I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving!  I got up that morning at 5am and got dressed and went out for a short walk up Orion to GCR.  Hit the Starbucks for coffees and breakfast sandwiches.  Candy was still sleeping when I returned so started cleaning the kitchen and doing the pile of laundry that we were behind on.    We made a quick run to Wal-Mart to get dog food as the dogs were out. I spent most of the day cleaning and doing laundry while Candy cooked Thanksgiving dinner.  Oh what it a dinner it was. We had turkey and all the fixings’.  Eric and Clark were both here for most of the day.  Kicking back in the basement playing video games and drinking margarita punch.  It was a great day and we have a lot to be thankful for!

I slept in this morning till 9am.   First thing I was up in the attic and started pulling down all of the Christmas decorations.  Put the inside decorations on the dining room table and hauled the outdoor lights to front porch.   Put up the outdoor lights, which really only consist of wrapping the porch railing in lighted garland.   Then I put up the twig tree in the square garden.  I passed on putting up the blow up Santa and train this year.   Less is more, right? 

Take a look

What’s up race fans?   Let’s see, so I managed to get 13.7/miles in this week.  Most of them were on the treadmill at the gym.    Yes, I joined a gym.   There is one close to the house and with the cold weather; it makes it nice to be inside.  In addition I find myself doing some lifting, etc. while I am there.   I try to get in by 6:30 am and spend about 20 minutes on some of the machines and then hit the treadmill for an hour.   Shower up and then head to the office.

Candy and I went out for a 3/miler today and I am guessing we saw over 30 deer on our walk up Orion to Gold Camp Road.  Candy got a picture of a big buck.  Larger than this one that was in the neighbors front yard that I had taken.

Traveling tomorrow and wanted to get the shop cleaned up and finish getting the sheet rock on the fascia.   Finished out the fascia and swept up the floor and loaded all the trash to take over to the dumpster.  Managed to get most everything up off the floor and boxed up on the hanging shelf.  Looks pretty good and now I have a clean palette to work with.  Probably should have hung the Christmas lights today, but maybe next weekend.

For the last week and half I have been working my way through a learning Java book.  Having a blast, I get to use my old VI and Sys-admin skills.   It came back pretty quick.  I did run into a couple of issues but with Google I was able to find the answers I needed.

I picked up some new tunes for the IPod, Redlight King, Everlast and Black Label Society.   I am really enjoying Redlight King and the album “something for the pain”.  Check out the website for music and videos Redlight King 

Old Man

Happy Hiking

Where's Dennis

It has been a few weeks since I have written any updates.  After being on the road for a couple of weeks and busy with work I just haven’t had much time.   I am home for a week or so and then off to NJ later in the month and then down to Austin.

I did get to the shop this weekend and made a little more progress.   I was able to get the underside of the hanging shelf completed.  I called my friend Norm up and he was ready to come on over.   He drove his 69 mustang GT500 and I could hear him coming from a block away.  Talk about a smoking machine.  He rebuilt and parted out a lot of the work and it looks and runs awesome.

He talked about taking it to the Mecum auto auction coming up in Kansas City on December 6^th through the 8^th.   If he goes through with it, I think it would be cool to tag along.

I learned about using a kicker to hang sheet rock above your head.   I basically made a T out of 2 2x4’s.    Once we cut the sheet rock to size we lifted it up and got it close then put the T up underneath then kicked it in to place so that it held up the sheet rock and we were then able to work with it to get it lined up and screwed in.  Sure made easier work.

Cut the last couple of pieces to finish out the top of the shelf and got them screwed in.   I have to finish the fascia but I can start putting stuff up and getting it off the floor.

This last week I have been working through a Beginner’s Guide to Java.  I installed Cygwin and setup a UNIX like environment.  Downloaded the current JDK and am on my way.  I am using VI as my editor most of the key shortcuts have come back to me.   Once I get further along I may choose an IDE to start working with.

Sunday I jumped on Craigslist and found a company that delivers fire wood.   They said that they would be by today between 9 AM to 1 PM.  Guy shows up about 10 AM with a dump truck load and dumped it in the yard/street.  He said he would be back in an hour with the other half cord.  I ordered up a cord and half, and we should be set for a while. 

So I started stacking, grabbing an arm full and walking up the hill and stacking it up.  I don’t now how many trips I made but my ass is sore tonight.  I don’t literally mean my ass just that I am sore all over.  I made a pretty decent dent in getting it stacked.  Eric came over after class and helped me with what was left.  I am glad he showed as I was ready to get this done.

Off to Ft. Collins in the morning so I get to do the I-25 battle.  Better have my Starbucks!

Mr. Pietro Ferrero

No mile(s) to report today, even with having the best of intentions.  Shame on me!   It has just been crazy busy at work or that is just another excuse.  Will make it happen tomorrow.

I think the skunk has moved on.  No sign of any digging the last couple of days. Was excited about the chance to play "Billy the Exterminator", I guess I still could.

Mr. Pietro Ferrero would be so proud of what his "pasta gianduja" has become.  You can tell she is a fan.  I usually eat it with an apple but this is another way to go about it.

For the history of nutella: http://www.nutellausa.com/history.htm

Nothing New

I checked the skunk situation and no new movement.  The trap remains empty and  no sign of any new digging.   Guessing that either the porch light or the repeated hosing has gotten it to move on.  Closed the trap, if I caught something tonight, I wouldn't have time to deal with it tomorrow.  Busy week ahead, with a couple trips to Denver planned.

We went out and walked through BCP and did a two mile loop.  Felt better this morning so it was nice to get out and work up a sweat.   The tree's have really turned around here, lot of yellow's and golden browns.  We went to the movie this afternoon and saw Looper.  Interesting story, good action, slow in some spots.  I would rate it a 4 out of 5. Bruce Willis always does a good job....

Dude, your still sick.

I wish I could kick this dam head cold.   I slept till 10 AM this morning and was slow to get moving.   We needed to go to the store, so before we left I loaded up some items that have been sitting in the garage that we were going to put into our garage sale.   Decided it was just easier and to take the write off on the taxes and take the stuff to Goodwill.  We dropped off what we had and went over to the grocery store to get some food for this week.

When we got back to the house and got everything unloaded I went and took a nap for a couple of hours.  I think I just need to get out on the trail and maybe all this crap in my head and chest will break free.

So I checked on the hole under the porch.  Doesn't look like the skunk came back last night.  The dirt is still where I left it from yesterday.  

I may have solved the problem already.   I noticed the hole when I was replacing the porch light.    Not sure how long the light had been burnt out as I have been gone.   With the light being replaced this may keep it away anyway.   We will see.

I did go ahead and set the trap and loaded it with peanut butter, will check in the morning and see if we have caught anything.   About half tempted to leave the porch light off and see if that improves my chances.

Happy Hiking

Skunk Removal 101

Well this should be exciting.  I think I have a skunk who has decided to move in under the front porch.   I found a mound of dirt yesterday with a hole going under the porch. The hole is under the water faucet so yesterday I ran some water down the hole and then pushed the dirt up in the corner covering the hole.   I looked this evening and the hole was dug back out and the mound of dirt was bigger than it was yesterday.

I dug my box trap out and have been watching YouTube videos and others removing skunks.   I have a plan.....   For tonight I pushed the dirt back into the corner and figured I would check again tomorrow.  This will give me some time to get everything I need together to set the trap and try to catch and relocate it.

Items Needed
1. Box Trap
2. Gloves
3. Two Large Towels
4. Safety Goggles
5. Peanut Butter

I will take some pictures and if I get creative I may even shoot my own skunk removal video.

Funny

I came across this picture and caption and just found it to be to funny and had to share.

For the ride home

I actually met these guys back in early 2k, when doing some consulting down in Amarillo TX. Safe Travels!

Home

Wow, finally back home after being out on the road for the last 10 days.   I was in San Francisco as we worked two conferences and Xtivia hosted our Portal Leadership Retreat over the weekend between the two conferences.   All went very well and had a great time with the team our customers and partners.

The city was packed with people.   Oracle Open World and JavaOne were going on.  It was also Fleet Week as well as the America’s Cup.  The first week there was a team of three of us working at the JavaOne conference.  The conference ended Thursday and Wednesday afternoon I could feel something coming on.  I could feel my throat getting sore and my sinus were dry and burning.   That next morning I woke up and my head was congested, eye’s running and head full of crap.

I went out and bought some cold and flu medicine and spent my day Thursday locked up in the hotel room in bed.    Candy was scheduled to arrive that evening, so at 8:00 PM I grabbed a cab and went out to the airport.   Picked her up around 9:00 PM and we grabbed a cab and headed back to the hotel.   Didn’t take her long to figure out I was sick.  Back at the hotel we ate at a Thai restaurant nearby the hotel.   Some of the best Thai I had eaten all week.

On Friday I put on a smile and we headed out of the hotel mid-morning.  Down on the street there were numerous vendors with local arts and crafts, we walked through and checked them out.   Then we walked over to the pier across the street.   It had numerous shops.   We had a quick bite and then headed back to the hotel.  I took a nap for a couple hours and Candy went out and checked out the shopping.  Later that evening we headed out and grabbed dinner and were back to the hotel around 8:00 PM.  We crashed out early, or at least I did.

Felt a little better on Saturday.  We went down to Pier 39 and checked out the shops and the Sea Lions.   When walking back to the hotel we came across wild parrots in a park near the hotel.   Apparently they escaped from a pet store several years back and have adapted to the area.

Sunday morning I was still feeling sick and oh yeah Happy Birthday.  Sunday October 7^th was my 48^th Birthday.   We headed out and got a coffee and walked around the street vendors and checked out the arts & crafts.    Candy got me a new pair of glass cuff links that one of the vendors was selling.  We headed back to the hotel around noon and got her bags and got her in a car back to the airport.

Back at the hotel I made my way down to the conference area and found our location.   They had already delivered our booth display.    I started pulling everything out of the cases and got the booth all together and got all of our marketing material all setup.  It looked pretty awesome.   When done I headed up and showered and got dressed as I had a team dinner to host.    Before heading out I had a co-worker take a picture of me with our booth display.

The conference was great and XTIVIA received the Liferay North American Partner of the Year for 2012.   We have a great team and everyone has worked really hard to make this happen.  http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/Liferay-symposium-awards/prweb9997760.htm

I got home late Wednesday evening still feeling ill.  I did try to keep track of my miles, but blew the diet; I was eating out most lunches and dinners and eating way too much.   I logged about 12 miles.  I am home for about 10 days before I have to make my next trip.