Taylor’s Blog

So Thursday I finally went out in Greensboro.. It wasn’t quite a complete
throwdown since I had to
be in Charlotte for a meeting Friday morning.. Sheila and I went to the bar on the end of Spring Garden and Mendenhall that I kept saying “Hey.. We gotta
go there.. It looks as crappy as Jackpot.. It might be our new watering hole.. “.. Its called College Hill.. Cool little place.. Jukebox.. Interesting
selections.. Ran into some folks who just made the same move from RDU -> GBO that I sorta had a hunch would appear if we went out in Greensboro.. Sheila
seemed more shocked than I was.. I think everyone had a good time that night, but I felt very hung over the next day.. I am going to blame the taps since
I don’t think we had more than 6 beers the entire night.. To make things worse I took a wrong turn leaving Greensboro that morning, didn’t hit the
Bojangles to hope to settle my belly.. I swore I would never stop at Rotten Ronnies again after the fat extravaganza on the want to Bonnaroo, but the one
in Thomasville had this thing called food I needed to desperatly.. I headed to Charlotte for a meeting for work, ran into a buddy from High School playing
basketball randomly when picking up a lime for my mom at the grocery store, snatched up my dad, and headed back to Cary..

I figured I could get
some slave labor out of my dad.. In fact I did.. I finally got the cabinet installed back in the master bath, ripped out the nasty carpet downstairs and
put in the least expensive (well second least expensive) laminate flooring downstairs.. Its not done, but it looks SOOO much better.. I wish I would have
put it down before.. Its going to make the house loose much of its Hospital or White on White on White theme that I despise so much.. I really think that
I will get some sort of return on the flooring.. After 2 days of enslavement I put my dad on (not in front of) the (2 hour late) Amtrak from NYC to
Charlotte..

Step one.. Remove old carpet, and remove nails.. Don’t you
love how the old contractors just used the floor for a paint staging area too?

Laminate Underlayment.. This took much longer than expected.. I guess thats why the
stuff with underlayment started at around 2.00 a sq foot..

Where we left
it.. Of course I gotta finish the rest in the next few days..

I figure I am a week behind in getting my house ready to sell.. Good / Interesting
news.. The neighbors across the street are trying to sell their house that is almost the same as mine for a TON of money.. I doubt they will get it, but
if they come close.. Man.. All I gotta say is that if I could pull that kinda cash I am going on that trip to Austrailia..

Regardless getting this
place sold will finally close my chapter of life in Cary.. Seriously anyone know of anyone looking for a house? This is a great place for folks with
kids.. I will probabbly throw my house on Craigs list in a week or two whenever I get most of the major stuff taken care of.. If you know anyone send me a
message on here..

I figured after my last rant I needed a sane blog..

I got my GMAT score back weeks ago.. I
ended up getting a 570 (61st percentile) on the multiple guess part, and a 6/6 – Perfect score (94th percentile) on the essay portion.. At first I was a
bit disappointed, but Tori put it in perspective to me.. I only really studied for 2 weeks, during the second round of the NHL playoffs (so you know I was
distracted) and hadn’t see much of the material on the test in 10 years.. My application should be completed to UNCG today.. They can’t seem to find one
of my recomendation letters, but its being faxed again today.. My “Personal Statement/Essay” is a bit rambling, but its submitted and in.. Now all I can
do is wait.. Everyone I talk to seems to think I will get in.. I am a bit worried, but there is little I can do..

I have been to most of the
Hurricanes playoff games.. They are now 1 game away from winning the Stanley Cup.. Go Whalers/Canes.. Its quite an experience..

Its like in 2002
when they made it to the finals fun-wise, except this time they have a very good chance of winning.. I will say no more cause I don’t want to fuck with
the hockey gods..

The entire team with the Prince of Wales Trophy .. Whats cool about this is the Captain Rod
Brind’Amour brought over the whole team for the photo instead of just getting his picture taken.. I was there..

Tonight I am leaving for Bonnaroo..
I can’t wait.. Tom Petty.. Yeah!

Yesterday I went to the Beerfest in Raleigh.. Man O Man was it fun.. There is some haze as to some
events, and the stumble from Moore Square to Sheilas apartment.. Most amazingly is the fact that we kept drinking well sort of until sometime after 6..
Some Duvel in the walk through the park, then a pint with some kids and their dad from New Jersey or Charlotte.. I think the kid was going to UNCC and was
from Jersey, but its a bit fuzzy.. Then hobbling to Rockford for another pint and the always tasty ABC bean salad.. I don’t think much of the last pint
was consumed at the rock.. Man.. I barely recall walking home.. Passed out by 7 or 8, and thats all she wrote.. It was a great time, and I will have to
do one again in my life.. Sheila got a shirt that quotes Benjamin Franklin “Beer is living proof that god wants us all to be happy”.. I think I have to
say that beerfest is one of the greatest things in the world.. Not the first by any means, but it sure as hell is up there..

Before Beerfest I went
with Sheila to Greensboro, and she got a really bad ass apartment down there.. I am a tad jealous since she already is in school and can move pretty
easily.. Its not founded, and if I play my cards right I will be there in the fall.. I really cant’ wait, and I am a bit nervous of if I will get
accepted.. I just took the GMAT practice exam cold without any review and I got a 580 which I think is pretty average, not the score I was looking for..
Its been forever since I took a standardized test, so hopefully I will do a bit better next time with some review with the book.. I am going to get the
GMAT taken by May 15th I have decided..

I still need to do a ton of work on the house.. I sprayed more weeds today, and will try and get more
painting done.. Hopefully once I take the GMAT everything will start to fall into place.. I think I am going to have to start having a bit less fun and
“buckle down” if I am goign to make all this happen..

Well the Sabres and Flyers are on in HD so I suppose I will watch that for a bit of a break,
and then get back to it.. Hopefully the Hurricanes win tonight.. Going to the game.. Sorta wish I didn’t have so much going on cause the playoff games
almsot seem like a hinderence more than something fun..

Anyway so in summary.. Beerfest is awesome, and should be experienced by all.. Bonnaroo
will be here before I know it, Sheila will be moved, and I better get my application stuff in..

Today (Friday) has been excellent.. I went to Greensboro for a business meeting and to talk with the pre-admissions advisor at UNCG for the Bryan Business school.. Sheila needed to take care of some stuff down there and since she has Fridays off we went together..

We got up and on the road by 815, I dropped her off on Tate street where the Cup A Joe used to be.. Now there is a Subway and a salon.. I then headed on to my office in Greensboro.. My meeting went amazingly well.. The contractors I have been bitching about for years are all but finished.. One guy has taken another job, and the other will be gone in 3-4 months.. His 100k a year undermining gravy train is about to end.. I can’t wait.. The end of the era of waste at work is coming.. I am not hating on him because of how much money he takes home, but the fact that he doesn’t do any work and has just milked my company for at least 10 years because of some members of managements ignorance of computers..

Once my meeting was over I headed back to the UNCG campus to meet up with Sheila.. We met up at Tate Street Coffee house.. She said it was amazing.. Later on I went there and it was as cool as Cup A Joe in Raleigh.. Complete even with the creepy old man chain smoker (although he had to go outside to smoke so he only got a to go cup)..

We then went to one of the most poorly run Burger joints I have ever seen.. Baileys on Tate Street.. One of the servers was high as a kite, and kept re-filling our drinks when we din’t need the refilled.. He was eating peanut M&M’s in front of the only other table at the restaurant.. Well I am being quit liberal with my use of the word eating.. Half of them ended up on the floor.. I wonder if Baileys will survive to the fall.. I got the impression that it was a new place.. I would have let that waiter go.. He told the girls he was serving he was in Graduate school, which means either a) I will get in to UNCG super easy, b) he is a pathetic liar..

After that we walked across campus to the Business School building, and I met with Tom Keller the pre-admissions advisor.. He didn’t seem to think that my 2.4 GPA from NCSU would keep my from getting in, but that I needed to focus on getting a good GMAT score, and getting my application in as early as possible.. So I also need to get three letters of recommendation.. I need to see if I can find my Sr Design Project guys email address if he even remembers my name anymore..

The experience was quite different from advising at NCSU.. I walked into the main office quite nervous and got more nervous as I was walked up to Mr. Kellers office.. Once there the first thing we did was shake hands, andthen he immediately started up a conversation about my Key West T-Shirt.. At this point I was realized as could be.. He used to live in Florida.. We spent half the time shooting the shit about traveling.. He talked about the national parks on the Keys, I told him about Louisville.. He also gave me all the information I need to get in.. Had this been an advising session at NCSU I probably would have been talked down to, and not be given a glimmer of hope, and been thrown out of the office in 5 minutes.. Tom and I were talking for at least 45 minutes..

To get this ball rolling for going in in the fall I need to study for the GMAT and take it as soon as possible in parallel with getting this house fixed and ready for sale.. School starts at UNCG in the middle of August.. I don’t know if I have enough time to get this house sold, and moved.. I got Bonnaroo in June, my cousins crazy multi-day wedding at
the beginning of August.. I may also want to take some vacation before school starts when it will be harder to get time off (I got 4 weeks left to take).. I guess if I can’t get my house sold by July (which could close in August) I probably will have to defer until the Spring.. I can’t afford to pay for school, an apartment and a house that I won’t be living in.. Work will pay for school but not until the grades are in so I still gotta pony up some cash each semester..

I am also going to sell my TV before I move to Greensboro if works out.. I don’t need a 50 inch HDTV (especially in a one bedroom apartment..) Let me know if anyone has any interest in a 50 inch Samsung 720p DLP.. I probably will sell my Truck unless my dad wants to use it.. I won’t need 2 cars and without a house to fix the truck wont be that useful.. Ya know I just got too much stuff.. Some will go on ebay.. Some on Craigs list, others who knows maybe first come first serve..

After that Sheila and I went to the Yum Yum place across from the Business school on Spring Garden, then had 2 beers at the bar next door which is pretty much right on campus.. I need to more research on that place.. We walked around the Tate Street area some more, and saw a ton of cool apartments for either of us to live in.. I would really love to have a much smaller space than I have now.. This house is WAY too big.. Sly might not like having less space, but I sure as hell would..

Until next time kids..

I will pre appoloigize for being vague about my job, but this is in the public and I won’t be giving
specifics related to my employer.. Sorry kids..

So as many of you may or may not know I have been talking about selling my house and doing
something.. I never seemed to know what that something was.. I always talked about quitting the job, but I am not ata good place to leave things.. I don’t
like to leave things unfinished.. I slowly was working on fixing up my house, but with no real plan, or end in sight it all seemed a bit pointless so I
always slacked off on it.. I did do some nice tilework in my master bath finally replacing the nasty ass carpet.. (Who has carpet in a bathroom..
Blech..).. The Cary life wasn’t quite cutting it for me, but without some new place to go it was easier to just coast there..

Check out that awesome tile job! Good stuff

So things at work are always crazy
and I am in the midst of re-building my “empire”.. A good ammount my “group” are inept and it is taking forever.. (See previous blog for more
information).. At work to help getting things rolling faster to get all my tools working again we are getting 2 new folks.. Well they started, but
instead of working in the policital nightmare of Raleigh we got them started in Columbia.. This meant that I needed to go down there to get them started..
So Monday morning I got up bright and early and swung down to Columba to meet the new guys..

Talking with them goes well enough.. I realize they
have a brain, and most likely didn’t fake their degree like someone who shall remain nameless I work with (He is one of the B’s I have mentioned before)..
So my boss and I start formulating a plan of how we will utilize their skills.. It is about time for me to get back in my car and drive back to Raleigh
when my boss gets a call.. The B I previously mentioned is quitting.. Not only is he quitting but he is has been hired by my company to work in Puerto
Rico.. I am sorta happy cause he is getting out of my hair, but not pleased that he has been hired on full time.. I have turned down many a job in Puerto
Rico.. The politics there are crazy, and its relaly not that nice of a place once you leave the resort.. So I call my manager / friend down there who
hired him and it turns out that he has been hired 2 levels above me to do work that he has no skills or credentials in.. I have 6 years experneice with
this stuff and I am a level 2.. He doesnt know the first thing about wireless and he gets a level 4.. Needless to say I am livid at this point..

I
have previously been thinking that a good time for me to leave will be after the end of the year at the earliest.. We are deploying a new technolgy that
it will be vital for me to have if I am to stay in wireless at all so I need to at least get that knowledge under my belt.. If i quit now in 5 years I
would have worthless knowledge on my resume.. If I quite after december I would have new very needed knowledge for at least the next 5 years on my
resume.. By the end of the year I also can probbably get everything else at work back running like it should be and be able to step away and know I handed
off my work in good shape not some halfway done mess like it is now..

While I am driving back to Raleigh I keep thinking.. “I am going to milk
this place for everything I can while I am still here”.. I keep wanting to open up a bar / resteraunt or two somewhere and eventually become a slum lord
and let others pay for me to go on vacation.. To do that I am going to need a good knowledge of business.. Hrmm.. My briain keeps spinning.. I could
easily get that knowledge if I went back to school.. I could go get an MBA.. I could get work to pay for it.. Holy shit.. I got it! I then called my boss
and asked him what he thought, and he was like “good.. ” he also said I can take day classes if I prefer as long as I put in my time.. I already have done
this for them before as I got them to pay for my last year of undergrad while at NCSU..

To make a long story short I am going to get my work to
pay for an MBA.. I am going to need to stay in NC to get tuition that will be under what work will pay for, and I need to stay in a city where we have an
office I can work out of.. That leaves Raleigh, Greensboro, and Charlotte.. I refuse to live in Charlotte so that makes my choices the Triangle or the
Triad.. So far my options are.. NCSU.. UNCG.. I had NCCU most likely whacked from my list by Tori today who said they were horrible to deal
with..

Basicly the goal i am working twoard now is fixing up the house so I can sell in a few months.. Take the GMAT (How hard can that be?)..
Decide on a school and apply and make work pay for it..

That at least gets me 1.5 years of planing..

Any suggested schools? I am sort of
tiring of Raleigh after living here almost 10 years.. I am thinking Greensboro would be nice.. Besides Sheila is going there in the fall.. How convenient
you say.. So is UNCG the best choice? Wake Forrest is too much.. Maybe Carolina and stay here? They didn’t accept me for undergrad.. I am going to have
to get some kidna exception made for GPA.. I graduated from NCSU with a 2.2 or something pretty damn low.. Granted it was in Electrical Engineering and I
was working full time so I would think someone would give me a chance.. I ain’t dum..

Anyway kids.. Thats my plan.. I dunno if I am kissing
Raleigh good bye or not, but that house in Cary.. See ya.. Work.. See ya when I get my free MBA from ya!..

If anyone has taken the GMAT let me
know.. Any suggested places to get an MBA? Anyone?

So last night after work I met some fellow co-workers at this “sports bar” called Dugans between the
office and my hotel room.. My friend / co-worker Sue was in town as well, so we at least had someone to hang out with.. I head over to this “sports bar”..
I park, and walk up and can smell the moldy dankness as I turn the corner to head to the front door.. Walk in the door and see a bunch of crappy pool
tables, and a bar complete with the finest of beers on tap.. Bud.. Bud Light.. Bud Select and something else.. The music is the Columbia K97.5 station..
Booty jams 24/7.. A little Kanye West thrown in for good mix, but you should start to get a good picture of what this place is like.. The 4 of us split a
5 dollar pitcher of Bud.. They don’t have enough pint glasses, so two of our group has to drink out of highball glasses..

Sue had them put Curling on the TV so we could finish watching the Japaneese and USA women.. I barely understand the game myself, but Sue starts
explaining it.. This incredibly high dude walks over and starts rambling about how he loves that game with the “you know..”.. He starts makign a sweeping
motion with his hands.. His name turns out to be Steven Tony.. He had dreds, and sort of reminded me of a parliment reject.. He started telling Sue how he
liked it when the women swept.. He also had this strange facination with the movie Blade (which I recently saw on TNT for the first time in years) or just
everlasting life in general.. He said one of the guys I was with looked “like the dude from blade”.. I have no idea which one.. It could have just been
cause all white people look alike, cause I didn’t see any resemblance to anyone in the movie.. The older guy Dean who was with us was “about 10 centuries
old” according to Tony.. He didn’t say anything about me or Sue..

He kept asking for some of Deans blood so he could live forever.. He also propsitioned Sue for her blood, but she didn’t give him any.. I wanted to get a
few drops of his blood.. I figured that would easily get my high for a few weeks.. Twoard the end of our stay at Dugans this guy with no teeth comes over
an started asking if he could borrow 2 dollars.. I was waiting for the typical story “I need to borrow 5 bucks so I can get back to Winston Salem thats
where my wife and kids are and my car is outta gas” story.. Nope.. This guy wanted to borrow 2 dollars so he can bet on his pool game.. He claimed when
he bet money he played better.. I don’t know why we kept meeting these interesting people, but we decided after 2 pitchers it was time to go..

We tried to eat at Outback which had a 2 hour wait, and went an actual sports bar that had 2 dollar black and tans, and a horrible patty melt.. We get
back to the hotel, I have a few more beers and fall asleep.. I woke up at 4am with all my clothes on, lights off, and some local bible show on TV.. After
fumbling for the remote I turn off the bible dude and go back to bed..

So in Columbia, SC don’t be fooled by the name.. Dugans has nothing Irish about it, and I don’t see how its a “sports bar” at all..

As much as I love the JP I really don’t think there is any hope for me going there as a non-smoker..
July 7th, 2005 I had the last cigarette of my life, and I feel so much better.. I can breathe now, I don’t cough up shit all the time.. It really makes me
wonder why the hell I smoked for so long before (12 years half Reds the other half Camels).. Sadly now I have become hyper-sensitive to smoke.. The last 3
times I have been to the JP my eyes have burned like hell.. I thought it would be different in the summer when the windows were open.. Well Friday after
the Hurricanes game (Penalty shot in OT for the win! Talk about awesome) it was 60F in Raleigh and I went to JP.. The windows were all opened so I
figured it wouldn’t be so bad.. I was supposed to meet someone down at Kings, but another friend who met me at the JP locked her keys in her car so I
waited at the JP with her until AAA came to get her keys out of her car.. This of course took over an hour as it typical for AAA.. At this point I stayed
at the JP since my friend at Kings said the show was over and was coming to meet me.. By this point I have had some unknown number of beverages.. It all
started with a Pitcher at Mitches around 500 and continued on until very late into the night.. So on to my point.. At some point I realized that my eyes
were really starting to burn.. I moved closer to the windows.. That didn’t help.. By this point I am getting vey furious.. I said some rude things to
people becaue I just wanted to get the hell out of the smoke.. I ended up standing infront of the JP for a while trying to get my eyes some fresh clean
air.. Why is it so hard in NC to go out, get plastered, see your friends, and not smell like an ashtray, much less have your eyes watering constantly
trying to fight off the 50/50 mix of air/smoke.. I don’t expect any of the bars here to venilate decently, and I highly doubt the laws will ever force
non-smoking areas in bars much less non-smoking bars.. It seems to have worked out OK in California, and NYC.. Beside I am sure it would be much easier
for others to quit if they had to go outside to smoke at a bar, and also weren’t constantly bombarded by it.. Hell I probbably would have quit earlier if
the laws made smoking less easy.. Fuck you Tobacco industry..

Well Chompy (as he from now on will be know) is finally out of my house, and burried in the backyard..
I figured it better to recycle him and give him back to the earth than throw him in a landfill where he never would decompose as animal control would have
suggested..

My theory on Chompys death is now centered around Sly (my cat).. His paws are normally white, but now are a solid grey from fireplace ashes, which were
strewn everywhere.. Slys paws were solid white when this episode started.. I am pretty sure that Chompy got terrorized by Sly on the other side of the
glass, and was trying to escape.. Of course Chompy had no idea that he was protected by a glass door.. At any rate Chompy ended up latching onto the rod
that screen rides on, and hanging there to his death.. He wasn’t really stuck, but just had his jaw locked around the rod.. He could have had some sort of
heart attack or some sort of stress related quick death I can’t imagine him hanging there by choice until he died..

As for removal I was pretty freaked out by hanging dead squirrel so i ended up having to have a friend help me get him down, which I am very thankfull
for.. I can scrape road kill off the road, but the hanging thing really weided me out.. Once he was not hanging in my fireplace the task was easy, and I
had him burried in the backyard within a minutes or two..

Poor little dude..

Last night he came down out of my chimney for a bit, and I tried to get him out.. He wasn’t in shock
so I couldn’t just trap him in a box, he was in fight or flight mode.. I really didn’t want to get into a fight with him.. He eventually leaped back into
the chimney.. Before then I caught this photo of him last night.. Sadly that was the last time I saw him alive..

I now have a dead squirrel in my fireplace I need to remove.. Oh well.. Sorry little guy I wish I could have helped you.. There were a good number of
folks pulling for you..

So i come home from lunch with some friends, and I getting myself ready to do my favorite thing in the
world.. Shopping.. As I walk in the door I see something odd on my couch..

It looks to me like mouse shit, which is quite odd (yes thats Sly in the photo).. I can’t think if what the hell would do that and wonder what is in the
house, but dismiss it for a second or two.. At this point I sit down and check my email (yes I am a computer geek).. Nothing exciting.. Then I decide to
walk into the kitchen to get something to drink since my throat has been sore since I caught some kinda cold shit on I *THINK* Friday.. Shot Face maybe?

At this point I am about to get Sly stuffed.. On the left window sil it normally is lined with shot glasses, yet only one is standing.. I wasn’t so
concerned about the pot since the mint had died from lack of water weeks ago.. So now I am really begining to wonder what the hell is going on.. I look
over into my living room and I notice that the fireplace is sitting open..

Of course I never leave it open like that, and then I notice that one of my blinds is severly fucked up..

At this point I start to walk over and fix the blind and see a squirrel run across the house.. Sly doesn’t seem phased, but doesn’t do his instinctive
feline thing and kick some squirrel ass..

At any rate the fucker runs back into the fireplace where I close him in and block it.. I would be glad to let the fucker out if he would ever come down,
but he is hiding somewhere in my chimney..

So I decide to go look outside and see where it has come into my house.. Sure enough the bastard(s) have tried to build a nest in my chimney.. I guess
until I get him outta there I won’t be having anymore fires..

So you can see part of the nest hanging out of my chimney.. What is worse is that chimney is about 40 feet up in the air, so I won’t be cleaning it out by
myself.. I guess I will have to get someone to at least keep an eye on me cleaning that crap up so if I fall I will at least live to be a paraplegic.. And
yes thats my TV antenna if any of you geeks are curious what that shit in the background is..

So now I have a squirrel living im my chimney.. At least I got all my shopping done.. I even went to the fucking mall.. Anyone who gets a present from me
from the mall you better appreciate it.. I don’t go to the mall for many people.. At least I got a Boston Kreme and Medium Coffee from Dunkin Donuts..
MMMmmmm Boston Kreme..

On another good note it looks like I can take C-Tran to work now until I sell my squirrel and mole infested house to someone with 2.5 kids, wife and a
dog.. Really it’s a nice house I swear..