Wednesday
I thought I had a half day at work and was looking forward to the last day I had the kids on their spring break.......I headed home, did the exercise bike, and went to check my e-mail. I had an alarming message from management stating that site power was off and my Data Center was down and no one was available on site to handle things! After making some phone calls and determining that the data center was in fact up and running on it's massive UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supplies) but the site generator had failed I headed back into the office. I also informed management that the data center was not down (a misscommunication up line) and kept them posted about the ongoing status.
I arrived to find that the generator was now up, but was having issues. The UPS systems here which are quite massive, can hold the Data Center for about an hour. Protocol states that once we reach about 20 minutes of reserve power, we must begin shutting it all down. The generator kept kicking in and out, and each time it did the UPS lost more reserve capacity. We were about 6 minutes away at one point of beginning the shutdown. This is something we did not want to do as it takes about three hours to get everything back up and running and we have locations world-wide that use our data center for services.
To make a long story short I ended up spending five hours back at work for my four hour half a day off, though I did get back in time to take the kids all out to dinner at Smokey Bones before sending them back to their Mom's. Danielle cleaned up at my place because a friend was meeting her back a her Mom's for a sleep over which Danielle had been trying to arrange for a couple of weeks.
Thursday
The only noteworthy thing to mention here was it was a heck of a day at work with fallout (some technical some political) to deal with regarding the power failure. After work I snagged Scott and Danielle who spent a couple of hours at my place before their mom picked them up at 5:30.
Friday
I thought I had a half day at work and was looking forward to the last day I had the kids on their spring break.......I headed home, did the exercise bike, and went to check my e-mail. I had an alarming message from management stating that site power was off and my Data Center was down and no one was available on site to handle things! After making some phone calls and determining that the data center was in fact up and running on it's massive UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supplies) but the site generator had failed I headed back into the office. I also informed management that the data center was not down (a misscommunication up line) and kept them posted about the ongoing status.
I arrived to find that the generator was now up, but was having issues. The UPS systems here which are quite massive, can hold the Data Center for about an hour. Protocol states that once we reach about 20 minutes of reserve power, we must begin shutting it all down. The generator kept kicking in and out, and each time it did the UPS lost more reserve capacity. We were about 6 minutes away at one point of beginning the shutdown. This is something we did not want to do as it takes about three hours to get everything back up and running and we have locations world-wide that use our data center for services.
To make a long story short I ended up spending five hours back at work for my four hour half a day off, though I did get back in time to take the kids all out to dinner at Smokey Bones before sending them back to their Mom's. Danielle cleaned up at my place because a friend was meeting her back a her Mom's for a sleep over which Danielle had been trying to arrange for a couple of weeks.
Thursday
The only noteworthy thing to mention here was it was a heck of a day at work with fallout (some technical some political) to deal with regarding the power failure. After work I snagged Scott and Danielle who spent a couple of hours at my place before their mom picked them up at 5:30.
Friday
One noteworthy point on that Wednesday power failure; analysis by the power company discovered the problem with the generator starting and running was due to a family of field mice that had penetrated behind the control panel and chewed through some wiring harnesses! I departed work early for my Chiropractor appointment (My leg has been bothering me all week, sometimes so much I could not walk downstairs, and other times just a dull ache or twinge). Pinched nerves are fun! I had cancelled my Monday appointment since I Had the kids and asked for the same time on Friday. Imagine my surprises after the 15 minute drive on the highway (which of course the Mustang and I enjoyed!) when I arrived at the office and found it closed! A quick call got me a message saying we are closed....I left a message stating "Gee, it would have been nice to have been told that when I called for the Friday appointment since I am standing outside your closed office right now!" If not for the cost of gas (around $2.80/gallon) I would not have minded the ride...though my back and leg would have been happy to have the adjustment! I headed back home, snagged Danielle and we hit Forest Hills Foods to pickup the items for an ice box cake. (There will be a separate post about that later) During the preparation of same I dropped a glass filled with leftover HOT chocolate pudding on the clean floor and it shattered into many many pieces most of them tiny. Pudding went everywhere, onto white cabinet surfaces chair and table legs, and glass managed to spread across three rooms!
I sent Danielle to safety and began the fun task of cleaning up pudding with bits of glass in it! First I got all visible chunks of glass and then used a piece of cardboard to scoop up globs of glass garnished pudding off the floor. Then I very carefully cleaned more pudding off everything. I've always though the X calls me at the best of times. She once again demonstrated this phenomena by calling right as I started cleaning the mess up! Finally I got the rainbow vacuum and did the kitchen, living room, and dining room floors.
Around 5:25 we called for Chinese food and departed soon after to pick it up. We got back home, the boys had already arrived, and the X soon joined us (after sitting in the driveway for 10 minutes talking to a customer) and we enjoyed excellent food from the First Wok, our Chinese restaurant of choice. The was Chicken lo-mien (no vegetables), Bali-Bali beef (thin strips of marinated grilled lean tender beef), crab puffs, fried dumpling with sauces, Mongolian Beef and combination lo-mien and fried rice. We cleaned up and the X than had another business call to make, so, with Danielle and Chris watching I played a bit of Oblivion, and then we settled down to watch Narnia: The lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Midway we stopped for dessert, the Ice Box cake. With the exception of Scott who does not like it, everyone enjoyed it greatly. The movies was over around 9:30, they departed, and I watched Part II of the Doctor Who episode which was excellent! After that some reruns followed (Grace Under Fire) and then from 11 to about 1AM I played Oblivion.
Saturday
I sent Danielle to safety and began the fun task of cleaning up pudding with bits of glass in it! First I got all visible chunks of glass and then used a piece of cardboard to scoop up globs of glass garnished pudding off the floor. Then I very carefully cleaned more pudding off everything. I've always though the X calls me at the best of times. She once again demonstrated this phenomena by calling right as I started cleaning the mess up! Finally I got the rainbow vacuum and did the kitchen, living room, and dining room floors.
Around 5:25 we called for Chinese food and departed soon after to pick it up. We got back home, the boys had already arrived, and the X soon joined us (after sitting in the driveway for 10 minutes talking to a customer) and we enjoyed excellent food from the First Wok, our Chinese restaurant of choice. The was Chicken lo-mien (no vegetables), Bali-Bali beef (thin strips of marinated grilled lean tender beef), crab puffs, fried dumpling with sauces, Mongolian Beef and combination lo-mien and fried rice. We cleaned up and the X than had another business call to make, so, with Danielle and Chris watching I played a bit of Oblivion, and then we settled down to watch Narnia: The lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Midway we stopped for dessert, the Ice Box cake. With the exception of Scott who does not like it, everyone enjoyed it greatly. The movies was over around 9:30, they departed, and I watched Part II of the Doctor Who episode which was excellent! After that some reruns followed (Grace Under Fire) and then from 11 to about 1AM I played Oblivion.
Saturday
A fun filled day of work on a weekend I had thought I was going to have off, and Scott and Danielle joined me after dinner time to spend the night. TV and video games were the mainstays of the evening.
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