You'll shoot your eye out

It's been a pretty good to start to Christmas. 

Start with a morning at the beach

Then a trip to mammoth 

And some awesome fireworks

Then wrap it up with some hotpants 

#consultinglife

Pretty bad hang over today. This bad boy was 3/4 full when we started it. I'm not sure if the bar owner was happy our distraught when we killed it.  The good news is everyone was so worthless this morning we all moved our flights up. 

Ocean waves

Man it feels good to be back in MB.  Fell asleep and woke up to the sound of waves. 

Delayed flights....

.... are the worst. I think it's impossible to fly through Chicago ORD without a delay.  1.5 hours and counting in this pass through. So much for flying out of Dayton early. In the bright side Dispicable Me 2 is the inflight movie and I'm in the exit row. 

Off early

We finished up early tonight and I got back to the hotel around 730. Really weird feeling. I honestly have no idea what to do with myself.  I guess I've become a real consultant when it feels strange that I don't have work to do.

Year end

Last trip of the year in Dayton. This is week 11 of 20. Went by fast but there is still a long way to go. 

It was weird packing up last night for the week and for my holiday trip out west. It just kind of snuck up. On the bright side I will be in mammoth in 5 days. The countdown begins. 

Yes, we actually work

What do we do all day. It looks something like this

Full week

It feels good to be home after a full week. We got a lot accomplished this week including a very successful trip out to Indianapolis.  Add that city to the list of places I'd never want to live. We also made it out last night to a steak dinner and a little bar hoping after. Let's just say it it was a long day today for the entire team. 

On a retaliated note, next week we have a partner coming out to Dayton who is infamous for his drinking. The team has all ready been warned by leadership that we will be doing some heavy drinking next Tuesday night and that we will all be super hung over on Wednesday.   Uh oh. 

Also tomorrow is the DC christmass party. Open bar and dinner at a nice French restaurant. I've heard these things can get a bit out of hand too. I'm gona need some serious detox over christmas. 

Indianapolis.

Looks like I am heading to Indianapolis for the day on Wednesday. We will be visiting an aircraft engine manufacturing site. Should be cool. 

Sleeping in

Wow it feels good to sleep in on a Monday. I'm so glad I checked my flight status last night.  I was literally in bed with the lights off when I checked and found out my flight had been canceled. I got a little bit of work done this morning but this delay is definitely going to put me behind for the week. Let's hope the nights aren't too late this week. 

Snow dat and canceled flight

DC got a little bit of snow today. It made for a good day to stay in the house all day.  The bad part of this, my morning flight has been canceled.  I must admit that I'm looking forward to the shortened week. Time time reset the alarm to 2 hours later. 

Back in DC

Finally landed in DC. This was a long week. The big storm rolling across the country didn't help much. I was delayed 2 hours coming out of Atlanta.  Looking at the weekend it looks like it will be the first snow day of the year on Sunday. Let's hope it doesn't screw up travel on Monday. Fingers crossed. 

Ohio to Atlanta

Another week in Dayton in the books. It was a good week. On the work front we got a lot of work done. We both established a firm directions and made progress towards our final objectives. Most importantly we have a happy client and a happy partner which is what matters.    

Of note this week:

- I found out I will be staffed in Ohio until the end if March and I will be the last person on the ground. Wow, in it for the long haul. 

- I made it to the gym thee times. It's no fun getting up at 5:45 but man am I out of shape. 

- Did a dinner at Flemmings last night. Their Mac and Cheese is so delicious. The dry aged stake wasn't to shabby either. 

- Had a little to much home made cherry moon shine. The principle makes it every year and it's potent. It's a good way to build comradery in the team room but makes getting up for the gym a little more difficult. 

Now I'm off to ATL for training. Can't wait to knock this out and get home. 

Cheers!  

Travel itinerary.

I just boarded my flight to Dayton. Because of all the back ups on security I didn't get my standard Dulles Airport breakfast. No worries though, I need to sleep. Last night they were doing work on a commercial buildings roof across the street. They had a compressor running all night. I'm not sure how they can get away with that.  I guess it means that new sound proof windows should be at the top of my shopping list. 

So this weeks travel...  In Dayton through Thursday then off to Atlanta for training on Friday.  Hello another 5 day travel week. After this it should be just 4 day travel weeks until Christmas. 

On a side note, I need a vacation. Not a break but a vacation. 

Holiday travel

Holiday travelers are out in full force today. Normally about 60% of the people in line with me are wearing suits. Today the line is about 5 times bigger and no suits. Premier access is nice but I really need to sign up for TSA Pre Check. 

I went on the website last week and it is near impossible to figure out. Not to surprising for a government site.  It is shocking though when you compare a government site to say your banks website. So why are they so bad?  From my brief experience it's the culture and the compensation which leads to poor talent. 

Roommate

I think I may have found a roommate this weekend. I interviewed a bunch of people off of craiglist and got one that seemed normally. He doesn't seem business savy though. He actually offered more then I was asking after getting the tour. Now I need to figure out how much to squeez out of him. 

Some one was expecting me for dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving

Home made pie for breakfast?  Don't mind if I do. 

Home

It feels good to be harm after two weeks on the road. Although the trip he from the Atl was a pain.  My flight got stuck on the Tarmac. End results was that I landed around 5 and had to sit in traffic for an hour to get home.  

Here's to no traveling till December. 

Home

It feels good to be harm after two weeks on the road. Although the trip he from the Atl was a pain.  My flight got stuck on the Tarmac. End results was that I landed around 5 and had to sit in traffic for an hour to get home.  

Here's to no traveling till December. 

On site Friday

Staying on site through Friday is tough. Doing it with a bit of a hang over is going to make it drag even longer.  At least I have a fun team that likes to get out from time to time and have some fun. 

On a site note the week has been a big success. Now I have to work my way through the mountain of data it produced. 

Tough day

Today ended with bust. I just saw a presentation that indicates my target is doing a good job. That makes finding opportunity on my works stream a whole bunch harder. Time to regroup I guess. 

Mike, Mike, Mike,

What day is it?  Hump day!  Although it doesn't feel like it.14 hour days and  I'm still feeling the red eye. Plus we don't fly home till Friday. I would be able to do this job if it was 5 days of travel. 

Red eye

I just landed on my red eye from San Diego and it's 5:30am. It was a comfortable flight but 4.5 hours of sleep sitting upright is not a good way the start out the week. I have a 3 hour layover here in Washington before I catch my flight to Atlanta.  The plan is to do a few hours of work then sleep on the flight to Atlanta. Hopefully that will be enough to get me through the day. 

This is going to be a long week in Atlanta too. I don't fly home until Friday and I have the feeling we are going to be putting in 15 hour days. Hopefully it will be interesting though. We are going to be spending the entire week at an airplane manufacturing plant. Or goal is to find inefficiencies, which actually should be pretty easy. The hard part will be convincing the contractor that they can do something about it. 

Here's to good week and hopefully a little sleep.  At least I'm not traveling next week. 

Full size plane

It's my first time on a full size plane in 2 months.  I forgot how nice it is to have a seat that goes more than half way up my back. It's the little things. 

Now it's time to meet some deadlines before I arive in San Diego. 

Chris

Dayton Palm

Exotic 

Cold Cold

It is really cold here in Dayton. I'm definitely ready for my trip to San Diego this weekend for some sunshine. I arive in SD on Thursday night and am leaving on the red eye Sunday. Ironically i have to fly through DC to get to Atlanta on Monday. The good news is that this weekend trip will bump me up to the next status level on United. Let's hope my first upgrade will be weekend on my red eye. 

There has been a little drama at the office too. Our partners for this project have not been up to the task so far. It's been a big time drain checking and redoing there work. The good news is that we had a conversation yesterday and they will now be working semi independently of us. This will free up a lot time. The bad news I will still have to check their work product which makes me a bit nervous about what I will find. 

Be happy you aren't in Dayton!

I'm back

I know it has been forever. Not surprisingly, I lost motivation for a bit so let's give this another try. 

Since I last checked it there has been lots going on. There was a project in Los Angeles, a trip to Yosemite, my current project in Dayton Ohio, and the USC v. ND game in South Bend.

I am currently entering my 7th week in Dayton and the plan is to be there through February. So far the project is going well. I think I am finally starting to get the hang of this job. It doesn't hurt having a client that I know a bit about either. 

Looking forward I am going to be in San Diego this upcoming weekend then I will be in Atlanta next week. It's going to be a lot of travel but it will be good to be back in CA for a bit. 

Here's to a good week. I will try to keep up with this. 

Travel pains

It's 1:45am and I just landed in Chicago. I landed to a voicemail fro. The W hotel saying they overbooked and don't have my room. So much for executive platinum at SPG. Now in in my way to the Westin, which is not that close to where I need to be in 6 hours and I'm sitting in stop and go traffic. Just great. 

First week rush

It is been a good first week. So far the teams is working well together. Last night the team went out to dinner, and it was pretty fun.   I took every one to Shabu which was a first for most the people on the team. 

It's a little unfortunate that I have to leave early this week to go to training. It would be best If could stay around for last two days of the week to make sure that I finish strong this week, but that's the way goes.  Next update I'll be in Chicago.

Day one

I'm about to kick off day one of the new project. The hotel they have us at is nice. It's a golf resort right in the middle of commerce. Who knew?  

The weekend was pretty solid hanging out in MB.  Got to see all the friends. Now off to the factory. 

Zone 1 & 2

How does united managed to squeeze the whole plane into zones 1 & 2 when there are 5 zones?

On the road again

Waiting for my flight into LA. It feels good to be getting back out there. It is going to be hectic with the five week schedule. 

I am looking forward to spend the weekend in Manhattan Beach. Pub crawl today and concert at the beach tomorrow. Not a bad way to spend a weekend. 

On Wednesday night it's off to Chicago for training which is a quick turn around. I am looking forward to checking out Chicago though.  Hopefully we have time to see the city. I have a feeling the training group is going to want to go out. 

LA here I Come... and Chicago too.

I booked my travel to LA this morning.  I fly in to LAX on Saturday morning at 10:30.  Man plan is to stay with some friends in Manhattan Beach for the weekend and go to the beach.  I am really looking forward to the beach and the Sunday concert series.  I miss that stuff.


As for work.  We have our kickoff meeting in Commerce on Monday morning.  I'm still not sure what hotel I will  be staying at.  Part of our contract for the project is that the client is setting up hotels.  Let's hope it is downtown and not in Commerce.  Fingers crossed.

I will be on client site through Wednesday then I will be flying to Chicago that night for training on Thursday and Friday then back to DC on Friday night.  And of course back to LA after the weekend.

So for review, the two week travel tally will be BWI->LAS->BIW, IAD->LAX->ORD->DCA->LAX.  Six airports.  Not bad.

Surviving Vegas

Well I survived 3 days in Vegas.  With that many guy it was a pretty aggressive group.  This was the first time I've done Vegas when I could really afford to.  It's a completely different experience when you can afford to get table at all of the clubs.  It's just a lot more fun.

I got home on Monday night and I didn't feel completely broken which is a bit surprising.  Now I need to have a good week before I head out west.

It's LA

Five weeks in LA starting a week from Monday. 

Staffing again

I got an email last night about a four wall factory improvement effort in Ca for five weeks. It would start a week from Monday.  It doesn't seem as interesting as the other opportunity but it is billable. I should know by the end of today. 

Staffing

There's a chance I could be staffed next Monday.  Hartford Connecticut. Fingers crossed. 

Vegas

This weekend I am heading to Vegas for my friend Dave's bachelor part. He has 62 guys attending. Yep, that's not a typo. I have all ready started to mentally prepare. 

I fly out Friday morning and am schedule to return Sunday evening. I am thinking about changing it to Monday I I don't get staffed. Depends on price though. 

Work Outlook

So I had a conversation with staffing yesterday.  It looks like there is still not much work within my group.  They are looking to farm me out to the general practice over the next week or two which is good I guess.  What's the catch?  All of the new hires from B-school are starting this week.  In order for me to get farmed out it will have to be for free to the project. 

 

This is how my first project was.  This is not ideal but it's better for me to get experience at this point.  I've talked to a few people and they said their first years were similar.  At this point I am doing everything I can to get staffed so I don't think anything can be held against me come review time.  I just need to kick but on my on my next project and get a good review from that.

Assateague

I know, I know.  It's been a long time since I posted.  If I keep this up people are going to stop checking in.

So a week and a half ago we went camping at Assateague Island.  It's a barrier island just north of Ocean City Maryland.  The island is famous for having wild horses roaming the shores.  So the horses were pretty need but camping in the sand in not so great.  Sleeping in a bed of sand when it doesn't get below 70 degrees at night is not all that great.


It was a little bitter sweet being at the beach.  It was sad that it was the first time I've had my feet in sand all summer.  It made me miss the southbay for sure.  Also just going out to the beach without much of a base time = big time sun burn.  I've been peeling all week.  It's nice that I have my base now but who know when I'll be back in the sun again.


The highlights of the weekend.  I had a bunch of horses surrounded me while hanging out on the beach.  One of them decided he wanted to be my friend and hung out with his head in my lap.

The low light.  I horse broke into our tent and ate our Twizlers while we were at the beach.

 

Here are some pictures.

Melting

Holly crap. Just checked the weather for this week. Hot and humid. 

Limited activity

I know I haven't been posting much lately but honestly there hasn't been much to post.  Work has been slow so beyond giving updates about my weekends there's not much to talk about.  On the staffing front it's a little frustrating.  It's not really anything I can control but I am ready to get back out there.  At this point I've spend nearly as much time on the beach as I have on client site.  Crazy I know.  I am sure my posting will pick back up when I get back on the road.

 

The big happening of the week was the fact that I finally joined a crossfit gym.  I spent 3 hours at the gym on Saturday taking a fundamentals class.  You learn all of the Olympic lifts which was interesting.  A membership is not cheap so I need to make sure I go to the gym at least 4 times a week which means I need to start waking up at 6am so I can make classes.

Looking forward, next weekend we are going camping at Assateague Islands.  It's a barrier island on the coast of Maryland.  Allegedly they have wild horses running around on the beach.  More to come about that.

Gettysburg and More - Celebrating 'merica

Day One in front of the National Archives.  We went back on Saurday to check out the constitution and decloration of indepndance.

Start of the Gettysburg bike tour at the rop of Cemetery Hill

Riding along the day 2 south lines

View from Little Roundtop

Cooling of at Harper's Ferry affter a day full of biking Gettysburg

Nat's stadim is not that impressive.  I think I need to go to Baltimore to check out there stadium.

Just because

4th of July Agenda.

Here's the plan for the weekend. Rachel arrived this morning so here we go. 

Thursday - hang out on the mall. Check out the fireworks

Friday - off to Gettysburg 

Saturday - beer tour in DC

Happy 4th!

Argggg. Leaking roof.

It didn't take Lon for my first issue to come up. The roof is not my responsibility but it affect me the most being on the top floor

Making progress

Dry walled one side last night. Next up the inside, mud, and paint. 

Canada is out

That's just the way it goes. On to the next. 

Air and Space at Dulles

This place is awesome. Took a time of pictures. I think it's time to start using my Instagram account

. 

Another morning

Nice view from the office this morning.  

Edit.  This didn't publish on Friday. 

Annapolis

 

Went to check out Annapolis today. It's a cool place. I little touristy but it was interesting to see the naval academy.  

I didn't get any blue crab. I'll do that next time. 

Canada?

Just got a call from a manager and I may be heading to Canada for my next project. Should find out in an hour. Could be interesting. 

If I do I will be leaving on

Monday.  Quick turn around eeh. 

Bob Vila

It was another good weekend.  I've been in DC now for almost a month and I am settling in nicely.  I rented a car this weekend again.  It is really nice having a car especially when you get an SUV for $9 a day.  I am thinking that after the summer I might take the plunge but I need to get on my first project while living in DC to see what that's like. 

On Saturday I went to a Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ festival in Maryland.  It was a lot of fun.  I was invited by a friend of a friend and brought one of my coworkers and his wife long for company.  The festival had over 40 beers and 40 bourbons to sample for the cost of admission.  Additionally the group that I meet up with was full of good people.  After the festival we ended up at one of the persons house for a game of wh

Yesterday was a pretty big adventure too.  I ended up starting the partition wall so that the master bedroom has a door.  I made some good progress.  I did have to build the wall twice though.  The first time I build it square and it turns our my house is a little crooked.  If you look at the pictures you can see how skewed everything is.  I got the door square which is all that really matters.

I was also going to do the drywall yesterday but under estimated how heavy that stuff is.  I need some help getting it from Home Depot up into my place before I can finish off the partition.
iffle ball.  It was a good time all around.  Now I just need to make sure I keep in touch with the people I met.

Rescources have been shifted

Looks like I am no longer going to DC.  This morning I was informed that resources have been shift.  What ever that means.   I can only guess that I've been bumped.  Oh well

On the bright side I rented a car for $9 a day for the weekend.  $27 for the car, $23 for taxes.

Summer Roomate

So it looks like I am getting a roommate for the summer.  Last Saturday I met a friend of friend who is on contract here is DC for the summer from Hermosa Beach.  She is looking for place for August and I offered up my extra room.  We met yesterday, she checked out the room, and it looks like we are a go.  I think it's going to be fun.

Now I need to build that partition wall asap.  Weekend project I guess.

Time to break out the tools

I think this may be happening next weekend.

Some pictures from Air and Space