Not Necessarily Interesting News

I had a few phone interviews over the past couple of weeks for a position as a Linux Consultant or Instructor for a company based outside Boston, MA. Not tough to figure out who it could be. The phone interviews went well, I thought, and they flew me out from Austin on Tuesday for a day of face-to-face interviews on Wednesday.

Overall, I thought they went pretty well. I had a good feeling on the way back to the airport. Today I talked to the recruiter and found they apparently thought I had good people skills but was lacking in a couple of areas technically. I asked what those might be and was only told LDAP. Ok, I’ll admit I’ve never used it in the past. In the phone interviews it never came up as a deal killer. I even said I hadn’t used it before. I assumed it wasn’t a big issue if they flew me all the way to Massachusetts.

So, what does one do? Today I started reading up on it and am building my own test server at home so I can get up to speed on it and learn the basics. Doesn’t seem to be a big deal. Since no one is hiring over the next couple weeks because of the holidays, I guess I’ll spend some time getting to know it. It might be too late for this job but might help in the next one.

After talking with the people at the company they all seemed to really like the environment and seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs. I _really_ want to work for this company. I’ve worked with them in the past and have never run into someone there that doesn’t like their work. I hope to get a better description of what I’m lacking so I can work on getting those skills. That way I can try again to join them at a later date if they’ll let me. Assuming, of course, I don’t find a position in another company that I like better (though I doubt it. This place just seemed ‘cool’). It seemed like a place I’d really enjoy working and had people I’d like to work with.

Well, made it through the first week of unemployment.

I’ve had a few interviews. I had one very promising prospect for a 6 month contract in Maine. In Winter. Um, yeah, I’ll have to pass on that. One interview I thought went really well Thanksgiving week never called back. It was a perfect job. 4 miles from the house. Easy commute. I know someone that works there so I wouldn’t be totally on my own. I’d really like to know where I went wrong on that one.

The best prospect at this time is with a well known Linux distributor. The position involves going on to customer sites and helping them with whatever they need done. 80+% travel is a bit brutal but the pay should be decent and I work from home when not on the road. Don’t have to leave Austin. Weekends home guaranteed. I passed the first interview and have another Monday. If that goes well I’ll be flying out to their headquarters for a face-to-face. Keeping my fingers crossed.

As-is we’ve got enough in savings to last a while. Problem is that money was supposed to go towards remodeling 2 other bathrooms. Guess that has to wait.

My wife said it couldn’t be done. She didn’t think we’d finish this job by Thanksgiving. We cut it close but we did it.

For the past two months on weekends and evenings we’ve been working on upgrading our son’s bathroom. It still had the original floor and vanity installed in 1980 when the house was built. To say they were out of date is an understatement. The vanity was not just ugly, it was hideous with this really, uh, quaint brown faux-marble shell shaped bowl. Did that ever look like a good idea to anyone? Behind the toilet was some wall and water damage from a leaky pipe 8 years ago or so and then and ensuing termite infestation we had cleared up 3 years ago. The room was freezing in winter from all the drafts. Some quickly slapped up wall board and a tub surround was all I had time to do to repair it about 5 years ago. A job I never finished because I knew I’d gut it in the future anyways.

Gut it we did. We pulled out the old toilet and tub, pulled down the old tub surround, then smashed the old vanity to bits. A job my son relished. We then took down all the wall board on two walls. It was heavily water damaged and the studs behind them were very termite eaten. We took down the old wallpaper and scraped off the ‘popcorn’ ceiling. Why do they do those popcorn ceiling? They’re ugly. I replaced some sections of studs and we took care of a mold problem. I then repaired some old plumbing getting ready for the new tub. We also replaced all the insulation on those walls as the old stuff was falling to bits.

Next we started reconstruction. First and worst part was wrestling a cast iron tub we got for $20 at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. $20 for that. Nearly perfect condition. It’s so much nicer than the cheap plastic thing that was in there. It took four grown adults to get that thing into place. Once it was in, up went the new dry wall. Mud and tape finished that job. Now we were ready to start the fun work. The stuff people will actually see. If you don’t do the foundation right though the rest is just going to fall apart.

A new floor to ceiling tile surround was the first part. For some reason I thought that setting the square 6″x6″ tile on a 45° angle was going to be a good idea. It made for a lot of cut work around the edges. Not making it any easier was the fact that the walls in this place aren’t square. Every cut tile needed to get measured and cut individually before laying. It turned into a 3 day marathon of cutting and laying. We inlaid a nice tumbled slate railing to give it some interest. It came out amazing.

We then papered off the room and I sprayed new texturing on the walls and ceiling. I bought a texture gun for this. With the air compressor it was a 1 hour job. I spent far more time mixing the stuff than actually spraying.

Next we laid the genuine slate floor. We got an amazing deal on it at $.89sq/ft. We spent a whopping $50 on the floor. After the tub it was the biggest bargain of the job. Working with natural slate can be challenging. It’s not all the same thickness and can vary by as much a 1/4″ in depth. Took a lot of playing to keep the joints smooth. White grout finished it off and complimented it nicely.

Some towel racks, a mirror, and a light fixture from Ikea along with a pedestal sink off Craigslist and a framed copy of one of my photos finished things out.

It was a long process but my son is overjoyed to have a bathroom back that doesn’t look like it was designed in the 70’s. He was rubbing it in that he now has the nicest bathroom in the house. I’m actually a bit jealous. Our bathroom is next. After I find a new job to pay for it of course. Who knows, maybe I can remodel bathrooms for extra income.

All the pictures of the remodel can be found in our gallery.

I think the title pretty much sums it up. I’ve been told my last day is the 23rd.

Ok, so it’s only my parent’s new boat, but still I can claim the title.

My parents decided to sell their 22′ jetboat a few weeks ago and trade up to something bigger. At first they were thinking ‘houseboat’. They even went and looked at a couple. I tagged along to give advice and to give the boats the once-over. I pointed out that, though houseboats are comfortable, they are also big, slow, and hard for just two people their age to handle. A boat that size would require me to come along and help every time they went out.

I talked with them about what they wanted to do. (Stay overnight, have a galley and head, fish, runabout, etc) I asked if they’d thought about a cabin cruiser. I suggested something in the 26-28′ range. Big enough to be comfortable, small enough to handle on their own and not eat too much gas. My father said that wouldn’t work because my mom hated cabin cruisers after a bad experience/trip on one in the 60’s. Turns out he was wrong. We started looking at cruisers that afternoon. I picked out a couple nicer 28-29’ers for them to look at.

They finally found a used 33′ SeaRay with twin V-6 Mercruisers they liked. After a thorough inspection and price negotiations they bought it. It’s a pretty sweet boat. It sleeps 6 easily, has a full galley, head, generator, A/C, and even a central vacuum system for the carpets.

Last weekend my wife, son, and I took it out overnight. After waking up in the morning and having breakfast I tried to start the engines. The starboard engine was dead and wouldn’t start. Whee! Dead battery. It seems the onboard refrigerator and anchor lights killed the starboard batteries. Luckily with two engines I could still get going, though slowly. I limped back into the marina on one engine. We learned not to leave both batteries engaged all night to prevent this.

This past Sunday we took out some of the family for a ride. On the way back into the marina, the power steering started acting funny. We wrestled it into the slip and popped the engine covers. Oil was everywhere in the bilge. I crawled down and discovered that the power steering reservoir was empty. I traced the source of the leak to a hose, burning myself on the still hot engines in the process. I spent last night on my belly in the bilge trying to get to the hose clamps. I finally got off the hose after an hour and we found a nick in it. Dropped by AutoZone and picked up a new hose today. $2.50. Probably the cheapest repair we’ll ever make.

Now the family is calling me ‘Scotty’. Instead of Dilithium they’ll need to ply me with Appletonrum.

Yes, I survived my second surgery. I’ve since been able to actually sleep without pain. I’ve still got weakness in both hands but it’s slowly coming back. I’ve got some nagging pain in my left index finger that the doctor is treating with cortisone.

Let’s see, what else. I got a new tattoo started. 5 hours of work so far has gotten me here. The moose is for my kid whose nickname is ‘Moose’. The fish represents my wife as she is known as Slimy Fish. Hidden near the top of the work is a small raven that is to be me watching over them. Kind of hokey I know but I like the design. Still have 2-3 hours of work left to do on it.

We’re also gearing up for a trip to the Grand Canyon in March. We’ll be hiking down, spending 3 days following the Colorado River across the bottom, then climb out. We’ve gotten most of the gear and are busy getting into shape for 40 miles of back country hiking. We have to carry everything with us as it’s quite primitive camping. You really find out what’s important when you know you’ll have to carry it on your back for 5 days.

Now that I can type without pain again I’ll be able to update more often. I’ve got lots of stories backed up.

I had my first Carpal Tunnel Release on my left hand at the end of last month. It’s now been about 10 days since the surgery. My left hand is feeling better but not 100% yet. According to the doc it can take upwards of 6 months for all my feeling to come back in the tips of my fingers. More importantly, the pain in the fingers is gone. I can deal with a bit of numbness as long as it doesn’t hurt like it did before.

The surgery itself was amazingly quick. From the time I was rolled in to the OR to where I came to from the sedation was under 30minutes. I was told I’d be awake for the proceedure when I talked to the anesthesiologist. I told him to ‘give me all you’ve got.’ I fell asleep 60 seconds after lying down on the OR gurney. Perfect.

I go in for surgery on my right hand this coming Thursday. It’s almost as bad as my left hand was.

This is the most I’ve typed on it since I had the surgery and I’m starting to feel the muscles tighten up. I’ll write a more detailed trip report in a couple weeks after I get the other hand done.

After nearly 8 months of fighting with insurance companies I’m finally getting my first carpal tunnel surgery tomorrow. I have it in both wrists. Surgery for the left is tomorrow and the right in 3 weeks. Once I’m all healed up I’ll actually be able to type for fun again and start updating the page once more. I haven’t been updating because after typing all day at work the last thing I want to do when I get home is type some more.

Went out offroading this weekend and I seem to have killed another camera while doing so. My last camera met its demise about 1 1/2 years ago on a different offroading adventure. The worst part of killing my old camera was I was saving for a new Digital SLR to compliment my 35mm Nikon F4. I had saved $300 towards a $700 or so camera body. I need the point-and-shoot for most stuff so had to replace it quickly. There went my savings.

The new one is a Canon A710 IS. It’s a lot nicer than the previous Sony I had. Digital camera technology advances so fast. I paid about the same, $300, for this one as the last but the new one kicks the old’s ass in features. A real 6X optical zoom, real manual controls, and a whole lot more. I opted for the extended “oh crap, I ran over another camera with a truck” warranty. I get one replacement no questions asked and 3 repairs up to the value of the camera. So far I’m pretty pleased with the camera. The Image Stabilization is pretty sweet. Here’s a couple example pics of wide-angle and the highest zoom level taken from my office building.

Nice how you can read the highway sign you can’t even see in the first one. The second used the digital zoom. I generally hate digital zooms but wanted to test out its capabilites. It actually does a decent job. I still won’t use it though.

I’ll post again after I’ve had a few weeks to play with my new toy.

Last Friday I got the official results of my Nerve Conduction Study. My doc confirmed the other doc’s diagnosis, severe Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. She suggested that sugery is the best way to fix it. I told her whatever she thought would make the pain and numbness go away is what I want to do.

She scheduled surgery for the 22nd with a pre-op appointment on the 16th. Great, I finally will get things fixed. Or so I thought. I got a call from the doc’s office Thursday afternoon saying that they had to cancel my pre-op appointment. The reason they gave is that the worker’s comp insurance company was taking their time deciding what to do.

Figures, that’s all they’ve been doing since the start. The numbness and pain have gotten progressively worse over the last 4 months. I now can’t sleep because the numbness and tingling is so bad. My right wrist is now as bad as my left ever was. I’m afraid to file a claim for it too because I know how big a pain in the ass it is. I guess that’s their plan, make it so annoyingly frustrating to file a claim that maybe you won’t.

Have you ever smashed your finger with a hammer or in a door? Imagine having that numb, throbbing feeling in all of your fingers except your pinky 24 hours a day. That’s me right now. Last night as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep I thought to myself

‘Hey, it’s not that tough a surgery, maybe if I get hopped up on Vicodin and find some local anesthetic I could do the cut myself.’