Diana’s Blog

Day 20 – A White Day and A Night at The Library

By Diana

It snowed last night!!!  Like enough to have a good couple inches on the ground.  I woke up about 05:00 this morning to the hotel people shoveling the sidewalk…

Today was the last day of the training sessions and I was happy it was over!  Not because anyone was ugly or anything but because I have now completed 18 sessions in 3 weeks of the exact same material – that twice a day too.  Alex was a huge help especially since we got a new release of software while we were here.  That means he was able to write down all the issues while I continued through the training.

Tonight we are going to go out for dinner, we have been eating in the hotel all week.

We went to dinner at a place called The Library.  It was alright food, not anything amazing, but it was close and not the hotel so that was good enough!  It was super cute, they gave you the check in a library book – WHAT!!!!!!   Ha ha, I was impressed :)

I played in the snow for just a bit outside the restaurant, nothing crazy.  It was so soft, just powder.  When we got back to the hotel the group was playing bingo.  They were paying quiet bingo because they had already been complained about from other guests.  Outside the hotel I was trying to play with the snow except here it was all hard!  Could have killed myself :)

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Day 19 – A Day for Blueberry Muffins and Starbucks

By Diana

The hotel here has a mini Starbucks in it – so not the full blown menu but the lady made me a white mocha and it wasn’t perfect, but sure was good!!  Then for breakfast they had muffins out and I had an amazing blueberry muffin!!  Overall a great start to the morning.

Todays classes went very well too even if they did shut down the test environment on me!  We got through it and they got it back working before the last class started.

Tonight Alex and I ate at the hotel again, but this time they had a mexican buffet and it was pretty good.  I had the same thing back when I was here for a meeting I think in May.  It was good then too!!

I think it is supposed to snow tomorrow and I am kinda excited.  I haven’t seen snow in a while – well at least not a good bit of it.

Oh yeah and the lunch was very good today too.  I think this is probably the best of the three, but mainly because it seems like southern food.  We had fried chicken yesterday and today it was meatloaf.

Well, another day done and one more to go.  I am going to wrap it up and try to get some sleep!!

Day 18 – The Day Where Everything Was Frozen

By Diana

It is amazingly cold here in Indianapolis.  I am kinda shocked!  I think with the wind chill it ended up being -3 degrees and while I did not actually go outside today I had to walk by the door a couple times and the air coming in was enough :)

Todays class went really well so that makes me happy.  I have 4 more to do and then we are done!  I did do something very stupid today, I deleted or marked for deletion stuff in the production environment thinking I was in the testing environment :(  Well you can’t dwell on it, gotta fix it and move on!

Alex and I ate here at the hotel for dinner – burger and fries, again for me.  It was pretty good and the prices here seem reasonable to me.

As usual I am going to try to get to bed early, but I am not having much hope in falling asleep anytime soon.

Day 17 – Racing to Indy!!

By Diana

Today I am heading to Indianapolis for the last of the January trips.  They have all gone so good I am sure this one will be no different.   I have another long layover here in Atlanta which I have not had in a while, with the exception of last Friday and today.  Crazy how I am used to very short time and I am just not sure what to do with myself :)

I think I mentioned this yesterday, but I am so happy Paul helped me fix whatever I had screwed up with the website!  When you hold him captive, he does amazing things :)

I read a whole bunch of my book on the first flight, I was in the middle seat so I needed to stay focused on something.  It’s not that I didn’t have enough room, just for some reason I am always a little uneasy in the middle seat.  The Atlanta flight is the only one I would volunteer for that seat for sure!

I walked down to another concourse to get me some Starbucks.  I have been yawning all morning I wish I could go to sleep at a decent hour.  I think I am going to grab some food as soon as I get to the hotel and then go right to bed.  No technology in bed either!  Except my Netflix :)

Alright, I am gonna look at some organization stuff for my room and I will check back in this evening when I get to the room.  I know my dad is reading this every day so hello dad!!!!

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Day 16 – A Day Full of Laundry

By Diana

Here we are again on a Saturday doing laundry for my trip tomorrow! I am glad that this is the last week out for a little but at least. Not because I am tired of traveling or anything, but I am ready to try to get these dogs trained. I need to draw up the desk plan so I can see how much this is going to cost me :) I am also debating on some accessories – like bins or something to put some stuff to get it off the desk. I really need to get the stuff to move my desktop into the server room. If I am going to get in the attic it really needs to be while it is colder out :)

Made the cinnamon buns this morning and it was very good! It was just the canned type so nothing crazy. I am thinking about making the biscuit and gravy tomorrow. Will be a nice treat for sure :)

Day 15 – A Day of Ports of the Air

By Diana

I an currently sitting in the Baltimore Washington airport waiting on my flight to Atlanta. This airport is alright, but I really dislike when the terminals all have their own TSA screening because the damn Starbucks is not in my terminal and I would have had to go through it twice and the would not have let me keep my coffee!

I was on the phone most of the morning with a user, and friend, I was helping with the program I am teaching. We got it all done, but sometimes it takes creative thinking :)

I went down to the lobby of the hotel in hopes of getting some kind of breakfast and they did have some muffins, which are totally fine, but I was expecting blueberry and got cranberry instead. I HATE cranberry, they are so tart! But I was able to get most of them out. Now I grabbed a banana from the shop here so that will hold me over until I get home. I hope I have enough time in Atlanta to get coffee, otherwise I am going to have wait until Jacksonville.

I won’t actually get home I think until after 18:00 today. I am very excited to see mom and dad and those stinking puppies :) I am also very excited to see if my idea for my desk will work. I may be able to get that done this month!!

I am listening to Adele – she is so great and even thought I can’t sing I really want to sing along :) People would probably think I was a little crazy if I started singing Rolling in the Deep!!!

Alright, I am going to just relax here and continue listening to my music :)

Atlanta

In Atlanta now – just got some lunch and now for a couple hour layover. I love how I finally get some place where I can get a coffee and now I don’t want it :( Oh well, that is probably better for me anyway!

I am very happy that Atlanta now has free wifi. I am not sure when that happened but it sure is nice :) They always had such poor cellular coverage in the terminals and even that seems to be better now. Or maybe it’s my super awesome phone!!

I am still very excited to be home!! I want to hug those puppies!

Day 14 – The Hotel Life

By Diana

Today I am going to spend the whole day in the hotel! I am in bed right now and have been all morning. I have got to get some sleep and I am just going to try to nap throughout the day. I ordered some pizza to be delivered in about a half hour so just in time for lunch.

I have been looking for ideas on finishing my desk the best way and I think I have it. I am going to use the piping that I used on my new shelf that way I think I can get the top perfectly level and also be able to incorporate lighting and shelves above the desk. I am getting very excited about this and hope I can make it happen with what we have already done with the desk. More importantly I think it will be strong enough to hold it up.

I am going to head down to the lobby to get my pizza but will write more later I am sure.

Day 13 – The Last Days of the East

By Diana

So today is the last day of training for the eastern region. It has gone really good so far and I am happy with the level of participation and how well everyone is picking up on the program.

With all that said I a so tired today. This is proving to be pretty taxing on me and it doesn’t help that I am still not sleeping. Tomorrow I will be able to relax a little bit.

I had dinner here at the hotel tonight, just a burger and fries and some chocolate cake for dessert :) It was all pretty good. Talk about good dessert, the lunch we had today was really good and they had some amazing tiramisu. I have really been craving some coffee this week, but because I didn’t rent a car there isn’t much I can do about it!

Everyone here is going a little bananas over this powerball being a billion dollars. It is crazy but I still can’t bring myself to get a ticket – I have no idea why. I can sure think of all the things I would do with it that’s for sure :)

Day 12 – Pizza and Beer!!

By Diana

Well, pizza and Coke not beer :)

Had my what has turned into weekly pizza for dinner. Was supposed to go over and play bingo with the guys but decided to call it an early night. Which for me lately does not equal an early bed time. I have been sleeping so poorly it is crazy.

Supposedly it snowed here today – I went outside and didn’t see it but right now it is crazy windy. Hope there is no tornado!

Had a good training session today. I tried to go in late and get some sleep but that didn’t work. I didn’t have to go down in the morning but I wasn’t able to sleep much more.

Tomorrow is the last class this week but I am here until Friday just to make sure no one has any issues. That reminds me, I have got to ,are sure they keep my room for me for another day.

These trips have gone so well that I really wish we could do the same thing for the maintenance side. The group I am working with now is construction. Every group has been great!!

Alright I am gonna call it quits for the night – goodnight!!

Day 11 – The Day of the Three C’s!!

By Diana

Well not quite 3 C’s but it’s better than 3 K’s!! So that would be Crab Cakes, Coconut Oil, and Kit Kat – ha ha ha!!!!

Had dinner at a place called the Olive Grove and had crab cakes and Alfredo. That’s two dishes, the crab cakes were appetizers so just a little bit of that. Went with a bunch of the managers here in the East, as always everyone is super nice.

I needed to pick up my prescriptions tonight and like 6 people offered to take me. So very nice! Just like in Beckley I went to the wrong Walgreens first! Just like In WV the person who took me wasn’t too upset :)

Alright I am exhausted, didn’t sleep well last night and was yawning all day so I am gonna go to bed!!