I always have a hard time explaining what I do for work to people. “Consultant” doesn’t make much sense. So, here’s what I did yesterday:
--CENTRAL TIME--
5:40 am: Alarm goes off, shower, blow dry hair (using a kitchen plug- we have no plugs in the bathroom and I don’t want to wake Andrew up by drying my hair in the bedroom), change, do one more last minute check that I have everything
6:30 am: Cab picks me up to go to airport. I get a cab driver I’ve had before- he’s always very talkative and energetic for this early.
7:15 am: Board flight. I usually get upgraded to first class. At this point I’m starving and so glad they give us O.J. when we board
7:35 am: Plane takes off: naptime/breakfast/read book/iPod time. I won’t work on the plane. If I have to fly, I’m going to use it for enjoyable activities only. After all, people who drive to work every day get to listen to the radio.
--PACIFIC TIME--
8:50 am: Flight lands, I head to the Avis bus, get my car for the week- a Chevy Trailblazer
9:30 am: Arrive at client site. I have 30 minutes to catch up on my email before the 10 am meeting.
10am: Meet with client to review the open questions from the last two weeks of testing the system we’ve built for them. They want to make several changes. We want to make sure we understand them exactly so we only have to make one more set of changes. For instance, they want to calculate interest revenue based on the days of the month, not by taking the 1/12 of the annual rate each month.
12:40 pm: We break for lunch- Wahoo’s Fish Tacos. I’m so glad they serve brown rice now!
1:30 pm: Update our system change log from the morning meeting. Review it with other team members to make sure we’ve got everything listed
3:30 pm: Send out copy of changes to the entire team for review
4:00 pm: Reconvene with client to discuss list and make sure we have a complete list. More changes come up.
5:30 pm: Meeting with client ends. Meet with programmer to discuss how long it would take to reprogram and retest all the changes
7:00 pm: Send updated list with effort included, to everyone on team.
7:05 pm: Answer questions from the person writing reports out of the new system
7:40 pm: Leave work, check into hotel, call Andrew, unpack for the week.
8:30 pm: Eat room service dinner (small pizza with veggies)
9:30 pm: Fall asleep watching a Lost episode Andrew put on my iPod. I’ve made sure to put out my running clothes right next to the bed so that I have no excuse the next morning.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
How to entertain our dog
Welsh Terriers are pretty smart. To quote a breed overview:
"The Welsh Terrier if very energetic and active. He loves to play with children and can handle rough play. He is curious, happy, and spunky. An active family suits him well. By socializing the Welsh Terrier well, you can avoid problems with timidity or aggressiveness. They can show dominance with other pets so should be introduced early. Welsh Terriers often enjoy swimming. Most like to dig. Some are hard to housebreak (especially females). A very intelligent and clever breed, the Welsh Terrier is smart enough to know what you want and outsmart you to divert you from your intentions. They need variety but firmness and consistency in their training."
Most of this rings true. Chuy is VERY energetic and active. Every once in a while she gets a case of the “zoomies” and runs around in big loops at full speed (and her top speed is pretty speedy). She is super curious, happy and spunky. Andrew left his sock drawer just the tiniest bit open once and she emptied it. He walked in and she acted all proud, “I got them all out, every one!” She likes water A LOT (although we have not progressed to swimming yet, we are getting closer).
And she is clever. Welsh Terriers are not known for being particularly obedient, but it’s not because they are not smart enough to know what you want. They enjoy learning, they just don’t enjoy doing the same thing over and over. So they don’t like to sit over and over. We’ve heard you have to mix it up to keep them interested. We took a basic obedience class and she did pretty well, but it ended at the end of February. Since then, I think she’s been getting a little bored. And when she’s bored, she makes her own fun.
She has lots of toys that are supposed to keep her thinking as well as playing. The Kong is pretty basic. You stick some good tasting stuff in the center and she has to lick it out. Not that mentally stimulating, but still a good diversion.
We also have the waggle, which is a similar thing, but we still little pieces of food in the sides. She has figured out that they will come out as she rolls, but she can’t get it to work on a regular basis. So this one is still making her think.
But still, I don’t think she’s getting enough intellectual stimulation. I started looking into three possibilities that I thought we would all enjoy: agility training, earthdog trials, and flyball. I have tried places all over Austin, but they are currently winding up their classes for the summer since it’s about to get too hot! Maybe an intermediate obedience course is in order…
"The Welsh Terrier if very energetic and active. He loves to play with children and can handle rough play. He is curious, happy, and spunky. An active family suits him well. By socializing the Welsh Terrier well, you can avoid problems with timidity or aggressiveness. They can show dominance with other pets so should be introduced early. Welsh Terriers often enjoy swimming. Most like to dig. Some are hard to housebreak (especially females). A very intelligent and clever breed, the Welsh Terrier is smart enough to know what you want and outsmart you to divert you from your intentions. They need variety but firmness and consistency in their training."
Most of this rings true. Chuy is VERY energetic and active. Every once in a while she gets a case of the “zoomies” and runs around in big loops at full speed (and her top speed is pretty speedy). She is super curious, happy and spunky. Andrew left his sock drawer just the tiniest bit open once and she emptied it. He walked in and she acted all proud, “I got them all out, every one!” She likes water A LOT (although we have not progressed to swimming yet, we are getting closer).
And she is clever. Welsh Terriers are not known for being particularly obedient, but it’s not because they are not smart enough to know what you want. They enjoy learning, they just don’t enjoy doing the same thing over and over. So they don’t like to sit over and over. We’ve heard you have to mix it up to keep them interested. We took a basic obedience class and she did pretty well, but it ended at the end of February. Since then, I think she’s been getting a little bored. And when she’s bored, she makes her own fun.
She has lots of toys that are supposed to keep her thinking as well as playing. The Kong is pretty basic. You stick some good tasting stuff in the center and she has to lick it out. Not that mentally stimulating, but still a good diversion.
We also have the waggle, which is a similar thing, but we still little pieces of food in the sides. She has figured out that they will come out as she rolls, but she can’t get it to work on a regular basis. So this one is still making her think.
But still, I don’t think she’s getting enough intellectual stimulation. I started looking into three possibilities that I thought we would all enjoy: agility training, earthdog trials, and flyball. I have tried places all over Austin, but they are currently winding up their classes for the summer since it’s about to get too hot! Maybe an intermediate obedience course is in order…
Monday, April 13, 2009
Ten Fun Things we did with Andrew's parents while they were in town:
1. Taking an Andrew-led tour of UT
2. Going to see Grapes of Wrath
3. Shopping at the Austin Farmer's Market
4. Taking a walk along Scenic Drive with a picnic at the end
5. Going on a Central Market/Whole Foods/HEB spice aisle tour
6. Napping with Chuy on the recliner
7. Watching the bats on the Congress Avenue Bridge
8. Hiking at McKinney Falls State Park
9. Biking around Town Lake
10. Taking Chuy to Red Bud Isle
2. Going to see Grapes of Wrath
3. Shopping at the Austin Farmer's Market
4. Taking a walk along Scenic Drive with a picnic at the end
5. Going on a Central Market/Whole Foods/HEB spice aisle tour
6. Napping with Chuy on the recliner
7. Watching the bats on the Congress Avenue Bridge
8. Hiking at McKinney Falls State Park
9. Biking around Town Lake
10. Taking Chuy to Red Bud Isle
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Paris - Getting home!
Our last adventure was getting home- and it was a little bit of an adventure! Paris had a one day transit strike that just happened to coincide with the day we were leaving…nice. Our flight was at 2 pm, so we left the apartment at 8 am just to be sure we would make it. The subway ride to the train station went very smoothly, but after that things started to fall apart.
Because of the strike there was no one working the ticket desk. The machines wouldn’t take our credit cards and only took coins. We had the 16 euros in cash, but mostly in paper money. None of the shops would make change for us. For about an hour we went round and round trying to talk people into making change for us. Finally a nice Frenchman came to our rescue. He bought us our tickets on his credit card and we gave him our cash. Now with tickets in hand (and 12 euro cents in cash left over) we headed to the track.
The next train was coming in 30 minutes. As the track started to get more crowded with people waiting we met an American family that had already taken the wrong train TWICE (thanks to some confusing track changes due to the strike). It turns out they lived in Austin!
We got to the airport about 11 and exited the train at the first airport stop. Our tickets wouldn’t let us out! I had watched the guy buy the tickets for us, so I knew we had the right ones. An attendant let us out, with a “tsk, tsk” and a disappointed head shake. I still don’t know what we did wrong!
Once we got out we almost immediately realized we should have waited until the second stop. So after an airport tram ride we were finally at the right terminal. We learned that even if we had gotten on the train to the airport before us we would have just arrived- that train broke down! Needless to say, it was a mad house.
Luckily, my status really helped us out. We got to go in the first class line to check in (significantly shorter) and then got fast tracked through security as well. All in all, I think it took us about 10 minutes before we were walking to our gate. We spent a few quiet and restful hours in the Admirals Club and then boarded our plane.
After we were all boarded the captain made an announcement that because of the transit strike air traffic control was on a slow down and our take off would be delayed approximately 90 minutes. We had a connection time in Chicago of about 2 ½ hours, so this was a little concerning. However, the captain said that if we really took off when ATC said we would only be 45 minutes late arriving to Chicago.
Luckily, we departed only 90 minutes late. We stayed up about the whole flight and ate some REALLY bad airplane food. We got through immigration and customs fine, took another tram ride, and went through Chicago security. We even had enough time to get my mom some Garrett’s popcorn- one of her favorite Chicago treats. We got on our tiny little plane and took a noisy ride back to Dallas. My parents were there to pick us our and our Parisian adventure was officially over!
Because of the strike there was no one working the ticket desk. The machines wouldn’t take our credit cards and only took coins. We had the 16 euros in cash, but mostly in paper money. None of the shops would make change for us. For about an hour we went round and round trying to talk people into making change for us. Finally a nice Frenchman came to our rescue. He bought us our tickets on his credit card and we gave him our cash. Now with tickets in hand (and 12 euro cents in cash left over) we headed to the track.
The next train was coming in 30 minutes. As the track started to get more crowded with people waiting we met an American family that had already taken the wrong train TWICE (thanks to some confusing track changes due to the strike). It turns out they lived in Austin!
We got to the airport about 11 and exited the train at the first airport stop. Our tickets wouldn’t let us out! I had watched the guy buy the tickets for us, so I knew we had the right ones. An attendant let us out, with a “tsk, tsk” and a disappointed head shake. I still don’t know what we did wrong!
Once we got out we almost immediately realized we should have waited until the second stop. So after an airport tram ride we were finally at the right terminal. We learned that even if we had gotten on the train to the airport before us we would have just arrived- that train broke down! Needless to say, it was a mad house.
Luckily, my status really helped us out. We got to go in the first class line to check in (significantly shorter) and then got fast tracked through security as well. All in all, I think it took us about 10 minutes before we were walking to our gate. We spent a few quiet and restful hours in the Admirals Club and then boarded our plane.
After we were all boarded the captain made an announcement that because of the transit strike air traffic control was on a slow down and our take off would be delayed approximately 90 minutes. We had a connection time in Chicago of about 2 ½ hours, so this was a little concerning. However, the captain said that if we really took off when ATC said we would only be 45 minutes late arriving to Chicago.
Luckily, we departed only 90 minutes late. We stayed up about the whole flight and ate some REALLY bad airplane food. We got through immigration and customs fine, took another tram ride, and went through Chicago security. We even had enough time to get my mom some Garrett’s popcorn- one of her favorite Chicago treats. We got on our tiny little plane and took a noisy ride back to Dallas. My parents were there to pick us our and our Parisian adventure was officially over!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Paris Trip Report 2
Andrew had gone to the bakery Saturday evening to buy a baguette for dinner and he noticed that the French were buying an impressive amount of bread- 6 and 8 baguettes, and Sunday morning we found out why. We had quite an adventure finding a place to eat breakfast- everything was closed! We finally were able to grab a bite at the old American standby- McDonalds and then we headed down to check out Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter.
Notre Dame is built on one of the two islands that were the original settlements that became Paris. We loved the little streets and the gardens we kept stumbling upon! We also tried a Nutella crepe and Andrew fell in love with it! Overall we had a great day together. That night we went to a little Italian restaurant for dinner and had a great meal.
Monday I wasn’t feeling so good so I slept in while Andrew went to the Louvre. He started in one of the wings that doesn’t have the Mona Lisa and was practically by himself. He saw some great stuff- including a full head from Easter Island.
He came back to the apartment for lunch and then we headed down to the Catacombs. I found them pretty creepy, but Andrew really liked them.
Tuesday we met at Fat Tire Bike Tours early to head out to Versailles. I had been out there before, but I think bikes are the way to go! The grounds are HUGE and bikes make it a lot easier to see everything! We had a fun time shopping at the town market, and then ate a great picnic on the pond. The inside of the chalet was okay, but Andrew was unimpressed after the treasures at Louvre.
Wednesday, our last day in Paris we headed up to Sacre Cour. Talk about tourists! It was really crowded. The church was okay, but the neatest thing we saw was a guy juggling a ball on the top of a pillar- he could do it forever!
Notre Dame is built on one of the two islands that were the original settlements that became Paris. We loved the little streets and the gardens we kept stumbling upon! We also tried a Nutella crepe and Andrew fell in love with it! Overall we had a great day together. That night we went to a little Italian restaurant for dinner and had a great meal.
Monday I wasn’t feeling so good so I slept in while Andrew went to the Louvre. He started in one of the wings that doesn’t have the Mona Lisa and was practically by himself. He saw some great stuff- including a full head from Easter Island.
He came back to the apartment for lunch and then we headed down to the Catacombs. I found them pretty creepy, but Andrew really liked them.
Tuesday we met at Fat Tire Bike Tours early to head out to Versailles. I had been out there before, but I think bikes are the way to go! The grounds are HUGE and bikes make it a lot easier to see everything! We had a fun time shopping at the town market, and then ate a great picnic on the pond. The inside of the chalet was okay, but Andrew was unimpressed after the treasures at Louvre.
Wednesday, our last day in Paris we headed up to Sacre Cour. Talk about tourists! It was really crowded. The church was okay, but the neatest thing we saw was a guy juggling a ball on the top of a pillar- he could do it forever!
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