Archive of Marcia's Musings July 19-, 2001Thursday, July 16-22, 2001
To Tell The Truth
A customer's attorney called me on Monday and said that the guy that had executed the agreement had been escorted out of the building and they had to void the contract because he should never have entered into it. I consulted with my director and, given the circumstances, i.e., he was "let go" because he had over-stepped his bounds (or so we were told), we could understand that there may be a need to cancel the contract.
On Wednesday, I got a phone call from them that said that they were going to cancel the maintenance renewal for which payment had just been sent by check. Okay . . . something seemed funny. I called John and he and I talked about it-- it was too weird. Something had to be happening and they weren't talking about it. When you need something from someone, it is best to be up-front about what you need so, I called the attorney back. I pointedly asked what was really going on and she said that their company was [this close] to declaring bankruptcy and they were trying to settle as many debts as possible to avoid it. Well, in the economy that we're suffering through right now, that made sense to me but, why hadn't she been honest with me from the start? She had a sense of confidentiality that she had to maintain with her company's financial condition and hoped we would forgive the indiscretion.
The service that they were getting from us, in addition to the software that they had purchased, is a service that monitors their website. The service was stopped on Tuesday when we made the decision to let them out of their contract. Today, we received a phone call from one of the engineers telling us that he was going to be running the program for monitoring their website and wanted to know how it worked. 'Scuze me??
Needless to say, I wasn't pleased. We have now had three scenarios of what is happening at this company told to us and none of us (the accounting people, John, or me) are happy about it! So we've turned them back on and we'll let them use the service and bill them for the higher amount later. We'll figure it out next week as the attorney "had a family emergency come up" or so we were told when we called the office today. Hmmmm . . . There gets to be a point where you start to question everything, ya know?
Move Update
No, there isn't much to tell you other than I found a "heavy-weight" shelf-liner that I ordered online and am waiting to ship. I'm going to give them a call tomorrow morning to find out when it will ship and hope its soon. Brian isn't going to put any pictures of the house up that we took last night-- apparently, because he didn't put the flash on, they didn't come out well. So you'll get progress pictures as we move in and unpack! Also, we will be going in several times over the first two weeks of August so I'm sure we'll get another chance to take pictures.
Things to Do
Yes, I know-- I'm manic!! I'm starting to pack and get things organized already but, if I don't do it, I won't sleep cuz I'll be thinking about it and, typically, my body doesn't like it when I do things like that to me. For that reason, I'm going to continue until I'm happy with the pace that's been established and our apartment is packed up.
Have a nice evening!
Wednesday, July 18, 2001Tying Up
Yep, those loose ends are getting tighter and tighter-- man, I sure hope they don't choke us!! The house is one step closer-- we've signed the lease and assorted and sundry other papers tonight. We get the keys in a couple of weeks and, four weeks from today we have to be out of the apartment. That shouldn't be a problem-- it'd be more difficult to keep us here until the 15th!!
After signing all of the papers, we measured and envisioned and tried to picture this and that and the next thing. Arranging furniture is going to be fun, indeed. We've got to decide where to put the cable connection in the living room and the bedrooms (which are henceforth referred to as "Brian's Office" and "Marcia's Office"); the master bedroom already has the cable installed (which would be the last place I'd ever put a television!). I measured all of the cupboards so I could have an idea of how much shelf liner to get and we stood and admired the appliances in the kitchen for awhile. I won't have to buy bottled water anymore-- there's a filter on the water in the refrigerator!
The property manager explained that there's going to be replacement fence, gates and concrete poured in the next couple of months. (For someone who doesn't want to talk about us getting a dog, he did caution us not to get a dog before they finish the fencing project in case the owner comes around! Nice guy!!) Brian will have some pictures up at his site later on tonight, I think, so you may want to check there later or tomorrow.
More of the Same
Work is back to being very busy-- non-stop at times and other times, I have to wait to get to people to get questions answered and situations resolved. I spent the vast majority of the afternoon writing a document which could end up being a one-off or a form-- no one's sure yet.
I know that I've had a headache since Sunday night that is constantly nagging at me and I'm beginning to get a little edgy as a result-- I think its got to do with stress but I couldn't tell ya for sure. Hmmm, do I have a stressful job or life? Me? Hmmmm . . . I may have to think about that for awhile. Yeesh!!
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Well, enough of this for tonight! I've got some ironing to get done and then, I'm going to take my time relaxing. Maybe if I could relax, I could get rid of my headache? Hey, its "How To" night so its worth a shot!
Have a nice evening!
Tuesday, July 17, 2001Did I ever tell you . . .
. . . I have a few faults-- no, I do not have many faults but I do have one or two in particular. I am a "List Maker". A List Maker makes lists for everything whether you need to bring one thing on a trip or 42 things, there is a list, somewhere in my computer that has been made for that particular purpose. Its weird, I know but I live with it. I can be a bit scattered and lose concentration easily when I have too many things to think about which is why I make lists so there really is a tie in to this whole thing.
At work, I am the most organized person and at home, other than my list making, I am not which is the most peculiar thing in the world, especially to my husband!! Well, as you can imagine, I've started making my lists for this move: I'm afraid it is going to monopolize my thoughts for the better part of three or four weeks so learn to live with it, okay? ;>) I've got my color-coded move stickers and I'm searching online for shelf liner that is appropriate and, in mass quantity, hopefully a little cheaper. Oh, yeah, this is going to be fun!!
Lynne Walder reminded me of a most horrendous part of the move: packing up my shoes!! Argh!! What will I do?? Of course, then there's my purses . . . no, we are not going to go there!! Well, even though Brian brought home boxes tonight, I won't actually start that until next week-- I don't want to get done with the packing too early, do I? Nah, gotta leave something for the last minute!!
Tomorrow, we go to the house to sign the papers and measure some stuff up-- I need to know where to tell Brian to move the cable but I need to measure the walls to tell where the TV will fit in the first place. (Yes, I've made a list of things to measure and a list of questions to ask the property manager.) This really is going to be fun-- as soon as we can figure out where the television is going to go!!
I've gotta feeling that besides being fixated on one topic, my postings are going to become shorter and a little scarce, especially on weekends!!
More Losses . . .
23.3 pounds, thanks! Hey, Barbara-- all that walking in Atlanta really paid off!! I have now lost weight 8 weeks in a row and needless to say, I'm very happy about it.
Thanks to ALL
So many of my readers wrote to wish us Congratulations on our upcoming Bundle-O-Joy. Thanks so much-- we're already trying to seek our resources locally to find shelters and humane societies with a high number of occupancies. As I said yesterday, anything we can do to help a little one on its last day is a good idea as far as I can see. We'll keep you posted but that won't happen until after the move is completed after August 15-- like maybe August 16??? ;>) Sounds good to me!!
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I've gotta go on line and find some more stuff for the move-- you have a nice evening!!
Monday, July 16, 2001All Is Revealed . . .
Okay, so here's the end of the mystery: We're MOVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, I'm not sure that its impolite to be this happy about moving from one rental to another but we're going to get rid of the people below and that's ALLLLLLL I really care about!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Let's be real: The stock market and the real estate market never agree but, if they should happen to come close to being in the realm of something that can be considered "Helping Us Out", we'll take advantage of it when the time is right and, at the end of the year's lease, get out and into a house of our own (or buy out the lease if the "close" is REALLY good!!). In the interim, I'm more than happy to rent someone else's house, with brand NEW appliances in the kitchen (including a gas range, side-by-side refrigerator, and stainless steel dishwasher), brand new linoleum, berber carpets, and completely renovated "insides" for a year!!!!!!!!!!
The bonus is that we get to have a "Little Bundle Of Joy" of our own in a few weeks' time!!!! Don't know what we're going to get but we are going to get SOMETHING. We believe in "rescuing" from a pound so that's where we'll go since those are usually the ones that are about to be destroyed and I can't bear that thought!! Gotta save 'em-- or at least, if we can save One, that's a Good Thing!!!!!!
So, that's the news I couldn't tell you on Saturday-- we'll sign papers on Wednesday and begin the moving process August 1. Brian's gotta get the wiring up to snuff and get things scheduled for the move with the various and sundry DSL and security providers so we've got plenty of time. We did give our notice to the complex yesterday-- they were surprised but it's their jobs to be out of touch with their tenants and reality, right? Right! That's why the vacancy rate is so high right now.
Search Parties
I've had some interesting searches since we're just a hair over half-way through the month. You can tell that people don't use quotation marks in their searches to hold topics together:
sandra bullock toes photos: I know, for a fact, that I have never ever made a comment about this topic!!
don cheadle's home address: Now, I ask you, why would I have this?? And, if I or anyone else had this information, do you really think they'd post it on the Internet????
tide report half moon bay: Man, do I have some of these people fooled that I know stuff like this or what??? ;>)
yosemite national park valley floor tour: Yupper, worth every nickle!! Where else can you see wall-nuts??
bilbrey farms inc.: Uh, honey, did you forget to tell me something about the garden at our new place?
fisherman's warehouse: Yup, excellent source for fishing supplies!
cabrillo hotel morro bay: I told those guys I'd blast 'em on the Internet for messin' with our reservation!! Hah!!! Another unsatisfied customer situation avoided!!!
will bilbrey pool: Not likely-- I don't think he knows how to play pool!!
People: Use quotation marks in search engines, will ya? And for those that don't, it is going to be an interesting month in the search category. As new and interesting topical searches arise, I'll let you know about them!
Feet of Flames
The performance last night was excellent!! I'd never seen Michael Flatley perform and, although the first act was a little shy in his appearances (only 3 times on stage), he made up for it in the second act. I was also surprised to see that it was essentially a story, played out as a ballet would be played out. It was a nice mix of Irish dance, ballet and a few other styles along the way, too. All-in-all, with the excellent seats that we had, it was a really great performance and well worth every dime the tickets cost!! We had perfect seats-- not too close, not too far. No wonder they called them "Gold Circle"!!
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I'm going to continue to make my lists to pack and get ready and organized for the move. If anyone knows where I can find a ton of shelf-liner (okay 6-10 rolls-- there's LOTS of cupboard space!), I'm looking for the Rubbermaid sticky-stuff. I know it has to be at Costco somewhere-- well, I've got four weeks to find it!!
Have a nice evening!!
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