A smile to my face...

I am a horrible text messenger person. For some reason I just can't use the text messenger on my phone. The auto word fill in always messes me up. I am also kind of cheap and I don't want to pay for the text data transfer.

Nonetheless, I don't mind receiving text messages. Case in point, last week I got this message:

"Miles, I hope all is well. Do you remember this day 20 years ago? You sprayed me with a fire extinguisher and threw flour all over me. -JD"

HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA!! It brought an immediate smile to my face because I did remember that day. It didn't seem like it was 20 years ago but it was.

Let me be the first to say that I did not do it alone. There must have been at least 1 other person. Russ was definately involved but I think Brentt might have been involved as well.

Either way, it was JDs birthday and we knew he would be walking home from summer football practice. I thought it would be a good idea if we got some fire extinguishers, fill them up with water, get bags of flour and then throw it on JD after he is soaking wet. BRILLIANT!

We slowly creeped up on JD as he was walking home. We opened up the van doors and sprayed JD with water and then ran out and tossed flour all over him. Then we went home and laughed.

The best part was an hour or so later JD called and said he was tub was clogged up from the flour and it took him about an hour to scrub all the flour off of him. Apparently wet flour gets cakey and sticky! hahahahahhahahaha!! I am such a genius!

Why can't the fun days of summer be filled like that now that I am older??

Overly gay...

Okay, this entry is not going to make me look good at all. It is what it is and this is how I feel, not that there is anything wrong with it, but it just doesn't agree with *me*.

Gay.

Yes, I would probably say that I am slightly homophobic. I have worked with gays, gone to lunch and/or had drinks at happy hour with gays. I have no problem with that. My problem is that I am annoyed by SUPER gay dudes!!

On Saturday, Aya and I went to hollywood for breakfast at this placed called Grub. Incredible bacon. Really good food. The one BIG problem is that it is super gay at this place. (I did NOT know it was that gay). In fact, it just may keep me from going back.

So we are sitting next to these 3 flamin gay dudes. One dude had sparkly toe nail polish, another dude had like glove shoes on his feet. They talked weird. I mean they were SOOOO gay, that should just go ahead and have gender surgery, grow their hair out and be ugly women!! It was painful. I can't even describe it. It was just not my thing.

I want to be an open minded person and not see color, gender, sex, religion, politics whatever...but I honestly think the super gay girly dude is off limits for me. Just not acceptible for me.

Sure, some of you may post a comment or question like what if my 'best' friend or friend says they are gay? No problem. Don't care. Gay is no issue for me. Will I go your all gay get together bbq...no. I don't have a brother...so no problem there. I have a sister but no one cares about lesbians. Heck most dudes think lesbians are cool anyway.

WAIT. Now, you are thinking about my son. What if he turns into a flamer? Yeah. I dunno. That is my flesh and blood. I would still love my son regardless...but I don't think I would entertain his guests under my roof.

Again this is just how I feel. I guess it is the first time I was ever in close proximity to someone that gay...and I hated it. It literally took all I had not to say anything or to just get up and walk out. Sure, I could be stupid and ignorant...not denying it...honestly I am kind of shocked it bothered me so much. I guess I am not as open minded as I thought.

Pinkberry...

Okay, I have to admit, I am probably one of the last people in So. Cal to try Pinkberry. Yes, I know it has been 'the place' to go all summer...but I have resisted. Why? Simply, I don't like yogurt.

Yes, I know it supposedly doesn't taste like yogurt. Well, I tried it today and not only does it taste like yogurt, but it tastes like crappy yoplait yogurt in a solid form. My fruit was nice and frest but the yogurt...bleech! I will definately pass.

Luckily, I saw Live Free or Die Hard and Bourne Ultimatum so that made up for my crappy Pinkberry experience. I could get used to this not working idea. It was great to just be strolling around Century City mall without a care in the world...laughing at all the people who went to the food court on their lunch break....while I headed towards the theater for an icee and popcorn! Ahhh the life of lesiure.

Oh yeah, Aya also said I can, "FOR SURE, retire at age 45."

I've Fallen....

I have always been bad at examining my own body. I shower every day but I don't really look closely at my body and then I wonder, "Hmm, how did I get that cut? When did I get that bruise? I got blood on me from somewhere. "

A week ago, I was rubbing my leg because it was itchy. I felt it a little prickly but I just went about my business. A few more days goes by and my leg is still itchy so I really 'look' at it and "Holy Cow!" I have no hair on my leg.

This is my usual normal hairy leg:

This is my leg with no hair:


So where did my hair go??? I look at my other leg and the same thing! I got hair missing on that leg too!

Then I remembered, 2 weeks ago I was getting ready for basketball. My hands were full and I ran upstairs to get JT a cup. As I ran upstairs and I slipped and fell and hit the stairs. I remember being in a lot of pain because my shins him the stairs....I never thought that when I fell that I had burned off sections of my leg hair!

My leg hair is growing up, thus the itchy and prickle-ness. If it was never itchy, I would have never noticed. I do remember Aya laughing at my when I fell. Strange, because I remember my shins getting all black and blue but I guess I never noticed I had no more leg hair.

No Peanuts...

Yesterday morning I get an IM from Aya that she got ONE ticket to the Dodger game. Only thing was I had already told Aya that I was going to go to basketball that night. I told her it was only pick up basketball and that she should go to the game because Barry Bonds has a good chance to hit a homerun off Dodger pitching.

I told Aya to go enjoy herself, have fun and bring *ME* back a bag of peanuts.

When Aya comes home and I ask, "Where is my peanuts?"
Aya replied "I didn't get you any peanuts."
Miles: "Why not? I specifically said get me a bag of peanuts."
Aya: "The peanut guy did not come down our row. I was sitting in the middle of the row and I couldn't get up. I only got one hot dog and it didn't even have relish on it."

Hmm, I didn't realize that the Dodger seats have chains on them that hold fans in their seats the entire game.

Just a simple request for a measly bag of peanuts and I am denied. What makes it worse is that at the end Aya says, "I thought you were joking about the peanuts." Grrr.

20 Months...

About a week late but JT is 20 months old now. We also decided to throw in the towel in training JT to sleep in his own room. He starts off in his own room for 2-4 hours, then wakes up and comes into our room.

He doesn't sleep in our bed but I made a little crappy make shift bed on the floor. It is not as comfortable as his bed but if he wants to sleep on the ground like a dog then so be it. In any case, it works for him and Aya and I are back to getting are normal amount of rest. Maybe even more for me as I stopped watching ESPN in bed as JT is usually in our room by 11.

JT with his favorite monster truck:

A-duh...JT with his buck-tooth impression:

JT playing with his car set cheering on his victory:

Jeffs Belated Bday...

Nothing like celebrating a bday over a month later but we finally got together to celebrate Jeff's belated birthday. Now he is old just like Jenny and I.

Of course in the first take Melanie, Jenny and Aya weren't ready but Jeff and JT are smiling:

Naturally in the set up and posed picture everyone is okay except JT:

This is the type of after dinner entertainment Jeff gets:

Followed up by the more obnoxious attention getting pose:

Oh yeah, and JT barfed on the floor during dinner. Going out to dinner with a kid is a whole new dining experience!

Work Topics...

Okay the last entry about work this week. When I started UMG it was decent. I liked the work but I had no one to talk too. Jeff and Carlynn have now joined UMG so the 3 of us each lunch together and the work topics have started flowing again.

What is a work topic? Basically just a question that we all have to answer. Here is the topic we have been mulling over the past few days:

Scenario:

You have a g/f
Your female friend has a b/f
Your g/f was not friends with your female friend before you met.
The female friends b/f is not part of your circle of friends.
Your female friend is attractive

You win round trip tickets to Europe for 2 months but your g/f can't go and so your female friend takes her spot. This is your first trip and your friend's first trip to Europe.

You get along great during your 2 month trip. Since you are on a tight budget because you don't earn a lot of money you share a hotel room and a bed.

Here is the question: Do you hook up with your female friend at any point during the trip? If no, then if she makes the first move do you reciprocate?

----
Naturally my answer was DEFINATELY!! To both the hook up and if she makes the first move. 2 months, touring new cities, drinking every night, sharing a room and a bed. You would totally have to hook up.

Now, I didn't say I would dump my g/f. I just said I would hook up with my friend on the vacation.

The Wenis Report...

As you get older you meet more people from friends, work functions, spouses co-workers, etc. Inevitatbly you make idle chit-chat which leads to that question, "So what do you do?"

What do I do? I have a feeling not a lot of people know what I do, nor do I tend to explain it to most people either.

The simple answer is I.T. The problem with saying I.T. is that people automatically assume this means I fix computers and I am available at their disposal to fix their computers. Sadly, this is not what I do. Honestly, I am not that good at fixing computers. You are better off asking some geeky 14 year old kid. Granted, I may know a little more about computers than most...but really not a lot. I don't mind looking at people's PC's when they have a problem but really PC support is not my thing.

I did start my 'real world' career in desktop support but that was on Windows 95 and 98. Yeah, windows isn't even on numbers anymore it is XP or VISTA.

In any case, I am sure my parents think I fix computer or program computers. I even asked Aya if she knows. She attempted to throw out some key words that she learned while covering tech stocks but she wasn't even close.

Thus, I have the job that the TV show Friends character Chandler Bing has. I create the Wenis report!

The real answer is that many companies don't even know how to classify my position. Sometimes my title is a Business Analyst or Sr. Systems Engineer or BI Developer. Right now, my title is Sr. MicroStrategy Engineer.

What I do is simply called data warehouse. The key phrase in the industry is Buisness Intelligence. In a nut shell, we take existing legacy systems that contain various data. For example, the company has one system that contains marketing data and another system contains financial data. In order to get reports you have to run one report from each system. What I do is gather the relevant data from both systems, bring them into one system and then allow the user the ability via icon or drag and drop features to create ONE report that has data from both systems.

Hopefully that one report contains the key information to help that analyst make the correct business decision to drive the business. More often than not the analysts aren't as bright my fellow BI Engineers so we often have to create the reports for the user as well.

Of course there is more too it like maintaining the system, improving query time, supporting user questions, etc. but our goal is to retrieve the relevant data to allow the business to make informed decisions.

Nothing glamorous. Nothing exciting. Nothing like desktop support. This is what I do. I am sure Sunil will have some sort of technical comment about what we really do, but this explanation is for the non I.T. folks.

Oh yeah, data warehouse people also have the god-like complex. We rock. People yell at desktop support people about their PC's not working. People worship us because we help them save time...sometimes so much time that our automation can eliminate their job! It is no wonder I am the Greatest!!!

On the Clock...

Since work has been so busy lately, this week I will write all about work. Already sounds like it is a boring week of posting!

Okay, I get back from my vacation and I get called into HR. I didn't think anything about it. I figured they were going to tell me that I can't take vacation and then follow it up with a sick day. I knew it would look bad but I really was sick.

Once I get into the HR office the VP of IT joins us. Hmm, this is interesting. The HR Admin tells me there is a policy change. The policy change is that almost all IT people on salary will now go hourly. The basically take my salary divide by 80 hours then divide by number of pay checks to get my hourly rate. Nothing outrageous there.

Here is the catch. I am moving to what they called hourly exempt. I still get my benefit and my salary is the same...however I know have to clock in and out and if I work LESS than 40 hours I get paid only the hours I work. Fair...sure.

Now, if I work MORE than 40 hours...say 45 hours then I do not get paid time in a half because according to California Fair Labor, IT professionals make a greater hourly rate and are not eligible for time and a half. In addition, I will NOT be paid the 5 extra hours of straight time.
UMG is also on a tight budget so they don't want to pay people to work more than 40 hours.

Two ways to look at this. One, I get paid MORE money because now I will only work 40 hours. Nothing more...but possibly less if I take long lunches or go to the doctor, etc.

Two, my deliverables possibly could be delayed because now if the server is down and I am at 40 hours, I can tell me boss...going home. Server will have to wait until tomorrow and my boss can't tell me to stay. Supposedly, my boss needs to tell me 2 weeks in advance that I need to work late.

We have a meeting in 2 weeks to hear all the details and what is fact or fiction. Either way looks like the company only wants people working 40 hours. Can you feel the morale lowering? Can you sense attrition? Perhaps outsourcing down the road? Perhaps severance is lower for hourly people?

Oh, I almost forgot. At the very end HR puts a settlement agreement in front of me. If I agree to go hourly, I will be cut an off-cycle settlement check saying I will not pursue any lawsuit against UMG. If I don't sign, no settlement and I will still have to go hourly.

Yes....I signed and took the money!! I went to UMG to only work 40 hours anyway!

Sleep...

Yes, I know I have been behind on the update last week. Work was busy and the sleep training with JT hasn't been going well.

I am thinking taking JT's crib away might have been a mistake. Even though JT likes sleeping on the mattress he has never slept through the night in a crib. I don't know why I thought he would sleep through the night on a mattress.

The lack of sleep for the past week, busy at work, more traffic has all lead to me being extremely grouchy. Aya isn't fairing that well either.

Right now our typical night schedule is:

JT goes to sleep at 8:00 pm
JT wakes up again at 10:30 or 11:00 pm
JT wakes up again at 2:00 or 3:00 am
JT wakes up again at 4:00 am
JT wakes up again at 5:00 am
JT wakes up again at 5:30 am
JT wakes up again at 6:00 am

As you can see the most sleep at one point is a 4 hour stretch. In addition, the 4:00, 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 all means that JT can be up for good at that hour. Typically 5:30 is JT's wake up time now.

I think I might have to abandon the sleep training and just let JT cry is out...which still means no sleep.

So fast...

This is my favorite picture that yy parents took. JT loves to water the plants and play with the garden hose.
Where has all the time gone? Seems like I was just complaining last week about JT being a baby and now he it like a little person. We took down his crib this weekend. Ever since we came back from Hawaii JT just H-A-T-E-S the crib. He looks at it like prison.

Normally, I am not a 'softie' but when we put JT in the crib he would cry and then 'sign' good boy...promising he would be good if he didn't have to go in the crib. Normally, I would just leave him in the crib and let him cry but now that he is communicating more I just had to pull him out. Thus, JT is cribless and just sleeping on his mattress now. For the past week, I have been sleeping on the floor next to him in his room trying to train him to stay on the mattress and stay in his room at night.

Unfortunately, it isn't working out so well. JT gets up at 12:00 am, 4:00 am and 5:00 am...which means not a lot of sleep for me...as well as sleeping on the floor. We almost bought a toddler bed on the weekend but we decided to try out just the mattress for now. Hopefully JT will sleep thru the night soon.

Vacation pictures...

Happy Friday everyone! Here are pictures from our vacation:

Vacation...

I have to say the vacation to Maui and Oahu was better than I expected. I was prepared for the worst as I wasn't sure how JT would travel on the plane or adapt to the time change.

Surprisingly JT made it to Maui without a problem. He napped for the first half of the trip and stared at kids the other half of the trip. The inter island flight was no problem for JT either. We did have problems with JT flying back home as he cried for 30 minutes straight as we prepared to take off. He slept half the trip and then was pretty antsy the other half but all in all it wasn't so bad.

JT had fun at the beach and the pool as well. I think the biggest fun JT had was on Oahu visiting all his cousins. JT has a lot of cousins near his age and he had so much fun running around and playing with everyone at Uncle Ted's house.

I suppose it wasn't the 'ideal' vacation Aya and I were used to taking before we had JT...but it was fun watching JT play. I guess it will just be different types of vacations now. More than anything it was nice not to have a phone, laptop or email. I didn't even get the newspaper for 2 weeks.

Stay tuned...pictures coming tomorrow!

Vacation Filler...

You know how people say, "You need a vacation from your vacation." Sadly, I really caught JT's cold and I am sick yet again. I didn't get around to finishing all the pictures for the website as I have just been trying to get everything in order around the house after being gone for 2 weeks.

The day before we left for Maui, I heard on Access Hollywood or some show that Paris Hilton was going to Hawaii. That could mean, Maui, Oahu, Kauai or the Big Island. We headed over to the Wailea shopping center for dinner and we noticed a crowd with papparazzi. Yup, Paris Hilton in Maui. That is her in the white dress and big brown hat.


Mall security was trying to hold the paparazzi back and needed to call in the Maui police.

On the flight back we Tyson Chandler (NBA Player on the Hornets) was on our flight. Aya and JT took a picture with him at baggage claim. Tyson was kind of bending down as well.

That was our celebrity sightings on vacation.