I have been riding to work consistently this month, which I’m really enjoying with the sights and smells of fall. I measured out the distance — after a bunch of people were asking me how far I ride in — and it’s right at 4.5 miles door-to-door. That means I’m rising 9 miles round-trip and put in 45 miles this week. I try to ride slowly on the way to work, but speed typically depends on the quantity of emails that I can see piling up on the BB. My route is to cross Rt. 50 on Rhodes, ride past the Iwo Jima Memorial and Arlington National Cemetary, cross the Memorial bridge and pass the Lincoln, WWII and Washington monuments, then ride down the mall to 7th street where I head north a few blocks to my building. It’s the kind of ride that would get anybody pumped up to be an American.
I’ve been remiss in keeping my digital self fresh and clean. My actual self has been busy for the last few months, but digital me has been unavailable. I’d like to get a handle on the pictures first before cranking up the blog again.
It’s a crazy night for the dirty district, tonight. It’s Police Week, which brings cops in from across the US to memorialize and honor fallen heros, every year near Chinatown. There are lots of vintage squad car that make the city look like a Dukes of Hazard convention. In addition to the cops, lots of hockey fans are out to support the Washington Capitals’ in game 7 of the eastern semifinals. I hope that niether the red-dressed hockey fans nor the outtatown boys-in-blue get to outta control tonight. From art class, I recall that mixing the two groups would make the streets run purple…
You’ve never heard of my company, nor do you know anyone I’ve worked with, except me (maybe). However, I’d like to write a short thank you note in honor of the awesomeness of my employer: I’ve worked here off and on since 2004, when AMS (a company you’d also never heard about either) was purchased by the Canadian mega-firm: CGI Group. Over the next several years, employees endured several name changes, reorganizations and password consolidations. Currently, we’re called “CGI Federal” and exist as an American-owned subsidiary of the Montreal-based big brother co. (current number of company-wide passwords: 3).
I’ve spent this week doing mostly non-customer work, like getting my laptop figured out, resetting passwords, ‘reconnecting’, etc. This has required some hauls out to HQ in Fairfax. Two things strike me whenever I’m here:
1. The people I work with are REALLY friendly! Maybe it’s the lower-than-average age of people that work at HQ, or maybe that they’re all glad to still have jobs… whatever it is, hanging near the office is always joyful.
2. Unlimited, free coffee is totally awesome. It comes out of the Flavia machine, you know, not-quite-instant, not-quite-Starbucks… but it’s free and there’s TONS of it! I, for one, realize that it’s a nice perk and I REALLY appreciate it.
I’ve known for a while that there are good people here, but I’ve also had good luck with the CGI people I’ve worked with on client sites, too. Obviously, the company is willing to bend over backward to keep their employees happy.
[Queue up the highlight reels of my ability to work from Camp Seneca for 2 months, last summer, punch in over the winter and return to work after traveling round the world for 7 months...]
I’ve been fortunate that CGI has always come through with a paycheck and interesting challenges whenever I’ve needed them. In closing, thanks for everything and I’m excited to see where we’ll go next.
Yesterday, we brought Chitchen down to the cottage and introduced her to life south of the Thruway. We started the day at Emma’s First Communion at St. Mary’s in Horseheads. The alleluia raised some eyebrows when the priest played the bongos with the children’s choir. After presents and bacon, we changed into our play clothes and headed on down to Foxmoor Farm for Party # 2.
Jack wanted a firetruck-themed birthday party and Momma arranged a surprise visitor to come over from the local volunteer fire department. The kids (both big and small) got to climb all over the truck and ride around the whole farm. Jack’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the fire truck coming down the drive. I can share his excitement, having spent my last b-day at the Taj Mahal, and think firetruck parties are fun for ALL ages. At the end of all the excitement, Chitchen was all tuckered out. She’d been super well behaved with all the new people, meeting the other dogs and sniffing the horses. After she got in the van, Chitchen passed out and aired out the cowbelly – her deepest and most comfortable sleeping position.
We got down to Camp Seneca last night on our way to Horseheads today. It’s Chitchen’s first visit to the cottage and our little beagle got right to work on sniffing the perimeter and smoking a skunk out from beneath the porch. Nobody got sprayed, but the smell hung in the 48 degree air for an hour. She went into overdrive and zipped around the carpet without regard to ANY obstructions. Momma pulled the plug on our crazed Chitchen and we all focussed on settling down. After we climbed into bed, I plugged in the power strip to the router and modem. It fired right up and I connected right away. AT&T reports in with 3 bars (out of a possible 5) with data carried on the ‘Edge’ network (not ‘3G’ I think). All good for summertime productivity from the cottage’s Internet cafe.
Pictures soon of our quick trip through the southern-tier.
Ive downloaded the WordPress app for the iPhone and it allows me to upload photos from the photoroll to the blog. I’d imagine that I’ll use a blend of embedded content and links to hosted content (e.g. Flickr & YouTube), but enjoy the blend on www.PatrickandMaryGoRound.com.
Anyhow, here are the pics of Chitchen that I took yesterday:
After playing with enough iPhones to be totally smitten, I’ve switched to AT&T for the new hottness. I’ve been toying around with it all day (in between walks with Chitchen) and really like it. It took a few tries to figure out the contacts and I accidentally called Laura in the middle of the night, last night. I’m writing this post from the phone via the WiFi connection and think that the speed is terrific. I had a decent list of contacts going in Google and it was simple to sync up an empty iPhone with email addresses and phone #’s stored in Gmail. I’m also impressed with the quality of the camera and was able to snap some decent shots of the new puppy (but haven’t figured out how to get them off the phone).
I haven’t paid for any apps, yet, but really only have the Google Mobile stuff, Skype and some weather apps, thus far. I like the onscreen keyboard and even started polking the screen of the EeePC at lunch… sheesh.
Back from the trip, prepping for the wedding and have decided to revamp my personal site while the schedule is still pretty mellow. Lots of changes over the coming days and weeks, with lots of input from our sweetheart, Chitchen.
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