Archive of Marcia's Musings April 16-21, 2001
Saturday, April 21, 2001
I Stand Corrected
Last night at dinner, it was discovered in conversation with Brian that I had, in fact, 58 pairs of shoes soooooo that means that Bob Walder is correct in his originally thought to be misquoted shoe count. By the same token, later this afternoon, I ended up giving a pair of shoes to Natali (my niece who is here visiting). The shoes are a pair of black suede loafer heals by Nine West that I've never felt really fit me right sooooooo now I'm down to 57 pairs.
Then we went shopping . . . NO, I did not buy any shoes but I did look. I bought a functional-sized purse for summer-- it'll be my "everyday purse" in place of the black leather backpack that I have been carrying. It was a huge decision-- there are a lot of cute styles out today. Maybe that's my problem with why I have so many shoes-- I can't decide which one to actually buy so I buy them all!! Hey, its my excuse and I'll use it if I want to!!
Salon Day
Natali and I arrived at the Salon at 9am after a restful night's sleep-- she and I had appointments to deal with: I had another leg
rippwaxing which will hopefully last longer than the last one did. At 10, Natali had a manicure scheduled and at 10:30, I began my pedicure. Natali had to wait about a half hour between her manicure and facial but, when it came time, she disappeared for her our facial/massage/steam and loved every second of it. I had my hair colored (a little too dark for my liking) and nail fill started while she was getting her facial and then, we were both finally finished by 2pm!! A Long Day, needless to say but it was fun and they invited her back which is great if they're paying for it!! The thing is, I have another niece that I've been trying to talk into coming to visit me for a number of years . . . Hey, Faye, I know the perfect way to tempt you out here!! ;>)And After . . .
We were thinking we would go for a ride to Half Moon Bay but then decided not to so Natali and I went shopping while Brian continued to do his computer thing. (Do not misunderstand, he is being social-- he and Natali are spending some "quality time" together watching Junkyard Wars.) Natali bought a bunch of clothes and I found a pair of white cotton shorts, jean-like capri pants and a purple tank top (and the purse). Fun time was had by all, needless to say.
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Tonight its more ham and scalloped potatoes and then the Easter ham is gone-- fresh potatoes this time, not leftovers from Sunday!! After that, maybe a rousing game of something-- sounds like fun!!
Whatever you do, have a nice evening doing it!
Friday, April 20, 2001"Shoe Queen"
You'll notice that there's a new graphic in the upper left corner of this webpage: I have "won" the hotly-contested title of Shoe Queen with a total quantity of 56 (NOT 58, Bob!!) pairs of shoes. Part of my acceptance speech reads:
I look forward to the challenge of helping every woman everywhere spend her money on pairs of shoes she'll only wear once a year simply because they were tooooooo pretty not to buy!!!It is with great honor that I accept this award. I
will do my best to honor the name of "Netwidows"
around the world. I will strive to end the nakedness
or under-dressed-ness of feet around the world.Most importantly, I will strive to get Tony Blair to
understand FOOT and mouth disease and that not ALL
animals and Border Collies need to be killed because
they've been exposed. That is probably my most
earnest desire-- to end the slaughter!!
The shoe pictured to the left of this paragraph was also part of the award-- the full page graphic, as designed by Lynne Walder herself, is here. She did a wonderful job and, frankly, it makes me proud to have been the winner just for the beautiful page she designed!! (Thanks, Lynne!!)
I do not, as some have suggested, have a foot fettish. I like shoes-- I don't like wearing the same pair of shoes in the same color every day of the week. (I don't think it is wrong if someone else doesn't mind it but I don't like it for myself.) I have a closet that is approximtely 12 feet wide; on the floor of that closet I have a double-height shoe rack that is full. The balance of the floor of the closet, which is about 2-1/2 feet deep, is also full of pairs that are matched and sitting next to each other-- There are NO mirrors IN my closet as some would have you believe!!!
Its been a terribly fun week laughing with everyone about this-- long before it was decided that I had won, I began receiving a few harrassing comments from some people but I took them in stride. As the sole champion, however, I feel that I can pull myself up by the bootstraps rather than sneakering up to the title.
Thanks again to everyone!!
Coppin' a Plea
And the plea was "Temporary Insanity"!! The sales rep that I've been telling you about with the prediliction toward drafting his own documents called my director last night. John, the AVP, was also on the phone and between the two of them, claimed to know no viable reason why he did what he did but . . . "Gee-whiz, I sure won't do it again!" You ain't justa whistlin' Dixie there!!
Case closed but . . . they know we are watching . . .
Niece Alert!!
I got a phone call from Natali on her lunch hour today-- she was calling to confirm that she would be on her way in a matter of hours. She had thirteen (yes, that's 13) minutes between when she was supposed to get off of work and when the bus pulled out of the train station (don't ask-- Amtrak runs busses not trains going Northward and it runs trains on the Southbound route!). I simply asked her to call and let me know if she didn't make the bus-- I haven't heard from her so I figure she's made it. Yippppppeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow we have a "Salon Day" planned (which involves NO shoe shopping!) but we should be home by 2-ish. No firm plans after that point but we'll see what we decide to do. Whatever it is, I'm sure we'll have tons-o-fun!!!
Health Update
Kathy Vogt is out of the hospital but is fighting a fever-- John's trying to take care of her and I'm sure he's doing a wonderful job. Bob Walder has posted that his father seems to think that he'll be out of the hospital in a couple of days! Well, maybe . . .
Continued thoughts, prayers and whatevers for them both-- take care all, you're in our thoughts and prayers.
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On that note, I'm going to sign off and hope I can get this published at some point. Speakeasy has been having problems today so, when you've been able to come by and visit my site, thanks for doing so!!
Have a nice evening!!
Thursday, April 19, 2001Other Siders!
The other side of the pond person who (hopefully) has all of the shoes has been quiet, as mentioned last night, for a very significant reason: Bob's father has taken ill and is in the hospital!! Not Good!! Please send Happy Thoughts, Prayers and Whatever his way and for Bob & Lynne and Bob's Mum as well.
Creative Writing 201
(Or How To Do Something Stupid and Not Get Caught At It)Well, let's see: if you were to do something stupid and didn't want to get caught at it, what would you NOT do? Well, you wouldn't send an email to the customer telling him that YOU've reviewed and accepted all of the changes, would you?? Well, I know at least one sales person who did-- apparently, he thought it was a good idea to do that. He also sent along his "Mac Word" document at the same time-- nope, we don't have Apple equipment in any of our offices so . . .
No, I don't suspect the General Counsel is going to be very happy about it. My director elevated the situation to the General Counsel this afternoon when we found out that the sales rep had made the changes and inserted his name as the signatory. Kinda makes you wonder what else is out there, doesn't it? Lurking in the shadows . . . waiting for a lawsuit . . . Whoops!! By the way, guess who isn't indemnified for signing documents that he drafts?? Yep, you guessed it!!! Yeah, I'm pretty sure if one of those deals ever goes south, he's probably gonna lose his house but, hey, he took on the responsibility when he signed a document not reviewed or approved by a real legal person, didn't he? I'm pretty sure his wife won't be too ticked about it . . . his kids may not like the fact that he doesn't get to send them to college cuz he's paying off an indemnification claim but, hey, ya know, he apparently knew enough about agreements to draft and execute documents independent of my help so they will have to educate themselves, too.
Not a smart guy!!
And They Said It Couldn't Be DONE!!
Well, maybe "they" said it couldn't be done but he, the AVP I work for, John, said an amendment for a long-time customer would never get approved by the customer. The document needed to be re-done because many of the clauses referred to a singular quote and they wanted to make additional purchases from it but, in the previous format, that wouldn't have worked. The document also had a perpetual license clause in it that had to be taken out because not all of our software is licensed perpetually. They didn't like it but they finally understood what I was trying to tell them and, in the process I got to plant the seeds of the next products that they may want to purchase. Software for the next level of testing. Too cool!!
Anyway, the customer and I had a direct conversation-- without the sales rep in the middle-- and worked through the final details. He's printing two copies and sending them to me for execution after they execute the documents-- TODAY!!!
I can't wait to give John his copy of the amendment!!!
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Well, now that I've figured out what the plot is, I want to get started on the play writing itself. While Brian puts the book online, I'll have something to keep me out of trouble at night-- yep, its either writing or shoe shopping!! :>)
Have a nice evening!!
Wednesday, April 18, 2001Yes, Yes!!
The sales rep from yesterday's Creative Writing 101 is still alive!! The customer isn't happy but that is sometimes the fall-out when unauthorized activity takes place. Upon finishing the draft of the new agreement format, I sent it to my sales reps to use and forewarned them that, if another version of the document comes in from any customers it will not be accepted. Then I drafted an email to the customer from yesterday and told him that he would have to use this form and he would have to review it to determine if it was acceptable; if he wanted changes, I was willing to talk. He wrote back, almost immediately, and said that it was unacceptable to change the form on him since he had signed the other form. I simply wrote back and said that while he had executed it, we were not given an opportunity to review the changes that he made before he executed it and that we still had issues to negotiate. I gave him a couple of alternatives from the language that he had changed and what I had drafted into the form and, sent the email off. That was the last I heard from him-- I hope that he's figured out that a signed document is only an "agreement" if both parties actually are amenable to the terms of the document.
The sales rep remained very low key and out of touch all day-- a real surprise, eh?
Other than that . . .
. . . I had a 2-hour lunch meeting with our department and one of our of counsel attorneys. Nice guy (for an attorney) who provided lots of good info! Free lunch out of it, too so not bad all the way around.
. . . I had a live chat with my sister instead of an online chat. We talked about the development of the play and are in agreement about which way to go. Of the two plots, the one that's the most representative of "what kids need to learn" is the one that we're going to go with for the play. If it were a film, we could develop both plots but that's not the medium I'm working in sooooo, this'll work for us.
. . . Our DSL went down for about an hour today with very little real impact. I was a little concerned that I may have missed some of the emails from our continued shoe discussions and am curious about the silence from the other side of the pond. Hmmm . . .
. . . PBS night so I'm going to sign off early here and see if I can learn anything.
Have a nice evening!
Tuesday, April 17, 2001
Update at 10:45pmAfter all is said and done . . .
. . . I managed to lose weight through my dental surgery recovery!!! The leader tonight asked me what my inspiration was and, I have to say that I repeated what I posted the other night: "If it didn't hurt, I ate it." Wow!! I still managed to lose over a pound which is great for me!!! My collective weight loss is nothing to brag about but it is going upward in the "Loss" end of the world so I'll take it!!
Creative Writing 101
What do you do when a customer has modified a document that you've sent them? You try to slip it through the Accounting Department without the contracts person seeing it! BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!! Wrong, Mr. Salesman!!!
One of my sales rep's had a customer that got creative and turned a 6-paragraph agreement (the Evaluation Agreement isn't very long) into an 8-paragraph agreement!! The sales rep claims not to have seen that they made a change but, when you consider that they typed his name onto the signature lines, I think he might've noticed something was a little askew.
For the first time in more than three months, an order has been put on hold!! Geez, its not that big of a deal but, the customer (or whoever) made some heinous changes that we can't have on the agreement. So, we can't let the order for the eval software stand with it. Not happy!! I was extremely ticked when I saw that, needless to say.
The sales rep was out of the office today so I'll let you know what he looks like when I'm finished with him tomorrow.
Should be interesting . . .
. . . the gauntlet has been tossed down and we've been having a lot of fun on email today. Bob Walder's post on Saturday about the number of pairs of shoes that Lynne has raised a bit of speculation. Lynne is running the scorekeeping but not sure if she's going to post the results-- it should be interesting indeed, if the emails that we've been exchanging are any indication!!
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Oooh, latest search phrase added over night: "how to ride a boogie board" which, of course, is part of the description from our trip to see Dan and Shelley Bowmans at their "Summer Home" in Cayucos last year!! Fun stuff, eh???
Have a nice evening!!
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I found the plot-- well, plots, really!!! There are two of them but I'm going to work one more than the other . . . YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!! Maybe I can be 12 again!!!!!!
Monday, April 16, 2001Where are you Car 54?
On the "Search" front, all that webcrawler activity has paid off! I have had some interesting inquiries to be hit from this month already:
1. trivial pursuit incorrect questions - Well, we all know our opinion about these little problems and the irresponsible manner in which our questions were dealt with by the owner of said game. None, if you'll recall so they don't get another link either!!
2. perm rods - Kewl, someone else who is also into torturing themselves!!
3. toenail art - Maybe Lisa will get another new client yet!!
4. morro bay rock pictures, oregon shakespeare festival, big sur campground pictures -Aah, yes, traveling the vicariously virtual way!!
If the stats keep up, I'll set a new record again this month-- I've gotta thank ya'll for coming by, no matter how you get here and, for whatever reason, thanks for coming back . . . repeatedly!!
Voting Call
It was about at this time a year ago, that I changed my background on the journal. So . . . whatcha think? Shall I start out in search of a new background for this page-- I like the one on my homepage so that isn't going anywhere. Send your vote to keep or get rid of it NOW!! I'll let you know how it comes out in the wash-- err, later in the week.
Little Penguin
Did you see him? Up there in the right corner of this page? Yep, I decided to add that little link to my site if for no other reason than Tux is just sooooo positively cute-- yep, just what every Linux junkie wanted to hear: the "mascot" is CUTE!!
While you're there, go ahead, link on through and see the work of my brilliant husband and the gentleman and scholar from Canada honed and sculpted over a nine month period of time last year. When you read a paragraph, think about whether it was me or Leah that was cooking or washing dishes at the time that it was written . . . more than likely, it was one of us!! Leah: we need to form a union!!
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I guess that's about all the trouble I can stir up for one night-- have a nice evening!
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