't home till after midnight on Friday night. I mean normally I'm home on Thursday nights and work on Fridays from home but coming home at night on Friday seems to cut into the weekend and the time I get to spend with my wife and my cats. Like on Friday's we might go out or something to rent a movie or just hang out at home which is really nice to me now that I'm not home every evening.

On a good note though I did get my new winter coat from JoS A Bank but I didn't bring it with me to Ohio. I didn't think it would be that cold out here but I guess I was wrong, no big deal really. I don't want to lug that thing on the plane if its going to be over 40 something degrees most of the time I'm here. This is also my last week here, so we'll see where they send me next. Maybe something closer to home...............

Friday, March 09, 2007

Back home again

I'm back home again after another trip out to my client site out in Ohio. I gotta say that it is high time to buy a better coat because dress pants don't offer any protection when it comes to arctic wind gusts. I'm using my ski jacket and normally that would be enough but for some reason it isn't anymore. Maybe it was fine back then because I was also wearing some ski pants that offered plenty of protection that kept me nice and toasty.

So I'm in the market for an over coat. You know one of those long wool ones that you see NY types walking around in all over the city. I didn't think I would need one but my recent travels to Ohio have made me reconsider. Yes the coat is going to be big and bulky but you know what? At least I'll be warm when I'm walking to the office. I'm probably going to get a pair of gloves too. My wife pointed out that I might look a little funny if I was walking around with a nice over coat but wearing ski gloves. So I can see her point in that.

Here's my problem though, I live in Florida so I'm not going to have the easiest time finding a winter over coat down here. I know that I can get one online at JoS A Bank for around $200 which really isn't bad. I went to an actual store after work and they were going for over $400! Holy smokes thats expensive! I'm only at my current assignment for another 2 weeks and after that I'm going to be unassigned again unless I get picked up for another client real soon. I'm hoping for a little warmer locale so I don't end up freezing like I have been recently.

At least its the weekend and I can relax at home.......... I love coming home from Ohio, it makes me appreciate what I have down here :)

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Miami Beach Clubbing

Last night my wife and I went out to a club called Mansion in Miami Beach to celebrate my sister-in-laws 25th birthday. The 25th birthday is a pretty big deal, it means you're officially over the hill! LOL

Anyway, the club itself was pretty cool. Lots of loud music, way over priced drinks, and a very nice theme all around. The place opened at 11pm which for me already is pushing things. Normally I'm in dreamland by 1am on the weekends but now that I travel I'm trying to get as much sleep as I can at home. The place was really packed that night but thats to be expected on a Saturday night. There are a lot of clubs on Washington Ave. and there were people everywhere. The parking and the entrance fee is quite expensive but what can you do, it is Miami Beach after all. We only ended up staying till around 3am or so but that was long enough for me. I've come to realize I'm getting too old for this type of stuff. Not to mention it was just way too crowded. Every time I wanted to go somewhere, I had to fight through a crowed to get there. Thats not much fun! I don't think I'll be doing the club thing anymore, its easier to buy booze at a liquor store and get toasted at home if I so have the inclination and I can match any clubs music just by firing up Winamp and tuning into some internet radio station.

Tomorrow I'm off to Ohio again and another work week in the cold. I gotta say that there is a sharp contrast between Ohio and Florida weather wise at this time of year. I think I'm going to need a warmer jacket when I have to take my trip to Chicago, I hear its windy..........

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Home again!

I just came back from my first assignment. It'll be another few weeks in Ohio but its still pretty neat that I get to travel to different cities. The amount of miles I'm raking in is insane. I think I'm getting like 3000 miles a week or something at the moment. Now what all these miles and hotel points will net me I have no idea but if I'm lucky, it'll be something good.

Although I must say there's nothing like going back to my wife and the place I like to call home. At least I'll have 3 days with her before I go bouncing back on a plane. Time for some rest and relaxation :)