Over the past few weeks I have noticed some terrible driving around town. Are the drivers here just that dumb/ignorant/clueless or too self absorbed to actually drive decently??
I was coming home from the grocery store after work a couple weeks ago. Stopped at the light. Car in front of me stops. Sits there for about 10 seconds and then proceeds to drive thru the intersection. There was still traffic going the other direction. It is a miracle he didn't get hit. A couple blocks later another car did the same thing.
Brookfield is known for having a lot of speed traps set up along Capitol Dr. There will be five cop cars sitting in a spot and picking speeders off bing, bang, boom. The funny part is that they are sitting there in plain sight, in marked cars. Do people not see them sitting there??
Driving home from work seems to be the worst. Car will drive down Capitol Dr, turn their signal on and then proceed to drive past four or five driveways. Leaving people to wonder if or when they are going to turn.
Getting on the freeway is another tough task. Do drivers not know what the metered ramps mean?? Stop on red and when your light turns green, one car goes. It even says that on the signs. One car per green. People won''t stop or if they do, a couple cars will go at once. The worst part is that they were in such a hurry to go until it comes time to actually merge, then they fail to get up to speed before the end of the ramp.
Last night was another perfect example. I stopped at Subway on my way out to meet a friend for a drink. I have to do a left turn/half U turn to get in the driveway. Cars coming towards me had a red light. Do you think that any one of them would maybe stop before the driveway/median break to let me through. Nope! It was not like I was going to slow them down in any way.
Being in LA last fall, made me really realize how inconsiderate our drivers are. LA may have a lot of traffic but they were always driving smart. Using turn signals when turning or changing lanes, speeding up to merge, stopping at the crosswalk if you know you won't make it through an intersection before the light turns red. Nothing that is all that big of a deal but sure makes the other drivers around you less stabby.
So stop talking, texting, eating or whatever else you do in you car and just drive.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Things I've Learned today
It is barely noon and I've learned all sorts of interesting things today.
- The St. Francis recycling center does not take old garage door openers.
- The St. Francis recycling center does take yard waste including grass clippings! I've lived here for 5 years now. How did I not know this? I always bag my grass clippings.
- I took my old garage door opener to the recycling place and I got $10 for scrap metal! Win
- Petco, where the prices on everything are crazy expensive, so I never shop there, price matches. Need a store ad or previous receipt.This will now save me the time driving over to Pet World and $18 on a bag of dog food. When you buy a 30 lb bag of dog food every month that adds up quickly. Now if they only sold the bird food in bulk.
- There is no 5 yet. But the day is early.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Being Sick
The last few days have been rough. It started on Tuesday evening when I ate dinner before a meeting after work. My stomach was all sorts of rumbly. Sounded like some dinosaurs where fighting in my belly.
On Wed, I worked from home because I was doing a guest brewing thing at Rustic Road Brewing in the evening (blog post coming soon). I had not been feeling great most of the day. Some GI issues but felt good enough to go. I had not eaten anything but an apple during the day and we stopped at Subway for dinner on the way to Kenosha. I only at half of my sub.
The guest brewing was fun but didn't drink a lot as my tummy was still wonky.
Thursday, I woke up and felt lousy. I was sooo cold and could not get warm. GI issues were still hanging around. I knew I had some stuff that only I could do for work and of course my laptop was going thru a Notes upgrade that took FOREVER. So I sat at my desk with a long sleeve tshirt, my heaviest hoodie on. I had a blanket wrapped around me and Rufus on my lap. I was still so cold. By time 4 pm rolled around, I was toast. I took the pups outside and grabbed my comforter, two blankets and my pillow and lay down on the couch.
When I got up at 8:30, I knew I was not good. I was still so cold. I took my temp and it was 101.7. I took the pups out and went back to sleep on the couch.
When I was a little kid and I would get a fever I would have hallucinations and night terrors. One of the dreams I only have when I have a fever. I dream that I a being chased by King Kong. I am in an Oak Creek subdivision where we used to live. But when I was little that was all forest and fields. I eventually escape him by crawling into a culvert.
I also have the sensation of lightning coming from my fingertips. It is weird, I know. What is even more bizarre is that I had the tv on while I slept on the couch. I had a dream that I started a fire on a house with the lightning coming from my fingers. Now I'm pretty sure that I must have heard while sleeping the reports of a house fire in West Allis (I'm not even going there). But is was most strange.
About 4 am I woke up just sweating to death. My fever had broken and I was now drenched. My GI issues were still going on but I no longer felt like a truck had run over me.I took the dogs outside and went back to bed.
I got up about 9 am and felt pretty good compared to the last few days. Stomach wasn't rumbly. I wasn't freezing and no more lightning from my fingertips. I actually feel hungry. Something that hadn't happened since Tues.
I don;t get sick very often. I'm glad it was fairly short lived.
Now to get prepared for BEER WEEK!!
On Wed, I worked from home because I was doing a guest brewing thing at Rustic Road Brewing in the evening (blog post coming soon). I had not been feeling great most of the day. Some GI issues but felt good enough to go. I had not eaten anything but an apple during the day and we stopped at Subway for dinner on the way to Kenosha. I only at half of my sub.
The guest brewing was fun but didn't drink a lot as my tummy was still wonky.
Thursday, I woke up and felt lousy. I was sooo cold and could not get warm. GI issues were still hanging around. I knew I had some stuff that only I could do for work and of course my laptop was going thru a Notes upgrade that took FOREVER. So I sat at my desk with a long sleeve tshirt, my heaviest hoodie on. I had a blanket wrapped around me and Rufus on my lap. I was still so cold. By time 4 pm rolled around, I was toast. I took the pups outside and grabbed my comforter, two blankets and my pillow and lay down on the couch.
When I got up at 8:30, I knew I was not good. I was still so cold. I took my temp and it was 101.7. I took the pups out and went back to sleep on the couch.
When I was a little kid and I would get a fever I would have hallucinations and night terrors. One of the dreams I only have when I have a fever. I dream that I a being chased by King Kong. I am in an Oak Creek subdivision where we used to live. But when I was little that was all forest and fields. I eventually escape him by crawling into a culvert.
I also have the sensation of lightning coming from my fingertips. It is weird, I know. What is even more bizarre is that I had the tv on while I slept on the couch. I had a dream that I started a fire on a house with the lightning coming from my fingers. Now I'm pretty sure that I must have heard while sleeping the reports of a house fire in West Allis (I'm not even going there). But is was most strange.
About 4 am I woke up just sweating to death. My fever had broken and I was now drenched. My GI issues were still going on but I no longer felt like a truck had run over me.I took the dogs outside and went back to bed.
I got up about 9 am and felt pretty good compared to the last few days. Stomach wasn't rumbly. I wasn't freezing and no more lightning from my fingertips. I actually feel hungry. Something that hadn't happened since Tues.
I don;t get sick very often. I'm glad it was fairly short lived.
Now to get prepared for BEER WEEK!!
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Boys of Summer Are Back
Baseball is back!
Baseball means sun, warm weather and enjoying time outside once again.
I was going to get rid of cable until I found out mlb.TV will only show out of market games live. I wouldn't be able to see the games live. Sure, I could listen to them on the radio and love listening to Uecker but I love watching the games on TV.
The past couple of years I only made it to 3-4 games a season. This year is different. I bought a ticket package. I'm kinda excited about the package we got. We start out with seats that are in Bernie's Terrace. If the Brewers win you move up to a better section. By the last game, if they keep winning, you could be sitting in field level diamond box seats.
How fun would that be?
How fun would that be?
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Little Free Library
As most of you may know, I am a big reader. I have always liked to read. My library card gets a workout. Now I find myself with more books to read than I have time. As a result, I pay lots of overdue book fines. I was so jealous of my friend, Renee, who was on vacation for three weeks and was able to read over a dozen books. I long for that kind of free time.
Lately, I've noticed that there have been lots of Little Free Libraries popping up around my neighborhood.
What is a Little Free Library? They are little structures that are placed in public places that house books. Their mission is to build more than 2510 libraries around the world and to promote literacy and the love off reading. They are operated on the "leave a book, take a book" principle. I love the concept that books are available for anyone to read and is never closed.
The libraries often are decorated in various themes or styles. Some look like the home where the library resides, some look like schools or churches. You can go to the website and see some them. If you go to the map page, most of the spots on the map have a picture of the library there.
Here is the library on the northwest corner of Oklahoma Ave and Lake Drive in Bay View
This one is on the southwest corner of Howard Ave and Lipton Ave in St. Francis.
I encourage you to find or even build a Little Free Library in your neighborhood. You never know what or who you may find there.
Lately, I've noticed that there have been lots of Little Free Libraries popping up around my neighborhood.
What is a Little Free Library? They are little structures that are placed in public places that house books. Their mission is to build more than 2510 libraries around the world and to promote literacy and the love off reading. They are operated on the "leave a book, take a book" principle. I love the concept that books are available for anyone to read and is never closed.
The libraries often are decorated in various themes or styles. Some look like the home where the library resides, some look like schools or churches. You can go to the website and see some them. If you go to the map page, most of the spots on the map have a picture of the library there.
Here is the library on the northwest corner of Oklahoma Ave and Lake Drive in Bay View
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| Lots of different books in this one |
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| How much is that doggie in the window? |
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| The kitten wants to keep an eye on things as well. |
This one is on the southwest corner of Howard Ave and Lipton Ave in St. Francis.
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| Fairy tale themed |
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| The castle and mermaid |
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| Dragon! |
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| Unicorns too! |
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Bock This
This post is a little, ok, very late in coming. Almost two weeks ago, Laura and I went up to Stevens Point for the weekend. Why Stevens Point you ask? Well, beer, duh! And a race, of course. You know I like to take run-cations.
Back last fall, I won a package from the Stevens Point Visitors center. It included a free hotel night at the Country Inn. When I seen that registration was opening up for the Point Brewery's annual Bock Run, I asked Laura to run with me. She agreed and we both signed up for the race when it went on sale at noon on New Year's Day. As always the race sold out in like 18 hours.
We decided to make it a beer weekend since the run was sponsored by a brewery and Laura is my assistant at Fartlek Brewing.
We left bright and early Saturday morning. The race wasn't until noon but we wanted to make sure we a) got a good parking spot and b) had plenty of time to get there and not be rushed. We made it up there by a little after 10. We hit up the gift shop at the brewery and bought a few things. I had only worn some yoga pants because my tights are way to warm to spend 3 hours in so I had to change. There were no real bathrooms nearby so I changed in the car. Which was now beginning to resemble a Ragnar van, minus the stink.
After we pick up our packets we go back to the car. As we are sitting in the car keeping warm, a woman decide to park in front of us in her Prius. In front of us was a home with a wheelchair ramp and the front was all a huge snowbank where they cleared off the sidewalk. After go back and forth several times, she now has her car on the snowbank at such an angle. the right side of her car is almost a good foot higher than the left. She gets out, looks at it, gets back in, goes back forth a few more times. Not that it did any good. She gets out again and decides that it is good enough. Laura and I are cracking up at this. Laura decides that we are too close to the corner and pulls forward a foot or so. Cuz, you know?
It is almost race time so we head out to the party.
We line up and away we go. I had not run much since Disney 6 weeks before so my goal was to not die.
First mile 11:11, ran the whole time. Mile 2 12:10, still ran it all but a bit slower. The course is nice and flat. Mile 3 12:35. Took a short walk break, made the halfway turn at 29:50 walked thru the water stop. Mile 4 13:13 a few more walk breaks but it seems like it is going fast.. Mile 5: 13:12. I am almost done. I kept pace with another guy for the last mile and a half. We turn the corner and know it is only a block or so left. About 100 yards left the guy says "race ya to the finish" Game on. I ran my ass off the last few feet and clocked in a super speedy 9.1 mph. Total time 1:02:14. Laura was also super speedy and finished in a little over 53 minutes. She had a beer waiting for me at the finish.
My cousin and a couple of her friends had come down to hang out with us. She missed us crossing the finish line but had some great signs that we forgot to get pictures of. We forgot to tell her this was outside and muddy and it was decided that they would meet us back at the hotel later.Laura and I hung around for a few hours enjoying the party and several barley pops.
We weer hanging out at a table where a bunch of flyers were in boxes for other local races. We found it hilarious that there was one for breast feeding. Seriously?? Do they really need a fund raiser for that? I wanted to run it with two dolls attached to my boobs.
We are now out of beer tickets and decide to head back to the hotel and shower and warm up.
Coming soon: Beer tours
Back last fall, I won a package from the Stevens Point Visitors center. It included a free hotel night at the Country Inn. When I seen that registration was opening up for the Point Brewery's annual Bock Run, I asked Laura to run with me. She agreed and we both signed up for the race when it went on sale at noon on New Year's Day. As always the race sold out in like 18 hours.
We decided to make it a beer weekend since the run was sponsored by a brewery and Laura is my assistant at Fartlek Brewing.
We left bright and early Saturday morning. The race wasn't until noon but we wanted to make sure we a) got a good parking spot and b) had plenty of time to get there and not be rushed. We made it up there by a little after 10. We hit up the gift shop at the brewery and bought a few things. I had only worn some yoga pants because my tights are way to warm to spend 3 hours in so I had to change. There were no real bathrooms nearby so I changed in the car. Which was now beginning to resemble a Ragnar van, minus the stink.
After we pick up our packets we go back to the car. As we are sitting in the car keeping warm, a woman decide to park in front of us in her Prius. In front of us was a home with a wheelchair ramp and the front was all a huge snowbank where they cleared off the sidewalk. After go back and forth several times, she now has her car on the snowbank at such an angle. the right side of her car is almost a good foot higher than the left. She gets out, looks at it, gets back in, goes back forth a few more times. Not that it did any good. She gets out again and decides that it is good enough. Laura and I are cracking up at this. Laura decides that we are too close to the corner and pulls forward a foot or so. Cuz, you know?
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| Laura and I pre race. |
We line up and away we go. I had not run much since Disney 6 weeks before so my goal was to not die.
First mile 11:11, ran the whole time. Mile 2 12:10, still ran it all but a bit slower. The course is nice and flat. Mile 3 12:35. Took a short walk break, made the halfway turn at 29:50 walked thru the water stop. Mile 4 13:13 a few more walk breaks but it seems like it is going fast.. Mile 5: 13:12. I am almost done. I kept pace with another guy for the last mile and a half. We turn the corner and know it is only a block or so left. About 100 yards left the guy says "race ya to the finish" Game on. I ran my ass off the last few feet and clocked in a super speedy 9.1 mph. Total time 1:02:14. Laura was also super speedy and finished in a little over 53 minutes. She had a beer waiting for me at the finish.
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| Laura and I post race. Yes, we are smiling. We have beer! |
My cousin and a couple of her friends had come down to hang out with us. She missed us crossing the finish line but had some great signs that we forgot to get pictures of. We forgot to tell her this was outside and muddy and it was decided that they would meet us back at the hotel later.Laura and I hung around for a few hours enjoying the party and several barley pops.
We weer hanging out at a table where a bunch of flyers were in boxes for other local races. We found it hilarious that there was one for breast feeding. Seriously?? Do they really need a fund raiser for that? I wanted to run it with two dolls attached to my boobs.
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| Breastfeeding 5k?? |
We are now out of beer tickets and decide to head back to the hotel and shower and warm up.
Coming soon: Beer tours
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Surviving Boot Camp
Remember when I last posted that I was going to do a boot camp?? Well, I did it! And I didn't die.
There were only four of us in the class with Tracey. It helped that I knew Laura and Nicole and "knew" Chelsey from twitter. I wasn't going to be surrounded by all these super fit people and I would feel like a lumbering ox.
We focused this week on lower body. I was scared that with the impending snow storm I was going to be so sore from the boot camp that I would not be able to shovel the snow on Friday.
We started out with a nice warm up of jumping jacks. I remember why I don;t normally do them. They hurts your boobs. The best sports bra in the world can't keep them in tight enough. Luckily the jumping jacks ended quickly.
We did some circuits that were fun and while challenging not so difficult that I couldn't keep up. Jumping on the bosu ball was freaky. Thought I was going to bounce right on my ass a couple times. It definitely got the heart rate going.
We ended it up with core ab work and stretching.
On Friday, the snow fell and I was able to shovel it. I then got lazy and used the snow blower for the rest. My butt muscles were a bit sore but once I got moving they were fine.
It was fun class and Tracey kept us all motivated and from feeling like we were dying. I am looking forward to next week and doing upper body stuff.
There were only four of us in the class with Tracey. It helped that I knew Laura and Nicole and "knew" Chelsey from twitter. I wasn't going to be surrounded by all these super fit people and I would feel like a lumbering ox.
We focused this week on lower body. I was scared that with the impending snow storm I was going to be so sore from the boot camp that I would not be able to shovel the snow on Friday.
We started out with a nice warm up of jumping jacks. I remember why I don;t normally do them. They hurts your boobs. The best sports bra in the world can't keep them in tight enough. Luckily the jumping jacks ended quickly.
We did some circuits that were fun and while challenging not so difficult that I couldn't keep up. Jumping on the bosu ball was freaky. Thought I was going to bounce right on my ass a couple times. It definitely got the heart rate going.
We ended it up with core ab work and stretching.
On Friday, the snow fell and I was able to shovel it. I then got lazy and used the snow blower for the rest. My butt muscles were a bit sore but once I got moving they were fine.
It was fun class and Tracey kept us all motivated and from feeling like we were dying. I am looking forward to next week and doing upper body stuff.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Comfort Zone
Tonight I was sitting in my chair with Rufus on my lap, reading the newspaper (Yes, I still get a real newspaper). I had The Biggest Loser on tv. I wasn't really watching it but had it on for more background noise.
This year they have kids on the show. I can't remember the girls name but the boy is named Bingo.
One of the girls (red team) wanted to be a cheerleader. The show arranged for her to practice with a squad. It looked like she was doing pretty good and had fun. In the interview she gave after practice she said that she had to step out of her comfort zone. She said it was scary but she did it and had a great time.
That struck something in me. I live a very safe and comfortable life.
For a couple years after hubby died, I learned to step out of my comfort zone and tried a lot of new things. I met lots of new people and had some fantastic experiences. While it was scary at first, I learned to embrace that fear and just jump right in. The water was always fine.
Tonight, I realized, that I have settled into the comfort zone and need to try some new things. Time to shake things up. I signed up for a boot camp class. Tracey has just started teaching the classes. She was promoting them this morning on Twitter and I did look and noticed that they were in Bay View. So I said "What the hell! I need to step out of my comfort zone and try something new". So I went over to the book of faces and clicked that Join button.
I'm excited, a bit nervous and hoping I don't die. Ok I know I won't die but I'm hoping I can still walk the next day.
This year they have kids on the show. I can't remember the girls name but the boy is named Bingo.
One of the girls (red team) wanted to be a cheerleader. The show arranged for her to practice with a squad. It looked like she was doing pretty good and had fun. In the interview she gave after practice she said that she had to step out of her comfort zone. She said it was scary but she did it and had a great time.
That struck something in me. I live a very safe and comfortable life.
For a couple years after hubby died, I learned to step out of my comfort zone and tried a lot of new things. I met lots of new people and had some fantastic experiences. While it was scary at first, I learned to embrace that fear and just jump right in. The water was always fine.
Tonight, I realized, that I have settled into the comfort zone and need to try some new things. Time to shake things up. I signed up for a boot camp class. Tracey has just started teaching the classes. She was promoting them this morning on Twitter and I did look and noticed that they were in Bay View. So I said "What the hell! I need to step out of my comfort zone and try something new". So I went over to the book of faces and clicked that Join button.
I'm excited, a bit nervous and hoping I don't die. Ok I know I won't die but I'm hoping I can still walk the next day.
Saturday, November 03, 2012
Random Vacation Thoughts
Some random thoughts on my vacation to Southern California.
- There are a lot of dentists in Tijuana, Mexico. The locals all had very bad teeth.
- Sunsets over the water are just as pretty as sunrises.
- The USS Midway was a big fucking boat.
- The HMS Queen Mary is also a big fucking boat.
- Endeavour is a cool space shuttle. Seeing it up close was breath taking
- CA people don't drive like assholes. There are just a gazillion people trying to go the same place you are.
- Parking anywhere in California SUCKS!! Have they never heard of parking lots??
- California does not believe in signs telling you where you can and can't park. They paint the curbs. Red curbs mean no parking. Yellow is a loading zone and no paint mean you can park there.
- There are a lot of curbs where the paint is barely visible
- I hate driving thru the mountains. I thought I was going to cry or puke or both.
- Jay Leno was pretty cool.
- Lots of gay people like Betty White. (I had no clue)
- Taylor Launter has extremely white teeth.
- I had no clue who Taylor Lautner was until a few weeks ago
- Eddie Cibrian is even hotter in person than on tv.
- I don't watch enough trashy tv.
- I have no clue who half of the celebrities people were talking about were.
- I'm ok with not knowing who those people were.
- Running along the ocean was awesome.
- I had to skip half of the Reagan library exhibit that was about his funeral. They played "taps" and I started tearing up.
- Pandas rock!
- California makes some pretty damn tasty beer.
- I'm ready to eat my "normal" diet of food again. Eating out was hard for me to do.
- 8 days is too many days to be away from my dogs. I missed them something fierce.
Monday, October 08, 2012
Beer Church
Yesterday, in addition to being a cheerleader for several friends running the Lakefront Marathon, I attended Beer Church.
It is not the traditional church service so don't get all offended by it. But just an amusing name for an event that will be hosted on the first Sunday of the month at John Hawk's Pub in Milwaukee.
Beer church is being hosted by Kurt Mayes (aka BrewerKurt), one of the brewers at Milwaukee Brewing Co. The goal is to learn about different styles of beers from around the world in an informal and casual setting.
Yesterday's theme was Oktoberfests. Oktobertfest is a 16 day festival held in Munich, Germany each year in Sept/Oct. (You can read the Wikipedia article for more details on the festival). Traditionally, Oktobertfest beers are a marzen style, that has more of a malty flavor with no real hop taste to it.
The beers we tried were two categories, German and American.
For the German beers we had
My personal favorite from this group was the Warsteiner. It had a nice malty flavor. I did not care for the Erdinger which was more like a wheat version of an Oktoberfest. The Paulaner tasted a bit metallic-y for me. Like there was foil in it.
Next up was the American beers
Here my favorite was Hoptoberfest. I like hops and this had a nice hoppy flavor that complimented the sweet malty flavor. The rest of the beers were solid and I would drink all of them again.
While the inaugural meeting was small, it was still a nice group of people with different beer backgrounds. You don't have to be a beer geek to come out. You just have to not be afraid to try something new and different. Who knows, maybe you will find your new favorite beer
It is not the traditional church service so don't get all offended by it. But just an amusing name for an event that will be hosted on the first Sunday of the month at John Hawk's Pub in Milwaukee.
Beer church is being hosted by Kurt Mayes (aka BrewerKurt), one of the brewers at Milwaukee Brewing Co. The goal is to learn about different styles of beers from around the world in an informal and casual setting.
Yesterday's theme was Oktoberfests. Oktobertfest is a 16 day festival held in Munich, Germany each year in Sept/Oct. (You can read the Wikipedia article for more details on the festival). Traditionally, Oktobertfest beers are a marzen style, that has more of a malty flavor with no real hop taste to it.
The beers we tried were two categories, German and American.
For the German beers we had
- Warsteiner Premium Oktoberfest by Warsteiner Brauerei
- Erdinger Oktoberfest Weißbier by Erdinger Weissbräu
- Oktoberfest Märzen by Paulaner Brauerei
- Spaten Oktoberfestbier / Oktoberfest Ur-Märzen by Spaten-Franziskaner-Löwenbräu-Gruppe
- Oktoberfest Märzen by Hacker-Pschorr Bräu
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| Warsteiner Premium Oktoberfest, Erdinger Oktoberfest Weißbier, Oktoberfest Märzen, Spaten Oktoberfestbier / Oktoberfest Ur-Märzen, Oktoberfest Märzen |
My personal favorite from this group was the Warsteiner. It had a nice malty flavor. I did not care for the Erdinger which was more like a wheat version of an Oktoberfest. The Paulaner tasted a bit metallic-y for me. Like there was foil in it.
Next up was the American beers
- Hoptoberfest by Milwaukee Brewing Company
- Oktoberfest by Lakefront Brewery
- Oktoberfest by Sprecher Brewing Company
- Samuel Adams Octoberfest by Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams)
- Oktoberfest by Great Lakes Brewing Company
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| Hoptoberfest, Oktoberfest, Oktoberfest |
While the inaugural meeting was small, it was still a nice group of people with different beer backgrounds. You don't have to be a beer geek to come out. You just have to not be afraid to try something new and different. Who knows, maybe you will find your new favorite beer
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Senseless
Today started out like any other Sunday. Walked the dogs, went for a run, did some yard work.
Came back in the house and checked twitter and facebook. I see a tweet from @Mkescan about 10:45 that says "Report of Officer down in Oak Creek. Active shooter." Woah! I know a couple of guys that work for the Oak Creek police force. It has me a bit worried.
Keep watching my feed and a few minutes later I see this " @NewsHub: We are getting reports that 4 people were shot at Sikh Temple, 7512 S. Howell Ave., OC Police not giving out information" Holy shit! this is not good.
It is now close to noon and I'm riveted to Twitter and Fox 6 for information. By 4:00pm we know this. A man walked into the Sikh temple and opened fire. It sounds like he then went outside and was confronted by the two officers. They exchanged gunfire. One officer was shot, the other officer shot and killed the suspected shooter. Thew officer who was shot is expected to survive. Six other people were shot and killed.
Some background: I grew up in Caledonia. The town just south of Oak Creek. Growing up we did most things in Oak Creek rather than going into Racine. We would go to the high school and swim, use the library, shop and eat at restaurants there. In 2001, late hubby and I bought a house in Oak Creek. I loved that house. We had great neighbors and several of our neighbors worked for the Oak Creek Police Dept . We sold the house in 2008 and I bought a house where I live now.
You hear about things like this on the news. Most recently in Aurora, CO. You think it is such a tragedy but think that is can never happen to you, to your town, your neighbors and friends. Today that changed. This was my town, my neighbors and hopefully not any of my friends (as of the time of this post they have not released the names of the two officers who responded).
About 5:00pm it is reported that an area of Cudahy is being evacuated. This is about 10 blocks from me. The authorities are now searching the home of the suspected shooter. As of 8:30 pm the helicopters are still flying overhead. With the suspected shooter dead, we may never know why this happened. The FBI has classified this as an act of "Domestic Terrorism". That is a term for not fucking around. I don't think the FBI uses that term loosely or frequently.
Normally stuff does not bother me too much. This has left me rattled to the core. I feel very unsettled. This is not the way I wanted Oak Creek to be known for.
My thoughts and prayers tonight are for the friends and family of those who were injured and killed today in another senseless act of violence. My hope is that we learn from this and hopefully never have to read or hear about another tragedy like this.
Came back in the house and checked twitter and facebook. I see a tweet from @Mkescan about 10:45 that says "Report of Officer down in Oak Creek. Active shooter." Woah! I know a couple of guys that work for the Oak Creek police force. It has me a bit worried.
Keep watching my feed and a few minutes later I see this " @NewsHub: We are getting reports that 4 people were shot at Sikh Temple, 7512 S. Howell Ave., OC Police not giving out information" Holy shit! this is not good.
It is now close to noon and I'm riveted to Twitter and Fox 6 for information. By 4:00pm we know this. A man walked into the Sikh temple and opened fire. It sounds like he then went outside and was confronted by the two officers. They exchanged gunfire. One officer was shot, the other officer shot and killed the suspected shooter. Thew officer who was shot is expected to survive. Six other people were shot and killed.
Some background: I grew up in Caledonia. The town just south of Oak Creek. Growing up we did most things in Oak Creek rather than going into Racine. We would go to the high school and swim, use the library, shop and eat at restaurants there. In 2001, late hubby and I bought a house in Oak Creek. I loved that house. We had great neighbors and several of our neighbors worked for the Oak Creek Police Dept . We sold the house in 2008 and I bought a house where I live now.
You hear about things like this on the news. Most recently in Aurora, CO. You think it is such a tragedy but think that is can never happen to you, to your town, your neighbors and friends. Today that changed. This was my town, my neighbors and hopefully not any of my friends (as of the time of this post they have not released the names of the two officers who responded).
About 5:00pm it is reported that an area of Cudahy is being evacuated. This is about 10 blocks from me. The authorities are now searching the home of the suspected shooter. As of 8:30 pm the helicopters are still flying overhead. With the suspected shooter dead, we may never know why this happened. The FBI has classified this as an act of "Domestic Terrorism". That is a term for not fucking around. I don't think the FBI uses that term loosely or frequently.
Normally stuff does not bother me too much. This has left me rattled to the core. I feel very unsettled. This is not the way I wanted Oak Creek to be known for.
My thoughts and prayers tonight are for the friends and family of those who were injured and killed today in another senseless act of violence. My hope is that we learn from this and hopefully never have to read or hear about another tragedy like this.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Rock n Sole
It has been awhile since I posted anything, I need to get posts up about Ragnar and my vacation to TN at some point...
Last weekend was the 2nd annual Summerfest Rock N Sole race in Milwaukee. They had a 5k, which I did, a 10k and a half marathon. Last year this race was a cluster fuck from the word go. The race did not have enough water stops, ran out of water, no water at the finish, crowded finishers area... you name it, it probably went wrong. I did not run it, for this I am glad.
My friend, Erica won an entry to the race from Fit Milwaukee so she asked me to do the race with her. Since I have talked her into doing a bunch of races I couldn't say no.
The morning started out rather comically. I told Erica that I would drive. We set the time for 6:00 am. I am about half way to her house when I pass a car that looks like her. I glance back in the rear view mirror and see her custom plates. Shit! Was she supposed to drive?? Didn't think so but I turned around and went back home. She seen me following her and realized that when I said I would drive I also meant that I would pick her up.
We get downtown and decide to park near the finish line. It is really foggy out and you can't even see the lake or the top of the U.S. Bank building. We wander to the Start line and wait for the half marathon and 10K folks to start. They go and we get in line. We are about 2 corrals back from the actual start line. This is ok with me.
The gun goes off and away we go. We go down Lincoln Memorial drive and up the freeway on ramp. As we make our way up the Hoan bridge it is still foggy out. But the sun is starting to peek out. Erica and I wore our Team Fartlek Ragnar shirts. They were a bit warm. The climb to the top of the bridge is not as bad as I thought it would be. We still had to walk once we got about 3/4 of the way to the top. it was rather freaky to feel the bridge moving underneath your feet as 7400 runners made their way over it.
We got to the top and turned around to head back. The fog was still there and it looked strange to see the tops of the buildings poking out thru the fog.
We got to the bottom of the bridge and circled around the Summerfest grounds. towards the finish line. There were lots of people cheering as you crossed which is always so cool. Erica and I finished with chip times of 39:49. Which for me is about average. Seeing as I had not run since Ragnar, I was happy with the time.
The finisher's area was spacious and well organized. You crossed, got water, got your medal, got food. You then went out into the Summerfest grounds. This was probably one of the best organized races I have ever done. I will definitely be back to do it again next year.
Last weekend was the 2nd annual Summerfest Rock N Sole race in Milwaukee. They had a 5k, which I did, a 10k and a half marathon. Last year this race was a cluster fuck from the word go. The race did not have enough water stops, ran out of water, no water at the finish, crowded finishers area... you name it, it probably went wrong. I did not run it, for this I am glad.
My friend, Erica won an entry to the race from Fit Milwaukee so she asked me to do the race with her. Since I have talked her into doing a bunch of races I couldn't say no.
The morning started out rather comically. I told Erica that I would drive. We set the time for 6:00 am. I am about half way to her house when I pass a car that looks like her. I glance back in the rear view mirror and see her custom plates. Shit! Was she supposed to drive?? Didn't think so but I turned around and went back home. She seen me following her and realized that when I said I would drive I also meant that I would pick her up.
We get downtown and decide to park near the finish line. It is really foggy out and you can't even see the lake or the top of the U.S. Bank building. We wander to the Start line and wait for the half marathon and 10K folks to start. They go and we get in line. We are about 2 corrals back from the actual start line. This is ok with me.
The gun goes off and away we go. We go down Lincoln Memorial drive and up the freeway on ramp. As we make our way up the Hoan bridge it is still foggy out. But the sun is starting to peek out. Erica and I wore our Team Fartlek Ragnar shirts. They were a bit warm. The climb to the top of the bridge is not as bad as I thought it would be. We still had to walk once we got about 3/4 of the way to the top. it was rather freaky to feel the bridge moving underneath your feet as 7400 runners made their way over it.
We got to the top and turned around to head back. The fog was still there and it looked strange to see the tops of the buildings poking out thru the fog.
We got to the bottom of the bridge and circled around the Summerfest grounds. towards the finish line. There were lots of people cheering as you crossed which is always so cool. Erica and I finished with chip times of 39:49. Which for me is about average. Seeing as I had not run since Ragnar, I was happy with the time.
The finisher's area was spacious and well organized. You crossed, got water, got your medal, got food. You then went out into the Summerfest grounds. This was probably one of the best organized races I have ever done. I will definitely be back to do it again next year.
 |
| Erica and I before the race! |
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Slowing Down
Over the past few weeks I have noticed something that makes me a little sad. My dogs are getting older and starting to slow down. Especially Riley. I think the years of allergies and shots and pills are starting to catch up with him.
It seems like he doesn't want to go one walks as much anymore. Sometimes, he just wants to whiz and go back into the house. He doesn't seems to be in pain or have a hard time walking, he just doesn't want to. He will stand at the end of the driveway and stop. I don;t force him, I just take him back in the house and walk with the other two. When he does go for walks he is slower than the Rufus and Boomer and sometimes I have to watch myself to not yell at him to hurry up or to start dragging him along. Then the walks are fun for no one.
Rufus and Riley are both about 9 1/2 so not that old but no spring chickens either. It just makes me a little sad to know that they are not the young, playful pups they once were. Plus side is that they both like to get extra snuggle time on the couch with me.
It seems like he doesn't want to go one walks as much anymore. Sometimes, he just wants to whiz and go back into the house. He doesn't seems to be in pain or have a hard time walking, he just doesn't want to. He will stand at the end of the driveway and stop. I don;t force him, I just take him back in the house and walk with the other two. When he does go for walks he is slower than the Rufus and Boomer and sometimes I have to watch myself to not yell at him to hurry up or to start dragging him along. Then the walks are fun for no one.
Rufus and Riley are both about 9 1/2 so not that old but no spring chickens either. It just makes me a little sad to know that they are not the young, playful pups they once were. Plus side is that they both like to get extra snuggle time on the couch with me.
Saturday, March 03, 2012
Strange Brew
A couple of months ago Groupon had a deal for a starter home brewing kit. As I have learned more and more about beers, the process of creating my own beers has intrigued me. A couple of the guys from Beer Club brew and some of their beers are really good. So I bought the kit and selected the Irish Stout as my first beer.
As with any brewery, the first thing to do is select a name. After sitting in my favorite pub with Laura one night, we came up with the name Fartlek Brewing. It combines two things I like, beer and running. You can follow it on Twitter or Untappd. A couple of names that were rejected. Brains, Beer and Boobs and Sizzletits.
Thanks to my friend's daughter who is a good artist, I also have a logo. I may do some tweeking on the text/name part but it looks pretty good.
Last week, I finally got around to actually doing the brewing.
The directions provided in the kit were a bit vague at times. I found I needed a few things that were not provided. The big one being a thermometer. Hitting specific temperatures at points is critical.
Next I took some warm water and mixed in the dry yeast. It had to sit for awhile to starting working.
Next you crush the grains and put them in a muslin bag and steep them in almost boiling water for about 30 minutes. This is where having a thermometer would have been handy. You were to keep the temp about 155*
Next you add the malt extract to the wort. This is really thick, like molasses. You have to stir it constantly until the malt is dissolved or it can burn.
After that you bring it to a low boil for about an hour. You need to add the first batch of hops at this time. The hops I used looked like little rabbit food pellets. They dissolve in the water. You have to stir it a lot at this point as well to keep the wort from boiling over when adding the hops.
Once the boiling is almost done, I added the second set of hops. Lots of stirring again.
Then comes the cooling of the wort. You need to bring the temperature from boiling to about 80* as quickly as possible to avoid contamination of the wort. I used an ice bath. Another home brewer puts the ice cubes right in the wort. I may invest in a wort chiller if I decide to keep brewing. The chiller hooks up to the sink and you run cold water thru copper tubing that is placed inside the boil pot.
After that you put the wort in the primary fermentation. Basically a 6.5 gallon bucket. You fill it with water to the 5 gallon mark and stir the crap out of it to get lots of air into the wort. Oxygen is what the yeast needs to do its job. I got a good arm workout in. Here is where I may upgrade again and get an aquarium pump and use that to add oxygen.
I then put the lid on it, put the airlock in the hole and put it downstairs.
A couple days later a guy asked how it was going. Was I seeing lots of action? I went downstairs and looked. Nothing. Crap! What is going on? After a pow wow with several tweeps, it was decided that the basement was too cold and it need to be warmer for the yeast to work. Thanks Tom for all your help and advice! I stopped at the home brew store to pick up a packet of yeast in case it was needed. Once I moved it into the spare bedroom, I gave it a few minutes of good swirling and waited.
By the next day when I came home, it had warmed up enough to get the yeast working again and I had bubbles!! The fermentation process was working!
I now have to wait for the bubbles to stop and take some gravity readings. One the reading are the same for three days in a row, I can move it into the secondary fermentation bucket where it will hang out for about another week or so. Once again this is where the directions were a bit vague.No real time frames were provided.
After that I bottle it up and it conditions and carbonates in the bottles for about a month.
I will be posting more pics and updates as the process moves forward.
As with any brewery, the first thing to do is select a name. After sitting in my favorite pub with Laura one night, we came up with the name Fartlek Brewing. It combines two things I like, beer and running. You can follow it on Twitter or Untappd. A couple of names that were rejected. Brains, Beer and Boobs and Sizzletits.
Thanks to my friend's daughter who is a good artist, I also have a logo. I may do some tweeking on the text/name part but it looks pretty good.
Last week, I finally got around to actually doing the brewing.
The directions provided in the kit were a bit vague at times. I found I needed a few things that were not provided. The big one being a thermometer. Hitting specific temperatures at points is critical.
 |
| The raw ingredients |
Next I took some warm water and mixed in the dry yeast. It had to sit for awhile to starting working.
 | |
| The yeast |
Next you crush the grains and put them in a muslin bag and steep them in almost boiling water for about 30 minutes. This is where having a thermometer would have been handy. You were to keep the temp about 155*
 |
| Steeping the wort |
Next you add the malt extract to the wort. This is really thick, like molasses. You have to stir it constantly until the malt is dissolved or it can burn.
 |
| Malt has been added to the wort |
After that you bring it to a low boil for about an hour. You need to add the first batch of hops at this time. The hops I used looked like little rabbit food pellets. They dissolve in the water. You have to stir it a lot at this point as well to keep the wort from boiling over when adding the hops.
 |
| Wort with hops added |
Once the boiling is almost done, I added the second set of hops. Lots of stirring again.
Then comes the cooling of the wort. You need to bring the temperature from boiling to about 80* as quickly as possible to avoid contamination of the wort. I used an ice bath. Another home brewer puts the ice cubes right in the wort. I may invest in a wort chiller if I decide to keep brewing. The chiller hooks up to the sink and you run cold water thru copper tubing that is placed inside the boil pot.
 |
| Chilling the wort |
After that you put the wort in the primary fermentation. Basically a 6.5 gallon bucket. You fill it with water to the 5 gallon mark and stir the crap out of it to get lots of air into the wort. Oxygen is what the yeast needs to do its job. I got a good arm workout in. Here is where I may upgrade again and get an aquarium pump and use that to add oxygen.
 |
| Fermentation bucket |
I then put the lid on it, put the airlock in the hole and put it downstairs.
A couple days later a guy asked how it was going. Was I seeing lots of action? I went downstairs and looked. Nothing. Crap! What is going on? After a pow wow with several tweeps, it was decided that the basement was too cold and it need to be warmer for the yeast to work. Thanks Tom for all your help and advice! I stopped at the home brew store to pick up a packet of yeast in case it was needed. Once I moved it into the spare bedroom, I gave it a few minutes of good swirling and waited.
By the next day when I came home, it had warmed up enough to get the yeast working again and I had bubbles!! The fermentation process was working!
I now have to wait for the bubbles to stop and take some gravity readings. One the reading are the same for three days in a row, I can move it into the secondary fermentation bucket where it will hang out for about another week or so. Once again this is where the directions were a bit vague.No real time frames were provided.
After that I bottle it up and it conditions and carbonates in the bottles for about a month.
I will be posting more pics and updates as the process moves forward.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Garbage Day
Today is garbage day in the neighborhood. I am fascinated by the amount of garbage my neighbors generate.
Most weeks I have about five newspaper baggies of dog poo and a Pick N Save bag of garbage in my cart. Maybe if it was a big week, I will have another bag. Throw in the monthly furnace filter and that is about it. Some people will two or three carts of stuff. What do people buy and use that they generate that much stuff? I rarely eat fast or take out food so that is alot of waste I don't generate. I recycle everything I can.
Puzzling, I tell you....
Most weeks I have about five newspaper baggies of dog poo and a Pick N Save bag of garbage in my cart. Maybe if it was a big week, I will have another bag. Throw in the monthly furnace filter and that is about it. Some people will two or three carts of stuff. What do people buy and use that they generate that much stuff? I rarely eat fast or take out food so that is alot of waste I don't generate. I recycle everything I can.
Puzzling, I tell you....
Monday, January 16, 2012
Martin Luther King Jr Day
Today is Martin Luther King Jr.Day. I thought I would share a couple of photos I took when I was in Washington DC in October. It was right after the memorial was dedicated. At night is was really a moving and beautiful memorial.
Thursday, January 05, 2012
New Challenges
I am still here. I survived Vegas, thanks goodness. I still need to put a recap of that together but am lazy.
Welcome to 2012.
As I look back on 2011, I had lots of great experiences and new adventures. I traveled across the country from Florida to California. Philly and Washington DC to Vegas. I met some amazing new people that I'm proud to call friends.
I started a run streak on Thanksgiving. My goal was to run at least one mile every day from Thanksgiving thru the end of the year. I accomplished this goal. I was a bit nervous about how I would do after running a half marathon in Vegas but I think getting up early the next morning and running with Annie helped my legs recover quicker. I probably would have kept going but the weather turned crappy and running outside was miserable. I have a gym membership but hate, hate, hate running on treadmills. I feel like if I run at the Pettit, I need to get in more miles and some days, I just don't have time to block out an hour or more for running.
This year I am once again looking for new challenges.
So I decided to sign up for Ragnar. What is Ragnar, you ask? You can see all the fun details here. But it is a 200 mile relay run between Madison, WI and Chicago, IL in early June.There are 12 runners in a group and we rotate running legs. We run day into night and back into day again. Some Team Challenge friends did it last year and talked about how crazy fun it was, so I was talking with someone and we both said "What the Hell, Let's go for it" So I mailed off my race entry fee to the team captain and proceeded to freak out.
I am also trying to keep running and staying active so I have been signing up for other races as well. I am doing the Samson Stomp at the Milwaukee County Zoo in a little over a week. The following weekend I'm part of a marathon relay at the Pettit Ice Center. This is a team of four people who have to run a total of 96 laps around the track. We still have no strategy (or maybe that is our strategy).
After that, I have no idea. I would like to run at least a race each month. 5k and 10k are preferred but am thinking about heading back to Napa with Team Challenge again for another half marathon.
So what new challenges should I embark on for 2012?
Welcome to 2012.
As I look back on 2011, I had lots of great experiences and new adventures. I traveled across the country from Florida to California. Philly and Washington DC to Vegas. I met some amazing new people that I'm proud to call friends.
I started a run streak on Thanksgiving. My goal was to run at least one mile every day from Thanksgiving thru the end of the year. I accomplished this goal. I was a bit nervous about how I would do after running a half marathon in Vegas but I think getting up early the next morning and running with Annie helped my legs recover quicker. I probably would have kept going but the weather turned crappy and running outside was miserable. I have a gym membership but hate, hate, hate running on treadmills. I feel like if I run at the Pettit, I need to get in more miles and some days, I just don't have time to block out an hour or more for running.
This year I am once again looking for new challenges.
So I decided to sign up for Ragnar. What is Ragnar, you ask? You can see all the fun details here. But it is a 200 mile relay run between Madison, WI and Chicago, IL in early June.There are 12 runners in a group and we rotate running legs. We run day into night and back into day again. Some Team Challenge friends did it last year and talked about how crazy fun it was, so I was talking with someone and we both said "What the Hell, Let's go for it" So I mailed off my race entry fee to the team captain and proceeded to freak out.
I am also trying to keep running and staying active so I have been signing up for other races as well. I am doing the Samson Stomp at the Milwaukee County Zoo in a little over a week. The following weekend I'm part of a marathon relay at the Pettit Ice Center. This is a team of four people who have to run a total of 96 laps around the track. We still have no strategy (or maybe that is our strategy).
After that, I have no idea. I would like to run at least a race each month. 5k and 10k are preferred but am thinking about heading back to Napa with Team Challenge again for another half marathon.
So what new challenges should I embark on for 2012?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Viva Las Vegas
Only a few more days till I leave for Vegas. I'm really looking forward to running in Vegas half marathon with Team Challenge again. This year it will be at night under all the lights of the Vegas strip.
I can't believe how fast this season has gone by. 14 weeks ago, I was just meeting my new group of mentees, assuring them that they A.) won't die and B.) can raise a ton of money for Team Challenge and the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. I am so proud of them and how they have done such a good job with their training and fundraising.
I am a bit worried about how to prepare for the race. With it starting at 5:30 pm, it is much different than I'm used to. Trying to figure out when and how to eat and drink. I don't want to have to stop and pee or be not hydrated enough. I was planning the run out a bit and was happy to see that there were 8 water/GU stops along the course. That means I won't have to carry any water with me. Yeah!!!
I was a bit disappointed to see that Steel Panther won't be playing at the House of Blues or GVR this year. It was a blast seeing them last year. I just may make the trip to Chicago to go see them at the end of the month. I still have three vacation days to schedule.
Also looking forward to a few places for beers. It is nice that the Burger Bar is in our hotel. I can stumble back to the room. I'm hoping that we can hit up another place or two after the race on Sunday.
Stay tuned for race updates next week!
I can't believe how fast this season has gone by. 14 weeks ago, I was just meeting my new group of mentees, assuring them that they A.) won't die and B.) can raise a ton of money for Team Challenge and the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. I am so proud of them and how they have done such a good job with their training and fundraising.
I am a bit worried about how to prepare for the race. With it starting at 5:30 pm, it is much different than I'm used to. Trying to figure out when and how to eat and drink. I don't want to have to stop and pee or be not hydrated enough. I was planning the run out a bit and was happy to see that there were 8 water/GU stops along the course. That means I won't have to carry any water with me. Yeah!!!
I was a bit disappointed to see that Steel Panther won't be playing at the House of Blues or GVR this year. It was a blast seeing them last year. I just may make the trip to Chicago to go see them at the end of the month. I still have three vacation days to schedule.
Also looking forward to a few places for beers. It is nice that the Burger Bar is in our hotel. I can stumble back to the room. I'm hoping that we can hit up another place or two after the race on Sunday.
Stay tuned for race updates next week!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Cranky
For the past couple of weeks it seems like I have been more cranky than usual. I have less tolerance for people. It seems like everything is just irritating me. Neighbors who insist on parking on top of the pile of leaves in front of my house and then the city doesn't pick them up. Co-workers who change things mid stream or give us crap data and then when we do what they gave us are not happy because it is crap. People in stores who stop in the middle of an aisle and give you a dirty look when you say "Excuse me" when trying to get around them.
I'm blaming it on the lack of sunlight. I'm leaving work and it is dark outside and by time I get home it is dark outside. And the cold. I hate cold weather. Give me 90's any day over the 30's.
I'm walking the dogs in the dark at the park. I'm not overly fond of this because of the deer and coyotes that roam the area. More so the coyotes.
By time I get back from walking the dogs I don't feel like working out so I put my lounge pants on, eat dinner and snuggle with the puppies on the couch. Some nights I feel like I could go to bed by 7 pm.
I'm hoping my trip to Vegas will help cure this grumpyness a bit. If not, it will be a long winter.
I've also been looking at some vacation options for Jan/Feb. I would like to go back to Mexico. The weather and scenery were beautiful. The resort was fantastic.
So who's up for a tropical vacation?
I'm blaming it on the lack of sunlight. I'm leaving work and it is dark outside and by time I get home it is dark outside. And the cold. I hate cold weather. Give me 90's any day over the 30's.
I'm walking the dogs in the dark at the park. I'm not overly fond of this because of the deer and coyotes that roam the area. More so the coyotes.
By time I get back from walking the dogs I don't feel like working out so I put my lounge pants on, eat dinner and snuggle with the puppies on the couch. Some nights I feel like I could go to bed by 7 pm.
I'm hoping my trip to Vegas will help cure this grumpyness a bit. If not, it will be a long winter.
I've also been looking at some vacation options for Jan/Feb. I would like to go back to Mexico. The weather and scenery were beautiful. The resort was fantastic.
So who's up for a tropical vacation?
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
One of Those Days
Today at work was just one of those days where I wonder how anything ever gets done there.
I have been working on a small project of documenting several processes that our group performs. The one I started yesterday involved going to a vendor website, downloading some updated files, unzipping the files and repackaging the files that are needed by our system. We then move these smaller file packages to various servers depending on the package type. Because of how we do our development work, this mean putting the files out in four different environments. Development, IT Testing (we test how good our development is), UAT (where we let our users do testing) and production. I figured this would take me a day to perform the action and write up the processes.
That came to a screeching halt. Because this is a fairly new process that was implemented about eight months ago there have only been two updates to this area.
It turns out that each of our four environments are set up differently. Not good. They should all be the same. How else can you expect something that you developed to work properly if, as you migrate it up the chain to production, everything is different? You can't.
So at 2:30 this afternoon, I pull together two of the people who worked on this previously. No one knew why everything was different. The guy who did most of this work went to another area shortly after this was implemented.
Now it is my mess to clean up. We have to get each of the environments look identical. That means trying to figure out what they did in production and working backward to replicate it. This means making server changes, database changes code changes and who knows what other changes.
This may now consume the rest of the month if not longer for me. I don't mind it, as I am learning lots of new stuff but I hate going back and cleaning up other people's messes that they were too lazy or incompetent to do right the first time.
It also meant that I didn't get out of work until almost five and hit some crappy traffic on the way home. It took me an hour to get home and I had to walk the dogs in the dark. That made no one happy.
I have been working on a small project of documenting several processes that our group performs. The one I started yesterday involved going to a vendor website, downloading some updated files, unzipping the files and repackaging the files that are needed by our system. We then move these smaller file packages to various servers depending on the package type. Because of how we do our development work, this mean putting the files out in four different environments. Development, IT Testing (we test how good our development is), UAT (where we let our users do testing) and production. I figured this would take me a day to perform the action and write up the processes.
That came to a screeching halt. Because this is a fairly new process that was implemented about eight months ago there have only been two updates to this area.
It turns out that each of our four environments are set up differently. Not good. They should all be the same. How else can you expect something that you developed to work properly if, as you migrate it up the chain to production, everything is different? You can't.
So at 2:30 this afternoon, I pull together two of the people who worked on this previously. No one knew why everything was different. The guy who did most of this work went to another area shortly after this was implemented.
Now it is my mess to clean up. We have to get each of the environments look identical. That means trying to figure out what they did in production and working backward to replicate it. This means making server changes, database changes code changes and who knows what other changes.
This may now consume the rest of the month if not longer for me. I don't mind it, as I am learning lots of new stuff but I hate going back and cleaning up other people's messes that they were too lazy or incompetent to do right the first time.
It also meant that I didn't get out of work until almost five and hit some crappy traffic on the way home. It took me an hour to get home and I had to walk the dogs in the dark. That made no one happy.
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