Nothing left to hide

My important work meeting to try and get more help was blown off so I’ll be looking to another route to make that happen. Still making slow progress through our iceberg field of old tickets. Very casual day with plenty getting done, mostly thanks to having a two day work week ahead.

In the evening we went to The Joned for the last night and were there for nearly 4 hours. It was a good last hurrah with friends, despite eating do late and drinking so much. I’m sad to see it go but hope the new place keeps the same vibe and is just financially more successfull.

Friday at work was rather tame, still making good progress on the workload which will be good come Wednesday when I’m on vacation. Not really any meetings other than discussing with my boss my want for something more difficult, my only constraint now is just time/resources. I know how to fix our major problems but don’t have the means to truly execute it the best way possible.

Friday evening we went out for dinner at The Jones, our favorite place that we found out is closing Tuesday. We ate alot and also made a trip to magnuson to figure out where we were going to park the next day.

Saturday was epic. We got up around 4:30 AM and Matt met us to drive out to Magnuson for the Seattle Century bike ride. We started the trip at 6:15 and rode with breaks until about 3:30. We rode out to Bothell down to Marymoor, out to Duvall, down to Carnation and then Preston City and Issaquah to Redmond and Bain Bridge Island and back up to Magnuskn for around 94 miles of riding. There were alot of hill climbs on the back 50, with elevation changes of 1000 feet. We got lost a few times, split up even more but no wrecks or bike issues. There was even a section where we rode on I 90 for one exit which I’ll say was rather terrifying. Plus going over those washboard grooves on accident on my bike was a terrible feeling I won’t soon forget. Up until Saturday I’d never gone more than 40 miles on any given trip, so having doubled it with rest stops along the way was the only possible chance I had of making it. My back and neck are still sore and i have no want to get on my bike still but it makes me want a better bike as alot of the straightaways cost me time and energy since my highest gears aren’t truly accessible.

Sunday we rested mostly, but went downtown for a movie, 500 days of summer, and walking around in the heat and having lunch. We went back to the Jones with friends and bought an expensive bottle wine on sale as they are closing as a sort of final dinner there. The heat is becoming a problem as we don’t have a good way to cool off the upper floor of the house, I hope the cat stays cool today.

Another reasonably productive day, lots of progress on the queue. Had lunch with Jen and shopped at borders which greatly perked up the afternoon.

In the evening we finished Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and watched Garden State while drinking alot of Smithwicks. We took a quick walk around the neighborhood and went to the pub to borrow there Internet and beer. It was quite a pleasant evening of rest before the Seattle Century this weekend.

I rode my bike in to work, it took alot more out of me then last time. I didn’t even ride home and still feel tired. Despite only being in the office at 11 I got more done then I have in a few weeks. I was able to finally put some of the call backs on to the other guys plate and it opened my ability to break through that upper crust of tickets. I started at 194 and finished around 155 which is alot of processing. Still working at getting a help desk person but if I can maintain half of one other persons time it might provide a shield for diving into the older queue.

After work I took my bike home on the bus and took a short ride home from the bus stop. The logistics of getting the bike on the bus are sort of simple, but the anxiety of someone jacking my bike off the front or it flying off the bus will take longer to subside. We rode down to recycled cycles to get Jen a new spoke and I picked up a multitool and one of those testicle looking bags for the saddle. I ended up spending around 30 minutes at home doing more adjustments on the seat, raising and moving it forward a bit. Still not sure about how full the leg extension should be but I’ll try and feel it out tonight. We need to rest though as the Seattle century is Saturday and I’m doing half and need my energy.

Yesterday was another crushing blow for tickets, just too much to do. Still working on convincing the help desk to give us one of there people to help. I also just started assigning work to the helper, otherwise he won’t take anything worthwhile from the queue.

Taco Segways last game happened in the evening, we probably placed third as I blew my 10th frame in the clutch game we needed to win for 2nd place. Didn’t drink too much this time but was pretty down when we got home so I slept early.

Work volume has gotten out of hand. We are now beyond where I thought we’d be, at least until I took a longer vacation. We had a big work meeting talking about the state of the department and we basically found out that we have alot of huge stuff in the pipe and no work has been done to think about support. I finally got dome focus on the matter at the meeting and we basically got the answer of “if your manager can’t make it happen go above his head to his manager” bad idea I think. I’d take insubordination seriously if that’s how it happened with me as manager.

The evening was quiet, one more walk for Ein and a short nap before Matt picked her up. I tried fixing my gears and I squeezed out 2 more gears but they still need alot of work. I also found a broken spoke on Jens bike, remove the entire wheel, tire and spoke so we can replace it before Seattle Century. Looked pretty easy on YouTube, we will see. We also took a short ride out to wedgewood, finding some very large hills, and getting up to 31 mph on 65th. At home we concluded with another movie, Amiely, French but still entertaining.

Friday was alot of meetings which hasn’t been the case since before the merger, this could be a sign of the additional help coming into affect. Eating out at Red Robin with our TCS contractors was enjoyable, despite red robin not being a place I want to dine at. The evening was calm, walking Ein around the Parks, just sitting outside. Jen and I also took an evening bike ride after she changed out my tire quite succesfully.

Saturday we tried to where Ein out at the park and then off to Red Hook with Kristen and Casey. A slower pace made it easy on the legs but again the drinking took it’s toll on the ride home. We met up with Eric at his new apartment in west Seattle and had BBQ ribs with his parents.

Sunday we saw the new Harry potter movie with Erin at the new theater up in northgate and the took a short bike ride to uvillage for sushi. We left there back to the trail for a ride out to the Fred meyer in Ballard. We bought bike stuff on sale and rode back through UW. Erin made it up all the hills, we are proud of her. In the evening after installing the bike computers we went to metro market for cupcakes and back home to walk Ein around the neighborhood. We finished with watching the last Harry potter on DVD but got too tired and went to bed early.

Work finally game to a consensus on the issue with the email migration, it took most of my morning again but it leaves me with hope that we will get some of my time back again. I went out to lunch with a business colleague from a while back, chatting about work changes and such.

In the evening I slept, still recovering from hang over land which I’m now pretty sure isn’t hang over but is actually allergies. I guess blowing all of the moisture out my body caused them to act up. Matt brought over his dog to watch this weekend. I took her on walks through the nearby parks watching her roll in the grass. Getting outside, having an excuse just to be out there feels good.

Having been completely sloshed the night before I couldn’t sleep well so I ended up going into work really early. Being that hung over at work was a new experience, trying to balance looking available instead of possibly barfing. It was a productive morning, even though it was very slow. I’ve learned that electrolytes are key to hangover recovery. I also attended way too many meetings again but still closed some tickets. We’ve halted the queue increase despite all the ticket escalations but haven’t made much of a chunk out of the older issues. The mail migration issues are still taking most of my time.

Home was recovery. I did ride my bike to uvillage and I felt normal for a bit, 3 minutes to be exact as that’s how long it takes. I popped my back tire tube, so now I have to figure out how to change it out. Comcast showed up and swapped out the Ethernet and modem, but I still can’t get either router running again. I thought it might be mac adress cloning that the ISP wanted turned on but it made little difference. I slept mostly in the evening until I woke to a group of people singing. Right behind the house was the Seatlle Hash House Harriers singing. You’ll have to google who they are but they run, sing dirty songs, and drink… and have funny yet homophobic names.

Lastly, my sense of smell is out of wack, more residual affects from bowling night I suppose.

It’s tough remembering work yesterday.

Everything is still up in the air, it feels like it used to before I changed departments. Always at a meeting clarifying issues and requests. Still dealing with mail migration issues and trying to balance ticket intake.

After work was bowling, we were tied for second but lost 3 of the 4 games. I also celebrated way to hard and had much drinks. I’m severly hurting today, especially the part where after bowling we went to Jalisco. Carne Asada through your nose… unpleasant.