Spent the week in sunny California - Anaheim area. One highlight of the trip was getting to visit the Queen Mary.

Interestingly, the city of Long Beach owns the Queen Mary, and purchased it for $3.45 million - considerably more than it’s scrap value in 1967. It now leases it out to various entities, where it’s used for an amazingly diverse set of things - tours, a hotel, private banquets, shops, restaurants, night clubs, a multimedia “ghosts tour”, and even a spa. Needless to say, it was a very successful restoration project, even though much of the ship was reconfigured to accommodate it’s current day needs.

Five years ago, Amanda and I were married. It’s been wonderful, and we’re looking forward to this next chapter in our lives together.

Recently spotted and almost purchased on a layover in Washington-Dulles:

I don’t post much about my job, but this was the nice writeup that my manager sent out to all of IT earlier this week about my new role.

I am pleased to announce that Derek Punaro has been promoted to IT Information Architect, a new job title created for the Sharewaves07 Collaboration Support team. Derek’s strong technical and business analytical skills make him an excellent fit for this position. In this role Derek continues to report to me.

Derek is instrumental in the continued success of our Sharewaves07 application. He is responsible for designing content and document management solutions. He works closely with business clients to gather requirements, design navigation hierarchies, metadata structures and user experience designs. He serves as a champion to promote the use of Praxair’s standard document and content management tools across the enterprise. And he assists in the development and delivery of training classes and self-study materials.

Starting with Praxair’s IT organization in January 2000, Derek began as an original member of Praxair’s first eCommerce project. Since then, he has been involved in many web based IT projects, including Airwaves and QuickPlace. Derek was a key participant in the SharePoint Document Management Project. He has been a member of the Collaboration Support Center since July, 2007.

Derek holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Information Technology from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is an IBM certified Application Developer and has expertise in a multitude of web technologies.

We look forward to Derek’s continued contributions to ITS. Please join me in congratulating Derek on his achievement.

It’s interesting for me, after spending 6 years working with Lotus Notes/Domino to now be involved largely with Microsoft technologies. It really opens your eyes to seeing what’s hype and what’s substance. But that’s a whole series of other blog posts there.

Amanda would kill me if I bought another T-Shirt, but if I did, it would be from this guy, and would either be this one:

or this one:

I could also appease Amanda by getting her this one:

I am laughing tonight at all the times people have told me how much our lives will change with the baby. When they say that we’ll never be able to plan anything again because you never know what will happen, and you’ll never be on time again. Honestly, I think that is just life, not that it won’t be compounded by a baby, but life nonetheless.

Here’s tonight’s story…..

While getting ready to settle in for the night and watch a little DVR, I hear a crash from upstairs. Derek’s glass of pop just temporarily suctioned itself to the glass coaster it was resting on and then let’s go unexpectedly. On his newly laid wood floor in his office. Good news? It wasn’t the glass of pop itself. Bad news? There is glass in all the little nooks and crannies of the newly laid hardwood floor.

Begin the search for the broom and dustpan, which takes me into the garage (letting kitty out) and then the basement. It is of course laying underneath our shelves with all our extra baggies are stored. (If anyone doesn’t know, it is not easy to bend over when pregnant. If you want to know what I mean, take a child’s soft kickball, place on abdomen, bend over and see how far you get.) While down there I ask Derek is he has cleaned out the cat box lately. He hasn’t. No wonder why kitty always wants out in the garage!

So while Derek takes care of that lovely job, I come back upstairs to clean up the mess. The big parts come up easily, but there are still little shards of shiny glass everywhere. I go get the Dirt Devil. A very handy product for just this type of job (and stairs and bugs too!). Turning it on, I attempt to get all those little pieces that are everywhere only to realize that nothing is coming up. I look at the dump tray and it is chock full of nasty looking stuff, some of which I am sure was corn meal and I’m not sure I remember why….. I empty the bag and see that the filter REALLY needs to be changed so I traipse (actually waddle would be a better word for it nowadays, and if any of you were wondering it is not that easy to climb up and down stairs while pregnant either. We have about 20 some odd stairs from upstairs to down in this house and this was the fourth trip) back to the basement to see if we have another filter. We do not. Hopefully the vacuum will work. It does, the glass is gone and I feel like blogging about the whole thing.

Lucky you!

I have a good handle on my personal finances, and have no problem using credit cards and paying them off each month. In fact, it can be beneficial to do so. Those who are carrying a balance on their cards or are prone to overspending shouldn’t follow my lead, but here are two ways I’m using credit cards to ease some financial pain.

Gas

Gas prices are ever increasing and I drive a lot. I’m projecting putting about 20,000 miles this year on my car, and Amanda’s will probably see 8-10,000. How to ease the pain at the pump? A gas station credit card. Now, I’ve always charged my gas, usually to my Discover card which generally gets me 1% cash back. However, I’m in a unique situation where I almost always go to Sunoco to get gas for my WRX, since it will take 91 octane, and Sunoco is generally the only place around that carries it. Putting in anything higher than what the manufacturer recommends is a waste of money. I realized that instead of getting the measly 1% back on my Discover card, if I signed up for a Sunoco card I could bump that up to 4%. I’m not one to sign up for every credit card that comes along, but there was a real benefit to having this card. Starting in July, Discover offers 5% back on gas purchases, so I’ll switch back to using that card for a couple of months to maximize the rewards.

Maternity Clothes

The reason I love my Discover card so much is that whatever Cashback bonus awards I get from using it can generally net me more savings if I turn them into gift cards for various retailers. Frequently, you can cash in $20 to get a $25 card, for example. The terms vary by store. In the past, we’ve used them for Bed Bath and Beyond, Sunglass Hut, and Omaha Steaks. But what has really been a big help lately has been redeeming them for Motherhood Maternity. We cashed in $80 in rewards to get $100 in gifts cards when Amanda had finally ran out of things that fit her, and she got to go on a mini shopping spree. This eases some of the mental pain as well of spending money on clothes that you know are going to have a short usefulness to them. Today, a flyer came in the mail reminding us that Motherhood is moving out of the Galleria and down the street to a new Destination Maternity supercenter store, so another $50 card is on the way.

If you can use credit cards responsibly, there’s lots of ways to maximize their benefits. Just don’t succumb to “debt disease“.

Doesn’t it just seem a bit disingenuous that New York State politicians are complaining about an authority they created raising tolls? Come one! They LOVE the fact that it’s not themselves directly levying another tax. They get to play it off like they think it’s the worst thing in the world, but the money just keeps on rolling in.

“I am suggesting we stop the madness of the toll increases with the New York State Thruway Authority. Disband them, abolish them, and start over again,” says State Assemblyman Mark Schroeder (D-Buffalo).

“This unwarranted toll increase is a slap in the face to the hard-working residents of Western New York,” Higgins said. “The Thruway Authority has created a fictional budget hole as a means to justify a toll increase that pads their already bloated bureaucratic pockets.”

A couple years ago, my father-in-law kept talking about going “leak hunting”. That sounded like what we do at the Terminal on rainy Saturdays to find drains that need to be repaired. What I didn’t realize was that he was talking about leeks, not leaks.

You may be familiar with leeks that you find at the grocery store, but wild leeks are a bit different. For starters, they’re much smaller. They’re similar to a scallion onion in size, but more leafy, with a taste that’s a cross between onion and garlic. Wild leeks are also called “ramps” in certain areas of the country, and they grow in most of the eastern states and into Canada. Turns out that there are a few areas in the southern tier where you can simply pull off the side of the road and go dig yourself up some.

My father-in-law has been hunting leeks since he was a kid (as has Amanda), so a couple years ago I got to tag along as well. Returning from a successful leek hunt results in the mythical “wild leek pork roast” so the stakes are high. The process, which we repeated last weekend, first involves driving to the secret location. Leeks are only readily visible early in spring, where they pop out of the ground about the same time the daffodils do. Last weekend was perfect weather and the right time of the year to spot the buggers, so off we went. After arriving at the secret location, the half an hour of hunting resulted in unearthing nothing more than a large rock with a bunch of fossils embedded in it [which I took]. Disappointed, we hopped back in the car and decided to drive down to the end of the road, when what to our wondering eyes did appear, but the real secret leek location. It was so secret, we forgot where we left it from last time. Off with shovels and buckets we went. Now around here the leeks like to grow on the sides of hills like these:

Maybe this is why they’re also called ramps. Anyways, they’re relatively easy to spot based on their leaf and stalk, and the fact that when you pick one the oniony smell is a dead giveaway. If there are enough in a certain area, the air may even smell of them. In fact, the name “Chicago” comes from one of a few Native American phrases for “wild onions” or “striped skunk,” likely because they covered the region at the time. After 45 minutes or so, we climbed back down the hill with our buckets full.

Once home, I separated the leeks out into clusters with good roots and ones that I had plucked individually. The loners got hosed down and went off to the kitchen. The remaining ones got replanted in our new yard, where hopefully they’ll take and spread next year.

We’ve only ever made one thing with the wild leeks, and it’s a ridiculously simple dish - wild leek pork roast. Prep the leeks by thoroughly washing them and cutting off the roots. Everything else can stay, from the bulb to the leaf. Then, simply take a pork roast, put it in a small roaster with a little bit of water, salt and pepper, and jam as many leeks in there as will fit. Toss it in the oven as per the directions for the roast (or the guidance of your meat thermometer) and enjoy the savory aroma that will soon fill your house. The roast will then fill your tummy.

I’ve never seen wild leeks sold in any produce sections, and that’s what makes this meal so special. It’s one part adventure, one part culinary experiment, with a dash of hunter/gatherer thrown in. It’s worth it to make something once in awhile that’s a bit more unique than what you could just throw together from the grocery store.

Happy Tax Freedom Day, U.S. of A.! Yes, today is the day when you’re finished handing over your paycheck directly to the government(s) and get to start keeping it for yourself!

Unfortunately, us New Yorkers who are living the posh life filled with fabulous government-provided services need to keep paying until May 5th. But hey, what’s two more weeks of pay? Can’t even get ya a decent hooker these days.