Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Gabriel's Halloween Pictures

Gabriel and Jericho have a bunch of Halloween pictures. I plan to take more, especially since Jericho's Nana and Grandma sent him other costumes that he can wear while his camera shutter-obsessed Dad takes plenty more pictures to share with both sets of grandparental units in Minnesota and Indiana.

In any case, here is a picture of Gabriel, taken last weekend. I posted Jericho's Halloween photo, so I figured it was only fair to post a snapshot of Gabriel, too. Here he is! Buzz Lightyear! To infinity and beyond!


Gabriel, still two years old, but not for long!

Installs and removals today, general thoughts

Sorry, no clever tag line or weak attempt at being punny in this post. This is just a quick comment or three, and then I am hoping to get to sleep a little earlier than I have been lately. By the way, it looks like Heather's parents are coming to visit this weekend. We are expecting them sometime on Friday afternoon. They haven't met their grandson, Jericho, yet, so this should be a good time and a happy introduction. I do have to work on Friday, but if that involves a trip to North Dakota, I expect to leave the house by around 4 a.m. so I can return home by mid-afternoon on Friday. I haven't seen my in-laws in months, so I don't want to miss this weekend either. Besides, I am trending towards way too much overtime. Uncle Sam collects enough of my money, so I should try to avoid the OT and the excessive income tax when I can!

I started three system installs and completed three system removals near Bemidji today. It looks like the install work will last at least through tomorrow night, though I will be surprised if it is completed without a third day of work at that same location on Thursday. I still need to work in North Dakota again this week, but in that regard, I wouldn't be surprised if the ND work gets pushed off until next week. The monitoring room won't be happy if that happens, but there are only so many hours in a day, and I am temporarily short-handed. One of my techs is on vacation through next week, so I need to cover his service area as well as my own (actually all of the MN service areas are mine either primarily or as a backup. I supervise areas where the other guys work). Speaking of North Dakota, when the primary jackpot got hit this weekend, I was informed that the casinos located in eastern North Dakota just became my responsibility. It was news to me, and at 12:15 a.m. on a Sunday morning, it wasn't the news I wanted. In any case, I have plenty of job security.

Everyone has been sick off and on around here for the last two weeks. I just have a sore throat, but occasionally feel chilled. Heather was surprised that I didn't have a fever, and has been guessing that for some reason, my cold or whatever this thing is, has not shown its ugly head in the form of a higher than normal temperature. I haven't had much sleep since Saturday morning, and that could be part of it, too. I have to wait for a UPS delivery before I can leave in the morning, so I think that I will sleep in at least until 7 a.m. tomorrow. I will take what I can get when it comes to sleep! It isn't always this way. Once in a great while, I stay in bed until 8, but those selfish pleasures are for weekends. Sleeping in late rocks!