Disheveled Rambling's

Well, to begin with, an update on my Grandmother. We had the wake on 3/5 at Brady's Funeral home. (I know many of you won't know where that is, but I am only mentioning it for those who do) Having seen Grandma on Saturday, 3/1/2008, I must say that she was looking much better and that they had done a great job at the funeral home, making her look peaceful and at rest.

We were all doing ok at the wake until the end. My wife and I were paying our final respects to her when my daughter walks up, grabs a rose off the table display and asks if she can put it in the coffin with her Great Grandma. Mom OK'd it and she climbed up and put it in with her. My wife absolutely lost it and began crying.

I was thinking during the week, trying to pick one thing that I could remember that Grandma liked. The answer..... "Certs!". Let me say that those mints are very hard to find when you need them. I did find a roll and at the wake, I placed them under her hand. (Love you Grandma!)

So, the next day we had the funeral at the United Methodist Church. Before we had even arrived for the services, my mother had asked me if I wanted to be a Pal Bearor. Without question I confirmed that I would. All of us that were going to carry the casket arrived 1/2 hour before the service, and carried it from the hearse up into the church, placing it on its carrier. After the service, we did the opposite (of course). I had no idea how heavy those caskets really were. WOW!!!

The service was beautifully done, but was difficult all the same. Near the end of the service, the minister offered for people to come up and speak on behalf of Grandma. With that, our cousin, Erika, got up and walked to the podium. I was curious as to what she was going to say, but then she announced that she had a letter from my sister, who was unable to attend on such short notice, that she was going to read.

My sister was an English major in college, aspiring to be a writer. Well, let me say she was quite articulate with her words, drawing many a tear from the audience with her letter. Most people were doing fine, right up until the end when she said that she was sorry that Grandma would not meet my sister's son (her Great Grandson). That did it and a number of us were crying.

My cousin made the trek from the podium to her seat, met with the silence of those pondering the words she had just read. When she got to where we were sitting, our 4 year old daughter blurted out, "Thanks! Thank was GREAT!". This inevitable broke the ice and people were laughing. It was much needed considering the somber atmosphere.

There was a gathering downstairs in the church and everyone sat around and chatted for a little while, before the people minding the church "kindly" ushered us nearer and nearer to the doors (ok, little kicks here and there).

Just to digress for a second, back to my sister's letter, I must say that what I loved most about it was how many memories came flooding back to me about my Grandmother's house. Although my Grandmother's house was sold years ago, I still have so very many fond memories of when she lived there.


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As many of you know, in May of last year I left a job I had been at for 6 1/2 years, for a position as a Perl developer in Boston. I was not only happy to get out of a company which was continuing to spiral down the moral staircase and break into the world of Perl development. I was a contractor for 3 months before becoming full time in August of last year. (Un)Fortunately, it didn't take long for the company to show what amounted to its true colors. There were far to many things that bugged me about the group I was in, those I had to work with and most of all, THE COMMUTE, to stay with that job. So, after only looking a short time I was approached by a headhunter regarding a position in Westford, Mass.

I passed the phone interview, was pulled in for an in person interview and a little over a week later, was notified that I got the job and that the offer was being sent to me. The funny thing is that the notice of the job came within an hour of my mother informing me that my Grandmother had passed. Bittersweet really. Worst part was that I had to put my two weeks notice in over the phone as I had already left for bereavement leave.

So, after my bereavement I returned to work for a quiet, very cold (shouldered), boring, final week at work. I was so very happy when I was finally out of there.

Now, I have been at my new job for about a week and a half and am LOVING it!! This company isn't 150,000+ like my last one, its just under 1000 people, so its much smaller and more able to better take care of its employees (which is already is doing). I am in training all this week and trying to get into more next week. I know more about VoIP at this point than I ever have. Its GREAT!!!

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So, things are just starting to settle down a bit and we are getting into our groove again. Hopefully I can keep the posts coming more regularly than before this one.

I am sad to say that my Grandmother passed away at 8:45 this morning. My mother says that she went quietly. Thank you to everyone who has sent their condolences. It is truly appreciated.

If I do not get back to anyone, please know that it is only because of everything going on at this time.

On a lighter, happier note, I accepted a position today at another company and put my 2 weeks notice in (with resignation letter) to my present employer. I must say that this is something that I really wanted as it brings me out of Boston and once again working much closer to home.

Anywho, I will be most likely out of touch this week, but thank everyone.

Well, the wife went to the orthopedist the other day to have them see her ankle.  The doctor took a look at it and said that she was not going to be back to 100% for a while as she did quite the job on it.  He officially put her into a "pneumatic cast", which is essentially the big grey boot that you see people wear (kind of like what Tom Brady was seen wearing the other day). 

Anywho, while we were there, the doctor hands me this nicely made CD with printed label and everything and says, "Here, have her x-rays!".  I'm thinking to myself, WOW, this is cool!!  I have my wife's foot x-rays on CD.  Not bulky, over sized x-ray films to cart around.  So, without ado, here are a couple of the x-rays:








Fortunately for my camera, my wife had to remove her air cast today so that she could bathe.  So, after she was done and before she put her boot back on I snapped a couple of pictures of how her beautiful ankle looks right now, in all its sprained, bruised glory:





Well, that's about all for now on the ankle.  Not a lot more to tell at the moment.  She is going to be going back to work on light duty.  In other words, sitting down and banging register or doing other sit down tasks. Here is to healing!

It seems that there are a number of "Updates" posts on my blog, having looked back today through the history.  I am actually not suprised at that considering that the busy meter has been pretty well pegged for a while.  Hopefully nobody minds as it allows me to get a number of things out at once.  Ok, here goes.

Well, we are expecting more of that fluffy white stuff that they call "SNOW".  It is supposed to start this evening and go until tomorrow evening.  My wife would like me to stay home tomorrow, but unfortunately my work requires that I make every effort to make it in.  While I completely understand why they would like this, I would l love it if there was some leniency with that policy, especially when it is snowing heavily.  Its not like I live around the corner and down the street from work.  No, I work in Boston and commute their from up here in NH.  While the commute actually STINKS, I make it into the office regularly.  It is storms like the one we are expecting that make me want to work from home. 

Well, on to other things.  We are somewhat cleaned up from the holidays.  The tree is down, the decorations put away and all, but one of the bigger chores still lies ahead for us.  We plan on going through the kids toys and eliminating all of the baby toys that remain, and there are quite a few.  They have advanced to a higher level of toys and don't really play with a bunch of the older toys.  So, we play on good-willing them sometime soon in order to rid our house of them (and the clutter they are providing). 

I have to get off my butt and send an email to the writer for the column "Chris' Mailbag".  Chris' Mailbag is a column in the Sunday version of the Nashua Telegraph in which people write in about things they need or things they have that are available to those who need them.  The items are not for purchase or anything, it is kind of like one big newspaper based, swap meet.  So, I am going to let them know about a few items that we have that we would like to give away to anyone who needs them.  Specifically we are talking about:

1. A crib  -  This is a nicer crib that has a drawer underneath and is rather sturdy.  We obtained this from some friends and are not in need of it any more since our children haven't been in a crib for some time now.  We have checked with the family that gave it to us and they are completely ok with this decision.
2. A Graco double stroller - this is something that we have gotten a fair amount of use out of, but unfortunatley both of our kids have now pretty much outgrown it.  It is great for those with two children.  The steering on it isn't too bad, but like all double strollers, it is quite cumbersome.
3. An electric dryer - We have had this sitting around for quite some time, specifically since around the end of 2000 when we moved back up to the Northeast.   It is a plus capacity dryer that can actually dry a king size comfortor (the reason we bought it)

I think that is about it, but who knows, I might have more later when I go through the basement.

Ok, so this is one of those miscellaneous posts.  Sometimes they are just needed.

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To begin with the Red Sox made it to the World Series (***WOOO HOOOO***).  That is amaziing news, let me just say.  For a short time it looked like the Indians were going to get the best of us, but our boys stepped up and made it happen!!  The World Series begins tomorroow here at Fenway  (looking at the stadium right now out my bosses windows). 

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Been feeling tired lately.  Lots of stuff happening and me not getting to bed until late doesn't help.  Saturday we went to a Fall Festival with some friends that was just AWESOME!!!  Everyone had a good time.  We didn't put the kids down till about 10:30 and us till about midnight or so.  That was one late night. 

Sunday was Game 7 of the ALCS (he he, which the Red Sox won 11-7).  I HAD to watch the game, it was a moral imperative.  So, that didn't end till about 12:30, leaving me to get to bed just after 1am.  I get up at 5 to go to work so the deficit begins for the week.

Last night I "tried" to catch up.  I was in bed at 10:45, but unfortunately the son wet himself good and had to be changed.  That was about 2am.  ***ugh***  I have been dragging pretty good all day.  Tonight, well, we shall see.  I want to get to bed early, but don't know as I have things to do.  If I make it to the pillow before midnight, I am doing good. 

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My wife is going to see a band up in Concord tonight.  The band is called "Monster Maker".  I was listening to the cd of theirs that she has last night, and they are pretty good!  Kind of a mix of a bunch of different genres.  Definitely worth a listen if you are a music aficionado.

Well, it didn't take long for me to become not-so-happy with Qumana. The first post, as I had said, went fine as it was simple. I typed everything into the WYSIWIG and clicked post. As I also mentioned, the software HUNG while doing the post and I had to kill it. When I checked my blog, the posting had already arrived. So, that is definitely a bug in its system.

Another bug arose today when I copied some text from an email and pasted it into a posting. Again, it hung and had to be killed. Only this time, when I viewed the post, it was all messed up. The text was all right aligned and not to mention the program has this nasty 3-4 line, line spacing when hitting enter that cannot be adjusted. How annoying.

So, I went into LJ manually and edited the post to correct its display. I hate that I had to do that as it defeats the purpose of having a local posting client. So, I tried using Semagic as was suggested by my friend Eric.

Semagic doesn't fully support Blogger 2.0 but is supposed to work with LJ .   I tried posting with it today and am getting posting errors, so,  I am back up here on LJ, posting this entry.

I am still looking at what software is out there in hopes of finding a universal posting tool for both LJ and Blogger. So far, I really don't care 100% for any of them, but will keep you updated on my findings.

I really couldn't narrow this one down into a single subject, so this will be one of my first miscellaneous postings.

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We have been really taking a mental beating from our kids (see previous post(s).  We unfortunately end up getting stressed and that leads to yelling and lots of angry times.  It even leads to the broken moments that my wife and I experience all too often.

We are trying to deal with all of that by researching how to handle kids, especially rambunctious, wild, bouncing-off-the-walls crazy little children like what we seem to have.   We are hoping that we can get it all under more control by changing the way we are doing things.  Too many people say that you need to get away from what is stressing you out.  My question (and my wifes) is, how do you do that when you are in the same house and they just FOLLOW YOU?!?!?  It ends up being impossible without yelling at them and that is what we don't want to always have to do. 

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On a lighter note, we are still trying to figure out what to do for my daughters 4th birthday party.  We were toying around with possibly taking a trip to my inlaws in CT since my nephew's birthday is the same day ( don't ask!!!), but my sister-in-law is "still in the planning stages".  That would be a miracle if she actually were that far considering that her twins last two birthdays were either non-existent or not planned until they had passed.  (Don't ask or go there, its a long story).

So, we are still quite up in the air about what to do.

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Work is going well.  Been coding nicely and learning lots. 

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I have been extremely active on the online forum thescripts.com under the "Perl" forum.  I was talking with the moderator yesterday and he has now started the process to hopefully get the approval of the admins for me to become a Moderator of the forum as well.  This is excellent as I would be able to take a bunch of edits and other work off of his hands and fix things that I find as well. 

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Went to a "man's night" with a couple of friends and a whole group of their frinds.  We went to a New Hampshire Fisher Cats game in Manchester, NH.  They were playing the Portland Sea Dogs (a Red Sox farm team) and the FC's ended up creaming them 6-1.  It was quite a fun time, I must say.

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That's all for now.   Enjoy!

Yup, this is going to be just your typical update. I don't have some overwhelmingly exciting news that is just bursting forth for all to know that I cannot contain, just an update on things is all.

My wife's car repair is finished. It was actually done in a day, as well as her yearly inspection. I must say, we are out $440, but she has a window that once again goes up and down without manual grunting and struggling.

We think we may have found yet another babysitter. Our neighbors son's girlfriend (any more people added on and I would have had a Feris Beuler run-on) was referred to us by his mother and this past weekend my wife and I and the kids all got to meet her at a cookout for both of their sons. Their oldest graduated college and their youngest graduated high school (CONGRATS to both!!). We weren't aware of who she was to begin with, but my daughter absolutely took right to her and started hanging with her. She didn't mind and really seemed to be quite good with her. My son hung out with them when they weren't going here or there and was also happy to have her watch him. So, after discovering who she was we approached her about babysitting and got a resounding, "Sure!!!, no problem!". We have reserved her time this Thursday so that the wife and I can have a date night and finally go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (yes, I know how long its been out, but hello?, babysitter was needed).

Its not like we haven't used 3 other babysitters in the past, but each time something happens. The first one got a car and a job and ended up having not time between work and friends. The second one has a job now and is in college, but seems to have a lot going on as well. The third one babysat for us once and then when we tried to procure her again said that she wasn't available for the rest of July. That just put damper on things. I don't have any bad feelings toward any of them. They are teenagers and have a lot going on, it is just really hard to find a good babysitter and when you do, its frustrating to not be able to schedule with them, even a week or so in advance. Granted, a couple of the times was only a couple of days notice, but we try to give ample time.

So, hopefully we will have our neighbors son's girlfriend and our third babysitter (come August) to call on now and again. The second one will still get called should the other two not be available, but this babysitter scheduling is frustrating.

Other than than, the wife is working a ton and so am I. She works two jobs and they both have her going pretty much almost every day. She averages one day off a week and I feel bad for her. Not only does she have to watch the kids every day, but go to work almost every night. I am begin as supportive and helpful as I can around the house and am trying to step up to even more. She does an incredible job and I cannot thank her enough for all that she does, I just hope things ease up one of these days. Hopefully having a babysitter we can call on and having date nights with me, without kids, will ease the stress and tension. :-|) Here is hoping!

Work is going good. I am learning more Perl every day and just absolutely loving it. I look at the Perl I knew a year ago and what I know now and am truly amazed ( heck even 3 months ago was considerably less). I post a lot to thescripts.com forum, providing as many answers as I can. Answering questions over there allows me to research problems and solve them, providing me with more knowledge. It is a wonderful community of forums for those looking for a good read or place to post questions.

Anywho, till next time!

Well, my mouth, tooth missing and everything, definitely feels a lot better.  There is still that open wound healing going on, but it is progressing relatively painlessly.

On another front, the kids are driving the wife absolutely mad.  And believe you me, I am not exaggerating when I say that they make her break almost daily.  Its like every time I call home I am on the other end of the phone, praying that she answers in a good mood.  Unfortunately, more often than not, that does not happen....... because of the kids.  They have this overly active way of bugging you and prodding your nerves until you absolutely cannot take any more. 

Worst part is, the are getting into everything that they can.  We have a painting that "was" on the wall until today.  My son decided to mess with it.....AGAIN..... while my wife stepped away for a second.  Next thing you know - "CRASH".  She came running into the room to find the painting on the floor almost completely out of its frame. 

I am so incredibly sick of them not only getting into absolutely everything, but also driving us NUTS!!! (especially my wife)  I am so close to looking into the price of a nanny to take care of them during the day, just so my wife can regain her sanity, at least to some degree. 

Well, its outta here!!!  Last night I had the bothersome tooth yanked from my mouth under the cover of a heck of a lot of novicane.  After getting the pearly offender out of my mouth, the dentist told me, and I quote, "you shouldn't have any pain after the numbness goes away.  This went pretty smoothly". 

Smoothly?  Ok, you were yanking and twisting in all different directions and even had to support my lower jaw to allow you to pull harder.  My mouth feels like I have been beaten with a Louisville Slugger and the headache and pain were unbearable last night.  After the numbness went away, I ended up having to take 4 advil and 1 Vicadin, but that only brought the pain from about an 18 (yes, 18, it was toe curling and eye watteringly painful) down to about an 8.  Believe it or not, after the 18, I was able to sleep "ok" through the pain of an 8. 

The Vicadin alloted me the drowsiness to get through till about 4 am when my son came climbing into bed with us (the cute little 2 year old that needs to start sleeping in his own bed all night).  Once I was awakened, I started feeling the pain again.  So, downstairs I went to take the medication.  This time, the same dosing brought it down to about a 2 or 3, which was MUCH more doable than an 8 or even an 18. 

So, here I am now, at work and living on pain meds.  My jaw is still quite pained and feels like I was in a brawl and lost, but the pain is ever so slowly lessening.  I just can't wait till it is completely gone.  The headache that is accompanying make the brightness of lights a little too much.  Almost migraine like if you think about it.

Anywho, the tooth is out and I can now start to recover from the ordeal.  After I get insurance, I can then get the other dental work done that I need to. 

Things have been going really good the past couple of weeks, for the most part.  On 5/11/2007, I left a job that I have been at for 6 1/2 years.  For that job, I commuted 15 minutes down the road in Lowell, MA.  The new job however, is slightly further away, located in Boston, MA.   Yes, the commute is considerably longer at about 1 1/2 hours, but as I have told everyone who asks, the experience I am getting at my new job and the opportunity are well worth it.

The new job has a TON less stress as compared to my last job.  Plus, I have the added benefit that coding in Perl is a large part of my job.  That is something that I have been striving for for some time.  At my last job, during my lunch hour (keep that fact in mind), I would try and get some Perl coding in, usually trying to code to make our lives easier, say with setup scripts to make installations of clients go quicker. Well, my boss at the time, more than once, would come over for something and comment that "That doesn't look work related".  Now, first, I was on lunch and DID say that after his comment, but he would still insist that I needed to get to work.  That drove me nuts.  My own time didn't seem to be my own time anymore.  So, learning Perl ended up being something I had to do off hours.  Now, he he he, I do it for my full time job and am LOVING IT!!! 

There are other perks with the job.  For instance, I work in Boston!  For me this is a big thing as I love this city and never pictured myself getting a job here.   In addition, whenever I look over my cubicle wall ( which is half height and easy to do sitting down), I look straight ahead out my bosses window, and there it is.......in all its splendor and beauty......Fenway Park!!!  That's right, I work about a block or so from Fenway Park.  What more could a Sox fan want than to work near his favorite team?  Well, I must say that after their last home, day game, I got the chance to experience the delay in our shuttle bus service due to the traffic, but I can cope with it since it isn't every day.  :) 

The people I work with are great as well.  Its it nice to be in an environment where I can let the "geek speak" come out.  There were far too many non-geek peoples at my last job that I had to normalize my vocabulary in order to be properly understood.  Here it is a different story. 

With every good thing though, there are down sides.  Unfortunately, the downside is for my wife.  Since my commute has increased, I don't get home now until somewhere between  6 pm and 6:30 pm, depending on which train I catch.  This later time getting home means she is stuck here at the house with the kids longer, until I get home.  My daughter is extremely precocious and drives my wife absolutely nuts on most days.  I say most because once in a while she is actually good all day.  I hate that this has to be the situation and wish that I could change it, I really do.  Hopefully, not long down the road, my daughter will "mellow out" a little and not be as incredibly rough.   My son is 2 and has gotten a little rougher as well.  He gets really "pissy" at the smallest things these days and needs to stop.  I just hope things change for the better, that's all.