Archive for December 18-24, 2000Musings of My Mind
Sunday, December 24, 2000
Christmas Eve
I remember Christmas Eve as a child-- there were two kinds: one with Santa and one with church. It seems like there were a couple of times that we opened presents on Christmas morning so I have to figure that those were the times when I still believed in Santa Claus so that was why we waited (I was the youngest). I do remember a night when I was young (I don't remember how old I was). We had gone to church and, after getting home, we were going to open Christmas presents. My mom and dad had five kids to buy gifts for and, I don't know how they ever did it. I have a memory of one Christmas Eve when my parents went into their bedroom to bring out our gifts and they kept going in and out of their bedroom (which was just off the living room) bringing armfulls of gifts. They kept going in and coming out and going in and coming out and going in and coming out and I remember that I started to cry because there were sooooo many gifts!! The gifts took up more than half of the living room floor and were piled at least two feet deep!!! Oh, they had spent tooooooo much money!!! I was sure we wouldn't eat again!!!!
I have very special and wonderful memories about Christmas and Christmas Eve. This year, one of my most special memories about Christmas and Christmas Eve are the many, many special friends that I've made over the internet as a result of this journal. I had started writing the journal because my husband was writing one and it seemed like a good idea. Now, I have to admit, I'm addicted to it and feel a mixture of guilt and lonesomeness when I don't have a chance, rare as it is, to post at night.
Thank you for your friendship and sense of family that you have given Brian and me over this past year. Most of all, dear friends . . .
Saturday, December 23, 2000Uneventful Day
We slept in a bit this morning-- after I initially woke up at 5am, anyway. I went back to bed about a half hour later and we slept until 9 or so. Its hard to unwind on a three-day weekend cuz you can never tell if you can relax or not.
Showers and we were out the door to do some errand running. I had to go to the beauty supply to get my deep conditioner and Brian needed caulking stuff for the bathtub. (No, we did not get those products at the same store!!!!) Believe it or not, when the exterminator was in the other day, followed by the maintenance people, no one bothered to caulk the new fixtures that were installed. Terribly odd, eh? So, we picked up some of that, some safety strips and some fixative grout for the project I have for the broken glass that we bought a few weeks ago.
Then was the much anticipated and highly disappointing trip to Cost Plus. They had ornaments that were tacky and no Christmas linens. My guess is that we were too late to get that stuff-- it was probably sold out weeks earlier. I didn't see any candle holders or votives that I particularly liked and besides, the lines were so long that Brian had a very pleased look on his face when I told him I couldn't find anything to buy. It was either that interpretation of his expression or he was just amazed that I could manage to not find anything to buy.
We have a few "tidying" up things to do on the Cavalier before we can sell it-- we're getting the Mercedes on Monday-- like replace all of the hub caps since the tire-rotation place didn't fasten two of the four on right the last time and we lost two of the hubs almost immediately. The right mirror also need to be fixed or replaced and we found a kit to do that however, it'll have to be the one with the beady eyes that fixes that! We also picked up wiper blades for the truck-- they were due for a changing.
We went to the grocery store and loaded up for the week-- I am glad we went today. It was terribly zoo-like and I expect tomorrow will only get worse!! When we got home, Brian went out and did all of the vehicle repair things and I put away the groceries.
The web stats seem to be improving a bit since the new numbers have started to be picked up. Welcome back everyone!! Glad you could make it by this weekend. I'm going to update a few things on the Christmas page tomorrow so until then . . .
Have a nice evening!!
Friday, December 22, 2000My Day:
7:15am - Arrived at work and spread all of my Christmas and Chanukah gifts around until 7:30.
7:30am - Got my bagel and went back to my office to begin check, review, and re-draft Mr. 46-Point's last revision of the document. Spoke with the AVP regarding the open business issues; was brushed off by her onto the sales rep. Called the sales rep and asked a question on voicemail.Parenthetical interjection: I have Caller ID on my phone at work; the sales rep for this customer is in the 970 area code and the customer is in 303. The sales rep calls from 317-- oh, really? I had no idea that they moved INDIANA into the Western Region at my company!!! Oh, yeah, I forgot-- he's allowed to take time off for Christmas while my butt is supposed to be sitting in my office re-writing this document.
9:30:am - I have to call the sales rep again to get additional information from him and inform him that the customer is still mis-informed about how our support program works. His comment? "Well, you'd better explain how it works to him again." Excuse me?? I believe that would be a SALES job!! No, the customer did not get a phone call from me-- I changed the document back to the way that I had it and explained it in an email to him (only 13 points this time).
11:15am - The AVP has sent the quote to me (finally-- I should've received this weeks ago!) and told me to review the document with her before I send it back. I send her the document electronically and tell her that I'm available for a call except for the hours of 12pm and 2pm.
12:00pm - Having heard nothing from the AVP, I left to attend our department Christmas luncheon. First, we left someone (who is car-less) behind!! Then, our director gave us her gifts-- I got a set of three candles of which, only one of them really looks like a Christmas theme although they could be considered that sooooo they are staying out all year. :>) Next (and yes, in between we have obtained the one we left behind and ordered drinks and appetizers and ordered lunch) we did our "Christmas Steal". Christmas Steal is when you pile all of the gifts on the table and pass out numbers randomly. When everyone has chosen a number, whoever has the number 1 picks a gift and opens it. Whoever has number 2 then either chooses from #1's gift or one from the pile. Then, number 3 gets to pick from either of those gifts or the pile and so on and so on and so on. It really is great fun!!
The timing was perfect-- as the Christmas Steal was finished, our food arrived and it was delicious!! We left from lunch about 2pm and were back at the office by 2:20pm.
2:25pm - I had two voicemails when I arrived but neither of them was from the AVP that I had been waiting to hear from so I called her. Instead of reviewing the document, she asked me a question about one of the terms and told me to send out the document so I did. I returned the two calls that I had and then, looked around-- it was 3pm and I had nothing more to do.
3:00pm - I left work and went to the salon where my nails, pedicure and hair were scheduled. I got there really early but, again, played Mrs. Claus (I really enjoy that part) and sat around talking with my friend, Linda. BTW, she's doing well following her surgery in September and, if it weren't for the cold weather, she'd be on her Harley once again!
7:50pm - Hair, nails and pedicure done, I was finally on the road home and, upon my arrival, Brian was glad to see me.
That brings me up to date on telling you about my day.
Tomorrow I'm going to go to Cost Plus cuz I haven't been there yet-- besides, I also received candles (from Brian's bosses, Jack and Trudy and from one of the women at work) so I need a votive candle holder or two, don'tcha think? Brian says he wants to go with me but, we'll see how that goes, eh? I've got a run to the grocery store to get the fixings for the pickle and veg trays that I'll be bringing on Christmas day to my in-laws. I'm not going to go to the store on Christmas Eve-- I'm not that crazy!!! And from there? Well, we'll have to see what else the day brings, eh?
Brian's got most everything back to normal on our new DSL-- his face just shines with happiness!! He's got the webalizer working and email and the only problem is, as he pointed out, my stats for Thursday were low-- well, they would be considering the site wasn't up most of the day!!
Have a nice evening!!
Thursday, December 21, 2000Its Late . . .
Brian has been re-configuring the network to go with the new DSL connections. At this point, we're not even sure that I can publish this update to his server, let alone when you'll be able to see it.
I don't understand all of this, of course-- the worst part is that I stupidly ask "Why?" and when he tells me, I am even more confused than when I asked in the first place. I used to be computer literate but, compared to him, I don't know nuttin'!!
Anyway, its very nearly my bedtime and I am done in-- it has been a day of conference calls and drafting documents. I love it, yes, I am a glutton for punishment but I am tired.
Our department is having a Christmas luncheon tomorrow including exchange of gifts and I'm bringing in the ornaments for all. I am sure we'll have a nice lunch and hopefully, we'll get things that are open, closed up in very short order.
Sorry so short but, as I said, I'm tired . . .
Have a nice evening (or whenever it is that this is seen).
Wednesday, December 20, 2000CORRECTION:
Brian did NOT know who his exchange-name-from-work was until last Wednesday (or so, give or take a day). He told me as soon as he knew but, as you all know, we had no time to go shopping over the weekend. Tonight was the first chance we had to go shopping.
Okay, Honey???
Errant Customer
The customer of my recent discussions today had three different phone calls with us. In the second phone call, we (the country manager and myself) both caught her in a lie-- not a good thing. Do anything you want to me in a negotiation but when I catch you in a lie, you're no longer fair game-- you're my target! I don't like lying but I think I've mentioned that before in these pages. Then, I got a call back from the "end user" (whom she has finally talked with) who wanted to make sure that I understood the situation and what they are trying to do. Basically, when we were on the call (the second one of the day), he had "stepped in it" by saying that they were using the licenses sold to a subsidiary of the main company under the shrinkwrap (read: no transferability and no assignment and no using them for any other company than the one that purchased the licenses). Obviously, this is not good.
Two hours after the second call, he called me directly-- no sales rep, no country manager, no purchasing agent-- just him. I was on the phone with him for 15 minutes while he explained what their intent was and, finally, I said: "So what's the bottom line?" He responded with: "Well, I wanted to make sure that you understood." To which, I very calmly responded "Oh. Don't worry-- I completely understand the situation." I made that last statement in a very dry voice-- they know that we know that they MAY be using the software in ways that they are not allowed to and, at this point, he's just trying to save his deal. It probably won't save it but, oh, well!!
Seti Input
Jan Swijsen had a wonderful insight to my dillema of last night about not finding Brian's home planet very quickly:
Subject: brian
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000
From: Jan Swijsen <qjsw@oce.nl>
To: <marcia@dutchgirl.net>> How am I going to find Brian's home planet at
> this rate?? It'll take bloody forever!!!Which is just fine. That way he cannot walk-out on you saying he's going back 'home' <g>
Excellent point, eh?
Does anyone have any programs that they know slows down a processor? Please let me know!! Afterall, the longer it takes to find it, the longer he'll be with me!! ;>) (Yes, this is a joke, okay?)
**********
I'm going to call it a night-- I've gotta tear my desk apart so that Brian can move it out when the Covad/Speakeasy DSL guy is here tomorrow. I swear: we probably don't need Christmas here anymore. He's soooo happy about getting rid of PacBell, he's all happy and smiling and busily/happily working on the new network configuration, etc. He doesn't need any new toys, that's for sure!!
I'm off to dishes and PBS tonight-- hopefully they're done with pledging for awhile again.
Tuesday, December 19, 2000Contract Updates
A couple of newsy updates in the fire today: The government agency has (1) only one order which has been sent to us for processing before the end of the year; (2) the only other order they have was turned in today and, since it has to go through a minimum of a 15-day offer process, it won't be hitting our offices until after the first of the year; and (3) the new agreement will be in my hands by COB of the Fiscal Year!!! YEAH!!!!
As stated on my resume, I was trained to be a contract negotiator by Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems' way of "negotiating" an agreement is by saying: "Oh, you don't like that language in the agreement? Oh, that's too bad-- do you see that hardware? You won't be getting it until you sign this agreement, as we have written it, so do you want to tell me again about how you don't like our agreement now?" I went from that to a company that wasn't doing enough business to worry about negotiating terms and conditions. The present company I work for has only one concern: "Get it off the street!" which, as you can iamgine basically means to take the deal in at whatever costs so our competition doesn't get it. That was a year ago when I started working there. Since that time, we've been told that we have a 55%+ share of the market and a 65%+ share of the market and rumor now has it that we have a 75%+ share of the market. We've turned into the 800 lb. gorilla!! So, where does an 800 lb. gorilla sit? Anywhere he wants to sit!!!
The reason that I relayed the above to is that for the first time in the year that I've been there, we are about to walk from a deal!!! Remember the purchaser that I told you about the call I had yesterday: she's asking for transferability at no cost and wanted all of the maintenance for all of the product that they have ever bought to be brought in under one agreement (at a lesser cost than it is currently being charged because of a negotiated increase that has been stopped at 5%) and hasn't even talked with her end user?? According to the sales rep, we're going to walk on this deal!!! The dollars had been counted in the end-of-year numbers but, today, the sales office had a deal worth twice the dollar amount fall into their lap!! Tomorrow, the "customer" gets the phone call-- I hope her end user wasn't counting on the product!! (He probably was but, since she's screwed this up so bad, it won't make a difference cuz the price, if the deal raises its' ugly head again, will be a lot higher!!!!) I would love to be on the phone call-- she'll be surprised, I'm betting. If I hear how it goes or if it doesn't go down, I'll let you know tomorrow.
Seti
I have finally produced 50 work units on my Setiathome connection!!! Didja ever think it would happen?? I've only probably got another hundred-billion to go before we can find Brian's home and, that's going to be centuries at the rate that this system is going!!! I'm not complaining mind you-- no, honey, I do not need another computer!! I'm just saying that it is very slow at performing the tests. How am I going to find Brian's home planet at this rate?? It'll take bloody forever!!!
**********
On that note, I have no idea what's on the agenda for this evening-- I was in a lousy mood at work today so I'm thinking I shouldn't do anything but figure out what caused that to begin with so I can avoid it for tomorrow. Tomorrow night, Brian and I have to go shopping for the name that he drew at work-- its a woman's name and he doesn't know what to get her so that's why we have to go shopping. I haven't asked when he drew the name-- I don't want to know that it was the day before Thanksgiving and he waited this long to do anything about it!!!!
Have a nice evening!!
Monday, December 18, 2000Bunches!!!!
Wow, there's so much to talk about tonight!! Now if I can just remember it!!
First of all, I've updated the Christmas Page with photos from last night's Tree Trimming Party-- Enjoy!! We had a lot of fun at Pat & Nathan's last night. We hadn't seen them again for a number of months-- Pat is at a start-up and is usually up to her ears (and then some!) with work as is Nathan, who is self-employed. Then, with Brian's book schedule and my being sick or sore all the time, we just couldn't get it together to do anything. This past week has been unusually busy for us, as well as Pat & Nathan but finally, she said: "Enough!" and that's when they went and bought their tree and decided to have a Tree Trimming Party.
As noted on my Christmas Page, Rob, Pat's son, was there with his wife and their three kids: Teddy 8, Frankie 6, and Carley 4. The kids are really cute although Teddy is definitely starting to mature.
Our brunch with Brian's folks, brother and niece, and Grammy went well yesterday-- a lot of fun was had by all. Danielle our niece, is so cute-- she's grown 6 inches since we last saw her, I swear!! The two of them were pretty vocal about us coming down for a visit to their house sometime so Brian and I are checking it out. Who knows? Maybe sometime in March??
On the work front, I didn't hear from the governmental agency today-- I was supposed to so I put a call in to them. I had a negotiation this morning with a purchasing agent who hasn't even talked with her end user and, admits to having no understanding of our software. In the meantime, she is making demands about transferability, etc., which you know, are going over really well with me-- NOT!!!
I am in process of drafting an agreement but, we're reserving giving her all of the input because if she doesn't understand the software and how it is used and licensed, it isn't going to do any good to draft a document for her to review-- she'll veto anything we put in front of her.
Mr. 46-Points got his document back today-- we can't give them everything they want but, again, they are being unreasonable and we're giving them what we can in all areas. We'll have to see how this one goes . . .
Then, let's see . . . I stopped on my way home from work to do the grocery shopping. Normally, as has been mentioned here before, we do that on Sunday but, because of our activities of yesterday, we didn't get to do that so I stopped on my way home from work. When I got home, Brian had stripped the bed and started laundry. I "made a deal" which, if it weren't for the fact that I am the one who thought of it, I'd say I was tricked-- badly!! My deal was that if he finished the laundry, I'd remake the bed, put away the clothes (he helped a bit with that part), make dinner and make my casserole for the potluck at work tomorrow. He agreed-- he's not a stupid man-- and, even though its after 8:30, I am waiting on the casserole to finish baking so it will hopefully cool off enough to put in the fridge overnight. Somewhere in between all of that activity, I wrote the checks for a couple of bills along with downloading the latest update from the bank and formatted the photos and updated the Christmas Page and archived last week's posts. Oh, yes, I'm tired, by the way-- not a very good deal that I struck for myself but it is my own fault.
On that note, I'm going to veg-- if I can keep my eyes open long enough!!
Have a nice evening!!
Archive
