Sunday, December 31st 2006

And now, without further ado, my reflections on 2006, and my hopes for 2007.

Family

• We lost Shem in a terrible accident. No words can quite describe the loss to the family.
• We put our cat Missy to sleep. It was hard to finally give up on her after being part of the family for 13 years. I still miss her.
• My sister Julie got engaged to her fiance Robbie. My little sister is growing up.
• My in-laws moved nearby. It's been a great help to have them around.
• We celebrated Joshua's 1st birthday. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm a Dad.
• Joshua learned to walk, and is now learning to talk. It's been an interesting experience to watch this kid grow up.

My Life

• I turned the big 30 this year. I'm not weirded out. I'm a little weirded out by all the grey hair, and how my body isn't as invincible as it used always be. Rather unnerving.
• To celebrate the big 30, my wife threw me a huge surprise party, inviting so many of my friends. I was completely surprised, so how she kept the whole thing secret from me, I have no idea. Thanks, Pookey Bear.
• I rolled up my sleeves for some minor home improvements -- we painted the guest room and master bedroom, lots of cleaning up, and rearranging.
• My friend Paul is getting married in 2007, so I travelled to Cancun for his bachelor party.
• We had two parties at the house this year: Joshua's 1st birthday, and a Christmas party. Both went well, and I'm less nervous now.
• My weight see-sawed all year, and it's depressing. I had a gym membership through my company, but I stopped exercising around May, when my work schedule got hectic. Unfortunately, it stayed hectic through Dec 23rd. I'm hoping/planning to get back on the horse January 2007.
• On a related note, I rode my bike once the entire year. I guess it was just one of those years. Riding only 18 miles for the entire year is pathetic.
• I didn't watch many movies this year. I think Wedding Crashers (back in March '06) had to be my favorite movie of the year. Worst movie is probably a tie between Troy and Bridget Jones 2. [gagging noise]
• My PC hard drive crashed, and I almost lost everything due to my backups being piss-poor quality. My friend Plexy was able to help me recover some data, and I recovered my vast song library by keeping my iPod safe in a drawer. After rebuilding my PC with a larger hard drive, I purchased a 2nd internal drive, and regularly backup my PC on the weekends. Never again!
• We didn't buy too many new things this year. Favorite purchases were the Canon Powershot S80 (thanks to lots of Best Buy birthday gift cards), and all the music I downloaded over the course of the year. I like having a sweet music collection.

Career

• I led my first audit this year. It was an interesting experience. There were times where I was exhausted and overwhelmed, and other times when I enjoyed it.
• Travelled about 50 days for work this year.

Looking Ahead to 2007

• I'll be a groomsman in my buddy Paul's wedding, and Joshua will be a ringbearer.
• Baby Chacko is due to arrive, and we're all looking forward to the big day.
• My cousin Shaun and wife Sony are expecting a baby, as well.
• My sister will be married in June!
• I'm hoping to get a promotion next month. The annual review was very good, so my fingers are crossed. I'll find out in a few weeks.
• I'm leading two larger audits in 2007. I'm looking forward to these challenges, and the experience I'll gain from each of them.
• We really want to get a new refrigerator. Something stainless steel, and with a water/ice dispenser.
• I hope to pick up a replacement iPod. The lack of music at work is driving me bonkers.
• I'm exercising more at the gym. The weight has to go!
• I hope to ride my bike more than the 18 miles I rode in 2006.
• We're considering getting a puppy in 2007. I don't mind a new pet, and a dog may be a nice change of pace. Joshua is almost at the point of nudging me and saying, "Puppy, puppy, puppy, puppy....." I think he's trying to tell me something.
• I want to study and attain the Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP) certification. I've been thinking/dreaming/planning/hoping/talking/lusting to be a CISSP for about four years now. Time to put up or shut up.
• If life isn't too hectic, I want to start studying for the GMAT. Yeah, that's right. I want to start my MBA part-time in 2008 or 2009. God help me.

Happy New Year to everyone. I wish you all the best in the coming year.

Wednesday, December 27th 2006

So..... I'm sitting all by myself in the house. I'm wearing my pyjamas, eating leftover lasagna, and I'm listening to Green Day's American Idiot album. Sounds like Joel is on vacation. Truth be told, I'm a little lonely, but that doesn't mean I want to be in the office. Far from it.

Paul's Bachelor Party

The updates are coming along nicely. First off, most of my Cancun trip page is up. I need to get some photos from my last night in Cancun, but for now, you have something for your eyes to feast upon. I'm still working on new Family, Friends, and old MOBLOG photos.

Christmas party

Last Saturday night, we hosted our 2nd party at our house -- first was Joshy's 1st birthday party. Anyway, it was a big success. The party wasn't for everyone in the world to attend. It was something like a "Christmas / thanks for helping us move in last year" party. We also did a Secret Santa at the end, and played some Taboo. We didn't do any cooking, as it was potluck. Okay, we brought the chips and dip.

Hmm, chips and dip.

As the party was a big success, I feel more confident on hosting other parties. I think a summer BBQ would be nice. Of course, we need to get a grill. :)

Dinner @ TGI Friday's

Just like last year, I am taking vacation this entire week. As it is already Wednesday, I can feel the entire vacation fly by in a blink of an eye. It's not much of a vacation, as I'm supposed to complete a 40+ hours of computer-based training this week before Dec 31st. I've completed zero so far. As a side note, RoseAnn and Teena visited last night, and we all went to TGI Friday's for dinner.

Tomorrow, my friend Leena and her daughter Alisha are staying over. Yea!

Here are the collected MOBLOG photos since October, but kept forgetting to share.

Who is this marketed to? Cat lick their own butts	Joshua and his lunchbox	Cool T-Rex skull at the Morris Museum	Best parking spot I've ever had at the office	Hair Notions?
My little Honda hit 150K miles this month	The Ipe boys	Mommy is happy that we're entertaining ourselves	Entertaining himself at Wal-Mart	Still not a baller

Looks like I'm all caught up on updates. In the next day or two, I'll be writing my reflections of 2006. This year will be a doozy. How much detail I go into..... I don't know yet. We'll see what happens when I start typing.

Tuesday, December 19th 2006

That's right, I'm still around. The past two weeks have been very busy, and blogging has been the last thing on my mind. Well, not the last thing on my mind. At night, I'll say, "Hmmm, I really should go online and write something." Then the last thought is, "Eh, not tonight. I need sleep."

I'm sure that first paragraph was very exciting for you. Needless to say, here are the major highlights of the past two weeks:

• I survived Cancun. It's a decent place, bachelor party went fairly well, but the only souvenir I bought was some Toblerone for my wife from the airport duty-free shop.
• Work is busy. It's year-end, deadlines abound, management metric reports rule our collective lives, and I don't really know if I'll get to enjoy my "vacation" next week. I was hoping to eat junk food, and watch movies in my underwear. Looks like I'll be doing web-based training instead.
• We're having a small get-together for friends at our place on Saturday, so we're busy getting the house nice and pretty. Will it be nice and pretty? Probably not, but close enough, I suppose.
• I've bought eight new songs so far -- Nellie Furtado, Bruce Springsteen, Nine Inch Nails, and some other eclectic choices. I even got that great Mad World song from the Gears of War commercial (and the Donnie Darko soundtrack.) I have 17 more songs to choose.
• We're considering buying a 2nd car. Do they still make the Chevy Nova?
• Joshua is starting his "The Terrible Two's" phase -- attitude, petulance, crying when thwarted. I caught myself once channeling my mother, asking him why he was being rebellious. My mother often said that I was rebellious growing up, and swore that my children would be rebellious as her revenge. Believe me, she can do that.

Yeah, that's my update. I owe a number of pictures from Cancun, life, etc, to publish. Maybe after I meet all my deadlines on Friday ("HA!"), life can slow down a bit for me.

Wednesday, December 13th 2006

Anju's Baby shower is tomorrow, and preparations are in full swing. However, while my wife is running around central NJ to get supplies, decorating, etc, I'm home babysitting. Doesn't seem right, does it? Ah well, at least I can take solace in the fact that I'm sitting comfortable in my pyjamas.

I've posted the November Thanksgiving photos. I like to take random photos at gatherings, instead of the portraits. Sometimes you get interesting shots, sometimes you get crap. Unfortunatly, I think most of my photos from Thanksgiving are crap. New policy: only take portraits. I'm starting with the baby shower tomorrow.

Oh yeah, I have to attend the baby shower tomorrow. It's the right (and grown-up) thing to do, but spending my Saturday afternoon pretending to "Oooh" and "Aaah" at baby stuff (which we undoubtedly have identical stuff at home) is not my first choice.

Don't worry, honey. I'll still be supportive. :)

BTW, the car isn't ready yet. I should have known. Better luck tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 5th 2006

I've got a busy week ahead of me. I've got to get all of my audit workpapers finalized by Thursday, as I'll be flying to Cancun Friday at 6am. Thursday night is our department holiday party over at Long Island City. Why do I have the feeling that I'll be up all night, just to make sure I don't miss my flight?

I received a junk email today, with an .exe attachment. You know there are people out there who are going to fall for this type of scam. Once you install the "worm eliminating" update, you'll be toast.

Mail server report.

Our firewall determined the e-mails containing worm copies are being sent from your computer.

Nowadays it happens from many computers, because this is a new virus type (Network Worms).

Using the new bug in the Windows, these viruses infect the computer unnoticeably.
After the penetrating into the computer the virus harvests all the e-mail addresses and sends the copies of itself to these e-mail
addresses

Please install updates for worm elimination and your computer restoring.

Best regards,
Customers support service

I still think this is the greatest fight ever.

Sunday, December 3rd 2006

A baby shower

After all that effort, Anju's Baby shower was a big success. As a bonus treat, the photos are already posted. See what happens when I get stuck in my game, and get so frustrated that I stop playing for a while? I come back to the real world.

As the baby shower is now over, my wife has now turned her attention to Christmas. We set the Christmas up tonight, but it's sans ornaments. So, no pictures until it's in all of its splendered glory. This year, I've been mulling permanently moving the tv, and putting the tree in its place. I never liked the tree where it was last year, and I figure the plasma tv I (er, "we") get later will be in a different spot.

So, for trial purposes, I moved the big, huge, tv and AV rack out of the corner, along the wall, to its new resting spot. In 35 minutes, no less. The tree is now next to the fireplace on the other side, and it's all interesting. We'll give it a chance this month, see how we feel.

While flipping channels, I watched 20-some minutes of Van Helsing tonight on TNT. That movie is idiotic, and the acting stinks. All special effects, and a stupid story.

BTW, the car still isn't done yet, but the mechanic expects to finish it tomorrow. In the meantime, I have no way to go to work on Monday. I'm going to call and leave a message that I can't make it it, as I don't have a car.

Friday, December 1st 2006

Thanksgiving photos

Anju's Baby shower is tomorrow, and preparations are in full swing. However, while my wife is running around central NJ to get supplies, decorating, etc, I'm home babysitting. Doesn't seem right, does it? Ah well, at least I can take solace in the fact that I'm sitting comfortable in my pyjamas.

I've posted the November Thanksgiving photos. I like to take random photos at gatherings, instead of the portraits. Sometimes you get interesting shots, sometimes you get crap. Unfortunatly, I think most of my photos from Thanksgiving are crap. New policy: only take portraits. I'm starting with the baby shower tomorrow.

Oh yeah, I have to attend the baby shower tomorrow. It's the right (and grown-up) thing to do, but spending my Saturday afternoon pretending to "Oooh" and "Aaah" at baby stuff (which we undoubtedly have identical stuff at home) is not my first choice.

Don't worry, honey. I'll still be supportive. :)

BTW, the car isn't ready yet. I should have known. Better luck tomorrow.