Evie Day 701

Good morning, and happy Valentine’s Day to you all. Today is 14 February 2025.

I had a dickens of a time looking up my days this morning. I was a little hung up on the date and I kept putting in February instead of September, the 14th instead of the 16th. I got it right, but I did a little turn on the dance floor with my brain.

Today will be a busier day for me, with three phone calls about work-related opportunities. The first is with some gentleman in the UK – I love working in Europe when the opportunity presents itself. I think I’ve delivered in Europe 9 or 10 times in my career, mostly in Germany, but there have been jaunts to London, Manchester, Dublin, and Galway. You never know.

The second call is a bit nebulous – I think it’s somebody selling franchises.

The third call is the one I am most excited about – a larger training company that creates their own video content. This one could be a more interesting transition. I was an internal referral, so that can’t hurt.

Sometime this morning, I will be on the receiving end of a visit by my daughter and the cutest granddaughter in the world, with a little Valentine’s Day kiss for grampa.

Lisa made cinnamon rolls first thing this morning. I am a blessed man.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 700

Good morning, and a very happy Thursday to you all. Today is 13 February 2025.

I probably ought to pick my wife up a Valentine’s Day card… then wait for the good stuff to go on sale, and pick it up for our anniversary on Monday.

Important dates… today is Evelyn’s 700th day in the world. Monday would be my mom and dad’s 63rd wedding anniversary. Lisa and I were married on the same day as my folks, so we’ll be celebrating 29 years of marriage on Monday as well. Lisa is an incredible woman, putting up with me as long as she has.

I jumped online last night about 8 o’clock to join the guys in a little virtual tabletop. We slayed some stuff then thought better about proceeding – we know there’s a big,bad, evil guy in the next room, so deferring until Sunday or Wednesday when we have a bigger group is not an unwise decision.

I have my a conversation with a potential employer today. I looked over what they are looking for, and I’m not it. They need somebody with more Sharepoint experience. I have two more conversations tomorrow, and I will admit that I”m pretty excited about one of them, making educational videos for a larger business-education group.

It’s time to make a pot of coffee. I think I’ll skip the toast this morning and go for a bowl of yogurt with a couple of scoops of granola in it, maybe half a handful of blueberries in there as well.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 699

Good morning, and a very happy Wednesday to you. Today is 12 February, 2025.

And the snow is coming down… we are currently in a winter storm watch, with an expected snowfall of four to six inches. I looked outside and it appears we have a half an inch on the ground already. I’m glad I prodded Dane into bringing in some extra firewood yesterday in anticipation of the colder weather. Lisa and Dane will work from home today, as the university has closed the main campus with the winter storm.

I ordered some takeout from the Mexican restaurant on the edge of town, Cascada la Golondrina. I ordered a little extra in anticipation of the storm. We won’t have to scramble much for lunch.

Kansas played Colorado last night in college basketball, and the game went about as well as I thought it might. Colorado put up a good fight, but they’re down this year. Kansas brought home a twelve-point victory.

I did get to spend some time yesterday morning watching my granddaughter. She was in a bit of a mood for a couple of hours. Oh well, that’s going to happen at her age. She turns two next month, and she turns 700 days tomorrow.

I’ll be online gaming with the guys tonight. Other than that, not much else to add.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 698

Good morning, and a very happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 11 February 2025.

Tacos for dinner. That gives me something else I can look forward to today. But first things first…

After I finish writing my blog, I will make a pot of coffee and see if there is any corned beef hash leftover from Sunday morning’s breakfast. If so, that’s a great start to the day. If not, I’ll throw a couple of bread slices into the toaster oven and have peanut butter toast to start the day. I’ve always liked the way peanut butter and coffee go together.

After that, my day begins in earnest, as I will make the 18-mile jaunt to my daughter’s house, and I will spend a few hours watching my granddaughter while Gracie takes care of some personal business. Muahahaha! I get to be Grampa!

Reminder to myself – reschedule the oil change on the Flex.

Tonight, the KU Jayhawks will host the Colorado Buffalos at Allen Fieldhouse. On paper, Kansas should have a pretty easy game of it. In reality, Kansas will win, but I fear that the game will be way too close for comfort.

Other than that, not much else is going on.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 697

Good morning, and a happy Monday to you all. Today it is 10 February 2025.

The Chiefs lost the Super Bowl, and I’m OK with that. It’s not as if the Chiefs did much to deserve a win – the quarterback isn’t going to complete many passes while he’s on his back.

I need to block out my week. I’m going to retake my certification exam next week (I missed it by a little bit last Friday), so I’m going to lock down, go back through the course labs, and then sort through the practice exam questions again. Hopefully, I’ll be able to glean enough info so I can get over the hump. Then I’ll have the entire security suite in my certification list… which will last until the end of May because rather than upgrading an existing cert, the old cert is simply being replaced – I normally would have been rolled into the new cert, as it moves from the 400 to the 401 revision, but it appears as if that is not going to be the case with this revision. A bit of a bummer.

Tomorrow I get to watch my granddaughter for a few hours while Gracie takes care of her business. The upside about having time on my hands is that I get to hang out with my kids more and my granddaughter even more.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report. Lisa and I are keeping an eye on what is happening at the federal level – she has some work with the National Institute of Health that is a bit up in the air right now. but that’s the case everywhere. There’s so much chaos and disorder. It is hard to see anything positive coming out of the mess that has been created. The common man will take it on the chin, and the wealthiest man in the world will get his tax breaks.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 694

Good morning, and a happy last day of the Western work week to you all. Today is 7 February 2025.

I think it’s somebody’s birthday that I know, but I’m not sure. Of course, that’ll be the kind of thing that will linger around the back of my head for the rest of the day.

So, Friday. One week out from a really bad day. Things are looking up, and I have a couple of meetings on the calendar for next week, so that’s a positive. Gracie has to have a morning to get some things done, so I get to spend some time with my granddaughter.

A couple of weeks ago, before the career change, I ordered a piece of equipment to help me in my deliveries – an Elgato Teleprompter. I assembled it yesterday, but I need to complete the process and check it out. One of my old German teammates did a couple of nice demos on the Elgato Stream Deck and the Teleprompter, so when the time comes, I’ll get right back into it.

I have a certification exam booked for later this morning. I hope to nail down the last cert for the security suite I’ve been working with for the last couple of years.

Superbowl this weekend. Go Chiefs!

I’ve got garbage to get to the corner, coffee to brew, and an English muffin to get toasted.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 693

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. Today is 6 February 2025.

Yep, mistyped the year again.

Yesterday was a good day. I reached out to some other folks I used to work with, and I sent my resume to a couple of training companies that saw my status change. Lisa and I worked on switching over our insurance to a plan offered to State of Kansas employees which will get us by. I won’t be planning any elective procedures for a while, right?

Gracie called me yesterday while she was working from home. Evelyn wanted to see Grampa, and she was wearing the cutest little pink cardigan – her “grampa sweater”. She’s too cute for words.

We had a good gathering of the guys last evening. My character went down in the first round of combat – “Wade in!” they said, “They’re just a couple of flesh golems” they said. There were six, and I should’ve just used the fireball wand.

Today is a study day. I have a certification exam tomorrow morning, so today is my day to revisit the curriculum. I’m kind of excited about passing this one, as this will complete the security suite.

There is not much else going on, really. The weather was warm the first couple of days, but it’s cooled back off since.

Time to get the coffee going and get myself something to eat.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 692

Good morning, and a happy Wednesday to you all. Today is 5 February 2025.

I am not really feeling it this morning.

I got up, did my morning stuff, and plopped my butt into my chair. I read a few terrifying headlines and close the page, head over to LinkedIn to see if there are any changes overnight, and head over to my email for any new missives.

And that’s the start of my day.

I’ll be focusing on communications today, as well as my certification exam. It is within the realm of possibility that I’ll see me granddaughter today.

Doldrums.

I think I’ll just make a pot of coffee and try to focus. My enthusiasm, level is not rock bottom, but I think I can see it from here.

“Keep on swimming, keep on swimming”.

I’m going to just get this in the can and call it. I hope to be a little more interesting tomorrow.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 691

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 4 February 2025.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I had some teammates reach out to me who heard about my dismissal, and it’s nice to know they have my best interests in mind. It’s always nice to hear positive comments from folks you respect when things take a turn. I had several folks request my resume, and had another ask overnight, so that’s a net positive.

The weird part about a job search today is dealing with the scammers. “We’ll help you rewrite your resume…” , “we can coach you up…”, “For the amazingly low price of four thousand dollars we can get your name and profile in front of these executives”.

If I had an extra four grand lying around, I’d buy a laptop to replace the company asset I have to send back to the mothership. I’ll stick with the older laptop I have right here for now. It gets the job done… but eventually, yeah, new laptop.

Basketball was good last night as the Kansas Jayhawks hosted the Iowa State Cyclones. Kansas did a good job holding down the home court and winning by 17.

There’s not a lot else to add right now. Time to look over at LinkedIn to see who else with a poor command of the English language wants to provide me with legendary guidance on how to best frame my experience for the prospective employer.

In the meantime, I do want to express my gratitude to you all. I’ve had some really nice comments from friends and professional acquaintances about this involuntary change, and y’all are great.

Coffee is up.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 690

Good morning, and a happy first day of the Western work week to you all. Today is 3 February 2024.

Friday was not a great day for me after all.

My first meeting of the day turned out to be my last meeting of the day. My team manager was on vacation, and I knew he was leaving our team to go to another project, my team was getting a new manager starting Saturday, and I wish the new manager well. He and I delivered two courses over the course of 10 weeks last summer, one admin course and one architecture course. We had absolutely dismal survey numbers returned after class for those two classes.

That was the beginning of the end, I guess.

Friday I was let go from my employer. That made for a pretty bad day.

There are things that I could say, but I’ll just focus on what comes next. I have a contract coming today for freelance work that will help until I can find something a little more permanent. A couple of larger training providers have reached out to me as well.

I have to send my hardware back to the company. That might put me in a bit of a pinch for a new system to use in class. This one is ok, but it’s already five years old. I guess one of the smarter decisions I made was buying my own equipment in some cases – lighting, chromakey, teleprompter, side display for writing notes.

Ugh.

There’s a lot of housekeeping that needs to be done right now, and I have some other plans for later in the week – I had booked a certification exam so I’ll keep that appointment for this Friday. That will round out the security suite of certifications for me.

I did get to smile a bit this weekend. My granddaughter has that effect on me.

OK, time to get this in the can and get going on my day. My resume isn’t going to update itself.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.