Jeff Billimek’s Journal

We had yet another meeting this morning about the error handling situation. This one was interesting though because a manager in the meeting spoke out (agreeing with my position) and stated that the… differing opinion didn’t make any sense whatsoever. Maybe there is hope after all.

We treated Bob Melo to lunch today for his 49th birthday. Bob’s a really great guy. He always has a positive attitude and is never hateful towards anyone. Last year he had a very close call with Meningitis and has nearly completely recovered. It’s an honor to work with someone like Bob.

We took him to ‘623‘ (I suggested Smokey Bones, but was shot down). Bob, Casey, Brian, Scott, Susan, Alex, Anil, and me went. It was a big group so we took two cars. We sat outside because it was sunny and nice out. The cute waitress (not the one James asked out) with the tattoo on the small of her back was working today. I had the Caesar salad and half of a ham & swiss sandwich with sweet tea. I really enjoy eating there.

When I got back to the office I decided I should probably make arrangements for my trip to Hawaii. I got a rental car through Alamo for around $170 for an entire week! This is roughly the same price I paid to the lying cheating scumbags over at Enterprise (whom I am boycotting) for just 1 day. Something doesn’t quite add up. I also booked a flight on Hawaiian Air round trip to/from Honolulu to Lihue, Kauai for around $160. My strategy is to try to fly out Sunday afternoon (via LAX) arriving in HNL at 10:30pm and then getting a place to sleep (didn’t make reservations anywhere). Then the next morning fly to Kauai and get the rental car. I’ll spend most of the day doing my own thing driving around (and hopefully taking lots of pictures). Then around 3pm or so on Monday Larry & the clan will arrive and I’ll link up with them at the house. If I can’t make the Sunday afternoon flight, I’ll fly out Monday morning and go via SLC, arriving around the same time as Larry & Co.

As the afternoon wore on, I did my FirstCase time entry for this week and next week. I also completed my status report. I walked around and met with Anil, Jegan, and Ram to discuss next week and to let them know they can page me if they need to get in touch. Carole came by and wished me a happy trip. I changed my voicemail greeting and set the Outlook ‘out of office’ to on and then left for the day.

James had an extra ticket to Music Midtown that he offered to me for tonight. Since I wasn’t doing anything, I took him up on the offer and met him at his place. Casey & some of his friends were going also and Casey decided to go via Marta.

James and I waited for Casey at his place until about 6pm when Casey showed up. We headed out around 6:30 to the Marta station near James’s condo. I was very tempted to bring my camera along to capture the event. The rules state that only disposable and fixed-lens cameras are allowed so I know I could have technically been able to bring it. However, it was going to be dark soon and I’m not too keen on people photography, so I decided not to bring it.

We rode the train only two stops to the civic center station and walked a couple of blocks to the entrance. There was a very strange moment while we were walking along with the throngs of people. The demographics of the event-goers was probably 85% middle-class teenage while people. On one of the streets we were walking down, all of the people were walking along on only the left-hand side of the street. On the right-hand side was a line of what looked to be a large mass of (minority) homeless people staring at everyone walking past them.

Casey, after observing the throngs of teenage girls, commented that he hopes he never has a daughter. Almost all of the girls were dressed quite provocatively and looked like they were at least 20 years old. Of course they were probably mostly 15 years old. Funny I don’t remember girls looking like that when I was in high school. Entering the park involved getting patted down by some security guards.

We got some food from the food stands and hooked up with Casey’s friends. A while later we headed over to the ‘96 Rock’ stage where Sheryl Crow was due to perform at 8pm. When she started, we snaked our way through the crowd closer to the front of the stage.

The whole time, I noticed eerie dark storm clouds moving closer and closer. During her second song, the wind really started to pick up and the suspended stage lights started to sway wildly in the wind. On the big screen, I could see Sheryl looking up nervously at the swaying lights. As soon as she finished the song, a bunch of people ran onto the stage and escorted her & her band members off the stage. A minute later, it started to rain.

We didn’t want to be trampled by a panicked mob, so we began to work our away toward the exit. By this time, it was raining very hard and lightning was flashing everywhere. Standing in the middle of a large open field with lightning flashing overhead didn’t sit too well with me.

We decided it was time to leave. We went to the exit and ducked under some trees next to a gated apartment complex. Keith, one of Casey’s friends, somehow managed to figure out the keypad code to the gate leading into the apartment community. A bunch of us rushed in side to get shelter under the balconies in front of the doors to people’s apartments.

We stood there for about 20-30 minutes until the rain subsided some. James, Casey, and I decided we had enough and decided to leave. We walked back to the Marta station (soaking wet) and rode back to James’s place. I went straight to my car and drove home.

UPDATE (06-19-2003): I’ve seen a lot of web search hits for this page and I can only wonder if other people are having the same problem as described below. None of these measures worked and I finally had to reinstall my OS. So far it’s been a few weeks and the problem hasn’t come back.

When I woke up this morning I fixed some cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

When I logged into my computer, I was greeted to a rapidly-degrading system. The dreaded problem struck again last night at 5:28am:

[code]Event Type: Error
Event Source: Srv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 2019
Date: 5/4/2003
Time: 5:23:12 AM
User: N/A
Computer: FREESIDE
Description:
The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool because the pool was empty.[/code]

This problem is driving me crazy. I began an investigation into what this could possibly be. Everything I found on the web referred to this problem in NT4 or an early version of Win2k. I did find one obscure reference that the problem may be solved by not allowing the OS to put the USB root hub into power saving mode. I changed this setting.

But I didn’t stop there. I uninstalled the Intel Application Accelerator. I installed a new version of the Intel INF file package. I also installed SP1a (Service Pack 1a) for WinXP. I think I already had this installed, but I wanted to make sure.

On the solutions for this problem under Win2k and WinNT, Microsoft recommended occasionally running chkdsk to free up the paged pool or something. This doesn’t make any sense to me considering chkdsk is a disk checker and shouldn’t have anything to do with system memory. But nonetheless, I created a reoccurring task in the task scheduler that will run chkdsk once every 2 hours.

I have a gut feeling that the problem is related to power saving stuff since it only happens when the computer is idle for an extended period of time. It NEVER happens when I’m using it locally or remotely. Based on this, I’m hoping the USB root hub change does the trick. I’ll be very upset if the bug strikes while I’m away next week.

If all of this doesn’t work, I’ll have no other choice but to reinstall WinXP and start over from scratch.

I backed up everything except for installed applications to my spare 60GB HD and physically removed it from the computer. This is my ‘offsite’ backup solution. It would take way too many CD-R’s to back up 30 gigs of data (music and pictures take up a lot)

I did laundry this morning and went to Cumberland mall. I bought two new tshirts and board shorts from Abercrombie & Fitch. From American Eagle Outfitters I got another pair of board shorts.

After going to the mall, I checked the 4:45 flight today. Not good. About 30 ‘HK’ revenue standbys showed up and there are only 21 unsold seats. I made a command decision that I will NOT be flying to Hawaii today and will have to try for the 8:15am flight tomorrow via SLC.

As soon as I made this decision, I rebooked my Hawaiian Air flight from 8am to 3pm and rescheduled my rental car pickup to 4pm. I emailed Larry letting him know of the change in plans.

I finished book 5 of the Wheel of Time series. The ending was a bit of a letdown. There are way too many lose threads. Perrin is raising an army in Edmonds Field. The White Tower is in shambles with a splinter faction raising an army to attack and take back the tower. Rand is somehow supposed to marry three girls but hasn’t done it yet. I wonder if book 6 will address any of these things.

It was a beautiful sunny day today so I applied sun block, grabbed a book and headed out to the pool. I nearly fell asleep while lying on my stomach. It was a great feeling. I headed back in after a few hours in the sun.

I marinated some chicken in ‘Caribbean jerk’ marinade. I also prepared an onion by cutting it in half and then cutting a ‘cone’ out of the center. In this cone, I stuffed butter and brown sugar and olive oil. Then I wrapped the onions in aluminum foil. I grilled everything up and it came out pretty good.

The last thing I did today was pack my duffle bag. It’s nice going to Hawaii because I can pack for a week in just one carry-on duffle bag & backpack.

I woke up a few times during the night and checked the clock on my PDA. It was still too early to wake up, but my body was still set to Eastern Time. Finally around 6:30am I woke up and joined everyone else in the common room.

Because of the sheer logistics involved with moving around ten people (including two children and a toddler), Larry and Amy suggested that we hang out at the beach at the house today. This seemed fine with me.

We all went down to the beach and basked in the sunshine and waves. The surf was pretty rough today probably due to the low pressure system that came through.

Around 11:30am we decided to head out for lunch. We packed up the cars and went down the street to Zelos. Zelos changed their menu and now they are a Mexican-food restaurant. I had a couple of fish tacos.

During lunch, Amy informed me that she had been reading my online journal. She said that she wasn’t sure if I was dating anyone or not. She also asked about Michele and I explained to her that Michele and I have been broken up since January.

When we got back to the house after lunch I grabbed my book and began to read. I was pretty sleepy (probably from the two strong drinks) and took a nap in the living-room for about an hour.

When I woke up, Larry asked if I wanted to go swimming with him down at the beach. This part of the beach isn’t very conducive to snorkeling because it’s all just a big sandbar with no coral or other underwater stuff. There were, however, decent-sized and consistent waves. We watched some surfers out there riding the waves and walked out on the sandbar quite a ways out to where the waves were breaking.

It was pretty fun to square my shoulders and brace myself as a big wave crashed into me. I also dived a few times under the water just as the wave was going to hit, so that way it would miss me. I also tried to ‘ride’ a few of the waves and was fairly successful at it. Larry noted that he wants to rent a surfboard or at least a couple of boogies boards because that would make the waves a lot more fun to play in.

We were in the water for an hour or two. When we got out and walked back to the house, we rinsed off at the shower outside. I grabbed my book again and sat in the sun, reading, to dry off.

The day was wearing on, and I was happy that it remained mostly sunny throughout the day. The weather on the north-shore of Kauai can be unpredictable and it isn’t uncommon for small rainstorms to pass through. The whole area is very tropical and wet all the time. This is nice in that everything is always lush in appearance.

We made plans to have dinner at a place called ‘Hanalei Dolphin’ (a seafood restaurant) at 5:30. Larry had also shipped out a case of wine (from his collection) to someone who has a wine cellar in his house. Larry doesn’t know the guy personally, but the guy is the father of a broker Larry works with. I went with Larry to go pick up the wine. We went in my car. The house was about twenty minutes south of where we are staying.

When we got there it was a large and new house. It looked very expensive too. The house was on a large lot overlooking the ocean. The owner, Norm, gave us a tour. The whole house is laid out such that every room faces the ocean. There was a glassy ‘workout’ room, a large guest bedroom, a wine ‘room’, a big study, a large kitchen and dining room, a large room that is a closet, and a huge master bedroom. Everything was fine and expensive. All of the ceilings had crown molding. All of the wood was custom imported; the fireplace was made out of special stone imported from France. The floors were this kind of fancy flagstone. While we were going through the tour, I couldn’t help but think about the episode of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm‘ in which the main character refuses to go on a home tour and gets chastised for it.

We got the wine and headed back to Hanalei. We went straight to the restaurant since it was already 5:20. A short while later the 8 other people showed up. It’s amazing how big a production it is moving around so many people. We got a table right away and had dinner.

Five of us shared a bottle of wine that Larry took out of the case he shipped. I had some sort of teriyaki marinated Ono fish with butter dipping sauce and grilled vegetable kabobs. It was delicious.

After dinner we went back to the house and watched ‘Remember the Titans‘ after the kids were put to bed. While watching the movie, I wrote yesterday’s journal entry in Larry’s iBook. I figured that I can type out my journal entries on the iBook and then copy them to the CF micro drive in my digital camera to access when I get home.

I went to bed after the movie ended.

Larry slept in second bed in my room for most of the night. I think he did this because he didn’t want to be wakened up by Cal during the night. Larry woke up and went back to his room sometime after 5am. I woke up at 5:30 and looked out the window to a cloudless dark sky. It looked like a good opportunity to view the sunrise. I dressed and told Rachel, who was awake watching Tucker & Lily, that I would be out photographing the sunrise.

I left the house with my camera and tripod in tow. I wasn’t sure where to go for the best sunrise viewing since we’re close to the north-west side of the island. I drove south towards Princeville and didn’t see anything appealing there.

I turned around and headed back towards Hanalei and pulled off to a scenic overlook. I attached the camera to the tripod and looked for a good vantage point. I got some shots of the lush valley with the sun striking the clouds in the sky. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t see the sunrise directly.

After snapping quite a few photos, I drove north again into Hanalei. There is an old church sitting in a nice green field that I wanted to try to photograph in the morning light, but it didn’t look too good this morning.

I drove back to the house and walked down to the beach to photograph the sunrise from the beach. As I was walking back to the house I saw Larry with his camera walking towards me. I joined him and he took some pictures of Tucker who was also outside.

I spent about an hour in the living-room working on my journal entry for yesterday. Kristy was still sleeping on the sofa and everyone else was awake. A while later Kristy got up too and Larry suggested we all go to Tunnels beach today.

We got everything packed up and then headed out to Tunnels beach around 8am. It’s a good thing we left early because there was very limited parking at the beach access area. Fortunately someone was leaving so we got a space in the very front.

We unloaded the van and walked down to the beach. We set up an area to sit in the shade. Today Amy wanted to use the sun dome tent-like thing to keep Cal out of the sun. I helped her set it up and then put on some sun block.

Tunnels beach was nice and sunny today. Because we arrived so early there weren’t many people on the beach. Instead there were several scuba divers returning from the beach. Apparently this beach is popular for beach-diving in addition to snorkeling.

I spent a lot of time on my beach towel in the sun reading my book. It’s a great feeling to be lying in the sun with the crystal-clear water crashing against the sandy beach and reading a good book.

A while later I joined Larry, Amy, Tucker, and Lily down in the water. Larry asked if I could get some photos of them all together with his camera. I hadn’t really used his camera (Canon EOS D60) before and it was a joy to shoot with it. He had the 28-135 IS lens on and I managed to snap off quite a few photos. The camera is larger and heavier than my Minolta Dimage 7i but it certainly feels a lot more solid to shoot with. The thing that impressed me the most was the true optical TTL viewfinder. I could actually tell when the subject was in focus or not. The camera focused so quickly and took pictures so fast it was like using film. I don’t know if I can wait for the successor to the Canon EOS 10D to come out.

I didn’t do any snorkeling at this beach but did put on my sandals and walk along the rocky left-side of the beach. There is a natural jetty type area with rh black lava rocks that I walked along. It felt nice to stand on the rocks where large waves crash, feeling the ocean spray.

When it was around noon time, we packed up the van and headed to Hanalei for lunch. We were originally going to go to Hanalei Gourmet, but Amy suggested we go to a place called ‘Bamboo Bamboo‘ in the same downtown Hanalei area.

It took a little while to be seated, but once we all got situated lunch was pretty nice. I had a chicken caesar salad which was quite good. After lunch we headed back to the house. I relaxed a little bit in the living room with my book.

About an hour later Larry asked if I wanted to go to Lumaha’i beach for some snorkeling. Of course I thought this was a great idea so he and I packed up my car and headed out for the beach. Parking at Lumaha’i is very limited and you have to park alongside the road on a cliffside and walk down to the beach. In fact, the steps you walk down were put there specifically for the filming of ‘South Pacific‘.

Lumaha’i beach was practically deserted. We put our stuff down on a boulder near the cliff wall. Lumaha’i is interesting in that there is a large cropping of rocks in the water next to another large outcropping of rocks connected to the shore. This results in a very narrow path by which water can flow past. When incoming swells and waves go through this area, violent wave crashing upon the rocks can be seen. It is especially turbulent between the two rocks outcroppings. Of course, this is where Larry wants to snorkel.

We set out to the water and put on our snorkeling gear. I started by following Larry towards the ‘tunnel’ area but once I was half-way inside of it, the churning water from all of the waves breaking resulted in almost no visibility because of the thousands of tiny bubbles produced underwater.

I decided to snorkel along the outside of the rock clump and that was worthwhile. I saw some interesting fish and formations. When I got around to the other side, I couldn’t find Larry. The swells were pretty large so there were times that I was ‘low’ in the water and other times that I was very ‘high’ if I was on the top of a swell. Going up and down like that was fun. Because I couldn’t find Larry anywhere, I headed back for shore and climbed up on the rocky outcropping to see where he was. I finally saw him in the area I just snorkeled from, heading back towards the beach as well.

We sat on the large boulders drying off in the sunlight. I then hiked back up to the car to get our cameras. Larry and I spent the next hour taking lots of pictures of the area. Larry told me that this beach is a really great location for viewing the sunset. Maybe I’ll try to drive out to this beach and watch the sunset one evening in the next few days.

Larry and Amy went out to dinner by themselves tonight and the rest of us cooked chicken on the BBQ. Our food was pretty good and Rachel did an outstanding job with Tucker who was acting quite fussy.

After dinner I did the dishes and then sat in the living room with everyone else. I had the iBook and wrote yesterday’s journal entry. We watched ‘Friends‘ and some dog beauty pageant show. When I was done writing in my journal, I started to read Kristy’s Cosmopolitan magazine. Maybe I misinterpreted what I was reading, but it felt like the magazine was saying it’s ‘ok’ for one person to cheat in a relationship. That was quite odd indeed.

Before going to bed, I got some stuff together for our hike tomorrow. Originally it was going to be just Larry and me, but Rachel and Kristy are going to go as well.

I woke up at 6:18am and noticed that my iPAQ’s alarm clock never went off. This annoyed me because it was set for 6:15am. As soon as I woke up, I grabbed the iBook and wrote yesterday’s journal entry.

As the morning wore on everyone woke up and got their breakfast. The plan was to go to Tunnels beach today so we had to leave early in order to get a parking space. We packed up the van and left at 8am. Kristy and Cal stayed behind today so that Amy could have some free time at the beach.

When we arrived at the beach, it was pretty deserted but the sun was out. It was really nice being there shortly after sunrise. Everything was cast in horizontal light which looked very nice.

Larry and I went with Larry for a walk down the beach. While we were walking back, I saw a large creature out of the corner of my eye. It was a Hawaiian Monk seal. Larry said that these types of seals are very rare and it’s a treat to see one on the beach. I was fairly close to it when I saw it. In fact, it was easy to mistake the seal for a rock. We went back to our stuff and grabbed our cameras. We rushed back to the seal and snapped many photos of it. The whole time, it didn’t seem to mind people close to it.

A while later, after we finished with the seal, the weather started to turn foul. Dark clouds rolled in and it started to rain. The bad weather persisted for quite some time and we attempted to stick it out for about an hour. Finally around 10:30am we decided to head home.

When we got back to the house, we put things away and then gathered everyone up (including Kristy and Cal this time) and went to Hanalei Gourmet for lunch. I had the ham & monetary jack sandwich.

After lunch we went back to the house and I showed Amy the photos from our hike yesterday. She seemed a bit annoyed that Larry took like 800 photos from just the trail. I don’t think she enjoyed wading through many similar photos.

Larry and Amy went to the store and I sat in the living room and read more of my book. Rachel & Kristy were also in the living room watching some depressing show on lifetime.

When Larry & Amy returned, Larry asked if I wanted to go with him down to the old Hanalei church to take some pictures. This sounded like a lot of fun so of course I agreed. We loaded my tripod and Larry’s 100mm macro lens in my backpack and off we went.

We walked over to the church was a few blocks away. Larry and I spent the next two hours taking photos of different things near the church. I didn’t have my camera, so I just observed what Larry was shooting. He let me play with his 100mm macro lens and I was pretty happy with the results.

When we got back to the house, it was nice and sunny outside. Amy, Rachel, Tucker, and Lily were already down at the beach. Larry went down to join them and I went a short while later. It was nice that the beach was sunny and clear this afternoon. We all spent a while out there and then headed back in once it got cloudy.

Rachel and Kristy had the night off so they got dressed up to go out for dinner and whatever else afterwards. It sounds like they will have fun. They asked me to get some photos of them once they were dressed up. I have to admit that they did look good.

The rest of us were going to do takeout dinner tonight. Larry ordered carne asada from a Mexican restaurant in Hanalei. I went out in the mini-van and picked it up. When I got back, I took a shower and joined them for dinner.

As we wrapped up dinner, we all went down to the beach outside to watch the sunset. While we couldn’t see the sun setting directly, we saw the purple and red colors shining on the clouds as it set.

After that, I changed me reservations so I can stay an extra night. Instead of flying out of HNL tomorrow at 9:30pm, I’ll be flying out Monday at 12:45pm instead. This will get me into Atlanta at 5:30am Tuesday instead of 2:30pm Monday. I’ll have to go straight to work when I get in on Tuesday. This will allow me to go on the trail with Larry tomorrow afternoon. This way I’ll be able to see it while the sun is setting.

I spent the rest of the evening going through photos and writing my journal.

I woke up today at 6:16am. As soon as I got up, I uploaded the photos from yesterday’s trail adventure. I then went through my photos, discarding those that I did not want to keep. I then went through Larry’s photos selecting the ones I wanted to keep. When that was all done, I wrote yesterday’s journal and then uploaded everything to my 1GB microdrive.

While I was packing up my bag, everyone left to go to a beach. We said our goodbyes. Around 8:45am I left the house and headed towards Lihu’e. In Kapa’a I stopped for some gas.

It was sad driving to the airport knowing that I was leaving this paradise.

When I reached the airport at 9:35am, I turned in the car and checked in for my 10:45am flight. The 25-minute flight from Lihu’e to Honolulu was uneventful.

Once in Honolulu I checked my voicemail. I called Anil to check up on how things were going at work. Aside from the system test starting out a little rocky, everything was going good. Jenn called me and asked if I would like to go to a Pete Yorn concert with her on Wednesday.

I got some lunch in the Honolulu airport as well as two ‘double’ crown & cokes. I intend to sleep on the flight to LAX.

I didn’t get first class, but I didn’t expect to so it was all good. I did get seat 22C and the next two seats next to me were empty so I was able to stretch out across all three seats and sleep.

When we arrived in LAX, we had to change planes and go to a different gate. I was still assigned seat 22C when we re-boarded and again no one was sitting in the two seats next to me so I tried to get some sleep on the flight back.

Still trying to adjust back to eastern time, I slept late this morning. I rushed into work for our 9am staff meeting.

In the meeting we had a lot of special guests. In addition to my boss, Carole was her boss (our director) Alonzo. His Boss (our vice president) Brent, and Brent’s boss (our senior vice president) Mike. They told us how important our project is and how we’ve achieved a major milestone by entering system test.

Brent also solicited for anyone to state any needs or concerns that they have. He suggested now is a great time because we have the attention of a VP and Senior VP. Of course no one said anything. I whispered to James (who was sitting next to me) that I wouldn’t mind a larger monitor. Brent saw me mutter something to James and invited me to speak up and say what was on my mine.

I figured ‘what the hell’ and said, ‘I’d like a larger monitor.’ This drew a lot of laughs from the crowded room and Brent said that he would see what he could do.

As the staff meeting started to wrap up, we had a surprise cake for Carole and celebrated her birthday today.

We broke at 9:50am and we had a team lead meeting scheduled to start at 11am. Jegan came up to me and suggested that I go with him across the street for a vendor presentation. I asked him about the team lead meeting and he suggested that this is more important. I approached Carole and asked her about the team lead meeting and she also agreed that the vendor presentation would be a good thing to attend.

The vendor presentation is an all-day two-day event. However the ‘technology’ piece is only a two-hour presentation. They are one of two vendors pitching a product that we want to use for our accounting system.

After the presentation, I went to Schlotzsky’s for lunch and got a BBQ chicken pizza with bacon. I called Mom and we made plans for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate mothers day.

I spent the rest of the day trying to get Rational Quantify to work.

After work I stopped by Publix and did some grocery shopping. Later in the evening I fully-read the Canon EOS-10D review.

Work was pretty uneventful today, as it typically is on Friday. We went to ‘623‘ for lunch and I had the hot ham swiss sandwich with a caesar salad as a side.

I had more home computer problems today. The same ‘nonpoold page is empty’ error popped up and it happened under different conditions this time. While I was using my remote desktop connection and chatting on AIM, the remote desktop connection locked up. I tried, unsuccessfully, to reconnect several times. I could still ping the box, and Outlook was still fetching mail. I could even hit IIS from my linux box. So far the only thing not working was the remote desktop. Then, an hour or two later, everything else went down. This was the first time I’ve observed that particular error condition hit while the computer was not idle.

Yesterday I placed an order for the Canon EOS-10D on Amazon.com. When I placed the order, they indicated that it was backordered and probably wouldn’t ship until the end of June. Earlier in the day I called Wolf Camera and they told me that there was a waiting-list 1,200 people long for the camera. Fortunately today I got a note from Amazon telling me that the camera shipped! I think it will arrive Tuesday or Wednesday.

After work I went straight to Lenox. I planned on meeting Jenn at 6pm when she gets off work. We went to Maggiano’s for dinner. It must be prom time because half the people in the restaurant were high-school kids dressed up. Jenn and I had a discussion about what the girls do with their hair. Apparently putting ones hair ‘up’ in those intricate curls is something that you only do on special occasions because it takes a lot of work and you have to have it done, you can’t do it yourself.

When we concluded dinner, we drove down Peachtree street into downtown Atlanta towards the Tabernacle for the Pete Yorn concert. We parked and picked up the tickets from the box office. By this time it was around 7:50pm and fortunately Pete Yorn hadn’t started yet. We made our way inside (this was the first time either Jenn or I had been here) and walked into the main level.

The Tabernacle is a church converted into a club. It’s ironic that a place once used for worship is now used for sin. I guess it could be worse. What if it was a church converted into a brothel? Off to the side on every level (there are like 4 or 5 levels) are ‘lounge’ rooms with big sofas and love seats. Not bad. The first level was an open area packed with standing people. The upper three levels had seating and overlooked the ‘altar’ area where the bands now play. Every level also had a its own bar.

We sat down on the third level and I went off to the bar to get us some drinks. When I got to the bar, I inquired about a Red Bull & Vodka. The guy said that would cost $10.50. Wow, resort prices! I purchased one anyway and got Jenn a Heineken. Shortly after I got back one of the opening acts, ‘Granddaddy’, started. They had a large video screen behind them as they played and it seemed to be synchronized with the songs they were playing. Both Jenn and I were more mesmerized by the videos than the songs themselves.

When Granddaddy concluded, ‘Leslie‘ from 99x came on stage to a mixed reaction of cheers and boos. She had a cell phone or something and asked if anyone wanted her to instant-message Pete anything before he came on stage. Someone sitting next to us yelled, “Tell him to stop selling out!” That was pretty funny.

The Pete Yorn concert was pretty good. It was loud (at least for me) though. At the end of the night when they stopped playing, I could still ‘hear’ a rumbling inside my ears. I suspect it was my eardrums still reverberating from the loud noise.

During the concert I took time to observe some other things. I spent some time watching a professional photographer at the base of the stage. He had like two or three different cameras handing from his neck. One of them had an external flash attached to it and the other he was constantly swapping the lens on. It seemed as if he didn’t use a flash much which was interesting because of the low light.

I also watched the crowd. From our seats, I had a good vantage over the main floor where everyone was standing. I saw this one kid in a white shirt jumping up and down pumping his fist in the air for practically the whole show. I imagine he’s going to be sore from all of that. I saw another guy holding a cell phone up in the air for most of the show as well. I suspect it was a phone with a mini-camera built in. The crowd was like 90% white teenagers, which contrasted harshly with the part of town where the Tabernacle lies.

Because you never know when you’ll need a change of clothes, I packed up a bag containing: Old tennis shoes, shorts, jeans, socks, boxers, a shirt, and a belt. I bundled all of this up into a bag and put it in the back of my car.

During the day I spoke with Larry and he informed me that he bought the Canon EOS-10D too. He was excited that I ended up getting the same camera. I think his arrived today and mine should arrive tomorrow. The lens should arrive Wednesday if everything goes as planned. This should work out pretty good because I’ll be playing softball after work tomorrow so I won’t be able to go to the leasing office until Wednesday anyway.

When I got home, I took a 30 minute power nap. The freshly-washed Egyptian cotton sheets feel so good to sleep in. After my nap I took a shower.

The saying, “April showers brings May flowers” certainly does NOT apply right now. The sun hasn’t come out in about two weeks. It’s been raining most of the time and the temperature didn’t go much over 60 degrees Fahrenheit today. It’s awful depressing weather.

Dinner involved eating at a charming Chinese restaurant in Vinings called “Orient Express”. It is built into an old passenger train car.

After dinner was a trip to an interesting ‘bar’ in the same Vinings area called ‘The Grape‘. It is a bar that serves over 100 different types of wine and some assorted food. I had three ’sampler’ sized glasses of three different kinds of red wine.

The rest of the evening was spent watching Grosse Pointe Blank. That’s such a good movie!

I was quite productive again today. I feel such a sense of accomplishment when I get a lot done.

Today was yet another day of very crappy weather. It was raining hard all morning. It was still raining when Jegan and I left for a meeting across the street with the business.

We had a meeting to discuss a change request from the business about how we (mis)handle ticket reissues. It was a brainstorming session, but we came up with four different proposals. Before the meeting began, Allison (a highly-energetic Accenture contractor) noted that I had an iPAQ and was very excited about it. She’s excited and energetic about pretty much everything. I wonder where she gets all of her energy?

During the day I called up USAA and secured a ‘floater’ to my homeowners policy to cover my new camera and related components. I faxed in a document explaining what I wanted to cover (along with serial numbers and receipts). I also had to disclaim that the camera won’t be used commercially and that it won’t be used by children. As I understand it, USAA’s ‘personal article’ float policy will cover pretty much any peril, including accidentally dropping and breaking it - with no deductible. This is a good thing considering I take my camera with me almost everywhere.

I finalized my weekend plans with Larry. I’m flying out to San Diego Saturday morning and returning Monday evening. We’re going to go on a day trip to the Joshua Tree National Park area.

I worked with Jegan over the ‘what’ and ‘how’ related to application performance testing. We’re supposed to present something to Carole by the close of business tomorrow.

Before I left for the day, Brent’s administrative assistant (Brent is a vice-president, my boss’s boss’s boss) asking me to let her know when I get my new monitor. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about and she explained that I’m getting a new monitor. Apparently they followed through with my request for a larger monitor! I was shocked but left work with a big smile.

On my way home, I exited on the 10th/14th street exit and stopped at the large Wolf Camera store. I was shopping for a camera bag. I took my camera (with lens attached) in the store with me to test out different bags. I didn’t want something too large as I want to store it in my backpack or duffle bag when I travel. I finally settled on something that seemed the right size. However, later in the evening when I got home, I tried putting everything into it (camera w/lens, extra filter, extra battery, extra CF card, microfiber cloth, etc) and it just didn’t work. I’m going to have to exchange it for something larger.

When I got home, I stopped by the leasing office to renew my lease. I only renewed for 6 months but this caused my rent to be $25/month higher. I need to find a new place now for sure. The girl I worked with was quite attractive. Come to think of it, all of the girls that work in the leasing office are all attractive. I wonder if that’s a requirement to work in the leasing office. She offered to have my carpets steam-cleaned because I complained that the apartment is getting pretty old considering it is 5 years old.

Before I left the leasing office, I picked up two packages that arrived for me. One was a large box containing two boxes of Detour protein bars and the other was a box from B&H photo with the two lens’s I ordered this past weekend. I got a 72mm UV filter and a 72mm circular polarizer.

I went through my Hawaii & St. Maarten photos and created 9 new ‘headers’ to include in the random image rotation at the top of my website.