Still living in Atlanta
A quick update:
Not much is happening, except work work work. I guess if we don't watch out, we'll be the dull boys on the block. I am still flying to Chicago every week. I have reverted to a schedule where I fly midmorning on Monday and then fly back mid afternoon Friday. During the week I work till midnight almost every night, so by the time the weekend arrives, I feel like a need a break, but I still feel that I haven't completed the work I should have for the week. That makes my weekends kind of bittersweet; if I do something fun, I keep thinking of work in the back of my mind and wonder if I actually should rather be working. Last Monday (April 9) we ran the first live payroll on SAP and printed the checks on Tuesday. Tomorrow we do the next live run, for a different group of people. But I am the most nervous about the first union live run that will be on the 30th of April -- it is a bigger group of people and they have lots of rules and regulations. If you get it wrong, the union might decide to strike or make some or other big issue out of it, so you have to get it 100% right.
I often wonder why some people are so dedicated to their work and make such a personal issue of their work, while others couldn't care less. For me, and a few others, to achieve a successful project, is what drives our self esteem. I would have this truckload of guilt if I feel that at some point I did not give all I could to make this work, even if I have to compromise myself. The success of my work means the success of me. The sad part is that in a couple of months I will walk out of there and they might ruin or erase most of what I did; I don't even own the system and I care more. The other sad part is that a project is done by a team, and if everyone is not committed equally, the ones that are have to make up for those that aren't, which is okay. If you don't feel loyalty towards the team, I can understand it -- sometimes there is history behind that. What makes me angry is when someone feels that to get his/her own way is more important than achieving a team goal.
My slave station in Chicago.
Ben is working hard at getting new projects and work for EPI-USE. He was in New York City, Washington D.C., Boston and even Mexico City. He is planning a trip to St. Louis, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He claims that he gets about 50 emails a day, so its best to send them early in the morning / or late night for that matter if you want him to actually read it. EPI-USE dazzled up their web site a bit, have a look at www.epiuse.com.
On a lighter note: Spring is in the air. Atlanta is getting out of bed and dressing itself. The dogwood and cherry trees have white and pink blossoms. Everybody has pansies and tulips blooming in their gardens and even the shrubs are doing their part; the azaleas are giving an abundance of color and fragrances all over town. Last weekend, our neighbor took us for a suburban tour of some of the nicer neighborhoods, to look at the gardens and all the flowers. The weather is also nice and warm, but not too hot, so when the sun is out you want to spend all your time outside. Every now and then, you get a rainy day, like today. I planted 3 tomato plants -- I just hope they survive with my limited gardening skills.
Telavilla - Our Web Home
April 15, 2001
Ben finally installed our hi-fi. I was a bit of a mission. We built a stand quite a while ago, and played it for a while with a borrowed transformer. Then it was dormant for about 2 months. Then after some debating, Ben bought 2 transformers to step up the power from 110V to 220V. He bought 2 because if he bought the version that would output enough watts for what we need, it would have to be the same size as the hi-fi. Okay, I am exaggerating a bit, but I just don't like functional, but unsightly stuff like cables, etc. We found out that they actually feed 220V into all American homes, but split it at the distribution box, except for two outlets: the stove and the dryer. But to get an electrician out to wire another outlet for 220V would be substantially more expensive that buying transformers; these guys charge have rates of $100 an hour minimum. Then the next step was to try and hide the cables. This meant feeding the cables trough the walls, over the ceiling and down in the other side of the wall. First you have to guess where in the walls the cross beams ("studs") are, and then make holes there to pass the cables through. In the end, there were luckily only two holes unnecessarily created. Luckily Johan had bought a Rototrim a while back and he lent it to us for making the holes. Afterwards, Ben patched it up again and the only thing that is left to do is painting the patched places. At first, I was uncertain about the whole project, but I must say the end result looks quite respectable.
Ben spent the better half of yesterday and last night filling in our tax forms. We have to pay Federal taxes, plus State taxes in all States that one works in for more than 60 days. That meant Georgia and Illinois for me. Luckily we can file jointly, meaning that because we are married, we file as one family income. We got special tax breaks with the house purchase. All interest you pay on your loan is a tax deductible. In total we filled-in 10 different forms to mail out: 5 Federal, 3 Georgia and 2 for Illinois.
As some of you may know already, David is staying with us for a month or two while he has to do some work here. (He kind-of lives in Germany). It a real treat to have him around. On Friday, he made us some Thai Green Curry. He laughed at me, because it opened up my sinuses quite a bit. I like the food anyway, rice with pineapple is not included in my regular diet and my pallet enjoyed the new experience. Yesterday he made me run almost 4 miles (I walked a bit too, when he wasn't looking). Today I can feel it in my legs, but it's a good pain to have.
Yesterday evening we went down to the Chattahoochee river that flows through Atlanta, and had a small barbecue. A nice and peaceful evening.
Lunch in the Park
Dogwood Blossoms
