Tone Parsons

I’m back from my mini-vacation!

Portland was nice, the wedding was great, and it was good to hang out with my Dad and his new bride, Jennifer!

If you ever get to Portland, make sure to eat at the Black Bear Diner.  The prices are good, the portions are obscene, and the food is pretty damn good (well, at least the prime rib was).

We took it pretty easy on the drive. It took 6 1/2 hours to drive down and 8 1/2 hours to drive back (we stopped a lot… looked around.. and enjoyed the trip).

Today, I return to work.

If it could go wrong… it has.

I’m currently buried in e-mail hell (I’m trying to mine the important things out of my inbox), and several critical things came up during my 3 work days off. Heaven forbid I actually ever try to take a week off.

*sigh*

Other news: my youngest son, Skylar, celebrated his 14th birthday yesterday. Being that he’s a little geek (go figure), he wanted games for his PC. I picked up a copy of World of Warcraft (plus a pre-paid game card), Doom 3 – Resurrection of Evil, and Quake 4 for him. He also got Half-Life 2 – Episode One and the new Super Mario Brothers for his Nintendo DS.

Yup… he’s one happy kid.

Well… I thougt I was.

I made the mistake of checking my work email today (damn my work ethic!!) only to discover that a hot issue is developing.  So… all plans on hold, I need to spend the entire day digging through a database that I have no schema for to find the requested data (I have a list of table names, but no information on the colums, what they’re for, or their inter-relation to each other).

*meh*

I’m supposed to be getting ready to head down to Portland to see my dad get married (I’m the best man at the wedding).  I have a lot to get done before I hit the road.  I need to pack, pick up the wedding presents (yes… I know what they are and where to get them, I just need to get them), exchange the damn charger for the cell phone (they sold me the wrong one), do the shopping so the kids can eat while I’m gone, etc.

So… I’m waiting until 2 pm today (pacific time) to give the guys on the east coast a chance to look at the request I sent on the database query.  After that, I’ll have to take off and get my things done.

In other news… I spent stupid amounts of money on cell phones yesterday.

My contract was up with Verizon, and they offered a sweet deal for me… a free Motorola RAZR V3c if I’d sign up for another 2 years.  “Hell yeah… I’ll take that!!”.  I picked up my free one and purchased another (for my wife).  This thing kicks ass!  I also got the bluetooth headsets, car chargers, and some sweet leather cases for them.

Now I just need a spiffy ringtone 🙂

Today was the first annual “Fun Run” soponsored by Shumate Harley Davidson (the local Harley dealer).

Of course, I don’t ride a Harley, but the runs are fun, so I usually get a ticket.

This is the first time I’ve been able to go on one of these runs since my back became a hoary bitch 4 years ago, so I was more than a little excited over it. I got my ticket ($10) a few weeks ago and have been counting down the days. My entry fee pays for a t-shirt (it was red this year), food at the event (the Long Horn BBQ… which tases like ass with BBQ sauce on it), and a live band while we eat (I don’t know who they were).

I did, however, take my digital camera along for the ride.

I woke up early, washed my motorcycle (a dirty ride just wont do when it’s to be seen by hundreds of people), got myself ready, and rode off to fill the tank with gas (a very important thing that a lot of people forget before these rides) and to meet my brother-in-law for breakfast.

Eddie and I met at the Crossroads resturant at 8:00am. I’m glad he was on time because I made the mistake of showing up early and strange people were talking to me.

“What do you ride?”. “I used to have a motorcycle back in ’49”. “You look mighty hot in those chapps!”.

We ate (note to self: never eat there again), then rode off to the event (after Eddie filled his gas tank).

We got to the dealer about an hour before we were scheduled to take off and met up with my friend Dan. That gave us plenty of time to check in, get our shirts, sign the disclamer (I promise not to sue your ass if I do something stupid and kill myself), and got rid of the coffee I drank at breakfast (also, a very important thing to do before going on a ride!). I took a few pictures before we left (just a few) and then some more after we arrived in Harrison, Idaho (an 86 mile drive by the route we took).

You can find the images here (more to come, once I get the pictures my friend Dan took).

I didn’t write anything up for the pictures, it’s just a photo-show of a bunch of motorcycles (and a few hot ladies… grrrrrowl!). Of course, my favorite bike is mine 🙂

Several hundred miles (and one OMFG HOT! HOT! sunburn later), I finally made it home. Yes, the food sucked, yes, the band was there, yes… I saw a V-ROD’s in a rainbow of colors (and one very cool bike with a skull for a headlight). It was fun… I’ll pry do it again next year (but I’ll remember the damn sunscreen next time!)

It’s Friday and I’ve made it through another week.

This week as been very special, as it’s all hit the fan at work. Nearly everything that can go wrong has. I’ve been eating Zantac like it’s PEZ.

Servers having problems, applications behaving badly, one new applicaton to write, 2 applications to modify, and 3 new servers to deploy (I’ve just ordered two more today).

Yup… I’m crazy busy.

But I’m going to forget all about it this weekend. Sunday is the 1st annual Fun Run (the ride formerly known as the Chicken Run). I have no idea what the attendance will be, but the last one I went on had about 1,400 motorcycles (and an untold number of people show up).

Of course the last time I did this run (prior to all my back surgeries), the weather was horrible. This Sunday doesn’t look to be that bad, but it’s probobly going to be a little wet. I’m going come hell or high water… it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to do a run, and I’m really looking forward to it.

And finally… my bestest ever online stalker babe, Eve, is down with pneumonia. Take a moment to head over to her blog, Grumpy Old Woman and leave her a “get well soon” comment. She’ll love ya forever! 🙂