:)
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Summer's goin by fast...
Well, July is pretty much over now but the blogging bug has bit me again so let's see what's been going on in my world.
Rachel's parents came down this weekend to spend some time with us. We managed to celebrate Dave's birthday by going to Natt Spil, an eclectic fusion restaurant just off the Square that has what is, in my humble opinion, the best damn pork sandwich EVER. On crispy home made french bread, with spicy mayo and plenty of cilantro and jalapenos. Mmm-mmm good.
We managed to get quite a bit of theater in this weekend as well. On Friday after attending a bbq at Joseph and Leah's we headed out to go see You've Ruined A Perfectly Good Mystery, a play written and performed by Madisonians that is headed off to the New York Fringe. The play was about a Sherlock Holmes rip off set in a completely irreverent choose-your-own-adventure and narrated by someone with a hilarious love of overworked simile and heavy handed puns, much to our main characters' dismay. Probably the best part about this play was the scenery, which was carried and acted out by the rotating portion of the cast. Particularly awesome whenever there was travel involved. Plus, at the end, dirigible battle!
Next up was Captain America. I liked it, maybe not as much as I liked Thor (THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!) but it was a fine addition to the Marvel line up. Hugo Weaving had an amazing clipped German accent as the Red Skull and, as Rachel put it, "Everyone hates Nazis, and when you have people that even the Nazis hate then you just don't care how many get blown up!" Hat tip to Marvel for including Nick Fury's Howling Commandos as part of the storyline and making Bucky into a badass. Also, the Avengers trailer at the end? YES.
Finally we traveled an hour out of town to Spring Green, WI to watch a play at the American Players Theatre. This place was very cool as it's an outdoor theater, and we have been blessed all weekend with absolutely perfect weather. Unfortunately we were a bit confused as to exactly how seating was going to work and brought a picnic dinner, only to find that there were actual theater seats and outside food wasn't allowed in the theater. Nonetheless we quietly broke out our peanut butter and raspberry & hot pepper jelly sandwiches and served ourselves slices of gourmet sheep and goat cheese on crackers while the play was going on.
The play that we saw was Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, a comedy about a man who accidentally brings the spirit of his first wife back from the grave with terrible results. It was very witty and the actors performed quite admirably and, for being an outdoor production, the special effects were good. I do have to say that it did drag on a bit especially towards the beginning, but overall it was a great way to finish out the evening. Plus I think I saw more bats during the play than I have at any other point, which is awesome.
And that's mostly what's been going on. Deb, as I know you're reading this, if you could send me some of the pics from the weekend I'd love to post them up.
Thanks for reading!
Rachel's parents came down this weekend to spend some time with us. We managed to celebrate Dave's birthday by going to Natt Spil, an eclectic fusion restaurant just off the Square that has what is, in my humble opinion, the best damn pork sandwich EVER. On crispy home made french bread, with spicy mayo and plenty of cilantro and jalapenos. Mmm-mmm good.
We managed to get quite a bit of theater in this weekend as well. On Friday after attending a bbq at Joseph and Leah's we headed out to go see You've Ruined A Perfectly Good Mystery, a play written and performed by Madisonians that is headed off to the New York Fringe. The play was about a Sherlock Holmes rip off set in a completely irreverent choose-your-own-adventure and narrated by someone with a hilarious love of overworked simile and heavy handed puns, much to our main characters' dismay. Probably the best part about this play was the scenery, which was carried and acted out by the rotating portion of the cast. Particularly awesome whenever there was travel involved. Plus, at the end, dirigible battle!
Next up was Captain America. I liked it, maybe not as much as I liked Thor (THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!) but it was a fine addition to the Marvel line up. Hugo Weaving had an amazing clipped German accent as the Red Skull and, as Rachel put it, "Everyone hates Nazis, and when you have people that even the Nazis hate then you just don't care how many get blown up!" Hat tip to Marvel for including Nick Fury's Howling Commandos as part of the storyline and making Bucky into a badass. Also, the Avengers trailer at the end? YES.
Finally we traveled an hour out of town to Spring Green, WI to watch a play at the American Players Theatre. This place was very cool as it's an outdoor theater, and we have been blessed all weekend with absolutely perfect weather. Unfortunately we were a bit confused as to exactly how seating was going to work and brought a picnic dinner, only to find that there were actual theater seats and outside food wasn't allowed in the theater. Nonetheless we quietly broke out our peanut butter and raspberry & hot pepper jelly sandwiches and served ourselves slices of gourmet sheep and goat cheese on crackers while the play was going on.
The play that we saw was Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, a comedy about a man who accidentally brings the spirit of his first wife back from the grave with terrible results. It was very witty and the actors performed quite admirably and, for being an outdoor production, the special effects were good. I do have to say that it did drag on a bit especially towards the beginning, but overall it was a great way to finish out the evening. Plus I think I saw more bats during the play than I have at any other point, which is awesome.
And that's mostly what's been going on. Deb, as I know you're reading this, if you could send me some of the pics from the weekend I'd love to post them up.
Thanks for reading!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
I is Alive!
Hey all, and happy Memorial Day! I swear that I am still alive despite my silence these past... 6 weeks now? Yeesh. Well, at least there's been a good reason for it as work has been cra-zy. Both of my customers had huge events occurring on the exact same day and the build up to it devoured all of my time. Then I jumped on a plane and flew to Florida to spend the next 15 days pulling 11-14 hour shifts every day (except for one Sunday... yay!), and now I am finally back home in Madison.
Still, even though it's been crazy and super busy and likely will continue to be so for the next couple of weeks I've definitely learned a lot. The go live was lots of fun and went a lot smoother than I was expecting, which was a welcome relief. There were lots of high-fives being thrown around the first couple of days as we blasted through issues right left and center. We also got to eat really well while there- macadamia encrusted trout served in a witbier beurre blanc sauce on top of steamed seasonal vegetables anyone?
I also want to give a shout out to my backups for my other customer (who upgraded on the same day Florida went live) for dealing with their issues while I was out of town. I owe them a cake I think...
But, now that I am back in Wisconsin's loving arms life is good. Yesterday I spent at the Terrace enjoying the company of my friends, good quality beer and the much milder weather. Granted, I was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a straw hat at the time in the hopes that the sun would peek its head out, but all in all it was good. I have three more days on my four day weekend to rest, rejuvenate, catch up on e-mail and in general get my life back in order. Hopefully I'll be posting more regularly now that things are (hopefully) calming back down, as I've missed this blog and letting you all know how thing are going.
Apologies for no pics- I'll try to rectify that this weekend. Again, happy Memorial Day everyone and I'll be chatting at you again soon!
Still, even though it's been crazy and super busy and likely will continue to be so for the next couple of weeks I've definitely learned a lot. The go live was lots of fun and went a lot smoother than I was expecting, which was a welcome relief. There were lots of high-fives being thrown around the first couple of days as we blasted through issues right left and center. We also got to eat really well while there- macadamia encrusted trout served in a witbier beurre blanc sauce on top of steamed seasonal vegetables anyone?
I also want to give a shout out to my backups for my other customer (who upgraded on the same day Florida went live) for dealing with their issues while I was out of town. I owe them a cake I think...
But, now that I am back in Wisconsin's loving arms life is good. Yesterday I spent at the Terrace enjoying the company of my friends, good quality beer and the much milder weather. Granted, I was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a straw hat at the time in the hopes that the sun would peek its head out, but all in all it was good. I have three more days on my four day weekend to rest, rejuvenate, catch up on e-mail and in general get my life back in order. Hopefully I'll be posting more regularly now that things are (hopefully) calming back down, as I've missed this blog and letting you all know how thing are going.
Apologies for no pics- I'll try to rectify that this weekend. Again, happy Memorial Day everyone and I'll be chatting at you again soon!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Mid-April Update
Hey all, long time no post. Sorry about that. Work has been pretty crazy this past... jeez, month or so now? So I haven't had a lot of time or energy to do any posting, either here or on my 40k blog.
Anyway, my customers are upgrading/going live on the 14th of May which will be... interesting. Right now it means a lot of work getting them prepped for the big day, and then it will mean 10 days pretty much straight of 12 hour days on site, including one ridiculous day of flying back and forth from Madison for Home Day while providing command center support the entire time. So, basically if I can survive through June I'll be good to go, but I still have 6 weeks to look forward to.
But not everything is all doom and gloom. My first performance review ended up well- apparently I'm doing better than average for my time at the job! I also go to teach my first class which was a lot of fun and turned out really well. I also got to go to Chicago to briefly see Des in between attending Adepticon, a big Warhammer 40k tournament/convention. I also went on a go live to Minneapolis and got to see people up there for a day, which was great if not the best timing. Plus, Spring is finally here and it feels GREAT.
So, that's about it. Wanted to let you all know that I'm alive but busy. Posting might be rather infrequent until June, but I'll try to keep this updated somewhat regularly, if for nothing else than to get steam out.
All right... back to work!
Anyway, my customers are upgrading/going live on the 14th of May which will be... interesting. Right now it means a lot of work getting them prepped for the big day, and then it will mean 10 days pretty much straight of 12 hour days on site, including one ridiculous day of flying back and forth from Madison for Home Day while providing command center support the entire time. So, basically if I can survive through June I'll be good to go, but I still have 6 weeks to look forward to.
But not everything is all doom and gloom. My first performance review ended up well- apparently I'm doing better than average for my time at the job! I also go to teach my first class which was a lot of fun and turned out really well. I also got to go to Chicago to briefly see Des in between attending Adepticon, a big Warhammer 40k tournament/convention. I also went on a go live to Minneapolis and got to see people up there for a day, which was great if not the best timing. Plus, Spring is finally here and it feels GREAT.
So, that's about it. Wanted to let you all know that I'm alive but busy. Posting might be rather infrequent until June, but I'll try to keep this updated somewhat regularly, if for nothing else than to get steam out.
All right... back to work!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Protest Pictures Album
For those of you who are interested, here are my pics from the protests, including a lot of pics I haven't posted yet that were shot by Rachel Carroll, Girl Reporter, from inside the Capitol. Enjoy!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Last Couple of Weeks
So I've been a bad little blogger and haven't updated nearly often enough in the past couple of weeks. Lots of stuff has been going on too, so let's get started!
First of all, there was an Old Tymey Drinking Party on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. I happened to find, of all things, a Steampunk store in Madison where I managed to pick up the above white-tie attire. Let me tell you, that the fact that I have a cot with tails, a top hat and a monocle makes me an insanely happy man.
Second, it was unseasonably warm in Madison last week, reaching the 50s towards the end of the week. Every one was out of doors and in the sunshine.
It also gave me a great opportunity to get Rachel a brand new hat! Don't she look awesome?
This made it GREAT protest weather and we had lots of people show up. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, start watching the news! Our dear Governor is trying to take away the collective bargaining rights of most public unions in a very deliberate union-busting measure, made all the more obvious because the unions have accepted any financial burdens that they might be proposed to take.
This weekend there was even more protesting despite the chillier temperatures... we managed to get over 100,000 people gathered at the capitol to protest Walker's power grabbing. Check out the pics below- a lot of the protest signs were particularly inventive!
Ban the Imperial Walker!
Finally, Rachel's parents were in town to check out her speech at a UW conference. We went to a restaurant called Bluefies which is a heart attack waiting to happen. For reference, appetizers were Mac-n-Cheese-n-Bacon-Bites, and the deserts are pictured below.
These are Butterfinger wontons and chocolate chip cookie dough egg rolls. Mmmmmmm...
Second, it was unseasonably warm in Madison last week, reaching the 50s towards the end of the week. Every one was out of doors and in the sunshine.
This weekend there was even more protesting despite the chillier temperatures... we managed to get over 100,000 people gathered at the capitol to protest Walker's power grabbing. Check out the pics below- a lot of the protest signs were particularly inventive!
Finally, Rachel's parents were in town to check out her speech at a UW conference. We went to a restaurant called Bluefies which is a heart attack waiting to happen. For reference, appetizers were Mac-n-Cheese-n-Bacon-Bites, and the deserts are pictured below.
These are Butterfinger wontons and chocolate chip cookie dough egg rolls. Mmmmmmm...
Well, that's what I have for now. Talk to you all soon!
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