Archive for September 25-October 1, 2000Musings of My Mind
Sunday, October 1, 2000
Happy October!!
Only 86 days until Christmas!! Yippee!!! I know-- I'm a sick puppy, aren't I? Oh, well, I have fun with it.
Thanks again for coming by here to visit-- last month was a record-breaking month for me and I really appreciate it!
Travels and Travails
Brian and I went past the Gilroy outlets this morning and then we went back and went to the outlets-- No, Brian is not geographically impaired as I am but, we were rather deeply involved in conversation. At one point in the conversation I said to him, "Honey, aren't we past Gilroy?" Brian very calmly responded, "Oh, yes, we're a long ways past it but what we were talking about was very important." He had that right: when a couple gets a chance to talk about serious stuff like the future and the plans that need to be made, maps and final destinations tend to go out the window.
Besides, we had only driven about 15 miles past Gilroy and then, were easily able to turn around and drive back, finishing the conversation as Brian exited. Of course, since he hadn't eaten anything for breakfast, his first priority was food but, that was okay with me-- I had a little nibbly snack while he ate his burger and then we were off. First we went to the Royal Doulton store-- we had been here back in May or June and decided we would get certain items for Christmas gifts and, while it may seem early, its never too early for Christmas shopping. Then, we wandered through the Lenox store and were stunned by the pricing on the dinnerware, etc. My taste is a whole lot simpler, as is Brian's so we were off to the Pfaltzgraff store across the street.
We had intended to finish out our set of dinnerware but were only able to pick up a gravy boat and a couple of salad plates and cereal bowls. It seems that our pattern has gone to factory direct only (I thought that was what an outlet was?) so we will have to buy from the online store instead. Not a problem-- I almost prefer it anyway since we know what we're looking for this time. We were able to find a few civilized Christmas serving pieces; by "civilized", again our tastes are simple and the pieces are not gawdy in style.
By the time we got home, unfortunately, my back felt like it was slicing my body in half so I got off my feet for a couple of hours by napping. That did me a bit of good-- at least I was able to go to the grocery store this afternoon to pick up a few things. The flower, produce and deli sections are running a bit lean these days-- it seems that some truck drivers are on strike because of the cost of gasoline. Sounds terribly familiar, doesn't it? The staff that I spoke with apologized profusely even though it wasn't their fault. Maybe some of this stuff will settle down after the election? I hope so!
Anyway, I guess that's about it for me-- we've had dinner (Fish with Rice and Zucchini) and are just tidying up a bit now. I've got the dishes to do but I need Brian to reach the new things to the top shelf.
Looks like he's ready to move in that direction. Have a good evening!
Saturday, September 30, 2000
(Update at 10:20pm)Recovering
If you checked my post late last night or early this morning, perhaps you noticed that I was, as Brian calls it, "really relaxed". In other words, this morning I noticed that I had dated my post of yesterday as "Friday, Saturday 29, 2000". Yes, I've since then fixed it. No, I don't do that very often and the "that" that I'm referring to is the End-of-Quarter "closing" that we had. There's a good reason that I don't-- I get too relaxed. Then the only problem that I have is that I don't sleep well, believe it or not. Weird but true so I didn't sleep well last night and, as a result, today I feel very stressed-- on the edge of something although it is unknown as to what I'm "on the edge of" today. Yes, you are welcome to "feel sorry for Brian" but there's really no need as I've not had any reason (as usual) to aim any of my ire or stress or edginess directly at him. That is a good thing!
End-O-Month Stats!!
Yippee!!! A new record!! I've had more than 3,000 pages read this month!!!! I am truly amazed!! That brings my daily average to over 100 pages per day!! I can tell for a fact that I've had some major webcrawlers come traipsing over the site this past month. I'm glad to have them visit, but don't get me wrong-- I do understand that that does not represent 100 people reading my site every day.
Whatever your reason or cause for coming by to visit: THANKS!! I'm so glad to have you come by and appreciate the emails that are sent and the friends that I've made across The 'Net as a result of writing this page, as well. I've been doing this for a year now, starting from a once-weekly post to a daily post. It has been fun and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Thanks, my friends!!!
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More later as time and excitement in my day permits . . .
So I went to the mall and for the first time that I've ever really needed it, the store that sells crystals has been closed down. Bummer! If anyone knows where I can get crystals (online), please let me know. I am actually looking to purchase a number of stones and colors but, I can't do it if there's not a store, brick-n-mortar, or otherwise in which to do so.
Other than that, its a "Matrix" night . . .
Hope you have a nice evening, too!
Friday, September 29, 2000Quarter-End Survivor "Party"
As I begin to write this post, it is 8:13pm and I've just gotten home from the aforementioned celebration of quarter end. Yeesh! What a day!! The sales rep and his manager (not the AVP) were on the phone with me prior to 7am today, talking and trying to sell me on the concept of the agreement that was being used, i.e., the wrong one. I called my director at 7:10am and by the time she'd gotten into the office, it was decided that with a lot of adjustments, maybe we could use that agreement after all. Sooooo, it is under consideration as we speak.
Then, after pressing issues were closed, at 4:00pm, corks were popped and the wine-tasting began!! We had several bottles of wine (whites and reds) and several wonderful cheeses along with some salame and crackers and voila-- end-of-quarter has transpired!!
More tomorrow as time permits-- sorry so short and so late but, its been that kind of day!
Thursday, September 28, 2000What a Day!!
Shortly after I arrived at work today, I received a call from a manager in one of the out-lying offices that reports to my AVP, John. This manager, Dave, said he had two documents that had to go today-- end-of-the-quarter madness, don'tcha know? On the first one, although the customer was somewhat stubborn and slightly unreasonable, for a quarter-of-a-million dollars, we let him slide and moved the agreement through within a matter of hours. Start-to-finish by noon and the document was signed. Not bad at all.
The second document, however, is another story. Its for nearly a half-million but, the deal has nothing to do with the paper that its being written on which is poor judgment on Dave's part. It needs to be on a reseller agreement but it is being written on a "regular" license agreement. One of the biggest problems with that is that apparently, the "licensee" (and I am using that term VERY loosely) wants to sublicense the software. Since that's not the way that our TOOLKIT works, this is obviously not being written on the correct document.
Then, as I usually do, I ran a comparison between the form document and the document that was received-- the customer did what I like to call "Selective Redlining". That means that, if they don't draw my attention to it by actually showing the strikeouts and underscores along with the colored text, I'm supposed to be stupid and let them get away with it. Yeah, well, if I were stupid, that's how it would go. Unfortunately for them, I'm bright and intelligent and was dropped off the turnip truck a few years back so I've been around the block a couple of times and know most of the tricks of the trade. The only thing that that has gotten them is the ire of myself and Dave and the deal has been put into the gear of "Let's Take Our Time And Check This Sucker Out GOOD Before We Rush Into The Deal"-- it didn't go today and it may not go tomorrow. I have a fiduciary responsibility to look out for the best interests of the company and the deal, as they've re-written this license is not good-- at all!! I also have my shares and options to watch out for-- this is MY company in a very real sense of the word!!
It took a bit of explaining to John and Dave but I finally got them to understand what the customer had done and that the deal was being signed on the wrong document. Tomorrow, we'll sort it all out but, hopefully, we'll have it finished up in the morning. There's an advantage to going into work early!!
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I realize that this isn't much to report but it is the way that my day went.
I did put a journal update on the Spoelhof's website that you could check out-- they've made some progress in finding an apartment and getting things organized in Bauru.
I also have to try to catch up to my friend, Pat tonight-- she's back from her Nice/Paris trip so I want to hear all about it!!
Have a good evening!!
Wednesday, September 27, 2000Update?
Work is bizarre-- Its like we're taking turns being swamped!! For two hours in the morning, I don't have time to turn around-- then things slow down and someone else gets BUSY!!! Too Weird!!
Balance
The balance of my day has been spent nursing my back along-- when I woke up this morning, it was hurting worse again. I don't know why but I think it has to do with the fact that I cooked dinner last night. Well, tonight we had take-out Chinese and tomorrow I go to the chiropractor again so we'll see what happens then.
I had a chat with my sister, Karen, tonight-- we're trying to get back to our regular schedule of Wednesday night chat sessions. Its the only time I'm on ICQ anymore; when our sister, Sue, gets her computer set up in Brazil, we'll be on it more but, right now that's about it.
"How To" night has been outed for a fund-raising event. KTEH is re-running the fund-raiser that they had for the station that featured Blenko Glass. I'm hoping that, with Christmas coming . . . (Brian? Are you reading this? The "Opaline Yellow" is especially nice, don't you think, honey?). Since, however, I've seen it before, I'm not thrilled with the prospect of having to find something else to watch. I am really looking forward to being able to do things again-- having to sit around is really making me crazy!!
That said, I'm going to try to find something to do that won't have me actually moving beyond the sofa. Hope you have a less boring evening than me!
Tuesday, September 26, 2000Wednesday?
When will it be Wednesday? Wednesday is the middle of the week which means that there are only two days left to the week. I'm plain tuckered out!! The end-of-quarter is looming and the contracts are flying in-n-out of our offices!! I closed three deals today and that doesn't count the NDAs.
And, before you ask, I did not wear my NDA Tiara today-- I felt it best to be without it when Jim came by to drop off contracts! I don't mind a little publicity for the new requisitions but I'd rather not be mentioned as a part of a "replacement" requisition, if ya know what I mean!
Other stuff . . .
. . . my back feels a lot better today-- in fact, when I got out of bed this morning I noticed that I had absolutely no pain!! Of course, it didn't stay that way but it is better than it was!
There is really not much happening-- I'm hoping my back will be better on Saturday so that I can go fishing. One of our neighbors is going to be "bach-ing" it this weekend and he likes to fish; his wife doesn't like fishing so I may see if he wants to join me on Saturday morning . . . haven't decided on that one yet and won't be able to until I can tell that my back is going to be a lot better. I'll be happy if I can just do anything besides watch television this weekend-- there is simply nothing decent and I'm beginning to wonder why we've got four pay stations!! Last night I ended up watching "Jerry Maguire" cuz I hadn't seen it for awhile . . . I may be due for a viewing of "Sleepless in Seattle", too. Hmmmm....
Have a good night!
Monday, September 25, 2000Okay, Okay!!
I'm feeling guilty enough, alright?!?!? I'm bored and boring right now cuz I can't do anything to make my life exciting enough to report to you so . . . I'll talk about work instead, 'kay?
So I'll try to tell this story so that it is as funny when it comes out as it was at the time. A few weeks ago, as a joke, the women in my department gave me a "diamond" tiara because I'm jokingly referred to as "The NDA Queen" because I review all of the NDAs for the department. At one point today, I was reviewing an agreement and feeling like I had the meanest customer in the world that I was dealing with so I put on my crown to make me feel like I had power. (No, it didn't help but that's not the point!)
I'm at my desk, in my cubicle typing and typing and typing when the Chief Operating Officer of the company comes up behind me and gives me a folder full of agreements that he's just signed for me and quickly says "Hey, Marcia-- here ya go!" and turns around leaves. About five minutes later, I'm typing and typing and typing and suddenly, I stop typing. OHMIGOSH!!!! I had the tiara on when he came into my cubicle!!!!!!!!
After my director stopped laughing at the situation, she reminded me not to worry about it cuz we've been trying to tell "Them" we need more help. Since "Jim" will surely think that I've completely lost it and am reduced to thinking I'm some sort of royalty, maybe he'll get the help we so desperately need!! Yes, I'm talking about more negotiators-- not psychiatric help!!
I hope it "reads" as funny as it is to tell-- or witness-- it was a comical situation, needless to say!!
Scary Stuff!!
Every now and then, I'll look at my stats for the month and, YOWZA, a customer URL will show up!! That is scary, ya know? That's why I don't name names and haven't updated my resume-- my job's too public in order for me to remain cool, calm, collected and (most of all) legal during the "black-out periods"!! Needless to say, I had a customer URL show up-- I don't know when someone reads my site (I don't think it can be programmed that way). It makes me glad that I don't publish company names or the names of people that I work with on a regular basis.
Productivity . . .
I did neglect to mention that I was a little productive yesterday: I added a recipe to Barbara Thompson's Netwidows' Recipe Page for her Easy Stroganoff recipe-- sounds delish! And, by the way, if you haven't been over there yet, check out her trip report of the Canadian tour-- it is really neat and she has some great shots, particularly of Niagara Falls!!
What else?
What else is there? Hmmm, I went to the chiropractor again today-- I can tell cuz my back hurts worse again! ARGH!! It is supposed to feel better when I leave, isn't it? Overall, it feels better its just that I haven't been on the heating pad for more than three hours so it just plain hurts right now. The good news is that Mr. Wonderful did the laundry this afternoon so I don't have to do anything except put my clothes away. Yes, I am lucky-- I said that last week, remember?
I'm going to go do just that and relax a bit this evening. Have a good one!
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