3/31/13

We went to see my father in law at the home today and found out he was in the hospital because of breathing problems. He was on a ventilator, but they seemed optimistic that he's be off it by this afternoon. When my wife called to check on him, he was, in fact, off it. So that's good news. Also good news that they expect to discharge him tomorrow morning. 

Had dinner with my mother in law. It was good and things seemed to go fairly well.

Got a new RPG, thanks to a G+ friend. It looks really neat, and I'm looking forward to reading it. 

3/30/13

I couldn’t post this last night because of internet issues.

Played CoC tonight and things got bad for people. So far I’m not insane or infected with the strange tentacle-zombie disease.

Did some last minute shopping for my wife. Sounds like we’ll be going to my MiL’s for Easter, which is a good thing, I hope.

Spoke to my brother hand had to reschedule fixing the leaky pipe. It sounds like we have a plan, so I think we’re in a good place. Especially since the pipe still isn’t leaking too badly.  

3/29/13

My brother came over because we have a pipe leaking in the basement. He assessed the damage and we're going to fix it tomorrow. It should be fairly quick and cheap, two things I love to hear.

Tonight we did a "do over" for my wife's birthday. I took her to the Movie Tavern as we saw The Croods. It was cute, and right up her alley. She seemed to enjoy the night.

I overslept this morning. Since I knew I didn't have to go in to work, I somehow slept until 9, when I should start working. So I rolled out of bed, booted up the laptop, and got to work.I'm lucky I have that option.

3/28/13

Watched "Safety not Guaranteed" tonight. It was pretty good. A lot of did he/didn't he questions.

Hit the gym tonight. I've found that if I have a piece of fruit before I go my fatigue afterwards is minimized.

I think I found a flaw and fixed it in the SSIS packages that populate the data warehouse at work. I'll know for sure tomorrow.

3/27/13

Today was my wife's 35th birthday. She was having a hard time of it and I didn't help all that much. But on the plus side, we did go out to dinner at the Walnut Street Super Club (http://www.1227walnut.com/). The appetizers were really good, the entree's not to much. Service was great, but they stopped the music early, didn't play their normal genre, and the view from our table wasn't very good. It was a mixed bag, but made good from all the cheese.

My wife seemed to like her presents, which were a much of hardbound classic books. Most of them match the set that I got her for Christmas.

Finally, we came home for the annual bonfire cupcake full of 36 candles (one to grow on!). She got the candles out and the fire department didn't have to come, so it was a win.

3/26/13

No gaming tonight because only half the crew showed up. We played a spaceship card game instead. It was fun, though a little rough.

I saw my mom and brother tonight. It was nice to talk with them.

Later in the evening I started feeling fairly ok and awake. It was a nice change.

3/25/13

It snowed today. Yay!

Also, I got to work from home because it did. Granted, I had to go into work before I was told I could work from home, but at least I got to come home early.

I also called a psychiatrist to try to get into a formal CBT program. They didn't quite know what to do with me, so they took my name and number and said they'd get back to me. I guess that's something. 

3/24/13

As I told my wife today, my 3 favorite things are, in this order:

1. My Wife
2. Cheese
3. Gaming

The dog is #517. The cat is # 1233.

3/23/13

I started taxes today. I think I'm nearly done. I just need to figure in the bank account interest and student loans. Hopefully I'll finish tomorrow.

My birthday present showed up today. My wife got me a straight jacket. It's something I've wanted since I was a kid. It's nice, high quality, and sturdy. Sure, I'm weird. But my wife loves me.

Gaming was fun. Playing CoC. One of the characters went crazy and shot my character. I'm having him forcibly committed to a sanitarium. For a horror game, there sure was a lot of laughing going on :-)

3/22/13

Had lunch with an old high school buddy. It was cool to catch up with him. We only see each other every 1-2 years, even though we work in the same building now.

Gaming was had. I had a lot of fun. My dice were on fire tonight.

I came home from work a little early so I could spend a little time with my wife before she went to a party (and I started gaming). It was nice (and I'll make the time up next week.)

3/21/13

I worked from home today, which meant that I could take a nap at lunch. It seemed to help a bit with the rest of the day.

So much so that I went to the gym without my wife (she was busy baking for a party tomorrow).

I finally got in touch with my doctor and she suggested a psychiatrist who can try some CBT. I'll call tomorrow and try to make an appointment.

3/20/13

I took some Benadryl last night to help me sleep and try to give me a break from the massive fatigue I've been having. It helped, though it didn't make me great (I didn't expect it to). I only took 50mg of Nuvigil, instead of my normal 175. While I felt kind of loopy and dizzy today, at the very least my mood had improved over the past couple weeks.

The kitchen sink has been clogged for the past 3 days (or so). I tried plunging it, but I just pulled up air from the dishwasher. I poured a bottle of Drain-o in there and it didn't do anything. So a plumber's coming out tomorrow. Luckily, I'm able to work from home, so I won't loose any time.

I spent some "quality time" with the wife tonight. We were going to go car shopping, but that fell through. We were going to hit the gym, but that fell through too. So we improvised.

3/19/13

I spoke to the sleep doctor today about hot tired I've been. She called in a prescription for Provigil for me to try. Unfortunately, it requires some sort of authorization from my insurance company, so I'll have to wait a few days to get it. But at least it's something new we can try.

I also called my GP to find a psychiatrist or psychologist or whatever to see if I can find someone to try formal CBT. I think it's a long shot, but it might help. I'm not keen on going on anti-depressants (and I don't know how they're supposed to help my tiredness), but if it helps I'll do it.

Had gaming tonight. It was fun. We didn't get much done, but people seemed to enjoy themselves.

3/18/13

Went to the rheumatologist today. He seemed pretty clueless about autoimmune diseases causing fatigue. He told me the lab results were perfectly fine, despite a positive reading on one of the tests. He also did a physical and didn't find any signs of arthritis or other infection. So I guess that checks off on more thing that I don't have.

I got a little bit of work done on the Tuesday game. Not as much as I needed to get done, but it's a start. Hopefully I can finish up tomorrow.

Watched some TV with the wife. All new shows tonight, so that was nice.

3/17/13

Hit the gym tonight. I had some trouble since I was so tired. But I still got through most of my routine.

Got my medical records in order for the doctor appointment tomorrow. I really hope this one can help.

Watched The Walking Dead. Another good episode.

3/16/13

Today was my father's 70th birthday. The majority of us got together and ate a Metropolitan. I'd never heard of it. The food and service were ok. I'm probably lucky my father's still around. 70's getting pretty close to the average life expectancy. I know quite a few people who don't have their parents anymore. So I'm thankful for that.

I'm also glad I got to see my brothers. I don't get to see them all that often anymore.

My mother brought up the desire to make a field trip to see my sister in NJ. There's all sorts of drama involved there, and my mother and sister haven't spoken in over a year. But my mother seems to be the one reaching out. Hopefully their relationship can be repaired. But I think some personal growth needs to happen at some point in there (mostly on my sister's side).

3/15/13

It was the last day for one of the developers in my department. I had no idea he was leaving. Regardless, we had a farewell lunch for him. It was originally going to be a "cover your own bill" kind of thing, but at the last minute my boss picked up the tab. It was very nice of him.

I believe the majority of reporting problems have been solved at this point. I updated all of the reports to use the new fixes. However, I found some weird data issue. I'm not sure why I'm missing some records, but I am. I need to track that down and update the SSIS packages to make sure it doesn't happen again. But with the (majority of the) reporting out of the way, I'm in a better place (still behind schedule, but I have progress to show!)

Went out to see Jack Derringer & the Smokin' Gunz. My friend Gus is in the band. Turns out this was probably their last show, since half the band is moving. But it was a good show. And apparently they don't get many people to come out and see them, so they were appreciative that we came out. 

3/14/13

Happy Pi day.

I emailed my boss to let him know I would be working from home today. He's offered me the option to work from home when I'm really tired. I hate taking him up on it, but I've been so damn tired recently I couldn't help it. Each time I do, I feel like this sleep problem is winning. Regardless, I'm very thankful I can do it. I did seem to have a better day because of it.

These reports for the data warehouse are really a pain in the ass. But today I solved another problem. It seems like the problem is pretty wide spread and people have devised all sorts of ways to get around it. I'm pretty proud of my method. So proud, I may just start another blog and post the results, along with any other problems I happen to find during this. I think it might be helpful to other people.

Hit the gym tonight. It was the first time in a week. I really need to buckle down and do it more, but as I said, my sleep has been so horrible I mostly come home from work and nap for an hour or two. But it was good to go and work out. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

3/13/13

Had problems with building cubes today. I was able to troubleshoot the problem fairly quickly - there was a data issue. I went back to the SSIS package and yup, there was an issue. I'm not sure how fields keep getting unmapped, but I wrote a script to look for them this time. Hopefully it's fixed for good now.

I came home and took a nap with my wife. I've been really tired recently. Probably the worst that I've ever been. But it was nice to nap with her. And I feel better after it.

After the nap, I made dinner. It was just one of those bagged meals that you cook in a skillet, but it was good. And it means I actually did something.

3/12/13

Had a really bad day today, but I'll try this anyway...

Gaming tonight didn't happen, since we were down half the party. But we did play Cards Against Humanity. I cried for 5 straight minutes it was so funny.

I learned my mom and my niece are playing Words with Friends together. That makes me happy.

I spent some more time working on my CoC character. Almost done. I just need a bio write up and I'll be good to go.

3/11/13

Made some more progress with the project at work. I'm still behind, but checking the schedule I'm not as behind as I thought. That's good.

I got some time to work on my CoC character today. Not finished yet, but I think I've got a pretty good idea of who he'll be.

I took a nap with the wife when I got home from work today. I've been really tired, more so than normal. I felt a little better after the nap.

3/10/13

I didn't realize I missed 2 nights. I thought it was only 1. Regardless, I've had some late nights, so I haven't really had the chance to update (not a good excuse, since I could do it during the day as well).

Anyway, Friday we played the superhero game. It was a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying it.

We also hit Friday's afterwards. Hung out with friends, at some good food.

My wife spent the weekend in Atlantic City with friends, so I had the house to myself. I was able to set things up so the animals mostly didn't bug me early in the morning (the dog got up to go outside, but I convinced him to go back to bed for a couple of hours).

Saturday we finally finished the one-shot game I was running. It only took 3 sessions (plus 1 for character creation). Much longer than I expected, but everyone seemed to have a lot of fun.

We also got the instructions to finish up our characters for the CoC game we're playing next. I'm stoked for it.

I worked from home a little bit. I've been struggling with a reporting issue, and just before gaming, a solution to the problem presented itself. I didn't get to implement it, since I was getting ready to leave, but it was exciting.

Today I actually managed to implement it, and it works! I think I need to streamline things to make it more efficient, but it solves the major problem I've had. That said, I'm still stuck with the problem of trying to crunch more data than a normal computer can handle (in some instances). The solution will work for 95% of cases. I just need to figure out how to handle the other 5%.

I also gave the dog a bath today. He really needed one, so it's about time I gave him one. But he's soft and smells better now.

I also spent some time getting the house ready for my wife to get home. I did dishes, unloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned the table off. It wasn't much, but I wanted to clean up at least the messes I made.

3/7/13

I got a problem email last night from my boss. I took a look, diagnosed it, sent him a work around, and had him pass it to someone who could actually fix it. I looked good and didn't have to do any real work ;)

I got a bunch of "little" things done at work today. I need to keep track of them, since I'm so far behind on the planned schedule. But at least it's stuff that got done.

I was also setup with out helpdesk ticket software today. So while I'm now responsible for fixing problems from other people, I should have more visibility in the company as well.

3/6/13 #2

I ended up taking the day off from work. I probably could have worked from home, but it was nice to just lounge around.

That gave me time to interact with some people on the internet, catch up on the Walking Dead (how did I miss 2?), and spend some time with my wife. It was a good day.

3/6/13 #1

Had court this morning to resolve the whole bushes thing. Since we tripped the bushes, they dropped the citation. We should be getting out fine-money back in a week or two.

3/6/13

Had gaming tonight. Did part of the big reveal. I'm excited, and I think the players are enjoying the twists.

I got a few things marked off my list at work today. Not big things, but important things.

Humble bundle 5 came out today. I've already purchased it. I'm excited to see what games are included.

3/4/13

I got a new laptop at work. Since I'm in IT, I'm responsible for installing all of the software I need. So it's going to take me a few days to get it up and running.

I gave my brother some more tech support. It sounds like his hard drive might be going. But it may also be a virus. We'll have to see, but I'll probably have to physically see it to determine the issue.

I also game him some phone support, but it sounds like his phone's battery is toast. He says it's mushrooming and he's surprised it hasn't burst. Scary. But a new battery's on the way.

3/3/13

Ran some errands today. Hit HD for some more electronic tools. Hit Target for some groceries. Hit DD for donuts for the wife.

Went to the gym. It was petty empty, so it was nice.

Watched What to Expect When You're Expecting. It wasn't really the comedy it was billed to be. Not a bad movie, but not what I expected.

Bonus fourth: gave some tech support to my brother.

3/2/13

The one shot I'm running is turning into a three shot. It'll be a four or five shot if one of the players gets his way. That's cool though, since it shows they're enjoying it.

We started making CoC character's tonight. I'm excited to play the next game.

I had a nice relaxing day today. I probably should have gotten stuff done, but it's no biggie that I didn't.

3/1/13

I spend nearly all day trying to fix a report that worked last week but didn't work today. I think I finally figured out what the problem was and why things changed. Good information to know for the future.

Got my wife's car inspected yesterday and it only cost about $160, which is good. We have good mechanics who don't charge us an arm and a leg to make repairs or inspect.

Went out t dinner tonight at Salsa's. We'd never eaten there. The food was ok, but it came out really quickly. Service was ok as well. I don't know if we'll go back, but it was a nice change.