CafeChatNoir

We got new computers at work today! :) Went from Win2K Pro to WinXP - I must have spent 20+ minutes getting all the settings back the way I wanted them. And we have Office 2003 - if Microsoft tries to “help” me anymore with what I am trying to do, I’ll put my fist through the monitor.

Well, I think I am finally recovered from the weekend. It really was a good one, just not especially restful…

It probably didn’t help that when I woke up last night, I spent about an hour puttering around the house rather than going right back to bed, but ah well.

Woke up this morning with such a spectacular case of bedhead, I had to go with a hat for the drive in - the theory being that the bedhead and hathead would cancel each other out and I’d have a semi-neutral hairdo by the time I got to the office. And you know what? It worked. :)

Hit the grocery store on the way home for milk and walked out with groceries for at least a week… Funny how a gallon of milk turns into several bags of food. I am living proof that you shouldn’t do the marketing while hungry… But, I have made up lunch for tomorrow, so it’s all good. (mmm…nachos for lunch…)

Good day at work today, only left with 1 call open, which is always nice.

With ’s move and mad dash to SC & back next weekend, there will be no 4th of July road trip this year. But it’s probably for the best so I can spend the long weekend doing nothing… :) Especially since I’ve got a few days off the week after and those will likely be spent helping with moving, so I’d best rest up while I have the chance.

OK, if I want to actually stay recovered from the weekend, I had best get to bed. Niters all.

But I am getting too old for this. :)

It really started Thursday night with hitting DC for Cyrano de Bergerac and then heading to a Cap Hill bar and not getting to bed until 1:30 AM.

Dragged myself through Friday. Not pretty. OH so tired.

Saturday, off to the wilds of Bealton, VA for a gun show, and BBQ/Tupperware Party. Yes, you read that right. Fun, but again, beat all to hell by the end of the day.

Today, back over to that side of the world again to check out an antique shop that was closing down, then over to the Old Dominion Beer festival. Came home, hit the shower and went straight to bed and woke up about an hour ago.

Since I haven’t won the lottery and have to go to work in the AM, I’m going back to bed now…

I have this call. I thought I had it figured out. Pulled more data. Nope. (That is what you get for doing a celebratory dance in your cube and spiking your headset in the end zone.)

I brought it home, thinking a change of scenery and a cold beer would help me look at it differently. (Often it does the trick.) Nope. I built a beautiful spreadsheet. (Seriously. It’s gorgeous.) According to the setup, the system should do X. And it did it. Right up til last month. Now it is doing Y. And I cannot for the life of me determine why.

So, I give. Sent it off to our senior evil genius with the note of “Given that my only theories involve alien abduction and time travel, would you be willing to take a look at it?” Here’s hoping it really isn’t something painfully obvious.

Drama in the office. Grapevine says the resident slacker is on probation again, effective around 11:40 this morning. That would explain her asking me to switch lunch at 11:45 so she could get away from her desk and the fact she wasn’t looking so hot when I saw her a few minutes later. (I can’t say I’m at all close to her, so I wasn’t gonna ask what was up. I suppose it’s a fine line between respecting someone’s privacy and just being insensitive.)

I’m not even sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, honestly, she isn’t particularly good at this job at all, and really does need to improve. On the other hand, it’s a little scary how quick word gets around on things!

Oh - the AFI has put out the list of the top movie songs of all time - click here to see the list - most I agree with, a few I don’t think I’ve ever heard, and a couple, well, I THINK NOT! *cough*MyHeartWillGoOn*cough*

So, hmm, not really anything else of note.

So, how you doin’?

Actually, today was a good day, very, VERY quiet in the morning, finally dumped all but one of my gooey calls and all is right with the world again in my cube.

For Christmas, my brother got me the Bob Newhart anthology double CD - listened to it yet again earlier tonight - it’s still hilarious.

Decisions, decisions on what to do with the house. Carpet, hardwood, some of each, none of it and just not worry until selling time comes along?

Office duck update: The first batch are now basically teenagers. They’re about 80% of the size of the adults and they look like real ducks and everything. And we have 3 brand new babies just a week old. :-D It takes everything I have not to scoop them all up and bring them home.

iTunes radio has George Carlin on talking about the office coffee freak. I think he’s talking about me… “You know…the ones that have to have 8, 9 cups first thing in the morning…”

For some silly news: The southern French city of Marseille called off a three-week hunt for a black panther on Tuesday after the animal sighted by several residents turned out to be a large house cat.

Frankly, I think Snoopy is a tad disappointed that the neighborhood kids haven’t mistaken him for a panther yet.

Came home, cracked open a Guinness and darned if I’m not ready to crash now. Considering that I used to go out and close down bars on school nights in my pre-30 days, this could either be a sign of maturity…or just getting old. ;)

So bedtime for this gal…

I don’t know what the rationale was behind playing the tape of the South Korean hostage on the radio this morning, but I wish they hadn’t done it. I have been hearing his voice in my head all day.

Been in a slump at work the past few days, just getting bizarre off the wall things that don’t make sense and have been taking up tons of time to figure out what’s going on. Boss came & asked if I wanted to do direct point of contact again for another client - sure, why not. This one will be for 2 weeks and they’re doing the rollout in multiple locations. They will have some of our people on site, but apparently want/need a dedicated person back at home base. That will be the last week of June/first week of July, and no weekends. I asked her to please find out if they would be OK w/ 8 to 5, cause I can’t say I’d be thrilled at it being more than that since it’s not like we can bill extra for it.

So, yes, this weekend - went to the Waterfront Festival, which was fun - must have spent an hour at the parrot rescue tent - is a bit of an animal freak in general and loves birds, and they know it - they handed over a Moluccan Cockatoo to him and she snuggled up on him like he was her best friend in the whole world. Too cute. Had fun watching a little girl try and nail the guy in the AOL suit right in the head with her beach ball. I suspect the family members are ex-AOL users.

Went out and priced carpeting. The good news is that it isn’t nearly as expensive as I would have imagined. Problem is, there was some hardwood flooring there that I also fell in love with, which is juuuuust a bit more expensive than carpeting. Mom had a good point, though - I could do the main level w/ hardwood and the upstairs and basement in carpeting, so it wouldn’t be nearly as prohibitive. So, we shall see.

Little bro got me a big-assed bottle of Kahlua from the duty free store on the cruise, and this goofy rasta-dude coffee mug - he said when he saw it, he immediately thought of me & my job. I think that means you need to be high to do what I do. :) He had an awesome time, and I am totally jealous, but also very happy that he’s off doing all the stuff I should have been doing at his age and didn’t.

So, today is the first day of summer - I feel like it might as well be over. I can’t even explain why - I’m taking a few days of in July to just chill out, but other than that, absolutely no plans to go anywhere or do anything, so I guess it just doesn’t feel like it’s summer. I haven’t even bothered to get a pool pass yet. Of course, I guess when bathing suits come out in the stores in March, by mid-June, summer really is over.

I really do not like Mondays at all.

There is nothing on but bad news this morning, from rumors that Saudi security forces helped with Johnson’s kidnapping, to the tape of the S. Korean hostage being played on the radio - that will give me nightmares for a while I’m sure.

On a more personal & selfish note, I am wondering why my life has to be this big karmic balancing act where I can’t just have everything going well for a while. Seems like when something good is going on, something else always has to be going to hell in a handbasket.

Pretty good weekend, but as always, not long enough.

(via the comm)

support our troops — send them your GMail invites!

http://www.wilwheaton.net/mt/archives/cat_computers.php

The short version: Most soldiers stationed overseas have crap hotmail accounts, a gmail account w/ the gig of space would enable them to get things like pics or movies from home without having to worry about it getting bounced. It would be a spiffy thing to do for our guys stuck over there - think if you were in their boots…

(Wishing I’d gotten on the gmail bandwagon now!)

Had the review - I’m still employed and they gave me more money, too! :)

It went quite well - my boss thinks it is entirely possible I could get kicked up to 2nd line by this time next year, which would be sweet. My goals for the next year seem to be quite reasonable, and frankly, I don’t think I should have any trouble with them.

Very glad to have THAT out of the way.

Snoopy-cat has his nose royally out of joint this evening. Snoopy is the longhaired black beauty. The pretty one. The one everyone oooohs and aaahhhhs over. Target is a brown tabby, who almost got the name “Blondie” from his color resembling chocolate chip cookie bars. Just a brown and beige tabby.

Well, it would seem we have a new family in the neighborhood, and Dad was out for a walk with the little ones this evening when I went out to close the sunroof in my car. Of course, Target-cat dashes out to munch on some grass as they walk by. The littlest one (2ish? Old enough to go for a walk, but it’s probably still new to her.) stops and is entranced. I scoop Target up and ask her, “Would you like to see the kitty?” She is too enthralled to even speak, LOL.

However, Dad says, “Wow, what a gorgeous Tabby!! Such beautiful markings! His fur is so shiny! He must be, what, 1 or 2 years old?”
Me, *beaming*,
“Actually, he’s 11.” (Well, he’ll be 11 in less than a month.)
“You’re kidding!! How do you keep his fur so beautiful?!”
(To be honest, dang if I know, he’s just always had a good shiny coat.)
“Well, he’s on wet food right, so I suppose that keeps the oil in his coat up so it’s shiny.” (It *could* be why his fur is shiny at this point…)
“Wow, he’s just beautiful.”

Snoopy is currently moping in the dining room right now. Target is enjoying his moment in the sun.

Cindy

For another 4 day week, this one is kicking my butt too. Another day of too many calls and not quite enough people. I am beat, and enjoying a really good glass of wine right now.

Boss was out today, she did IM me and let me know we’d go over my eval in the morning. Frankly, I’ll be happy to get that over with. I don’t think it will be bad, but it’s something that just stresses me out, mainly because I work really hard at what I do, and I really love it, and you just don’t want to find out you’ve been screwing up the whole time.

One of my coworkers who got my peer review told me, “Hell, between what [2 others] and myself wrote, they’ll think you’re the second coming.” :) It just a nice thing to hear, because I know from talking to her than when the 3 top second line folks go brutal on reviews, they are brutal***, and they definitely don’t go telling the reviewees what they wrote in those cases. So, I guess I must be doing something right. Remains to see if my boss feels the same way!

Oh, and I was talking to the second line manager today and we got to talking about how there was a particular process in the software had an inherent flaw to it that required us mucking w/the database to fix - I told her I had sent an email to one of the other second line folks w/ an idea for a workaround that could be done w/out mucking about from the backside of things, but hadn’t heard back from him on it, and could I send it to her? I found the email & forwarded it to her. She said that while it wouldn’t be a perfect fix (it wouldn’t achieve the exact same intermediate results as mucking w/ the database) but that it would achieve the same end result and it was “a very creative solution!” wooHOO Hmmm, should I forward that to my reviewing boss?? Seriously - I am stoked that my solution will achieve the desired end result without having to screw around with things behind the scenes - the flaw has been plaguing us for a very long time.

So, other than being beat all to hell, it was a good day.

***For the record, not catty brutal, but “quit fucking up!” brutal… Basically just like me when I was a manager…

Never, EVER ask yourself, “Is this all there is?”

Because God or whoever will look down and say, “Of course not, m’dear, there is humor!”, and then send a bug to try and fly up your nose.

The cats were no help with dispatching said bug, either…

Duran Duran Regrouping for a New Album

That’s pretty much where I am right now. Just blech.

We were understaffed and over-slackered at work today, and I feel like I’ve been drug through a knothole. I worked my queue and helped out on another, closed 20 calls and still had some ungodly number like 7 or 8 open when I left.

I got to talk to one of my least favorite clients. Absolutely no brains, whiny, and hostile. A lovely combination. (We’re trying to figure out how we can petition to take the software away from her.) I can tell as I am giving her directions, she’s not following them, and just saying “it won’t work”… I tell her she has to send me screen shots then. A couple hours go by and nothing. I call her. “Oh, someone here showed me how to do it.” “Oh really? How?” She then proceeds to tell me exactly what I had told her to do earlier. Apparently I didn’t use small enough words.

My boss still hasn’t done my review yet, and today was the last day of the pay period… Um, hello? This affects my paycheck, you know.

Get home and the neighborhood is like a ghost town for whatever reason, and I realized as I walked through the door how tired I am of coming home to an empty house every night.*

Cereal for dinner, because not only did I not want to cook, I did not even want to microwave… It would be really nice to have a decent dinner magically appear when I get home that didn’t involve ordering Chinese or Pizza…

Just having a “is this all there is?” kind of day, I suppose.

*No roommate, thanks - I’d kill them in a week. And yes, I do have the cats, but I fear they are only using me for food.

Don’t mind me, I’m just talkative today.

Thoroughly enjoyed my day off. Got things done. Didn’t check my work email even ONCE. Have clean clothes to wear to work tomorrow. It’s all good.

Discovered it’s getting too hot for jeans already so it’s time to find the shorts. Got home after the car inspection, didn’t feel like wasting money on the AC, so I hopped in the shower and ran around in my skivvies for the rest of the afternoon. Ahh, the joys of living alone. :-D

And I love summer. Almost 9 PM and it’s still not dark out. Time to go take advantage of that, too. :)

I want more than just getting up, going to work, paying the bills, and going to bed.

Oh! For those of you that may not have seen it, mosey on over to ’s LJ and check out yesterday’s post on What Women Want. See guys, it really IS simple!! Ladies, I think it most likely works both ways, too. So, everyone, read and take note.

Well, my car has been declared “safe” by the state of Virginia for another year. I’m sure the inspector had a great laugh when I handed him the registration and the wheel lock. (There was a sign saying to give them the wheel lock!)
“Ma’am, your wheels don’t have wheel locks.”
“Oh. Um, well, they gave this to me when I got the car and said not to lose it. I’ve not had to change the tires myself, so I have no idea what it is for then…”
He then took a look at the back.
“Ma’am, it’s for the spare. So, yes, do NOT lose that!”

Yeah, I dazzle the men with my car knowledge…

I also discovered that the brand new Jeep dealership out in Chantilly has Saturday hours, so I’ve got an appointment to take the car over and get the spare tire replaced that is leaking out the sidewall. (can’t be repaired and they doubt it is covered by warranty because it sounds like it was due to road hazard, but they said they’d take a look at it to be sure before charging me for it.)

There is also the matter of the panel under the dash on the passenger side that is trying to fall off - I think it’s just lost a couple screws, so that shouldn’t take anytime at all for them to correct. I seem to recall finding a screw sitting on the floor of the passenger side some time back & we couldn’t figure out where it came from. I think I know now…

Have started the first of SEVERAL loads of laundry that have to get done today.

Need to get to the eye doctor, as I’m out of lenses and definitely need new frames. Owls may look majestic and beautiful in the wild, but when a person looks like one, they look like a dork, and I just don’t need any help in that department. Unfortunately, they’re booked for evenings and Saturdays through mid-July, so I’ll have to take a look at the schedule tomorrow and see when I can take some time out of the office for it so I can get in a little sooner. Yes, definitely should have done a better job of planning ahead on this one, since I am now stuck with my glasses until I can get in there. On the upside, I have found that I *do* have vision insurance, it’s wrapped in w/the medical - why our POS website doesn’t mention that anywhere, I have no idea.

So, is it sad that I post the most comments in my own journal? LOL.

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Total Commenters: 41
Total Comments: 1243
Report generated 6/14/2004 1:12:50 PM by ’s LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.1

Nice weekends are nicer when topped off with sleeping in on Monday. :-D

Put over 200 miles on my car this weekend, and worth every penny in gas money. Headed out 29 in search of ribs (roadside stand that is usually set up all summer at 211 & Old Bridge Rd if you’re ever out that way.) Struck out - they were closed. Not ready to turn around and go home, cause it was a gorgeous day, I continued down the road to Unicorn Winery and snagged a few bottles.

Off to Sperryville, where I stopped at the bookstore that used to be a church, then the Sperryville Diner (noted only by a sign that says “Restaurant” on the outside) for a perfect hot dog. Then to Luray, over the mountain and into New Market. Could have gotten on I-81 at that point, but nah, Rt 11 goes the same direction and it’s a much nicer drive. Through Mt Jackson, Toms Brook, Edinburg, Woodstock and Strasburg until I ran out of road and had to get back on I-66 and head home. Gorgeous day, great drive.

The problem with heading out to the hinterlands like that is that I start getting the itch to move. Almost 19 years of living in Metro DC and I just haven’t found my stride here. Ooohh, look - realtor.com has tons of stuff out in Culpeper…

Yesterday I was apparently supposed to be at a cookout, but I never got word about it, so I most likely look like a schmuck for not showing up or RSVP’ing or anything. Oops.

OK, off to get the car inspected, and then laundry!! Woohoo, I can hardly bear the excitement.

it was a beautiful day for a drive.

Took sort-of-but-not-really a nap for about 30 minutes & I am feeling immeasurably better.

Haven’t broken anything else in the kitchen this evening, so there’s a plus. However, at the rate I am going, I’ll be able to buy all new plates without guilt quite soon…

Tomorrow, I get to call my health insurer and see if they can explain the prescription process to me, since I just don’t understand it at all from the book. It talks about a card, but I don’t have a scrip card, I’ve got a med card, and I don’t know if that’s what they’re referring to or not, since the prescriptions are part of the med plan, etc, etc. Needless to say, I’ve not had these meds covered before, so it’s all new to me.

Three day weekend is less than 18 hours away. I will NOT be speaking to any clients on Monday. End of discussion. All their servers can blow up for all I care. There are 9 other perfectly capable people just ready and waiting to deal with them. (Well, ready at least…)

For everyone that has had to spell the words, “outside”, “vet”, or “treat” because the dog was in the room, this is no surprise: Study Shows Dogs Can Remember Words The Eve’l dog knows which one is her monkey dolly. Even when does the, “Hey, Eve, do you wanna go…………………….to the grocery store?” She’ll start and stop and look at him like, “You bastard, you’re supposed to say OUTSIDE and we can’t go until you say it!” Our old dog Sandy knew exactly what, “Get the boy up!” meant. (Run to the basement, jump on his bed and bite him in the backside.)

Oh lordy, it’s past 11 again. I was actually seriously contemplating going to bed at 8 PM. Where did 3 hours go??

I am SO tired tonight - I just ache from my brain to my toes. Worked killed me again today.

Neat thing on the way home - watched a wall of rain pass right across the road I was on about 1/4 mile ahead of me.

Ray Charles is gone. :(

And to top off the evening, I dropped a cereal bowl on the kitchen floor, broke it and cut my ankle in the process.

Bit of a day from hell.

Skipped 2.5 hours of work for a doc’s appt - first time in 8 years I’ve been seeing him, he got called out to deliver a baby. So, yeah, I can give him a pass on my appointment getting started a tad behind schedule.

Get back to the office and this afternoon I swear, it was like half the people weren’t there. One coworker even commented later that, gosh, I seem a little stressed. No shit, maybe if you picked up a few freaking calls, things wouldn’t get so damn stacked up. What pisses me off is when we get so stacked up like that, I have other calls that once I get the data, it takes 5 minutes to figure out - but I never get that 5 minutes! So, the client gets stuck waiting because we’ve got new calls through the roof.

My call from hell for the week is a client whose server crashed two weeks ago, and never bothered to call us so we could make sure it was OK before they started processing things again, and lo and behold, now they’re having problems. User is complaining to me about her “big deadline”, which yes, I really DO understand, but there’s just not much I can do - it’s me and two of our most senior folks on this call… But how about you go bitchslap your DBA around who declared everything to be “just fine” when it wasn’t? I’m running out of sympathy.

I blame it on the whole Venus in Transit thing.

Got an email from my brother - they’ve made it to the Dominican Republic (they’re on a cruise) and wanted to say hi and see how the cats were doing. This is also his way of being subtle and saying, “You didn’t forget to feed the cats, right?”

Here’s hoping tomorrow is a little calmer than today was.

http://jellybelly.com/Cultures/en-US/NewsEvents/NewsStories/Jelly+Belly+Saddened+by+the+Passing+of+Ronald+Reagan.htm

Cicada landed in my hair today…

I didn’t jump, dance around, holler or anything.

However, that spot on my head is going to itch for the rest of the day.