Archive of Marcia's Musings February 26-March 4 , 2001
Sunday, April 15, 2001
Happy Easter!!
Less than nothing . . .
Well, after sleeping in until 8:30, I proceeded to read and do less than nothing until about 4pm this afternoon. After Brian finished the ham preparation and stuck it in the oven, I started the scallopped potatoes. Now the only problem in all of this is that for some reason, I have started "Lethal Weapon 3" three times now-- I'm hoping that this viewing will get me all the way through the movie!! I'm not even sure what distracted me the first time-- oh, yeah, writing the checks for the taxes. The potatoes stopped me from watching it the second time so now, as I type this, the first half of the movie is running again and hopefully, by the time I get to the part I haven't seen, I'll be done with this update. Considering how little I've done and, as a result, don't have to report to you, that shouldn't be a problem.
I've continued to read the book in mad search of a plot to develop a play on-- yes, I'm still searching. I think it has to do with the fact that these books are written for 12 year olds and I am, unfortunately, not one so I have a harder time finding the plot. At least, that's the excuse I'm going to use as I muddle through this book, hopefully on my way to developing a play.
No chocolate Easter bunnies here-- I forgot I'd ordered one from my friend, Linda's daughter's school fund-raiser and so, Brian won't get his until next weekend. Oh, well, he'll live until then, I'm sure.
See what I mean?
Already done with the post and there's nothing in these words to tell you that I've struggled all day . . . yeah, well, sometimes words are incomplete in their delivery.
As always, thanks for coming by-- I appreciate it and the company!!
Have a nice evening and what's left of Easter?? Well, don't leave the bunny without it's ears-- finish it off NOW!!
Saturday, April 14, 2001Early Posting . . .
What can I say? Boredom does amazing things to one's plans, ya know? We slept late for us-- especially for me after my "nap" yesterday afternoon. Then we headed off to Costco-- we didn't make a run last week so we had to make one this week. We followed that by a trip to the grocery store and doing a stock-up there because we had "earned" not only a half-price ham but an additional 5% off our total grocery bill. Big hauls in both places for us-- Brian put everything away while I tried to find some way to entertain myself.
He also bought his birthday present -- early-- so now I have no idea what to get him for his birthday!! If he has emailed with any of you and mentioned wanting something lately, please tell me about it!!! ARGH!!!!
Yes, we've just stocked up on burger, beef, chicken and pork and I have no idea what to make for supper!! I'm going to look at scalloped potato recipes to see if I can find one to make for tomorrow with our ham. I'm going to make some asparagus soup cuz it sounds good and I can eat it easily-- still have to watch some stuff and probably will for awhile.
I'm going to go read the book that I'm reading to write a play for my sister-- I'm trying to find out enough about the plot to decide if I want to make it into a play. I still haven't gotten that far into it yet to see if it is "developable".
Oh, and one final "good news" thing: My niece, Natali, is going to be coming for a visit next weekend!! I love having her living so close that she can come for a visit sooooooo often!! We're going to have a girl's day at the spa that I go to and we're both looking forward to it.
More later if "stuff" develops.
Have a nice evening!
Friday, April 13, 2001Nothing Major . . .
There's been a bug going around the office so I ended up working from home this afternoon, upon having caught the bug myself that is. Being "Good Friday", if I had stayed at work, I would've been bored out of my mind-- I'm sure my phone never would've rung, etc. But, because I wasn't there, I received two faxes one of which I couldn't deal with at all until Monday because I need the contract file which isn't available online. (Long story but trust me, we don't want to go there!) I dealt with the other one as much as I could-- how can anyone deal with Georgia law in this day and age??? Well, I can't and unfortunately, the customer had already left for the weekend so there's another disappointed sales rep in this world tonight.
At 2pm, I called it a day and headed to the bedroom to sleep off whatever this thing is that I've got. THREE AND ONE-HALF HOURS LATER, I finally woke up and felt completely grogged-out. I asked Brian to make some of his coffee-- he makes wonderful coffee-- and I had some toast to see if my stomach has settled. So far, so good.
I've got my computer from work home so that Brian can help me set something up that he says Outlook 2000 doesn't do; I'll take step-by-step notes and go into the office and do the same thing to everyone else's machine as well on Monday.
Doesn't Seem Late
As I write this, it is nearly 7pm. Okay, so I slept half the day away but it seems so much earlier than 7pm . . . Don'tcha just love Daylight "Savings" Time?
Haven't got a clue as to what I'm doing with my night time . . . hope you have a nice one, whatever you do!
Thursday, April 12, 2001The Captain has Turned Off the Seatbelt Sign!!
Remember a couple of weeks ago when Ann Dominik mentioned that she couldn't go shopping cuz there was some bad-guy-most-wanted-type floating around her 'hood?? Not anymore!!! According to this story, Ann is once again free to move about the Mall of America . . . to shop freely and unfettered by concerns of kidnapping, much to John's chagrin. Happy Shopping, Ann!!!
RFP-Schmar-FP
Much to my pleasure, the 54-page RFP is gone!! Yeah!! Man, that was a pain in the you-know-what!! Our General Counsel called me to ask what it was she was signing and I simply said 12-hours of work for something we're the sole source on in the process anyway. She was less than thrilled but, if the states' require it, we have to complete the paperwork so . . . there you have it. Or at least, the sales rep's admin has it now, along with everything else that has to go into the binders.
I know I did other work today but it seems that because that took up so much of my time, I didn't really notice that I did anything else. Either that or I noticed it but don't remember it because it was so minuscule by comparison to the RFP!! At one point. I was accused of not caring about our stock price because I was actually doing work-- how barbaric of me!! Yeah, I know-- this is my real job!
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Okay, okay!! Over 400 page reads today tells me its webcrawler time-- I had an average page read of 200 last month so we are definitely talking webcrawler. "Hi Guys! I'm fine-- how are you?" Gotta love those 'bots!!
For those of you who are REALLY reading this, however-- thanks for coming by!! I love the visit and the friendship and am very pleased to have you visiting my little bit of the internet!
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On that note, I'm pretty tired out-- I think its got to do with being the first week back to work . . . at least, that makes sense to me. I just have to survive 'til it is a "decent" time to go to sleep. This should be a fun night for me-- hope you have yourself a great night, too!
Wednesday, April 11, 2001CORRECTION:
My nephew, "Matt", said that my birthday wish for him, below, made him sound like he was three years old. Well, since that is NOT the case at all, I wish to correct that by saying all of the following:
Matt, a 6' tall, approximately 180 pound, strappin' good lookin' young man, is SINGLE, ELIGIBLE and AVAILABLE, having turned the ripe old age of 24 years. Yes, it is true: He is 1/4 of 96 years old now-- too old.Hey, Matt-- Is that better??? I don't think anybody thinks you're 3 anymore, if that's any consolation. They probably think you have a weird aunt but that's okay cuz most of them already knew that!For geographic purposes, Matt lives near Grand Rapids, Michigan so if there are any females that are interested, please email me and I'll forward your interest and intentions-- those that are decent-- on to him!!
Moving on . . . (and, yes, Matt's glad that I am moving on!!)
Lynne Walder sent me an email today asking how I was doing in my continuing recovery. It hadn't occurred to me that I hadn't mentioned it for a couple of days until she asked. In a way, I think that's a good thing cuz it means that I'm not dwelling on anything negative (see my definition of "train wreck") but it is also neglectful on my part considering that all of you were so nice to ask after me at the beginning.
I am obviously (for no apparent reason) digressing-- badly. Okay, my condition is improving. Yes, I have moved on to solid foods and, in fact, last night, Brian made Mexican food (I had an enchilada and refried beans as a dip for tortilla chips) last night and it many spots-- I really needed it, too!! My stomach has gone into shock because stuff isn't as "soft" as it was last week but . . . it is tasting better!!
Thanks again for asking me, Lynne-- I needed a gentle reminder and thanks to all of you who have asked over the past week or mentioned your wishes to me in some manner. I do appreciate it!!
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I'm going to start covering for someone else going on vacation in my department tomorrow but its only for three days-- we're actually only going to all be in the office (that is all ten of the people in my department) only two days this month!! The first month of a new quarter is always like that-- nobody can get time off the rest of the quarter so we all take time in that first month.
The RFP that I was working on finally came in from the sales rep. He gave me all of thirty minutes to combine his document with my document and produce one document. Needless to say, three hours later, as I was still piecing the bits together, it came to my attention that it wasn't going to go out today-- it has to be there (at the customer's office) by Tuesday so we have time but, the sales rep wasn't being realistic in his expectations.
I have a couple of things to do on my sister's website but other than that, PBS is back to its regular programming on "How To" night so I'm a happy camper.
There was something else I was going to say here but I can't remember...if I do remember, I'll come back to it.
As always-- my numbers for the first week of the month are stellar-- thanks for coming by and have a nice evening!
Tuesday, April 10, 2001It is my nephew, Matthew's birthday today!!! A card is on the way, buddy-- if its not there already!!
Getting Easier
There is a distinct lack of stuff to post about so I must be back to work!! What does this say about my job? BORING!!! I'm working on a massive RFP right now-- its for a SOUTHERN state's government which means there's not a lot of deletions that we can make but we can ask for things to be changed around a bit. Things are moving forward but I really need the sales rep's electronic version of the document to move forward in a more permanent fashion, i.e., submitting this thing!! Oh, well, he's on the road so what can I do until I hear from him?? Nothing!! We'll leave it at that and see where we go from here.
Bye-Bye Notes!!
Nope, sorry to disappoint those hoping for my Swan Song but, I'm talking about Lotus Notes going away at my office. When I first started working there I kept screaming about how I couldn't stand Lotus Notes and now, 17 months later, when I finally understand it, they're taking it off. On Monday, when I got back, a sysadmin came over to install Outlook on my system. The conversation went something like this:
Me: So where did you guys get your training on supporting Outlook.
Him: (Dumb blank stare) Training?
Me: Yeah, how did you learn how to install it and support it?
Him: Oh, we've got a manual.
Me: What manual?? Tom Syroid's Outlook 2000 in a Nutshell??
Him: (Dumb blank stare)
Me: Its an O'Reilly book.
Him: Oh, those are usually pretty good books.
Me: Yep, this one is, too. You should look around and see if they have any available to read.
Him: No, they don't-- I would've seen it.
(Yes, I am continuously astounded and amazed at just who it is that they trust with OUR computers!!)
Sooooooo, guess what's going to work with me tomorrow? I'm going to make a point of finding the IT manager and seeing about getting a BUNCH of copies bought for the end users as well as the system administrators!! If nothing else, I'll bet I can talk my director into getting a few copies purchased for our department!!
The files that I have saved in my Lotus Notes are not being transferred either so I have to operate from both mailtools for awhile although only Outlook is receiving email. I will always be able to have my Lotus Notes files available on my desktop but they aren't going to support the application anymore-- at all.
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I'm going to throw in the towel for the night and move on to the book on which I'm basing the next play. I've got a lot of reading to do before I can start writing the play and, well, I need a new distraction. Just ask Brian-- I've only got about five unfinished projects laying around the apartment now. One more won't matter but this one will get finished!!
Have a nice evening!
Monday, April 9, 2001Back in the Saddle Again . . .
Sure doesn't take much to get out of the saddle but it takes a lot of wrangling to get back into it!! Man, I'm pretty sure I'll never see daylight again or at least not for a few days. Things were extremely calm while I was gone for my co-workers-- very few things were happening in my area and, as a result, my those who were covering for me, weren't busy. It seems that everyone in my region knew I was on vacation and so they all waited until TODAY for everything!!! Yikes!!! Talk about swamped!!! Oh, yeah, I know-- I complain but you know I don't mean it!! I even brought work home with me which is rare these days but we're working on the time constraints of a state government's RFP system.
Phone calls and people tracking me down and emails and . . . YEESH!!! I'm pretty sure I'm glad to be back at it again . . . at least I think I am . . .
Slam-Dunked!!
Tonight in the mail, we received a credit card bill from a reputable LARGE credit card company that will remain nameless. I don't know about you but I really do READ the bills when they come in-- I feel the need to check to see if the credits have been made like they were supposed to be made and if the charges are right, etc. I'm pretty conscientious about this on credit cards but lousy at it with the phone bill-- now I'm better with the phone bill but Brian would tell you that there was a time . . .
Anyway, I digress. On the bill there is a charge for "Protection Plan - Renewal" at $49.95. Excuse me?? Renewal??? Doesn't that indicate that, at some point, I actually asked for the service?? You would think, wouldn'tcha?? So I called this Big Company and asked the customer service rep about it-- she transferred me to a recording that told me that I had one of three choices: None of the choices was talking with a live body about what the service was, when I "signed up" for it, how often it was "renewed"-- NOTHING!! It gave me the recording and disconnected me without forwarding me anywhere so I hit redial and started over with the Big Company.
I got a new customer service rep who got a long winded: "My name is Marcia Bilbrey, middle initial L. and my mother's maiden name is (Xxxxxxxx) and I'm not happy cuz this is my second phone call and the person that I last spoke to sent me to a recording that cut me off and I know when I'm getting slammed which is illegal and I want to talk to a live body NOW!!!" sentence thrown at him. Yes, he could tell I was ticked (Smart guy, huh!). He credited me the $49.95, apologized profusely, said he couldn't explain why they did that and why no one had asked my permission but guaranteed that the credit would appear in two days and could he beg my forgiveness? Well, okay, since he gave me the credit...
I really hate when these big companies think they can walk all over you just cuz you're "Jane S(tupid) Consumer" and won't know that they're charging you an extra charge that wasn't there the month(s) before and you don't read your statement so how would you know the difference!!! The thing is that there are a lot of people, rich and poor, who don't read their statements and don't realize that they're getting slammed for stupid "services"!! Let this be a lesson to YOU: Always read your credit card bills!!! If you don't know what a charge is for, call and find out-- don't BLINDLY pay the charges!!!!
Well, that consumer soap box is somewhere I've never been before!! How 'bout that rant?? Yikes-- two rants in two days! What's this world coming to? Is nothing sacred?? Probably not but that's nothing new.
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That's about the extent of my day . . .
Have a nice evening!
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