That's Punny!

Man this is just punny!

I Haven't Disappeared!!!

Ok so a friend of mine (deanster) wrote on my facebook wall today and told me I had disappeared. I'll admit I haven't been on IM as much as normal, but that's because I've been travelling. So without further adeiu here is what I've been up to for the past week and a half. (Yeah some of this is in previous posts, but consider this the Readers' Digest version for those who haven't read them.)

Saturday June 17

My dad, my boss and my boss' family went to see the Cubs play the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley. AT&T had given us tickets for their mezzanine suite which was awesome. Free food, free drinks and an awesome view of the game. Unfortunately the Cubs got pounded, but as a Cubs fan I'm used to that this season. After the game I drove to St. Louis and spent the night at the Hilton by the airport so that I could catch my 8am flight to Vegas for my Networkers conference.

Sunday June 18

After a very short night in the hotel (I got to St. Louis around 1am.), I caught my flight to Vegas. When I got into town I checked in and studied a bit for my certification exam that I was taking that night as part of the conference. I'm happy to say that I passed the test so I'm now a Cisco Qualified Specialist in Firewalls. It's the second test of 5 that I plan on taking to earn my Cisco Certified Security Professional certification.

Monday - Friday

During the week I attended the conference classes and convention floor stuff. I took the monorail down the strip a couple of times for dinner and found Gelato in the Venetian. I didn't win anything in the casinos, but I won a personal DVD player at the Websense booth. :-)

Saturday June 25

I took a plane to Phoenix and met up with my old college friend Pat who lives down there now. He's a science teacher for a charter school in Scottsdale. We caught up and had dinner that night and then both crashed early since he had just flown back from a competition with his students.

Sunday June 26th

Ah Sunday, what a wonderful experience. Pat and I went to St. Timothy's in Mesa for Mass. St. Timothy's is the birthplace of Life-Teen and amongst their parish musicians two names tend to stand out... Tom Booth and Matt Maher :-) It was a very upbeat Mass and you could just feel the spiritual energy from the congregation. Everyone was participating in the Mass, it was awesome. Man I wish I lived in Mesa.

Monday June 27th

Flew back to STL and proceeded to stop at my apartment long enough to unpack and repack. Then I picked up my boss and went to Chicago for the night so we could hit a NetworkWorld expo the next morning.

Tuesday June 28th

Got back home around 1am from Chicago. Thankfully the deer all stayed off the road. It was good to be back in my own bed, but it was all too short before the alarm went off. Of course that brings us to the present which is bedtime. Time to hit the hay and do it all over again tomorrow... well not the travel, but work.

See Deana I didn't disappear, just got busier than normal!

Lyrical Thought #21

To All the Girls I've Loved Before

by Willie Nelson

To all the girls I've loved before
Who travelled in and out my door
I'm glad they came along
I dedicate this song
To all the girls I've loved before
To all the girls I once caressed
And may I say I've held the best
For helping me to grow
I owe a lot I know
To all the girls I've loved before
The winds of change are always blowing
And every time I try to stay
The winds of change continue blowing
And they just carry me away
To all the girls who shared my life
Who now are someone else's wives
I'm glad they came along
I dedicate this song
To all the girls I've loved before
To all the girls who cared for me
Who filled my nights with ecstasy
They live within my heart
I'll always be a part
Of all the girls I've loved before
The winds of change are always blowing
And every time I try to stay
The winds of change continue blowing
And they just carry me away
To all the girls we've loved before
Who travelled in and out our doors
We're glad they came along
We dedicate this song
To all the girls we've loved before
To all the girls we've loved before
Who travelled in and out our doors
We're glad they came along
We dedicate this song
To all the girls we've loved before

Lyrical Thought #20

Taste of Heaven

by Tom Booth

Verse

Throughout all of history you have had a choice.
Throughout all of history there has been a voice
calling you and me to the jubilee,
calling you and me to the jubilee.
But it comes down to this:
God can understand your questions.
God can understand your doubts.
But don't you want a world that's bigger than you,
bigger than your pride and all that you try to hide?

Refrain:

Don't you want a taste, a taste of heaven?
Taste the bread of life.
Don't you run away, away from heaven!
Receive the love of Christ,
who sacrificed his life.

Verse

You may struggle with addiction.
You may not love yourself at all.
But God can calm the storm within you and me,
and his love has conquered sin and evil.
Come and be set free!

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of all the world.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of all the world.

And on this jubilee,
Christ gives his body, blood, soul and divinity,
for the forgiveness of our sins.
And many, sage and saint, have tired
to contemplate this truth,
but it comes down to this:

Bye Bye Vegas... Hello Phoenix

Well I'm sitting at the Las Vegas airport waiting for my flight to Phoenix. Last night I had plenty of time to do whatever I wanted as the conference was over. I went to eat at Quarks Restaurant in the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton. Had a very nice waitress. I think that she could tell I was a little bummed to be eating alone. She was a real sweet heart. Now the Andorian that was walking around on the other hand told me I should never travel alone in the galaxy (ok so it was someone acting like an Andorian and yes I realize that it's sad I could remember which species of alien she was supposed to be).

Thankfully tonight I'll be meeting up with a friend in Phoenix which should make for a more enjoyable evening. Well it's time to join the Southwest shuffle and get into line to hopefully get a good seat.

Networkers is Almost Over

One more day long session to go and Networkers 2006 will be history. Last night they had the customer appreciation party at UNLV which was pretty fun. They had live music, battle bots and lots of free food. Most people are headed home today, but there are still probably 1,000 of the 10,000 sticking around for the intense one day course on various topics that they have today. I'm going to one on Network Admission Control (NAC) today. Basically NAC allows the network to scan a new computer before giving it access to make sure it's virus free and has all of the newest OS patches. Should be interesting as long as the presenter isn't dry.

Stopped by the Star Trek Experience last night to pick up some stuff various people have requested I bring back. should enjoy his surprise from there.

Tomorrow I'm flying out around lunch time to Phoenix and then spending two nights in Phoenix visiting a friend from college and getting a chance to go to St. Tim's again in Mesa. Someday I know that I won't have to travel this far for an upbeat liturgy of this nature, but for now I'll get my fix when I can.

Viva Las Vegas

Watch out Vegas, the geeks are coming the geeks are coming. :-)

Well it's that time of year again. Cisco Networkers conference. I'm staying in the Hilton right on the strip which is cool. I took another professional certification test today and passed so I only have three more for my CCSP.

Countdown to Vegas

Let's see, between now and Sunday morning when I leave for Las Vegas I have:

2 days of work
Guitar Lesson
Packing
Laundry
Study for Cisco ASA and Pix Firewall Test
Go to Cubs Game
Drive to STL after Cubs Game

eek, what was I thinking when I scheduled myself?

Come Holy Spirit!

Well today was the Mass I talked about earlier in my blog. Wow it was great. The congregation really seemed to like what was going on. Hopefully this starts a trend!

Cardinals Trivia...

Q. Which team was the first team to win a series against the Cardinals in the new Busch Stadium?

A. The Chicago Cubs.

Baby Steps

Cubs Win! Yet another small step towards respectability.

Enjoying the Small Victory

Cubs Win! Yeah I know we're still way out of it, but I have to take what I can get.