Tuesday

8:01 (AM)

So I woke up at 4:45 AM local time and it's still dark out. I've been watching news and writing for the last while here, but I guess it's about time to get ready to go find breakfast.

So I started to wonder around and ended up at a placed that opened up at 7:AM local time. It was the Belgian cafe. This place was very pretty and Danish themed, even the waitress was in a cute Danish costume. I bellied up to the bar and ordered an order of eggs benedict. It was quite good. The sauce was little bit diffrent a little spicy, but it was quite tasty. I'm gonna have to remember to go out there again, if I get the chance. I went back to my hotel, and it being a bit early stil, I decided to Walk to the offices where the developer's conference would be.

It was a nice walk and a took a lot of pictures. My bag got a bit heavy by the end of it, but I made it. It was kinda funny, cause Marta, was about to head back to the hotel to see if I was there.

So the Then we had a lot of sessions of presentations and stuff. Some interesting, some not.

So we went to lunch, or more had simple sandwiches delivered to Bridlewood Winery. So after lunch a bunch of us sampled the wines there, and I bought a Syrah (can't remember exactly), which is what they are famous for, and a 2004 Viognier (cause I think Shannon may like it, and I like it).

Afterwards, we headed back to more presentations.

Then we had Beer & pizza night at Giovanni's Italian Restaurant. the bread and suace there was OK at best, the toppigns were of high quality, making it a fairly mediocre experience. But being that it was paid for (including many helpings to Firestone Beer (Double Barrel Ale, Pale Ale)) During the night, I took a break from the "bitch about medseek" session to call and talk to Shannon. I headed back in and chatted more, but apprently our medseek hosts (ie people paying) had gotten the idea that people were done drinkign, so...well...no more beer for me.

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, and a bunch of people were gonna go into the hot-tub, but I was all socialized out, so I went upstairs and watched some TV (It being dark and me having no car).

the Lappy lives again!

or more acurately the data.

So PC support came, turned on my laptop, unscrewed a screw, took out my harddrive, put it into the exact same model laptop (3 numbers diffrent on the serial number).

Booted, changed the name on our network, and bam, everythings all good again.

yay!

Monday

9:54 AM (central)

So I got up pretty early here, it was still dark and dark for a long time. I figured I'd go and get breakfast out of the way, but when it came down to it, It was, apprently, a bit too early. So I wandered around Solvang in the ever brightening light and by the time that I got out to the main street/highway through town, and got back to The Meadows (the resturant right next to my hotel) there was a gaggle of old people filling up the resturant. I ended up meeting Skip in there and had some breakfast. The pastery (kinda like a kolach) was so so, the filling was pretty good, but the pastery wasn't as flakey as I have come to expect from bakerys. The Banana muffin was actually really good. So I was good for breakfast. I had oatmeal with raisins. And it didn't seem to salted, so it was probably good for me. And that would've been great, if I hadn't had the eggs, bacon and sausage too :)

And now we wait for Marta to come get us and take us to Medseek.

12:42 PM (Central)

So we're in class, and we're learning about CFCs, which I've been using for the last 8 months or so, it's not dreadfully interesting. I have found out a few things about how sitemaker does thier CFCs and the way they do things and how SiteMaker Identifies things. So I guess that's ok. It is really taxing my attention span though.

I'm looking forward to lunch, but it's still a ways out.

7:11 AM (central)

So lunch was good. It was at a coffee shop just down the Street. I can't remember the name. Medseek picked up the tab. In fact the only things that I've paid for, so far, was Taco Bell on the first day and breakfast. I had a Panini bread sandwhich, that had chicken, tomato and spices on it. It was a little greasy, but still good. I enjoyed it. It came with a side of potato salad, and I was kinda worried, that because I was out in California, that they wouldn't know how to make a good potato salad, but it was ok, nothing to jump up and down about thought.

We then headed back to class.

So in the afternoon, I decided that the way Medseek wants us to write modules to work in this new system, is a way to tie us further into medseek. Since the code that you, a programmer, writes, isn't one that actually makes forms and etc, but it calls other code (that belongs to Medseek) to create the information.

It's still, I suppose, better, load wise. Since you call their code over and over, that's the stuff that stays compiled.

I dunno though.

After a little struggling, since I don't much work with arrays, I got both tasks given to us done. This pointed out a little flaw with how things works. Since the way they set things up only allows inner joins, rather then outer joins. Since I love outer joins, this is quite problematic.

At around 4, we called it a day. I got a ride back to the hotel with one of the other people.

So after a nice morning the weather had turned rainy. It was still nice as far as I was concerned, but apprently it was the first time it had rained in months.

After a couple of attempts to call Shannon, she finally called me back, and we talked for a little bit before I had to head off to the first acutal part of the Developers conference which was the reception and dinner at AJ Spurs (which was featured in the movie, Sideways). Again I got a ride from one of the other people here, and we got there and the booze started flowing. Over the night I had a double scotch (Glenfiddich) and then had a few giant beers (locally brewed, Fat tire and Firestone?). I spent most of my evening talking with this guy from Jersey. It was interesting. We talked about some of the problems that we had. He's from much smaller shop, but in there they do must of everything and it sounds like they don't outsource much at all.

We sat down for dinner, and it started off with a bean soup that they suggested we combine with the salsa and tequila beans. It was ok, not great, but ok (yes, I know, soup is something I'm not supposed to have). We had a couple of choices for dinner, and I ended up having an 8 oz top sirloin. The salad they served was...well...kinda sparse i guess. Very simple. Then the main course came. The Top Sirloin was quite good, done to a medium rare, so it was very juicy and tasty. They had pan fried potatoes that were good, but they had texas style toast with a spice or two that I didn't recognize, but that was just nummy. I had 3 slices.

I talked with a few people, including the CEO and founder of the company, over dinner. But as time went on, I was growing tired of being social and wanted to get back to the hotel so I could call Shannon. So when she, the CEO was leaving and offered to give a ride home, I jumped right on it.

After talking with Shannon and watching a little TV I started to doze off. Eventually I woke up long enough to put my mask on and go to bed.

Apprently...

My laptop doesn't so much wanna work right now...it was working this morning, but now it's not even booting.

So uh...yeah...this'll be fun

Sunday

11:18 (central)

So I'm here in Cali (Santa Barbara), waiting for this guy named Skip to come in on a later flight so we both can take a shuttle to Solvang. I landed a bit ago and wandered around and took pictures, but of course it's dark, so I can't take pictures of much.

This morning I woke up at a little after sunrise and got up to the chilly morning and spent a huge chunk of time watching recorded South Park on the TV. Shannon got up quite a bit later and a while after that I got up and packed and then showered and all that nonsense.

I came downstairs and joined Shannon in watching the tail end of a episode of Enterprise and then we watched, An Evening with Kevin Smith. Or at least most of it. Somewhere in the middle I had to start cooking our late lunch/early dinner, which turned out to be Chicken Alfredo Pasta. Which was good. But Jerry was right, the Smart Chicken tastes quite a bit better then the chicken from CostCo...but my cheap man inside of me is still wondering if it's worth the few of extra dollars a pound. I guess we'll make that decision after the several packages that I split the chicken up into and froze are finished.

After we were done with dinner, I ran off to get some traveling money and some money for Shannon (in case she has to park while picking me up/dropping me off) and cash in a lottery ticket ($4 whole dollars, *unethusiastic yay*) and buy more tickets for the growing jackpot (yeah, I know, it's like lighting money on fire, or a snowballs chance in hell, but hey...it $300+ million). I got home, parked my car in the garage, took my razor off it's charger and put it in my suitcase and headed towards Shannon's car.

She dropped me off and we said our good byes, and I got sad :( I know it won't be too long, but I've really gotten used to having her there...

Anywas I checked in myself and my bags and went to go get probed by the various instruments of detection, and had to wait a while in line. It wasn't too long I suppose, but it was still annoying. I guess that's what we have to put up with. Unlike the last time I flew, I took my laptop this time, so that was an extra challenge.

After that I sat down and started to read the book I barrowed from Nathan, Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell (which apprently is like a Jane Austin novel (never read anythign by her) with magic and fantasy thrown in). I was about 30 pages into it already, so I tired to read, and quickly realized how distractable I am (which is why I usually wear the headphones connected to the iPod at work). So I did get some reading done, but was distracted by various things going on around the airport, people moving, talking and what not.

I board the plane and I was on my way.

Now normally when I fly, I'm the big guy that crowds other people, but on my flight (in the exit row, thank goodness for the extra leg room), but on the seat next to me, I was right next to not a guy of similar size, but one that was bigger then me. Needless to say the ride was crowded. I read most of the trip. Took a few pictures, talked a bit. All in all wasn't too long of a flight, but not too short either.

12:44 AM

The lay-over in Pheonix wasn't too long either. I called Shannon to tell her that I was safely in Pheonix and that I the trip was going ok so far and to see how she was doing. I wondered around for a bit and thought about getting something to drink, but I didn't.

One thing I did get a kick out of was a guy with a suit on that was wearing sandals.

I borded a little bit later in a bigger plane then the one from Des Moines (and they were calling it small). and sat in an exit row again. This time was a bit nicer. I had plenty of room and sat next to a California who was a tiny little think. She was in her late fourtys and unlike normal, I actually sat down and talked to her.

She had left her job to take care of her mom, who had Alzhiemers, and they were on their way back from Venice. So it's not like they were dreadfully poor. But we talked about real estate (Des Moines vs Santa Barbara), marriage (my upcoming), travel, and the lot. It made the hour or so flight go by fairly quickly.

I got to see something that I have never seen before, and it was pretty cool. I got to see lightning from above the clouds. It was a kinda cool light show.

The land was smooth and I called Shannon to tell her that I was safe and sound in California. She was just getting to sleep, so I let her return the rest of the way to sleep.

The thing I kinda like about the small Santa Barbara Airport is that it's pretty much almost all out in the open. The luggae is hand loaded where people pick it up in a covered, but open area.

I got my stuff, and I took a few pictures of the Airport. It's nice having such a big memory card that I don't have to be so selective with what I take pictures of.

So I settled in and started to wait for Skip.

Airport Story: So I know that you aren't really supposed to park there. But some kid came up in his truck, parked and left to get a packaged. Within, and I am not exagurating here, 45 seconds one of the cops wondering around came over and started writing him a ticket. The guy got back and had to wait for him to finish writing the ticket.

I eventually, around the time that we were supposed to be picked up, went up and talked to someone from the shuttle service to get it all sorted out. Apprently they had us on the AM schedule, not the PM, but after I got that cleared up, That guy headed off and we, after Skip got there, had to wait for a woman to pick us up.

She needed to stop for gas, and Skip needed food (he hadn't eaten in 12 hours) so I got some food at Taco Bell, and then we picked up a couple on our way out of town and headed towards Solvang.

And thats where I am now. Sitting in a 12 or 14 passenger van, filled with 5 people, riding in the dark, running down my battery. Listening to a strange mix of music that includes a whole lot of country (in California, who knew?). But who am I to complain to a bunch of people I don't know.

I am kinda bummed that I dont get to take some pictures of the scenery flying by, cause it is kinda nice.

I miss Shannon too. I should be sleeping next to her, but I won't be...not for days. *sigh*

No wireless networks in range either...Like they would in the middle of the country.

It's about 1 in the morning (central) now so I am getting tired.

More tomarrow I suppose.

preping to go to Cali

So here's how my next few days looks:

5:30 PM Fly out of Des Moines to Pheonix then to Santa Barabara
9:30 PM Picked up by Shuttle Service

Monday:

8:30 - 4:00 p.m. Level IV Training Workshop: “Object Oriented Programming for SiteMaker”
5:00 - 7:30 p.m. Reception and Dinner at AJ Spurs

Tuesday

8:30 - 9:30 a.m. Keynote
9:30 - 10:15 a.m. Best Practices
10:15 - 10:30 a.m. break
10:30 - 11:15 a.m. Developer's Showcase
11:15 - 12:00 p.m. Integrating Your Web/Portal
12:00 - 1:45 p.m. Lunch at a vineyard
2:00 - 2:45 p.m. Developer's Showcase
2:45 - 3:30 p.m. Taking Sitemaker to the Next level
3:30 - 5:00 p.m. Studio Wizard Module Racing
5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Beer and Pizza night

Wednesday

8:30 - 9:00 a.m. Enhanced Support Services
9:00 - 9:30 a.m. Implementation Process and Improvements
9:30 - 10:15 a.m. Single Sign-on: Driving Clinical Workflow Efficiencies From the Desktop
10:15 - 10:30 a.m. Break
10:30 - 11:15 a.m. Trustable Passwords: One Year Later
11:15 - 12:00 p.m. Tips and Tricks
12:00 - 1:30 p.m. Catered Lunch Buffet
1:45 - 2:15 p.m. Driving Ix Through the Patient/Physician Portal
2:15 - 3:00 p.m. Developer's Showcase
3:00 - 3:45 p.m. Design Magic
3:45 - 4:30 p.m. Custom Studio Wizard Module Presentations and Awards Ceremony
6:00 - 8:00p.m. MedSeek Hosted - Optional Dinner

Thursday

Go Home...yay!

On the Border

So we decided to try one of the new resturants at Jordan Creek Mall, On the Border. So we headed over there and the parking lot was packed. This was not too surprising, it being a Friday night. We head in and get our pager thing, which apprently everyone loves, but can be problematic sometimes.

But we sat down outside, since it was just a beautiful day out. We chatted for a while and we finally got bored after about 30 minutes or so, and went in and checked how much time we had left. We were apprently 1 or two away on the list and sat down shortly afterwards.

We got a seat that I'm not a huge fan of, but it was kinda fun to see. We were sat right in front of the kitchen doors. So there was constant traffic coming in and out and you got to see on the inside of the kitchen. So this is where I'd like to say how everything was just shiney clean on the inside, but I can't. The looked clean from my vantage point, but the floors were fairly dirty. It was like they didn't have time to sweep up or something. The resturant wasn't exactly dark, but the kitchen was very bright, so the light kept spilling out over and over.

We were almost immediatly served chips and a little later served salsa. The chips were obviously fresh, but they were unevenly salted. So some had lots of salt and some had none, but even with that, they were still good. The salsa was good, it was a little warm in the spiceyness, not to much, and it was veyr consistant and well mixed. I liked it.

So we ate chips and salsa.

And ate more chips and salsa...

And finally after our chips and salsa were almost gone, our waitress showed up to take our drink and food order. Shannon ordered Double-Stacked Club Quesadillas (On the border describes it as: Stuffed with fajita chicken, cheese, crumbled bacon, fresh avocado and caramelized red peppers and onions. Served with sour cream, pico de gallo and Roasted Jalapeno Ranch dressing for dipping.) and I had the The Ultimate Fajita (On the Border describes it as: Mesquite-grilled steak, marinated chicken, sauteed shrimp and roasted pork carnitas. Topped with sauteed peppers.).

Shannon's enjoyed her food, and it was tasty, the Fajita mix was good...the shrimp was good, the chicken, good, the steak was a bit over cooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside. It was still spiced pretty well and was over quite tasty. there was, however one big issue. The onions were not all carmelized, a few of them were actually burnt, and I didn't notice until I had bit into it.

Shannon ordered a dessert, and we shared it. It was the Border Brownie Sundae (On the Border describes it as: A decadent chocolate brownie topped with vanilla ice cream, pecan praline sauce and chopped nuts.). It was good, bt I've had better ice cream and better brownies, so it wasn't really amazing. There was one problem though. And this is something I found out with the nuclear brownies I've made, is that when you heat them in the microwave for too long, they can burn themselves. Since there is so much sugar and fat in brownies, it doesn't take much to burn them in the microwave. And there were parts of the brownies that were.

Anyways, I've heard from Brandon and Val that thier fare (ie non-fajita) is much better then then the Fajitias.

Anyways, it'll be worth a second visit.

On our way home we stopped at Best Buy and bought us the new digital camera I wanted. Mmmm...I've been playing with the camera this morning and it's been fun.

funny things at work

So two things that are funny happened at work.

First I was talking with Brandon and my boss, Proctor, about Proctor buying a car. So Proctor was talking about how he wanted a land rover cause he thought they were cute. I asked him why and then quickly realized it was to get up the big hill to his new house. I suggested a Subaru Outback, and he said, "What, do I look like a lesbian?" I paused for a second and said yes. yeah..Proctor flipped me off. it was funny :)

Later that day, I had music blasting in my ears from my iPod. Talking to myself debuging the 2nd to last CFC (ColdFusion Component) for the admin for Benefits. And this guy that sits behind me comes up and tells me that I'm distracting other people around me, by my talking/humming/etc and then Jeonia pipes up (she's an older lady that sits to my right) and says that she's not being bothered, and that he should speak for himself). I agree with Jeonia. I told him I'd try to keep quiet.

Here's my problem though, when I get interesting in something, the rest of the world kinda stops existing. I do my best work in this state too :) Besides, he didn't complain when there was 4 people (including his boss (and me), I think) talking just a few steps from my cube, so why when it's just me? Oh well. I guess I'll try to behave.

Cat attack!

I got home today and there was band-aids on the coffee table. So I thought that maybe Shannon had hurt herself, so I started to worry a bit.

When Shannon got home, true enough, she had been hurt.

Apprently one of the cats at her job, was a little grumpy and clawed up her hand pretty bad. But she's ok. And it's already healing.

the doctor

Had a appointment at my doctor this monring. And things are looking well. Blood Pressure is good.

I don't have to go back for 6 months!

Yay!