Archive of Marcia's Musings March 12-18 , 2001
Sunday, March 18, 2001
Pledge of Honor
I hereby pledge on the honor of my husband's Linux-based computer to not put spaces in file names anymore ever again so help me Linus.
Okay, I think that about covers what happened to the pictures yesterday, eh?
So where was I?
Oh, yeah-- the birthday party!!! It was just the four of us and the two kids but we had so much fun. Mike and Barb are such a pleasure to talk with, even if we don't know that much about "The Sopranos". We had such a good time playing with the kids, too. At one point, we played the game "Where's . . . " with Robbie. Where's Uncle Brian? and he'd point to Brian. Where's Aunt Marcia? and he'd look at me and smile. Where's Robbie's ear? and he'd point to his ear. Where's Robbie's nose? and he'd point to his nose? Where's Robbie's knees? and he pointed to his tongue!!! Too FUN!!!
For some reason, totally unknown and unusual, Alex decided she h
ad to play shy when getting her picture taken. Brian snuck a couple of shots at her during the course of the day but, she was fairly successful at being out of the view of the camera most of the day. She wasn't very good at finding hiding places but not her usual self when it comes to picture taking, let's say.
My Grand Plan
To start with, let's just say that, well, it sorta worked. Remember last year when I kept threatening to go on LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGG bike rides on Saturdays or Sundays?? Well, I did one today, finally. I know-- its only March so where does the "finally" come in? Well, just the fact that I've talked about doing it for so long.
I have to figure out how to do this though because I live in the city and, on the edge of the foothills of the mountains. I'm used to riding on flat city streets-- I can go for miles on that as has been proven over and over again. Its the hills that are going to kill me!!! I'm "pedaling" uphill at (please don't laugh!!) a measly 4.2mph and flying down the other side at 22.3mph!!! What a contrast!!! I have to figure out how to do this so that I can go and not get worn out in the first half hour of it.
I also have to get over the men and women who go flying by me with their skinny-tired bikes!!! Okay, so if you'll recall, I learned about shifting and how to use the gears to get up a hill only last year so putting this all into practice in reality is a bit different. I'm working on it!! Afterall, its only March and I've done my first almost-10 mile ride. I'm hoping I'll be able to do more of those kinds of rides this year.
One ride that'll be happening this week is a ride home from work for me. On Tuesday, Brian has a meeting to go to at 3:30 so I'll need to hitch a ride with someone or ride my bike. Riding my bike seems like the most viable option. I have a 7 mile ride from my office to home; I'll stop at Weight Watchers about 5 miles into the ride and then do the last two miles after the meeting. I'm actually looking forward to it!
Weather Report
It has been such a gorgeous day today!!! As I write this post (at 5:30pmPST), it is 82 degrees with a light breeze. We've got the ceiling fan going in the dining room and the windows open. GORGEOUS!!!
Spring has sprung but hopefully, not right past us-- I'd still like to see a bit more flower blooming weather!
Loose Ends
As I said last night, I watched "Magnolia" last night. Lots of questions if anyone wants to say that they've got the answers, I'd be more than happy to listen to an explanation of the frogs. Especially the frogs. I'd really like an explanation for the whole movie but . . . especially the frogs. I'm not usually a slow person or dumb when it comes to plot twists. This, however, is even a bit beyond my realm of understanding. I have to honestly say as well that it is the first time that I've ever really disliked a Tom Cruise character in awhile-- not since "Born on the 4th of July".
At Costco today, I bought "The Kid"; I think Leah recommended it to me so I'm looking forward to that in a few weeks, too.
Other than that, there's an old-time recipe of my mother's on the menu tonight. I hope it'll taste as good as I remember it. If not, it won't be back!!
Have a nice evening!!
Saturday, March 17, 2001Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
I can hear the question now: "Why isn't she using GREEN?????" Because I'm not Catholic!!! I'm protestant but my grandfather (my mother's father) was Irish, and I believe from Ireland but I don't know because he died long before I was born. My sister, Karen, knew him but she was very young when he died so she probably doesn't remember much.
My mother told me long ago that I wasn't to wear green on St. Patrick's day and, to this day, I do not do so. Our administrator at work loves to decorate for every holiday but I wouldn't let her come near my cubicle unless she could find some decorations in orange! Needless to say, she never hung anything up around my area!
Birth-Days!!
As previously mentioned, we went to Sacramento to see Brian's sister's family. Barb and Mike have been married umpteen-gazillion years but are still very young-- one of those couples who were always meant to be together, ya know?
NOW I CAN TELL YOU A SECRET CUZ IT ISN'T A SECRET ANYMORE:
We were going to go up to celebrate Alexandra's birthday on Sunday until Mike called to tell us that we could do that but we wouldn't be seeing them-- he was taking Barbara "away from it all" for a romantic trip for just the two of them!!! Isn't that wonderful!!! And after all of those years of marriage!! Mike is certainly setting a standard for us "out-laws", eh? I think the rest of us-- meaning, me-- can live up to it!!Okay, well, to tell you about Alexandra's birthday surprise-- and I just realized we didn't get a picture of him-- we handed her a card and a small gift for which she profusely thanked us. Then, we told her that someone was waiting for her in the car-- he wanted her to come get him out of the car cuz he was shy. We all walked out to the car and, there he was, the rest of her birthday present: a 3-foot tall "Scooby-Doo"!!! Ruh-Roh, indeed!!! Scoob and Alex were, of course, fast and furious friends!! Her smaller present was a joke that she needs to use on Bob when he arrives with Granmartha to take care of them while Barb and Mike go away. (Its a handshake buzzer-- but I didn't tell you, okay? Its a secret so that Bob is surprised tomorrow!)
We had a nice visit while the kids played in the yard and Brian took pictures and showed them the pictures and, apparently took a picture of himself to show them, too. I did explain that they (the kids and he) are the same age, haven't I? Yeah, well-- its my life and I have to live it!!!
We had a good time and headed back down about 3pm this afternoon. Its always so great to see them-- Barb and Mike are fun and the kids are always a blast!!!
Oooh, you know what else: I received a box of note cards which are toooo cute from them for a belated birthday present!! Neat little book-box, too!! I can't wait to use them-- oh, I can send them a card saying "Thank you for the gift"!! I can't wait already!!!
I'm off to watch "Magnolia"-- curiosity more than anything else. Thanks for coming by tonight; I'll put up a few more pictures tomorrow and see if my Grand Plan comes out or not!
Have a nice evening!!
Friday, March 16, 2001
Virtually Immediate Update!!Wow!!!
It has been another one of those days!!! I am one of five negotiators at my office; I am usually the least busy of the negotiators at my office. If my day is any example of busy, the rest of them must be going nuts!!! What was that some non-financial whiz said at Cisco the other day: the sales of software and hardware is going to go down. Yeah, right-- it must someone else's sales that's gonna go down cuz our sales aren't going anywhere near that direction!!!
After getting in before 7, I had the document from yesterday's conference call ready to roll out to the customer by 8:30. By this time, too, I'd fielded about at least 7 phone calls-- some day I need to count how many phone calls I get at work. If I did, and publish the number, I'm sure you would understand why I don't answer the phone at home. Usually, Brian grabs the phone before I can get to it-- its a rare occasion when I answer it first! I had the 20 or so incoming emails in my inbox answered by about 9:30 and at least another 10 phone calls. That brings me to 9:30 and believe me, it just got worse from there!!! I was able to check my personal email one time this morning.
In my 14 or 15 months of being with this company, this is the busiest end-o-quarter that I've ever experienced and I love it!!! I am having fun being busy and talking with customers and drafting agreements and drafting emails and . . . the list is endless!!! I went into my director's office today and just smiled at her; she said: "What's wrong?" (That would be the logical response I suppose) I said: "I just wanted to tell you that I really love my job!" and I turned and walked out of her office. I heard her cracking up laughing at me as I walked away. I work for a really neat person, too, which helps in the "enjoyment" category.
Recruitment
I've been busy lately, as noted above but on Wednesday, John Dominik sent me an email and copied his wife, Ann, on it which started a string of conversations with Ann. Well, I gotta tell ya, I've been having some interesting conversations with her even though for the last two days, they've been pretty one-sided since I haven't been keeping up my end of the communication very well.
But, I digress . . . Ann is a wonderful, humorous conversationalist and, frankly, I'm trying to get her to join the bandwagon of the Netwidows-- she complained the other day that she didn't know if she'd get to post because HE's always on the computer. Well, obviously, she qualifies to be a Netwidows member, doesn't she? Then I reminded her that in an email or a post recently, I read that John has five or six computers so I figured he should give one up to her and, BOOM-- she's got a computer to use for her post!!!
Okay, so . . . since I know John publishes his email address all the time (and I can't get ahold of Ann to ask for her permission to publish her email address), I'm going to suggest that each and every one of YOU email Ann at John's email address and tell her to JOIN NETWIDOWS!!!!! She would be a great addition to the group!!
As an example of the humorous nature of Ann, I have permission to "publish" a story that Ann told me came from John the other day:
I shared that with my office workers (yes, John, I did!!) and they loved it!!! We need more stories like this, just to keep all of our men humble so, please encourage Ann to join the Netwidows!!John sent me an email today he is going to regret. The first line was "You were right. I admit it." I told him I was never going to delete it and use it to regularly beat him over the head. He replied, why are you surprised. There are 2 gates into heaven, one says "Women" the other says "You were never right, but go ahead anyway you stupid schmuck."By the way . . .
Didja ever notice that when one of the guys refers to us--the wives-- they don't include a link but whenever we refer to them, we include a link? Hmmmm... interesting, isn't it?
Plans for the Weekend
Well, as I've mentioned several times, we'll be going to Sacramento tomorrow and then Brian's off to a geek meeting on Saturday. I've told him that the reason that this group meets on Saturday night is so that they can tell their co-workers that they have "plans for the weekend" and sound like they actually have a life. Why else would they meet on a Saturday night?? Yeesh!!! Anyway, I'm going to be doing some reading and, if we remember to bring the camera, some picture-posting tomorrow night but, Sunday is the Big Plan. I'm not going to tell you about it however since I'm afraid plans will backfire on me.
More as time and fear progress . . .
Have a nice evening!!
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Just heard from John Dominik . . .
Hey - Her Yahoo is OK to give out, though we have a new one - TheFlipGoddess@hotmail.com. Her web-page should be on-line in a bit, I hope. Still mucking with things here...Cool!!!! Hey, Keri-- send her the "WELCOME PACKAGE"!!!!Excellent!!!!! Go see Ann NOW!!!! Wow!! They work fast!!! ;>)
Thursday, March 15, 2001
It is our niece's birthday today!!! Alex is FIVE years old!!!! We're going to go up to visit her on Saturday and we'll bring her birthday gift with us. It'll be a lot of fun to see her, as usual, and a bonus will be to see her parents and brother, too!!
See you then, Alex!!!
Busy, Busy Day!!!
It just keeps getting busier and busier at work-- this is a good thing!!! (I still haven't figured out why Cisco said the internet and internet-related business were going to suffer-- we aren't!!) When I came in, I had two documents on my desk; an hour later, I had 7 and two hours later, I was in a 2-hour staff meeting followed by a conference call. Two of the contracts are from the Northeast, two are from the west, one is from the central region, two new ones from my own region and then there are the Non-Disclosure Agreements that are stacking up!!!!!
The conference call that I was on included the Chief Operating Officer of our company!!! He had traveled to Virginia to meet specifically with this customer and, meet he did-- he apparently brought an army of people with him, in addition to having me and the director on the phone in California. Interesting conversation, too!!! We walked out with a purchase order so I guess that's all that counts!!! :>)
And After . . .
The poor confused guy I carpool with had to try to figure out when to pick me up-- I needed to finish the document before I left tonight. When I left the office, I was going to a dentist appointment (another pre-operative) so Brian had to know when to pick me up. I finished the revisions that I needed to do about 30 minutes before I needed to leave so, I was set. Brian picked me up and I rode my bike to the dentist's office. There's not a bike rack there so, after I secured my front tire and bike to the bolted-down bench that was by the elevators, I took off the seat and headed up to the dentist's office. I think that's the last time that I have to go back until I have my surgery on the 2nd. I can hardly wait-- frankly, I'm getting a little tired of going there but I know I haven't even hardly started. The good news is that they are very nice people which makes going there a whole lot easier!!
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I'm tired and very grateful that its Friday tomorrow. Brian had a large late lunch due to leftovers so I've had "snack night" which consisted of 2 bagels with cream cheese-- light cream cheese, thanks! Tomorrow night we'll do healthy, okay?Before I sign off for the night: everyone remember to send Happy Thoughts, Prayers, or Whatevers to Shelley's friend, Traci. Traci's had her first chemo treatment for breast cancer today-- not an easy thing to do but with Shelley's help, I'm sure she'll fare well.
Take care of each other and have a nice evening!
Wednesday, March 14, 2001Booting
This morning I had to do a hard-boot on my system-- where's that re-set button again? Man, I hate that. I had to do it though cuz everything was screwed up. No, I know this wouldn't happen if I were on a Linux box but, until there is a sufficient Linux replacement for Outlook's Contacts (the only thing I use it for), Quicken's online connection to our bank and something that works with my Palm, that ain't gonna happen. Okay, the Palm may have something that would work with it but, I haven't looked and besides, without the Outlook Contacts working with it, it still wouldn't help me any. So, until something better comes along, I'll use Windoze.
As I said last night, Michael Flatley's "Feet of Flames" on PBS was wonderfully fun to watch!! Brian describes it as the "LasVegas of Riverdance" but it is still amazing to watch the dancing!! He is going to be in the area here in the next few months which I didn't know about until I watched last night so I'm going to start to try to find tickets NOW-- I would love to see this show!!!
Preparations are Underway . . .
Last night I went through a catalog to buy some movies-- I bought quite a few movies, too. Why? Because I have oral surgery coming up in a few weeks that will have me down for about a week with nothing to do except watch movies so I need to have some fresh ones to watch, right? I bought the Lethal Weapon 4-pack series-- I've always wanted those and haven't watched them in quite a long time and I bought several movies that I haven't seen-- ever. Since I've never seen them and I'm buying them, I sure hope I like 'em!! I'll let you know next month I guess, eh?
BTW, when that surgery happens (on April 2), I will be down, I would think, for at least two days. I don't see much point in posting what it feels like to be on Vicodin . . . perhaps that's something that you, my gentle readers, would like to know so, while I could be wrong, I would think it wouldn't be a good thing to let you in on so I won't be posting then.
Reciprocated Praise
Today, for a change, I got to praise one of my sales reps to his management and to my AVP. He talked a customer out of wanting something by using his intellect and good business sense; he didn't even try to talk them into buying MORE of anything. I was really proud and amazed and, when I got the opportunity to tell his management that he did what he was supposed to, I fired off an email in that direction. The funny part was that his manager wrote back to praise us both!! Interesting, huh? Some things can just plain be rewarding, ya know?
Oh, and on the customer in Saskatchewan? One phone call . . . and one faxed letter. That's all it took. Nope, can't justify a business trip on that, can you? Nope. Bummer!!
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Organized begging tonight on PBS and nothing on the roster that I want to watch. We support both the SFO and San Jose stations here in an annual contribution so we don't necessarily pledge when they have the pledge breaks in the season. The part that ticks me off is that we'll miss "How To" night for tonight. Oh, well, there will be other times and, of course, there's always my new magazine "Today's Hmeowner Solutions". If only it were true!! Ah, well, we'll get there!
Have a nice evening!
Tuesday, March 13, 2001More of the Same
At work, it was business as usual. I finished up the document that needs to go back to the customer tomorrow; he's the one I surprised by calling him on the phone yesterday. My director forwarded an Australian document to me which is pretty interesting to work with and very good as far as challenging me is concerned. Oh, and the AVP and the country manager have decided to contact the CIO at the company where "Mary" works to let him know how she treats vendors. Mary will probably not fare too well with the CIO after that one, I'm pretty sure. There's also a new set of terms and conditions that I have on my desk. It is with a Saskatchewan school and, yes, Leah, I offered to go negotiate the agreement in person but, the deal isn't big enough to warrant it!! Bummer, eh?
And then . . .
I rode my bicycle to Weight Watchers which is 2.04 miles from our apartment; I never knew that before so I'm glad I remembered to clock it for a change. Even round trip (4.08) miles wouldn't be long enough for my regular run so, since I couldn't stay for the meeting (I'll explain that in a minute), I went on a bit of a side-tracked ride home going over 6 miles all together.
I couldn't stay for the meeting because I forgot my locks!! I have two locks, one to attach my bike to the pole and one to keep the front tire attached to the bike, that I was carrying with me last year when I would ride my bike to the meeting. I completely forgot them until I was almost there!! By then, I was past the "Point of No-Return" so . . . Muriel, the leader, let me bring my bike in (which was good because I would've had to leave if it weren't for that) but, I didn't feel comfortable leaving it behind the table where they let me park it and she wasn't pleased so I just decided to leave to go home.
As it turns out, instead of the usual fast food that we do on Tuesday nights after my meeting (I still stay within my points range, too!), I cooked boneless pork chops in place of the chicken in the recipe for my Rosemary Chicken-- really delicious!! It was extra delicious because I paired the pork chops with a potato concoction that Brian thought of in lieu of a recipe that I didn't have the ingredients for and, for me, a rare glass of Chardonnay with dinner. Nummy!!
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Once again, I've gotta hit the showers-- "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" is going to be on tonight. The programmers are just doing this to make me crazy thinking that its already Friday tomorrow when its only Wednesday. Not fair at all!!
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Much to my chagrin, they were lying about "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"!!! Instead, because it is pledge time (and yes, we are members) on one of the PBS stations, I'm watching "Michael Flatley's Gold". Wow!!! What I would give to see that LIVE!!!! (Oh, wait, he's going to be at the San Jose Arena in July!!! Yes, I'm going to try to get tickets!!!!)Have a nice evening!!
Monday, March 12, 2001Ruh-Roh!!!
Instead of mailing Alexandra's present to her as mentioned in my post yesterday, we are going to be bringing it up to her this weekend. As a result, I have "someone" watching me as I write this post . . . but it is okay cuz he's really pretty quiet!! ;>)
That's Another Way to Put It
This morning, I started my day off with a good chuckle: The AVP involved in the call on Friday called the "other office" of our customer from Friday to do the research that he said he would do. It turns out that not only is the New York location NOT a subsidiary office as the customer claimed, they are using the software that the customer is attempting to transfer.
Well, it turns out that this AVP dislikes lying just about as much as I do and, after further discussion with the country manager involved on this deal, it should be interesting to see how this one ends up. Nary a dull moment!!
Other than that, its busy-ness as usual at work these days. I am really enjoying it, too.
I had a customer whom I told I would call or send him an redlined document to by today; I wasn't going to make that so I called him to tell him that I was waiting on input from other people and hoped to be able to get him something by Wednesday. He was floored: He couldn't believe that I called him to give him an update. Apparently good manners don't usually come into play when it comes to being professional?? Not in my book!! I'm glad I called him-- because I called him, I may have a negotiation advantage at a later time. I think he understands that the form he's given us is a Software Application license rather than a Software Toolkit license. That's the problem with most of the changes that I've made-- only a few of the changes have been due to business terms in general but mostly because of the way that we license a Toolkit as opposed to an Application.
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And with that, I'm off to the showers: In our 76degree temperature I was able to have a really good workout on my bike ride today. I really enjoyed it, too, needless to say.
Have a nice evening!
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