Archive of Marcia's Musings - January 28-February 4, 2001Sunday, February 4, 2001
Update at 9:10pmWe're Home!!!
Its nice to go away but it is always nice to go away, too. We made it to and from Yosemite National Forest with no mechanical problems and, without needing the cables that we bought to get through snow. There was snow there but it was only icy on Saturday afternoon, which required the use of the 4-Lo on our 4-Wheel Drive. No biggie!!
Anyway, we're home-- wanted to tell you that much. After unpacking, I had a nap and Brian called his folks. I'll put up a trip report as soon as I get it written. Probably no later than Tuesday.
I'm back momentarily-- I'm about 3/4 of the way through editing the photos from our trip this weekend. Man, we took a lot!! Brian has all 120 on his page but not all of the commentary to go with them. I'll probably be through tomorrow night before I get them up but you'll be patient, won't you? Thanks!!
Have a nice rest of the evening!
Saturday, February 3, 2001No Update . . . See Trip Report . . . Eventually
Friday, February 2, 2001No Update . . . See Trip Report . . . Eventually
Thursday, February 1, 2001Welcome to February!!
Here we are already on the second month of the year-- my how time flies, eh? This is the month of . In more ways than one for Brian and I. This is the third anniversary of our moving in together. There's Valentine's Day this month. There's a birthday or two around, too. (Hmmm, who was it that was having a birthday?) My sister has a birthday . . . was there someone else? Yeah, I think there is but I've been denying it for so long, I'm beginning to believe myself!!
Definitive Plans
Okay, so tonight, after we finished the laundry (FINALLY!!!), we went to Big-5 Sporting Goods so that we could buy Brian some boots for hiking through the snow. We are definitely going to be doing the Vernal Fall hike-- it was recommended to me by someone from work as a good mid-winter hike. While at Big-5, I bought a hat to keep my ears and the top of my head warm-- hopefully, it'll work!!
Everyone has been telling me that we'll have such a good time and the snow will be beautiful and the scenery is fantastic, etc., etc., etc. Excuse me?? Do I appear to be a person who is not already anxious and excited here? I just hope I can sleep-- especially since I am exhausted!!! I'm already tired and haven't even packed yet!!!
Oh, man-- I haven't packed yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Marcia runs SCREAMING from her computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
[Have a nice evening and a great weekend-- watch for a trip report!!]
Wednesday, January 31, 2001News of the Day: It's VERY Wet in Saskatoon!!
Yeah, but they are working on it!! It is indeed an interesting contraption into which the doctors have managed to bind Landon. Doesn't keep him down but it sure has his parents baffled!!
This afternoon I called to see how things were going and Tom held the phone to Landon so he could say "Hi" to me-- he did!! A sweet little voice said "Hi" and then kissed the phone-- I could hear the pucker noises!! That is one sweet little kid!!
Plans are Afoot!!
Is that how you spell that??? Oh, well, whatever-- we are finalizing plans for the GWB-financed getaway weekend!! You don't remember? Well, the hotel charges are being paid by the tax refund received from the Austin branch of the IRS. The tax refund, which was refunded from an unknown tax year happened to arrive the day before the election and, since it came from Austin, I figured it was George W's way of trying to bribe me for his vote. Nope, it didn't work but, that's okay-- at least it is paying for much of the weekend!!
There is supposed to be snow in Yosemite Valley-- I'm actually looking forward to it!! (Yes, I know, Natali-- but it is only once a year!!) Thanks to Brian's sister's husband's (is that convoluted enough for you?) company, we will be nice-n-warm. I'm looking forward to being in the mountains for a couple of days-- I'm going through withdrawal considering it is wintertime!!
I mentioned to Brian that, beside this trip and a trip next month to see his brother in San Diego, we won't have any real vacations this year. I've got dental surgery scheduled for one week already and then, hopefully, we'll be able to move into a house for the rest of the time that I have available. No wonder I'm looking forward to it so much!!
Stats for the Month
This morning, soon after I awoke at 6am, I checked my stats and I had a total of 6 page reads-- whoop-te-doo!! No big deal, really cuz it is, afterall, very early everywhere else in the country. A couple of hours later, however, I went back as a test of my Netscape browser which was giving me a hard time at work and by 8am there were 212 pages read!! WHAT?!?!?!? WHO?!?!?!? Oh, yeah, I checked my "Sites" and found I had been crawled by a couple of search engines.
By this writing, I'm up to 346 page reads today and, yes, this is my high day for the month with an average daily pages read total of 126. Overall for the month, my totals were up with a total of 3,915 pages read, which I count more than "Hits" since Hits reflects each file on the page. That is a new all-time "HIGH" for me, folks-- THANKS!!
Every month it seems that my numbers for foreign country visitors increases-- the visibility of this WORLD Wide Web is amazing, isn't it? I am very pleased to have each and every one of you coming by to visit and appreciate your correspondence, friendship and, as I've said many times this month, the Community that all of you have become. Thanks for sharing that sense of family with me and, as usual, I hope to see you here again next month.
Again, thanks for coming by and have a nice evening!
Tuesday, January 30, 2001FIRST AND FOREMOST!!!!!
This was the email I sent to the Netwidows today:
THEY'RE GOING HOME!!!!!! LANDON & LEAH ARE GOING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Yes, we are all just a little more than "just plain" happy that the Syroids are again all under one roof-- we're down-right ecstatic about it!!!Tom called Brian as he was heading out the door to pick them up!!!!!!!!!!
THEY'RE GOING TO BE SLEEPING UNDER ONE ROOF TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!
What else is new?
Man, I can't think of a thing-- I've been so excited ever since Brian called me this morning, I haven't done anything but work and be happy for them!!!
One bit of news: I had a sales rep who told me that he didn't want me to contact his customers. What? That's my job-- how are deals supposed to get done? Well, John, my AVP, and Joyce, my director, were talking about this very situation but I wasn't supposed to know about it. John was bugging me about a particular agreement and asking me why the agreement wasn't done but, since I'd been told not to contact this guy's customer, I couldn't finish the deal.
Today, my opportunity arose: another deal that he had wanted to handle himself was dropped by him. I asked where the amendment was that I'd sent to him in December. Direct quote: "Amendment? What amendment?" I reminded him of the amendment and he said, "Oh, that one. What is going on with that?" "I don't have a clue", I said "You told me not to contact your customers so I didn't." "Oh, yeah, that's right."
Needless to say, the conversation ended with him taking back the order for me not to contact his customers. During the course of our conversation, I reminded him that if he let me do my job, he could be doing his more productively and make even more money than he's already making. Oh, yeah, that's right-- his job is sales and my job is negotiation!!
Yes, I've had a nice day-- I hope you have a nice evening!
Monday, January 29, 2001Bits-n-Pieces
- Natali made it back this afternoon to San Luis Obispo despite the weirdest efforts of my awakenings and dreams!! First, I remembered that there wasn't very much, if any, gas in the truck after we picked it up yesterday-- in the middle of the night, I sat bolt upright announcing that to Brian!! Then, I was apparently so worried about remembering to get gas before we left that I then began to have dreams about not getting her to the train station on time!! Yeesh!! I woke up exhausted but she slept fairly well (with the exception of a loudly ticking clock) so at least one of us got some rest!!
I am already looking forward to Natali's next visit-- I can't wait for it, in fact!! She's really a neat person-- not just a nice niece!! I really enjoyed spending time with her this weekend-- it was great talking and chatting and laughing together!!
I have to tell you: I have two sisters with children, five all together between them. From what I've seen of these "kids" (they're all in their 20's) they are really great people!! They have grown up sooo neat and cool and together and smart (man, are they SMART!!), I am so proud to be their aunt (as Brian is to be their uncle)!!! I can only imagine the pride their parents must feel-- my sisters (and their husbands) are really blessed!!
- Finally, after missing two phone calls from Leah (one on Friday after I left to pick up Natali and one this afternoon after I had left the office), I finally heard from her tonight!! Tom mentioned in an email to Brian this morning that Leah had caught flu over the weekend and was dealing with that in addition to Landon's adventures. Not a fun time, to be sure. Leah is feeling better tonight from her flu-- one of the volunteers spent some time with Landon this afternoon so she could rest after Tom left.
The x-ray of Landon's leg went well and he's going to be casted tomorrow morning at about 8:30am. They will have to sedate him because, in addition to needing him to lay still, they will straighten the leg more which, if he were conscious, could cause even more pain. I'll let Tom fill you in on the rest when he has a chance but, if everyone crosses their fingers, thinks happy thoughts and says loud and frequent prayers, the Syroids may all be sleeping under one roof tomorrow!!! Wouldn't that be great news!!!!!
- The rules were bent for us tonight: remember the wonderful young Indian couple we have living next to us (I "introduced" you to them at Christmas)? Back in the early part of this month, Sangeetha returned to help her best friend prepare for the arranged marriage that was awaiting her-- Sangetha's best friend was preparing to wed Sangeetha's brother!! She was so excited before she left!! A couple of weeks later, Prasad left to join her for the wedding and other visits that they were going to make around the area.
I had received a couple of emails from Sangeetha-- she had been having lots of fun!! Then, the earthquake hit last Friday and I haven't heard anything from her. For days, I've had no response to the email that I sent so, when we were bringing down the rent check today, we asked the manager about her hometown. (Its terrible when you think you know someone and then you can't remember if they've told you their hometown!) Although she shouldn't have, the manager told us where she was from and we looked it up on the Internet.
The good news is that, if they haven't wandered far away from their home province, Sangeetha and Prasad were probably no where near the earthquake!! That is good news!! We don't have confirmation but the province that they are from (where her family is) is at the opposite end of India from where the earthquake was and, while they may feel aftershocks and perhaps even felt a part of the original earthquake, they should be okay and just not able to get access to a computer for the time being. (Sangeetha had mentioned in one of her emails that she was having a problem getting access to emails so I'm going to attribute that for the non-response on my email of last week.)
- My keyboard came in at work but I didn't know about it until after I had been attempting to type on the "straight" keyboard that I had been using. Apparently, it took me absolutely no time to become accustomed to the new natural style keyboard. I was making more typos on letters, emails, and documents this morning than I can ever remember making!! I'm just about back to my normal speed and only have misaligned finger placement once-in-awhile which is much faster than I would've thought for an adjustment period.
I guess that's all of those bits tonight-- have a nice evening!
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