My favorite way to wake up and work

Posted on February 26, 2007 in Life | Leave a Comment

I’m not really a “morning person” but I can get up and at it most of the time. I love to start my day with a warm beverage, and maybe a snacky thing like a bagel or something.

That, combined with my laptop and wifi at a coffee shop is pretty much my favorite way to start things off. I get to slowly wean my brain into normal speed, enjoy my waking up time, and start working. Let’s face it, the first thing I do almost every morning whether it’s a “work day” or not, is check my email. Especially now that I have that fancy T-Mobile Dash that actually works well. I find myself looking to see if there’s something urgent to attend to before I even roll out of the sack.

What I love about starting my day off like this, other than the food and drink is the atmosphere. Most people are pretty mellow, and I like having some background noise and people watching a bit. It also gives me a little bit of time to compile my thoughts on what I need to focus on for the day.

Downside = $7 for a coffee and food. And the fact that I usually have to get up early to be able to do this.

The guy in my contacts is dead

Posted on February 23, 2007 in Life | Leave a Comment

As I was adding someone to my contacts today I ran across another contact in there. This was a contractor that worked for a few of my consulting clients, managing their construction projects. I met him a few times and even chatted with him for an hour or so at my clients/friend’s summer parties.

Lately he had some challenging times in his life, and the stress was fully showing. He yelled at me a couple times, even though I didn’t even work with him. I kind of thought he was an ass, but he really was just kind of a flaky guy who was under a ton of stress. It’s cool, we all have some bad days, right? Although I try not to take them out on others, especially others that I don’t really know. Whatever - water off a duck’s back.

So I heard a few months back that he totally dropped the ball on a project he was working on, then his wife left him (she’s a piece of work anyway!) and then he took off for a while. It was like 2 weeks, and they found his body and he’d killed himself. He left his little girl that supposedly meant the world to him. Poor girl - she was devastated.

Then today, I ran across his contact. It was really odd feeling to delete it - I’ve never deleted a contact for someone who’s died before. I deal with death pretty well, because that’s really all we can do is to deal with it. It’s just another fact of life, although not terribly pleasant.

My little bro is blogging

Posted on February 20, 2007 in Friends | Leave a Comment

He’s all grown up, and doing it outside of myspace too. Check it out here: aleksi.lepisto.com

Women, and how?

Posted on February 19, 2007 in Life | Leave a Comment

Chris has sent me a couple funny things lately on the whole “women only want money” stereotype. Here’s a funny video on it. (Windows Media required)

He also sent me this link: 5 Steps to Getting the Girl of Your Dreams with cute lego people photos.

Almost ready for sheetrock

Posted on February 17, 2007 in Houses | Leave a Comment

The house is coming along okay, although it’s never fast enough. In the last couple weeks all the remaining demolition was done, electrical for downstairs is 99% complete, almost all the framing is done, and now I just need plumbing so I can call in for an inspection and start covering things up. Then, I need sheetrock, paint and finish work. I also have a nicer, larger front door installed now too. It’s time to start planning out the kitchen layout.

I’m seriously struggling with whether I want to replace the windows or not. I do WANT to replace them for efficiency and to make them look way better than the crappy ones that are in here now, but I just don’t want the associated bill that comes along with it. Its a rather large one, and I can probably pay for the new roof and siding with the amount it’s going to cost for the windows.

I think I may hold off, and do them when I do the siding, if I want/need/can afford them at that time. Although, then I start thinking about how crappy it will be with almost everything being brand new, and having some old crappy windows in place. It’s a vicious cycle I tell you. We’ll see. If the siding underneath is good enough to keep, I may do the windows. Otherwise, I may just re-side the house and leave the windows as they are.

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