Walking Ernie on South Beach, originally uploaded by BrentOzar.
Fantastic fall weather. Only 77 this morning.
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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Not much to say there – some winds and rain, but not much more than a typical South Florida afternoon thunderstorm. I left work around 2pm yesterday and encountered a squall on the highway, but that was about the worst of it. I spotted some down tree branches on the way in to work, and that was it.
(Yes, it’s 6:54am and I already have my computer booted up in the office. I’m a freak.)
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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Hurricane rations, originally uploaded by BrentOzar.
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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2006-08-29 Tropical Storm Ernesto 005, originally uploaded by BrentOzar.
The first rain bands have just started moving ashore, but they’re not strong. The beach hotels a couple of blocks away are still easy to see from our balcony.
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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It looks like Tropical Storm Ernesto is still bearing down directly on Miami. The chart hasn’t changed much from yesterday, other than the strength dying down:
I needed gas yesterday – more of a coincidence than hurricane preparation – and got a disturbing surprise. Everybody’s making a run on gas, since they remember the stations running out last year. I got in a 30-car line for gas yesterday on the way home from work at the station with the shortest line, and they were out of everything but premium. On the way in to work this morning, the few stations I passed were out of gas. Ouch. Both of our cars are full now, so we shouldn’t have any problems.
Erika went grocery shopping yesterday, but we ran out of paper towels last night so I headed over to Publix for more. (Paper towels are very, very important in our house. Probably more so than water.) Both of the Publix stores on South Beach were a total zoo, but I noticed as I was going through the checkout line that most of the other people weren’t buying water either. Everybody was doing their normal grocery shop, just right before the storm. Hamburger, feta cheese, fresh bread, etc – not exactly the kinds of things you’d expect people to be buying with an approaching storm.
There’s a voluntary evacuation on Miami Beach, but we’ll ride it out since our condo building is so sturdy. We’ll park the cars in the multi-story parking garage this afternoon – there’s no charge during tropical storms – and veg out with little Ernie. Ernie the dog, not Ernesto the storm. Well, that too, but I wouldn’t give nicknames to storms.
I’m hoping I can leave work around lunchtime today. I’d rather get settled in before the rains hit.
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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Lines for gas in advance of Ernesto, originally uploaded by BrentOzar.
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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Here we go again. Quick geography lesson: in the map below, I live at “2 AM Wed”:
This will be the fourth hurricane we’ve been through since we moved down to Miami a year ago – Katrina, Rita and Wilma were the first three last year. Katrina and Rita were both dinky Category 1′s when they blew through Miami. Wilma was a rough Category 3, and most of the area lost power for a couple of weeks, but in Miami Beach we had it easy. I read through my Hurricane Wilma blog entries and had a few chuckles.
My preparations this year mainly consisted of prepping my Macbook Pro to use my Cingular 8125 PocketPC phone as a modem. If my Atlantic Broadband cable modem goes out, I’ll still be able to use the handheld to surf and whatnot. I still have to get my VPN working on the Mac, though.
Miami Beach definitely takes a more laid-back attitude about hurricane preparations because the buildings are so damned solid. Our condo is solid concrete. I can’t hang stuff on the interior walls without a major trip to the toolbox because even the interior walls are concrete. The windows are the weakest link, of course – it’s an old building with louvered windows for better ventilation. Better ventilation means leaky.
This will be my first hurricane as the overall company DBA (instead of just the data warehouse DBA) and today’s agenda will be chock full o’ role swap talk. Well, that and we’ve got a new Windows engineer starting, so it’ll be good for him to see our preparations.
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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The East Coast Premiere of the new Miami Vice movie is in two weeks, and it’s three blocks from my place. I walk Ernie past the Lincoln Theater every morning. It’s a benefit for CURED, the Center for Urologic Research, Education, and Diseases at the University of Miami, and one of the hosts is Mel Dick from Southern Wine & Spirits – my employer!
If only it didn’t cost $2,500 to get in the door. Holy mackerel. Gotta see if the company has any passes.
Must…see…Michael…Mann…
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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I haven’t uploaded many photos lately, so I figured I’d shoot one of my car:
What? What? It’s in the picture.
Yes, mine would be the bumper car on the far left. One of these days….
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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Mark your calendars, ladies and gentlemen – okay, well, mostly just gentlemen. Exotica, the largest adult entertainment-themed convention on the East Coast, is coming to Miami Beach on June 9-11, 2006.
In related news, South Beach is currently chock full o’ hookers, evidently trying to make some money off the spring break kids. I noticed an abnormally large number of scantily dressed women on Collins Ave last week when I gave Ernie her morning walk at 5am. Usually I see a few hotties stumbling out of clubs, but stumbling is the operative word there. Instead, these women were walking tall and proud and, uh, swishing around a lot.
This morning, Ernie decided she wanted to walk down Collins again, and I’d forgotten about the visitors. (Seriously.) Sure enough, a couple of six-foot-tall women in full-on hoochie-mamma-gear spotted Ernie, and one came running. Literally running, in stiletto heels no less, hollering, “Sparky! It’s my long-lost dog Sparky!” Ernie was scared out of her little gourd, and took off running full speed in the opposite direction, which caused the ladies of the evening to erupt into raucous laughter. After Ernie regained her cool, she let one of the women pick her up.
At that point, I knew this lady was a trained professional, because I can’t imagine anybody but a hooker pulling that off. A friend of ours who’s a professional dogsitter can’t pick Ernie up without looking awkward, and this woman was a lot more handicapped than Lewis in his t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. Imagine a six foot woman in stiletto heels, carrying a handbag so large it should be called an armbag, bend over and pick up a dog off the ground, all the while covering her, uh, feminine parts so I didn’t get a glimpse down the front of her tiny tank top? I was stunned. I almost wanted to ask her to do it again. She had more coordination than anybody I know, and no, “coordination” isn’t some kind of code word for something kinky.
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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