CafeChatNoir

I am miserable today. My eyes and face are itching like crazy - the eyes are probably more from the new contacts than anything, but it now looks like I have been crying half the morning. I have a headache. The weather sucks.

The call software *ate* one of my calls this morning - just - *poof*- gone.

The rest of my calls - the software is just fucking broken.

I have one call that has been like stepping in dogshit. I cannot get rid of it. Oh yeah, we fixed the problem, but since we can’t replicate it, we don’t know why it happened, and as such, we don’t have a means of keeping it from happening again. That’s the part the client won’t let go of. Sure, I understand, but there’s just not a daggone thing I can do about it.

Oh, looky. My voice mail light is blinking again. GO AWAY!

Sorry I didn’t answer, but I just lost one contact lens, had tossed the other one and was in the midst of an unsuccessful search for my glasses - I’ve found it’s best not to answer the door at night while blind.

And if no one knocked on my door, then I am just hearing things.

Courtesy Slashdot.

Migrating from Windows to Linux

Couldn’t remember if you were talking about going to Linux or Unix.

Called grandma - she’s understandably bummed about the cat. Says “at her age & stage” she probably won’t be getting another one. :(

Told her she could always change her mind. Yeah, sure, she’s legally blind, but hell, you don’t need 20/20 vision to have a cat.

Oh well, maybe she will change her mind.

Well, if not all, a lot. The cleaning ladies didn’t get here until 5:30, so not only did I get some good sleep time this morning, I got another nap in to boot.

So, I’ve gotten a ton of sleep, a clean house, a hot shower and I am feeling *tons* better.

Found out this afternoon that my grandmother had to have her cat put to sleep on Friday. She’d gone fully deaf and was heading for feline dementia/senility (having trouble getting around the house, getting disoriented and such) - leaving her alone when Grandma came East in May would have been a real problem I am sure. Pepper was 17 years old and had a real good life. She didn’t much like other folks, but she did love my grandmother. Bothers me that now grandma has no one else in the house with her - not that a cat is much help about the house, but having another living critter about is nice. Here’s hoping that after her visit here she’ll be feeling up to going to the shelter to inquire about another cat.

Oh, and for something completely different, since I have no camera, I’ll have to steal from Yahoo - this is what I saw this weekend:

Pedestrians walk around the Tidal Basin as the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom, Sunday, March 28, 2004, in Washington. The capital is expecting about a million visitors for the Cherry Blossom Festival, the city’s biggest attraction of the spring. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

So, my short week is even shorter, as I woke up this morning feeling horrid, and as I sat there with my coffee, the light bulb finally went off.

I’ve got 2 days of sick leave and 80+ hours of vacation time. WTF am I doing even thinking about going into work when I feel like passing out cold? So, I called in and went back to bed. The cleaning ladies are supposed to be here today, but thankfully it would seem that I am on the afternoon run, so I was able to sleep in without interruption. (Actually, as they still haven’t arrived yet, I am wondering if there is a voice mail at work saying they’ll be here tomorrow or something like that.)

I’m starting to feel a bit better, but still not great. Maybe another nap is in order.

Looked back at this time last year, my boss was leaving at my old job, I was terrified over the prospect, and didn’t have a clue where I would end up. Things really do have a way of working out.

I got about half of what I wanted to get done today, done. Not too bad, but could have been better - did manage to get what I had to get done, done.

Spring cleaning needs to start in earnest here quite soon, as I have made an appointment for the junk haulers to come out on the 10th for some things I simply cannot fit in the jeep to get rid of. , you have anything that needs to go? Might as well give them as much as possible to take away while they’re here.

Short week this week. Thank god.

The ice cream truck is coming through the neighborhood right now. :-D

It’s one of those days. Not a bad day, mind you. But one of those “the clients are trying to kill me” kind of days. We’re having some problems with the basics.

Things such as:

“No.”

“Send the full output” (this resulted in a spreadsheet with things randomly included)

“No.”

“The number in the estimated field will not post It’s just an estimate for information only.” (The first time, I can understand that someone may not know that this number is for information only. However, I had to repeat it 5 times. She still didn’t beleive me when we got off the phone.

Just, little things like that all morning. :)

Yes, ladies and gents, WE HAVE MADE IT TO FRIDAY!!

The most important thing being - that means donuts at the office!!

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

I can’t decide whether to be happy or a tad ticked, so I’ll go with a little of both.

They’ve stopped doing conversions/upgrades until they fix the bug that I found. I’m VERY pleased about that.

I’m a little ticked that they’re referring to it as a “new” bug when I sent the email to the conversion people on the 8th saying “Here is where your script is broken.” So, not exactly new.

But, at least they’re gonna fix it, and that’s very good.

An earlier IM:

[11:41] Coworker: hey did you get a peer review for me?
[11:41] Me: No, haven’t seen anything
[11:42] Coworker: hmmm…thanks

Now, the fact that we have peer reviews is not a secret by any means. However, they’re supposed to be confidential. So, yeah, please don’t ask me if I have gotten a peer review for you. Cause if I have, I’ll just lie and say I haven’t. (In this case, I really don’t have one.)

And it would seem that she’s asked EVERYONE.

That was the plan at 7 PM last night - just lay down for a few minutes.

I woke up again at 2 AM long enough to get undressed, turn out the lights and go back to sleep until 6:30 this morning…

Yeah, I was a little more tired than I thought.

“No beer and no TV makes Homer go something, something”
“Go crazy?”
“DON’T MIND IF I DO!!”

Yeah, it’s been that kind of a day already. Actually, kind of a holdover from yesterday. I had FINALLY gotten my calls back down to a reasonable level, and the queue just exploded. Then again this morning, it’s just NUTS. I now have 12 calls all to myself. Eep!

Usually when I get stuck with this many, I just stop taking new calls while I whack down the ones I’ve got. No such luck today since the incoming volume has been so stupid.

And to top it off, they’ve killed our email here for a couple hours cause it’s been sucking so badly lately.

Note to self: Going to bed at 11:30 still isn’t exactly going to bed *early*.

Second, Reeses Mini Peanut Butter Cups really shouldn’t be considered breakfast.

I just noticed that whenever I hear one of those windows error beeps over the phone from a client’s workstation, I cringe.

Our IT deparment just put out a page asking people to please stop putting in tickets about the email being broken. It’s very broken. Well, apparently not as broken now as it was earlier, as I am finally getting emails from 8:22 this morning…

The day is steadily improving. Already hit my call count for the day, so I can cruise until 5, LOL.

Actually, I can’t say I understand the X calls per day - a percentage of all closed calls would make more sense to me.

I got *nothing* done this weekend. So, I’ll need to make up for it after work this week.

Butm the most important thing is that we’re on the downhill side of the day.

But I think I feel worse this morning than I did when I left work on Friday night. Couldn’t call in sick, cause I’m not sick, but I could really go for the chance to just call in unmotivated.

We were talking of vacation yesterday, before I realized I really have no money for it.

And from the “Really? You think??!?” department: Police Fear 24-Hour Drinking to Fuel Crime

Cold War Doomsday Soviet ICBM Launch Keys

Stick a fork in me, cuz I am done. Small problem being that it’s only Thursday.

Target just winged me in the head with his mousie on a string. Thanks, buddy.

Well, I’m too tired to be stressed about lunch with the boss tomorrow, I’m just now obsessing about cheese biscuits. (We’re hitting Red Lobster, w00t!) I’m also quite thrilled at the moment that I don’t have to make lunch tomorrow.

Of course right now, I’m not even sure how I am gonna drag my sorry butt from this chair to bed.

I should probably eat something here soon, too, but that’s going to involve moving, and I kind of like this whole not-moving thing I’ve got going on.

Woohoo! Friday 4/2/04 OFF WORK.

Way overdue for a long weekend.

Sweet.

Hear that crackling? Smell the smoke? That would be my fried out brain.

Last night’s plan was to go home and be completely non-functioning and pretty much go straight to bed. Well, that plan has been shifted a bit… Ended up going out, doing a bit of non-St. Pat’s day celebrating (very good reasons to celebrate), and not getting to bed as early as I really should have… Not obcenely late, mind you, but still 4 nights running of not enough sleep.

So, yeah, we’re talking kwality customer service from me today.

I just lost 12 minutes of my life listening to a coworker talk about how she wants plastic surgery because she “doesn’t like doing crunches”….

Yeah, early bedtime for me tonight.

I am on my last nerve…

I am a total freaking stressball. This whole review thing on the horizon is making me a tad insane. (OK, moreso than normal.) I’ve lost count of how many min peanut butter cups have been consumed this morning.

I bust my ass here, I know this - but of course, all I seem to be able to focus on is the stuff that I need work on…
- I’m hardly ever here right at 8. (Usually only 5 minutes after, but still…)
- I can’t pace myself for shit on the queue
- I still don’t know jack about the fixed assets module
- Every time I don’t work a straight 8 pay period, I screw up my timesheet
etc…etc…

It doesn’t help that I am just running on fumes today - for the past three nights I’ve attempted to get to be around but not actually gotten to sleep until after midnight.

I have another peer review to finish by Friday. It’s a lot easier when the person you’re writing about is good.

So, yeah, that plus a bunch of little things that normally wouldn’t bug anyone, but all combined make me a little freaky.

Add to it having to edit this damn entry three times to get it right.

It’s a bang my head into the wall kinda day…

My boss wants to have lunch sometime this week - which in and of itself is not so much the problem as much as “she likes to do these as reviews start coming around.” Sure, I was recognized for apparently not being a complete idiot this month and I’ve got the reserved parking space to show for it, but I still can’t help but be a little queasy over such things.

On the one hand, yeah, a “pre-review” is a good thing. If there’s stuff you need to work on, at least you know, and by the time the real thing comes around, they can see if you’ve taken it seriously or not.

On the other hand…ecch…

Yes, that was definitely a Monday.