AvantBlog

I’m working on a new look for my AvantBard homepage. Something akin to Leonard’s site, but with a little less info. Anyway, I’m not crazy on the colors, and I think I need a header image or something, but… Care to share your thoughts?

I’ve been really quiet around here lately because I’ve been working quite a bit. I don’t know if I can go into the details, but it’s safe enough to say that I’ve been very busy at work in the last few weeks, and I’ll continue to be for a while yet. We’re approaching our goal of starting some limited beta testing of new software to a select group of clients and I’m responsible for a lot of the testing. So yeah, busy times, but it’s nice to see the progress being made.

When I’m not at work, I’ve been doing a few things:

• working on a portfolio section for mom’s site (the portfolio isn’t posted yet)
• reading Red Tails in Love (and wanting to become a Central Park naturalist)
• weekend geocaching (we hid a new cache in the park last weekend & found a new cache in the park today)
• watching America’s Next Top Model, cycle 4 (I can’t believe they kicked off Brita; honestly, she was the hottest one)
• thinking about a re-design of AvantBard.com (no, it won’t have more colors)

Last Sunday I turned 24, and it was definitely the best birthday ever. Margie got me a massage at Bliss, a very fancy spa here in NYC. Normally, I would have had to wait until around April to book a massage, but thanks to a cancelation I was able to book a massage for 10am on my birthday! I left Bliss feeling completely Blissed out. (I know, it sounds so cheesy, but it’s really true. That spa is very appropriately named.)

After Bliss, I came back home and Margie and I went out for our usual Sunday breakfast fare (bagels). Then we jaunted down to Times Square and caught an afternoon showing of Constantine. Overall, it wasn’t a bad film, but it felt like I’d have been a little less confused by some things if only I’d read the comic. Mostly, it was Keanu being Keanu with demons around, which was perfect for a lazy Sunday flick. After Keanu kicked some demon butt, we bounced back home and I played some Prince of Persia on my Playstation before dinner.

But, the best part of my birthday was the sushi. Sushi has become a birthday tradition for me, and Margie booked us reservations at Aki, which was perhaps the best sushi I’ve ever eaten (and the price was very reasonable). Check out the reviews, and know that Margie and I both whole-heartedly agree. Gold flakes in Aki’s special cocktail, the Purple Moon, and monkfish liver with chocolate were two of many happy surprises. With only six tables in the space, I’m glad we had reservations, and I know we’ll definitely go back sometime.

So, let’s recap: Blissful massage Lox on a bagel for breakfast Demon slaying Video games Godlike sushi

Yep: Best. Birthday. Ever.

• I’m definitely feeling better. It’s soooo nice to not have any back pain. =-D

• My new 15″ Powerbook is just damn wonderful: 1gig of ram, 100gig hard drive, 1.6ghz g4 w/ 128meg vram radeon 9700 mobility. The backlit keyboard impresses all.

• I’ve enabled a new WordPress plugin, wp-hashcash, to try and combat comment spam. They say it works, so we’ll see…

• It has been a very tolerable Winter in NYC so far. Here’s hoping it stays that way so that I don’t freeze my balls off again.

So, I’ve got the worst stomach bug of my life. Broken stomach going on three days now, and fucking terrible back aches. Apparently, one of my co-workers says she had the same thing last week (but she’s in Oregon, so I know I didn’t get it from her). On the bright side, she says it lasted exactly three days for her. So, here’s hoping that by tomorrow I’ll be back to normal.

Oh yeah, and my new 15″ Powerbook arrived. More on that when I have the energy to take pics and give it a decent writeup.

Tomorrow, M and I fly home to Beverly Hills for a two week vacation. Yay! Will you be in LA? Want to hang out? Drop me a line (call me, if you’ve got my number).

Today marks the six year anniversary of the day when Margaret finally said “Okay, okay, I’ll be your girlfriend! Now will you stop bugging me?” (or something like that, anyway).

To celebrate, we spent a three day weekend in Tarrytown, NY. We stayed at the Dolce Tarrytown House, which was fantastic. Located at the top of a large hill and surrounded by trees, the grounds are beautiful and very private. They call it a Conference Center, not a Bed & Breakfast, which is strange, because they had fantastic rooms and very impressive breakfasts. But, they also had a sports center with a complete gym, an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a Jacuzzi, volleyball, basketball, and tennis courts, even four pitching posts for horseshoes and an indoor racquetball court! But, they also had a historic 19th Century pub with a full bar, a big screen TV and lounge area, pool tables, a foosball table, and, get this, even a one lane bowling alley complete with bowling shoes in all different sizes! But, they also offered free wireless Internet access, and even a computer lab and many conference rooms. And all this is offered for free to every guest who stays at the hotel. So, even if they’ve got the infrastructure to cater to business and conferences, it doesn’t feel like there’s really an appropriate title for the place, except for maybe ‘Best Hotel Ever.’

During our stay in Tarrytown, we did a few fun things, like going on a tour of Lyndhurst, taking a 2 hour cruise on the North Hudson river, and eating/spending a whole lot at Ruth’s Chris. But the fun doesn’t stop there! We took cabs around town to get to most places, and each cabbie we had was such a character!

Here’s a list of things we heard in conversations with our cabbies:

• “For that price they ought to tickle your prostrate [sic] or something.”
• “I took my bride’s maid dress, ripped it apart, and turned it into six pillows.”
• “Cab company is upset because I put TV screen on dashboard, but they no understand. I’m not stupid.”
• “I did a lot of crazy stuff when I was young… Let’s put it this way: I can’t go to amusement parks to have fun anymore; I’ve gotta go out clubbin’ or somethin.”

So yeah, all in all, the trip was pretty great.

Also, I realized that Margaret and I have now been together for more than a quarter of our lives! At first the realization was shocking, like looking out the plane from 30,000 feet for the first time and thinking “Wow, I’m really high up.” And then I realized that the longer we stay together, the greater percentage of our lives we’ll have shared, and while it first felt like a strange concept (because I’ve never shared so much of my life with anyone before), it soon evolved into a really awesome feeling.

I’m extremely proud of the relationship Margaret and I have, and I’m unquestionably, interminably, tremendously in love with her. Those are the best feelings in the world.

I recently had my annual review at work, and I thought I’d share some of the warm fuzzies that people at work had to say about me:

• Gabe is a fantastic communicator and excels at working with clients on technical issues.
• Gabe is a simply a great person to work with. He has great ideas and does a good job at carrying them out. There is a constant level of reciprocity in working with him. He is very patient and receptive to other people’s ideas and expertise. He also makes a great effort to make other people’s jobs easier. He definitely deserves a raise.
• Gabe seems to possess the ideal mix of technical prowess and communication ability.
• Gabe really does a great job communicating with clients. He comes across as knowledgeable and friendly. He also has an inate curiosity, which is really important for handling tech support. He is extremely reliable.
• Gabe is a fine asset to Tutor.com and we should communicate in words and actions that we want to keep him long term.
• Gabe has been a wonderful addition to Tutor.com.
• It is a delight to work with Gabe. I know my customers are in good hands with Gabe and indeed I get the sense that they feel very connected to Tutor.com because of the solid relationship with Gabe. Further, as a colleague, I know that I can rely on what Gabe tells me to be accurate. He is always a reliable source of information.
• Gabe has uncommon gifts in a tech type: excellent communication skills and a warm demeanor. Combine that with his inquisitive nature, and technical knowledge, and that’s why our customers love him so much.

Pretty cool, eh?

I really, really love working at Tutor.com. I have huge amounts of respect for every one of my co-workers, and I feel very lucky to work for a company that I believe in and feel proud to be a part of. Warm fuzzies all around.

Seriously, where the hell did all the other w00t authors go? Fotbon, you owe us some major posts. Abel’s new, but I’d like to see more from him. And even Yale has been unusually quiet lately (personally, I’d love to hear some of Leslie’s ghetto ringtones…).

So get with the program, peeps, and throw up some posts!

Some things I did on my vacation in LA:

• hit through a bucket of golf balls at the Rancho Park Driving Range (I’ve still got a decent swing after several years without golfing)
• ate Huevos Rancheros twice (hard to get decent Mexican food in NYC), and at least 5 burgers (including a Double-Double at In N’ Out Burger and a Swiss burger from Cassell’s in Downtown LA)
• went shooting with Yale and Leslie at an outdoor range at the San Gabriel Valley Gun Club (shooting a .308 hurt, but the arm pad helped, and the .22 was just a fuckin’ blast for my wimpy self (like a BB gun on steroids))
• went to a private opening of SENT (Xeni was looking stressed, but stylish) and saw Body Worlds at the California ScienCenter (aside from the amazing visual appeal, the best part was this comment in one of the comment books at the end of the show: ‘Please, please, please plastinate Bush, Cheny, and Rumsfeld. Oh, and don’t forget Condi Leez and the rest!’)
• hung out with Margaret’s family (I always wanted sisters, and now I have two; most people don’t like their in-laws, but I really love mine (nevermind the whole not really being married thing))
• hung out with many of my friends (I realized that I’ve switched from having a long-distance relationship with my girlfriend, to having a long-distance relationship with my friends; I spent enough time with them to be reminded of how much I love and seriously miss them, but not nearly enough time to catch up)
• gawked at the shortness of all the buildings, the ever-worsening traffic conditions, and the relative enormity of people’s homes (I came back to my Manhattan apartment and thought ‘Wow, do I really live here in this tiny space?’)