Yesterday, I spent all of my day at the house of one of the VPs of my company. He needed help with setting up a brand new computer for his wife. The wife's files in the old system had to be moved and also the email settings needed to be transfered. I expected for it to be a half day project, but the wireless network took nearly 3 hours. I had to call Verizon tech support to verify the internet configuration and login information. I was correct that it was PPPoE, but he completely misdirected me by telling me to change the Verizon DSL modem's settings to "bridge" and disable DHCP - all WRONG! After battling it for a while, I ended up putting it all back to it's original configuration and after a quick phone call to Don, he confirmed that resetting the Verizon modem to it's original configuration was the right thing to do. He instructed me to turn off DHCP on the wireless router and to make sure that the router and modem are on the same subnet. I had to change the wireless router's IP address as it had the same IP as the Verizon device. Thanks Don for being my Saviour!
After fighting the network issues, decrappafying the old and new PCs, software and printer installs, file transfers, email setup, answering questions, half of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a glass of water - I headed home. I got home at 6 p.m. already too late to catch "The Spiderwick Chronicles". Oh well, well catch the first showing today at 11:45 a.m. Jackie is still asleep - she went to bed late last night because of a dog show we watched on Animal Planet. It was the Ugliest Dog Competition - man, the dogs were UUUUUGLY!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Firsts
Several "firsts" happened this past week. At work, I was asked to provide my technical expertise to help our contracts department with some proposal work. If we win the bid, the company will most likely send me to Missouri sometime in March or April to conduct a site survey. I have never traveled for business before, so I look forward to this first time experience.
Piano Lesson
(Jackie practicing at home)
Jackie had her first piano lesson on Thursday. I signed her up at Music and Arts store at the Cedar Lakes location for half an hour piano lesson once a week. When we arrived at the facility I checked in with one of the store clerk's who processed my payment and briefed me with their rules -- there will be no refunds for skipped lessons, but in an event of emergency or for any reason Jackie cannot show up for her scheduled class the teacher will accommodate rescheduling. I had to sign a piece of paper to acknowledge that I understood the terms. Then the clerk sent us to the back end of the store where the classrooms are. We stood around for a few minutes and Celine (Jackie's teacher) came out of one of the rooms. She asked how old Jackie is and if she could read. She was delighted to hear that Jackie could - I guess this makes it easier. After the meet and greet, she invited Jackie to follow her into one of the rooms. I asked if we (Berna and I) could watch and she agreed, but only allowed us to stay for a few minutes. I watched though the glass window on the door. When the lesson was over Celine told me that Jackie did very well, and that she did lots for first day class. I was not surprised to hear it - we were blessed with this darling girl who is very bright (I cannot take credit). At the age when Jackie was only supposed to know a few words, she knew hundreds. Her ped did not believe us when we told her the amount of words Jackie knew (I guess a lot of parents exaggerate), but in that same visit our little Jackie spoke in complete sentence - LOL.
Anyway, Celine told me to have Jackie practice 10 minutes a day and to complete the homework before the next lesson on Thursday.
Ice Skating
On Saturday, Don took us ice skating. Don and I have been married for eight and a half years and we've never gone ice skating together. It's been over a decade since the last time I've done this fun activity with friends, so I was a little nervous when my blades hit the ice. SkateQuest in Reston was open for public skating between 1:10 to 3 p.m. - then they closed the facility for hockey players. We all had fun (Berna did not skate - she just watched and took pictures). We were very proud of Jackie for not getting scared and for doing very well - she got the hang of it very quickly. She had so much fun that she did not even want to take a break! I was able to take a break with Jackie during the resurfacing of ice. What a fun outing! I would love to go again, soon.
Piano Lesson
(Jackie practicing at home)
Jackie had her first piano lesson on Thursday. I signed her up at Music and Arts store at the Cedar Lakes location for half an hour piano lesson once a week. When we arrived at the facility I checked in with one of the store clerk's who processed my payment and briefed me with their rules -- there will be no refunds for skipped lessons, but in an event of emergency or for any reason Jackie cannot show up for her scheduled class the teacher will accommodate rescheduling. I had to sign a piece of paper to acknowledge that I understood the terms. Then the clerk sent us to the back end of the store where the classrooms are. We stood around for a few minutes and Celine (Jackie's teacher) came out of one of the rooms. She asked how old Jackie is and if she could read. She was delighted to hear that Jackie could - I guess this makes it easier. After the meet and greet, she invited Jackie to follow her into one of the rooms. I asked if we (Berna and I) could watch and she agreed, but only allowed us to stay for a few minutes. I watched though the glass window on the door. When the lesson was over Celine told me that Jackie did very well, and that she did lots for first day class. I was not surprised to hear it - we were blessed with this darling girl who is very bright (I cannot take credit). At the age when Jackie was only supposed to know a few words, she knew hundreds. Her ped did not believe us when we told her the amount of words Jackie knew (I guess a lot of parents exaggerate), but in that same visit our little Jackie spoke in complete sentence - LOL.Anyway, Celine told me to have Jackie practice 10 minutes a day and to complete the homework before the next lesson on Thursday.
Here's Jackie on her first practice day at home
(thanks to Berna for taking this video for us)
(thanks to Berna for taking this video for us)
Ice Skating
On Saturday, Don took us ice skating. Don and I have been married for eight and a half years and we've never gone ice skating together. It's been over a decade since the last time I've done this fun activity with friends, so I was a little nervous when my blades hit the ice. SkateQuest in Reston was open for public skating between 1:10 to 3 p.m. - then they closed the facility for hockey players. We all had fun (Berna did not skate - she just watched and took pictures). We were very proud of Jackie for not getting scared and for doing very well - she got the hang of it very quickly. She had so much fun that she did not even want to take a break! I was able to take a break with Jackie during the resurfacing of ice. What a fun outing! I would love to go again, soon.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
What I Did On Super Bowl Sunday
House cleaning is one of my weaknesses, not because I don't have time for it, but because I am plainly tamad (lazy). On Superbowl Sunday I decided (no planning involved) to clean the basement early in the morning (even before my breakfast). For a few minutes, I stood in the middle of the room trying to decide where to start. I looked around the room and felt a little overwhelmed of its condition. The room was disorganized - wires running across the floor (from various video game accessories), Jackie's toys, miscellaneous junk on the coffee table... you get the picture. After putting away the video game accessories I decided that the carpet was in desperate need of steam cleaning, especially the area by the door to the garage. I spent about an hour and a half cleaning the carpet. After three refills of cleaning solution, three and a half refills of hot water, and half a dozen trip up and down the stairs I was more than satisfied of the outcome! Ahhh... the fresh scent of a newly cleaned carpet was nice :)
After shower Jackie Berna and I went to visit my brother and cousin in DC. I was to help setup their new computer, a Dell XPS 420 (with quadcore, sweet!). On the way to DC we stopped at Manila Oriental Market to pickup Filipino food for lunch. After lunch I got started on setting up the computer (while Jackie watched Nick Toons). The system was pretty nice, I'd like to have one! The monitor was a brightscreen (glossy) 24 inch widescreen. I installed Office 2007, Quickbooks, Adobe Reader, and fixed the Vista sidebar (which disappeared after uninstalling Google tool bar). I also fixed the connection to the monitor which was hooked up to the analog port instead of the dvi port. I ran SpeedTest to check their bandwidth as they complained about the connection being slow. The SpeedTest result was just fine - I got 2.3mbps/sec down speed. I have suggested that the wireless connection (router located in another room) was the culprit, it was intermittently dropping. At 3:45 we left to make it home on time to make dinner - boneless rib eye roast - yum!
I am not much of a football fan, so while hubby and stepson watched the Super Bowl in the living room, Jackie and I rocked out in the basement.
N.Y. Giants won, and I completed Rock Back in Medium level.
After shower Jackie Berna and I went to visit my brother and cousin in DC. I was to help setup their new computer, a Dell XPS 420 (with quadcore, sweet!). On the way to DC we stopped at Manila Oriental Market to pickup Filipino food for lunch. After lunch I got started on setting up the computer (while Jackie watched Nick Toons). The system was pretty nice, I'd like to have one! The monitor was a brightscreen (glossy) 24 inch widescreen. I installed Office 2007, Quickbooks, Adobe Reader, and fixed the Vista sidebar (which disappeared after uninstalling Google tool bar). I also fixed the connection to the monitor which was hooked up to the analog port instead of the dvi port. I ran SpeedTest to check their bandwidth as they complained about the connection being slow. The SpeedTest result was just fine - I got 2.3mbps/sec down speed. I have suggested that the wireless connection (router located in another room) was the culprit, it was intermittently dropping. At 3:45 we left to make it home on time to make dinner - boneless rib eye roast - yum!
I am not much of a football fan, so while hubby and stepson watched the Super Bowl in the living room, Jackie and I rocked out in the basement.
N.Y. Giants won, and I completed Rock Back in Medium level.
Friday, February 1, 2008
"The Chance Band"
My Rock Band replacement guitar arrived yesterday. Some people in the EA forum reported that they have received refurbished replacement (identified by scratches), and that the guitars were defective. After dinner, I unpacked the guitar for visual inspection - I wanted to check if I received a refurbished one. No, it was a brand new guitar.
Don got home from work at around 7 last night and after fixing him dinner, I started to watch Wowowee. But Jackie wanted to watch something else so I had to find something that she would enjoy (she pretty much likes anything in Boomerang). I decided to wait until the weekend to test the guitar since I have plenty of time to return the faulty one before they tack me with the $125 charge for the replacement hardware. At around 9:15 Jackie asked to play Rock Band (music to my ears) - since it was close to her bedtime (at 10) I told her I'd play with her today instead. With her precious facial expression she said, "But I can't wait" - LOL. I told her okay, but we would play only until 10 p.m. I guess I did not have to wait until the weekend to test the new guitar. In our previous games we played the quick play multi-player. But last night I decided to start a band tour which we had to create our band and figure out a band name. I asked Jackie what she wanted to name our band, and without hesitation she exclaimed "Chance band.... THE Chance band" (named after her cat). We both had to create our own rock persona (gender, name, outfit, hairstyle, and attitude). She was the lead vocalist and I played the guitar. We played 6 songs, then it was bedtime.
Jackie, lead singer
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