Archive of Marcia's Musings - January 1-7, 2001
Sunday, January 14, 2001
Things We Did Today:
1. Got out of bed-- always a big mistake for adults to do when sleeping and cuddling and snuggling are such a "better offer"!!
2. Went to Costco-- not a busy place today... can't figure that one out at all... someone said something about football in the East Bay but, how could that affect Sunnyvale? I was running uncomfortably low on some of my vitamins and, frankly, I needed to pick up some movies: "When Harry Met Sally" (always a good pick) and "Shaft" with Samuel L. Jackson. Should be an interesting evening, don'tcha think?
3. Went to the grocery store-- Brian and I went together for the first time in a long time but we managed to work pretty well together as usual.
4. Started a new tape for Grammy-- didn't get it finished but I have the area where I tape set up a little more user friendly and hope to get back to it shortly (literally, in this case-- when I'm finished with my post).
5. Went Shopping-- always a fun thing to do. I wanted to get a black leather back-pack suitable for using as a purse and for carrying my laptop. That mission was accomplished easily enough and then on to find a set of mixing bowls (I broke one of the set that I've had for nearly 20 years); that too was accomplished fairly easily. The third task was finding something "business casual" that I could wear for next weekend-- I've got a couple of outfits in mind but I really wanted to find something else because the vast majority of my casual attire consists of leggings which are considered toooooo casual for the sales meeting. I accomplished that in very short order by finding something THREE (3) sizes smaller than I was wearing a year ago at this time!!! I haven't lost very much weight by going to Weight Watchers (right around 15 pounds) but I've apparently made up for the lack of weight loss with the loss a lot of inches!!
6. Made Lunches-- Well, I tried to anyway. I've only got two days this week when I have to bring my lunch: Tuesday and Wednesday. I've got salads and brussel sprouts with cheese sauce that I'm making for those meals. (Weird combination but I like it and its the only way I get the brussel sprouts!) I bought enough to make salads and brussel sprouts for the week-- I forgot I had lunch out three days next week (Monday lunch with the COO, Thursday is a spa-cial day-- I'll explain Thursday-- and Friday is the start of the sales meeting in San Francisco). So, Brian is having leftovers tonight and I'm eating salad and brussel sprouts!!
That about covers my day-- what'd you do? Oh, yeah, that's right-- I'll be reading your site tomorrow morning with my breakfast bar after my 7am conference call meeting so I'll find out then!
Have a nice evening!!
Saturday, January 13, 2001Well, its like this . . .
. . . it started out with me waking up at 5:30am-- thankfully, I was smart enough to just get a glass of water and go back to bed. I thought I was doing a lot of tossing and turning but, when the alarm did go off, all I had done was lay in the one position-- sleeping! That was a good thing. I had set the alarm (on a Saturday) because my nail/pedicure appointment was for 9am which is way too early for me not to set an alarm to get out of bed on time!
Having my nails and pedicure finished, I came home, ate some popcorn (I had a yen to go to a movie this afternoon but, decided not to go after checking the listings-- nothing I wanted to see at a time that I wanted to see it!), took a nap and, now, have finished the last grouting of the first flower pot. It looks pretty good considering that I've never done this kind of thing before-- Brian and I talked about the fact that the saucers for the pots don't look very good when they're done because you really can't see the glass on the bottom-side of the saucer. I'm going to chip it off of the one that I've finished and be grateful that I didn't do the other three.
Other Plans
Little did I know-- my husband has made other plans about tomorrow's activities: we aren't going to see the monarchs but he's going to go hang-out with a neighbor at Fry's!! :<( The neighbor has some Christmas money to burn so he came to Brian to help him spend it-- better than Brian spending our money!! ;>)
Next weekend, the 20th, is the weekend that my company's sales conference is happening in San Francisco so we won't be able to see the monarchs then either. BUT, the Monday after that weekend (the 22nd) we are both taking off (so I can have a "weekend") and we're going to go to Natural Bridges State Park to see the monarchs. That'll be nice too because there's less traffic south-bound on Monday morning than on a Sunday and there will probably be fewer people at the park.
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I can't think of anything else to "report" about today-- we're having Chinese take-out for dinner (Mr. Chau's). Then I'll find a movie to watch although I probably won't find one as good as last night's: "Chill Factor". If you get a chance to watch it, DO!!! It is a really good, edge-of-the-seat flick!!Have a nice evening!
Friday, January 12, 2001It is a WEEKEND!!!
Last night I was sooooo tired that I went to bed at 9:15pm!! That's early for me-- way early!! Anyway, this morning I woke up refreshed (for a change) but I am glad that it is now officially a weekend!!
I finished up the review on the Dutch agreement today and prepared for a conference call with Ms. Red Flags and Ms. Battleaxe on Monday-- should be an interesting call.
Since being home, I've finished up the other three pots that I've been tiling the mosaic glass onto but I haven't done the saucers that go with them yet. I'll do that and the grouting part tomorrow.
The rest of the weekend's plans include getting a nail and pedicure tomorrow and, if the weather (and sunshine permit) going to see the monarch butterflies at Natural Bridges on Sunday. I hope its nicer weather; it did stop raining today but the sun didn't come out. If you'll recall from my Meanderings, we saw the monarchs last year but I have yet to see them in the sunlight. Brian says that they are spectacularly colorful when the light of the sun is shining on them! I can only hope . . .
I know that this is an early post in addition to being kinda short but, I'm pretty tired out from my week.
Have a nice evening and I'll catch ya'll tomorrow!
Thursday, January 11, 2001Who Is It?
Okay, who is it? Somebody out there does not have their fingers, toes, legs, knees, and elbows crossed!! Ya know how I know?? Cuz it is STILL raining out there!! ARGH!! This has to stop-- no, it probably won't stop but I'd sure like it if it did stop!! I only bicycled once this week and I already miss it again!!
Work Stuff
Well, the only exciting things to report about my work day are that I gave a "draft" presentation for my assignment/transfer talk at next week's Sales Meeting. I'm going to be presenting for five minutes to 50 people including the COO and John, my AVP, and John's boss!! Oh, yeah, I'm excited about doing this-- you bet!! The presentation went well with regard to the presentation itself-- I have the material down, obviously. There has been a new development that my director forgot to tell any of us about: Now that we have a General Counsel, assignments are only being allowed with approval of contracts (my director) or the General Counsel. As a result, I've moved the discussion more strongly in the direction of transfers and transferability, etc. All things considered, the presentation went well-- it helps to have an authoritative voice!
The other interesting/exciting thing is that I'm working a document for our office in The Netherlands-- No, it is not in Dutch (I don't know how to read it or speak it) but it is governed by Dutch law. Its actually a fairly interesting execise at this point, too. Its a 33-page document so it is taking quite a while to review-- always a fun thing, ya know?
Fun Stop?
Guess where I stopped on my way home from work? The real estate agent's office!! She had some numbers together to tell us about-- like what we can expect for monthly payments, what we can expect for mortgage payments and what we can afford in when purchasing a property. (Don't ask-- most people can't stand the nosebleeds they get when they hear the numbers.) It also gets complicated because we end up having to explain that "every thing is relative-- salaries are commensurate with the cost of living here", etc.
Its going to be a fun process-- tonight was the first time I've met her. I thought it was important to meet our agent since we've asked her a bazillion questions. I wanted her to know that we were real people who really were going to be buying a house and that we were going to be using her as our agent, even if it takes us six months to get there. She and I had a nice chat-- a good meeting without any particular purpose.
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Pretty boring night, I hope, on the agenda-- don't feel like doing much of anything so I'm just going to watch my favorite television show and have a good laugh.
You have a good evening, too!
Wednesday, January 10, 2001Too Much Info!!!
Well, today we had another conference call with Ms. Red Flags. Ms. Red Flags had her boss, Ms. Battleaxe on the phone with us. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was accomplished on this phone call because Ms. Battleaxe knows even less about our software than Ms. Red Flags and was making even more demands than have already been made. Ms. Battleaxe also compared the frequency of the movement of the company's data center to an article of clothing she owns being laundered-- terribly inappropriate for a negotiation!!! (Very Bad FORM!!!)
It did, however, make for some good laughs during the day. The country manager and sales rep called me later in the day to tell me about a meeting that had been set up for Monday at the customer's offices with the end user, Ms. Red Flags and Ms. Battleaxe. I commented to the sales rep that it was terribly daring of her to go into a closed-door meeting room with Ms. Battleaxe and any of her clothing!! I thought she was going to fall off her chair-- which I probably could have heard over the phone!!
It should be an interesting meeting on Monday, for sure-- I'll be plugged in by phone. The purpose of the meeting is so that the end user can explain what he's going to use our software for and why the demands that they are making are unreasonable and, frankly (as he explained to the sales rep this afternoon), things he doesn't need! It is always helpful when procurement people ask for stuff that they don't need, let alone that the software can't DO!!
Power Point!!
A few weeks back, I told you about my upcoming presentation at the Southeastern region's meeting at the sales conference in a few weeks. Today our admin put it together for me and it has turned out to be really neat-- it is done in Power Point and the slides are animated. Really cool!!
I'll have a run through tomorrow during the staff meeting and then, I go live on the 21st in front of approximately 50 people. Just a small audience, eh? ARGH!!! The good news is that it'll be in a crowded room so they'll have to listen to me . . . I hope!
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Those two things pretty much occupied my entire day-- that and going to lunch with the group from my department. We were having a mini-lesson in one of the software applications as seen through the eyes of a sales rep-- it was very informative.
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I had two calls on the car tonight!! One sounds really positive but I'm not sure about the other one-- we'll keep you posted. Both of the people that called had seen the car on the street-- those signs could end up being the best $2.58 +Tax that I've spent in a long time!!
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When I got home tonight, I fixed one of my web pages (thanks again, Wendy!!) and published a new journal entry for my sister's website-- they're back in Brazil and with all of their team members present, able to start work in force now!!
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Tonight is PBS "How To" night for me-- have a nice one yourself, 'kay?
Tuesday, January 9, 2001Nobody Caught That?
I had yesterday's date typed with the year 2000-- and nobody caught it!! Wow!! I know someone's been reading my page today-- over 110 page reads. Apparently no one pays attention to the date which is okay, too.
Thanks for stopping by and NOT nitpicking!! I do appreciate that!!
Update on Last Night
Yesterday, during the day at work, I had a few minutes so I started checking out airfares to San Diego-- we want to go visit with Brian's brother and niece and my niece and nephew (who have just relocated there) in March. I was blown away by what I was coming up with on airfares-- for the two of us, one airline (which shall remain nameless) wanted more than $800!!! Okay, so I panicked and called Brian. He went out and looked at Expedia.com to see what the airfares were and we talked-- he kept coming up with better prices. Last night, we checked it out again and, for the two of us to fly down there and stay in a hotel for two nights and rent a car for two days, it'll cost us less than $475!!!!! Needless to say, the reservations have been made and paid for!!! Wow, what a price difference!!! We were very pleased, needless to say!!
Another Topic
Another topic of discussion last night were my stock options and what to do with them. Among other things, I think I'm pretty sure I just need to not think about them at all anymore. Anyone want to just flat out buy them from me? Yes, you'd have to come up with a bunch of cash but, ya know, at least _*I*_ wouldn't have to make any decisions then!!! ARGH!!!! What pressure!!!
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On that note, I'm going to call it a night-- I'm going to bed a little early tonight after not being able to go to sleep early last night. Long story, partially clothed metropolitan area.
Gotta run!! Have a nice evening!!
Monday, January 8, 2001Thanks for the Toe-Crossing!!
I figure that had to do the trick to scare the rain away. Finger-crossing, by itself, wouldn't have been enough. I went for my bike ride tonight!! Yippeeeeee!!! I'm happy!! I'm also a bit on the tired side. I did my back-stretches and exercises when I got home (just like I'm supposed to) and, made my "I'll-cook-dinner-n-do-dishes" deal with Brian for him to finish the laundry.
I've cleaned off the table of the mosaic stuff cuz the housekeeper is coming tomorrow. I don't think there's that much else to clean up in the apartment but there's some stuff that Brian and I have to look up online tonight, i.e., airfare to San Diego (I'd rather drive--its cheaper!!) and stock/option stuff.
So, sorry for the short post but, I'm not sure how long I'll be a useful part of society tonight anyway.
While I try to stay upright, you have a nice evening!