Tone Parsons

It’s friday, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, I’m in Boston (the most Irish city in the USA), and I’m bored spitless.

Seriously.

I have no damn idea where to go, what’s going on, etc. I’m a total tourist with no clue.

*sigh*

So… here I sit in my hotel room.

I did go to Jacob Wirth’s for dinner. it’s been around since 1878 and I thought it might be a good place for St. Patrick’s day. Apparently I was either wrong or just too early.

I looked at the menu and couldn’t decide what to have for dinner, so I asked the bartender (a cute little thing with a total ‘jersy accent making her a little less attractive with every syllable) what her favorite thing was. She said it was the Sauerbraten.

Ok.. I have no idea WTF that is, but I’m game… I’ll have that.

According to the menu: Sauerbraten Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sweet N’ Sour Braised Beef Round with Spaetzle, Gingersnap Sauce and Red Cabbage.

According to my eyes: A large pile of… um… vomit… on meat…. on something that could be pasta, could be something else.

According to my taste buds: WTF IS THIS!! WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT NASTY ASS THING YOU JUST SHOVED IN YOUR MOUTH, YOU MORON!

Yet I ate it anyway. It was sweet, sour, um….. dill? with some meat on some stuff (nope… it wasn’t pasta), covered with pickled red cabage, smothered with some kind of gravy.

Mmmmm… my ass with thank me tomorrow (say “hello” to Mr. Explodo-Butt!)

While I have no damn idea what I’m doing tonight…. tomorrow is a very different story. I’m going on a brewery tour at the Boston Brewing Company. That should be fun (and I’ll take a few pictures).

Well… it’s only 7:19pm on a Friday night, so I believe I should get my ass back out there and find some sort of entertainment for myself.

It’s been a long damn day.

We worked until past 7 tonight (going ’round and ’round in circles… *sigh*). I finally had enough and went out for a smoke. When I returned, they had decided to do what I was praying they would, and actual progress was made. We’ll pick it up tomorrow.

I left the client’s office and walked to a diner on the corner. Apparently, they don’t sell beer, so they suggested I go to a pub a block away. I did… they don’t serve food.

ARRRRGGGHHHHHHH!!

So, I walked back to the hotel and asked if there was anyplace cool to go for dinner AND have a drink (besides the hotel… because the food there kinda sucks). They suggested the Hard Rock Cafe.

Now that sounded good! Well… not really that good. I’ve been to a Hard Rock before, and much like Hooters…. you don’t really go there for the food.

But like the sheep I am, I asked for directions and began my sojourn into the city. After walking about 8 blocks in the wrong direction, I got the psudo-correct directions. 40 minutes later, I was there.

For those who’ve never been to a Hard Rock Cafe, let me describe it: It’s loud, they play music videos, they sell medocre food, and they sell expensive touristy crap.

I spent $90 on 4 t-shirts.

After walking back to the hotel (about a mile and a half) with my bags of t-shirts, I had a couple of beers and decided it hit the sack (that’s right about now).

Enjoy my shirts!

Funny thing last night. After I left the client’s office, I was walking up Kneeland Street to get back to the hotel. I noticed someone walking toward me who looked familiar.

I looked at him, he looked at me, I looked away, realized who it was, and looked at him again (he was still looking at me). It was Ben Affleck. I’m assuming that he was watching me to see exactly what I was going to do (go all “fan boy” on him, walk on by, etc.). I nodded at him, he nodded back. I kept walking.

Things are going well for the most part. We had troubles getting the database server set up yesterday, so we started downloading some rather large patches before we left. When I came in this morning, I applied them and finished the setup. After some tweaks to the startup system (to make Oracle start on boot) we were in business. We’re restoring a backup to it to verify that everything is working correctly, then we’ll focus on the web server and application server.

I did take a few pics this morning with the digital camera while I waited for someone to show up at the clients office (yeah… I was early, but I prefer that to being late). While they’re probobly not very exciting, I’ll present them to you now. Mouse-over for a description, click for a larger view (hit the back button to get back here).

And before you ask… no… I wasn’t visiting Zoom…. they just happened to be next door and I thought that was kinda cool.

It’s my first day in “bean town”.

Other than the fact that there seems to be a hella lot of trash in the gutters, it seems like a nice place.

The hotel has clean rooms, but the food totally sucks.  I had a steak last night that was absolutely the most flavorless 14oz piece of beef I’ve ever had in my life.  Tonight’s dinner wasn’t much better.

Goal for tomorrow: find someplace else to eat.

I’ve been having problems with dial-up to work, so my manager told me to go a head and pay for the “high speed” wireless connection they offer at the hotel.  Sure… wireless isn’t quite as spiffy as a hard wired drop, but apparently, they’re having issues with it at the hotel tonight, so it’s free.

Free is damn good!

So the cam is up for now.  You may or may not see me in my room, as I’m probobly going to wander off down town to see if there’s a bar that doesn’t charge $5 for a beer and has more than two bored business travelers in it.

One nice thing about my location: China Town is 2 blocks away!  I’m thinking that Chinese food is most definately on the menu for tomorrow.

My first day with the client went well.  We got the application and web servers set up with little fuss.  The database server, on the other hand, is proving to be an absolute bitch.  There are a few patches we need that are apparently difficult to find (thank you, Oracle, for making a website that requires a PHD in DBA to navigate!).

I still haven’t taken any pictures, but the minute I do, BAM! Up to the website they go!

Oh… and for those who aren’t keeping track, my forum (damaged people) is just shy of 20,000 posts.  I pitty the fool who takes the honor of post #20,000 away from me (because I’ll just delete their post and replace it with my own) 🙂