Saturday, February 12, 2000

Happy Birthday, Dani!!

Brian's brother's daughter has a birthday today-- Yippee!!  Happy birthday to Dani!!  We will all be going to Brian's parents' house tomorrow to have a birthday party.  Dani will be there but her dad's away on business so he won't be able to make it-- bummer!!  We'll still have a great party because Barb and Mike, the parents of the adorable Alexandra and Robert will be there as well Brian and I.  Oh, we're going to have sooooo much fun!!

Happy Valentine's Day to Me!!

Brian and I went to buy a jewelry armoire/chest for me today-- I've wanted one for a long time and while we were there, he waltzes me over to the sapphire display to pick out my Valentine's Day gift.  I thought he had it already, especially since he said he did!!  Together we chose a diamond and sapphire heart-shaped pendant; the earrings that we bought with it aren't heart-shaped but they are the same cut as the sapphires that are in the necklace.  For once, he didn't surprise me and make me cry!  I'm almost at a loss-- I can't call my sister to do my Lucille Ball impersonation!!  Whatever will my sister do???  She has come to expect it!!!

The jewelry chest is something that I've always wanted and, although I've got a couple of hours start on it, still have a lot of stuff to straighten out in all of the jewelry/scarf/accessories areas of my part of the bedroom.  I need to find something to get rid of or move out of my closet, too-- there's very little room left in it and I've got the bigger of the two closets here in the apartment to myself . . . something has to go!

Other Stuff

After we went to Costco to pick up a few things (and yes, it is possible!), we went to Toys-R-Us to get Dani's gift and, after looking at all of the Barbie stuff and the fu-fu dolls, decided on something (that I can't tell you about until tomorrow!) that is a little out of the norm for a "girlie" gift.  In fact, I was the one that made fun of heading "down the girlie aisle".  I'll let you know tomorrow about her reaction, 'kay?  'Kay!

Garden Update

I'm going to take pictures tomorrow at some point but, the funniest story of the day came in between trips out: We went to Costco and Toys-R-Us and came home and then, went back out again to pick up the jewelry chest.  When we were leaving for the second run, we remarked to each other that Earl hadn't seemed to find the yucca plant yet.  I quipped something like: "If you haven't got my Valentine's present yet, maybe we should get a pellet gun so I can shoot him when he does come 'round!"  Brian and I chuckled about that because Bob Thompson would be so proud!

When we got back from the last run of the day, there it was: the yucca plant all dug up and dirt all over the new table that Brian made me.  Well, since we had just gotten back from the purchase of the sapphire jewelry, Brian said: "Well, I guess we spoke to soon.  Where are the sapphires?  I'll go back and get the gun!"  We laughed and, of course, did nothing about returning the jewelry but, it was a funny thought for a few minutes!

**********

That's pretty much a wrap-up of our day here in Sunnyvale-- it is still raining on and off and being quite annoying in general.  More tomorrow as time and birthday party permits . . . have a good evening.

Not Good!

As usual on my way home from work tonight, I stopped at my health club to work out.  When I pulled up, it was very dark.  It appears that the owners of the health club, one First Lady Spa, has filed a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy-- Not Good!  I guess the worst part for me is that I have a hard enough time making myself go to the club in th first place but, at least once I got there, I had fun because the trainers were nice people.  On Monday, I'm going to check out the health club at my office.  They have weight machines and treadmills so that'll make it easier to make myself go.  Although I usually go after work, I will go in the morning, when I'm usually stress-free because if I went at night after work, I'm more likely to get pulled out by some big (non-) emergency.  I went for ten months after paying for a two-year membership.  This is not good, either but after all the creditors get paid, how much money will the members really get back?  Not enough to bother stressing over it, that's for sure.

Marcia, Marcia, Quite--

See?  NOTHING that rhymes with Marcia relates in any manner as to how my garden could grow!! But, all-n-all, my garden does GROW-- Like crazy!! Because I was first home tonight, I got to have the first guffaw at the lettuce plants!!  In the Sunset article, they have you start in the middle of the pot and then grow circles, every two weeks outward with new seed.  Right now, I have a tuft of lettuce in the smaller of the two round pots-- it looks hilarious!  I'll take a couple of pictures tomorrow, when you can see a it of sun in the background on them.  Of course, they turn to the light during the day when the blinds are open so at night, the second thing we have to do with them (after turning on the light inside the apartment to see them when its raining-- like it is right now!) is to turn the pots in the opposite direction that they've been sitting all day.  The lettuce tends to bend toward the windowsso you have to turn them so that they'll swing back the opposite direction.  At some point during the night, with the torchier light on them, they start bending toward it which is a third angle of their day.  By the time we get ready for bed, I figure the little guys have gotten such a work-out, its best to just turn the light off for the night and let them rest!!

Prohibitive Weather

Due to some very nasty weather conditions, we are not going to be able to go fishing AGAIN this weekend!  I'm ticked!!  I really want to get out there but this is getting ridiculous!!  Another weekend of rain and, even if it were to stop during the night tonight, the lake would be too murky for another couple of days!!  Oh, well-- there has to be a silver lining, right?  How about this:  By the time we're able to get there to go fishing, the fish will have gotten over being drugged for transport and ready for a fight!!  And, if that's not enough, ALL of the fish gained weight and are now at a five pound minimum!!  Yeah, that's the ticket-- works for me!!

**********

On that note, for the time being, I'm going to sign off from here.  Brian and I are running back-n-forth in the rain, doing our laundry so this will be another wonderful Friday night here, huh?  You bet!!

Telephone Tag

Well, my day either evaporated or it was invisible-- your choice: I got to work at my usual time and, after settling down with my breakfast and diet coke, read my usual suspects: Brian's website, and a couple of other Daynoters along with Yahoo! News.  I called a sales rep that I was waiting to hear from; I had to leave a voicemail because he was either "away from his desk or on another line", as the saying goes.  Of course, the les-than-a-minute that it takes me to walk to refill my soda, he called me back.  That was pretty much the rest of my day.  How about you?  ;>)

So I played telephone tag with the sales reps that I'm working with right now and, in one case, never did get a chance to one of them.  His document is due, in Chicago, tomorrow-- he has it but, it may not be right for the client so it is, once again, a good thing that I go in early in the morning!

Status

At the present time, I have approximately 15 contracts, in various stages of review and drafting on my desk.  The negotiations come and go but the contracts stay the same: review and drafting.  Sometimes I do the drafting and sometimes the customer does the drafting-- usually the person who has the most changes suggested ends up "volunteering" for the task. Some schools of thought, however, have it that the "owner" of the paper is the one (and the ONLY one) who can make changes to the document.   But, in the case of the agreements that I'm currently working on my desk, all but one is up to me at this point.

Sometimes, the reason that a document is waiting for completion is because of input from the sales rep or the Area VP. In our company and, for the most part, throughout the industry, the contracts people don't make the business decisions-- only the legal decisions.  For example, if the customer wants the software to be moveable (move from the customers site in Dublin, California to Dublin, Ireland), I wait for the sales rep to let me know that he's talked with the customer about the location and/or transfer of the software (also known as "Site").  Until the sales rep has talkeusme t the customer, the agreement shouldn't go anywhere-- the customer doesn't like surprises and, if they have one expectation because the sales rep didn't tell them otherwise, there could be a huge surprise on receiving an agreement without a transferability clause in it!

So, I've still got 15 contracts on my desk and, I had about 20 minutes when I had absolutely nothing to do!  That was strange, for sure!

"Whose Line is it Anyway?"

I love this show-- I've been watching it for about a year now and I think it is incredibly hilarious!  Ryan Stiles is nuts and a whole lot more funny than Drew Carey, IMHO.  But, this leads me to the fact that it is on and I am going to go watch it, rerun or not-- I don't remember ALL of the punchlines!

Have a good night!

New and Exciting?

Good grief!  Now what?  I went shopping today after work-- bought a suit for spring and/or California's wintertime.  Our email spent some more time getting caught up today so that things that were sent to me on Thursday and Friday have now come in for reading, albeit late and a bit confusing. The reason that I bring up both of those thoughts in the same paragraph is that Bob Thompson sent an email last Thursday in response to my posting about the weather changing quickly on Thursday-- I didn't see the date on it and missed that it was an "old" email.  The good news is that Bob is, apparently, somewhat tolerant of the people with blonde roots, such as myself-- terribly generous of him, indeed!

On top of catching up on old email, Bob also sent another email offering yet another suggestion for coping with the squirrel population:  a 5-6' boa constrictor.  I don't think so, Bob.  Noper!

Anniversaries, et al.

I mentioned earlier this week that Brian has his Valentine's Day gift already-- the Voodoo video card.  Well, while I was shopping tonight (Hey, he had to go to the dentist!), I couldn't help it . . . I found a little something more for him.  Can't help it-- I do tend to spoil him and its okay cuz its generally mutual!  He sent me an e-greeting last night for one of our many anniversaries in the months of January through March.

Garden Report

The garden is making great strides and, while I can't get decent pictures of the conistoga chicken-wire wagon tops (and haven't made the wheels for them yet either!), I am able to show you new growth pictures of the Mesculin lettuce (the left is the over view of the pot and the right is the dirt level of the pot-- isn't that cool?).  We think there's another spring in the pot that was on the right on Sunday (that would be the other round pot) but nothing has happened in the rectangular pot yet.

The tulip/crocus pot has also decided to go a little crazy-- just a bit!!  There are now a total of 8 tops sticking out of the dirt!  I was going to be happy with only the two in the middle-- originally, that's all I thought there were in the pot!!
 
 
 
 

Short and Long of "It"

I have to apologize for the short post and the fact that it is a little on the "late" side for me.  Its been that kind of day today, including running late to my weekly chat with my sister.  Tomorrow I have to go to the dentist and the club afterward to work out so I've got a bunch of stuff to get ready for tonight-- in other words, this post isn't going to grow any!  Sorry . . . its been that kind of day!

On Broken Toes

Good Ol' (okay, Young) Doc Crider has stepped up to defend my broken toe:

Subject:     Broken toes
   Date:     Mon, 07 Feb 2000 21:31:44 -0800
   From:     "James T. Crider" <jim@docjim.com>
     To:     "Brian & Marcia Bilbrey (E-mail 2)"
             <marcia@dutchgirl.net>

Maybe this will help but then again Brian is obviously already brain damaged (see his answer to my e-mail message posted yesterday) so it may not help. Anyway, the clinical tool we use to diagnose broken toes is what the patient says.  If they say the toe is broken then it is broken.  If you thought your toe was broken any of those times then it WAS broken.  I don't know what confirmatory test was done the one time it was not broken, hope it wasn't an xray which notoriously underdiagnoses broken toes, but did you believe it?

As you say, the only treatment for a broken toe is to say yes you are a broken toe.  Now if the toe is broken and sticking out at an odd angle then you do need to see a physician to help straighten it out, but that doesn't happen very often.

Hope this helps, but having read Brian's posts now for several months, I doubt it will.

Further Earl-izing Suggestions

Bob Thompson, especially when referenced on a website or when guns are mentioned, will always respond and today, was no exception.  Bob offers this email with his suggestions for dealing with the squirrels in the area:

Date:   Tue, 08 Feb 2000 15:56:37 -0500
From:   Robert Bruce Thompson <thompson@ttgnet.com>
To:     marcia@dutchgirl.net

>BTW, if any of you have any tips about getting rid of >squirrels, please pass them on!!  (No, Bob, I am
>not going to go buy a gun to shoot the squirrels with--  >there are too many humming birds around that I might
>hit and I like them!)

Method 1: Buy a Border Collie. Your squirrel problems will be over.

Method 2: Buy some rat traps. These are just like the little snap-type mouse traps, but much larger (about 5X9"). Put them out with something the squirrels like to eat, and your squirrel problems will be over (other than disposing of disgusting tree-rat corpses). Also, you may have to get Brian to cock
them for you. They require quite a bit of effort, and if you get your finger snapped it'll probably mean a
trip to the hospital.

Bob

--
Robert Bruce Thompson
thompson@ttgnet.com
http://www.ttgnet.com

Lawyers-- UGH!!

I have learned a lot from attorneys over the years-- a lot of information can be passed on by an attorney to someone like me in my line of work, i.e., the meaning of a "Limitation of Liability" clause and the alternative language that can be used by the company if the customer doesn't like the "standard" format language.  However, there is the occasional attorney that you just know was born and raised in New York City and is charging by the hour for his "services" . . .

So, I'm in the middle of a negotiation today:  I've got the Director/VP of Channel Marketing from my company in on the call, the sales rep, the contract negotiator that usually handles the channel agreements and myself on our side of the call and the end user and the purchasing agent on the other side.  At the start of the call, it is indicated that the attorney can't join the call due to a scheduling conflict (Oh, Rats!  Darn!  Too bad!!).  The purpose of the call is to just find out why the customer has made the changes that have been made to the agreement which is our standard agreement format.

The call is going well and we're making great strides in moving through the changes when, halfway through the agreement, the attorney decides to join the call.  (Thanks so much-- we really missed you-- NOT!!)  His first question:  "Where are we?" and upon getting the answer, says "So what was decided about . . . ?" and we're back to the beginning of the agreement again!  The good news is that the end user and purchasing agent are pretty mellow guys and understand the software (which is not an application but a toolkit, of sorts) and they keep saying "That's not an issue, put it back to the original language" and "Oh, we don't do that so its not a problem" and other things to try to keep moving the negotiation along.

The attorney, on the other hand, is going through a series of digressive moves into the formation of the corporation (Like we may have a need to know-- NOT!!) and the end user says: "That's not going to be used that way" and "That company isn't going to have access" and the like.  Oh, yeah, I just LOVE working with *attorneys!! (NOT!!)

So, I have a reason to know what some attorneys are like to work with but I'm not sure why Dan Seto is inserting a bunch of old (read, "bad") lawyer jokes on his website these days.  However, I am a team player so here's a whole bunch of lawyer jokes to occupy yourself with for awhile, Dan!

*Note: This does not apply to all attorneys-- not even close!  This was just very frustrating and there are times that everyone needs to acknowledge that they would cause more harm than good by joining a meeting, thought, or discussion late in the game.

**********

Okay, on that note, as you can tell, I've had a rough day on the keyboard and, am going to lay off from here a little early for a change.  Checkya later!

The Sound of Data

As I may or may not have said here or if you know me you will know that I am deaf in one ear.  Tonight, I came home from working out and Brian says to me: "Your speakers are out of balance on your computer-- I only got half of the 'Saddle up' from Data, I couldn't even hear the ''Lock 'n load!"  Oh, yeah, like I would notice!  I can't tell if something isn't working right on noise-- I also can't tell where the peculiar "bump in the night" comes from but, I make him find out!  That's all that really counts, right?  Right!

Earl-izing

We now have chicken wire covered wagon tops on the herb boxes-- Earl hasn't gotten into it (yet) but Brian has made these wonderfully perfect covered wagon tops for the rectangular boxes-- I need to figure out how to make circular "wheels" from some redwood-- we've only got saws that go in straight lines though so this part may be difficult.  Hmm, I'll have to think on that awhile.  Okay, now, we (one of us, and I won't say which one mostly cuz I don't remember) bought some poison of some sort to make Earl sick last year.  It didn't work!  Not only is the yucca plant one of Earl's favorite plants to dig in, but it (a hand-me-down from neighbors that were moving to England) has grown and sprouted all kinds of new leaves which is something it hasn't done in over 2 years!

BTW, if any of you have any tips about getting rid of squirrels, please pass them on!!  (No, Bob, I am not going to go buy a gun to shoot the squirrels with-- there are too many humming birds around that I might hit and I like them!)

Good Morning, Princeton!!

Last week, we noticed that the Princeton student that reads our pages had gotten back to reading Brian's pages but hadn't made it over to mine yet for the month of February.  Today, however, Mr. or Ms. A.S.L. has made it to catching up on their reading here, as well.  Welcome back!  You were missed!!

Other stuff . . .

I've got a feeling that this is one of those nights when I will be on and off of here updating . . . the network connection at work was slow and our DSL went down so email has been running about four days behind.  (Email at Yahoo! Companion is fairly current so if you're trying to reach me, you might try sending me email there.)

More to come . . . and here it is!

I think it was Delanae Crider that said that she feels guilty if she forgets to post something on her pages.  I feel the same if I don't think I've posted enough here for one day or night.  Interesting how that has happened, isn't it?  Any insights on why that's happened?  All thoughts are welcome!  Granted, I do like to write a bit each day to keep my "hand in it", as it were but, its not like I don't get enough of this mind-stretching stuff at work!  Hmmm . . . we'll all have to work on that one for awhile, eh?

Voodoo

Brian mentioned on Saturday's page that he was installing a new Voodoo card; he didn't mention that it was his Valentine's Day present.  I wanted to get him a Lego's Mindstorm but I could see him getting bored with that fairly quickly.  So, that left: "Let's go to Fry's so you can pick something out!"  Brian is many things but he is not stupid so we went and looked at graphics pens but they only had one of the type that he wants (Wacom) and that's not enough of a selection to make the decision on so we walked away from that and got him the Voodoo card that he'd been wanting to put in Grinch.  He said something tonight about having my Valentine's present, too-- he's going to tease me with it now for a week.  Sounds like fun, I can tell!

**********

Well, I must admit that I am getting a bit tired now . . . I've watched my "Mary & Rhoda" update for the millenium so I am about ready to get some sleep now.  Have a good evening/morning/afternoon, depending on your geographical time zone at the time you read this and I'll catch you on Tuesday evening.

Farmer Jane Report

I really enjoy doing the Farmer Jane-thang and, if you knew my history (of killing plants), you'd understand why I get so excited about doing this every spring.

First of all, "Farmer Marcia" doesn't sound right.  I've always said that my parents chose very strange names for us and there are things that just don't sound right, i.e., "Aunt Marcia".  I don't think that sounds like an "Aunt" name either.  You've heard me mention my sisters, Karen and Nancy, and that has the same feel to me for some reason-- Aunt Sue works though.  At least Mom got one of the names right.

Anyway, as the official "Farmer Jane" for this neck of the woods in Sunnyvale, California, I have to tell you that today's planting went very well.  The first thing that had to be done was to tear out the leftovers of the previous year's growth.  It wasn't a pretty picture because things just start looking messy eventually, no matter how long they've looked nice.  By the way, in the picture on the left, notice that the Aloe plant ("Al") has grown quite a bit by comparison to his previous picture that I showed you last week.  Yes, Al will be getting a new home today.

Time progressed however and, the appearance of the patio started to improve.    Al is even smiling in his new home!  (Did you notice his little friend?  That's the guard we've hired to keep Earl out of the only open space he could get into in Al's new pot.)  By the way, the bench that you see, has two wooden boxes and a bench in between; I believe I mentioned that Brian made that last year, didn't I?  And the plant table, I made most of but Brian helped me finish it up at the end because assembly wasn't going as well as I'd hoped.  The planting table which looked like it was covered in mud during the replanting process looks much better now, don't you agree?

This is the new table that Brian made for me yesterday-- its really great, isn't it?  Of course, that is California redwood and my carpenter for ya-- don't know how to turn out anything unattractive.

Now, that's not all of our garden, of course-- there's the lettuce garden: the rectangular pot on the left (if I've got this right) is the "Lettuce Sampler" package put together by Lilly Miller which consists of Black Seeded Simpsons, Bibb, Prize Head and, naturally, Grand Rapids (well, I couldn't NOT grow it, could I?); the pot on the right is the Mesclun or designer lettuce also put out by NK Lawn & Garden Co.; and the smaller pot in the back of the photo is the Buttercrunch Lettuce, also sold by NK Lawn & Garden Co.  Now, we're all set except for the tomatoes!  I have to tell ya, one of our neighbors who has lived here longer than we have asked if we were already planting our tomatoes.  (I think she wanted to mark her calendar for early summer theft!)  Brian is known for his tomato-growing capabilities here-- sometimes, I think he is notorious for it!

In addition to the lettuce, I planted some herb plants: Oregano and Thyme on the left here and Sage, Rosemary and Chives (sorry, couldn't match the song) on the right.  I realize that you can't see the boxes themselves (they were store-bought) but you'll have to trust that's how I've got them set up.  In the picture on the right, next to the left of the Oregano and Thyme, is what I called (in Michigan) an "Asparagas Fern".  When we were walking through Home Depot yesterday, Brian saw one of these "full grown" so I informed him that that was the same plant we'd just purchased elsewhere.  I just hope it does get a chance to grow that large!

Inside the house, we repotted "Spike" who has been with us for about a year and a half and, the newest member of our indoor family "Pothos", who is appropriately named.
 
 
 
 

If you'll recall, I mentioned that our friends, Pat and Nathan, brought us a pot with a crocus and tulip in it and, on Friday night, Brian took a picture (on the left).  Today, I took the picture on the right!  Oh, yes, they appear to be growing in leaps and bounds!
 
 
 

Just for good measure, we're going to add one more picture and that's the one that's of the Hyacinths that Brian doesn't remember giving me.  I've potted them today so let's see what comes up, okay?

Thousands of Times!

A few months back (or probably longer, knowing my memory), I stubbed my toe and exclaimed that I was sure that it was broken.  Brian started laughing at me which, I'm sure you know, I just appreciated totally!  So, anyway, I said I'd broken my toes thousands of times and so I would KNOW when one was broken.  Unfortunately, that particular time, the toe that I had stubbed was not broken and, I've had an unusually difficult time convincing him that I do know when my toe is broken.

What's this leading to, you ask?  Last night, I stubbed my toe again and, yes, it is broken.  It is black and blue but only the toe, not my whole foot, is swollen.  Hmm, sounds like a broken toe to me!  BUT, there's nothing you can do for a broken toe (unless its the big toe) except look at it and say, "Yep, you are a broken toe".  I've done that and, of course, Brian doesn't believe me.  I'd take a picture of the toe but, even I think that would be excessive.

Other Stuff?

Well, between potting, planting, repotting and replanting the world known as our patio and stubbing my toe, there probably are other things to report but I can't remember any of them!  Stubbing/breaking one's toe is a traumatic event, don'tcha know?  Maybe I'll be back later . . . This gives you quite a bit to read and, unlike last night when I went back to update my post without any warning, at least I'm giving you a heads-up that this site could change!

Later . . .

And it is . . .

We've had a very restful weekend and still got a lot of stuff accomplished.  Our garden has started and I've managed to re-clean my desk within a few short weeks of the last major clean, surprising Brian the most, I think.  We're fairly certain Earl is going to try to get into the herbs but, if so, it won't be the first time-- we all know it won't be the last either!  When I was uprooting all of the plants today and emptying the old dirt from the pots, I noted with interest that there was, indeed, a peanut buried in the dirt in at least one of them.  One of our neighbors gives the squirrels peanuts because she thinks its cute.  She, of course, has no outdoor plants for them to bury the nuts in so she would think it was just adorable, wouldn't she?  Too bad we can't seem to find a way to agree with her on that one, eh?

Brian was doing a run-through of the apartment last night and took a picture of a gift from one of our neighbors.  They are a Turkish couple with an adorable 2-year old boy named Ottohan.  Since it was their first Christmas, I made a table ornament for them and, as celebration of the Turkish New Year (which is when they exchange gifts), they gave us this beautiful plate, really too gorgeous for anything but looking at so, it is properly stationed on the mantle this week.  Brian tends to move it around looking for a better place to catch the glint of the etchings but for now, its here.

John Doucette and I have been exchanging emails about job search engines and the spelling of my name.  He has corrected it now-- thanks, John-- but it was very scary in Calgary for awhile today!  (I can't say anymore cuz I don't live there, 'kay? 'Kay!) ;>)

And, on that note, I think I'll call it a night . . . "Night".

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