Friday, June 15, 2007

A good night to play catch-up

I'm sitting on the couch, zonked, watching the Mets-Yanks on the dish. Just to clarify, I'm zonked as in tired...got called the past two nights in a row by work. Was up from 11-a Wednesday night and 11-2 last night, so I'm running on 9 hours sleep the last 2 nights. I do get OT, so I can't complain too much. We're in the process of rolling out a production application in Dallas, so there are some growing pains involved. I got home @ 6pm and immediately took a nap for over an hour.

Finally got tracked down by Sirius radio - when I bought my car nearly 3 years ago, it came with a one year demo for satellite radio. Well, on May 31st the demo finally ran out. I play it a lot - G listens to Hits One when she's in the car, and I switch between Howard, the rock stations and some classical. So I bought a subscription, and all's well with the commute again.

Speaking of which, G is done with school for the year, so I'm leaving earlier, and the drive has been a bit shorter. My mood is a bit better, but I still want to evaluate my options as far as employment goes. My fellow contractor and I were told this week that we're extended through the end of the year, which would put me there for over a year.

Not much planned for the weekend...L and G are taking me to Sake on Rte.1 on Sunday for Father's Day. One of my favorites - they do a great job with sushi, as well as tempura dishes. Have some yardwork to do, as well as washing the car. Updating the resume should be on the list as well.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Recital

G. had her dance recital yesterday - couldn't be prouder of her. She did a great job...she has the ability to make her dancing look effortless, although you know she's working as hard as she can. Two performances, each with 9 dances, including the opener, the finale and a solo. I made the afternoon performance and the second half of the evening show, as I had to come home and take care of the pets in the late afternoon. L. stayed and rooted her on through both shows. Poor G slept until 12:15 today, as expected. She has finals this week, then starts summer vacation on Thursday.

Pretty quiet day today - mowed the lawn and did some cleaning up around the house. Hard to believe the final episode of The Sopranos is less than 4 hours away. It's been my favorite show for years now, and I didn't even start watching until the second season. I grew up in northern Jersey, and it's always fun to watch and see if I can figure out where scenes have been filmed. A few years ago, we were driving to the cemetery in North Arlington for a funeral and went past Pizza Land (as immortalized in the show opening credits). My friend shook his head and called me a tourist when I pointed it out. :-)

Things are going well at work, but the commute has been horrible the past couple of weeks. I'm at the point where I'm updating my resume and thinking of exploring my options. I like th jib and the people I work with, but spending an hour and a half to two hours in the car every morning is zero fun. Things will change up a bit by the end of the week as I won't have to drop G off at school, so I'm hoping getting an earlier jump will help.

There are other things to blog about, but enough for now.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Happy Birthday Dad

My father turned 80 today - the two milestones I know he wanted to reach were this birthday and his 50th wedding anniversary. He has them both now and I couldn't be happier for him.

Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years ago this summer. It's easy to let the disease and its effects define him now, but on his birthday I'd rather rewind my memories of him. I have so much to thank him for - the ability to face life with a sense of humor, an appreciation of family, his unwavering support in my education and career and a love for sports and music. We all go through phases in our relationships with parents, and our appreciation for their role deepens considerably upon become a parent. There were many complaints and things I harbored against him as a child and teenager - as I matured, I got to see him as a person with the credits and debits we all own. On balance, he was on the plus side of the ledger.

Dad has six children - two are gone and I know he carries that grief with him to this day. He's proud of his 7 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. He loves his wife of 52 years dearly. He has his good days and bad days, and the good ones still carry the majority.

I called him this morning to wish him a happy birthday. He gave me the Mickey Mantle line - "if I knew I was going to live this long, I would've taken better care of myself." We both laughed - and Dad, you took great care of me, and I'll always be grateful.