CafeChatNoir

75% of the company I work for is now owned by someone else. They have given the normal “no changes planned” spiel, and I would expect no less. The rumor has been circulating a while, was confirmed a week or so ago, and yesterday’s email of “What to do should the press call you” was a dead giveaway that it would be official within days. Press release went out today. A few thoughts on it:

— Knowing the reasons that the two co-founders are cashing out, I can’t be upset with them
— I am really glad I don’t work in the accounting department!
— Thank God it wasn’t Oracle or AT&T.

Pope Benedict the 16th! Not being Catholic, can’t say it’s terribly appropriate to make comments on whether or not this is good for the Catholic Church, but I have a few other thoughts…

— The dude is seriously scary looking.
— He’s 78. This isn’t exactly going to be a long term appointment
— It will be interesting to see if he’s an “in the field” kinda guy or a “stay back at the corporate HQ” kinda guy.
— Given the rather negative reaction, could it be possible that they voted him in, knowing it wouldn’t be a terribly long papacy, because they have someone else waiting in the wings, but didn’t want to have that person immediately follow John Paul II, cause the shoes would be so hard to fill? (Just the little conspiracy theorist in my head.)

Other various and sundry things…
— Down 1 person today, and yet we had 2 calls go over limit. WTF? It wasn’t even that busy.
— I submitted a bug a few weeks back. It was summarily rejected. (I don’t think they even read what I sent on it.) I sent it again. Bug reopened!
— I can’t remember the last time I got out of work on time.
— I get to telecommute from here two days a week! So at least if I don’t quit at 5, I’ll still probably be “off work” before I’d normally get home anyway.
— I desperately need to clean out my car so I can go to the nursery and get topsoil and mulch for the gardens
— I need to remember to make dinner reservations for Saturday night. And locate something clean to wear.

Nice day. Not horribly busy at work.

Came home, sat myself out on the deck with the dog for a while. Have the windows open in the office and can hear nothing but birds out there.

Just a nice day and a nice evening.

So my Mom has quicken. I transfer the files over to my machine. Great, except for the fact that she doesn’t appear to have been using it for quite some time… Ah well. Good thing it’s SOP to include average cost info w/1099’s for taxes these days.

Did at least get the majority of things updated from 1/1 so I at least have a clue as to what is where at the moment, which makes me feel so much more organized about it. :)

Did some weeding in the back garden, got to the bank, and also got some stuff out of the freezer at my place and brought it over here - not like it’s getting eaten over there, you know?

And of course, the one thing I specifically left the house to go get, I forgot - kitty treats. Never fails. Tomorrow I suppose…

I feel like I have reached the point of complete invisibility.

I wish people wouldn’t say things that they don’t mean or have no intention of following through on, because it seems like “the right thing to say at the time.” Heart may be in the right place, but the aftermath kinda sucks.

I have a working scanner. A very FAST working scanner. Go me.

Faxed off the needed docs to close the cell account and her gov’t cc, scanned a bunch of stuff to send to the lawyer, and all is right with the world for the moment.

I have to say, I am getting very frustrated with myself at the time it seems to take me to get *anything* done. Here’s today’s accomplishments:
- Picked up scanner
- Got the docs off to various places
- Remembered to buy butter at the market
- Pulled a few weeds out of the side garden (I hope they were weeds)
- Got a load of dishes going
- Brushed the dog (who is also starting to blow his coat. oh my.)

It’s frustrating cause this was a fantastically productive day for me, and I know the rest of the world easily got 2 or 3 times as much done, especially since this is all things that have needed to be done for near a week. Anyone else would have the old house totally cleared out by now, on the market, every piece of paper filled out faxed, notarized, sent in triplicate to wherever it has to be, etc, etc…

Me? I’m still patting myself on the back for remembering to eat every day. Frankly, I am starting to think my Mom was doing speed - no other explanation for having the energy to be so neat & organized, keep the house standing, have these gardens, a full time job and the muppet dog. It must be the addition of the two cats that makes it so exhausting. ;)

*deep breath* Things will get normal enough eventually. I would just prefer it to be NOW, dammit!!

You would think if the site allowed you to place an order for in store pickup, it would be because the item was in stock at said store and ready to go.

Apparently that check doesn’t take place at the point of order…AND it can take another day for them to get it set aside if they have it in stock. I got an email saying I’d get another email when and if they had it ready to go. [Insert annoyed noises here...]

So… I called the store, they have 15 in stock, I can come and get it right now, and just present the online receipt, don’t have to wait for the stupid email.

WOOHOO, I’m gonna have a working scanner again!

Left the basement door (w/baby gate) open yesterday and went to work. Snoopy helped himself to some dinner rolls that were on the counter. When I got home, Target even came up into the kitchen for a few minutes! So, things really are progressing.

Got word from gov’t HR that they got the paperwork and will be FedEx’ing things on Monday. I asked that she FedEx them here, but it also occurred to me that she may have meant FedEx’ing them to other gov’t agencies… In which case, I’d rather they not come back here…emailed a clarification to her on that. Hopefully she meant to other places. Because I really don’t want more forms to fill out, thanks.

Broke down and hauled out the ’scrip painkillers last night - my torn up shoulder has been giving me fits the past couple days - it seems to flare up when I get tense, and that would describe work the past couple days to a T with the shortstaffing and then my general hugely pissedoffness at slackers in general today, and the desk situation here is probably less than optimal to boot. Thus it occurred to me that perhaps I should take something to make it stop hurting. Only took me three days to clue into that option.

I won’t say it’s better this morning, just hurting in a different way - thinking it may be best to try and not do things involving that shoulderblade muscle this weekend… I seem to recall seeing some of those sticky-heat pads around here somewhere, maybe I’ll slap one on.

And now if MicroCenter would just send me my email saying I can come pickup my scanner, I can go pickup my scanner!

Little bro’s car has decided it is near the end.

We also just happen to have a relatively new, reliable, currently unused vehicle right here.

Things do work out.

It’s a really huge advantage in life to have friends that are guys, especially my tech buddies at work. Because you find out things like:

They seriously don’t get high heels. They say they look painful, and wonder what kind of brain damage you have to do that to yourself.

They understand when you say, “I don’t wear black all the time because I am goth or suicidal. I wear it because I am clumsy and you can’t see where I spilled my coffee all over myself.”

They don’t understand why gals compete in the wardrobe department - neither do I, so we can ponder that question of the universe together. (One of my buds has a teenaged daughter going through that. I do need to tell him about my senior year revelation of “Hmm, if I just roll out of bed into the nearest pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, I can sleep an extra 10 or 15 minutes!)

When I point out my slavery to fashion (HAHAHAHAHA!), they laugh and say, “Nah, you always look good.” (I still adhere to the “the simpler the wardrobe, the more I can sleep” theories.)

Pretty much continues my lifelong trend of being considered one of the guys. Which frankly, is a helluva lot easier than trying to be one of the girls on most occasions!!

Dear US Gov’t:

The needed paperwork was to you the beginning of the week. Yes, it did take me a couple weeks to get it turned around to you, as I had to track down certain information. You however, have no tracking down of papers, dates or numbers to do. I know this, as I had an insider at your entity…you’ve got it all on those fancy computers, there. (OK, your IT groups sucks, I can cut you some slack for that…) However, it would be nice if you could get the funds turned around post-haste. I’m not broke yet from carrying two households, but I ain’t made of money either…

Kisses,
those of us who would like Mom’s last cheque, thanks.

A “good enough for now” version of Mom’s taxes are done, and I can file the extension with a decent estimate instead of a wild assed guess. This is good and I will be able to actually do them full on properly at a more leisurely pace. Emailed the form to myself at work to print and send, and of course, got sidetracked and didn’t actually get it in the mail today. Tomorrow.

Past couple nights, Moxley & Snoopy have had free run of the upstairs. Target, still not convinced of this whole dog thing, has stayed in the basement. During the day, the cats go back to the basement. I get home this evening and am greeted by a dog.

And a cat.

Yup, they got the basement door opened. No one seems the worse for wear, Target apparently took cover somewhere in the basement, but came right out for dinner, no questions asked.

I have put the baby gate up at the basement door about 6 inches off the ground - cats can come and go, but the dog can’t get through. Decided that was necessary as I just had to corral the dog OUT of the basement as he wanted to go down there cause the kitties were there… (Shoulda known something was up, it was WAY too quiet.)

Weekend ahead looks quiet. A few errands to run, pickup mail at my place, and housework and some attempts at gardening here. The “big” project is to sit down and get all the paperwork floating about the house organized and to get started on the absolute multitude of thank you notes to be done. Decided I am not going to worry about my place this weekend, need to get here back in shape and then I can worry about the rest of it.

of 4 days total when we only have 5 out of 9 folks working this week.

I’m slowly losing my mind. Acting mgr is trying her best to manage the situation, and it’s just oh so not working. (We basically self managed on Monday. Not exactly pretty, but it DID work. She’s basically taken me off the queue so I can work my existing calls. I’ve got lots of them, but they’re sticky ones that just aren’t going to go away quickly, that’s all there is to it - excluding me from incoming stuff isn’t making the other ones get resolved any faster - not for my lack of trying! Honestly, it stresses me out MORE to have a ton of stuff coming in that I’m not supposed to touch than having a bunch already assigned to me. But hey, she’s in charge.

Yeah, our quarter bonus is already completely blown over yesterday. No way we can recover from that.

GOOD THINGS: Snoopy and Mox were allowed to run about the house last night - NO LEASHES - and no chasing or other mayhem ensued!

Netflix sucks in one very important way right now - there are no phone numbers on the site, and you can’t email customer service without a login ID. So, I had to sign up for a trial run in order to get an email to customer service to cancel my Mom’s account.

Sheesh.

Dog doesn’t seem to like DSL as much as I do - he’d prefer I was downstairs watching TV with him, so I think I’ll go do that for a while.

The company is being sold. To some venture capital firm in NYC. They also own Yankee Candle and Strayer College. Odd combinations, but whatever.

Supposedly nothing will change. Eh, I’ve heard that before.

Can’t begrudge Ken on this one. His wife is terminally ill and he’s got little kids.

But still, shit.

I have DSL again!!!!!! I can stay online and not worry about my grandmother calling and getting a busy signal and then giving me a ration of shit when I talk to her!!

And when I telecommute, I can telecommute from HERE!

Oh happy day!

Oh, and I can again send email without error!!! (Yes, I put a final note in on my service ticket “there is something funky with the email server handling requests via dialup”)

Not my weekend for email. First, my ISP has a bad server, or bad setting on an otherwise good server that is hosing email coming from me.

Then, I log into the hosting company that holds my site, and their email manager is no longer showing any of my email addresses. However, one quick email to them (sent from webmail…) and they reset something and they’re all showing again…

Email is still busted. I basically can’t send anything from Outlook - if it’s to someone on my ISP, it gets to Sent Items, but never arrives anywhere, outside my domain it errors out as a relay problem. Webmail works fine at least, but it’s a pain.

No luck on the scanner - I picked one out, of course it’s not in stock. They say they should have more coming in this week, though, so that’s something. The old scanner is definitely broken, as I came back to the computer to find a message that a USB device (the scanner) had malfunctioned and the system no longer recognized it.

’s taxes are 99.9% done. He keeps saying I did them, all I did was supervise. :)

Speaking of taxes, I still have to sit down one night this week and do a dry run on Mom’s so I can file the extension. Considering the 15th is Friday, I’d best get on that. At a minimum, tomorrow evening will be “sort out the million pieces of paper sitting about the house” to make sure things are together, then getting it all into Turbo Tax should be no problem.

Dialup on this machine is better than on the other one, but still sucks. I do need to stop on the way home tomorrow night and get the DSL filters for the phone from my place. Didn’t think about that when I was over this weekend.

Email is still borked… Can send to other domains from webmail. Was able to send to other domains when on DSL. Can’t send to other domains while on dialup. To me, this says: The email servers that are used by folks connecting via dialup are BROKEN.

Hmmm, not only did I break my scanner, I seem to have broken my email as well. Can’t send anything. I can get things, but sending is apparently out of the question. The techs opened a network ticket for me - it would seem that I can send to an addy at speakeasy, but no one else…

The grandma call is done for the week, so I can tie up the phone lines to my heart’s content. (I know that may sound kinda cold, but she is way anti-computer, despite the fact that it’s what allows me to keep a roof over my head, and I’ve learned to just keep computers out of conversation whenever possible, and try not to have a busy signal when she is supposed to call. Can’t wait for the DSL to be activated!!) Funny thing is, when I talked briefly about having tied up the phone line because I had broken the internet, she asked, “Do you need a new computer?”, to which I responded, “I need a new computer because it would be shiny & fast, the way some folks need new cars because they’re shiny & fast” and she actually seemed to get it…

And now, I think I have just committed one of the greater ex-girlfriend faux pas… I called to see if he was near a computer to see if he actually received the email I am showing as successfully sent… Some insanely young chicky-chick answered the phone. I say I am calling for Tim. She asks if she can say who is calling. I start to say something, then pause and say… “No, you can’t say who is calling!!!!” As she passes off the phone I hear, “She’s really pissed at me!” Turns out it was our buddy Abigail, who did NOT sound like herself answering the phone, and as soon as Tim tells me who it is, I insist he put her back on so I can apoligize. As I told her, “I didn’t know it was you, I didn’t recognize your voice!! (Nor did she mine), and dammit, I just can’t be that cool an ex-girlfriend just yet!” (I can tell him that Jessica Alba is going to be a stripper in Sin City, but damn, no young female voices should be answering his phone at this point in time!) A good laugh was had all around, and we’ll likely be meeting up next weekend for some fun. (I adore Abigail, she punched when she found out we weren’t dating anymore. You can’t ask for more than that in a fellow gal.)

Well, Grandma’s probably trying to call right now, and I’ve got the line tied up and I’m on the phone with a tech trying to figure out why I can’t send mail…

Well, I’m posting from MY computer. Yay! However, my scanner did not survive the move. I don’t know what happened, but it’s definitely not scanning anymore. :(

It makes all the right noises, however, the screen that shows what it’s scanning? Black. That is definitely not good.

Fortunately, it was a cheap scanner, and I definitely got my money’s worth out of it before I managed to kill it. So, that’s something to add to the shopping list for tomorrow, since I do actually need one, as I’d been planning on scanning and faxing things as needed to cancel Mom’s various accounts. I suppose tonight I should do a bit of research on scanners…

Got some stuff done around here, too, so it’s been a decently productive day. Still need to empty the totes and get those things put away, but I think I’ll do that a little later.

Can’t be online too much tonight, as it’s Grandma’s turn to call, and until the DSL is setup, online ties up the phone…

…for today. About 2/3 done that needs to be done, the kitchen table has been dismantled and put in the car, two totes filled with things and two garbage bags filled with laundry. The rest isn’t too bad and I’ll hit it in the morning.

Now for the fun of trying to untangle all these cords and break the computer down…

Of all my top notch skills, I’d say procrastination is one of my best, and frankly, the one I need to drop the most. :)

At the house, went to get my email and discovered that the DSL was disconnected (good), but they also shut off my dialup access as well (bad). However, the folks at Speakeasy are wonderful and I had that reactivated in about 3 minutes.

So, yes, I should be merrily mucking about the house getting things done, but I seem to be having my usual motivational issues. Just gonna finish this cup of coffee…….

I slept in the basement last night, as the cats are kinda starved for contact - Snoopy not as much since he’s been willing to come upstairs and hang out, but given Target’s reticence to pass the threshhold from the basement steps to the hallway, he needs some people time. OMG, though, he tried his hardest to keep me up ALL NIGHT trying to chew on my nose, chin, ears, any avaialable part of my head…

Snoopy is also now Moxley’s hero. You see, Snoopy came upstairs last night, jumped up on the counter, and then proceeded to knock the pizza box on the kitchen floor. I actually think Mox was crying tears of joy realizing what a wonderful new ally he had in Snoopy. I see these two getting in LOTS of trouble together.

Today’s theme is “cleaning”… Ecch. Cleaning service comes to my place on Monday, which desperately needs it, so I have to go over there and get things picked up and out of the way. Also have to dismantle the computer and finally bring it over here. This also means I have to take apart my kitchen table and bring that over as well so I have a place to *put* said computer. Also gonna stop at Target and get a couple plastic totes - thinking if I fill them both up with things every time I go over to my place, and I make a point of stopping over there each day, I should be able to get a lot of the small stuff out of my house without too much pain.

Additionally, I have to get this place picked up as well, it’s a bit of a disaster area too.

Got the biggest set of paperwork out in the mail yesterday - gawd I would love to rest on that minor success for a week or so.

Well, as much as I would love to park my butt on the sofa and watch TV, I’d best get a move on and get some things done.