Thursday, July 31, 2008

In the 11th hour...

I haven't been on the PC much this week.

On Monday, I mowed the front part of the neighbor's yard and started on the back. Then, when my mower ran low on gas, I quit. I then took a shower and Karen and I went to Bennigan's for supper.

On Tuesday, I mowed the rest of the neighbor's yard and did two strips of our yard. Then, I took a shower and Karen and I went to Red Lobster for supper.

On Wednesday, I arrived home @ 5:20 and we left for Cedar Rapids. The original idea was to see the 4th Indiana Jones movie b/c I thought the movie was @ 7:30. Turns out, the movie was instead @ 6:30. So it was decided rushing to get to the 6:30 movie was a stupid idea so we went to the Edgewood Road theater to see what was available. I lobbied for "Journey to the Center of the Earth" but it was decided the 3-D aspect might not be something to see. "Mama Mia" was one of the choices that Karen wanted to see. I relented and said that if we saw that tonight, we'd go see "The Dark Knight" tomorrow, assuming the kids weren't coming home until Friday. Keep reading.

After supper @ IHOP, we went to see "Mama Mia." It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't pay $8.50 to see it again. I thought the plot wrapped itself up too conveniently. During the movie, the kids called. They were on vacation all this week - hence why we didn't cook - with my parents in MI. They told me they were coming home today.

After the movie, a light illuminated when I turned on the headlights after starting the car. It was quickly diagnosed to be a burnt out headlight. We went to Advance Auto Parts and a nice worker there, Brendan, replaced the headlight and sent us on our way home. Instead of returning to NL @ 9:30-ish, it was 10:15.

So the kids are home and thanks to my parents for coming home a day earlier than expected. We thought they would come home on Friday so we gave our in-home daycare provider the week off. Karen is off @ 2 and they'll probably sleep in, per each of them. Vacation was rough - they were up @ 7 each morning. They'll spend the day by themselves. Even when I told my father on Monday "We don't have daycare for them on Friday," they still came home early. Maybe my kids are brats or maybe people really only hear what they want to hear.

So, as it is, I had an unproductive week. I didn't work on my contract and I didn't work on this blog and I didn't write any music reviews.

My friend Phil sent me a link to a Youtube video of a heavy metal monk:



I think there are a lot of good reasons why August is going to be busy for me. At work, here's the scoop. We have our Client Conference in a couple of weeks because, for Client Conference, I have a lot of work to do. I am designing the Windows UI for a major new system that was coded on a text-based green screen. When I get that done, it will be time for Client Conference.

Beginning the week of 8/18, I will begin working on the projects that are slated for the next release. There are a lot of projects. I went through my 8 page list of projects that are confirmed to be on the next release and guestimated that I have 481 hours of work to do. Divide 481 by 40 hours in a week and you get around 12 weeks. Unfortunately, I am not going to get 12 weeks. I am going to get 5. Serious. And that is not counting all the projects that are likely to be added to the release that could, possibly, not even by known about yet - things happen fast and new projects surface daily. So, my job for the next 5 weeks is to complete 12 weeks worth of work. Granted, the 481 hours is based upon rough estimates and up to a 5 line description of the project. I can say this - I will be jamming to Count the Stars, Spitafield, Bonerrama, the Twits, and a slew of other releases while I do my work.

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