Winter weather

Hello all,

I am heading home in a few minutes to beat the bad weather that is coming into the area. Looks like it is going to be a long ride home.

-Andy

Cold walk today

Hello all,

Wow, we went for a walk at lunch today and the wind sure had a bight today. I'm sure the walk was good for me. I'll write more tomorrow.

-Andy

Family Picture with Dad

 

Back to Work

Hello all,

Monday... and back in my chair at the Embarq campus. I am still feeling the effects of my sinus cold. My team is not calling my Typhoid Andy yet. That is a good thing. I'm tired, but the day is already half over.

-Andy

Double Ear Infection

Hello all,

What a week. Today after church Jen and I took Ali to urgent care because she still was not feeling well. Actually, she was up for most of last night complaining that her ear hurt. Well, she has a double ear infection. Great... there goes parent of the year.

After finding out that Ali had an ear infection, it was a safe bet to believe that Zac had an ear infection as well. Yep, he has an infection in his left ear and a chest cold. Great job! I love this parenting stuff. At least now the kids will have medication to get them to stop coughing.

-Andy

Can't Sleep in on Saturday

Hello all,

Well, I was wishing that I could sleep in today since it was Saturday. Nope, Zac was up at 7:15 and ready for his Froot Loops. Ok, not to fear -- Dad is here. After pouring a quick bowl of cereal, it was time to get some warm food started for the rest of the family. I looked in the pantry and found a blueberry muffin mix. I thought to myself: Jackpot!

The muffins were a hit. The family really liked them and it got the day off to a great start.

-Andy

Finally Friday

Hello all,

Ali has been sick four straight days. I'm starting to get sick as well. Zac is coughing as is mom. What a great family we are. Nothing says I love you like the smell of Vicks on your spouse.

I love you Jen. I can't wait for the family to feel better!

-Andy

Days Blending Together

Hello all,

Today was another day of staying home with Ali. I am starting to run down. I hope I don't get sick, too.

-Andy

Home with Ali Again

Hello all,

I knew it was going to be another one of those days where I worked from home. Early this morning I could hear Ali coughing in her room. Jennifer got up around 5:00 to take her temperature. It was 102.2° F. Yep, no school for Ali. I really appreciate my team for understanding when I need to work from home. I am able to do my job from the office without "missing work". Thanks guys.

As for Ali, she had a good day. Her fever never got below 99° F with Motrin. I am hoping this bug will pass tonight so that I can go back to work tomorrow.

Good night,

-Andy

Home with Ali

Hello all,

I woke up this morning to the sound of coughing from Ali's room. After putting my hand on her forehead I could feel that she was warmer than normal. Her temperature read 101.8° F. Yep, Dad gets to work from home today. Looks like I'll be listening to cartoons all day. Yippee..

-Andy

Monday...

Hello all,

Hmmm... it is Monday again. The snow that was so fun to play with yesterday has turned brittle with the cold air we had last night. It is basically turned into hard blocks of ice. It is amazing how snow can change overnight.

-Andy

Sledding and snowmen

Hello all,

Well today after church Jennifer, Zac, Ali and I built a snowman in the front yard. Well, not exactly. We rolled a HUGE first ball with all the wet snow. However, we were unsuccessful in getting the second ball on top of the first ball. In short, we have a large snowball in the front yard. Both kids enjoyed jumping off of the snowball into the snow.

After warming up for a bit, Ali and I went back outside to take a few runs down the big hill on the sled. Ali enjoyed the experience. Maybe the next snowfall will allow us to go to a bigger hill and go FASTER!

-Andy

Snow snow snow

Hello all,

It has snowed almost four inches since 1 o'clock this afternoon. It is really coming down good. My driveway is already covered. The streets are getting covered up as well. I hope the city crews can keep the streets cleared.

-Andy

Finally Friday

Hello all,

Well, it is another Friday. My friend Steve Brown is on his was down to Little Rock to visit his family again. I hope your drive goes safely Steve.

-Andy

Making progress

Hello all,

Making progress on my driveway today. Well, the sun did most of the work, I just scrapped off the residual patches. Bad news is it more storms are on the way for this weekend.

-Andy

Cold winter day

Hello all,

The ice is not going away any time soon. My sidewalk is covered as is my driveway. I worked on it a little bit tonight, but it was like useless. It needs to warm up some before I will see my driveway again.

-Andy

Cold day today

Hello all,

When I walked outside this morning it was a frosty 3° F. Wow, what a shock to the system to be hit with the bitter cold. I put my ear wrap around my head and headed for the office. I would hate to be outside for an extended period of time today. I am glad I am not doing hog chores anymore. Days like today really take it out of you.

-Andy

Working from Home Today

Hello all,

I woke up early today to check the road conditions on 435 South. Since 6:00 AM, each report was worse than the previous one. Cars in the ditch, traffic backed up, miles of cars not moving at all. I decided I would not drive into the office today and work from home. I'll remove my car from the thousands of cars that would normally be on the roads. That way the person that normally cuts me off at 435 / Nall doesn't have to today.

-Andy

More Ice

Hello all,

Well, I got out for a little while yesterday. I had to run to CVS to get Jen some sinus medication to help her get through her latest cold. The roads were slick, but I only needed to go eight blocks. I guess I could have walked if it was really bad.

Today is more of the same weather system. More sleet / freezing rain / snow is on its way. From looking out my window, I would say it it getting slick out there.

-Andy

Cleaning house

Hello all,

Brace yourself for the excitement of the day: CLEANING! Yes, today was set aside to clean the house. We are stuck inside today due to the poor weather outside. We are getting sleet and freezing rain now. It is suppose to be turning over to snow later tonight. Don't you just love Kansas City in Winter?

-Andy

Aftermath of the install

Hello all,

It is almost midnight on the 12th of January and I am at my computer. Go figure... I fixed something tonight that has been broken since SODS migrated to the new production servers. I have updated the config.xml to correctly build the weblogic managed server as nostage. I know that it does not sound like a big deal, but it was working on the old boxes and now it is fixed. I stopped both the Admin server as well as the managed server, deleted the .wlnotdelete and staged directories as well as deleting all versions of config.xml that resided on the directory. Once completed, I restarted both virtual servers.

It was the longest 3 minutes of my life. I waited to see if the servers would come up cleanly, which they did. Now it is over and maybe I can get some sleep tonight. One problem solved. That is a good start.

-Andy

Big Install Tonight

Hello all,

Tonight D7556 and Arc Calendar are being deployed to production at 11:00 PM. It should be a normal SODS/PAT install that begins on time and takes 10 minutes to deploy. The real time is spent testing the application suite AFTER the code has been deployed. It is at this time that you find out how good you really are at what you do. The team has practiced this install. Every step has been documented. That is not what worries me. It is the stuff that is not on the plan that has me nervous. Wish me luck tonight.

-Andy

Half way through

Hello all,

Wow, this week is not moving very fast. It feels like Friday and it is only Wednesday. I have been successful today. I have solved some problems that have been hanging around for a few weeks so that is good.

All in all I want to have my review so I know what EMBARQ thinks of my body of work for 2006. I think I had my best year at ever on the SODS team. I hope my feelings are shared by my management.

-Andy

Lunch at Heywards

Hello all,

Today was our teams going away lunch for Jeff Ratcliff. He has been my supervisor for almost a year now and is moving on to supervise the PREMISE team. I have enjoyed working for Jeff and wish him the best of luck in his new opportunity.

-Andy

Taking a walk

Hello all,

Today at work I took the time to take a walk around the campus. I have not done this in at least two months. I don't know why I have not gone out, but needless to say I have missed it. I think the fresh air did me some good. I feel better already.

-Andy

Taking down Christmas Decorations

Hello all,

This afternoon I took down the Christmas Tree and other decorations in the house. It was a sad time. Taking down the tree always make me a little down. This feeling was enhanced while taking the ornaments off the tree. While decorating the tree, I had placed Dad's angel next to the Christmas Angel at the top of the tree. His ornament was the first to be removed. I placed it in the blue foam filled box and rubbed my index finger over Dad's name again. It is hard to believe that he has been gone for almost two years. I miss you Dad.

-Andy

Too nice to stay inside

Hello all,

Wow, it is almost 60° F today. It is hard to believe that it is January in Kansas City. The neighborhood kids were playing outside this afternoon -- soccer. If I didn't look at the calendar you might think it is the end of March.

-Andy

Nine Years at Embarq Today

Hello all,

Today marks the nine year anniversary for me working at Sprint/IBM/Sprint/Embarq. In that time I have had six supervisors and five managers. The real kicker is that I have been in the same department for that time. Well, there was that two years that I was in OMS, or as I like to say "Oh What A Mess".

My first memories of Sprint were Steve Brown, Kevin Taute and Terry Paul. They were my first teammates on SODS. I have to say, I could not have had a better group of people to learn from when I first came out of school. Thank you all for taking me under your wings and teaching me how to be a professional in IT. I hope that I have made you all proud.

As for those of you that I have worked with over the past nine years, thank you for putting up with a sometimes overconfident analyst that was eager to showcase his talents. Thank you for gently polishing the rough edges off. With each year I think I have gotten better.

Thank you again,

-Andy

Working on the BeautiControl page again.

Hello all,

Well tonight I worked on Jen's BC page to track her orders and inventory. I was hoping to have it up and running for 2007. I guess I am behing schedule. I hope she likes it.

-Andy

Day 2

Hello all,

I am getting back into the swing of stuff again. Slowly my brain is coming back to me at work. Wow... I feel like I have been gone for months not 10 days.

-Andy

Start of a new year at work

Hello all,

Today was a good day at work. I was able to get back into the saddle and make some accomplishments. I think tomorrow will be a better day. I am a little run down now. I'll write more tomorrow.

-Andy

Happy New Year

Hello all,

It is 2007! I hope you all had a great night and are enjoying the day with friends and family. Right now I am at home watching Nebraska play Auburn in the Cotton Bowl. They are losing 17-14 and only a few minutes remain in the game. They are going to lose.

After the game, I am going to head over to Diane's house to pick up the kids. I'm missing them a lot. I can't believe this is my last day of vacation!

-Andy