Project almost done

I got in my woodworking today. Its coming along pretty well. I need more practice with a jig saw. Its not finished yet, humidity picked up and only got 1 cost of paint on. Tomorrow I should be able to sand and get a 2nd coat on. Not sure if I'll need a 3rd.

That was pretty much my day, watched some HGTV in the morning then spent most of the day in the garage. The evening Amy and I watched the Grammy's .... It was one of the better I could remember recently. Being a hard rock / metal fan there isn't muchbfor me there. Bring on the Golden Gods!

Got Glass... and adventures in shopping

My Google glass shipped yesterday, and I should have them Monday... YAY!!!

Today Amy did a whirlwind tour of furniture stores. We needed to find a spare bed, not a huge rush our first planned visitor isn't till the end of March when my Mom comes down before her cruise. We also walked around the Sawgrass mall for a while before heading out, racked up almost 14k steps in total. We ended up going with a simple platform bed from rooms to go, and they had a deal on a good matress so we got that as well. Really the only thing left to buy is a dining room set, well tables and chairs anyway. Oh and a BBQ cause a BBQ would be really nice.

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt my first wood working project..
Click here if you want to see

I'll post some pictures if it comes out well, be the first time I am doing something like this since doing my crafts merit badges in boy scouts. For some reason since we've moved I've been itching to do some crafts. I blame finally having a garage. I'm going to start working on my 40k army and painting again as well.

New tools (toys)

Got myself a hackzall (sawzall) it's a Milwaukee M12 goes with the system I got with my drill. I have to cut in 20 outlets tomorrow at the wiring job were doing, this should cut off a few min each at least. Also got some much needed kneepads.

Why the kneepads are needed is because, Over 10 years ago now, I dislocated my knee working a motor vehicle accident. It was a bit of stupidity on my part, I was in my turnout gear. The first aid squad was really overwhelmed, 1 rig for 3 cars, so being an EMT I offered to help. Getting in the back of a car to hold stabilization on a vic I over extended and boom... Hit the ground in pain that I can't even begin to describe. Got checked out at the hospital where the knee got reset my knee. But I still required surgery to repair some damage.

One of the coolest things this week is that I got to connect with an old friend. She poped up on my fitbit list. I added her and we've been chatting and razing each other to be more active. I got my 10k+ steps for the day. Still waiting to see what she came in at.

Started strong... But

Then I managed to miss a few days. 😈
So the biggest news I got was yesterday I got invited to the Google glass beta. It's a decent amount of money but I decided to get one. So I'm pretty excited about that. New tech is always fun especially from Google. I got into the cr48 beta for chromebook and we still use it everyday.

I also got another round of bragging about how nice Florida is as the polar vortex hammers the north east.  Mom for about 9 inches of snow and it was -1° when she got up.

Amy had Monday off, I had office work. Got the windshield in the work truck replaced. Last 2 days I've been working at an ins company. The customer contact is one of those "knows enough to be dangerous". I just keep my head down and complete my tasks. I'll be wiring the rest of the week, so yay workout!

Sleepy Sunday

Nothing much went on today. Slept in and recovered from last night. Caught up on some DVR from the last week.

Went for a nice walk with Amy in the afternoon. Then settled in for some football.

Missed yesterday... but that's cause I didn't get home till today

Last night we had our Company holiday party, and we were out really late, and I was way to drunk to post anything up.

We got picked up by a party bus, and were off to the Capital Grille in Boca. It was amazing, appetizers were good, I got a the Dry Aged Sirloin Steak it was out of  this world, cooked perfectly medium rare, just the right amount of seasoning, just melted in your mouth. After that we hit a club for a few hours, kicked back had a good time people watching the Boca club scene. 

I went and played some 40k, earlier in the day... It was not a fun time, to say the least.

Thats about all that I can remember from yesterday :-) 
Amy did put her car wash it to some good use... now I just need to get her to wash my jeep and work truck

Aced it!

Only update that matters today. 100%

Winter came back

Got a bit on the chilly side today for Florida, low 50's they are saying tomorrow morning with the wind chill it will feel like the 20's in Miami. I think if feels nice, alittle chilly, I wouldn't mind some mid 60's weather.

Spent all day again today in class for IP Office, today was all call flows, and building auto attendants in VM Pro. It was a great day, this is what I do, one of the few things that even I think I am truly good at. I love to be able to build out new call routing, and call flows. I finished well ahead of the class and started to work on some things on my own, building out conference bridging, and adding functionality to my menus.

Later in the afternoon, I got a little blast from the past. One of the vendors that I had a relationship with at BD reached out to me. Joni from CXtec, she as always was super friendly asking how I was. She is actually going to make a point to come down from Rochester NY the next time that I am up in NJ.

Tomorrow is about 1/2 day of class and then .... the TEST...
I went through my pages of notes and wrote them out into a word doc for easy searching. I also have about 7 PDF's that are all marked up with highlights and comments that I can reference during the test. I am a very horrible test taker, and also superstitious about jinxing myself so I don't want to say how I think I will do. I think I prepped the best that I could. I went down to have the hotel bar had a beer to try and unwind and watched some Netflix, TV in the hotel has been out since I got back to the room this afternoon.

Humpdaaaay yeah

Halfway through class today. Got to build out some auto attendants , worked with video softphones and built sip trunks between 2 500's. Was a pretty good educational day. Stayed late to help the instructor troubleshoot and issue with one of the connections.

One ,not sure if its funny, thing is 2 times we had issues connecting our unit to another's both times there were issues. Both times fingers were pointed at my programming, both times it was fuck ups on the other end. Its kinda the unwritten rule of IT, blame the other guy first. Generally your supposed to know your right first. Its cool though I'm there to learn so I have no issue looking closer at my programming, and it's nice to get proven right in the end.

Tomorrow its all about VM Pro configuration, I oddly have a good feeling so far.

2nd day in Tampa

Was another good day in class. Finished up reviewing hardware, and started talking about programming. Good amount of hands on workshops today made it go pretty quick. Got to set up incoming call routes , fire up a PRI and link two IP500's.
Before class I got an interesting surprise, I was sitting in the hotel lobby drinking my coffee. I look up and DPO my old boss from Deloitte was getting off the elevator. It really is a small world. We talked for a few min before he had to head to a meeting and I went in for class.
Tomorrow its supposed to start getting 'cold'. Wed low 60's & Thurs in the 50's... Brrrrrrrr

Early Monday

Was up at 5am to head to Tampa for training. It was a long day to say the least. Doing a 40hr course and the an Avaya certification exam for IP Office. First day was good, IP Office is a small / medium platform something I'm not all that familiar with. Mostly I deal with large enterprise deployments. But one of the biggest reasons that brought me to my new job was that I would get certified. Something BD would never pay for.
I'm up here all week, then Saturday we're going to have the company Holiday party.

Should be a good week, definitely getting to bed early tonight

Sunday Funday

Another day of Tanks and catching up on some back Hulu
We watched the pilot of Chicago PD, big fans of Chicago fire it looks really good. Also watched a bunch of Renovation Reality, kind love that show.

I even recorded an episode of "This Old  House", its funny to me that I now take another step towards being my father. Every weekend my parents would watch This old house and New Yankee Workshop. As a kid it used to be the most boring 2 hours of each day, in the winter when I couldn't escape outside. Now I find it interesting, and as I stare down the barrel of home ownership in the next year I'm even taking notes.

We started watching the Golden Globes, Amy is an award show junkie.

Tomorrow I head to Tampa for a week getting certified in Avaya IP Office.

First visitors

We had our first visitor from NJ, Amys' uncle Mark came down with a friend of his to visit. We put him to work helping hang our pictures and some artwork we have.

We met back up with them a while later for dinner. Went to a nice Italian restaurant "Cafe Vico" in Ft. Lauderdale. Was very good, reminded me allot of some of the restaurants we had in North Jersey.

I'll update this tomorrow, the blogger app is very lacking.

Why I am

I guess I should have started out with this, can you tell I suck at talking about myself yet?

So... Hi I'm Sean,
I am originally from North Jersey & NYC. Growing up I was active in Boy Scouts and earned the rank of Eagle. I was never really into sports, I was pretty much the shortest kid in my class, and well I was a lot better on the computer then I was on the field. There was actually a few semesters in High school that I was able to get out of gym class by offering to enter all the gym teachers and coaches records into there PC.
Towards the end of my senior year I joined my local Vol. Fire Dept in Pine Brook. After that I joined the Montville township first aid squad. I got my EMT cert riding on the Sunday night crew. For the better part of 10 years that was what I lived and breathed. Eventually I broke down wore myself out, burnt out. There was some dark times, but I made it through.
The light at the end of that tunnel was Amy now my wife, my rock.

For work I started out at 2 dotcoms which are just horrible horrible experiences. My first real job was at Deloitte(dot) I worked on the Help desk doing Tier 1 & 2 phone support. Eventually that position got outsourced, and I moved on.
I found another help desk job at BD, there I fell in with the Telecom group. One of them Shelley took me under her wing and trained me in Avaya call center design. That started the ball rolling in the career I have now. I worked with them for about 5 years. At the end leaving was bitter sweet, being the only person support call centers globally for the company was a tremendous amount of pressure in the last year I worked every day, night and weekend. I did get to travel, I got to go to Singapore, I spent a lot of time in Texas, also ran project remotely in Poland, Australia, England, Germany and Ireland.

As I said it was bitter sweet, just about 3 years ago I got a late call from my Mom that my Father was in the Hospital. He spent 4 weeks in an induced coma. Finally having his pancreas removed, and he started to bounce back. As I worked and traveled Amy and I would go to the Hospital 2-3 times a week. I'd keep my friends updated on Facebook. He seemed to be getting better got to a rehab physical therapy facility, but all in one day it was shattered and 9/23/11 he passed away.

From BD we come to today, we've moved down to Florida for me to take a new job.

That's a brief history of me, I'll probably fill in more in future posts.

Ah Friday

Another pretty quite day, did some more wiring in the morning then headed back to the office were we finished cleanup projects.
Amy got to the orthopedist and her leg is just a strain, so some stretches and lots of Advil

Think this month I am finally going to get a lift on my JK. It'll be a year old next month. I think it will be a nice gift for the whole family, and the kit I'm looking at is 20% off right now.

Got to play some WoT (World of Tanks) with my buddy Gareth, all in all just a nice quite day and night.

Gonna go back to blasting people in the internet, pew pew

14000 Steps

So I have a fitbit and I wear it pretty much every day.
Its interesting to see how much I get around a day. Yesterday and today I've been working a wiring job. All day running around up and down a ladder. Its a good days work, and a great workout, in the 2 days we ran in about 200 network drops.

My fitbit profile is here: http://www.fitbit.com/user/23D69Q

The only other thing that happened is my wife Amy tore a muscle in her calf. So she's in a bit of pain but it could have been worse.

Just when you think you're out..

Got a call to help out with an issue with my former employers, I can't really go into alot of detail because there could be some legal ramifications for myself and my current employer. Something had gotten blown totally out of proportion and instead of taking a step back and assessing to see if an "issue" really exists some people like to just go off half cocked screaming the sky is falling. Alas that's just one of the 100 reasons why I am very happy that I quit and moved on down to Florida. 

Other then that today was a good day, started a new wiring job today. Atleast it was a cool day, still got a good work out running around, and up and down the ladder. 

Gonna chill the rest of the night watching the Peoples Choice awards. 

 

Grrrrrr & Brrrrrrrrrr

Some but not everyone knows that for a long time I have coped with anxiety and depression. Most days I am a lovable sarcastic bastard, an a$$hole to my closest friends, but there are a few days that my anxiety goes to 11 and I feel like I could jump out of my own skin. Today was one of those days, I generally don't know what sets it off, I guess that would make it to easy. I talked to Amy, she helps to get me back down, and buried myself into work. 

On to the rest of the day.

Got to bust out the wonderful 66° North polar fleece today. It got down to the 50's in South Florida. It's hilarious to me how everyone down here acts. 50's is a wonderful fall day to me, they think they are in the same boat as those poor bastards in Minnesota. I just enjoyed a day where I didn't sweat through my shirt and pants walking to the car .

Freedom!

"Good fences make good neighbors"

-James M. Gallagher (my father)

So for the title... The wife and I got through closing selling our condo in Jersey. Very good day for us, living in Florida now its nice not to have the worry about a broken pipe, fire, breakin, ect ect ect. It was on the market for around 2 months so we're happy that it wasn't sitting to long.

Now for the quote, I am sure my father was not the person that coined the phrase be he did love to use it alot. On camping trips, having space between our site and anothers, at the races to keep other drunken rich folk from stumbling through our area, and at home.

Living in a condo after growing up in a suburban was quite an adjustment for us... and one we wont be making again. We are going to look to buy down here, but we only want a house, and only a fully detached house. We are pretty happy in our appt for now, so we have 6 -9 months before we would have to resign a lease of find a new place to move.

We went out for some celebratory ice cream at cold stone down the street. We tried to eat outside but with the polar vortex reaching down to South Florida it was alittle chilly out so we went back inside. It's plummeted down to 60 degrees so far, supposed to get down to 50 over night. I cant wait to hear people complaining about the weather tomorrow. Also its supposed to be back to 70's by mid week.

Lazy Day

Come and relax now

Put your troubles down

No need to bear the weight of your worries

Just let them all fall away.

-Dave Matthew Band "Pantala Naga Pampa"

Today was a pretty lazy day, it ended up raining off and on. So it was a good day to just kinda kick back and relax. Spent most of the day watching some YouTube videos, playing some World of Tanks. Also over the last few days Amy and I have been watching a bunch of "Renovation Reality". Its funny to watch other peoples DIY explosions, just hope that when ever we have a house and take on a project it comes out better then most of theirs did. 

Along that line I have been thinking of setting up a small work area out in the garage, I think I mentioned in another post. I did a bunch of internet research on setting one up for when I am back from training. Doesn't look like it will be all that expensive to get off that ground, the biggest issue I've come across is getting a workbench that will work in the space I have. 

I passed!!!!!

Well the big news for the day is that I passed my SSCA exam

SSCA certification is an officially endorsed certification by the Telecommunications Industry Association and Bicsi and validates the ability to understand the SIP protocol in depth as well as install, configure and troubleshoot SIP implementations.
It was a pretty hard test, and I am really happy to have it past me. In a week I go for a 5 day class in Avaya IP Office, and will get my first Avaya certification. 

Amy managed to pack all the Christmas decor and we got it down into the garage. It was kinda a dreary day down here, raining off and on, so no walks or photography today. I did look at getting alittle workbench set up in the garage but putting that on hold till I'm back from training. 

While we were out today I also picked up a new Nexus 7, I am using the hell out of the 2012 N7 I have and the nicer screen and 5gz wireless will be a nice improvement for me. It was between the new N7 and a new Chromebook. Amy told me to go with the tablet, the trusty CR48 is still going strong, its just alittle sluggish but its still very usable, for the general browsing we do on it. (Actually using it to type this now :-) )

Tomorrow, I might see about some 40k... we'll see what happens
4 down..... 

I PASSED..... /pantsonhead

It's Friiiiiiday

Happy Friday internet.
Today I got my New Years Eve dinner. Apple roasted ham, garlic mashed potatoes and shrimp cocktail for an appetizer. 

After that we went out to get a shelving unit for the garage and storage bins for the holiday decorations. 

The Christmas stuff all gets taken down this weekend. Nice to get the living room back.

Also today was a wonderful 62° in South Florida, while the rest of the country was below freezing and under a half foot of snow. I did call the BD weather line to see if they were closed, they were.

Also checked in with my mom, she was doing ok, had a little cold so a  neighbor helped clear the drive way.

3 for 3, see ya tomorrow

Wow 2 in a row 1/2/2014

Well made it two days in a row
Nice day at work today, did some more work on an IP Office project coming up, and prepared some equipment to ship back to Avaya. Went for a walk with Amy as the sun was setting. Got to see my first Falcon not in a Zoo or Medieval Times , but only had my cell phone on me for a camera.

I also made my first deposit in the 52 week savings challenge, its basically a putting away a dollar amount equal to the week 1 dollar this week, 2 next, 3 the following. It's not a huge amount of cash but I'll put it towards something nice for me, Amy or the Jeep.

I also finished "The First Heretic: Fall to Chaos"  took me about 2 weeks I'm not a fast reader, but it was a good 40k book. Moving on to "Fear to Tread".  I ordered Macragge's Honour first Heresy graphic novel.

Its supposed to be gorgeous here this weekend, thinking about taking the camera birding, or maybe do a little woodwork.

I know this is alittle all over the place still trying to get a feel for writing one of these things.

Peace out till tomorrow

EDIT: Forgot one thing got a call from my old boss they needed help setting up for the storm tomorrow. Pointed them in the right direction was happy to still be able to help them out.

Start of something new 1/1/14

Stealing this idea from a friend, I hope to do an update a day.
Today was a lazy couch day recovering from last night. Was lucky enough to get some great Panthers - Rangers tickets last night. When we got home smoked my cigar and drank a lot of Scotch.

Today Amy and I just chilled watched some law and order, was disappointed in HGTVs hyped lineup.

My resolution this year is to try and figure out how to relax. Put some work into my JK, and try my hand at some crafts. Also need to get back to the gym and on a diet.

Best to all of you in the New Year!!