So I finally got to move into my fully furnished apartment today, which is a nice change from the hotel. I will try to get around to taking pictures of the place soon, but I am not to sure how soon I will get to that. I am staying in Burnsville MN (Map) at a place called The Provence and it is all set up through a company called Oakwood Corporate Housing. So far I have no complaints about the place, and I don’t foresee having any. My apartment is fully furnished; dishes, towels, sheets, pillows, washer and dryer, everything. They even have some really nice paintings on the walls; they have a kind of desert western theme. The only thing that is going to make my stay here any where remotely difficult is missing Kylie.
Monthly Archives: September 2006
Bye-bye water
Every night, at the end of Kylie’s bath, Tiffany will say “Ok Kylie, are we all done? Time for the water to go bye-bye” and then she will reach down and pull the stopper so the water can drain. Well tonight as Kylie was playing in the water at the end of her bath Tiffany again asked Kylie if they were done and this time Kylie stood up and went over and pulled the plug herself and said “bye-bye” to the water.
Doctor’s visit and updates
Kylie had her latest checkup today and we are happy to report that the doctor says Kylie is doing great! He says she is still advanced for her age and that he is happy to hear of all the things she is capable of doing. I was obviously not able to attend this doctor’s appointment so Tiffany was kind enough to send me all the information. Kylie is now 30.5 inches tall (2.5 feet) and is weighing 22 pounds and 4 ounces.
Tiffany tells me that Kylie still loves to dance and will even dance in her car seat if a song with a good beat come on. We are thinking that when she gets a little older that we may enroll her in some type of dance class if she continues to show a fondness for it. She also shows a fondness for music in general and still loves the playhouse Disney songs. When Tiffany sings her “she’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes” song from on of her CDs, Kylie knows how to do the “toot toot” motion of pulling the whistle for the train and actually make the “toot toot” sound.
A while ago Tiffany bought Fridge Phonics by Leap Frog for Kylie to play with and help her learn her alphabet, and Kylie has learned how to put the letters into it and press them so it tells her what each letter is. Eventually we want to get Kylie the Word Whammer as well. She has also become very good at playing with her shape sorter and knows what shape fits into what hole. Her motor skills continue to improve as she is becoming more dexterous and is getting better at feeding herself with a spoon and a fork. She also knows the difference between a hair brush and a tooth brush and how to use them. She enjoys brushing her teeth and does so when she gets her hands on her, or Mommy’s, tooth brush. In addition Kylie’s verbal repertoire continues to grow as well. She is now starting to pronounce “issy” for Aunt Sissy, and she also says “duck” and knows that they go “quack.”
She has also reached the stage where she is learning to throw passive aggressive tantrums. This is displayed when she decides she does not want to go somewhere so she decides that she will just lie on the floor instead. In addition to this she is now learning that she can display other emotions as well. For instance when she is mad or frustrated she will hit Mommy to display it. Tiffany is trying to teach Kylie that though it is ok to be frustrated or mad and to feel those emotions, that it is not ok to hit people. So instead she is allowing Kylie to hit the floor or a pillow while she tries to figure out what it is that is frustrating Kylie. This is a difficult stage because we don’t want to discipline her for being upset and unfortunately at the time being this is the only way she has to communicate that she is feeling such things. We are hoping that as her vocabulary continues to grow that this phase will pass.
First day at TLR
Today was my first day working at the TLR site in Eagan, and I think it went pretty well. It turns out that every morning I will have a conference call with the rest of the people involved in this process, that call is at 8:30am central time, so that is how my day will start from here on out. After that Rick showed me around some and explained what was going on, and then it was right to work. Mine and Rick’s main purpose for being out here is to rebuild the TSH infrastructure. Basically this means that as equipment is shipped to Eagan from other sites or new equipment is brought in, we are responsible for setting it up. This includes receiving the shipment, making sure all components are there, making sure racks are in place, that all cable has been run to the designated location (fiber, network, power), getting the system racked, powered, and up and running. The shipment could be anything from a Sun box to Cisco networking equipment. We are also responsible for receiving port assignments and making certain that the boxes are patched both on the server side and the port side within the structured cabling runs so the machines can have access to the network. In a addition we are also responsible for initial configuration of iLo and anything else they throw at us. We are also running cable traces and other stop-gap trouble shooting that arises. I expect to learn a lot on this new position and am really looking forward to having hands on access and experience to things that I have never done or seen before.
A cemetary or two
Today on my drive to figure out where work is located I passed by Trinity Lone Oak Lutheran Church and School, which had a small cemetery behind it, so on my way back to the hotel I decided to stop and take a look. This church and cemetery is located in Eagan Minnesota at Dodd Road and Highway 55. The cemetery was established in 1880 and while some of the headstones and markers certainly show this age, many of them are fairly newer. Considering the age I was happy to see that the plots were all kept in very good condition, I think this has a lot to do with the adjoining church.
The second cemetery I cam across today is actually located basically across the highway from my hotel, and I first noticed it yesterday while looking out my window. This cemetery was the Fort Snelling National Cemetery located at 7601 34th Avenue, South in Minneapolis. This is by far the largest cemetery I have ever seen, let alone been in. I picked up a pamphlet at the visitor center to learn more, here is some of the information that was in it:
- established July 14, 1939
- situated on 436 acres
- over 4,280 burials each year
- one of the largest and most active national cemeteries in the system
- seven Medal of Honor recipients are interred here
I took a number of pictures here as well, even though the headstones all look the same I went to the very back and up on a hill and took some pictures over looking it all. I also took a number of pictures of some monuments that I found that were dedicated to different battalions and regiments and such. I also took some pictures from out my hotel window on the seventh floor so you can see what my original view of it was.
All of the pictures of the above two places will eventually be added to the gallery under the cemeteries section, once they are up I will post a note and a link.
Learning my way
Today I decided that it would be a good idea to make sure that I can find my way from the hotel to work, and it’s a good thing that I did. As it turns out there is a major detour in my driving route as 494 is closed. Even with that though the drive should only take about 15 minutes, of course that might change with traffic conditions in the morning, I will have to see. I know work at the Thomson West building, which is the main location for what we refer to as TLR. I took some pictures of the outside of the building from the parking lot (they will be up later) to show how large this place is, and it should be considering we employ 7000 people.
I also finally got around to taking some pictures of my truck in the parking lot, seeing as there was basically no one else around, I thought it would be a good time to do it. I will have all of those pictures up later as well.
A long drive
Well after a long drive that ended up being about 12 hours long I have finally made it out to Minnesota. The trip itself was just about 660 miles, but with an hour stop for lunch and a few stops for gas and a few more to stretch it became a 12 hour trip. It wasn’t bad, the weather was nice and clear and I didn’t hit to much traffic or construction along the way either. Traveling through four states gave the opportunity to enjoy the satellite radio my new truck has as well. I drove below Chicago so I was able to bypass all the traffic and construction going on there, and I think it also saved me some money on tolls, as i only paid $1.60 in tolls for the entire trip. I owe that to AAA as I went and got a trip-tik from them and they suggested bypassing Chicago. The hotel is nice, but I am already looking forward to going to my apartment on Wednesday as I am not very found of living out of a suitcase. I will have pictures of my suite and the hotel up shortly so you can see how the company is treating me. I have to admit that the Embassy Suites are nice, but then again for the price they should be, the room costs $127 per night.
Half a decade…
We will never forget the sacrifices that were made this day, or the people who made them. Half a decade has come and our resolve has not wavered, and though we may not all agree with the situation at hand, we have persevered. Our God has strengthen us gave us aide, He will guide us ever on as the path unfolds. “One Nation under God” now more than ever, and always until the end.
New Pictures
I know it is a little late but I finally got around to putting up new pictures in Kylie’s gallery. All the pictures that I have for the first 3 months of her second year are now up. I am not sure how many pictures I will have for her for the next few months, with me being out in Minnesota and all. I will try to take pictures on the weekend when I am back, and hopefully Tiffany will take some pictures with her camera, especially if they do anything special. In any event we will do our best.
Eagan move information
When I came into work tonight and checked my email I received more final information on my temporary relocation to Eagan. I will be starting out there on Monday September 18th, which means I will be leaving on Saturday September 16th to make the 600+ mile drive. I have officially received my work cell phone, a Nextel Blackberry 7510, otherwise known to everyone who has one as the company ball and chain. I have also found out where exactly I will be staying while I am out there. The company is going to put me up in a hotel for the first couple of nights, and then on the 20th I will move into a fully furnished apartment in Burnsville called Provence, this is where my co-worker and friend Rick is already located. Rick has told me that the place is really nice and when they say fully furnished, they mean it…right down to the turkey baster. Once I get out there and have a few spare moments I will take pictures of the place and post them up in the gallery. At this point I am waiting on my company laptop, which from the sounds of it I should be receiving soon, and then a company American Express card that i will use to pay for and expense my flights back home once a month. So the company really is going to be tacking really good car of me and I am very happy about that. Now I just need to start packing and planning the trip out there.