When the switch goes

So I go by my side job this morning to drop off a scanner that I had for the weekend for testing. As I am walking in the manager says, "I can't get to the database or the internet." I asked if it was just one computer or all of them. We walk in the computer room and I see one switch for the network up and running. I look up for the other one by the patch panel and there are no lights on. I go oh no not the main switch! Try two power cables and a couple of different outlets and nothing. So talking to the network consultant and he says it's dead and to get a new one. So I run down to the store that I know has a 24 port switch and get a new one. I get back and the old one is on but they can't get anywhere. So I take down the old one and install the new one. It's fun swapping all 24 patch cables from the old to the new. I also had to re arrange a couple of things so that the new switch would plug into one of the upses that there, I think this may have possibly been the issue as they have enough power outages ect. due to the area. Needless to say I got to work late and it was a fun morning.

Spring around Arizona

Well we had a great weekend and I was reminded that Arizona does have a spring. The flowers that Grandma got us and we planted around one of the palo verde in the back are slowly coming up, 6 so far. I have some flowers that are coming up for humming birds/butterflies. And I stepped outside and look at one of the palo verde out front and it was in bloom. It looked so great I had to take a picture of it.

Included are some pics of the Phoenix Rock Art Center where we went Saturday as well.

My geek is showing

Ok so I got the tax return and I offered the kids two choices Big Screen TV or computer.... Personally I wanted the TV because I am getting tired of looking at stuff on the 20" tv that we have now. So they went with the computer. Process for the computer.. Order said computer. (duo core 2.6g, 320gb hd, 4gb ram, creative sound card, 20" ws monitor, ati 256mb video card) Get said computer. Laugh evilly while unpacking and setting up the computer. Immediatly do updates ect while kids say can I use it yet. Which I of course promptly ignore and growl... not really. I had ordered 3 usb flash drives(Scandisk Cruzer) when I ordered the computer 2 4gb and 1 8gb. 2 went on the computer, 1 for windows readyboost(4gb), and 1 for Lord of the Rings Online(LOTRO) (8gb) for speeding up the loading of the textures, ect in the game. The last one was for me and the side job as I got tired of waiting for my current usb flash drive to quit taking 17 minutes to copy the current version of the code I was working on over so I could upload it to the development computer on the job site. The new one only takes about 3-5 minutes. Needless to say that after setting it all up and then putting the kids to bed later.. I of course had to crack the case open. Yea I know I couldn't resist...well acutally it was because the front jacks for the headphones didn't work and I wanted to know why. So I poped the case open and then discoved that the connectors had been plugged into the motherboard vs the sound card! Problem solved.. tested, tweaked, played with and finally went to bed. Oh ya the upgrade thinking lasted less than a week. On list new power supply and upgraded video card.

Jenkins Power Company is Downsizing

Ok so I have had my Uncle here for two weeks now. He came out and found a job and is done with training today and will be officially moving into his apt close to his work tonight. Well mostly. So this mean that instead of having another adult and dishwasher around the house it will just be down to me and the kids again. One of the weird things is that for the most part he had the same sleeping schedule as me because he had to be to work at 6am. Since I have been getting up at 4-5am to work on the side job this means that we were both going to bed about the same time and getting up at the same time. It has been nice to have him as I could make some more foods that I like to eat and I know the kids don't. This has the upside in the fact that there are also less leftovers of the foods I like to eat and make. WOOT. We will miss him being around so much and enjoying his company.