So, I get up, walk downstairs with great purpose, get into the kitchen and can’t remember for the life of me what I went down there for. I hate it when I do that.
I think…
October 21st, 2003
I will be ordering in Chinese food for dinner. Has all sorts of good magical properties that will help fight a cold, including but not limited to, the fact that it is prepared and delivered by someone else.
G’night…
October 20th, 2003
Just called into the office and told them I’ll see them tomorrow. I feel like crap. Back to bed.
courtesy <lj user=”sidebarboy”>
October 20th, 2003
A blast from the past, created September 10, 1999 - the Love Test
1. The road represents your attitude towards falling in love.
You chose the short road–you fall in love quickly and easily.
2. The number of red roses represents how much you give in a
relationship, while the number of white represents what you
expect in return.
You give 50% and expect 50% in return.
3. This question represents your attitude towards handling
relationship problems.
You like to get the person yourself–you are a more direct
person and like to work out problems immediately.
4. The placement of the roses determines how much you like to see
your boy/girlfriend.
You want to place the roses on the bed–you like to see him/her
a lot.
5. This represents your attitude towards his/her personality.
You prefer the person to be asleep–you love the person as the
way s/he is.
6. The road to home tells how long you stay in love with someone.
You chose the longer road–you will tend to stay in love for
a long time.
That’s all folks. Best wishes to those who are in love.
238413
October 20th, 2003
OK, so given that I have been in a stupor most of the day, I’ve stuck with easy things. Laundry. Managed to keep the reds away from the whites. Yay!
Reworked my budget spreadsheet. Too many junk cells in it. Much better now.
Made a pair of earrings. 2 grey freshwater pearls on leverbacks. Quite pleased with the outcome.
Gave in and took some meds a little while ago, waiting for those to kick in and hopefully clear up some of the congestion in my head & ears.
Ooh - some good news last week. Our team made it’s goals for callback & resolution times for the quarter. We’ll be getting a bonus in the next couple of weeks for that. (Hmmm, new plate money?)
Merry Christmas to me..
October 20th, 2003
or something like that… I think I am going to ask the family for new plates & stuff for Christmas. Or just get it for myself for Christmas. Or some holiday in the next 3 to 6 months. My current “dinnerware” is about 10 years old and down to 4 complete place settings. I don’t even know where the flatware came from, except that I sure as hell didn’t pick it out.
So, I’ve been casually looking around at what’s out there, and here is what has struck my fancy:
4 piece place setting w/mugs instead of the cup/saucer thing which I find useless…
Some serving pieces…
Another serving platter I liked…
The hardware to go with it…
Ugh…
October 19th, 2003
I’ve been fighting off a cold for about the past 3 days or so. Can’t just get the damn thing and get it over with, noooooooooooo. So, I just have a low-grade feeling crappy thing going on.
I’m tired, can’t concentrate, my head is semi-stuffed up, but not totally, my throat is scratchy, and I’ve got the whole “not officially sick but certainly not 100% well” thing going on.
It’s all fun & games
October 19th, 2003
until you find something dead under a blanket and have to wait for the park police to come by and confirm that yes, it is an animal… (For the record, the park ranger called the police. We were only freaked out enough to call the park ranger.)
But, TR Island had a good turnout for the cleanup!
TGIF!
October 18th, 2003
And have a wonderful weekend everyone!
If you’re in NOVA and looking for a good workout for a good cause, come on out to Theodore Roosevelt Island tomorrow from 9 to noon and help with some post-Isabel cleanup. :)
http://www.nps.gov/gwmp/events/index2003.htm#coastalcleanup
Scroll down to the “International Coastal Cleanup Event” Many hands make light work, ya know?
Calls of the week…
October 18th, 2003
A touch of background… we have several pieces of software out there, but there are two big ones. One was the original software we made, let’s call it DOS-Product… Now, we have a better product, and it is for Windows…let’s call that Win-Product. I support Win-Product. I’ve used DOS-Product, and it’s a perfectly good piece of software, but the Win-Product is *not* the DOS-Product with a Windows GUI. It’s a different piece of software altogether…
While there are many calls that make me beat my head into the wall, I also laugh a LOT at this job…
I hate your software!
Talked to a woman this morning who has recently converted from DOS-P to Win-P. Wants to know why function X is broken. Explain that it isn’t broken, it’s doing just what it is supposed to do.
“But it didn’t do it that way in DOS-P!”
“Ma’an, Win-P is very different from DOS-P. You’re not dealing with the same software in a Windows interface. It’s a completely different structure and database.”
“Well, you would think that you would have taken the good points from DOS-P and put them in Win-P. I hate this software.”
ooooooooooooooooook. And you have a nice weekend, too!
Houdini Software
“OK, sir, I found the problem. You’re using the wrong export function. There are two there, the one your using is for an older piece of sister software.”
“Alright, where is the one I need to use?”
“If you go to the main menu bar, you’ll see three items - the last one that just says “Export to sister software” is the one you’ll want to use.”
“I don’t have that.”
???
“I’m sorry, you don’t have that?”
“No, I don’t see it.”
“Um, can you read to me exactly what you see?”
“Sure. I have “Upload” and the “Export to old sister software” and that’s it.”
“Oh.”
“I can tell by the tone of your voice, this isn’t good, is it?”
*giggle*snort* Man, if he hadn’t pointed that out…
“Um, yeah… It should be right there… I’m going to have to go get a manager for this one…”
The Sky is Falling!
Then there was the woman telling me, “These reports are all messed up! They don’t tie at all. What am I going to do??”
“Have you changed X, Y or Z?”
“Yes.”
“OK, what you’ll need to do is reconcile report A to the GL. Then you’ll see where it doesn’t tie. Those are the items that were orphaned when you changed X, Y and Z [and didn't do it right] and you’ll have to move them. Then it will tie out.”
“I don’t get it.”
Explained again in much more detail.
“I still don’t get it.”
“OK, fax me report A and GL, and I’ll show you.”
“It’s a lot of pages.”
Do you want help with this or not?
“That’s fine.”
“Oh. Well, OK.”
Get fax, look over it, call her back, explain again how to fix it and how to apply the same concepts to the other projects. She then says,
“Well, we have this other one. We didn’t change anything on it at all and it doesn’t tie.”
“OK, fax it over.”
I look at that one. Closely. Repeatedly. Call her back.
“Ma’am. This ties beautifully. Can you clarify the problem?”
“Oh, I don’t know what the problem was, I didn’t look at it. Someone just told me it was messed up. But, I have another one, and I did what you told me to do earlier and nothing is fixed.”
*sigh* “Fax it on over.”
I look. I shake my head. I call back.
“Ma’am, none of the entries I told you to do are even showing up here at all. Are you sure you posted and recomputed?” [Had she done them as I had told her, they would have showed up somewhere in what she sent.]
“Oh, I didn’t even look at what I sent you.”
Talk to my people…
In the midst of a call with a woman in a panic.
“First, did any of the export records import into the other database?”
“No.”
“You’re totally sure? It’s critical, because otherwise you’ll have duplicate records.”
“Nothing was uploaded.”
“OK, ma’am, I’ll need you to check the executable date - if it’s out of date, that may be part of the problem.”
“No, we’ll deal with that later. I have to fix this problem NOW.”
“No ma’am, we have to check your executable date NOW. Without that, we can’t do anything else.”
“Oh…”
Executable date checked, I have her run a process, and I need to check one more thing before we keep going.
“Ma’am, can you please confirm the switch for setting X?”
Large sigh, and the phone is handed to someone else…
“Um, hello?”
“Hi, this is support, how are you?”
“Um, I’m OK. I’ve been watching what you’ve been having her do - it makes sense to me. I’m their IT person.”
“Excellent. Can you help me out? Can you have her do…etc, etc.”
“Um, sure, well, wait, she just took the export file and is uploading it again.”
Seems that she didn’t want to wait for help…
“Did she re-export?”
“Yeah, I think that is what she did when she handed the phone over. Oh, and there are already records in the other database.”
Great.
“OK, since the export worked, I’ve done as much as I can do.” The other database is a totally different piece of software, made by another company. After export, we’re done.
“No problem.”
“However, since there were already records in there, even though she swore to me that there weren’t - can you make sure she goes through them all to get out any duplicates?”
He laughs, apparently he’s been through this with her before… “No problem.”
“Oops, I did it again” is annoying even when it’s Britney Spears…
The process is…open period, process, post, close, go to next period, repeat…
“I skipped one!”
30 minutes later I finally figured out what she skipped.
Several scripts and emails back and forth to her DBA, and she is ready to go.
Voice mail:
“Which period do I process for?”
Called back…
“The one we spoke about. Ending 10/3. The one that the system wasn’t letting you process for.”
“OK, great, thanks!”
5 minutes later.
Voice mail.
“I did it again.”
I asked my senior consultant/mama bird… “Is this the part where I get to cry?”
Finally!!
October 15th, 2003
I think I can say I got a decent nights’ sleep
WTF was that??
October 15th, 2003
Um, anyone that lives around me - was that just thunder or a damn train derailing????
Craptastic!!
October 15th, 2003
Yes, folks, it’s been that kind of a day.
Forgot to take my mug to work, and forgot to put the trash out.
Network was up and down more than a bad elevator joke today. Aging Southern Belle at the office is apparently missing being in charge of anything, given her bizarre attempt to takeover the situation. Rather than her writing everything down from the call software on the one computer it was working on and then going desk to desk, we could easily walk the three steps over to the computer, tag a couple things, get the info passed to the telecommuters, take a call for ourselves and everything would be juuuust fine. But, she seemed to get a weird rush from it and apparently felt she was helping, or something. Then the three separate deliveries of roses from her husband for their anniversary just put it over the top.
Came home, crashed for a bit. Definitely think I am getting an ear infection. Mom called to ask about some thing on Saturday, woke me up, I was exceptionally grouchy. However, being Mom, she asks…
“Did I wake you up?”
“Yes…”
“You feeling OK?”
“No….I think I have an ear infection.”
“Get yourself to the doc in a box asap and get antibiotics. Do you have any cold meds? Benadryl? Go find them and take one. That will help in the meantime.”
“Yes, Mom.”
By some miracle, I just found some Advil Cold & Sinus, and I remember this is what they gave me w/ the antibiotics last time I had ear infection. Bigger miracle - the stuff hasn’t expired. Just downed one, we’ll see if it helps. Don’t know when I am going to get to the doc in a box, but I guess I should.
I also have two non-working watches now. Could just be battery, but on one of them, I can’t even turn the little knob to change the time.
Grouchy with Mom is never good. Called her back when I was more awake and set things up for Saturday and apologized for being so grouchy. She just felt bad that she woke me up when I was feeling rotten. Guess she still thinks she should automatically know such things. Must be a Mom thing.
Argh
October 14th, 2003
Woke up late, look like hell, discover sweater is smaller than before it went in the wash…
It was almost a damn fine day…
October 14th, 2003
Managed to get over to the bead shop at lunch and get the straight pins I needed.
Fairly quiet today, and just about all the incoming calls were softballs. Should do something for my resolution stats, which have been sucking wind of late.
Then, 5 minutes before I am supposed to leave, at the top of the queue is the biggest prick client we have. No one wants to talk to him, and I mean no one. Even my manager says he should have the software taken back.
So - why on earth would I take this call? Because there were calls backing up behind it, and well, I’m a moron that way.
This is someone who basically calls us to pick fights. If he gets an answer he doesn’t like, he’ll call back 5 or 6 times and talk to different people, trying to get a different answer. So, he has two questions, one of which I have to research. The second one, it basically comes down to me having to tell him, “Look, you can do it ‘your way’, but you’re seriously going to regret it, so do it right instead, you jackass.” Well, I didn’t say jackass, but we’d been going around and around about how he didn’t really like the “right” way to do it, and I was completely done with his arrogance and stupidity. And then he says, “Well, I wouldn’t do it that way - I was just asking for my own edification.”
That’s when I threw something.
Finally got off the phone w/ him, researched his other question, and thankfully when I called back, I got his voice mail. I left him the info and emailed him the pages from the freaking manual that he hadn’t bothered to read, closed the call and went home. Amazing how one jerk can screw up an otherwise perfectly good day.
Hope the traffic is light
October 13th, 2003
Cause I am not moving terribly fast this morning and I can see from looking outside that I need to start the car…
Damn cat. 5 AM, alarm clock goes crashing to the floor. He then took off with a pair of earrings off my nightstand, and it looks like the only way they’ll be found again is by having the vacuum run over them. At least they were cheap. Who knows how many pairs of earrings I’ll find if I ever move out of here.
I do hope it’s quiet today at the office. And at the moment, I really, REALLY wish that I telecommuted, cause I could really use the time to just sit here and have more coffee and wake up…
233979
October 13th, 2003
So, I’m tired, cranky, still have things to take care of, my head still hurts, but the earache has subsided somewhat. I gave in and ordered pizza. Yes, you have reached the height or either laziness or just worn out when opening a can of soup is just too much damn effort.
The state of the house has been elevated to ‘good enough’ for the cleaning people tomorrow - I’m just too overdone for anything more tonight. The pizza should be here soon, then I’ll do one last walkthrough to make sure I don’t have any underwearing hanging off light fixtures, finish the laundry that’s going now, and then I think it’s time for bed.
233661
October 13th, 2003
So, is anyone else besides me working tomorrow?
Another full weekend. The bead shop, then Sugarloaf Craft Festival yesteday, Catoctin Colorfest today, had fun, spent too much, upped my 401k tonight to assuage my guilt.
Sugarloaf was to see a family friend of
Colorfest was nice, but too damn huge. Picked up a basket designed for holding silverware, but will works really well for keeping my jewelry pliers handy that the box I was using before.
Fun stuff, but I’m overtired, head & ear-achy, cranky, and wishing it was less than 12 workdays until I go on vacation. I still have to get a couple loads of laundry done before bed, find something to eat for dinner and get the place picked up so the cleaning ladies don’t break an ankle trying to do their thing tomorrow.
THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY!!
October 10th, 2003
Not only is it Friday, but none of my weekend plans involve getting up at 5:30 in the morning or being out too late at night.
Had the “Tom’s off to Bahrain” happy hour last night, and while it was a worthwhile reason to be out too late, I just am getting too old to be out on weeknights, LOL.
I think tonight I will be coming home and going straight to bed.
The joys of a new job…
October 9th, 2003
…and learning who to avoid. I have a coworker who falls in that category. I don’t give her the cold shoulder, but I won’t go to her for help, either. I have 10 other people I can turn to, so it’s not like I’m shooting myself in the foot with that. As one other person mentioned, “She just runs hot and cold and I don’t feel like having to guess her mood” Yep. This is also the same coworker that did help me with a call, and then a week later, told me I had done it wrong, forgetting that she had worked with me on it. I’m also discovering she has a bit of a proclivity towards being a tattletale, which is such a lovely trait in a 50-something woman. She seems to think she isn’t really being mean when she is truly being horrid, because she is soft-spoken w/ a southern accent. You probably know someone like this.
Today I get an IM…
“Can I call you about Client X and his tax interface?”
“Sure, but I don’t know why, but go ahead!” (At this point I don’t remember talking to him about the tax interface.)
She calls. I ask her why she needs me of all people. She tells me she has my call notes in front of her.
Well, that helps me zero. How about a date or a client number that I can look up??
So, I find the call - and yes, I do remember it, once I see the notes. Oh, and it’s from JULY. No wonder I didn’t remember it right off the bat.
Tax prep vendor told Client X, “You need this patch that your software company has just put out.”, so he calls, and gets me.
Now, I investigated a bit, the patch in question is for V4.0 software, Client X has V3.0 software, so that patch won’t work for him. So I hunt high and low for what Client X needs, can’t find it, go to our manager, she can’t find it, has to call development, they send it to her and she sends it to me and I send it to him. Life is good, call is closed.
Fast forward three months.
Well, now, he is getting word back from one of the taxing authorities that something ain’t right. Coworker is assuming that it must be what I sent him.
“I can’t get that function to even work in the V3.0 database, and I can’t find it anywhere and I don’t know how you could have sent it to him. You do realize he’s a 3.0 client?”
Yes, it’s quite clear in all my call notes that I had to find the executable for V3.0 and that is what I sent. I can see where she is going with this. She is thinking I sent a V4.0 executable to a V3.0 client. I may be new, but I’m not that friggin dumb.
I tell her about having to get it from the manager. I can tell she is still thinking I didn’t send a 3.0 version, because she can’t find it anywhere. I explain to her that it wasn’t in the normal/public places because it was an add-on or something special/different like that - couldn’t remember the exact wording, except that it was in the email from the manager, and there was a reason that it wasn’t in the general release area. She tells me they wouldn’t do that, even if it was “special”, it would be in the normal places. Finally, I get off the phone w/her telling her I will find the email from the manager and forward it to her.
About a minute later, I am very happily forwarding the email from my manager, with the trail from dev, saying that it IS the 3.0 executable, and it’s not in general release because it is considered “custom” for 3.0. I IM the info on it being custom as I forward it to her. She reads the email first, then responds, “Yes, I can see that.”
I am sure she is exceptionally disappointed that not only did I send the right executable for the right version, but that I worked with the manager on it, so I know I did it right.**** She seemed way too eager to point out that the executable didn’t exist for V3.0…
Written down, it sounds more petty than anything, so you’d have to know her to understand just how incredibly bitchy she can be. The upside is that she only works 4 days a week, and every other week, she telecommutes.
****The executable may have had a bug in it, but that is development & QC’s problem - it’s what they told us to send out.
CafeChatNoir
No fate but the fate you make for yourself.
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