The potluck went well. In fact, we got an e-mail from the vegetarian in the department thanking us for all of the vegetarian-friendly dishes. That was nice. For future reference, the meatloaf should be room temperature instead of cold. The cranberry couscous salad, while really tasty, was a flop. People just didn’t seem to like it. Maybe next time I’ll fluff it better before putting the dressing on it.

My boss is on vacation this week and next. Today was supposed to be super productive. Instead, my body decided that it was wiped out, and I ended up taking a nap this afternoon. So much for big productivity.

Tomorrow is our potluck. I have three meatloves, a big pile of potatoes, and a bowl of cranberry couscous salad ready to go. This sounds like we’re going to have some good food ready to go.

Tomorrow we implement a big step in our CRM system’s deployment. We have this program known as our “master schedule” that has historically been a portal into our accounting system. Tomorrow night, we’re unhooking it from the accounting system and hooking it into the CRM system. That means that if something needs to be put on the schedule, it has to be entered into the CRM system first. For us, this is a really big deal.

I’m taking Thursday afternoon off work so that Reggie and I can head to my parents’ house and be there at a reasonable hour. I figure we’ll leave Boston around 12:30 or 1:00 PM and be at my parents’ house before 10:00 PM.

It’s been a long day. Bed soon.

I tried to traceroute someone who is a Comcast customer in TN to see what kind of route it would take. This gets really interesting.

  2   134 ms   185 ms   169 ms c-3-0-ubr05.boston.ma.boston.comcast.net [73.168.144.1]
  3   *    102 ms   192 ms ge-2-39-ur01.boston.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.158.33]
  4   152 ms   142 ms   162 ms te-8-1-ur01.brookline.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.144.57]
  5   187 ms   200 ms   183 ms te-8-3-ar01.needham.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.144.53]
  6   25 ms   15 ms   15 ms 12.116.130.173
  7   185 ms   *    245 ms br2.cb1ma.ip.att.net [12.127.5.26]
  8   227 ms   181 ms   226 ms tbr2.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.10.22]
  9   *    40 ms   117 ms tbr2.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.54]
10   209 ms   216 ms   275 ms 12.122.16.77
11   202 ms   166 ms   165 ms cr1.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.1.173]
12   224 ms   179 ms   245 ms tbr1.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.12.30]
13   235 ms   251 ms   206 ms ar5.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.20.233]
14   230 ms   149 ms   185 ms 12.116.236.50
15   56 ms   69 ms   279 ms te-9-1-ur01.goodslettvll.tn.nash.comcast.net [68.86.148.22]
16   215 ms   201 ms   259 ms te-9-3-ur01.gallatin.tn.nash.comcast.net [68.86.148.62]
17   256 ms   137 ms   183 ms te-9-2-ur01.tulipgrove.tn.nash.comcast.net [68.86.148.78]
18   212 ms   223 ms   181 ms te-9-2-ur01.blebanonrd.tn.nash.comcast.net [68.86.148.86]
19   122 ms   191 ms   231 ms te-9-2-ur02.ashgroverd.tn.nash.comcast.net [68.86.148.58]
20   215 ms   165 ms   249 ms te-9-2-ur01.ashgroverd.tn.nash.comcast.net [68.86.148.53]
21   112 ms   217 ms   194 ms te-9-2-ur01.ruralhillrd.tn.nash.comcast.net [68.86.148.50]

It looks like my traffic bounced off the Comcast network in Needham and bounced onto the AT&T network from New York to Georgia and then back onto the Comcast network in Nashville.

Look at what happens when I tried to traceroute a Comcast customer in CA.

  2   200 ms   116 ms   194 ms c-3-0-ubr05.boston.ma.boston.comcast.net [73.168.144.1]
  3   66 ms   157 ms   196 ms ge-2-39-ur01.boston.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.158.33]
  4   7 ms   7 ms   11 ms te-8-1-ur01.brookline.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.144.57]
  5   91 ms   247 ms   156 ms te-8-3-ar01.needham.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.144.53]
  6   193 ms   139 ms   168 ms po-11-ar02.needham.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.146.38]
  7   11 ms   11 ms   8 ms po-12-ar02.woburn.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.146.46]
  8   196 ms   205 ms   153 ms po-10-ar01.woburn.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.146.41]
  9   169 ms   11 ms   10 ms te-4-1-cr01.boston.ma.cbone.comcast.net [68.86.72.25]
10   143 ms   219 ms   212 ms te-9-1-cr01.cleveland.oh.cbone.comcast.net [68.86.68.14]
11   86 ms   146 ms   260 ms te-9-1-cr01.chicago.il.cbone.comcast.net [68.86.68.22]
12   204 ms   137 ms   143 ms te-9-1-cr01.omaha.ne.cbone.comcast.net [68.86.68.30]
13   241 ms   174 ms   *    te-9-1-cr01.denver.co.cbone.comcast.net [68.86.68.42]
14   66 ms   70 ms   118 ms te-9-1-cr01.denverqwest.co.cbone.comcast.net [68.86.68.146]
15   247 ms   257 ms   141 ms te-9-1-cr01.alburquerque.nm.cbone.comcast.net [68.86.68.150]
16   280 ms   295 ms   247 ms te-8-1-cr01.losangeles.ca.cbone.comcast.net [68.86.68.81]
17   242 ms   165 ms   259 ms te-1-1-cr01.sanjose.ca.cbone.comcast.net [68.86.68.73]
18   153 ms   286 ms   282 ms 68.86.143.2
19   257 ms   283 ms   266 ms te-9-1-ur01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.192.198]
20   207 ms   265 ms   275 ms te-8-1-ur02.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.226.46]
21   301 ms   265 ms   201 ms te-9-3-ur01.sffolsom.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.192.202]

This time, instead of going to Hartford via Springfield, the Comcast traffic got routed to Woburn after Needham. From there, it looks like it traveled along Comcast’s “cbone” which I would assume is one of their backbones. It went back into Boston before heading to Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Alburquerque, Los Angeles, and San Jose, before hitting the SFBA (San Francisco Bay Area?) network.

I’m not sure why, but I find the whole concept of data routing fascinating at the moment. Maybe it’s because I can’t sleep.

I use Comcast for my high speed cable and usually, I don’t complain.

Tonight, I was tracing some traffic to see if I could figure out how traffic gets routed, and I was a bit surprised.

Look at this trace:

  2   46 ms   69 ms   137 ms c-3-0-ubr05.boston.ma.boston.comcast.net [73.168.144.1]
  3   43 ms   39 ms   171 ms ge-2-39-ur01.boston.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.158.33]
  4   122 ms   67 ms   167 ms te-8-1-ur01.brookline.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.144.57]
  5   193 ms   83 ms   214 ms te-8-3-ar01.needham.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.144.53]
  6   165 ms   135 ms   156 ms po-10-ar01.springfield.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87.146.22]
  7   177 ms   140 ms   189 ms po-11-ar01.chartford.ct.hartford.comcast.net [68.87.146.26]

Every trace is consistent with this path. It starts in Boston before being bounced to Brookline, Needham, Springfield, and then finally Hartford. Logically, it makes sense. What I find odd is that this is geographic rather than the hub/spoke type of routing I’d expect from Comcast since they’re such a large provider. It looks like all of my traffic goes to Hartford before hitting New York where it then hits the outside world. From there, it usually goes to Level3 or Global Crossing. I’m just surprised that Comcast has an internal network that big and routes it on that network rather than bouncing it to the outside in a big city like Boston.

Ah, this is what happens when a geek gets bored and doesn’t want to clean his house.

After the meatloaf came out of the oven, some taters went in. I took red potatoes and quartered them. Next, they got a slathering (and I mean slathering) of olive oil and good dose of sea salt. Next came some pepper and chopped rosemary. These went into a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

YUM. The outsides were firm but the insides were soft and tender. These taters had some flavor, too.

Okay… the onion parsley Parmesan meatloaf was pretty amazing. The rosemary garlic was pretty good, too. Yeah, this can certainly be served at work.

We’re doing a staff potluck lunch on Tuesday. That was my idea. Now I have to figure out what to take. Actually, I’m taking a few things. Marty, our admin/inventory/telephony guru’s wife is away, and he doesn’t cook. I told him I’d take care of him.

Today, I put together my meatloaves so that we can make sandwiches. I’m also taking cranberry couscous and some roasted rosemary potatoes.

For the meatloaf, I was really hoping to use a mix of meats, but neither Shaws nor Whole Foods had ground lamb, and I really wanted to use lamb. Instead, I started with a pound of beef, a pound of pork, a pound of turkey (dark meat), and a pound of veal. All of the meat got split in half to make two different types of meatloaf.

Each variety of meatloaf started with the ground meat, an egg, and a half cup of bread crumbs. One variety had chopped garlic and rosemary while the other had parsley, onion, and Parmesan cheese.  This made a total of four small meatloves that got slathered with ketchup before going into a 375 degree oven for 35 minutes. They’re in the oven now, and I have no idea what to expect.  My money is on the onion parsley Parmesan meatloaf.

When you live so close to the ocean, it’s easy to take it for granted. Yesterday, as I was leaving the Honda dealership in Lynn and heading to Whole Foods in Swampscott, I drove along the beach. On a complete whim, I pulled over and parked. For the first time all summer, I took a nice stroll on the beach.

The weather was lousy and a storm was imminent. This meant the beach was close to empty and I wasn’t tripping over a bunch of little kids. It was fantastic.

Once the summer passes, I think I want to start taking Reggie to the beach when it’s legal to have dogs on the beach.

I’m sitting at the Honda dealership while they change the oil in my car and do the “A” maintenance.  What I love is that this isn’t costing me a penny out of pocket. Sure, the cost of this has got to be part of the price of buying the car. The “B” maintenance will cost me a little bit, but I like having the dealership do the work. Its a Honda dealership and they know my car inside and out.

I did look around the showroom, but obviously I’m not not going to be buying a new car anytime soon.

Earlier, I went to Wild oats and somehow managed to spend less than ten bucks.  Whole Foods will be next.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

This is a moblog entry.

Last night, I saw a mouse run across the back of my stove. So I broke out another trap and loaded it with peanut butter. The damn thing ate a bunch of the peanut butter before I went to bed, but there was still a good bunch on the trap.

This morning, the mouse was in the trap.

Another one bites the dust. This makes six.