Doing Well

Did you miss me? I know only about 4 people stop by here any more but I gotta put something up for you guys every now and then.

Things have been going surprisingly well lately. I'm doing well in my grad courses but they do take up a lot of my spare time. Luckily, I had some PTO I had to use or lose so it allowed me to get ahead right now. I'm busy writing papers, which I found can be really tedious. But you do what you have to.

Things are going well on the career front also. To make a long story short, I was asked to relinquish my old role as Desktop Support Manager and instead take over the role as eSupport Supervisor. I'd been "filling in" for that role for about a year. I don't want to make it sound as if I had no choice in the matter, but the alternative was not in my best interest. However, as I always say, the Lord puts me where I need to be when I need to be there. Now that a few weeks have gone by, I've realized that my old job wasn't the best fit for me. I'm having fun again at work and enjoy doing my job again. Certainly there's many challenges and the stress of performing to expectations, but my new boss and the director are actually supporting me in this new role, which makes a big difference. And I'm back to direct customer support, something I didn't realize I'd missed until I started doing it again. I found I really enjoy getting my hands dirty, so to speak. I pity my staff as they really have no idea what they're in for. I beleive the team needs to make changes to become better and am going to challenge many of the things they've been doing up to now. And I know they'll be able to do what I'm asking them because I'm going to be doing that myself. If I can do it, so can they. They think I don't understand their challenges, but I'm going to show them I not only understand, but I can overcome them by focusing on the customer. You just watch.

The wife and the boys are doing well. It's kind of odd to have them both in middle school now. Christopher is getting to be the age where he's too cool for whatever room he's in. He's certainly too cool to acknowledge his little brother in the hall at school. They're both still busy with school and after school activities. Wrestling season starts up soon so Ellen will be running her little butt off going to meets. Good thing I got her a GPS. Halloween was a blast. Both boys went out with friends and afterwards they all converged on our house to trade candy. They'd all dumped their bags into piles on the floor and franticly tried to switch out candy the didn't like for the really good stuff. It was kind of funny, if a little loud. After the trading was done, we promptly confiscated the boys' candy bags to put on our highest closet shelf to prevent them from eating 9 or 1o candy bars a night while "going to sleep". Which is exactly what happened last year. They're on a strict one candy with lunch, one candy for treat a day regimen. I know, we're so mean. Oh, and Ellen and I get to raid their stash whenever we want.

Other than that, not much new going on. Halloween was Grasshopper's birthday so he's 11 now. We have the family party this weekend. He's looking forward to cake and presents. As always, it will be pretty crazy until after Christmas, when I'm sure we'll get a 3 or 4 day break before it all starts up again. I'll keep in touch.

Roughing it

First of all, thanks to you that have showed me your support from my last post. It is greatly appreciated.

So this weekend was a big Boy Scout camping weekend. We planned to go to the Herkimer Diamond Mine for the annual Scout Jamboree. The scouts spend a day mining and learning everything they need to get their Geology merit badge. We'd gone there last year with Grasshopper's cub scout den and he'd put together this big powerpoint presentation to get the troop to go. So the boys voted and decided to make the trip. All told, we were part of over 1000 scouts from 7 states to partcipate this weekend. It was crazy!

So how was the weather, you ask? Well, it was raining on the drive out Friday night. We left at about 5:30 pm so by the time we got there (about a 2.5 hour drive) it was dark. When we got there, the rain let up just long enough so we could set up tents and our rain flys for cooking by the light of our vehicle headlights and then tuck in for the night at about 10 pm. Sometime over night it began to rain again as we woke up to rain.

And the rain didn't stop. Not through breakfast. Not through lunch. We made the mistake of putting one tent in a low area and the rain flys nearby. Below, you can see the result:




The green tent on the left was about 6 feet to the right at the beginning of the morning. And we'd already moved 2 rain flys, both of which would have had feet in the middle of that lake.

We were seriously miserable by that point. However, fortune smiled on us by about 4 pm, the rain stopped. And basically didn't return. The skies didn't clear until overnight, but we were able to get a campfire going and spent about 3 or 4 hours after dinner sitting in front of it, drying out.

So overall, we actually had a good time. All the boys got their merit badges, we didn't get totally soaked, and we had some good chow. (As a side note, one of the dad's, on the insistance of the scouts, brought Korean marinated venison that was some of the best meat I've ever eaten!). I'm looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight but the weekend wasn't so bad after all.

Where I've been

Many things have been going on, but truthfully, there's not much I've wanted to post. Just didn't want to say anything. However, it's been a very crazy week at work. A lot has gone on and truthfully, I didn't want to put it up on the internet. However, I think a few of my trusted readers (you know who you are) would want to know. So if you'd like hear the story, email me and I can send it to those of you I really trust. Again, you know who you are.

Peace, kiddies, peace.

It's getting better all the time

What a roller coaster ride I've been on! As early as last Friday, I was ready to give up on the whole MBA. Good thing I've got a great spouce that can talk me off the edge. Or at least, listen long enough to let me talk myself off the edge. I'm feeling much better now that I've got a lot of the work for this module done. I've got one major case study complete (at least 1st draft) and am doing the background work for the second. The instructor FINALLY announced the working groups so I'm pinging my classmates to know who I'm working with. It's due end of next week but at least I've put together a lot of data and can start to see it coallescing into an answer. I got the first grade back on one of my assignments and got a 100! Perhaps I'm just overachieving with this MBA but dammit I want to do well!

Things at work have been crazy. Again, I had to be talked off the edge as the load of running two team that both need 110% of my time nearly crushed me. I had to call my new boss one day and tell him I was near the burnout point. Today he let me know we're very close to getting the posting up to hire a dedicated supervisor for the one team and that once I transition those duties, I won't be involved with that team at all. YAY!!!!! Beyond that, there's the usual issues but I'm coping pretty well.

My bike hasn't shown up yet. Or, rather, I should say that FedEx attempted to deliver my bike today at 9:41 in the morning when no one was home. Since it requires a signature, they didn't leave it. I called FedEx to arrange for pickup and had to explain what I wanted to the rep a couple of times. She kept telling me that they would try to deliver it again tomorrow. When I asked what would happen if I wasn't home, and they said they'd try to deliver it the next day. So instead of playing this game of tag, I wanted just to pick it up myself. When I stated this, the rep said that they would try and deliver it again tomorrow. I came very close to getting upset with this person, and perhaps did get a little snippy, but when I explained that I wanted to AVOID all of this unnecessary "trying to deliver it" she finally said she'd put in a request for pickup and I could call tomorrow morning to verify it was at the local facility. So I'll have my new toy very soon.

I'm currently travelling back from Schenectady by train and looking forward to getting home. I get to be pretty productive but I'm getting tired of looking at my computer screen. It's time to rest my brain a little as it's been working pretty hard lately. On a side note, BOTH the boys made the middle school jazz band! Grasshopper auditioned as a trombone player. Mind you, he plays the baritone, which isn't "allowed" in jazz band (don't get me started). So over the summer I borrowed a trombone from a band mate, his summer lesson instructor showed him the positions, and he practiced on his own to get good enough to make the jazz band as a sixth grader! How's THAT for a talented little musician! Mom and Dad are very proud of him.

Until next time peoples! As my one professor told me, "Stay human!"

About time

Yay! The bike I bought on eBay last week finally shipped today and should be here Saturday. Communication with the seller was slow but it turns out the person was moving and didn't have internet for a little while. They also had to disassemble the bike to get it in the box. Hopefully it's not going to be like the commercial where the dad has a zillion pieces to put together the bike and is scratching his head.

I've been totally stressing out over the last week between work and school. I was ready to curl up and call it quits a couple of times (mostly with school) but I'm hanging in there. I had to make the cry for help to my boss last week. I seldom come out and say I can't take it, but I was very close to severe burnout trying to run two teams that both need 100% of my attention right now. It's better, but not by much. Still, my boss is working on the situation and hopefully it will be resolved soon.

The two case studies I need to complete in the next 2 and a half weeks are making me crazy. One I have almost no idea where to start. The other, I wasn't sure what to do so I decided to just start writing. As I'm going, things are coming to me so we'll see how that turns out. With the first one, we're going to work in groups so I'm kind of waiting to see how that goes. You might think 2 and a half weeks is a long time, but considering I want the papers complete by the Sunday of that week so I can take the required quizzes and read up for the next module (5 chapters in each course to read!), if I don't stay ahead of the game, I'm behind.

Perhaps I'm putting too much pressure on myself to overachieve, but right now it's the only way I can make sure I've done everything I need to do to get a good grade. Thank God working out actually takes some of the stress away and keeps me off the edge. And as soon as I get my new bike, I'll have something else to keep me sane until the snow comes.

Just about every free moment I have is taken up with the kids and school work, so about the only chance I have for blog surfing is about 10 minutes during lunch at work. See you when I can!

Ray of Sunshine

It's been crazy busy at the Franco house with all the boys (including me) in school right now. All of my spare time at home is spent on their activities or school, with a little time for some biking and the Wife mixed in.

Today I have a big ray of sunshine bursting through the gloom of Monday morning work craziness. If you recall from a few posts ago, I was looking to get a very nice white with red Gary Fisher mountain bike. Well, it turns out that the 2010 models are out and they don't make them in white any longer. And there are no white 2009's to be had anywhere as they sold out of them. So I put up a picture of a gray one on my screen at work to get myself used to having a different color.

Well, Ellen and I were looking at bikes this weekend and on a lark I went to eBay and searched for that model. Guess what? I found one in my size, in white, only 3 months old and ridden twice! A vertiable "old lady that only drove it on Sundays" kind of find! And the price was highly resonable! So guess who got the bike he REALLY wanted? Yup. Me!

Now I can't wait to get it! I'm more excited about getting this bike than when I bought my last guitar. I even put the picture of it back up on my screen at work. I've been grinning like a fool all day when I think about it. What can I say, small things make me happy.

Too tired to blog

That's been me this week. School's started for 3/4 of the house. I've been busy getting ahead on my reading for my 2 MBA courses. Classes "officially" kick off Monday but the site went live with them including our assignments on Labor Day. Both boys began school this week. Grasshopper started Middle School and is very excited. I'm sure by next week we'll be in full swing with activities and such.

We had a fun Labor Day weekend. On Sunday we took a boat tour of the Erie Canal that was a blast. We got to travel through a lock as part of the tour and that was totally cool. We also went mountain biking on Monday. Ellen's niece's husband works for a bike shop and brought along a bike similar to the one I want to get. It was awesome and I can't wait to get my hands on one! Christopher went on the trails with us and had a fun time. We did some biking on the canal path on Saturday and that was fun as well. All in all, a good holiday weekend.

I'm sure posting and reading blogs will be infrequent as most of my spare time will be devoted to school. One of the courses I'm taking is Acccounting and Finance and the book is already starting to blow my mind. I'm not terribly good at that stuff but luckily Ellen's an accounting major so I've got some backup! I have to get her to explain present values of annuities to me because I don't understand the concept at all of how when you win the lottery for $10 million you only end up with $4.5 million.

Anyway, tomorrow's the annual Autism Walk so we'll be busy with that and Sunday is "homework day" for me so stay well kiddies!