The World of Scott Mindeaux

BBQ coming up

I guess I was more tired that I thought. I woke up around 10:00am to the ring of my cell phone. At first I thought it was Jeffrey, but it was Anne at the school. By the time I scurried out of bed, the call went to voicemail. I called to check it. Anne needs someone to cover Pro Baking 3 on Sunday afternoon. She said she was running errands and wouldn’t be back until after 1pm. I slowly got showered and cleaned up the room. I also did a load of laundry. I was about to head out. I needed to go to Surfas and Bangkok Market to pick up some things for the IT BBQ. But before I hit Surfas, I stopped by the school to let Anne know I’ll cover the class.

I arrived at the school and Anne was on the phone (as usual). She greeted me with her usual wonderful smile as I sat down at the other desk. She asked if I got her voicemail and I said that I did and that I would be willing to cover. She was happy. I guess Rob (cute guy from the other Pro I class) wasn’t able to make it tomorrow and the 3rd class of Baking does need two TAs. I’ll be glad to see Carol. But moreover, Laura and Amy from my
Pro I class will be in this class. It will be good to see them!

While I was talking to Anne, two cute guys came in for the class that was getting underway. Jet Tila was teaching the Wok class. The two came in, smiled as they came in the door and sat themselves down. I decided I needed to get a class of water. The ice machine was in the back, so I decided I needed to go back there so I could get a glance at the guys again! I know…. I know…. no fraternizing with the students.

I went to Surfas and bought some supplies. I was there about 40 minutes. This place is like Home Depot but for cooks! Then I headed over to Bangkok Market. I was in BM for about an hour, looking for a the ingredients. I spent a good chunk of time looking at a portable butane burner that they were selling in the store. Now… normally these burner sell for like $40-$60. This one was $12.00 Now , form what I could tell, there wasn’t anything different about it that it was being sold at a much lower price point. So I bought one and two butane canisters. I think the canisters are supposed to last 1 hour per can at medium flame. Something like that. I also bought my first wok! Well…I bought two. One was a 16.5″ wok and the other 13″. The goal here is to see if the 13″ wok would work with the portable burner.

By the time I got home, it was about 6:30. Mario was still not home, but had been home. I kinda took a nap and waited to Jeffrey to call. We made plans to get together around 9pm. I got to the LAX Marriott at around 9:45 and picked Jeffery up. He was wearing shorts again and I asked if he was going to get cold. It was cooler tonite than it was last nite. He said he was fine. We drove down to Long Beach and stopped off at IN and Out for a quick bite to eat. After that, we went to Fire Island. The place was crowded and the music was loud. Just what I needed. I stepped up to the bar and started with a Cuervo Gold shot and a Bud Light. I dropped the shot down and worked on the lime slice. I needed that! By the end of the evening, I had two of those shots and 3 beers. It was time to go home. Jeffery flies back to DC tomorrow, but will be back on Friday.

Its time to go beddy bye. I’m sleepy….

T.R.A.C.K.S.

What a day it was! The gang got together for breakfast. We had our usual banter of Tower vs. Design Center discussion. Robert and Chris attended the MAT PICS/TRACKS meeting yesterday. They both briefed the group about how the process is supposed to empower the employee. I haven’t felt empowered. I have yet to submit my TRACKS report for the year.

The rest of the morning was spent setting up Curt Messlers machine. Data transfer was a bit more tricky since he has large PST files. He had upwards of 1.5G of data. I had to break them up into smaller pieces. I didn’t want risk corruption once he moved over to the Mac platform. I have some followup with him on Monday.

Friday was also a critical day in regards to my roommate. As you recall from previous entries, Kristie and I have been communicating since Mario got “let go” from Mattel. We have both been disturbed on how Mario has been dealing with his departure. Kristie let Mario know how she felt today. It was an intense email. I was a bit scared to go home. I mean, for the last two weeks, I have been trying to limit my contact with Mario, but today I was even more scared. Suffice it to say, when I got home, he wasn’t. However later in the day he did come home.

I was really tired. Jeffrey and I were supposed to go out tonite. He got held up at the conference and I was getting really tired. We decided to forgo going out.

I have quite a few errands to run tomorrow. Time for bed.

Jeeeefrey is in town

Dan is back from vacation today. We talked for a bit and he had a real good time up in Yosemite. We then talked about tickets that didn’t get done and status on projects. I started work on imaging five new systems.

Dan, Joe and I went to lunch We went to Sizzler and had the Salad Bar. I couldn’t help but notice the cute guys today. There was this guy at the next table who I swear was hitting on the guy that he was with. Then I had a plate run-in with a guy at the drink station. Must be a full moon or somethin…

After lunch I went back to imaging and while sitting in the cage, Terry Kramer and a few others walked in. I heard rumblings of how the cage would make a great data center. I then swung around in a jovial matter told Terry that he couldn’t take our wonderful space away. Then one of his companions said, Terry giveth and Terry taketh away! How true it was! I worked on Eric Hardie’s new system and got it on his desk. It took a lot longer that I had thought. I then ran into Curt Messler and told him that we will do his upgrade in the morning.

I left work around 5:50 and got home to find Scott Shui and Mario setting up a new printer for Mario. The whole time I was listening to them setting up Mario’s printer, I couldn’t help but think about my earlier conversation with Kristie today. I wonder if Scott Shui would be so helpful if he knew the whole truth…I feel sad about this.

Around 8 o’clock I went to pick up my friend Jeffrey at the LAX Marriott. We went down to Santa Monica to have dinner. Jeffrey showed up in shorts and T and I asked him if he was going to be cold. I mean he has been in the 90’s with 90% humidity back in DC. Being here in LA weather was such a treat. We walked up and down the promenade listen to all the street performers and trying to figure out where to eat. We ended up at a place called Bravo Cucina. The greeter was so happy and helpful while we were reading the menu display. It looked ok, so we sat down to dinner. Our waiter was emotionless and asked what we wanted to drink. I had a sparkling water with a slice of lime and Jeff had a sprite. We ordered our dinner. Jeff got a pasta dish and I ordered the grilled salmon over saffron risotto with spring vegetables. Well this was one of the least attractive dishes I ever ate. After about a 15 minute wait our food showed up. My dish showed up. As he waiter placed the plate in front of me, I stared at my dish. the spring vegetables were over cooked. They were limp. The risotto must have been sitting for a long time. The normal sheen associated with risotto wasn’t there. I dug in and tasted it and it was tasteless and dry. The grilled salmon was small and there was this awful orange sauce on the fish. Needless to say I was hungry and ate most of it. However, I will NEVER go back there again. Yech….

After dinner we went across the street to the bookstore. Somehow we got into a discussion of effect before cause. It turns out that Jeff almost studied Quantum Mechanics in College. He had some interested theories himself and the rest of the evening was spent discussing time travel and the theories of multiple temporal incursions. My head was spinning, but fascinated by the topic.

I dropped Jeff back at the hotel and headed home. The house was quiet and still. I came home, watched a little Star Trek and then went to bed. Tomorrow night, Jeff and I are going down to Long Beach for drinks and boy watching. Nite everyone….

That Dream Again

I had the dream again. The dream that I got up and got ready for work and was getting ready to leave…when I wake up and find out that I’m late for work. I hate that…

I got to work and I barely had a chance to sit when I had 10 emails waiting and 2 voicemails. I tackled each of the emails and attended to my voicemails. Marvin needed my expanded meeting notes from last weeks Cumulus meeting. Then there was some mystery about some requested systems for the Maple stage. Luckily, Robert stepped up to the plate and took lead on that email. Meanwhile, some folks on the 7th floor were asking where their network connection was. Whew….

After that I finally took the time to make some fresh coffee so I could wake up. I’m glad we have liquid creamer….I don’t like powdered cream. I realized that we were missing some supplies. Several packages of our special 12oz cups were gone. You see, I buy larger cups and liquid cream for our kitchen. The cups Mattel offers are like 6 or 8oz cups and its like having a shot of coffee in the morning. I like to enjoy my coffee, so I decided to bring in much larger cups. It seems others outside our area have figured out we have larger cups and have started to raid our supplies. I called facilities and asked them to put a lock on one of the cabinets so we can sure our supplies.

The next “fire” was about an order that Jim from Zones called me about. Raquel placed a quote request for 5 systems and he wanted to make sure it was ok. I noticed that there was no Applecare and that we only needed to order two 512MB DIMMS, not three. Well Jim changed the quote and sent it to Raquel. I forgot to tell Raquel that I talked to Jim. Well Raquel got upset and sent an email the “uppers” that I had changed the quote and raised the price of the quote. Needless to say, the order was placed anyway. In talking with Marvin later that day, I was just upset that we didn’t get a chance to have a discussion with Marvin before the order was placed. Marvin acknowledged this and apologized.

Josie called and asked what I was doing for lunch. She was going to Ralph’s and asked if I wanted to come along. Robert was there too. I got a sandwich, Robert some water and Josie got a burrito and Doritos. While I was in line, John Green called me and asked a personal favor. I was in line to pay and said I would get back to him when I got back to the Design Center. While walking out, Josie asked if I got a haircut. I said that I did about a week ago. Robert then said, “It’s kinda short isn’t it?” I then said, “Is it shorter than when I normally get a cut? For some reason I got all defensive. We got back and at our lunches. I couldn’t finish my sandwich and gave the other half to Joe.

I spent the rest of the afternoon allocated the remaining refresh machines to fulfill new system requests and follow up on a few tickets from the morning.

I left for class and traffic was unusually light. When I got there, Jonathan and May were already there. Jonathan was finished up getting the workstations ready. I poked my head around and said hello to Anne. She was on the phone. Jonathan was his usually perky self. May was on the couch reading a recipe. I got the food trays ready and started putting out ingredients. Class went great! It was pasta and dessert week. All the dishes were great and everyone was happy. This was the last class of four in this series. The next Basics series starts on Saturday, July 13th.

After class I got home. Mario was out with Kristie watching a movie at the OutFest Film Festival. I watched a TLC special on the Anatomy of the World Trade Center Collapse. It was a bit eerie watching the footage of the planes hitting the buildings. I thought that by now I would have become desensitized..but I find myself still filling up with emotion when I see WTC footage.

My friend Jeffrey (Jeeeeefry) is visiting from Washington DC. He is attending a Law conference at the LAX Marriott. He’ll be in town until Sunday. We’re partying it up while he’s here! Well its time for bed….nite!

Errand Day

Lazy Sunday. I didn’t get to sleep until like 5:45am this morning. Being in bed most of yesterday screwed up my sleep schedule. Its like 12:10am right now and I need to get myself to sleep or I won’t be able to wake up. I got up and did errands today. I went to Cookin Stuff for some supplies, Smart and Final and Albertsons.

It sure was a nice day today. Its was sunny and mostly clear. I wish I had gotten up earlier and just hung out outside. My friend Jeffrey will be visiting from DC next weekend so I hope to be spending time outside with him. My mom called today and wanted me to come over. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it Irvine today. Just all over Long Beach and the Southbay running errands and shopping.

I decided to write to my friend Ryan whom I met while he was still living in Hawaii. He lives up in Mountain View now. He works for a company that provides CRM software. He’s been in Cali for about 2 years now. I want to go visit him and meet him face to face. When I met him his nickname was RyRy, now its Koopa! I asked him today whey Koopa and he pointed me to his website! Go Super Mario Bros!

Well, its going to be a long week. I have school duties 2x this week. John Green and Dan Ortiz are out on vacation this week. Which means I’ll be on tickets again this week. I haven’t been able to finish my duties on the “project”. I need to get that done.

p.s. HBO is showing Six Feet Under from the beginning. Tonight’s episode (3rd from season 1) Nate continues to deal with his return to the family business..

It’s Raining Men

Oh my god. Two Saturdays in a row I have found myself sleeping in the whole day. I mean, I got up around 10:30am and was awake for a few of hours, but never left the house. I took another nap. At around 8:30 I got up and watched some TV and went online. It’s Pride weekend in West Hollywood and I told myself I didn’t want to be anywhere near there for fear of no-parking and long lines! I thought about going to Long Beach. I really want a drink and want to be around a lot of people. I went online. I looked up and noticed it was about midnight. It was too late to go anywhere.