Archive for November 6-12, 2000Musings of My Mind
Sunday, November 12, 2000
Very Short Shrift
Enough to let you know I'm alive-- we've been busy today: Costco run and Fry's and Grammy's and the grocery store. Well, those last two were by myself but, nonetheless I've been busy as well.
More tomorrow, I'm sure.
Have a good evening!
Saturday, November 11, 2000Veterans Day
With respect and honor, I salute the Veterans today. My father was a vet; my brother is a vet.
Only My Hairdresser Knows For Sure
And I admit it. After my perm last week, my hair color had gone kinda brassy so today, we went back to my "natural" color. She also trimmed my hair so now I've got an actual style to my hair. I've had gray hair since I was in my twenties so I admit-- I cover it up cuz it does make me look considerably older.
Activities
Other than that, I did some shopping and cleaned up the packages in the livingroom. Some of the gift boxes were making a real mess and, since I've got to start thinking about the Christmas tree and how I want to re-arrange the livingroom, I thought I should clean things up a bit.
I was going to start looking at houses so I would get over the excitement of looking at houses but, there's plenty of time for that. I'm not going to worry about it for a long time yet-- unfortunately, a few months can seem like an eternity to me these days.
I'm not going to go fishing by myself tomorrow cuz it'll only be a few more weeks until Brian can go with me. Next weekend, he wants to sleep in and, I believe the weekend after that is a four-day weekend so we'll have plenty of time to go fishing then.
Speaking of which, he and Tom are cranking out pages and pages and volumes and volumes this weekend-- Brian just tried to make a comment about the noise that my nails and speed make on the keyboard but, after writing this book, I'd wager that he types as fast as I do!!
On that note, I'll call it a night.
Have a good evening!
Friday, November 10, 2000Unaware Clairvoyant
You'd think I would know if I was clairvoyant or not, wouldn't ya? Well, apparently I'm clairvoyant and don't know it-- at least, that's what this vendor/customer thinks anyway. First, they sent back to me the same documents that I sent to them three weeks ago and declared them "reviewed". Of course the fact that nothing was changed, including notes where I'd indicated to them that if they wanted to insert something into the paragraph, we would prefer it to be a full sentence as opposed to the unfinished sentences they had inserted in several areas of the two documents in question, was also only apparent to me. I wrote an email to my "contact" and asked where the documents were that their legal department had reviewed since he had sent me my own documents. He apologized profusely and said he would have them review the documents overnight and send them to me this morning.
Well, indeed, this morning the new documents arrived. Changes were made to my changes with no explanation, new changes were inserted in language that they had previously inserted into the documents, new deletions were made in language that they had previously inserted into the documents-- you get the picture. Most interesting of all, however, was the fact that each and every question I had asked (carefully iserted in a "Comment" box in Word so beside the footnote number on it, it was highlighted in yellow!!) had been completely ignored. Really helpful, huh? If they changed any of my insertions, which they did quite a bit of, they didn't tell me why they changed or deleted or altered the language. Yes, I'm quite frustrated.
At least, however, Miss "One More Change" didn't embarrass herself today by asking for yet another change. As of 3pm yesterday, she told the sales rep she was getting the documents signed today and we could expect them on Monday. Man, I sure hope so!!
Other than the usual rush of miscellaneous documents, nothing major happened today. They offered free pizza for lunch, including low-fat cheese/veggie pizzas, but I turned them down. I was feeling particularly smug with my pork chop and broccoli but I didn't feel "left out" by not getting the pizza, which is probably the most important thing.
"No Parking" Sign
I thought I had mentioned this before but, scanning through my archives, I see that I haven't ever mentioned it.
In our tiny little bit of the world (7 apartment buildings with approximately 25 apartments each), the parking lot and garage areas are at a premium and a major bone of contention on a daily basis. Add to that the fact that we live in the rental office building and, you have the idiots who can't read signs that say "Parking for the Rental Office is at the Other End of the Building" and, they don't care so they park wherever they want to park, usually taking up a paying tenant's space. If I had a nickel for every time I've hauled someone's butt out of the rental office to move their car, I know I'd have had coffee for Brian and I at Starbuck's by now!! But, I digress . . .
About a month ago, the complex put a sign up on the garage stalls where two of the employees who live here park their cars. I asked when I was going to get my sign since I'd been asking for one for three years and, got no response. Until a few weeks ago and suddenly, a "No Parking Anytime" sign appeared on our garage door!! I was soooo pleased!!
Five days later, it was gone!!!
I was soooo devastated!! I asked the office what happened and, it appears, that if the apartment complex owners come around, they get ticked when they see those signs on garages. Apparently, tenants are allowed to pay for parking but not actually receive it! (No, I'm not pleased about that but there isn't anything we can do!)
When I got home tonight, I had to chase a cab out of my parking space; he was waiting on someone inside of the rental office-- no big surprise there! I went to the rental office (I didn't need to say anything to him since the cabbie had moved his car to allow me to park in my own space) and asked when I was going to get my sign back. The two YOUNG people in the office hemmed and hawed (these kids are only paid about $10/hour-- what do you expect?) and finally said that they would ask the maintenance guys to put my sign up. Ryan, one of them, and I talked about the possibility of us putting the sign up on Saturdays and taking it down on Monday mornings-- the worst time for the no-brainer-non-readers is the weekends so I'd be willing to do that and, that is the solution they have decided to use. A few minutes later, Brian answered the door and found Ryan standing there with our No Parking sign in his hands. Cool, I can handle it. As long as I can get to my parking space...for a few more months... <sigh>
A Fun Note
Tonight in the mail, we received a notification that the bank was going to adjust our deposit because Brian had, according to their records, keyed it in incorrectly. We checked the transaction receipt, Quicken, our online records, everything and there wasn't an error. I called the bank and got a very rude person on the phone-- I'm calling to tell them that they've made an error but, she wouldn't let me finish any sentences. I finally got frustrated and asked to speak with a supervisor because, even when I asked her to let me finish my sentence, she got snippy.
Instead of her supervisor, I spoke with a friendly young lady who let me explain the situation; she looked at the records and said, "Yep, it looks like we did over-correct your deposit. Let's run research on it and get it fixed." She also tried to resolve the snippy girl problem but couldn't remember her name, nor could I remember her name so, that was pretty useless. The important bit is that they have over-corrected our account and I've already backed it out of Quicken-- I don't need to "think" that there's more money there than there really is as that would not be a good thing!!
I know-- maybe I should'nt've said anything, after all, it was the bank's error but, I have to sleep with myself at night. It was a joint decision, I showed Brian where they had, indeed, credited us for both the correct deposit and the erroneous correction. We agreed, the call had to be made to bring it to their attention. Probably, even if it is investigated and they think there hasn't been an error made, we still won't spend the money. Its a "Murphy's Law" thang: you spend the money and they'll want it back-- at Christmas time or Tax time or ANY time you don't have the bucks to give it to them!!
Post-Election Elation
One thing I forgot to mention about the election from Tuesday: Tom Campbell, former Congressman from California, is now completely unemployed and I am very happy. You see, two years ago, I called his office and, as a constituent said, stop all of this non-sense about Clinton-- move on!! Don't waste my taxpaying dollar on impeaching him over having an affair (let Hillary take care of that!!)!!! Get on with the business that you need to do!!! Etc. Etc. Etc. Did he listen to me or any of his other like-minded constituents?? Nooooo!!! I swore then that as soon as I could, I would do everything possible to make sure that he was not re-elected.
He ran for the Senate this time against incumbant, Dianne Feinstein. Now, besides the fact that I like Dianne Feinstein to begin with and would've voted for her no matter who was running against her, I got the extra pleasure of seeing Campbell lose and, now . . . well, let me just show you the email exchange:
Subject: Yippee!!!
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 11:55:34 -0800
From: marciald@pacbell.net
To: Tom CampbellThat was it-- that was all there was to my message. Tonight, I received this email from him:
Subject: Re: Yippee!!!
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 20:11:53 -0800
From: Tom Campbell
To: marciald@pacbell.netDear Marcia Bilbrey, Thank you for your note. I do not know precisely what you are celebrating (it could be a number of things). But in any event, I am glad that you are please. Best wishes to you. Kindly, Tom
To which I replied:
Subject: Re: Yippee!!!
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 20:20:20 -0800
From: marcia@dutchgirl.net
To: Tom CampbellTom,
Thanks for your note back-- I'm a bit surprised at it, to be sure.
What am I pleased about? Well, two years ago, as a constituent, I called your office and requested that you do not go along with the Republicans trying to drum President Clinton out of the White House. At that time, your office said that they would make a note of it. Well, if they did, they neglected to pass my note, along with many others on to you. You voted to have Clinton impeached and I vowed that I would never vote for you again.
After this week's election, I am very pleased since you did not get a Senate seat and, yes, I voted for Dianne Feinstein. I'm hoping that you lost your seat in Congress as a result of running for the Senate; at least I can hope.
Have a nice retirement from public office.
Regards,
MarciaAhh, life is good, isn't it?
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And on that note, I'm going to sign off for the night. Very little scheduled for tomorrow so I may or may not post again until there's something interesting to talk about . . . like fishing. I'm thinking of going fishing . . . I just have to decide if I want to get up that early. Hmmmm . . .
Have a nice evening!
Thursday, November 9, 2000A Woeful Client
On Tuesday, a customer's "Business Analyst" wrote me an email with questions regarding our "shrinkwrap" license and changes that she needed for both that document (yes, I know-- we shouldn't be negotiating a "shrinkwrap" but, we do!) and the maintenance agreement. I answered her questions, agreed to a couple of minor changes that she wanted and returned the email to her. There were a couple of questions of a technical nature that I couldn't answer cuz I'm not a geek so I referred those back to the sales rep. He answered those questions, we had a conference call with the customer and I sent a revised document back to her (Document #1).
Then I got an email from her on Tuesday afternoon, "Oh, I just saw this...". She needed a change to the license location of the software which I got approved by tracking down the AVP and sent her off a new document (Docuemnt #2). Later in the afternoon, I received another email saying something on the order of . . . "You know, the more I think about this..." and, yes, Revision #3 went out to her yesterday afternoon. She swore she wanted to get the document done yesterday and that would be the last change . . . until this morning when I received an email (that was copied to the sales rep) that she wanted a definition of upgrades and updates. Sorry, we don't do that-- a lot of companies consider it an upgrade when the change is to the left of the decimal and an update when it is to the right of the decimal. In both the license and maintenance, we make no distinction between the two nor is the word "upgrade" actually mentioned in the document. I can't define what we don't use for terminology. The sales rep stepped in and helped me figure out a way to make her happy . . . so I tried to send that off and we were up to Revision #4 and hopefully, finished.
Not so. I received one more email that said she didn't like the way that we had defined LAN and WAN because it didn't allow for the software to be used in a "campus" setting because it used "office" and "building". Fine, I added the word "campus" to the line-up and, since she's not allowed to move the software out of the city that they sit in, using the phrase "office, building or campus" should cover her on LAN definition. I labeled it what it was-- Document #5 and sent it back to her. The sales rep and I are having a good laugh about it because it feels/seems like this woman has never negotiated an agreement before-- she swears she's been with the company for five years. That may be the case but, if so, she just started reviewing documents three days ago!!
We'll see if the saga continues tomorrow. Its been fun laughing with the sales rep-- his wife just had a baby last week and he hasn't been getting any sleep. Then, on top of being sleep deprived, he has to deal with this person who can't decide how the document should be written. It has been a fun three days-- especially for him!!
There was one other client that I had a debate with about the validity of the changes that I needed for a non-disclosure agreement. They said that if they have to go to their legal department for review of the changes, it could take a week. I sympathized with them but said that it was my job to turn these particular documents around in an hour or less (which I did when I received their agreement-- the sales rep concurred with that when we were on the call) and I couldn't understand why their legal department would be or should be any less devoted to making sure that they establish new relationships via this document. Needless to say, the close of the conversation was the business person saying that he would get to their legal department and to get them to process it more quickly than they usually do.
Maybe I should apply for a job there?
**********
Other than that, nothing much has been happening. I spent the vast majority of the day either in meetings or on the phone with the above clients or re-drafting agreements.
No plans in particular for the evening except that "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" is on and, of course, I'm making dinner. Instead of Rosemary Chicken, we're having Rosemary Pork Chops-- it smells wonderful!
Have a nice evening!
Wednesday, November 8, 2000Land of Confusion
There we go . . . living up to our reputation again! I think that about covers that topic.
Long Story?
A couple of weeks ago, I saw my doctor and she told me that she'd be moving to another clinic and, if I wanted to, we'd be welcome to follow her. Actually, I like her and so does Brian, for as little contact as he has with her but, then we received a letter with the full clinic name. Unfortunately, the clinic is not a member provider of my health insurance so, we will not be following her after all.
Before she leaves this practice however, I asked her to refer me to an endocrinologist so I don't have to start all over again with another "family physician" going through my thyroid problems. Thankfully, she's a reasonable woman and gave me a referral to an endocrinologist! I have an appointment set up on the 21st with the specialist and I'll pick up our charts from the doctor's office on the 16th, plenty of time to copy the blood test records for the endo-guy. I'm excited-- I get to keep going in the Right Direction on getting my thyroid under control. This is good news!!
Another Story . . .
The dental "problems" continue . . . actually, it isn't so much the problems as it is the history: if I hadn't smoked for 25 years and neglected my teeth for soooooo long, my teeth wouldn't be in this condition. I had my teeth cleaned and the hygenist, when finished picking at me, moved me over to let the regular dentist look at my teeth. He hasn't seen my teeth since my surgery and he was excited at the results!
It sounds weird to say but, both Brian and I really like him. He's a good dentist and has a generally warped sense of humor which is important to both of us.
After he looked at my teeth, we then discussed the next plan of attack on my teeth. After January 1 when the new benefit year starts, his office will contact the insurance company to get pre-approval on the next step that they need to do to get me finished up. I'll be glad when this is all over but in the meantime, there's still work to be done!
**********
Okay, I guess that's enough for tonight, eh? Yupper, I believe I've got it covered. Tonight, as you know, is "How To" night and, frankly, I'm looking forward to sitting down and vegging out for a night so I'm glad I can do it with relatively intelligent programming.
Hope you have a nice evening, too!!
Tuesday, November 7, 2000The Big One!
This is the big election day we've all been waiting for-- not because we want to see who is or is not the next President of these here United States but so that we can stop having to view the stupid television ads and billboards and placards in front lawns and . . . you get the idea. Brian and I voted early (and often); we were at the polling place at 7:03am and about 25th and 26th in line!! It was amazing that there were that many people there already. The last time that we voted, it was the off-Presidential year and we didn't have to wait in line at all!!
Actually, I'm pretty sure that that's the last time I remember standing in line to vote since the Carter/Reagan-thang where, half-way through a four-hour line, Carter conceded. I was ticked!! I was living in Dallas at the time and hadn't even had a chance to vote and he's calling it quits-- bummer!
Early this morning, I received this email from Jan Swijsen:
Subject: voting
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2000
From: Jan Swijsen
To: "Marcia Dutchgirl (Bilbrey)"(Quoting from my post of last night:)
>There can be no excuse that is viable or believable or, certainly,useful for NOT voting tomorrow
Oh yes. I have a good and valid excuse.
And, I have to agree, Jan has a very good reason and, as confused as all of this political crap has to have people inside the United States, I would imagine its twice as weird watching it from the outside!!
**********
Over and above that, I've got nothing new to report-- because of voting this morning and Weight Watchers tonight (yes, I had another LOSS!!), I didn't have time to ride my bike or do the treadmill at work. I've got to get my teeth cleaned tomorrow afternoon and have a chat session with my sister tomorrow night but, I think I'll have time to ride my bike. I'm excited-- what can I say? Simple pleasures in life, remember?
Loved that!!
Speaking of the differences between men and women . . .
Bob Thompson had suggested a more appropriate comparison:
Subject: RE: Man & Woman
Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000
From: Robert Bruce Thompson
To: marcia@dutchgirl.netLessee. How about a rock for the man and a supercomputer for the woman?
No, that would imply that women are smart and men are dumb as rocks, and we both know that's not true. Wait, that didn't come out the way I meant it...
I think I'll shut up now.
Yep, that about sums it all up, doesn't it, Bob?
Have a good evening!!
Monday, November 6, 2000As an Aunt . . .
I am sooooo fired!!! I use Lotus Notes at work for email and haven't figured out the calendaring feature for it yet. At home, I use Netscape because it is a logical tool. I use Outlook for addresses and calendaring because I like the way it functions for those things. Unfortunately, because of the fact that I don't use Outlook very often (I have most addresses-- email and snail-mail-- memorized so I don't have to look stuff up very often), I didn't open my Outlook last week and missed something that was very, very important!! I missed my niece, Natali's 21st birthday!!! ARGH!!! I don't know if she'll ever forgive me-- I mean that cuz so far, she isn't writing back on any of the email that I've sent her!!
Natali is my sister Susan's middle child-- she was the first child (of two) that were born in Brazil; she was born six weeks after they first arrived in Manaus!! I am sooo angry with myself for forgetting!!! All of my nieces and nephews are very important to me and, yeesh, I forgot one!! ARGH!!!
Happy Birthday, Natali!!!
Yesterday's Television Viewing
Before we went to the tax consultant's yesterday, I saw an advertisement on one of the local PBS stations for "The Man Who Came to Dinner" to be shown that evening (last night). If you'll recall, this is one of the plays we saw just this past summer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I watched it all for the most part and Brian did his usual drive-thru viewing. We both agreed that the characters "Maggie Cutler" and "Sheridan Whiteside" were better portrayed by the people we saw this summer-- much more believable but, Jean Smart did such a wonderful "Lorraine Sheldon" rendition!!! She was soooo marvelous in this role!! I'd watch it again, even with the lesser performances of the other characters, just to see her "do" Lorraine again!!
Surprise!!
Tonight, in the mail, I received something completely unexpected: a check from the U.S. Government for $300!! I don't know why-- other than a refund of an over-payment, obviously-- but I'm happy!! One of the first thoughts that ran through my head when I saw the check was: "Its from Austin, Texas? No, Bush-- you still 'ain't' gettin' my vote!!" but then I realized that the coincidence of it being drafted in Austin was just that-- coincidence.
Which brings me to my next topic:
GET OUT THERE AND VOTE TOMORROWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!
There can be no excuse that is viable or believable or, certainly, useful for NOT voting tomorrow-- it is one of our inalienable rights and, to forsake that, is not a very intelligent move to say the least! No matter who you think should be President, Senator or Congressman for your area, VOTE !!!
Happy-Happy!!
Okay, I have to tell ya: I went on a bicycle ride tonight!! Talk about HAPPY!!! My face was grinning from ear to ear, I'm sure of it-- man, I have missed it!! Nope, I only did two miles, didn't kill myself doing that (so far) and when I came home, I did the exercises that the chiropractor showed me for my legs and back. I also did the toner wheel thing but I'm a little apprehensive about that yet-- it seems a bit strenuous so, while I did it, I didn't do a lot of reps and didn't reach as far as I could have, I don't think. I'll leave that one to develop in time, adding more reps as I gain experience and muscle tone.
Because of going to Weight Watchers tomorrow night after work and voting before work, I probably won't do any exercise tomorrow. There's always Wednesday though!! ;>)
This is an early post for me but, with good reason-- I've got to straighten out my desk tonight-- its getting a bit stacked and I don't seem to have time to do it unless I make myself stop what I'm doing and do it. (Oh, now that was an intelligent sentence, eh?)
Have a nice evening!!
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