CafeChatNoir

I am so glad it’s Friday. I was out early last night, but woke up repeatedly for no good reason all night long.

It’s gonna be a long day.

After a solid two hours of handholding, (because every time I left her unattended, she broke something else), one of the two calls from hell is CLOSED. As was pointed out to me - she will probably request me the next time she calls in…

The other couldn’t be bothered to send me back a report to determine if the problem was solved yet - it’s been like pulling teeth to get data out of her. But it should be fixed, so that should mean little more than verification and closing. If she’ll just take the 30 seconds to run the damn report!

That’s the only one left that is causing me major heartburn. The rest I have are from yesterday and today, so those aren’t so bad.

And if the gods are smiling on me today, I’ll be able to close two calls that have been like stepping in dogshit that you just can’t get off your shoes.

‘Cause I’ve been running the car for almost 30 minutes now, and I still can’t get enough ice off of it to be drivable.

So…….it’s going to run some more, and we’ll repeat the process at lunchtime, and hopefully I might have it ice-free by tomorrow’s commute.

I should have thought of this last night.

So it would seem that about 90% of the folks I know had a really SUCK day today. Mine was actually fairly good…

But, if you had a suck-ass day and don’t want to read about a good day, don’t click here.

First, the telecommuting thing. That is sweet. Though I had initially only intended to do so if the weather was bad enough, I apparently subconsciously decided to stay home last night before bed, which would explain why I neglected to turn on my alarm clock. So, there is a lot to be said for waking up over an hour late and being at work on time.

I managed to dump three lingering calls where folks could not be bothered to send anything back to me. Must have been a critical issue…

And it’s snowing again, which I like, but nobody else does.

So, yeah, hope tomorrow is better for everyone.

So, yeah, this “parking your butt at home and working in sweats” is a pretty good deal. However, sitting here talking on the phone, with a cat in my lap, kinda makes me look a tad Dr Evil-ish…

VDOT is trying to say that tomorrow’s rush hour will be better than this morning. I find this very hard to believe.

So, out of 5 people in my group who would normally be in the office (excluding the managers), I am the only one here.

So, I’ll post it and get it out of the way. This morning when getting ready to head out into the snow, I tossed my jacket in the dryer to get it warmed up. (Yes, I am a wuss that way.) It’s an Army field jacket and has tons of velcro tabs all over it. When I pulled it out, there were two socks that had gotten stuck to it, so I got those off and was on my way.

Apparently, I should have been more thorough in checking the jacket, as I received an email from letting me know that he had retrieved a brassiere from my parking space after I left this morning.

So, not only am I the crazy lady with the cats in the neighborhood, I am the crazy lady with the cats that leaves her undergarments in the snow.

But I also slept in too late this morning, which was a direct result of being out too late last night.

Got a call from asking if I was up for going out - why not - went to the Clarendon Ballroom with some other folks. Fun, but definitely caters to a much younger crowd. (Totally out of my element.) Didn’t get home until 2 AM.

The snow is not helping. I keep looking outside to see if it’s still going. :) It’s stopped for the moment, but radar shows another decent looking band coming up behind it.

I know damn well there will be work tomorrow, and I’ll have no excuse for dialing in unless we truly get dumped on in the next 6 hours, which is highly unlikely. So, I’d best get some clothes put out for tomorrow and be ready to have the car warm up for a good long time.

I’m done mucking around w/the friends list, everything is as it should be now, and all is right with the world. (Or something like that.)

Niters all.

For those in the DC Metro area, WTOP News keeps a list of closings and delays on their site. Left side navigation bar, towards the bottom.

Let it snow!

The snow has started, enough that everything is totally white already and it’s really pretty.

Well, the snow was supposed to start this afternoon, they’ve moved it off to the evening - still calling for 4-8 inches, but it sounds like it will still be going during the drive into work tomorrow. Fuuuun.

The fun part about living alone is you can eat any damn thing you want and no one cares!!!! Cheesy ranch dip & chips for lunch? Why not!? Quesadillas for dinner tonight if the meat ever thaws out.

It’s still SO FREAKING COLD out there. Got all sorts of dry skin - nothing says come hither like scratching all over.

Stay warm everyone.

Worked today. Not too bad, only a handful of calls. Still dealing w/ one very problematic user who a) doesn’t listen and b) doesn’t give all the information needed. She’s on my list.

Found out that three folks in my group are gay. In and of itself, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass either way - whatever makes you happy. However, DAMN, I am clueless when it comes to this stuff.

Stopped at pet smart on the way home and picked up more little foam balls for Snoopy. They only had one package of the soccer balls left, so I got that, and a package of foam golf ball looking things.

Well, I went with the golf balls first and tossed them out - no interest at first, but a few minutes ago I could hear the unmistakable sound of a horse galloping through the entry hall, which means Snoopy is having a high old time with them.

Friday night, 9PM, yes, it’s bedtime!! I am so beat tonight and I have to be up and back at work at 9 AM tomorrow. It should be quiet, and fortunately I only have to be in office twice this busy season.

I must make a PetCo/PetsMart run this weekend for Snoopy. We’ve got these little foam soccer balls, and they are the ONLY thing he ever plays with. And they have both gone missing, so it’s time to get a couple more packages of them to have on hand. The little lardbutt needs the exercise. I guess this means I have officially become a soccer mom.

Niters all.

or I’d have to actually read the paper. Three things that caught my eye:

Popular new dog breeds include the labradoodle, dorgi, yorkipoo, schnoodle, goldendoodle, cockapoo and bagel. Dr. Seuss unavailable for comment

Composer writes “Memoriam: A Requiem for Mr. Rogers.” Performance includes a 25-piece orchestra, 65-member choir, English, Hebrew and Latin lyrics, and a puppet that says nothing but “meow meow meow”

And the bummer for today:

Captain Kangaroo has passed away at 76. Mr. Moose jailed with suspect ping pong balls

It’s FRIDAY!! OK, yeah, I do have to work tomorrow, but I don’t count that - Friday is Friday and there will be donuts!

I’m up, dressed, and semi-coherent, which is pretty damn good for me - got loooooooots of sleep last night and wow that felt good. Unfortunately, I also have the most severe case of bedhead I have had in a long time.

Weird dreams the past two nights - relatives in them that long since departed the earthly plane, but in both cases, having money for me… Weird, but hey, are you going to question getting a check just because it’s coming from a dead person? ;)

Today’s goal is to not hear the words, “Did you send an executable to [insert any client name here]?”

Enjoy the day everyone.

One beer + dinner and I am down for the count.

But, it’s the best shot I’ve got for a full 8 hours of sleep, so it’s all good.

I’ve been responsible first - fed cats, made lunch for tomorrow, got the trash out… Now it’s time for a beer.

Got past the bad exe thing intact. So, apparently it wasn’t as heinous as I thought. Seems the only reason it was brought up was that one of the guys in tech saw a couple different clients having the same problem. (I only talked to one of them!)

I’ve shown proper (and sincere!!!) regret and remorse, and it is apparent that it was an honest error - assuming the web would have the latest exe was perfectly legit, I just should have double checked the date on it anyway. Boss had a field day with the web people for not having the right one out there, cause clients can go download what they need themselves too and someone else could have done the same thing.

Mamabird told me, “Hey, ‘F’ sent out an executable a couple years back that damn near blew the clients entire database!” I told her to keep the horror stories coming. I figure if nothing else, I can use this to console a newbie a year or two down the road.

Of course, later I had another client that needed an updated exe…from the web…I downloaded it first to be 100% sure it had the right date, and then walked him through the download. Of course, there was a patch that downloaded with it, and I was sweating bullets through the whole thing cause if he screwed it up, I could just hear “Well she told me to download it!”

I dealt with so many dipshits today. A fair amount of good users, too, but for the most part, it seemed like dipshits. One woman who I still think I haven’t convinced that problem A didn’t cause problem B and that we have to address them separately. Another who wanted an entire tutorial on payroll (we have a training department for that, dearie.) Another who sent script output that can in no way jive with what the user was telling me. (This one doesn’t seem to be a “user is lying” thing. It’s either I wrote a bad query, or there is more weirdness than I realize, or a combination of both.) A good user that one of the managers told to do a very complicated thing - and he didn’t do it quite right - so - clean up on aisle 9…

And it just got STOOPID busy towards the end of the day.

Only one more “real” day this week, then I am in on Saturday, but we’ve only been getting a half dozen calls on the weekend, if that, so I should have plenty of websurfing time.

28 days left in busy season.

In the meantime, I have a beer to drink.

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/australia/popup_20031211.html

Chinese Horoscopes…
Rat: 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996
Rats look likely to be out of luck this year, but you must resist a natural temptation to become “ratty”. Stress threatens your progress at work so watch your back, persevere and keep calmly focused. It may be hard, but you must relax, avoid conflict and control your quick temper. Much that you relish verbal jousting, control your sharp tongue. Be patient for opportunities and your quick wit will ensure things turn out better later in the year. Thoughtfulness is needed to avoid family and relationship problems. Consider others before yourself, turn on your sweet smile whenever you can - and show loved ones how generous you can be to those in your “rat pack” who have proven their loyalty.

Crap, wish I’d read this BEFORE work today, LOL.

So, today I get to find out “How heinous a mistake can you make and keep your job?”…

Normally, if a client needs an exe, we tell them to get it off our website. For whatever reason, one client couldn’t (I can’t even remember why now) - so I sent them the exe from our website. What I did not notice was that we had the wrong version of the exe out on the web…

Had the client downloaded the exe themselves, the result would have been exactly the same - bad exe. But instead - I am associated with it now. Ack. And what is pissing me off is that the client is trying to make it sound like I told them to do a rollback to the old version, which in my email to them clearly does NOT state…

The upside is that my boss has flat out stated, “This is not your fault.” I still feel fairly ill over it, though…

So you have something to do besides work.

It’s still freakishly cold here, weather pixie says 28 degrees, but it’s colder than that, I am sure of it. The cats are taking turns in my lap fighting for body heat. Sure, it looks cute, but they’d eat me if I died right now, I have no doubt of that.

I am SO ready for spring to get here.

We’re up to a whopping 21 degrees so far today. I shudder to think what my electric bill is going to look like. Really, if it’s going to be winter, couldn’t we at least have snow?

Before I left this morning, one of the cats was already back up on the bed, in the space between the pillow and the top of the blankets, snuggled in on the flannel sheets. That was a very cruel thing to do to someone getting ready to head outside for the day…

Nothing else going on except staying warm!!!

Good lord, no accidents, no disabled vehicles, no nothing and it still takes me forever to get to work this morning.

This 20 degrees and 20 mph winds has got to go. I could also use a few more hours of sleep. And while we’re at it, I’d like a pony, too.