1. It lasts a very long time.
2. It lasts about a year or less before it spontaneously combusts from over use.

The end of my OGIO laptop bag is nigh

My wife (or was she my fiancee at the time?) and I purchased semi-matching OGIO laptop bags in 2003. One for me to take to the office, and one for her personal laptop. My bag lasted about four years or so, until it crumbled into dust. I then switched over and annexed my wife’s laptop bag for the next few years.

This week, for an undetermined reason, the strap on my bag broke Monday morning on the Newark Penn station train platform as I ran to the PATH train. It’s not something that I can fix, so that’s it. I’d normally be happy to replace an old item with something brand-spankin’ new. Instead, I’m pretty pricky about certain things, and that includes laptop bags. It’s one of those personal items that have to be just right, because you live with it every day, whether it’s commuting on a train, going through the airport security checkpoint, or walking around town. It goes everywhere with you. It’s not just a bag. It’s attached to you, and in some way an extension of you.

Under those circumstances, finding the perfect bag isn’t easy. I’m not the fanciest person in the world, so what am I looking for in this unicorn?

• Functionality – I’m carrying a laptop, power adapter, iPod, headphones, papers, network switch, network cables, USB drive, business cards, pens, highlighters, bandages (hey, be prepared), water bottle (ok, Diet Coke bottle), which is all the usual stuff that business users carry.
• Durability – I’m an auditor, so I travel lots of places. Durability is important.
• Form factor – Travelling, so you don’t want the bag to be to bulky to run from place to place. Harken back to all the crazy stories of when I’m jumping onto train or trying to squeeze past the airport terminal jetway door. Try doing that with a big laptop case rolling behind you. Furthermore, maybe you go out for drinks later after work. You have to keep your laptop with you, so do you want this big suitcase next to your legs?

My hands and arms are pretty tired of carrying the bag this week, so I had to find a new laptop bag pronto. With some help from my friends (and lovely wife), I ordered one through Amazon Marketplace. It should be here middle-to-end of next week, so I expect my arms to look like Popeye’s by then.

The Chevrolet Impala

The latest update on my car is that it’s still in the body shop. According to the Toyota body shop, the insurance adjuster missed other car components that require repair or replacement. No comment, but oh well, I’m the one over a barrel here. The body shop estimates that the car will be ready either end of this week or early next week, but since it’s Wednesday, you would think they would know by now. Will it be ready in two days or not? Hmmmmm.

In the meantime, I’m working offsite in Jersey City again, so I needed a vehicle to travel to and from the train station. I’ve rented a car for the next five days, and got a Chevy Impala from Avis. I thought it would be an easy rental, but it took some time for Avis and my insurance company to “talk” to each other, and get the billing all set up. Due to logistics, my wife gave me a ride Monday morning to the train station, so that I could get to Jersey City. Late in the day, I walked over to the Avis rental counter at the Newport Mall to get the rental car.

It’s not a bad car, but a little sluggish. I like the radio, as it displays what channel each preset is set to. It also has satellite radio, but I’m not using it. I do find it odd that there are no courtesy or reading lights for the front seat. It’s not the biggest deal, but you know, am I “spoiled” by my last two cars by a reading light?

On Saturday, we actually didn’t do too much, but we hung out with the kids most of the day. I took Josh to his gym class in the morning, followed by a haircut to tame the large ‘fro on his head. Late lunch for the kids, and we were off to get ready for an adult dinner. But first, dropping off the kids for a few hours with my wife’s family!

Yes, an adult dinner. Every once in a while, we get the opportunity to dress up and eat a nice dinner sans children. It’s a wonderful experience. Saturday night, we had dinner reservations at Sophie’s Bistro, a supposedly very nice French restaurant in Somerset, NJ. The food was so good and so rich, by the time my entree arrived, I could only eat a few bites before I gave up and asked to have it packed up.

The evening was young, so we went to drop off pajamas and other supplies to the kids, and then we were off to watch The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock over at the AMC in Hamilton. Keeping in mind that this was our second attempt to watch this particular movie together (read here), but also my wife’s second viewing of the same exact film, it was still enjoyable.

On Sunday morning, we picked up the kids, and hit the road for some home improvement shopping. Due to the all the recent home improvement work, we still had to pick up better-than-we-have-now light fixtures, curtain rods for our new window treatments, and other things. I’m not big on home improvement shopping, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Otherwise, the alternative is to live in a cardboard box under the Brooklyn Bridge. Mmmmm, DUMBO.

Late Sunday afternoon, while the daylight was still streaming, I (we?) decided to install at least one of the light fixtures, so I chose the downstairs hallway. Now, the last time I did this was April 2008 when replacing the kitchen ceiling light fixture (see around Apr 15th if you’re interested.) The dome of the original fixture had come loose and fallen (and oh boy, shattered) one evening, so we needed a replacement light fixture back then. Instead of calling a qualified electrician, I decided to do it myself. It took me about four hours later at that time, it wasn’t fun, and yet no ceiling fires in the past two years. Time to try it again!!!

This time, it was still a pain in the ass, but it only took me two hours to replace the ceiling light in the downstairs hallway. Again, so far so good on the ceiling fires. The only downside is that I think some of the fiberglass that was in the new light went into the air, and embedded themselves into my face, as my face hurts. I’m not even joking. Apart from that, the downstairs hallway is better lit, so I say “Mission accomplished!” I have one more light to install in the upstairs hallway, but will do that next weekend, when I have daylight. Obviously, one needs to turn off the power to that fixture at the circuit box, and installing a ceiling light is probably an even greater pain in the ass while in the absence of light. I don’t know for certain, but I’m just assuming here.

You know, I think I’m turning into a regular handy man.

I knew very little about the movie, as opposed to most other films I’m interested in. I’m usually watching the trailers, reading reviews, and sometimes even checking out the plot synopsis (up to a point.) If you were unaware, it’s a film based on a book, about the story of a family in Memphis who take in a down-on-his-luck and impoverished teenager named Michael Oher, get him back on his feet, and he ends up becoming a star football player, and who later gets drafted by the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.

It was a decent movie starring Sandra Bullock, who plays the mother who takes in Michael Oher. I like her in most roles, and I thought she was good in this movie. Oscar-winning good? Yeah, I don’t know about that. However, she was entertaining, and certainly one of the central stars of the movie, along with relative newcomer Quinton Aaron (who played the young Michael Oher.)

The Blind Side (2009)

Fast-forward to this year, and we still really want to paint the house. Of course, we still didn’t know what color to paint it, but that’s beside the point. We called a host of painters, and you would think that in the current state of the economy, contractors would be chomping at the bit for work. Maybe some, but not all. Of the nine different painters I called, only three gave us quotes.

Three. That’s right. Tres painters. Some never called me back. Three came in to check out the place, and emailed us quotes a few days later. The ones who came to estimate, but never sent us quotes, nor responded back when I emailed, informing them I’m still waiting on the quote….. well, those guys just baffled me. Why wouldn’t you even give me a quote? My favorite is probably the same painters who gave us a high quote in 2008, but I called back anyway. With the recession, I wanted to see an updated quote. Instead, they used the same price estimate, and added an additional $400 for extra doors and the upstairs hallway.

For a while, we considered just buying the paint from Home Depot and simply painting the place on our own with the help of some friends. It didn’t work out though. I had limited free time to get the caulking, sanding, and painting completed on my own, and some of our friends didn’t have all the time either. It was cheaper to do it ourselves, but it wasn’t turning out to be the smartest, based on free time, effort, and cost. I’ve come to realize that some jobs are easy enough to do yourself with a little elbow grease. However, you should pick your battles, and avoid getting overwhelmed for a task you don’t have the skills, equipment, and most importantly, the ability to complete it timely.

In the end, we selected Stewart’s Painting and Power Washing, a father and son team based here in central NJ. They seemed honest, fully insured, and their references checked out. I’ve been pretty worried about handing over large sums of money to contractors, based on the horror stories I’ve heard, but I called their references, and previous customers were generally very happy. These guys came in way under compared to everyone else, and well, they actually gave us a quote.

We were scheduled to have the painting completed last week, but the last-minute February snowstorm/blizzard (snowicane? snowapocalpse?) delayed it. Our painter was only able to complete the spackling of cracks and holes on Wednesday, and helping us to remove the old window treatments and blinds (no charge!)  Our painters came back the following Monday and Tuesday and finished the job. Truth be told, they missed some very minor details here and there, but on the whole, a very good job, and the price was excellent. I would certainly recommend them to others.

New yellow interior paint and new window shade

In addition to the interior painting, we’re also replacing the living room window treatments and blinds. The old venetian blinds were broken and hard to use, and the old curtains matched nothing. On Thursday, our new custom shade from Budget Blinds was delivered and installed in 30 mins. Now we’re just waiting to find the curtain rods, get it all installed and hung up, some pictures hung up, and we are done.

Booyah.

I’m of two minds about working from home. I do appreciate the option when circumstances inhibit you from being in the office, such as sick kids, contractors coming over, etc. Nothing prevents you from working, and it provides an employee with flexibility. What’s the alternative? A wasted sick or vacation day.

I used to have an employer who didn’t trust employees with working from home, due to the fears that they wouldn’t do work while at home. We had laptops, remote access, and, you know, work to do, but management was afraid of the possibility that the staff would be home watching Maury. In my opinion, it was an irrational fear. With my current employer, the flexibility makes sense, and it works for many of my colleagues.

That being said, for the 2-3 days a week that I have been home to work, it’s been a little lonely. When you’re not in the office for a stretch of a few days in a row, I have found it lonely to not have other colleagues to see, work with, or even simply to chat with. On a vacation day, you can sit and watch tv, or run errands, and be happy in your jeans and sneakers. When I’m working from home, the tv is off, and I’m sitting there in an empty house, and you feel isolated. It isn’t even that I could take a drive at lunch, since I’ve got no ride.

The days I’ve come back to the office have been nice, since I can interact with living, breathing individuals. The three weeks are almost up, so I’ll be glad to take a break from being at home, and get back out there with the rest of society.

I’m a fan of Futurama, and wasn’t happy with Fox’s cancellation of the series. Although I didn’t like the 1st movie that Matt Groening’s team put out, Bender’s Big Score, I thought I should at least watch the rest of the direct-to-DVD movies. Futurama as an animated television series was smart, funny, and great in-jokes.

Uh, yeah, this next installment, The Beast with a Billion Backs, was pure and simple lame. I didn’t like the story. I didn’t like the jokes. As a matter of fact, I thought it was a waste of my time. I give it one star. Very disappointing.

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)

After all that anticipation, after watching it, I was a little underwhelmed. Maybe it was the big build-up, but I did also read that other folks gave it mixed reviews. I felt that near the climax, the story collapsed somewhere along the way. I haven’t exactly put my finger on it. I wasn’t entirely invested in the characters the way that I should be, and the ending itself was half-baked. It’s a rental for the animation, but the story could have made this film more than the sum of its parts.

9 (2009)

The second bit of news is that the Toyota can be saved, but it’ll take a long while to do it. Repairs will cost approx. $9,700, and take about three weeks to get the car back. Uh, wow. I was hoping they would be done in a week. Why will it take that long? Sigh.

The third bit of news is that the Ipes have been sick. Last week, I came down with a bad strain of the flu, which knocked me out of commission Wednesday and Thursday. I was feeling better by Saturday, but I think I relapsed on Sunday. Furthermore, the rest of the family isn’t feeling well now, especially my wife. They all stayed home, and I worked from home today, in order to take care of them.