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There's nothing like coming up for air when you've been down too long. I have been completely buried in work. With several people on vacation and a short-handed staff anyway, I find myself with too little time to make it all come together. With phone calls in the wee morning hours and business units that can't support required evolutions until close to midnight, there leaves little time for home life and sleep. I worked late last night (from home) migrating a gigabit ethernet circuit in a essential ecommerce DMZ and troubleshooting some performance issues with applications deemed critical. When I finally made it to bed around 1:00, Henry woke up and sleepily swaggered over to the door wanting to go pee. I let him out and figured he would be done in a few minutes. Much to my dismay, he found a toad and started making noise. He wasn't sure whether to eat it or not... but he was sure that play time started. He wouldn't come in as long as the toad was in the yard. He wouldn't come to me because he knew I'd take him in... smart little fucker. When I finally grabbed him and brought him back inside, he was revved up and looking for trouble. I think I managed to drift off around 3:00, but the alarm was set for quarter 'til five or so because I had two disaster recovery tests to support and a bunch of other shit to do before the real work day started. My eyes are on fire. I finally have an appointment for my back tonight. Funny... *ring ring* *ring ring*... "Hello? Yes.... oh, you're in terrible pain? I see. We can take you Tuesday after next. Good luck with your discomfort." Everyone was booked up. I have to admit that a large part of my discombobulation stems from back to back travel, out of town projects, more photo work to develop than I have time, and a multi-billion dollar deal at work on a critical path with not enough people to work in a humane manor. I was all kinds of disappointed to see I missed out on floor tickets to the upcoming Pixies concert in Houston. I hope to EvilBay some, but I don't have the energy to fight for them, so I hope no one gets snipey. I have another LAN coming up in November, so that should be some de-stress. I also lined up a trip to Dallas to this private wild cat ranch where there are like 6 tigers and a lion to photograph. It's no substitute for a safari, but it'll have to do for now. One of the Siberians is 600 pounds! Meow! Let's see, what else is new that isn't on the sux0r work calendar? This Thursday is the Houston Blues Society Open Jam at The Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club - House of Mixology... always a good time. I'm considering it. October 10th is the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Houston Texans at Reliant. I got the hook up on a two 50 yard line club level seats... $560.00 worth of ticket for eff-arrrrrrrr-double-eeeeee! It should be fun because EL is a Vikings fan. Friday the 24th of October, Guy Forsyth is returning to Houston. Friday the 22nd is a solid scheduled Spanking at the Duck and the 23rd and 24th are wildlife shoots at Brazos and Brazoria respectively. I refuse to become a slug despite my complete lack of energy these days. I want a motorcycle. Oh, and another thing, the weather is supposed to be awesome this weekend. Chiminea weather!