A few more tidbits have trickled in from my mother, which seem to confirm that the ship's manifest actually lists my great-grandparents. She says that they came over twice, and that only one of their children was born in Poland. She said this before even noticing the "Were you ever in the United States before" column in the manifest, which shows them in the US from 1899 to 1905 (which were ages 24-30 and her ages 20-26). The date ranges lists for the children only show the dates they were alive, so this gives some indication of their birth dates too. The youngest child listed on the manifest, Wojciech, would have been born during the two years they were back in Poland, which agrees with what my mother said about only one child being born in Poland.
She remembers hearing that they didn't come through Ellis Island, but now we're pretty sure they did. She assumed they came through the port of Philadelphia, but I'm thinking this is probably where they came through the first time. Which means that maybe they did actually see the Statue of Liberty for the first time when they came for good in 1907!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Huddled masses yearning to breathe free
More on the family tree. Years ago my Uncle Bill tracked down the genealogy of my father's side of the family, all the way back to the 1600s, and found that most of my ancestors there come from Krov, Germany. He flew out one year, then many times after that, and I ended up going out for a wonderful family reunion as a result.
Lately I had been considering tracking down my mother's side. I did this once back in the '80s, interviewing all my relatives and drawing up a family tree. This still exists somewhere in my parents' house, but I wasn't able to find it last time I was home.
So recently I asked my mom to fill me in on some of this information, figuring that once I had a few names I'd be able to fill in a lot more with the help of the internet. So I was able to fill out a lot more of the family tree that I posted a link to yesterday as a result (it doesn't show you much there unless you become a member of the site).
But there's more. Searching on a few names on the internet, I found some discussion on a genealogy forum dating back to 2001 that let me fill in a few more names. But then I hit the jackpot (I think) on the Ellis Island site.
I wasn't able to find my mother's father's parents, but searching on my mother's mother's parents turned up this awesome find: the ship manifest that I'm pretty sure shows them arriving in America from Poland. Lines 4 through 9 show Agata and Jan Gasior and their entourage; these are my grandmother's parents, I'm convinced. There's actually quite a lot of information on the manifest, and combined with other information I've gathered previously and with some help from the internet, I can piece together the story pretty well:
They had already spent six years on a previous visit in Camden, New Jersey where they would eventually settle. They went back to Poland for two years, then decided to come over for good. Probably they waited until their fourth child (Wojciech) was born - he's listed as age 0. They brought along a housemaid, Kunegunda (great name), presumably to help with the children; she was twenty and shares the same last name, so was likely a relative. No doubt some tears there, leaving all of her friends and family at such a young age.
And so Jan (age 32) and Agata (age 28), their maid, and the four kids (ages 7, 4, 3, and 0) would have packed up all their belongings and taken a train from their small farming village of Będziemyśl, Poland to Hamburg, Germany to catch the transport ship, the S. S. Amerika, leaving on 8 May 1907.
Arriving in New York twelve days later, the Statue of Liberty would probably have been a familiar site to Jan and Agata, having taken the previous trip over, but the maid and the kids would have looked on with interest. At Ellis Island they would be interviewed by the guy whose handwriting you see on the manifest, and asked a number of strange questions, including, "Are you an anarchist?" Jan had the princely sum of $320 on his person. (Actually, is that a lot, for that time? I don't know.) From there it would be another train to Camden, NJ, to join their uncle Josef Pilas, according to the ledger.
The names (parents Jan and Agata, children Josef, Marianna, Anton, Wojciech) seem to match the family information supplied by my mother - though each of the names has been anglicized (parents became John and Agatha, children Joseph, Mary, Anthony, and... Walter?). It also matches that Joseph is the oldest. Combined that all with the destination of Camden NJ and I'm pretty confident this is them. They went on to have eight more children, including my mom's mother Helen.
I find this all tremendously fascinating.
Lately I had been considering tracking down my mother's side. I did this once back in the '80s, interviewing all my relatives and drawing up a family tree. This still exists somewhere in my parents' house, but I wasn't able to find it last time I was home.
So recently I asked my mom to fill me in on some of this information, figuring that once I had a few names I'd be able to fill in a lot more with the help of the internet. So I was able to fill out a lot more of the family tree that I posted a link to yesterday as a result (it doesn't show you much there unless you become a member of the site).
But there's more. Searching on a few names on the internet, I found some discussion on a genealogy forum dating back to 2001 that let me fill in a few more names. But then I hit the jackpot (I think) on the Ellis Island site.
I wasn't able to find my mother's father's parents, but searching on my mother's mother's parents turned up this awesome find: the ship manifest that I'm pretty sure shows them arriving in America from Poland. Lines 4 through 9 show Agata and Jan Gasior and their entourage; these are my grandmother's parents, I'm convinced. There's actually quite a lot of information on the manifest, and combined with other information I've gathered previously and with some help from the internet, I can piece together the story pretty well:
They had already spent six years on a previous visit in Camden, New Jersey where they would eventually settle. They went back to Poland for two years, then decided to come over for good. Probably they waited until their fourth child (Wojciech) was born - he's listed as age 0. They brought along a housemaid, Kunegunda (great name), presumably to help with the children; she was twenty and shares the same last name, so was likely a relative. No doubt some tears there, leaving all of her friends and family at such a young age.
And so Jan (age 32) and Agata (age 28), their maid, and the four kids (ages 7, 4, 3, and 0) would have packed up all their belongings and taken a train from their small farming village of Będziemyśl, Poland to Hamburg, Germany to catch the transport ship, the S. S. Amerika, leaving on 8 May 1907.
Arriving in New York twelve days later, the Statue of Liberty would probably have been a familiar site to Jan and Agata, having taken the previous trip over, but the maid and the kids would have looked on with interest. At Ellis Island they would be interviewed by the guy whose handwriting you see on the manifest, and asked a number of strange questions, including, "Are you an anarchist?" Jan had the princely sum of $320 on his person. (Actually, is that a lot, for that time? I don't know.) From there it would be another train to Camden, NJ, to join their uncle Josef Pilas, according to the ledger.
The names (parents Jan and Agata, children Josef, Marianna, Anton, Wojciech) seem to match the family information supplied by my mother - though each of the names has been anglicized (parents became John and Agatha, children Joseph, Mary, Anthony, and... Walter?). It also matches that Joseph is the oldest. Combined that all with the destination of Camden NJ and I'm pretty confident this is them. They went on to have eight more children, including my mom's mother Helen.
I find this all tremendously fascinating.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Rellies
My cousin has been posting old family pictures of my ancestors (on my dad's side at least) to the share genealogy website where I keep my family tree. Some of the shots I don't think I've seen before.
Here are my dad's parents. His mother lived until I was in my twenties, but his dad died when I was only six. I remember visiting him in the hospital.
Here are their parents, comprising four of my eight great-grandparents:
Any of them look like me?
Here are my dad's parents. His mother lived until I was in my twenties, but his dad died when I was only six. I remember visiting him in the hospital.
 |
| Frances Rose Schnitzius (Szymanski) |
 |
| John Alphonse Schnitzius |
Here are their parents, comprising four of my eight great-grandparents:
 |
| Alphonse J. Schnitzius |
 |
| Catherine Schnitzius (Schick) |
 |
| Felix "Phillip" Szymanski |
 |
| Margaret Szymansi (Basinski) |
Any of them look like me?
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Our Christmas
Woke up, exchanged presents, walked the dog. Marjorie started a pork roast with homemade mac-and-cheese. Per Christmas tradition, we exercised, to assuage a little of the guilt of gorging ourselves the rest of the day. Made a pitcher of blue curacao margaritas and had the pork roast, which was really, unbelievably good.
I put together Marjorie's Christmas present - a turntable that's capable of recording to USB - and we broke out our albums that we haven't heard in ten years or so (and argued a bit about whose were whose!). But it has stereo output cables and our only speakers are for the computer and only take a headphone jack. Tried to play it through the TV but it would only play really quietly -- needs some sort of amplification obviously. And the USB output (which is made to record to a memory stick) wouldn't work with my Linux-y memory stick. So we have to wait a little longer to hear our vinyl!
All week they were saying the weather was going to be nice. Then yesterday they changed it to "becoming cloudy". Still way off -- it was grey and cool all day, save for a half hour in the evening that we spent out watching the rainbow lorikeets in our neighbor's apricot tree. Nice day, altogether.
I put together Marjorie's Christmas present - a turntable that's capable of recording to USB - and we broke out our albums that we haven't heard in ten years or so (and argued a bit about whose were whose!). But it has stereo output cables and our only speakers are for the computer and only take a headphone jack. Tried to play it through the TV but it would only play really quietly -- needs some sort of amplification obviously. And the USB output (which is made to record to a memory stick) wouldn't work with my Linux-y memory stick. So we have to wait a little longer to hear our vinyl!
All week they were saying the weather was going to be nice. Then yesterday they changed it to "becoming cloudy". Still way off -- it was grey and cool all day, save for a half hour in the evening that we spent out watching the rainbow lorikeets in our neighbor's apricot tree. Nice day, altogether.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Cherry Hill
Found some pictures on a real estate site of the house where I grew up (ages 0-10) in Cherry Hill NJ. Very evocative!
Front view - my bedroom I shared with Kevin on the upper right. There used to be those super tall bushes in front of our window that I used to plan to jump out to and slide down in case of fire (fire was my big fear as a child). Otherwise it all looks pretty much the same!
The view as you walk in. The red color scheme is all new. The biggest memory this dredges up is Danielle sneaking out of her bed and sleeping on the steps when my parents had dinner parties.
The kitchen has been remodeled too. The phone hung on the wall beside the door in the right rear. Memory for this one (among many): burning my finger on a popcorn popper next to the sink on the left (after being told not to touch it).
Family room, remodeled as well, but they kept the fireplace (even if they've painted the wood). This was the fireplace where I tied the screen shut one Christmas eve with a piece of yarn. When the yarn was still there in the morning, I KNEW.
The downstairs bathroom. How's this for an early memory: I remember asking to use it shortly after being potty trained, and being told by my mom that I didn't need to ask. Revelation!
The living room. Piano was against the left wall. Couch against the back wall. Ceramic elephant and various chairs to the right side. My parents used to have bridge parties here with folding card tables.
That's all! Wish there were more, like pictures of the yard, or my bedroom.
That's all! Wish there were more, like pictures of the yard, or my bedroom.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Amazing Australians
Here are four Australians that are amazing, in my opinion.
Chris Lilley - Creator of Summer Heights High (which was picked up in the States by HBO) and several other Australian series. Amazingly creative in his writing, but on top of that I think he is maybe the best actor I've ever seen. He completely inhabits his roles like no one else I know, so much so that he can even play a schoolgirl and pull it off. Here's a sample, but be warned, lots of colourful language... clip
Terrence Tao - Mathematician. More than that, he's a mathematician's mathematician. A child prodigy, he's now at a level where other mathematicians compete to interest him in their problems. I read his blog but to be honest, don't understand much. Thankfully he sometimes writes simpler stuff for dilettantes like myself. He may be the best mathematician working today (though he would probably tell you that non-working mathematician is tops).
Tommy Emmanuel - Australia is also home to maybe the top acoustic guitar player in the world as well. I'm not usually a blues fan, but this clip is typical. My hands hurt just watching.
Tim Minchin - Comedian usually situated at a piano, and with eye makeup and no shoes. Marjorie might disagree with me here; we first saw him a couple years back and he was decidedly unfunny. But I've seen some of his recent work and it's amazingly clever. Some samples (be warned, plenty of off-colour language here as well): Storm, Taboo, If I Didn't Have You.
Chris Lilley - Creator of Summer Heights High (which was picked up in the States by HBO) and several other Australian series. Amazingly creative in his writing, but on top of that I think he is maybe the best actor I've ever seen. He completely inhabits his roles like no one else I know, so much so that he can even play a schoolgirl and pull it off. Here's a sample, but be warned, lots of colourful language... clip
Terrence Tao - Mathematician. More than that, he's a mathematician's mathematician. A child prodigy, he's now at a level where other mathematicians compete to interest him in their problems. I read his blog but to be honest, don't understand much. Thankfully he sometimes writes simpler stuff for dilettantes like myself. He may be the best mathematician working today (though he would probably tell you that non-working mathematician is tops).
Tommy Emmanuel - Australia is also home to maybe the top acoustic guitar player in the world as well. I'm not usually a blues fan, but this clip is typical. My hands hurt just watching.
Tim Minchin - Comedian usually situated at a piano, and with eye makeup and no shoes. Marjorie might disagree with me here; we first saw him a couple years back and he was decidedly unfunny. But I've seen some of his recent work and it's amazingly clever. Some samples (be warned, plenty of off-colour language here as well): Storm, Taboo, If I Didn't Have You.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Home invader
BTW, that's not snow on the ground - our backyard tree is dumping pollen like mad right now.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Vote count
Results of my soccer team's vote count night, where the votes that we gave after each game are tallied up and presented. Moved up two places from last year.
Monday, October 04, 2010
Balloon
So, yeah. We went ballooning for Marjorie's birthday, and it was amazing. Spent almost exactly an hour in the air, taking off from Fisherman's bend and flying over our old neighborhood. Totally peaceful in the air and not scary at all, despite ranging from maybe twice the height of the skyscrapers in the CBD (which we skirted just South of) down to almost street level. We practically landed on the roof of one of our favorite restaurants and then continued straight down the street it was on, to the amusement of many passers-by and people having breakfast on their deck. The city was particularly quiet since the previous night was the (Australian Rules Football) Grand Final (which ended in a tie). We set down in Elsternwick Park leaving several dogs nonplussed. This was followed by a champagne breakfast at the cafe in the botanical gardens.
More pics to come.
More pics to come.
Hoddle Street massacre
A tragedy that occurred in our neighborhood 23 years ago. We walk Laika through this same area several times a week.
Monday, September 06, 2010
View
The view from my desk in our new office:
Looming up above is the highest office building in the Southern Hemisphere, the Rialto Towers, which used to have an observation deck (that Marjorie and I went to on our first visit to Melbourne) which is now apparently a restaurant.
Looming up above is the highest office building in the Southern Hemisphere, the Rialto Towers, which used to have an observation deck (that Marjorie and I went to on our first visit to Melbourne) which is now apparently a restaurant.
Friday, September 03, 2010
Office
The startup Mark is working for finally has an office:
Quite grateful to be back working in the CBD - I wasn't too keen on working from home. Here's my desk:
I love that the windows actually open; that's rare in an office building. There's a little balcony out there too but you have to go out the window to get to it.
Quite grateful to be back working in the CBD - I wasn't too keen on working from home. Here's my desk:
I love that the windows actually open; that's rare in an office building. There's a little balcony out there too but you have to go out the window to get to it.
New Car!
After nearly eight years without, we finally have a car!
2010 Subaru RX hatchback. We're looking forward to the change in lifestyle.
2010 Subaru RX hatchback. We're looking forward to the change in lifestyle.
Heart
After our last soccer match of the season, I went with a couple of teammates to watch Melbourne's new soccer team, the Heart, play against Perth Glory in Melbourne's new dedicated soccer stadium:
Small crowd but it was good fun and the stadium is fabbo. Bummer was that Former English Premier Leaguer Robbie Fowler scored a penalty kick equalizer for Perth in extra time, and the match finished 2-2.
Small crowd but it was good fun and the stadium is fabbo. Bummer was that Former English Premier Leaguer Robbie Fowler scored a penalty kick equalizer for Perth in extra time, and the match finished 2-2.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
New car... almost
So last week we went by the Subaru dealership and ended up putting some money down on a car that they had in stock at a different location, on the condition we could still reject it after it arrived and we had a test drive.
We had the test drive today, and everything was great, except that when we went to switch drivers, we smelled something burning. So we checked the oil, and it had way too MUCH. Some must've been spilling out onto the engine block, or something.
What can that do to a car? I'm not exactly sure, but now we are going to have an independent mechanic check it out before we buy. Bummer.
We had the test drive today, and everything was great, except that when we went to switch drivers, we smelled something burning. So we checked the oil, and it had way too MUCH. Some must've been spilling out onto the engine block, or something.
What can that do to a car? I'm not exactly sure, but now we are going to have an independent mechanic check it out before we buy. Bummer.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Soup
Had this soup at an Indonesian restaurant:
Any guess on the mystery vegetable? It was about as appetizing as it looked, and the flavor stayed with me all afternoon.
Any guess on the mystery vegetable? It was about as appetizing as it looked, and the flavor stayed with me all afternoon.
Balloons
Spotted this balloon hovering up the street:
Wow, that's really close, I thought. Then I looked up over our house and saw this:
Wow, that's really close, I thought. Then I looked up over our house and saw this:
News
We recently got some scary news about a family member, which I won't go into details on, but which today we were overjoyed to learn is not as bad as it could have been. It's an enormous relief. Enough said.
Running almost simultaneously to that drama we have been dealing with a tumor on our dog Laika. She got it removed two weeks ago but all the signs were bad. Last week we learned she had a stage 3 mast cell tumor, which is about the worst kind you can have - very aggressive. And today Marjorie took her to a specialist to find out more. An aspiration of her lymph node indicated that it indeed had spread, and so she got her first round of chemotherapy straight away, and has to go back maybe five more times. This will give her a 60% chance of surviving a year. We are still reeling from this, but will do whatever it takes to give her a full life in the time she has left.
So, whatever the Chinese calendar may say, we're declaring this the Year of the Dog. We've actually bought a car (contingent on a final test drive we'll take on Saturday) that will let us take her around.
Running almost simultaneously to that drama we have been dealing with a tumor on our dog Laika. She got it removed two weeks ago but all the signs were bad. Last week we learned she had a stage 3 mast cell tumor, which is about the worst kind you can have - very aggressive. And today Marjorie took her to a specialist to find out more. An aspiration of her lymph node indicated that it indeed had spread, and so she got her first round of chemotherapy straight away, and has to go back maybe five more times. This will give her a 60% chance of surviving a year. We are still reeling from this, but will do whatever it takes to give her a full life in the time she has left.
So, whatever the Chinese calendar may say, we're declaring this the Year of the Dog. We've actually bought a car (contingent on a final test drive we'll take on Saturday) that will let us take her around.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Stephen Fry
We caught a talk given by Stephen Fry yesterday, which was fantastic. Just him on stage with a microphone for two hours and ten minutes. He was lured to Melbourne by a grassroots campaign, and the show we saw was a second one that was added after the first sold out (in a pretty big venue). Here's the article from the local paper about it, which is a little overly-fawning (but then so am I).
Did you know he played Lord Snot in that famous Young Ones game show episode? Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson are also down there with him.
Did you know he played Lord Snot in that famous Young Ones game show episode? Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson are also down there with him.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Trip
The more I have to blog about, the less inclined I am to do it. So you know this long hiatus means that a lot has been going on.
I'm still going to be brief about it. After Montreal we went down the Florida to see my side of the family plus Marjorie's sister's gang, including a fun day at Blizzard Beach, and the USA's awesome win over Algeria in the World Cup. Then to Atlanta to see Marjorie's parents and our old friends. I got to see USA get knocked out of the World Cup with a bunch of my old friends in a bar that was wall-to-wall people. Finally, we spent one last day in Los Angeles filling up our suitcases with cheap and hard-to-find-in-Australia goods.
My birthday was soon after we got back. Marjorie got me a slow cooker, which I'm excited about, though it tends to require a major grocery shop beforehand, which is difficult sans car. That's the other news, we're back in the market for getting one. It's been too long without.
I'll be posting various pictures from all this when I get around to it.
I'm still going to be brief about it. After Montreal we went down the Florida to see my side of the family plus Marjorie's sister's gang, including a fun day at Blizzard Beach, and the USA's awesome win over Algeria in the World Cup. Then to Atlanta to see Marjorie's parents and our old friends. I got to see USA get knocked out of the World Cup with a bunch of my old friends in a bar that was wall-to-wall people. Finally, we spent one last day in Los Angeles filling up our suitcases with cheap and hard-to-find-in-Australia goods.
My birthday was soon after we got back. Marjorie got me a slow cooker, which I'm excited about, though it tends to require a major grocery shop beforehand, which is difficult sans car. That's the other news, we're back in the market for getting one. It's been too long without.
I'll be posting various pictures from all this when I get around to it.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Montreal
We are in Montreal now, and enjoying it muchly.
We're hoping to have a refresher on our high school French as much as possible on our visit, and it's certainly a good place for that. I wasn't sure exactly how French it would be, but it certainly seems to dominate. What makes it a great learning opportunity is that just about everything that's written comes in both French and English versions, so it's like having flash cards everywhere. My vocabulary has been skyrocketing in just a few days here. And people typically will greet you in French, so you always have the opportunity to respond in kind. Unfortunately, we've typically been getting the polite thanks-for-trying smile followed by a response in English.
Yesterday was rainy and so we mostly just putzed around and did some shopping. In the evening we went to a lovely French restaurant, Restaurant Le Mas Des Oliviers, chosen largely because their menu posted on the street had no English translation, but again we were spoken to in English. They were very nice though - we have yet to encounter the notorious French snottiness - and the food was delicious.
Today we walked to the Parc du Mont-Royal overlooking the city. We had lunch at a Montreal institution, Schwarz's Deli, then hired public bikes and rode down to Old Montreal.
It's a shame that the winters are so harsh here; it might otherwise make a lovely place to live.
We're hoping to have a refresher on our high school French as much as possible on our visit, and it's certainly a good place for that. I wasn't sure exactly how French it would be, but it certainly seems to dominate. What makes it a great learning opportunity is that just about everything that's written comes in both French and English versions, so it's like having flash cards everywhere. My vocabulary has been skyrocketing in just a few days here. And people typically will greet you in French, so you always have the opportunity to respond in kind. Unfortunately, we've typically been getting the polite thanks-for-trying smile followed by a response in English.
Yesterday was rainy and so we mostly just putzed around and did some shopping. In the evening we went to a lovely French restaurant, Restaurant Le Mas Des Oliviers, chosen largely because their menu posted on the street had no English translation, but again we were spoken to in English. They were very nice though - we have yet to encounter the notorious French snottiness - and the food was delicious.
Today we walked to the Parc du Mont-Royal overlooking the city. We had lunch at a Montreal institution, Schwarz's Deli, then hired public bikes and rode down to Old Montreal.
It's a shame that the winters are so harsh here; it might otherwise make a lovely place to live.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
Vet
Laika at the vet, for an ear infection:
Not her favorite place, of course, but she copes okay. I think it's the liver treats they give her.
Not her favorite place, of course, but she copes okay. I think it's the liver treats they give her.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
FA Cup night
FA Cup night with my soccer club:
The object of the game in the middle shot is to kick the ball (on the right) into the trash can (on the left). A dollar a shot, for fundraising, with a chance to win a bottle of whiskey.
The object of the game in the middle shot is to kick the ball (on the right) into the trash can (on the left). A dollar a shot, for fundraising, with a chance to win a bottle of whiskey.
Sunrise
Sunrise on my street:
Nice enough, but if I never see a sunrise again it'll be too soon. The price of working for a startup.
Nice enough, but if I never see a sunrise again it'll be too soon. The price of working for a startup.
Friday, May 07, 2010
La Niche
It was French Night at the French cafe near Marjorie's work, so we went down and practiced our horrendous French with the waiters and enjoyed the beautiful boeuf borgonaise. And the entertainment was nice too:
Loves me some accordion.
Loves me some accordion.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Coins
Australia coins come in different denominations than American coins - 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents, plus 1 and 2 dollars. What's weird is that they don't really seem to have names for them, like in America. No penny, nickel, dime, quarter... or anything like that. You don't really even ever hear "five cent piece", "ten cent piece", etc. that much. They just don't seem to require names, and are hardly ever mentioned. I wonder why?
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Menu
The new menu from our (very) local pub, who just changed owners:
Kind of disappointing, as they seem to have have gone the chichi route - we'd much rather have had standard, reasonably priced pub grub.
Kind of disappointing, as they seem to have have gone the chichi route - we'd much rather have had standard, reasonably priced pub grub.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Job
I figured I'd give you a break from lousy iPhone photos and fill you in on my job situation. As I mentioned, I had a month off from work after being laid off by Microsoft, which was fantastic. As my boss was planning a new company, doing the same thing, with most of the same people, there was no real stress.
The new company has started now, but without an office. We had a meeting or two at my boss's house out in the sticks, where half of our crew are now working, but the rest of us are working from home. I had to buy a new computer and assemble it from scratch as the first order of business (not without a few headaches).
I don't much like working from home. I'm getting some stuff done but it's too easy to be distracted, and too hard to get the information you need sometimes when you can't just walk over to a coworker's desk. I'm spending the mornings with the dog sitting by my chair but have been putting her out back around lunchtime when she gets antsy and then spend the rest of the day trying not to get noticed by her in the house (if she thinks I've come home, she gets overexcited).
Anyway, all of us working on this project think it has the potential to be big, so we're all willing to work hard and put up with some bumps.
The new company has started now, but without an office. We had a meeting or two at my boss's house out in the sticks, where half of our crew are now working, but the rest of us are working from home. I had to buy a new computer and assemble it from scratch as the first order of business (not without a few headaches).
I don't much like working from home. I'm getting some stuff done but it's too easy to be distracted, and too hard to get the information you need sometimes when you can't just walk over to a coworker's desk. I'm spending the mornings with the dog sitting by my chair but have been putting her out back around lunchtime when she gets antsy and then spend the rest of the day trying not to get noticed by her in the house (if she thinks I've come home, she gets overexcited).
Anyway, all of us working on this project think it has the potential to be big, so we're all willing to work hard and put up with some bumps.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Pitch
Construction going on literally right around the corner from me:
Sweet! The condition of the grass looks so good it almost makes me want to weep.
Sweet! The condition of the grass looks so good it almost makes me want to weep.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Rainbow
Rainbow over George St which the garage in back of our house opens onto:
There's lots of these sorts of streets in Melbourne, that are pretty much all garage doors.
There's lots of these sorts of streets in Melbourne, that are pretty much all garage doors.
Monday, April 05, 2010
Nice
Lovely day lying back looking at the sky, listening to music the backyard:
This weather we know won't last long...
This weather we know won't last long...
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