You don't ever really like to hear your doctor say "ewww" when he looks at your throat. Well, we all came down with sore throats this weekend, and Ellie tested positive for strep. The pediatrictian prescribed Amoxicillin for Ellie and Mom, and I went to see my doctor today. He asked me how I was feeling, checked my ears, listened to me breathe, then went to go look at my throat... "ewww" is the exact quote. "Oh!" was his med-student's followup. I thought about posting a picture of my throat, but decided that wouldn't really be nice to anyone who reads blogs around meal time.
He did have good news, though. "Looks like you've lost 4 pounds since we saw you last." Huh. I think not eating for the past two and a half days made me lose at least 4 pounds.
Well, Mom and Ellie are feeling better already after 24 hours of antibiotics. I hope I'll feel better tomorrow morning, too.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Monday, June 20, 2005
Father's Day
Happy Father's Day!
To all the fathers out there, a big congratulations. I think being a father is one of the most important things I'm doing right now, and one of the hardest. So, I have to tip my hat to all the other fathers going through the same worries, hopes, frustrations, and joys that I am.
Here's my favorite part about being a father:
As for Father's Day, itself, my wife spoiled me wonderfully! She arranged for me to go out with some fellow dads for lunch, beer, and the ever-so-rare movie. We loved it. Meanwhile, she and the moms watched the children at our place. Sounds like they had a fine time, too, but it sure was nice to let myself be distracted from my daughter for a few hours.
But when I came home, the best part of Father's Day was sitting on the floor in the front room, playing... and signing "Dad!" eagerly as I came in the front door! Aparently, she'd been signing for me ever since waking up from her nap. ;-) Kids.... ;-)
To all the fathers out there, a big congratulations. I think being a father is one of the most important things I'm doing right now, and one of the hardest. So, I have to tip my hat to all the other fathers going through the same worries, hopes, frustrations, and joys that I am.
Here's my favorite part about being a father:
As for Father's Day, itself, my wife spoiled me wonderfully! She arranged for me to go out with some fellow dads for lunch, beer, and the ever-so-rare movie. We loved it. Meanwhile, she and the moms watched the children at our place. Sounds like they had a fine time, too, but it sure was nice to let myself be distracted from my daughter for a few hours.
But when I came home, the best part of Father's Day was sitting on the floor in the front room, playing... and signing "Dad!" eagerly as I came in the front door! Aparently, she'd been signing for me ever since waking up from her nap. ;-) Kids.... ;-)
Sunday, June 19, 2005
On Call
Being "On Call" for work is a strange thing, especially in my particular area of IS. I work in Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. These systems aren't particularly "mission critical," as it were, which means that if they aren't available, people are inconvenienced in their work, but the company doesn't start losing money immediately.
First, the really silly part about being on call: all the text pages that say something to effect of "Everything went fine! Just wanted to let you know that the regularly scheduled 3AM backup ran just fine... again... for the 74th time in a row." Arg. How about you ONLY tell me when something goes WRONG!?
The other part of being on call is that you get to verify and sign-off on the work that administrators are doing to the systems managed by our group. Typically, this means making sure the database administrators are doing what they're supposed to be doing -- changes to database tables, permissions, etc. Now, here's the odd thing. We do these changes ONLY on the weekend, and sometimes ONLY in the middle of the night. Take tonight for instance, here I sit at 12:30 AM, waiting for a DBA to make some VERY simple changes to database views. My wife is sitting next to me wondering:
Why couldn't they do this at a reasonable time of day?
Why does my husband have to "check out" their work?
Why do they have so many conference calls?
It's not like you're a surgeon, on call for something important.
She's absolutely right. But, even though we're not a "mission critical" system, the 6,000 some users of our system still expect to have it up and running while they're working.
I do agree, though, that it's pretty silly that I have to sit and check every little thing that the DBAs and SAs do. If something weird does happen... then call me. Or, just wait until Monday so that someone can fix it at work. (Other people come in before me, so they can fix it.) ;-)
First, the really silly part about being on call: all the text pages that say something to effect of "Everything went fine! Just wanted to let you know that the regularly scheduled 3AM backup ran just fine... again... for the 74th time in a row." Arg. How about you ONLY tell me when something goes WRONG!?
The other part of being on call is that you get to verify and sign-off on the work that administrators are doing to the systems managed by our group. Typically, this means making sure the database administrators are doing what they're supposed to be doing -- changes to database tables, permissions, etc. Now, here's the odd thing. We do these changes ONLY on the weekend, and sometimes ONLY in the middle of the night. Take tonight for instance, here I sit at 12:30 AM, waiting for a DBA to make some VERY simple changes to database views. My wife is sitting next to me wondering:
Why couldn't they do this at a reasonable time of day?
Why does my husband have to "check out" their work?
Why do they have so many conference calls?
It's not like you're a surgeon, on call for something important.
She's absolutely right. But, even though we're not a "mission critical" system, the 6,000 some users of our system still expect to have it up and running while they're working.
I do agree, though, that it's pretty silly that I have to sit and check every little thing that the DBAs and SAs do. If something weird does happen... then call me. Or, just wait until Monday so that someone can fix it at work. (Other people come in before me, so they can fix it.) ;-)
Monday, June 13, 2005
Pics, Boston, MIT
I didn't realize that the Boston area has more than 50 universities and colleges! Wow! Anyway, we just got back from a trip to Boston for Sarahlynn's work. Grandma Lester came with us for fun! And we all had a great time. Pictures are already online. ;)
And all that after being gone for a couple of days on my own business trip to Informatica World 2005. I think Boston was more fun!
And all that after being gone for a couple of days on my own business trip to Informatica World 2005. I think Boston was more fun!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
