California, Day 2

This morning, I was up & awake earlier than expected. So much for being exhausted from the long prior day.

First stop: dim sum at the Hong Kong Flower Lounge, Millbrae, CA, with allanh, Randy and westwind_mv. Good food was had, including a special order of spoo!

I don't think I've eaten so much at dim sum before in my life, but I regret not a bit of it: damn, this food is delicious!

From there, I headed out to Walnut Creek on the east side of the bay to meet up with Rob R. and check out the street festival in progress. Alas, I was too late for the local farmers' market but perhaps it was just as well as today's high temperatures would have spoiled and/or melted any food I would have purchased.

There were a number of interesting art pieces at the street festival as well but I wouldn't be able to ship it home with any confidence. Besides, there are other places that money is needed currently. *sigh*

Rob and I went to Carrow's, a chain very much like Denny's for a light & cheap dinner. I suspect our presence dropped the average age of the customer population by, oh, 80 or so. Even with a light meal, I still had to box the extra to take back to my hotel room.

At the moment, I'm catching up on email, LJ and watching some television, preparing myself for the fun & joy of work tomorrow at headquarters. Pray for us all.

California, Day 2

This morning, I was up & awake earlier than expected. So much for being exhausted from the long prior day.

First stop: dim sum at the Hong Kong Flower Lounge, Millbrae, CA, with allanh, Randy and westwind_mv. Good food was had, including a special order of spoo!

I don't think I've eaten so much at dim sum before in my life, but I regret not a bit of it: damn, this food is delicious!

From there, I headed out to Walnut Creek on the east side of the bay to meet up with Rob R. and check out the street festival in progress. Alas, I was too late for the local farmers' market but perhaps it was just as well as today's high temperatures would have spoiled and/or melted any food I would have purchased.

There were a number of interesting art pieces at the street festival as well but I wouldn't be able to ship it home with any confidence. Besides, there are other places that money is needed currently. *sigh*

Rob and I went to Carrow's, a chain very much like Denny's for a light & cheap dinner. I suspect our presence dropped the average age of the customer population by, oh, 80 or so. Even with a light meal, I still had to box the extra to take back to my hotel room.

At the moment, I'm catching up on email, LJ and watching some television, preparing myself for the fun & joy of work tomorrow at headquarters. Pray for us all.

OMG, First Post!

I hope it's not bad mojo to make one's first posting from work, but hey here I am and I can't do much else here until certain other team members make their appearance.

I've queued up a complete import from LiveJournal... hopefully, that will go smoothly.

More news later... right now, I have to look productive and/or busy.

Update from Roseland Resort

This past weekend, I was conversing with many folks about our trailer at Roseland Resort, a gay campground in West Virginia --we're heading there for this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. The campground staff sent out a weekly update this morning which mentions some housekeeping stuff and lots about upcoming events.

( Click if curious... )

Update from Roseland Resort

This past weekend, I was conversing with many folks about our trailer at Roseland Resort, a gay campground in West Virginia --we're heading there for this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. The campground staff sent out a weekly update this morning which mentions some housekeeping stuff and lots about upcoming events.

( Click if curious... )

Headquarters, Day 1

Nearly everything about this trip is vastly easier than the last one: navigating SFO, getting my rental car, driving to the hotel, getting around the bay area on municipal transit, and such. This includes, as of this morning, getting to work.

Knowing when the main doors would be open, where my team sits and where I could likely find an empty desk, I was working away on my laptop by 8:30 AM PST. I'm still more formally dressed than 90% of the very casually dressed people here but that's my personal eccentricity and one seems to mind or care.

I went out for lunch with my director and another manager at a nearby texas bbq restaurant. That wasn't quite the largest hamburger I've ever seen in my life, but it was in the top three. No dinner for me tonight. *burp*

On a more professional note, I got nearly all of the SAN configuration information & procedures I was hoping to get this trip. The key guy I wanted to talk to was out sick this morning but others were able to fill me in with the key items and I was able to explore on my own for most of the rest. Yay!

I also got a tour of the Foster City data center server closet over-glorified dumpster. My DC facility is the production system and was built out only a few months ago; by contrast, the Foster City facility is non-prod and grew gradually with no discipline or planning over the course of several years. I'm told the FC facility, even in its state of disarray, is a vast improvement over what they had only a year ago, thanks to the efforts of some folks hired last fall.

I've also submitted a stack of expense reports for reimbursement. These have been accumulating for a while, a small postage charge in January, ethernet cables a week after, two crossover cables, a serial adapter, etc.. In all, it came to about $260... it will be nice to have my money back.

I'm going to wrap up today's stuff and go for a nap now, I think.

Headquarters, Day 1

Nearly everything about this trip is vastly easier than the last one: navigating SFO, getting my rental car, driving to the hotel, getting around the bay area on municipal transit, and such. This includes, as of this morning, getting to work.

Knowing when the main doors would be open, where my team sits and where I could likely find an empty desk, I was working away on my laptop by 8:30 AM PST. I'm still more formally dressed than 90% of the very casually dressed people here but that's my personal eccentricity and one seems to mind or care.

I went out for lunch with my director and another manager at a nearby texas bbq restaurant. That wasn't quite the largest hamburger I've ever seen in my life, but it was in the top three. No dinner for me tonight. *burp*

On a more professional note, I got nearly all of the SAN configuration information & procedures I was hoping to get this trip. The key guy I wanted to talk to was out sick this morning but others were able to fill me in with the key items and I was able to explore on my own for most of the rest. Yay!

I also got a tour of the Foster City data center server closet over-glorified dumpster. My DC facility is the production system and was built out only a few months ago; by contrast, the Foster City facility is non-prod and grew gradually with no discipline or planning over the course of several years. I'm told the FC facility, even in its state of disarray, is a vast improvement over what they had only a year ago, thanks to the efforts of some folks hired last fall.

I've also submitted a stack of expense reports for reimbursement. These have been accumulating for a while, a small postage charge in January, ethernet cables a week after, two crossover cables, a serial adapter, etc.. In all, it came to about $260... it will be nice to have my money back.

I'm going to wrap up today's stuff and go for a nap now, I think.