Strep

Both the missus and I came down with strep – she got it bad Wed night and I started getting hit on Thu. We got on the antibiotics and are both bouncing back finally. It sucks getting sick during the holidays, although I seem to make a habit of it. It never fails – when I have some time off for work, SOMETHING major interrupts the time. A couple thanksgivings ago, the air handler in our data center went out. Or I get sick. Seems my body senses that I have some “downtime” coming up and it inevitably decides to take over the down time. I even tried to take Thu and Fri off this last week but it ended up being taken up by dr visits and feeling icky-poo. At least this time I kept my hands in my pockets and refused to shake people’s hands and stuff. I’ve decided to be stingy with my germs.

Did you know that you can get strep in the mouth, throat, skin, heart and muscle? I thought it was just a throat thing! There were many years where I got strep twice a year but ever since I started using Listerine twice a day (a knowledgable doctor gave me that tip) this is the first case of strep I’ve had in probably 6 or 7 years.

XMAS Holidays!

XMAS for us usually means family in town – Sister-in-law with 2 kids, another sister-in-law with husband and 2 kids, sometimes another sister-in-law with husband and one kid, and of course the people who are in town: grandma and grandpa, nana and granddaddy and brother with spouse and one kid. Sprinkle in some friends, movies, XMAS present exchanges, a little bowling at Main Event, shooting pool and some strep and you’ve got a full holiday.

One of the cool things we did this last week was attend Caitlin’s Canyon Ridge Middle School Christmas Concert. She had a 14-measure solo in one of the songs! The song was incredible – called “Imani”, which means faith. I have it on video but the stupid thing from my digital camera won’t convert to any of the formats so I can upload it to youtube or anything, ARGH. I’m hoping the school will make a digital recording available because it was truly awe-inspiring. You sometimes can’t believe these are MIDDLE SCHOOL students making these sounds.

One thing that was kind of interesting was that in the Imani song, there was also a percussion solo, and that soloist is the son of my Avaya reseller.  Small world!  Man, her solo was so so so good!  The Avaya reseller video taped it with a much better camera and said he’d give me a copy.

Best of LOLcats

Cabling job

I’m finally done with phase one of our re-cabling project at work and let me tell you – it’s nice to actually have time to do a job RIGHT. Here’s how the cabling for our new network area looks now, complete with actual labels on the cables.

Of course, I have 3 more racks to do, but now that this first half-rack is done, it gives me plenty of room to work with. mmmm, blinky lights…..