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I've slacked off on my updates so much now that last Wednesday and Thursday sort of blur together in my head and I only vaguely remember what happened when. So, I'll just make up the parts I can't remember in such a sly fashion that you won't even know I'm making them up.

I slept all day Wednesday. Never got out of bed. Not even once. At all. Promise.

Thursday, I had breakfast at the hotel, twice, as usual, and went into work. The day was pretty typical for my time in Syracuse. I walked from my car to the building entrance and then walked the 1/4 mile (that is not an exaggeration — there are signs up to indicate as much) from the building entrance to my work location. At that point, as is typical, I worked non-stop until well after lunch when I finally manage to find a break because everyone else has been at lunch for an hour allowing me to catch up.

For lunch I went to a Mexican restaurant called "Alto Cinco". The atmosphere was interesting, the wait staff was quick and friendly, there was a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan food, the meal was absolutely delicious and not at all Mexican. Not even a little. The only thing Mexican about it was the name, and even then, that's pushing it. But, still quite good. As long as you're not in the mood for Mexican.

With such a busy day at work, I just grabbed a quick lunch at Wendy's and then headed back to the office until late in the evening with more to do than one man can handle. I really had to bite in to our IT department this time. They don't quite understand who I am or how I can help them just yet, so sometimes I have to get a little nasty to get things done. But, later that evening I got a call from one of the developers handling my issue and he apologized profusely for the trouble, for his attitude, and for his hesitation to take action. In the end, I made another buddy in IT, and you can never have too many of those.

I went to the mall and had a quick dinner in the food court because I knew there was a bookstore there and I was growing very tired of the "Lazarus Vendetta" once again. I ended up browsing the shelves for a few hours and eventually selected two: "looking for alaska" by John Green and "being dead" by Jim Crace. I finished one of them since then, and the other is almost finished.

"Looking for alaska" is outstanding and certainly sits in my top ten favorite books. I finished it in the airport Friday morning and could barely hold back the tears. "Being dead" is well written, but really just not my style. I'm only half way through it though, so I'll offer a better opinion when I finish it.

I met two people from the office at a Indian Casino 20 minutes out of town for dinner that night. I've never been to a casino, so I really have nothing to compare it to, but it seemed nice. The people inside seemed a bit trashy, as did the most of the people working the tables, but it was nice anyway. I lost $100 quite quickly playing Blackjack and Texas Hold 'Em. That was enough for me. We also had dinner at a steak house there. My $60 meal didn't even come close to what I can get at almost any steak house here in texas for half that price, but, I sort of expected that.

Then I headed home and crashed for the evening.

Friday I came in the office a bit late, which was a mistake. By the time I got there the place was on fire. I had to leave by 11:45am to catch my flight back to Texas. For most of the morning, I wore two headsets, switching back and forth between two different calls trying to get things done. I ended up leaving later than I wanted so I had to drop the rental car off not filled up. I'm sure they charged us an arm and a leg for the gas.

The flight home was terrible. I sat next to a very nice guy who just happened to be large enough to require a seat and a half and left the arm rest up to make sure he'd get it. He wasn't fat, really. Just a very big guy. Mostly muscle I imagine. But still. HUGE. I felt bad for him because I'm sure that, even with half of my seat to his name, he was quite uncomfortable.

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After a bit of chit-chat, he fell asleep in less than 3 minutes and immediately starting snoring. I fired up my iPod, scooted into the corner of my seat, dug into my book, and tried to watch my elbows for when the flight attendants came flying by from time to time. He woke up from time to nudge me, ask me some question, and then fall asleep almost immediately again. When he did talk, he spoke with a low, rumbly voice, had a thick drawl, and didn't open his mouth very wide. With the hum of the airplane and my bad hearing mixed in there too, I had to ask him to repeat almost everything he said.

After the plane landed it took almost an hour to get from my gate to my car thanks to very slow service from the parking and shuttle service I use.

I got home to a wonderful dinner and a few nice surprises from my wonderful wife, though, and that made all the stress of the week before and the flight home just dissolve.