What year is it?

I'm still messing up on the year 2000 instead of 1999 . . . I don't know that its ever taken me this long to adapt but hopefully, sometime before September or October, it would be nice.

The Day's Activities

This morning, when I awoke (to the strains of John Cleese's "That's what I call a dead parrot"-- sounds pleasant enough, right?) after about ten hours of sleep (man, did that feel good!), I made myself a scrambled eggs-n-ham thing and, while I was eating that, one of my in-laws (don't know if it was Brian's mother or father-- he never told me that part) called to invite us over for dinner tomorrow.  We are not allowed to talk about them on our websites, don'tcha know?  Even though it may seem like I'm talking about them, I'm not talking about them but, it is "her" birthday next week (she, in particular, is not to be mentioned). I announced to Brian that if we were to go there tomorrow, with the birthday next week, I was going to go shopping to locate a suitable something for her.  I succeeded at finding the perfect present and found a couple of things for myself and for Brian, too.

When I returned home, as I was trudging up the stairs with BAGS in my hands, Brian came down the stairs and out from across the way, out pops Heather!  She came over and we talked for quite awhile about how she's acclimating to the area (apparently, not every area of the country has the frenatic pace that the Bay Area has!) catching up on her plans for her new business, men (and/or friends?), etc.  Heather is 24, maybe 25, and as I said the other night, she has a brilliant future ahead of her-- starting her own business in interior design and, for those of you in the Denver, Colorado area, you are the lucky recipients of that bright talent.

Oh, and by the way, she's also a pretty blonde with blue eyes (see picture), looking for "Mr. Right" but, if he doesn't come along for awhile, she's okay with that, too.  Unlike many women I know, Heather is aware of the fact that she is complete without a man in her life, but she wants the friendship and companionship that a "real" relationship offers.  It is rare that you see someone this young who has such a logical head on her shoulders-- I know many people that are older who haven't thought life through as well as she has to plan the direction they'll be going in a week, let alone a year!

Anyway, after Heather left, Brian did a little more work on my computer and I detagged my purchases and put them away-- I've still got to bag the gift but I also have plenty of time before we leave tomorrow.  Brian and I went to a movie tonight-- we don't very often do that, as strange as that may sound.  We saw "Galaxy Quest" which turned out to be a whole lot more drama than I was expecting but overall I found it to be a highly entertaining movie.

On that note, I've got a few more things to do in addition to spending time with my husband.  If we're going to his folks tomorrow, we will be missing some of our usual weekend time so we'll have to catch up somehow.

Well, it could happen . . .

As Brian mentioned this morning in his post, we're having technical difficulties here in Sunnyvale . . . okay, so it is literally coming and going minute by minute but, I could still get lucky and post this update.  All I have to do is update it to Brian's server and, so long as you don't try to find my update until the system here stabilizes, you'll be fine.  Yes, somehow, I'll get a post up.

I just thought of the problem:  This month's DSL bill from Pac Bell was right . . . absolutely CORRECT, not a decimal out of place.  I believe that, since we had DSL installed in April of 1999, this is the first time we've had a bill that was correct.  They've tried to charge us for dial-up service in addition to DSL and, usually what happens is that we catch a bill with a problem, call them and we'll get a corrected bill the next month but for a really low amount because we've already paid the bill that was at a wrong amount.  However, last month, we finally received the last credit that was owed (for now!) and the bill was "normal" this month-- exactly as it was supposed to be.  I knew it couldn't be a that grand a "miracle" and now that the DSL service is giving us problems, I'm convinced it wasn't at all!  So much for that theory . . . I guess it couldn't happen!

Winding down . . .

Poor Brian!  This is the man who lives in "The Land of the Confused", so he does deserve some sympathy.  I wrote an email to him this afternoon suggesting that we go to a movie tonight.  He responded with an affirmative that it sounded like fun and, even though I asked him what he wanted to watch, he said he'd leave it up to me.  In the meantime, I sent him a second email that said that I didn't think fishing was a good thing tomorrow since the website reports that the lake is a little murky and trout aren't running well.  So I'm thinking that we would probably prefer to go to a movie tomorrow night-- after all, I'm actually "kinda" tired from another hard week at work.  After receiving the second email, he calmly writes back to say (essentially) "Whatever".  Sainthood, someday, will be he is!

Seriously then . . .

I'm actually kinda burned out and think I need some seriouos down-time this weekend.  That's why fishing would have been perfect but . . . if the lake is murky and shallow, it isn't going to provide much along the lines of successful fishing.  Needless to say, that is our favorite kind of fishing-- the successful kind, don'tcha know?  So, while this isn't much of a post, its all I can finnagle (is that how you spell that word?) out of my warped, wound-down mind for tonight.  More to follow, as usual, on the next day, I'm sure.

Later still after the previous end . . .

Heather and Greg, not a "couple", lived above and over one apartment from us for over a year; when we moved to this apartment, they ended up across from us, in the same building.  Confused yet?  Well, it gets better: Heather moved out at the end of August to live with her folks in Colorado.  She and I have been keeping up by email over these past few months-- she is really a sweet young woman with lots of potential and a very bright future.  Heather's replacement roommate for Greg, Tanya (they are a "couple" or were the last we knew) came over on Monday night and told us that Heather was coming to town but that her visit was a surprise for Greg-- dinner was arranged but, because of Heather's flight being a bit late tonight, we bowed out on dinner and just over a for a quick catch-up.  It was great to see Heather, even if only for a few minutes-- she'll be around the rest of the weekend and will probably stop by at some point just to chat a bit.

"A Night"

Well, what can I say?  I calls 'em as I sees 'em!!

(No, Brian, don't get excited-- I don't do windows or bathrooms or kitchens or vacuuming or dusting or . . . that was part of the deal, remember?)

Update-Sales Rep

Earlier this week I mentioned the situation with the sales rep and I wanted to update you on the circumstances of that whole fiasco.  First of all, I replied to his email in which he apologized to me, copying the same people that he had copied-- I thought it was only polite to acknowledge it because its not very often that a sales rep apologizes for anything and it is also the polite thing to do.  I've had several other conversations with the contracts person on the other side and it appears that when the agreements were first "cast in stone" (HAH!!), she thought that the stone was impervious but only because she didn't know that I happen to have, in my possession, one bottle of stone-colored white-out.  The contract is now formulated the way that it is supposed to be and, happily, on its way to New York for signature.

Update-Computer

On Tuesday, while I was out of the office, Darryl (the SysAdmin for my laptop-- yes, he works for other people and their equpment but he is THE SysAdmim for my laptop!) took and reloaded it with all new drivers and other upgrades and updates that were, apparently, long overdue by IBM's website's measurement.  So far, with one exception, its been running fine.  The exception?  Well, before I can shut off my computer I have to go through this process:

1.  Click START button, Click Log Off MBilbrey
2.  Are you sure you want to log off?  Click Yes
3.  Click START button, Click Shutdown, Click Yes

Darryl suggested that instead of item 3., above, I should do the "three-key salute" (Cntl-Alt-Del) and click on Shut Down.  When I did that, I got a RED BOX (!!!!) that said something like "Sorry, you have confused Microsoft so we are now going to shut your computer off-- permanently. Don't even think about ever starting this thing up again!!!"  Okay, maybe that wasn't the exact phrase but it sure seems like that's how I remember it!

Netscape Composer

If you recall, a long, long LONG, LONGG time ago, when I started this posting, I mentioned that I had been used to doing actual HTML programming.  At one point when I was at Sun Microsystems, I was the webmaster for the International Division's internal website so I had to learn how to do the command programming in Unix.  I was tickled to death that Netscape Composer had arrived on the scene so I didn't have to do all of that "stuff" (programming, and the like) manually anymore.  I was also used to doing the programming in a Unix environment, not Windows so I didn't know that some of the trick things that I wanted to do could be done by using a text editor (Brian just told me that last night).

The problem is that Netscape Composer is not a stable environment (which is one reason why Brian doesn't use it) and it is proving itself to be kinda nasty for me, too.  We're going to be doing some investigations to find different web page design products to see if we can find something that'll be functional and user-friendly in the interim.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated (I've already heard the "praises" for FrontPage 2000).

No, No, NOT THAT!!!

I'm sure in an effort to assist me, Jan Svenson writes:

>Granted, she has a Mac (and yes, I do forgive
>her for that but I'm not sure that Brian does)

You know, if you remind him that there is a
Linux version that can be installed on a Mac
he sure will forgive her. Hey, he may even want
one  :-)

Please: DO NOT give him any ideas!!!  I think that
three computers is already crowding our -1,000sf
apartment!!!  Now, you're going to suggest that I tell
him that there's a Linux version for a Mac???  He will
DEMAND another computer!!  ;>)

Obviously, since I've copied him on this email, I
don't fear him wanting an iMac of his very own-- the
colors alone are enough to turn his stomach!!

can you say "spraypaint"? I knew you could.

Yes I can. But you must be carefull with drives.
Spill some in your floppy or CD drive and it
becomes 'spraypain'.  (maybe that is why the iMac
has no floppy drive??)

And, unless you spray varnish your screen becomes
rather dim :-)

>From Jan:

>The newest Macs (Power Mac G4) come in a rather less
>stomach turning silver. Actually nice.  And the
>PowerBook G3 (http://www.apple.com/powerbook/) is also
>reasonably coloured, and it would fit the appartment.

>Oeps, I didn't say that.

>From Brian:

> can you say "spraypaint"? I knew you could.

Jan-- I don't think you needed to say it-- it seems
that he's already figured it out!!

Brian:  You are NOT getting ANOTHER computer!!  ;>)

Chat Crazy!

Okay, the sister in Maine has email up (apparently there was a problem) and will look into the ICQ situation for her Mac.  We will see wha the outcome is and if it will work and if she will get around to downloading it.  Apparently, Nancy has been busy trying to fight the same sludge that hit my sister, Karen, in Michigan.  Nancy, trying not to get the bug, has been going to bed at ridiculously early hours even for someone living in Maine.  Karen, on the other hand, managed to survive about a 45-minute chat tonight.  She's doing somewhat better and, I must correct something that I said in last night's post:  She did take one day off when she had a really high temperature!  (I admit that I was surprised to hear that she had-- she really enjoys teaching, and it shows!)  So, I've found out that her kids are well and everything is "right" in Michigan, including the possibility of a snowday tomorrow-- supposed to drop a bunch of snow overnight, starting after midnight.

By the way, in our chat, Karen mentions that her school (an educational facility based in the same religion that I was raised in) is having a "winter break" on Monday.  At first, I have to admit that I thought that this was another way for the church to rip off a holiday but it turns out that its just the district's way of making up not having declared any snowdays so far through the school year.  If it weren't for the fact that they haven't had any snowday, they would be taking Monday off because it was the holiday.  Somehow, this makes sense to their school board . . . I'm still looking for the plot to coincide with not having Halloween or Valentine's Day when I was a child . . . I'm sure there's a connection there somewhere!

PBS Night

Oh, well, Brian's started dinner and I'm going to go hit the TV for some news before PBS' "How To" night starts . . . have a good evening and take care!

Further Update:

There is a new set-up on my "Archive" site these days-- you'll notice it here, as well.  I'm going to start archiving on a weekly basis, partly because its easier for me but also because well, its easier for me.  The file location is the same (you can even check the link above) but instead of being by topic, its by week. Brian still indexes my site regularly so all of it is still searchable from the Home page-- that is, if he processes the index for the search command.

Chat vs. Long Distance Charges

My sister, Karen, and I have a "chat" session every week-- usually, that is.  She's had a particularly bad case of the flu that's flying around this country this winter.  But, she's a teacher and loves her work so she has a hard time staying home when she's sick to get enough rest to get better.  The only thing she has taken a rest from is our chat sessions-- so, I've set my sites on another sister on the opposite side of the country from me: Maine!  My sister, Nancy, has lived in Maine (near Augusta, in a small town called Hallowell) for nearly 25 years, or at least it seems that its been that long.  Granted, she has a Mac (and yes, I do forgive her for that but I'm not sure that Brian does) but ICQ has Mac capability so we're going to try it one of these days, really soon . . . I know its possible to have a three-way chat on ICQ but, I've still got a brother and yet another sister . . . I wonder?  Hmmm . . . maybe we'll have to check it out!  [Now that I think of it, that could be dangerous: FIVE (count them: 5!!) Dykstra's on the SAME chatline-- we'd probably break ICQ!!!]

Enough . . .

My day has been long and I'm thinking a little knitting or cross-stitch might be in order . . . Have a wonderful night and we'll see you on the 'morrow.

See that?  That's how the name came about-- it has to be!  The spelling's been shortened to protect the alphabet, I'm sure! The word "facial" is a very generic term: has anyone ever had a facial that was just a facial??  I once had a facial that included a foot massage and today's facial was a shoulder and neck massage as well.  The steam was very enveloping for someone who is claustrophobic.  I was surprised at how much steam was used and for how long.

Then I had a 1/2 hour massage which should have been scheduled as a half-day massage-- at least, that's what I told her when she said she was done:  "Oh, no, you can't be done yet-- there must be a mistake!  I'm certain that this was supposed to be booked as a half-day massage, not a half-hour!!"  Oh, well, I lost that battle, needless to say!

Now I just have to figure out a way to keep Brian from knowing that I've added this to my nail/hair/pedicure regimen . . . surely there'd be a way to sneak it in, right?  Well, I'll work on it and let you know if it comes to pass.

Correspondents

One of  the things that I find to be especially fascinating with writing these pages is that from the farmlands of Australia to Sweden to Princeton University to the farmlands of Wisconsin, pages are being read here-- to date 628 pages which is nearly all of the total for last month!  Again, thanks for stopping by and, do c'mon back, anytime!!

More later?

I've gotta run and do an errand or two-- probably take longer than expected because, it is actually raining in Northern California right NOW!  Maybe we won't be able to use the "D" word afterall!!

Blurry Vision!

I've just returned home from having my eyes dilated-- weird procedure!  My vision is blurry and, there's a "ruffling" of the monitor . . . its like a flutter that would appear if you had a fan plugged into the same surge protector as the monitor.  (Oh, come on!!  Everyone's done that ONCE!!)  I picked up Brian at the apartment and he drove me over and, I'm glad that he decided he should do that.  I probably could've seen to drive without any problems but, the headlights of the on-coming cars were blurry from a distance and they did seem a bit brighter than usual.

Anyway, the diagnosis is that I have no problems with my eyes-- this is good news since there is good reason to be concerned with Macular Degeneration running in my family.  My father's side of the family has problems and, so far we think, one of my sisters has had a bout of it, as well.  Since smoking can contribute to the acquisition of it, I had additional inspiration when it came to my quitting smoking and, of course, it does help to justify the membership at Costco when Ocuvite is less than half the cost of the grocery store price!

Contracts People

As I've said in the past, it'll be difficult because of the confidential nature of my work for me to discuss very much of it on these pages but, something that I'd like to bring up is the attitude of the general public to "Contracts People".  That simple two word phrase is generally proceed with "You (expletive deleted) Contracts People . . . " and usually continues with something that is not particularly pleasant. There are a couple of things that I'd like to explain to those of you who may have to deal with Contracts or Legal people from time to time.

First of all, not all contracts people are attorneys.  Those that are attorneys usually (note the qualification) hold themselves quite highly with regard to the fact that they are attorneys.  Those that are not attorneys (like me) are people that have had negotiating and drafting classes to craft the language in a creative fashion to provide adequate coverage for the interests of the company.  It is amazing but sometimes the sales rep forgets that s/he and I work for the same company and, as a result, our goals end up on opposite side of the playing field.

The reason that this subject has come to mind today is because my day started out with an email from one of the company's sales reps saying "You contracts people are always trying to stop a deal . . . "  My job, as is the case with most "Contracts People" is not to "stop a deal"-- my job is to protect the assets of a company.  In the case of this particular deal: The customer was controlling our paper (!) and had locked me out of it so that I was not able to make any changes to the language.  The wording of the agreement read: "If you do not accept this Agreement, then do not install the software . . . "  I asked the other contracts person to modify the wording to read:  "If you do not accept this Agreement, then do not order the product . . . " because since they were controlling the language of the agreement (even though it is our agreement), if they don't accept the agreement, they shouldn't have sent it to me in the first place!

Believe it or not, it took seven attempts at defining and re-defining and phrasing and re-phrasing that language before the sales rep understood what I was trying to say.  He never read the original email that I had sent to the customer and had not figured out that I didn't modify the agreement and lock it away from the customer but that the customer had modified the agreement and locked it against me!  Then the sales rep and I called the customer who happened to be another contracts person; she apologized profusely that the language had been allowed in the agreement and had an appointment to speak to her attorney about removing it.  That, was immediately followed by "Oh, I'm sorry, I cut you off-- what was it that you were calling about?"  After explaining that I was calling with the sales rep on the line and thanking her for clarifying that she undertood what the problem was, we both agreed that it was too bad that we were always put in such an adversarial light with the sales reps and purchasing agents.  The sales rep, with the customer on the phone, apologized to me and I asked him to put it in writing to the same people he had complained to about me; frankly, I figured he wouldn't do it or remember to do it but, he did write it and sent it to the same list of people that the first email was written.

And, oh, yes, that would be why there's a "Spa Day" tomorrow!

The Royal Monarchs!

First, some background:  Somehow when we met, each having found our own other half, also found that we both like to wander a bit on weekends.  We've started out for Napa and ended up in Mendocino as a result of these little "Adventures", as we like to call them, but all in all, we have a wondrous time.  Due to our both being sick at different intervals and the holidays, however, we were unable to do these little adventures for a couple of months. Today, we finally got to go on an adventure again!  What fun indeed!

One of the first Adventures that Brian and I drove was south on Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway), through the little towns that make up the bit between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz.  Brian went to college at UC Santa Cruz and still knows the layout of the town like the back of his hand.  On this first drive through Santa Cruz, Brian made a right on a side street.  (Sorry, I'm the one geographically impaired in the family-- you'll have to ask Brian the name of the street-- the only thing I can tell you is that it is marked with a brown "Natural Bridges State Park" sign.)  We went down the residential street which includes an elementary school and, suddenly in front of you, the ocean is on the other side of the cross street in front of you!  Another right turn and we're in Natural Bridges State Park.

That seems like a weird name, doesn't it?  Allow me to digress for a moment and I'll tell you how it got its name.  After the Mexican-American war, California became a territory of the U.S. and, as settlers moved into California, the area that is now the State Park, changed hands several times: at one time, it was occupied by a dairy farm and a South Seas movie set; the State of California acquired the property in 1933 and in 1954, visitor facilities began construction.  It seems that, in the 1800s when people first came to the Santa Cruz coastline, they found there were three connected arches carved out of sandstone cliffs which inspired the name.  Around 1900, the same waves that formed the arches, took out the farthest arch and in 1980, a storm brought downthe inner arch.  Only the middle bridge remains but it is slowly being eroded by the waves, even as you read this post.
 

Photo #1 As we drove up the road that you see in the left side of that picture, we couldn't help but notice the feral cats that were "stationed" there, as if to guard the entrance.  Brian took this picture after we had parked the car and as he walked closer, they began to leave but you still see most of them!  By the time we left the park, they were no where to be found!	Photo #2 We went down the path to the eucalyptus grove and Brian found the bunch of Monarch  butterflies overhead as we walked into the grove.  When you look at the full size photo, you'll see what looks like brown leaves on the tree but, those are in fact the butterflies clinging together for warmth.  On warmer days, the colors are  bright and more easily visible.
Photo #3 Just off the beaten path of the nature trail, Brian found these two butterflies trying to figure out how to get back up to the "clump" of butterflies that they fell from, just above them.	Photo #4 We watched them for several minutes as they flitted around the stick they were on-- perhaps it is Milkweed, the only plant Monarch caterpillar eats.
Photo #5 This Photo and Photo #6 are the same however, as you can see, there is a bit closer zoom on #6.  The coloring on these Monarchs are beautiful in person but the Olympus digital camera we have does them a service as well.	Photo #6 Again, closer on Photo #5.  At the visitor's center, there's a "patch" of milkweed.  There were some aphids on the stems of the milkweed that are the same color as the Monarch butterflies and, considering they're all eating from the same weed...
Photo #7 This photo is on Brian's "Field Report" as well but, since its the clump from which the above Monarchs fell from, I thought you'd like to see it again.	Photo #8 At one point, Brian reached out and touched the plant and both Monarchs gladly crawled onto his hand.  They are lethargic this time of year but, fascinating in their natural state.
Photo #9 Brian passed them to me and, at first I was scared because I was unsure of how fragile they were or, as it turned out, not.  Their feet like suction cups on my skin-- interesting, needless to say!  [And my nails?  Well, for those of you in the Bay Area, my friend,Linda, is the talent behind them-- Highly Recommended!]	Photo #10 This is the last photo because I think the detail on it is the best.  The Olympus caught the fluttering of the butterfly's wings!  Today there were 10,000 of the Monarch butterflies in the park-- the ranger at the gate referred to them as "Our Monarchs".  There can be as many as 150,000 in the park.  That would truly be a regal, yet simplistic beauty to behold!

The day was wonderful and the drive, scenic as ever-- I love driving the the Santa Cruz mountains near the redwood trees.  Lexington Reservoir is WAY down (almost empty!) but we don't know why.  We mentioned checking the local newspaper but, became distracted with the photos.

Ah, the joys of living in Northern California . . .

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