Good morning campers. I’ve gotten my coffee and am slowly starting to wake up.
I actually had some foresight last evening and put my clothes out on my nightstand, which helped immensely when I chose to keep hitting the snooze button this morning rather than getting out of bed.
I think I may have found a better way to get to work.
Things may possibly be looking up. :)
I need something to go really, really right for a change.
Turns out the phone number for the kitty rescue group I’d been so pleased to get hold of says to email unless it’s an emergency, so that turned out to be completely useless. Guess I should have just tackled one of the folks working at the show.
I think I have may have somehow picked up some poison ivy or something similar. Even if it isn’t what it is, I’m still itching everywhere at the thought of it, and my arm looks icky. I also made the brilliant move of taking a shower, carefully washing off my arm, patting dry to not irritate it further - and then proceeded to use the same towel everywhere else. I’ll be lucky if I’m not covered head to foot by morning. For now, I have covered the offending area with gauze, so now I look like I likely had some unfortunate incident in the kitchen trying to cut limes for Coronas…
I was sure that I had some extra velcro dots in my sewing box so I could fix something - wrong.
When I took the last soda out of the fridge yesterday, I forgot to put any new ones in.
Finding a replacement microwave should be stupid easy. That hasn’t been the case so far.
I got a nifty hair thing in my stocking at Christmas that I’d forgotten about. I just managed to break it trying to get it separated from the packaging.
So, I’ve hit the point where I’m kind of afraid to touch anything for fear of breaking it, or talk to anyone for fear of saying something that results in my being completely banished from society…
Note to self: Alarm clocks work better when you turn them on.
Note to internal help desk: Please don’t close my ticket with a note of “it’s working now” when you didn’t bother to even call or email me to actually confirm that it’s “working” - if you had, you would have known that it is STILL NOT WORKING.
2 1/2 week old baby on the elevator :-D
I am now the very pleased owner of a new Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse and a non-cruddy mousepad.
I was only semi-good at Target in that I got more than was on my list, but not much - just sodas, onion rolls and a back scrubbie thing. And hooray for insurance, I got my $35 prescription filled for $15.
On the ‘oooooooooooooooh’ front, I went to gas up the car and I discovered we now have a Jerry’s subs just down the road. Mmmmmmmmmmm, subs. I will be good and eat what I have in the house for dinner tonight. That is why I have the onion rolls. I must be good. (As a matter of fact I just went downstairs and had a sammich and a glass of milk to stave off any notion of going back out for food later. Well, that and I was hungry.)
Eve has located one of her dollies here at my place, and is now an extra happy camper, especially since I cranked the AC down for her…
And now, I think is an excellent time for a nap.
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
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…
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 -
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.
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…
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. :)
Oh! For those of you that may not have seen it, mosey on over to
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
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.
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
Oh lordy, it’s past 11 again. I was actually seriously contemplating going to bed at 8 PM. Where did 3 hours go??
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.
yes, to bed.
I just wish I could figure out what has been hopping around my subconscious lately so I can get some resolution on it and get a good nights sleep for a change.
and then it’s the weekend. Granted, I’ll be in training all weekend, but it’s just sit and listen and ask questions and **not** having to actually solve anyone’s problems. For a 4 day week, it’s been a long one.
Haven’t gotten a decent nights sleep all week - lots of odd dreams. Nothing upsetting, just so very weird that my mind goes into overdrive trying to figure out what is going on, which kills any real rest. This morning’s whacked out dream was that I was pregnant. Not “OMG, I’m pregnant, what am I going to do!?!”, but 9 months along, looking at my watch and saying, “OK, people, let’s get this show on the road, I should be in labor by now!” I attribute this to knowing no less than four pregnant women at the moment, and I think the cat was sleeping on my stomach.
I discovered today that it seems I have no vision insurance.
I signed up for it when I started - no deductions out of my check for it. It’s actually a rider on the company paid life insurance, and I assumed since they were together, they were both company paid. (OK, stupid assumption on my part, I totally admit that.) I signed up again during open enrollment for 2004. Again, no changes in deductions in my checks… I went and looked in my online benefits profile today - and it shows the Vision as a “Pending Enrollment” at 0.50 per pay period. Huh? I signed up - why on earth does it still show as pending? I just shot off an email with a screen shot of it to the Benefits Admin to find out if this can be fixed or not and if I can get my Vision Insurance…I’ll gladly pay the premiums from the beginning of the year, but the fact of the matter is - since I signed up for it, I would actually like to have it.
From the WTF? files: I have a coworker who is hmmm, how shall we put it…a bit of an underperformer. And it’s noticed (and frankly, resented) by her peers. (Yes, we’re a touch competitive.) So, she’s bitching to another coworker about the job, coworker gently suggests finding another line of work. Her response? “It’s the same everywhere. No one likes the Skinny Girl.” Um, yeah, OK… This is the same person that IM’d me at 5:45 (My shift ends at 5) with, “I can’t believe you’re still here.” She really doesn’t get it.
Even though I don’t have to be in until 11 tomorrow, I should probably go hit the rack soon.
Well, at least we got *one* nice day out of the weekend. Weather is turning to crap and looks like it will be staying that way for the duration, which pretty much kills my afternoon plans. bah.
So, instead, today will be errands…. PetsMart for the cats, maybe Costco (I only need one thing, and it’s always such a madhouse), the grocery store. Then back home for the excitement that is more laundry.
If my life gets more whirlwind, my head just might explode. :)
Can’t wait. Hopefully tomorrow will be QUIET. I only have *one* open call right now, and the wench client left early after I spent all morning trying to get in touch with her to tell her what she screwed up. The receptionist assures me she’ll be in tomorrow. Most of this week has been calls of, “I was drunk at the users conference and I overheard someone say that the new version of the software could do their laundry, so we’re testing it and now all my underwear is pink”
I should be getting my annual review sometime next week. Hopefully there is no “self evaluation” portion of it… I just despise those. Here’s hoping there is money involved, and it’s not me giving it back to them. :)
I do have some concerns, of course, because really, it wouldn’t be annual review time without them. I have a coworker who was actually on probation for a while, and she is off now, and got a “meets expectations” and a raise (she made all of this common knowledge)…and she’s dumb as a freaking post.
But she’s also good at faking** being quiet and demure and crap which I think appeals to my boss to a certain extent. And then there is my loudmouthed redneck self. From a pure stats/client compliments/lack of complaints standpoint, I run circles around this chick - but we all know that personality does play into this kinda stuff, and mine is well…different. Ah well, we shall see, won’t we?
That is one reason I will be happy to hit second line eventually - new boss. Not that my current boss is bad, she isn’t, and I do get on with her quite well, and the two of them actually co-manage the whole group - but I am more on the same wavelength with 2nd line manager than 1st line manager. Guess you could say it is a comfort level thing or something like that.
But still, after a year, I am SO happy I scored this gig. It is really perfect for me. I just hope they think the same thing.
The “downside” to having that after work, chillin’ out glass of wine? I don’t feel like doing shit - no cooking, cleaning, laundry, NADA. Woohoo, Cindy’s getting pizza for dinner!
Just went to put the garbage out and had a huge flashback to my grandparents house in Atlanta from when I was a kid - something in the way the air smells tonight, and it smacked me right upside the head.
**I say faking, cause she’s already tried to stir up some shit by asking my 2nd line partner in crime (Tasha) how many calls she helps me with after I had my freakish 30+ call day - fortunately, she put a smackdown on that immediately, telling her that a) she doesn’t help me with much to begin with and b) that my brain just works differently…. LOL! I told Tasha, “Wow, that’s a really nice way to say, ‘the girl is just on speed or crack or something and just ain’t right in the head.’”
You know how when lightning strikes a house, it can melt all the wiring inside (or something like that…) - that would be my brain today.
One of my calls from hell went over to the “it’s so broken we’re not going to count it against stats” queue and the other finally got closed. So, right now I’m back to 2 calls open, both normal things that will be fixed by tomorrow. That’s a nice feeling.
But I am brain dead now, which somewhat offsets it.
Fortunately, we’re much closer to fully staffed this week than we were last week, which should make things a little easier. Then a THREE DAY WEEKEND!! Woohoo!!!
One week from tomorrow, I will have been here 1 year. Sweet. Doesn’t feel like it’s been that long at all, which is a good thing. :)
The cicadas are out in full force now, loud as all get out and flying all over the place in the woods behind the house. I love listening to them.
If the FBI is monitoring my book purchases, I am sure they are scratching their heads. Saturday I went and cashed in my 3 B&N gift cards and walked away with 621 pages of Java programming goodness and a paleontology book. Of course, they may also look at it and just go, “Yup, she’s single”, LOL.
On a bummer note, we’re down to 5 ducklings in the office park, and there was no sign of Mom anywhere this morning. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that she’s just hanging out in the shade somewhere and something didn’t happen over the weekend. (Note to self: You may not bring home baby ducks to live in the bathtub.)
OK, off to spend some time in the sun before I run out of lunchtime…
Well, the house has been whipped into a state of “good enough” for the cleaning ladies and in a fraction of the time it took when I first started this whole deal with them - so, yep, it’s definitely been worth it.
So now, I can go out and play. :-D
While sagamore is off diligently looking for a place to live, I’m having an absurdly lazy Sunday. Up at 8, off dozing again at 10AM for a few more hours.
Wrestled my finances into submission for the week, goofed around on the internet and have had a generally non productive day. That is what lazy Sundays are for. :)
Time to go lay the smack down on the house so the cleaning ladies can get through without breaking an ankle and then off to hunt down some dinner.
PS, sagamore - thanks for coming to dinner last night. I would have likely killed my grandmother otherwise.
pisceandreamer
This is done by putting < font color="your username" >your username w/out the spaces…
…of wine. If you buy one of each wine that Unicorn Winery produces, you get a break for buying “the herd”. I did that last summer, and after today, it’s time to break out one of those bottles. I highly recommended the Vidal Blanc, and I’m not much of a white wine drinker, so that’s saying something. (Also, the fact that it has been sitting in the box on the floor in front of my kitchen window, which is Target cats’ favorite perch, and has suffered no detrimental effects says something too.)
Here’s an idea of how the week has been so far, and mind you, it’s only Tuesday:
In the mornings, I don’t really look in the mirror until about 2 minutes before I leave when I take 30 seconds to brush out my hair and put it up before I go tearing out the door. This morning, my hair was all kinds of messed up - so I slapped it up into a ponytail and went on my way. On the way to work it finally occurred to me - I took a shower last night, and I know my hair was wet, because I recall rinsing it one more time before I got out. However, I have absolutely NO recollection whatsoever of actually putting shampoo in it… Which would explain the um, interesting look I had this morning.
My commute this morning had me actively looking for residences in a new zip code. I swear, I was actually going backwards there for a while. The 265K 2 bedroom condo just down the street from my office is looking REALLY good at the moment… (Seriously, were it not for the fact the whole selling/buying/moving thing being such a PITA, I’d be all over a condo out there right about now…oh to be a renter with no home sale contingencies again…)
Every call I have had at the office has been like pulling teeth. The client that took 3 days to get data back to me - only so I could discover the process that she SWORE she had run - had not been run. Things like that….
On the rest of them, I am starting to suspect that I am actually sharing a brain with Tasha (my partner in crime & keeper of my sanity at the office) and that she took it with her on vacation this week. Jeez, I wish we’d thought to make arrangements for that before she left. Heck, she’s at the beach, she has no use for a brain!
I have two calls that I should be able to close in the morning if I can just get the clients to say, “Yes, we did what you said to do, and it worked.” Why they couldn’t bother to let me know TODAY, the multiple times I called back is beyond me…
Having my call count tank like this right before annual reviews is NOT good timing…
The client that I am responsible for this week while their consultant ditched them for the user conference actually called today… I think I’ve gotten them straightened out for now. I pray they don’t need to call again.
I am hoping that tomorrow I can get all my brain cells lined up in the same direction and get some of these calls CLOSED. The week simply cannot continue like this.
Completely random 1: I *love* the Bunny Sutra watches from Swatch. However, is it just me, or do the bunnies appear to be totally stoned out of their minds?
Completely random 2: Little bro called last night, he has procured the birthday gift for Mom! (Cause lord knows I can’t be trusted to get it.) He has offered to call and remind me about the cake….I told him he’d better also remind me to wear pants out of the house as well. (OK, granted, the shampoo incident highlights my level of scatterbrained, but still…no need to be snarky about it Grandma!)
Completely random 3: Anyone want to venture a guess as to why Gretchen Wilson’s song “Redneck Woman” speaks to me so clearly?
Hell, yea…………..
No fate but the fate you make for yourself.
