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I never had a chance to fill you in on Sunday, so here we go.

I had a Late Brunch — okay fine, it was Lunch — at Barbieri's: very diner feeling; nice wait staff; well priced; clean; tasty; filled with a good mix of people and conversation. It's not really the kind of place you write home about, though. Instead, it's the kind of place you realize after the fact that you must really like something about or you wouldn't keep going back. I think the best description is "comfortable". I'll definitely go back.

After my meal I wandered about Armory Square, a historical part of Syracuse now filled with restaurants, bars, and a few boutiques. I had coffee at "Freedom of Espresso", read a bit, walked around a lot, and took some photographs. One of the best parts about this was the parking. While the lot I used was a bit beat up and lacked entrances and exits where there should be some, once a space was found I was able to pay $4 by credit card to park for the entire day. I think you can almost see the smile on my face now from where you are when I think about how pleased I was that I didn't have to run to some random establishment trying to make change so I could run back to my car and feed the meter.

After that I tried to find another camera store but, after striking out trying to find anything open on Sunday, I once again opted for… (GASP)… the Mall. This time I went to the Carousel Mall, located much closer to the city. As far as malls go — and mind you, I hate malls — this one seemed pretty decent. It had nicer stores, and was laid out pretty well. The real purpose of my visit, however, was to catch a movie.

I decided to see Zodiac which I do not recommend at all to anyone, ever, under any circumstances. However, the first hour was actually pretty good. The next two hours — yes, three hours total — moved mind-numbingly slow with only a few interesting bits. By that time I had to pee so bad I thought I would explode. It seemed like the movie was going to pick up at the end so I decided to sneak away and use the rest room before it did. When I came back, there was about two minutes more of dialog and then time for the action. Only, instead of the action the movie displayed synopsizes about all of the characters lives and where they are now and just ended right there. What a waste of three hours. I guess if you're really into serial killers you might find it interesting. Just read the story before hand, come for the first hour, and then sneak out after that.

Once the movie was over I had intended to do a little shopping. However, since the movie lasted an hour longer than I expected, and the mall closed sooner than I expected, everything was closed when I left. So, for dinner I went to a Thai place called Lemongrass in Armory Square. I felt a bit odd eating alone in such a nice place, and my primary waiter didn't make me feel at all welcome. However, the food — Panaeng Curry — was really good, despite being over priced. I'd never had hearts of palm before, but this certainly wont be the last time.

After dinner I went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Now for Monday.

I got up. I got dressed. I had coffee and an orange. I went into the office. I held a call with my boss and my director to discuss what I learned on Friday.

Then around 9:30am I started a call for a systems crisis. That call pushed me into another crisis call, addressing the cause of the first one. Around 5pm that call spawned off another call regarding another issue being caused by the primary problem. At almost 9pm, I got tired of juggling calls and people so I decided that they were in a good spot and left to grab dinner at Dominicks. The place was nice and well priced, but the food was terrible. Then I returned to my hotel room to get a status update and went to bed.

The worst part was that none of that work was really my job. The people that should have been doing it weren't, and it needed to be done so I did it. Then those people got upset with me for doing it my way instead of their way. Whatever. All I can do at this point is bend over and take it. What? What? In my butt. Oooh kaaaaaaaay.

And that leads me to today.

I'm going to go get a cup of coffee and an orange. Then I'll go into the office. Then I'll have a call with my boss and my director about the catastrophe that was yesterday. Then I'll try to get some work done while maintaining light contact with the crisis calls and trying not to go crazy.

Oh yeah, somewhere along the line I decided that "The Lazarus Vendetta" is damn near the worst book I've ever read so I stopped. I'm now reading "The Chrysalids" by John Wyndham which, so far, is quite good.