For those that do not know, my work has a new building that we are moving into. I am very excited about it as I have been involved in the lab design from the front and we have some great labs in this new facility.

Starting around the first week in May I became one of two tech leads in a major escalation. This escalation ate me whole. Ten to twelve hour days. We were finally onto some sort of conclusion when I had to turn it over to someone else as I was scheduled to go to Boise, Idaho for a HP conference on June 10-11.

I transition the mayhem to Brad and hop on a plane. But, before I go, my brother announces that he will be in the country for business (he lives in Israel) and will be at my folks the week of the 14th, so I arrange to take some comp time and plan a flight (thanks Helwynn).

I arrive in Boise on Wednesday the 9th around 3pm with not much to do, so I walk through downtown Boise. Now, for those of you like me who are skeptical, let me say that Boise is beautiful. Its on the edge of the desert at the foot of the mountains – ok, they call them foothills, but to them the mountains are the Rockies and not the Appalachins. I expect as its June the weather to be warm but no, its bloody freezing! So, I buy a new jacket.

The conference / training runs two days and finishes with dinner Friday night. I go back to the hotel and catch a nap before going out. I go out to a gay bar I did some research about and discover that its Pride weekend. Pretty cool as my flight is not til late afternoon on Saturday so I can check out the Pride festivities. So Saturday, I get up, check out the Boise zoo – its ok, small but ok. They have a red panda, but it was sick so it was not on display. Then I head to the Pride festivities – which were bordered by a regular street fair, which lead to some interesting mixes of crowds.

I figure I am only going to be at Boise Pride once, so I head to the organizers booth to buy a t-shirt. I start chatting with the nice lesbian behind the table and when she discovers where I am from, puts me down on the announcements as having traveled all the way from North Carolina to Idaho to participate in Pride. Pretty cool.

Saturday I fly home, including a 4 hour delay in Denver – mechanical problems with the plane at its stop before Denver. I used the time to get a massage – whoever thought of putting a massage therapist in an airport is a genius.

Sunday is laundry and re-packing. Monday I go into the office for a few hours then catch the plane to Florida. Spend a great week with my brother, cousin, aunt, and parent. Basically did nothing. Relaxation! Yeah!

Fly home the following Saturday. Again laundry.

Monday I go into the office to find that they want to come take the lab benches to the new building some time that week. Merde! OK, I call and arrange to get the equipment moved on the 28th. Then I start getting everyone packing around all the work they are trying to complete. Tuesday afternoon the furniture people contact me and say that they are running behind and wont be able to come this week after all. Oh, no I say – we have equipment moving Monday based on your original schedule and I need the benches in place for Monday morning. We’ll be there at 8 tomorrow morning they say. Of course, this had us moving equipment off the benches as they were disassembling them.

Oh, on Tuesday around 5pm, in mid sentence, I go white and dash out of the room and sprint to my office. I suddenly realized that we had not scheduled moving the lab network. Eeek! I call Guy and chat with him, and he tells me he cant move forward without Woody who is on vacation. Double eek!

That (Wednesday) afternoon, I call for bubble wrap. Nothing. Next morning, I call again, then in the afternoon. At 5:15 the guy comes in with a small box of bubble wrap, looks around the lab, says he will be right back, and returns with a mondo roll of bubble wrap. Friday and Sunday we bubble wrap everything, box it all, and label it for the movers (143 pieces, if your curious, and thats only the first lab).

Monday morning, I walk into the old building around 7:45 and the movers have 90% of the labs loaded into their trucks – they had started at 6:30. Of course I notice that they had taken everything that was not plugged in regardless of whether it was tagged or not. Oh well, it was going to go next week anyway.

I drive to the new building to meet them (my office doesnt come over til Tuesday…) and start chasing down the new equipment we had ordered to flush out the lab. It had all been received by June 2, and was sitting in the warehouse somewhere. Monday afternoon they bring it over, but the freight elevator is overworked and quits. So, they load it back into the truck and bring it back Tuesday morning. Of course, the key pieces of equipment are not there. Phone calls, emails, instant messages, fists against walls, and they finally find it and I get word it will be ‘on the next truck. Silly me – I thought as it was only 3:15 that meant that afternoon. Ah, the hubris.

Anyway, the first lab is coming together nicely. It will probably be up and operational by close of business Friday. Then next week I can concentrate on the second lab. Once that is up and operational, I can unpack my office. Then I can get back to my real job, though at this point I am not sure I know what that is.

But yesterday was my birthday – 37. Nia arranged a nice group of friends for dinner – we went to the Brazilian meat faucette in Raleigh. Wow! Good food! Fantastic food! Yum!

For everyone that came or tried to come, thank you – a nice dinner with good friends is exactly what I wanted.