McMullenWeb.com

Buying Spree!

It's really fun to spend money when it's not your own money. The boss gave me the ok the other day to buy 5 more computers for the office plus one for his daughter. Ths office machines are in terible shape and using mostly win98. They are a constant headache. Although most of the people using computers don't really need much in the way of firepower these win98 machines have been driving me nuts with constant repairs and reinstallations.

Just after Christmas I got permission to spend $3,000.00 on computers. I hunted around a bit and found some cheap new ones at OEM Express. They are AMD sempron 2200s with 512 megs of RAM and 40 gigs of HD. Everything else is built on. So I managed to get 5 computers, 4 17" screens from future shop and a whole bunch of odds and ends from Tiger Direct.

With this newest order I am getting 6 more of the computer setups and 6 17" screens from Future Shop. Just as I was contemplating what I wanted to buy from Tiger Direct the network guy called up and said he finally had the ok to buy a tape backup for the office server. It's about time, we had a real scare last year from a server HD failure, we are still missing some data. Anyway, he said the best price was at Tiger Direct so I ordered that and got a bunch of dodads at the same time, some for work, some for the boss and some for me.

It's too bad I don't collect Air Miles, I've put on close to $5,000.00 on the old credit card with all this.

I also had to spend some time this week sorting out some computer purchases for the Air Force band. That almost turned into a real mess but once I spoke directly with the computer tech there I was able to smooth things over and we are actually now going to get more than what was asked for in the beginning.

So it's been two days of negotiating, searching, cajoling and purchasing. Back to the mundane now....that is until all these computers arrive and I start having to do software installs.

Lakeshore Light Opera

Just finished with this year's production by Lakeshore Light Opera. In honor of their 50th anniversary they had two shows, Trial by Jury and Pirates of Penzance. Trial by Jury was their very first show in 1955.

I have been playing in the orchestra since 1979. I did miss a couple of productions though while I was working in Germany. The shows run over two weekends and on Saturday of the first week they have the Boffo Bash at the St Moritz restaurant in Dorval. The last few years I have been dropping in on the festivities, mostly because they serve a special after show menu for the cast that includes a Swiss rosti with some raclette cheese on top. MMMM yummy!

Anyway, at this years party they presented me a gift, a great characture made by on of the "pirates", Simon Cote. It's really nice as you can see below (click on the image to get a bigger view).

Presented to Patricia McMullen

By the members of Lakeshore Light Opera

In appreciation of many years of beautiful music

February 26th 2005