Triumph the Comic Insult Dog covered the Tony Awards this past Sunday night. You know, those awards for Broadway shows that people outside of New York City haven't ever heard about. It's absolutely hilarious, and I guess technically safe for work, since it aired on the Conan O'Brien Show.

I have been trying to get Al Gore to speak at PhreakNIC for the past several years, and have had conversations with his personal assistant, but could never make it past him. He was either busy with the book tours, or political campaigning, or out of town for a board meeting (since he's a board member for Apple, Google, and others). So when I heard that he was doing a book signing for his new book, The Assault on Reason at Davis-Kidd in Green Hills, I came up with my plan.

First, I had to buy a copy of his book early enough to get a ticket to the book signing. Check. Then I had to decide what to do.

My wife thought that I should give him some schwag. I thought that sounded good at first, but then regained my principles (well, kinda). I've had some "lively discussions" with our Treasurer about what we should and shouldn't be selling as part of PhreakNIC. He wants to help build up the funds, and I can appreciate that because it's his job, but I'm resisting because PhreakNIC is not a brand, per se. It's an event, and if you come to the event you can get some schwag. We don't need to have a catalog of goods available with the ever present "Hacker Inside" logo on it. We also discussed re-issues of past items and I threw a hissy fit about never ever ever reprinting something that was a speaker/director gift. The gifts that we give out are for those who contributed in the past, and not as some trinket to try to buy favor with. Last year I had extra pocket knives made so that I could give them away to people who had been a big part of PhreakNIC in the past, even if they weren't participating that year, so that one's a grey area, but I also didn't want to be wrestled to the ground when I pulled out a knife to hand to Al.

The argument really boils down to the same reason why I won't sign the petitions to draft Al to run for President. To me, the job needs to be about someone who feels that they can be the most effective in that position. Participating in PhreakNIC needs to happen because you are passionate about a subject and want to convey it to others. We don't pay people to speak at PhreakNIC, nor do we pick up their travel expenses. Those of us who organize the convention do it through volunteering a vast amount of our time and in many cases, our money, to pull it off. It is all about a labor of love. I would absolutely put my support behind the man if he were to run for President again, but only if he truly wanted to do it. My hat goes off to him for being able to joke about the entire experience of 2000, but I truly think he's happier doing what he's doing now and that he can actually do more good as a private citizen.

So anyway, back to my diabolical plan. I decided to simply go up to the table, and tell him the following and see what he would say.

Al, I've been inviting you to speak at my technology conference for the past 4 years, but I can't ever get past Josh. Oh, hi, you must be Josh. All I ask is that when you get 5 minutes, give me a call and let me talk to you about it. Here's my card.

That's pretty much exactly how it went down, and Al did say, "sure" when I asked him for a phone call. Oh, and I had to knock some people down just to exit because they were blocking the exit. Hopefully that just showed him that our Goon Squad can reprahzent!

Oh, and I got my book signed by him. It says, "OMG You Are My Hero!" on one page in crayon, and then "Al Gore" on the next written with a Sharpie. Yes, that's his handwriting. I can't help it if he can't write consistently with a crayon...

This weekend I helped Dad move bulky items from the house by the lake over to the new house. While I was doing that, Mom watched our son and my wife stayed home tending to a batch of home made spaghetti sauce and also got the motivation to tackle the disaster formerly known as our dining room. Now I can happily say that it is the dining room formerly known as part of the disaster.

Given that bit of inspiration, on Sunday morning after fixing breakfast I grabbed my tools out of the basement and started digging in the rock and gravel that is disguised as my back yard so that I could start on the fence. I thought that I'd be doing well to get two holes completely dug out, but I managed to get all four needed for the back side of the house. We took a drive over to Home Depot, got the 4x4 posts and 1x4 header strips and I got all of that set up by my afternoon. Mom and Dad came over for dinner so I hijacked Dad's truck for another run to Home Depot and got the pickets. Shortly after dinner we had all of the back side fence completed except for the gate, which I need to build. I plan on doing that next weekend, along with the fence on the left side of the house, which actually has a few inches of dirt covering up the rock.

The fence is needed because we want to be able to let our son play outside in the back yard without having to follow him every single step of the way. Fortunately for us, we're saving some money because the neighbors on the left side of the house already put up a fence for their dog. Yay for letting them go first. Of course, we're more sophisticated and I plan on actually water sealing and staining my fence. Theirs will turn all nice and green in another year and look like crap. I don't expect them to take the initiative to stain theirs since it's hard enough for them to figure out which end of the lawnmower to push.

The only drawback to all of this? I'm too sore to move.

So a few years ago my parents declared that they were going to sell their house in Sparta, TN (on Center Hill Lake) and move to Florida "full time". Knowing how infrequently my family actually gets together, I knew this meant that I'd probably see them once or twice a year at that point. 10 hour drives are a bit excessive for popping over on Sunday after church.

Then my wife had our baby a year and a half ago. Last February I got a call from my Dad one day asking me to run by a house and look at it. A few pictures later and he had a contract on it to purchase the place. One acre, fenced back yard, extra garage and a barn. Very nice place, but the layout of the house itself wasn't the best, as there was no formal dining room and not really a way to add one on through expansion. Anyway, once that baby arrived it was clear that they wanted to be closer to him, and we like that, because not only does it help us with babysitting, but we want our son to know his family through interaction, rather than just photographs and phone calls.

Now my parents decided that they would sell their house in Florida, buy a bigger house here in Smyrna, and move up here for all but a couple of months a year. They bought a small trailer which is plenty enough for them and even for us when we decide to steal the keys and come down, because it's 30 minutes from Disney World. Yes, they made the mistake of showing me where it is. Muahahaha!

Anyway, last week they got an offer on the original Smyrna house after being on the market for less than a month, and it was a good offer - asking price and taking the house as-is. Last weekend I flew down to Orlando on Friday night and then drove a loaded down pickup truck back to Smyrna for them (that's when I saw the aforementioned trailer). This weekend they'll be driving the van up and a rented U-Haul full of all their furniture. We've then got until June 1 to unload the trucks at the new house, load up another truck at the old house, and move all of that stuff over to the new house. I tell ya, this is too much like work! Now we just need to find someone to buy their house in Florida and all will be well.

In the end, though, we're thrilled to have my parents so close by. Having a child is a wonderful experience, but you also need the ability to hand him off to someone else for the evening so that the parents can enjoy being a couple, rather than a family, for just a few hours.

I think my wife may have been giving my son driving lessons. This clip definitely reminds me of her. My son is in the black shirt.

It has been a while since I've posted anything - it has been a tough time at home. My wife had some health issues that became the number one priority for me.

So, some 6+ weeks after the last time that I attended a Tang Soo Do class, I drove on over to the fitness center last night and optimistically signed up for both the beginner and advanced classes (1 hour each), thinking that I may have to leave about half way through the advanced class from shear exhaustion. However, much to my surprise, I managed to survive the full time in both classes! We worked a lot on forms, so I am now finally working on the top form for the ranking I will be testing at. In the second class we worked on bo staff forms, which I was severely lacking any experience in. I am now within two forms of the top level I will need to test at, so I feel much much better about the prospect of testing in July. I had wanted to test in April, but with all of the classes that I knew I would miss just from business trips and tax season, it wasn't going to happen. Now I hope that I will have that red stripe along my uniform come July.

I also slid back in the weight loss department - with having to stay at home and cutting out my primary activity, there wasn't really an opportunity for me to burn those calories. I've thought about seeing the doctor for prescription appetite suppressants - I did that back in the 90s with some success until I got scared off of them by the whole Phen Fen issue.

So here I sit at my desk, sore from the workout, but very satisfied by what I accomplished and the amount of sweat that poured out of my body last night.

I meant to cross post this at the same time, but here's my trip report from Las Vegas last week.

I had the luck of being sent to Las Vegas for a convention the week of Mar 25-29, so my wife and I decided that I should take a couple of vacation days ahead of the convention and that she'd tag along with me for the whole trip. We both love Vegas (were married in the Valley of Fire State Park) and it's our Anniversary month, so it just seemed like a great fit for us.

I researched ahead of time on coupons and such, which led me to buy the PoV from here. I'll give you a spoiler alert right away - in the 6 days that we were there, my wife paid for 2 meals. Everything else was part of a 2-for-1 coupon, so the book more than paid for itself. Now I just have to decide if I want to eBay the remainder of the book or if I'll use it on my next trip, which should be in August.

Since I was flying on company dollars and she was flying on airline miles, we were on separate airlines and arriving at different times, with me getting in early enough to go ahead and get the rental car and check into the hotel. My flight had a layover in DFW for a couple of hours scheduled, but as the plane was boarding (and after I even took my seat) it was announced that anybody who volunteered to give up their seat would get a $300 flight voucher and a first class seat on the next flight. Not being the son of a mother who raises fools, I hit the attendant button and let them know that they had a winner. Not even in Vegas yet and I'm already up $300! (The trip in August is personal, so I needed a way to pay for the ticket, anyway!) I still arrived hours before my wife so I picked up the hooptie (one of those Chevy HHR's that looks like a PT Cruiser) since it was all that they had left in the intermediate section, then checked into the Las Vegas Hilton on the Santa Anita package. After standing in line for 20 minutes to check in, the girl behind the counter told me that I could have used the Casino Guests line. I can never tell with these casino rate packages if I'm an "invited guest" or not!

I had a few more hours to kill before my wife's flight arrived, so I went to the casino and found the $0.25 Top Dollar machines that my wife loves and decided to put a $20. 15 minutes later I cashed out with $32. Not a bad start. Slots don't really do it for me, so I headed over to the Pai Gow Poker tables and bought in for $100. An hour or so later it starts getting sour for me and I cash out with $40. I take that $40 over to the roulette table to see how well I can pick the zones and manage to hit a number with $2 on it, so I'm able to cash back out with $86. May as well go back to the Pai Gow tables and see if the cards have changed yet! I buy back in with my $86 in chips and play for another 2 hours before I have to go pick up my wife at the airport. I cashed out with $126 before leaving for LAS.

Friday morning we got up and used the two free LVH breakfast buffet comps that came with the Santa Anita package - allowing us to save our coupon for another day. In all of my trips to Vegas, I'd never really ventured downtown, so we decided to do that today. We parked in the Fremont Street Experience Garage and walked over to the El Cortez, since they have the single deck blackjack. On the way to the tables my wife noticed the $0.25 roulette and since she's always wanted to play, but never at $1 per chip, we sat down and played for a while on this. We each bought in at $20 and once mine was all gone I got up and moved to the blackjack table. She was doing pretty well on roulette and was quite happy to stay there. I bought in for $40 and used the match play coupon on the first hand, which I won. I then went through a sequence of 1-win/2-loss series (3 losses in a row and I get up) until I had depleted my meager $40 buy in. I walked back over to roulette to watch my wife play for another 30 minutes or so until she was out as well. We walked over to Fitzgerald's next to try to use the Vue Bar appetizer coupon, but everything was a bit "heavy" - we wanted to go light on lunch since we were doing the Bellagio buffet that night. She found an older Top Dollar machine (2 coins max bet instead of 3 coins) so she played $20 in it and was disappointed that she didn't get a single bonus in that time. Oh, well, I think that's just how slots are. I only play them to appease my wife so that we can play some things together. We headed back down to the strip and hit the Bellagio buffet. We were both sorely disappointed - my wife is a huge seafood fan and their selection was much smaller than before, plus what she did eat wasn't all that good. Since I don't eat seafood at all, the Gourmet Buffet is never a good value to me, because I'm happy with carved beef and turkey - something available on every buffet - followed up with some mashed potatoes and a cheesecake for dessert. We tried to get our fill of creme brulee, or at least our money's worth, before leaving. We then walked the strip for a while and ended up in Imperial Palace to use one of the match play's on blackjack. I bought in for $60, lost the match play, and again went through just the right sequence of 1 win, 2 loss to deplete my bank roll in about 30 minutes. I joined my wife at some slots for a while and boosted the local economy by another $40 in the process.

Saturday morning we woke up a little late and decided to hit Terrible's for their breakfast buffet before going out to Red Rock Canyon. We used our 2-for-1 coupon, but later found out that when you sign up for their players club, you get a 2-for-1 as well. They had removed the omelet station from the buffet and the pastries were a bit stale, so unlike our usual experience at Terrible's, had we paid full price I don't think we'd have gotten our money's worth. Entertainment, however, was tossed in for free. We were seated next to a table of rowdy latinos that apparently decided that since most Americans can't speak Spanish that it was OK for them to speak as loudly as they wanted. At the center of this table was a man that I'll call Wannabe Mexican Gangsta (WMG). WMG had apparently already consumed about $12 of the $4-per-bottle vintage sparkling wine that is included in the brunch and the waitress was attempting to cut him off. He then takes one of the plastic champagne glasses belonging to another guest at the table, tosses the sparkling wine onto the carpeted floor, and then tells the waitress that his friend now needs a refill. The waitress gives up and gives him the refill. To top it off, WMG sets up a second glass in which to soak his shrimp. I can only assume that he thought the shrimp would absorb the alcohol from the cheap sparkling wine, but I also noticed him drinking out of that glass. There's simply no accounting for taste, apparently. After breakfast we went downstairs to play some slots and blackjack. I bought in for $40 on the blackjack table, lost the match play and again went down to zero. This is apparently not my trip for blackjack. I found my wife over at a slot machine called Rich Little Piggies, where she had managed to win a decent amount. I put $5 in the machine next to her and came up empty before we called it a morning and drove out to Red Rock Canyon.

When we were planning our wedding we had narrowed down our choices to two - Red Rock Canyon or Valley of Fire. I am SO glad that we went with Valley of Fire, because after being there, Red Rock Canyon was simply a disappointment. Don't get me wrong - I think that RRC would be awesome if I were wanting to climb and/or rappel it, but for just normal hiking and the sheer beauty of all the rock, I think that Valley of Fire is far superior. Just my $0.02.

After our drive through RRC, we stopped off at the Red Rock Casino. We both knew that the days of our staying in the strip hotels were coming to a close because of what we consider a slide towards the short term sucker profits (and the MGM Grand is such a stellar example of that) so we wanted to check out some of the neighborhood casinos in this trip. The 2-for-1 buffet coupon helped me get her out there, too. Before dinner she went off to find some penny slots and I sat down at Pai Gow for a $100 buy in. At our pre-arranged time of 5:30 PM I got up with $140 and headed towards the buffet. My wife had apparently managed to milk a $200 profit out of the penny slots, so she was in a good mood as well. We had the buffet but I have to say, both of us were rather unimpressed with it. Even with the 2-for-1 it was disappointing both in quality of food and selection. The desserts were some of the worst I've had. After dinner we went back to our spots - she to the penny slots and I back to Pai Gow. I shouldn't have gotten up for dinner - I buy back in with my $140 and walk away when I get down to $85. My wife managed to get another $50 or so out of the penny slots. We headed back to the Hilton and played a bit more before hitting the sack. I tried the new Mini Pai Gow table for about 2.5 hours and treaded water with $60.

Sunday we get up and use our 2-for-1 coupon at the Hilton for breakfast, then before checking out we each go to play our games. I sat down at the mini pai-gow poker table and bought in for $50. 2 hours later I got up with $80. We checked in to the MGM Grand (the convention hotel, though not where the convention was... yes, I know, confusing) and also traded out the my-money rental car and picked up the company-money rental car. Payless had a total of 5 cars left when I went to pick up the rental and as luck would have it we snagged the convertible for a no-fee upgrade. My wife then informed me that my driving days for the rest of the trip were pretty much numbered. Dinner was on another 2-for-1 coupon, this time at the Silverton. We were rather disappointed in their buffet, too, especially after seeing the "Chocolate is a health food" signs. The desserts were horrible and the entree selections were so-so. However, at 2-for-1, not bad. Once again we split for our separate areas - pai gow for me and slots for my wife. I again treaded water with a $60 buy in and an equal cash out. We both got pull tabs for signing up - my wife got 5,000 points and I got the mystery gift, which they were out of, so we planned on coming back before we left town.

Monday turned out to be a mostly free day for me as the convention only had registration to do. We headed over to Red Rock Casino to give their buffet a second chance and we were certainly glad that we did. The breakfast buffet was probably the best breakfast buffet we'd had on the trip. My wife and I both played some slots afterwards - I put $40 into her penny slots that she'd made so much off of and was lucky to walk away with $20. We got enough points between us to get a scratch card (we didn't know that you had to collect the cards on the day you made the points, so we basically lost 3-4 from Saturday night) that my wife turned in for some photo scrapbook. We then drove out to Sunset Station because for some reason I thought there was a match play this year, but I was wrong, so after my wife played a few dollars in the slots unsuccessfully and I made about a $20 donation to the Henderson Chamber of Commerce, we headed over to Green Valley Ranch. At this point we're definitely sounding like a broken record, but when we arrived she headed for some penny slots while I went to play Pai Gow. I had great conversations at the Pai Gow table and managed to even come out ahead (buy in at $60, cash out at $78) after about 3 hours. We then used the 2-for-1 coupon on the buffet and were completely impressed. GVR's buffet was by far the best we had during our trip. My wife said that the seafood was much better than even her previous trip to the Bellagio, especially because they had hot crab legs, rather than just cold, soggy ones. I myself made a few trips to the mongolian bbq station - at this point I was ecstatic to have something prepared just for me, but the food and sauces had an excellent taste to them. I love good Asian food, which is why I usually stay away from Chinese buffets. While still not truly authentic, it was really good stuff. The desserts were good, but not fantastic. After dinner we went back to our games for a bit and both of us basically came out even. We collected our scratch cards and got 4,000 points out of them.

Tuesday we hit the Rio for the breakfast buffet with the 2-for-1 coupon (it was fantastic) then I had my conference all day and my wife picked me up and we went back downtown. It was getting a bit chilly, so we decided to just go straight over to Main Street Station for dinner and not walk through Fremont Street. We used the 2-for-1 coupon on the buffet and I spent several minutes just looking up at the ceiling in that gorgeous dining hall. Main Street Station is simply a beautiful place inside - if only the exterior alluded to that. As I said before, my wife likes the seafood. I guess it just makes sense that she's not big on red meat. Well, Tuesday night is t-bone steak night at MSS, so she hated it. The steak was ok, but generous. Most of the sides didn't seem to have much flavor. The desserts were hit and miss - we once again found a dessert that looked like a mousse in a chocolate shell but tasted like you imagine used kitty litter would taste. At first we thought it was just the Red Rock's, but apparently there's a market for kitty litter mousse. Go figure. Maybe it's popular with the Wannabe Mexican Gangsta crowd. After dinner we drove down to the El Cortez so that my wife could play some more $0.25 roulette. I bought in at $20 again and blew through it in about half an hour. I then took my last $40 of the bankroll and sat down at the blackjack table, where I made my last donation to the Downtown Rehabilitation Fund. My wife's $20 lasted her until about 10 PM, at which point I told her that we really needed to go to bed. She started betting all of her remaining chips, but would keep winning! I told her to cash them in, but she wanted to play them all out. Around 10:30 we finally were ready to head back to bed.

Wednesday, our last day in town - I spent all day at the conference and my wife joined me for the last half of the day (open to the public and plenty of goodies being given away). We then went back out to the Silverton to collect my mystery gift and see what she could get with her 5000 points. We used the free tapas/dessert coupon at Mi Casa and the $15 of comps that we'd built up on Sunday night to pay for her dinner and mine was on the expense account. The food was excellent and I needed a wheelbarrow to leave the table. My wife then decided that she wanted to learn to play Pai Gow, so she gave me $40 and we each bought in for that amount. She lasted longer than I did, so I helped her with her cards for probably the last hour and a half. She enjoyed herself and now I think we have a table game that we can both play. We'll probably test that theory in Tunica this summer.

Thursday morning we used the 2-for-1 Bally's buffet coupon for breakfast and then headed to the airport for our separate flights.

So, for 6 days in Vegas, I was down about $300 give or take, but got that $300 voucher, so I consider it even. We both loved the neighborhood casinos and concentrated our play there so that we can try to get some hotel offers. I know that we won't get much on the small amount that we played, but you have to start somewhere. We're used to the Mississippi casinos where you can play $10 blackjack hands for 2 hours and walk away with two buffet comps and get the casino rate for your next trip. I look forward to the next trip!

Well I got up early this morning to head to Vegas and got to my BNA->DFW flight with plenty of time. The flight took off on time and was uneventful - I had an aisle seat and was able to snooze a little bit. I had a 3.5 hour layover scheduled in DFW before moving on to LAS. The flight was delayed for about 30 minutes while waiting on a crew, but we got boarded and I settled in to my seat - 25C. Then the announcement came - they were looking for a volunteer to give up their seat and in return they would get a confirmed seat on the next flight, lunch and a $300 voucher on American Airlines. Since my wife isn't arriving in Vegas until 9:30 tonight, it made sense to take advantage of the offer. I got up and walked back up to the gate where I was told that I wouldn't need lunch because I was getting a first class seat on the next flight. Yay! Of course, that was in theory.
I got to the gate for the next flight - scheduled for a 3:10 departure - and they were already oversold. The gate attendant showed some frustration at what the other gate agents had done for the earlier flight, but she said to wait and she'd see what she could do. It looked like I was getting screwed on this one as 3:00 came and nobody had volunteered their seat, but then they started checking on the seats that hadn't been claimed yet - one was for a woman in first class that got stuck with a later connecting flight. So, in the end I got a $300 voucher, first class on the next flight and still made it in time to get the rental car and checked into the hotel before my wife arrives.
Hopefully I can now take this voucher and turn it into a ticket to come back out here for DEFCON.

I had to go to Philadelphia last week for work. I packed on Tuesday night, checked the forecast, and saw a high of 55 F for Friday, so basically just a long sleeved shirt and I should be fine. I get up there on Wednesday afternoon and the weather is perfect. Over 70 F and I'm driving around Lancaster County with the windows down. Wow, I love this weather. Then the forecast changes. Now a Nor'easter is on the way in and there is supposed to be 4-7 inches of snow by Friday night. Well, that's ok, the class is supposed to finish early on Friday, so I can try to catch the 4 PM or 5:35 PM flight instead of the 8:10 I was originally booked on.

Friday morning I woke up, looked out the window and saw what I figured was rain. I turned on the TV and saw that schools were closing all across the area. Wait a second, don't Northerners make fun of us Southerners for closing schools? Crap, this must be pretty serious. I got checked out and started walking out to the car - eh, not too terribly cold for just having to walk 100' or so, and then I got out from under the canopy to discover a sheet of ice on the parking lot. Ugh. Well the next earliest direct flight home was at 7:35AM, so it won't do much good to head to the airport now. I make it in to class and the schedule is adjusted to allow most of us to leave at the lunch break around 11 AM, which I do. There are three wrecks on I-476 on the way to the airport - people apparently drove too fast on the ice, got into a spin and collided with a tree, or a wall, or another car. I dropped the car off and took the shuttle to the terminal. By the way, make sure you know if you're on US Air or US Air Express when you go to Philadelphia. They fly out of two separate terminals and oh, hey, they're not connected. You have to walk outside to get between them. Not so bad if the weather cooperates, but we've already established that it isn't doing so.

The line for ticketing is about 120 people deep when I get in it. I knew that since I needed to reschedule that I couldn't use the kiosks, half of which said "Out of Order" on them, anyway. It takes 2 hours to get up to the counter and I ask if there's any way I can get moved to the 4 PM flight and the agent happily prints out a boarding pass for me. Happy because I was clueless about the fact that nothing had taken off from PHL since 10 AM that morning. By the time I make it to the very end of the terminal where my gate is, they turn off the monitors. Ok, that's odd. Then I notice that all of the crews are coming out of their planes and walking towards the front of the airport. Uh oh. 10 minutes later they announce that all flights to and from PHL were cancelled for the rest of the day. I knew that it would be pointless to try to get in line to reschedule now, so I called the travel agent and had them secure a seat for me on the 7:35 AM flight for Saturday, then try to find me a hotel room. Oops, everything near the airport is sold out. There's a Hampton Inn 5 miles away that wants $300 for their last 4 rooms. I don't think so. Finally I get a room at the Hyatt downtown for $169 - if I can manage to get there. After 2.5 hours waiting in the taxi line, I manage to get a shared taxi that's going through South Philadelphia. There are two bright spots to this - first, I have a cab; second, we drove by Geno's. Even though I couldn't get out and grab a cheesesteak, it's always fun to drive by there.

I got up at 4:30 AM to check the weather and decide whether or not to go back in to the airport. The sleet stopped around midnight, so the interstate has been cleared off, at least. All other roads, though, are covered in icy slush. I got dressed and headed downstairs only to find that no taxis were coming by. Fortunately for me a private town car had been called for someone else at 5 AM, but then they called and canceled on the driver at 5:05, so he was sitting around fuming because of no fare for this hour. He cut me a break ($60 instead of the normal $100) on the fare and took me to the airport. At 5:30 I got in line for ticketing, about 60 people back. At 7:10 I got my ticket for the 7:35 flight and ran down the terminal to the gate. Once we got on the plane we couldn't get backed out, though! They tried the tractor, then the tractor with chains on the tires, and finally they had to chisel the ice away from the wheels to get us going. Never a good sign. Then we had to very slowly make our way across the ice covered tarmac to the deicing station. 3 hours later we were finally in the air and on the way back home.

PHL could have handled things a lot better than they did. US Airways could have handled things a lot better than they did. I left out a lot of crap that could have been avoided with better customer service - such as having one agent standing out by the lines to make sure that the kiosk users didn't jump in front of those that had waited for 2 hours - and there was a lot of that happening. The taxi line issue was just ridiculous. Anyway, I'm home and I'm leaving for Vegas on Thursday. I'm pretty sure I won't get iced in there, but even if I do, I'll be a lot happier about it.

Whew! Well it has been about 5 months so far, but as of this week I will be done with the IDCP Facilities Management course at Marist University. What the heck is that, you say? Well, it's pretty much the only certification offered in the industry of data center management. I already have a slew of other certifications that don't really relate to what I actually do. For instance, I've had my Novell CNE, my Microsoft MCSE, and have a still current Red Hat Certified Engineer certification. I'm also ITIL Service Management Foundations certified, which is a lifetime certification. Along the way I've had dozens of other product specific certifications that no longer mean anything to anybody. The IDCP Facilities Management certification has been an exercise in learning that a lot of what I have had to pick up "the hard way" doesn't really have a clean and simple solution lots of times. Only when you have the luxury of designing a brand new data center before the first check has been written can you make it somewhat easy, but that's just a relative statement. There's a lot involved with keeping all the facilities running that allow the computers to stay up all the time.

One of the luxuries that this will provide me is that I will no longer have to try to fit in quizzes, exams and discussion times during my small amount of down time. I've made it a goal for me to be ready to test for red belt in Tang Soo Do by the next testing period, which I believe is in April. That's pretty ambitious, but if I get back to going 3 times per week for the next 6 weeks I should be able to do it.