Archive for June 26-July 2, 2000Musings of My Mind
Sunday, July 2, 2000
They are real!!
Who? That Daynotes Gang group-- or at least one of the guys and his family is! We spent yesterday and last night at Cayucos, California, with Dan Bowman and his lovely wife, Shelley, and two wonderful boys, Daniel and Bradley. It was so great to meet someone from this "Gang" of people we've been corresponding with for all of these months!!
We had a wonderful time and have pictures of the fort building that goes on at the beach! Thanks again, Dan & Shelley-- and the boys!!
(Of course, there will be a full trip report tomorrow on my Meanderings page.)
Tonight?
I'm all tuckered out-- all that fresh ocean air I must presume. It'll probably be a short evening for us tonight with phone calls to make and emails and web sites to read. Have a good night and I'll catch you tomorrow!
Saturday, July 1, 2000A Short Posting . . .
. . . this morning. First, not much has developed since 9:15pm last night when I posted and this morning and second, because we are preparing to take a short jaunt today. Yes, Brian and Marcia are having another 'venture!
Another Month, Another Dollar
"Hey, YOU got a raise!" I always like saying that when someone says the phrase above or a variation of it to me. I really enjoy writing in these lines-- it calms me when I get over-wrought about work or the world at large. That's why its nice to tell you "Thanks for coming by" and "Glad to have you back for another month"!!
Trip report to follow . . . as always.
Have a great weekend!
Friday, June 30, 2000Quarter Ended
The quarter has ended . . . June is done . . . actually, half of the year is GONE!!! ARGH!!!! Yowza!! Where has that time gone?
Of course, I got in this morning with a major deal waiting for me on my desk-- it had to be put off until next quarter, however, because the customer wanted to make major changes to the agreement. I was willing but, with a three-hour time difference, it wasn't going to happen. I met the new President of Sales for the company-- seems like a nice guy . . . the COO dragged me over when I brought in a deal for signature that they'd been waiting on for two hours. I'd only had the agreement a half-hour before I brought it over so it wasn't my fault that it had been delayed!
The sales rep who sold the deal however, was feeling incredibly grateful apparently-- she had a very good quarter and holds me entirely responsible for bringing her deal in because I was persistent. To show her gratitude, she sent me a bouquet of flowers! I'd heard that sales reps do this every now and then but this is the first one that I've received.
After the last "i" was crossed and "t" was dotted, we went to the back corner of our department and popped a bottle (or two) of champagne-- the good stuff, Mumm's. We congregated and answered questions for those looking to see if we'd finished this agreement or that agreement and, at the ready with the quippy answer because we already had it done when they didn't think we did. It was a funny little gathering for a couple of hours-- fun was definitely had by all.
Newleyweds
Brian and I, I believe, have been together for a very long time. We'll always be newleyweds because of the feelings that we've been together before, in another life. Of course, the skeptics (yes, you Bob) will scoff and say we're being silly but, for the past two years plus, Brian has given me more than forty bouquets of flowers. How do I know? Because he always has the florist tie a ribbon around the bouquet and the ribbon always goes on one of the poles on our brass bed. Tonight, there are two bouquets in the apartment-- one special because Brian gave it to me earlier in the week as a surprise "just because" bouquet and one because I do my job right.
Both make me happy and proud for very different reasons.
First Fruit!
Tonight, Brian picked and sliced the first ripe tomato from his plants-- talk about delicious!! We are talking some serious kind of good flavor in this tomato!! It tastes so much better than even the vine ripened tomatoes at the grocery store!!
End-o-Month Stats
Well my monthly stats are down just a slight bit from last month-- I can attribute that to one factor: My sister Karen. Karen, as you will recall, is the school teacher. As such, her school year ends at the beginning of the month of June, somewhere around the 12th of June if I recall. For the rest of that week and the next, she was helping her husband remodel their family room. She also attended a class for two days (could've been a couple of days longer) and now, she is preparing to go camping for a week. She has not had time to read my page all month!! I was surprised and shocked at this fact-- I feel deserted and uncared for (sniffle, sniffle). Okay, I'm joking but, its a short month with only a few search engines coming by to bolster the stats from time to time.
The Netwidows Recipe Page, however, had phenominal stats for being a secondary website: 643 page reads and it was only up for 2/3 of the month-- I think we've got a hit ladies! Let's keep those recipes coming!
The Spoelhof's website has been getting more page reads as they get closer to their departure time. Part of their team has already left to go to Brazil so people are interested in what's happening. At the present time, Sue and Bill are trying to decide on a format to use for a weekly update so that the people who follow them will know what they are doing and how the progress of the team is going once they get down to Brazil.
Thursday, June 29, 2000One More Day
Whew!! It is getting really wild at the office!! I'm finished with all but one of the revenue documents that I had due this week. The two big ones that dropped on my desk on Tuesday have been pulled back and dealt with in other fashions. The fun bit is getting the non-revenue agreements where we're dealing with people for marketing and sales events and have deadlines of the 30th of the month, too. If we don't sign "X" agreement, we'll lose a good block of rooms for the 2002 sales conference!! Yowza!! SOOOOoooooo much planning!!
Surprise!!
I think I've mentioned that I recently started a conversation with my cousin, Barb, after nearly 15 years of not having any means of communication. We weren't that close but, she's a good person and, in February when our uncle died, she ran into my sister at the funeral home. The two of them exchanged all of our email addresses and Barb and I have been writing ever since! Its been fun catching up on old times and new with her-- she always was a lot of fun!
Tonight, I surprised her with a phone call--
Barb: "Hello?"
Me: "Hi."
Barb: "Hi?"
Me: "You sure don't remember people's voices when you don't hear from them in 15 years, do you?"
Barb: "AAAaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!"For the next two minute she screamed her excitement about us actually talking!! We had a fun conversation talking a bit about the old times but mostly on the current stuff in our lives. We're trying to figure out when we can get together while we're in Michigan-- I'm sure something will work itself out! It was just fun hearing her scream for so long! ;>)
Dogs, Dogs, DOGS!!!
Usually, I have to enjoy dogs long distance-- Barbara Thompson's three boys ("The Boys") are a constant joy for me but I don't have them to pet! I've enjoyed a big-brown-eyed view of Bob Walder's Benson, as well. BUT to pet a dog, what a joy that would be!!
Well, today, due to a veterinary appointment, one of the guys at my office brought his dog in-- a Rottweiler named "Misty". Misty is one of the friendliest and sweetest dispositioned Rotts I've ever met-- she was adorable and loved it whenever I went over to pet her (yes, I did it often!). I could feel my blood pressure dropping as we (Misty and I) talked and tussled each other!
They should figure out a way to bring dogs into our office all the time at the end of the quarter-- we'd go home a lot healthier at night, that's for sure!!
Wednesday, June 28, 2000Getting Bolder!
Today, on my cycling tour, I came upon an area where it is a clearly marked "bike lane" with parking allowed in the lane during certain hours. Unfortunately for the woman who chose to park her car at that precise moment, she chose the wrong hours. As I rode past her, I read the sign out loud: "No Parking 7am and 6pm Bike Lane" loudly followed by "Hmmm . . ." as if to say, "Excuse me person who can't read while I read the sign for you." I don't know if she realized she was parked directly under that sign until I read it to her. It was 4:55pm as I rode past her. Maybe she'll think about it next time but, probably not.
Short Post
Sorry that this is short-- I've written my correspondence for the night, I've chatted with my sister and I've run defragmentation and ScanDisk on my laptop from work.
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By the way, I didn't mention: I had another Blue Screen of Death today!! Well, the System Administration decided to call it "Blue Screen of Nap" even though it took him three tries before it came back to something that resembled my desktop.As I said, I believe, last week: this is how you can tell it is the end of the quarter. If my computer didn't die, I wouldn't know what time of the year it is so I guess I'm lucky in that respect.
**********So, I'm going to sign off for the night . . . I'm going to bed early again tonight, after I watch a half hour of Julia Child and Jacques Peppin.
Tuesday, June 27, 2000A Curse!
That's right!! I can blame this afternoon totally and completely on Shelley Bowman!! In a closing remark to me on email, she said "Have a busy day" and BOY did I!!!!
I had $700K in agreements land on my desk at about 10:30 this morning and, from that time until about 4:30, I didn't get a chance to lift my head!! Yeesh!! I almost didn't have time to stop for lunch had it not been for the virus that got onto the servers at my company!
Yes, that's right-- the entire corporate location was struck by a virus and that, as you may have guessed, tends to put my department completely out of business. Sending a document to a customer that has a virus on it is like sending a bomb-- only in this case, it could be a real one! The director of our department put a stop to all production long enough for the President & COO of the company to go to the MIS Department and demand that our department be moved up on the list of priorities. Its kinda hard to have quarter end document production and get agreements signed and get dollars in the door if you canNOT send out documents to customers that don't have viruses on them!! All of our servers and hard drives were scrubbed clean (my system alone has over 30,000 files on it) of virii (again) within an hour so, that's why I got a lunch break!
I'm exhausted!!
For some reason, unbeknownst to anyone outside of our apartment, I am exhausted-- I only cycled five miles tonight as a result and, I plan to go to bed VERY early!! Because its hot, Brian has decided that we shouldn't have real food unless its very late which, as you recall, doesn't work well with my diet. Therefore, he'll be having dinner later and I'll be having dinner soon-- probably going with snacks for tonight.
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Another way you can tell that I'm tired is that I forget things. There was something else I wanted to write in my post just now but I have completely forgotten it . . . just slipped through my little gray cells . . . oh, well.
Have a good evening . . . maybe I'll be in better shape tomorrow night!
Monday, June 26, 2000SO?
I've been at work for nearly an hour as I write this-- I haven't heard a peep out of anyone from my region and its almost noon there. That means I can go home, right? Come ON!!! I want to be at home where I can ride my new bike!! You would think that if they leave me alone for an hour on a Monday morning that I could go home. I think that would be appropriate-- don't use it and you lose it, right? Works for me-- what do you think? Nah, I really didn't think so. Too bad. I need it!!
Okay so four days until a long weekend-- I can make it . . . I think. We're going to the ocean this weekend so I'll be a happy camper anyway.
Update!!
I'm up to 8.2!! Pounds lost, that is!! Yippee!!!! I'm happy that I'm continuing to go in the "downward" direction, needless to say!! Its not coming off fast but it is coming off and that's most of what counts these days for me!
I rode my new bicycle to the meeting tonight-- I do enjoy it! It goes really fast-- a little tooooooo fast around some corners though! At one point, I swear my bike tire was coming over my head!! Whoops! Need to take turns a little slower!
Accessories
As you may have guessed, I had to make a stop at SportMart and Orchard Supply (twice!) tonight to get accessories. I'm trying to make the mirror on my helmet work but, I'm a little concerned since I'm far-sighted and can't seem to position the silly thing correctly. Its either that I can't position it correctly or my eyes can't see it, one or the other! I may have to bring it back if I can't get it to work soon-ish. Its making me crazy!!
I got a water-bottle holder that puts the water bottle in front of me, easily within reach so its a keeper, for sure! I also got a U-Lock but I have to use that and the coil-lock since the front tire can come off by flipping a switch! Let's see . . . I also picked up a new speedometer since the old ne will go with the old bike if I can sell it or some how otherwise dispose of it.
It took the better part of an hour to find all the stuff the I wanted-- SportMart had a bunch of U-Locks but no keys!! Talk about an inventory problem!! I asked and they didn't have the keys anywhere else but, apparently someone went around and ripped almost all of the keys off the locks that they had on display. Security may be a problem for people who have bought locks from there-- if they actually did buy their locks there before the keys were ripped off. I ended up getting a totally different brand at Orchard so I don't have to worry about stolen keys matching my lock.
No Lawsuits Today
In an effort to keep from getting sued, I'm not going to mention the name of the insurance company but just say that we have had our problems getting this private life insurance policy started!!
I have tried to be patient-- I really have! We have been trying to get life insurance for the two of us since December of 1999. You've heard us mention the problems: the first quote they gave us had Brian as a 23 year old-- he loved it but it wasn't terribly accurate, needless to say. The second quote was for "whole life" as opposed to "term life". The third quote was for people who have never smoked! By the time the fourth quote came around, we were questioning our intelligence for going with this firm but they got the information right so we went with it.
We took our physicals and got the policies issued; it looked like the policy for Brian was wrong because he was a "select non-smoker" where I had been classified as a "non-smoker" but that has more to do with the age you are when you quit smoking. And yes, okay, my family history also played a role in the whole thing, too.
Last week, we finally got everything straightened out and sent off the last bits of signed info and the checks to start the policy. Guess what? I got a call today: The papers have been received as executed, thanks very much but, where are the checks??????????
EXCUSE ME????????????? The checks are in the envelope, that's where the checks are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm about to stroke out from this company!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have an email and voicemail into the president of the company to see if they plan to reimburse us for the $40.00 that our bank is charging for two checks having a stop-payment issued on them. I've also asked if there is any reassurance that this will be the last problem that we're going to have with this insurance company and policy-- I'm a little concerned about the accuracy of everything that's been sent in to the main underwriter, needless to say. Yes, it makes me wonder about the payment of the benefit, God forbid we'd need it, too! What happens if they have it wrong???
Oh, ARGH!!!!
Please tell me that this will go away . . . will it at least get better?
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Okay, on that note . . . I've gotta get moving. Things to do and bills to pay, oh, boy! Have a good night!
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