Little bit of this, Little bit of that…
… a whole lot of bread and php!
I have not blogged in a while. It is not due to a lack of stuff to talk about. But more so that ever nagging lack of time to write. There are many out there that would aptly (justly and most likely with righteous fervor) say that I need to MAKE the time. To which I have but one simple answer (excuse).
I cannot make anymore time.
I have managed to find time to practice some new bread recipes (which in the grand scheme of things doesn’t take nearly as much time as some might think), I have written several small applications (in php) for side projects, been assisting with some home renovations and to boot attempting to keep my stress level (and sanity in check).
Work has changed up quite a bit in the last 60 days, I am no longer the VP of Product Development, I am also the VP of Product Management and Development. Thirteen little letters added to my title have added at this point countless hours at the office after the normal quitting time. I say countless because well I am salaried, so at some point counting them all up is too aggravating.
I don’t want to paint a picture that I am there until midnight or anything, but I do believe the latest I have been at the office has been about 10pm, and if memory serves I got into the office early that day and more or less clocked a 12 hour day.
It is the age-old tale of “Doing more with less”, there was some re-organization and I got a title change and once again have staff (the Jaduka development team reports directly to me). I was immediately tasked with hiring two new developers to work on some web applications. Can’t go into the details just yet, but when we launch I will make sure to post some more information.
The search took some time, but I managed to find some good additions to the team. We threw them into the deep end and we are about 3 weeks into their first project. Things are moving along well, but we have had quite a few other projects creep up in October that were not originally planned for, these projects are customer related, so that means that it is NEW business. And new business is always a GOOD thing.
I had gotten into the habit for the last few weeks of once or twice a week bringing bread into the office. I haven’t done that yet this week, but I think I will be able to line that up for Friday. I have done some experimenting.
There is of course my Sans Raisin Bread, my Gingerbread squared (Gingerbread bread) and my Great Pumpkin bread. The last batch of Great Pumpkin I think turned out very well, everyone in the office felt the second batch was better than the first. The secret was to add a second can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, ‘raw’ canned pumpkin). There was also my attempt at Log Cabin bread, which just didn’t have enough maple syrup flavor, not quite sure how to overcome that without having to put like 2-3 cups of maple syrup in, which keep in mind is A LOT of maple syrup. (talking about the real stuff, not that corn syrup junk)
I enjoy bringing in bread and getting feedback from folks on the taste, texture, etc. I also enjoy stealing what I think are the best two pieces for myself. I am not sure what will be next on the list for bread. I will likely make something ‘boring’ like buttermilk bread, but it is an old standby at this point. I use the buttermilk recipe as the base for most of my experiments.
We cleaned out the garage this past Sunday. If you have to clean out a garage or are planning any sort of home renovation project that will produce any significant amount of construction waste/debris, I highly recommend that you see if your can use TheBagster (www.thebagster.com), we used it to get rid of all the junk (mostly construction waste/debris) that had accumulated in the garage after the various other projects that we had done.
Last night I hung a new ceiling fan in Gina’s office. I also installed new closet doors and a bi-fold door in the hallway entrance to the laundry room. I did the demo(lition) and room prep for Gina’s office, clearing out the old carpet and baseboards.
John installed the laminate flooring the other weekend and put in the new base boards. Gina caulked everything and painted the trim, spackled some spots in the drywall. It has been quite a little renovation of Gina’s office.
We hit up IKEA and she got herself a new desk and some new wall hangings. Everything isn’t quite back together yet, I think that is on the agenda for tomorrow night.
This evening I came home, wrote up some specifications, got my laptop rigged up to run the code for the latest web project we are doing at work and poked around in the repository to see how the guys have been doing.
On Monday I fly out to Reston, VA to attend a user conference (tradeshow) that is hosted by Appian, a company that Jaduka is partnered with. I will be out there to demonstrate our integration and discuss with the attendees how we can help improve the efficiency of their Appian installations with Jaduka’s services.
It has been a VERY, VERY busy October, thus far.
I really want to try and knock out a batch of Pumpernickel, but I think that will need to wait until I get back from my trip next week.
Oh, did I mention that I also managed to catch that cold that has been going around Austin (particularly our office)?
Well, I need to get to bed I am supposed to be into the office early tomorrow as to help ensure that I can leave at a decent time.
Laterz