Family

My 38th Birthday

Well today is my 38th birthday just two years away from 40….no big deal to me, growing old is just a part of life.

Yesterday was one of the hottest days of the summer and the AC wasn’t working at work all day. It got up to 94 degrees in my office very hot. The repair guy didn’t get here till 5pm. It was a blown fuse from a grounded fan.

I’ve been busy with server upgrades and getting things ready for the La Vigna picnic on July 30th. The 4th of July party turned out great. We had a clam boil going with clams, potatoes, muscles, lobsters and a lot of old bay We also had the usual stuff as well. Everyone had a blast.

I have upgraded one of our main file servers and our Internet server that runs our mail, web and ftp services at work to CentOS 4 “The Community ENTerprise Operating System” which is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution that is based on SRPMS provided by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor with the initials of RH. It is a good distro and allows me to load a lot of newer versions of software. The next one is going to be firewall so I can upgrade to the new version of “Checkpoint NG”.

On the home front Avery had her dance recital on fathers day weekend and she did an excellent job. I think she could make it on the dance team in the next few years if she really works at her dancing. We signed her up for Ballet, Jazz and Hip Hop for next year. Right now she is off from dance camp till the first week of August.

Carolyn is doing well and getting read to go on her trip to DC with her sister next month.

Waiting for the family to start rolling in for picnic week and heading to the shore….

Well that’s all I got so far for today will try to up date a little more often then I have been…..

OS upgrade server and dancing……

Spent the day working on little projects and getting ready to build a “temp” server. I have to upgrade 2 servers from Red Hat 7.2 to RHEL 4. So I need a server up and running while I do the upgrade to transfer the data and services while I upgrade the OS. This way I don’t have to rush the builds and can get everything right.

Avery’s last day at Lawrence Intermediate School was today. She got on the honor roll all 4 marking periods and had good report cards all year. So we took her out for dinner at the Chines Buffet after we got some stuff done.

Spent the night working on getting billing done for the business and getting the ticket count figured out for the LUG/IP baseball night.

Tomorrow night starts the beginning of Dance Recital week. Avery has a dress rehearsal and then her first performance is on Friday night and second on Sat. My parents come to town on Sat for it. So it should be fun…

It’s done and now let the parties begin

Well the yearbook is done and off to the printers. Now I can focus on the Memorial Day party on Sat. So the run to Sam’s Club is tonight. Tomorrow is set up the sound system and start getting things ready to move out side. We should have a good party this year. No theme for this one but I have some big ideas for the 4th of July party.

Sunday Carolyn and I go to Sachdeep’s wedding reception and it sounding like it’s going to be a great time, I am looking forward to good Indian food and a good time with friends. Most of the people I hang out with at work will be at my party and the wedding so it will be fun. So my congratulations go out to Schadeep and his lovely bride.

Yes it’s been a while.

Well another month has just flown by and I am 9 days into the new one already. Between work and research on the comic book store January got a way from me. We have hired a consultant to look into the feasibility of opening a store in this area. All they do is comic/pop culture store consulting and were recommended by about 2 dozen comic shop owners I talked to from around the US. We figured it would be better to pay his price to tell us yes or no on the store then lose all our money opening a store that has no chance of making money. So I have been running around getting some of the info he needs.

Work has been busy as well. I have been working on implementing IRM to do computer/software inventory. I am also going to use it for call management and a knowledge base so I don’t get the same questions all the time. This will also let me track projects and support calls electronically instead of a ton of post-it notes all over my desk.

I set my folks up with e-mail address on the bilancio.org domain. Yesterday I got 4 e-mails from my mother before lunch. This is major because she has been a computer novice big time, other then a lot of typos she is picking it up pretty fast. Dad has a slight cold and decided to go to the ER in Casa Grande to get some better meds then what he could get over the counter at the drug store. They said he had no fluid in his lungs and just gave him some antibiotics.

Avery got all A’s and B’s on her report card this semester and I am very proud of her this year. She is enjoying school and is growing up fast..turning into a teenager and has the attitude to go along with it. I have signed up to chaperon her trip to NYC with her class. I hope I don’t go nuts with all those kids. I will try not embarrass her to much, well maybe a little. 🙂

So that is all the news that is fit to print here at casa bilancio…….

Christmas 2004 come and gone

Well Christmas has come and gone. We had a nice holiday here in Lawrenceville. My parents came down from Bath, NY to celebrate with us before there cross country trip. We all received nice things. Avery got a new computer the last of the Bilancios in this house to get her own computer. To see pictures of it go here.

The rest of the day was fun. My mom and I spent most of the day in the kitchen cooking a nice dinner. It also took us about 2 hours to open gifts and just to sit around and enjoy the morning. Pictures of the morning are here.

It’s been awhile

Well since last I typed. My aunt Clora and I have traveled to Cleveland to be with my parents when my dad had a heart valve replacement at the Cleveland Clinic. All went well and he made it home a week after the surgery. My aunt and I spent 2 hours the day after the surgery at the Rock n Roll hall of Fame. It was great, even though we skipped all the multi media stuff. I am planing on going back with Carolyn and Avery and spend more time. I think it would take 2 days to see everything at the hall.

Have spent a lot of time working on getting my consulting business up and going. I have a little more paper work to get done then I can get going legal. Got the basement cleaned out and 1/2 the work bench built and up. I still have to get some more wood to make the other 1/2.

The rest of the time has been spent working and getting ready for Thanksgiving and the holidays. We are breaking tradition and inviting all the family since my dad is going to be down and people want to see him since the surgery.

Got the NYC office moved but they are without telephone and Internet service because MCI messed the order up. I am on the phone constantly with them trying to get it fixed. I finally got a manager who doesn’t have his head up his ass and is getting things done. So hopefully it will be resolved and up and running this week.

I will be trying to post a little more then I have been. I did get a few old posts from 2000 moved over from and old Blog account I had. They are interesting because it was the time I was switching jobs from Elcom to Arora.

Busy busy and more busy and now throw in a trip to Cleavland in a few weeks….

Spent the last few weeks trying to get ready for the winter and my trip to Cleveland (more on that in a bit). For the last few weekends, I have been into work either getting the “Big Cube” cleaned or working converting a few machines from 98 to XP. I have been to NYC a few times. Twice to the new office space and a third to get the tape backup installed on the NYC server. It looks like I will be going to NYC a lot between now and the trip. We are moving the office from mid-town down to the financial district. From the new office suite, we can look right down into the World Trade Centers hole. It will be interesting watching them convert it into the park. I have taken the Path train from Newark to the WTC site now 2 times not a bad way to get into the city. I will miss Penn Station.

Now the trip to Cleveland…

(more…)

Weekend News

Finished up the LPI 101 class on Saturday and took the test. I think over all there will be a 75% pass rate. If you were relying on just what was covered in the class and didn’t study on your won then you would not have passed.

My parents were in town for Robert Immordino’s 90th birthday party on Sunday. So we took them out for dinner to celebrate Terry’s birthday on Wednesday. Took them to the Blue Claw Crab Shack. Everyone had a good time and the food was excellent.

Robert’s birthday party was good..for a guy who just turned 90 he has the energy of a 60 year old. I hope if I live that long I have the same energy. Saw some cousins I don’t usually get to see. The age difference in the crowd was very even. From 4 to 90 with a lot of ages in between.

On the Labor Day party front got a bushel of #1 crabs ordered for Sunday. mmmmm…crabs

Been a busy few weeks

I have been busy at work, home and in the Linux Group. We started our training classes 2 weeks ago and the test is this Sat. I have not even had time to study for the test. Today I am working on a new server for work as well as trying to study.

Carolyn and Avery have been taking it easy the last few weeks as Avery gets ready for school to start. Today is a mall day for them so they will get exercise and spend money….

Getting into planing mode for the Labor Day party we are throwing on 9/5/04. The usual food will be served with the addition of crabs. I am trying to hunt down a place close by that sells them. I am going over to the Crab Shack this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon to see what they can get me. They would be the easiest to get them from since they are right around the corner.

Parents roll into town again this weekend for Terry’s Uncle Bob’s 90th Birthday. We are going to take terry out for dinner on Sat night to celebrate his birthday which is on the 1st.

That’s it for now……

Back to work from a decent Vacation

Well after a good week in Bath with Avery at my parents it’s back to work and time to get some things done.

The week in Bath was good. I got to see some good friends Lorie Crocker, Sherman Lyke and Andy Bremen. We all got together on Wed night at the Rockwell Museum of Western Art for a nice patio party. A good band was playing and the beer was good as well as the Margaritas from what I was told. Then we went to the Wood-house for some good bar food and some more drinks an conversation. It was good seeing them. I was glad Sherm and I got a little time to talk, it had been too long. I found out a lot of info on some of the people I use to hang out with and what they are doing. It is always good to reconnect with people you use to hang with while in school. It was hard leaving bath this time because I did have a real good time….hey a good bonus about going to bars in NY state is that there is no smoking so I didn’t smell like a big but…

Well back to work…