Archive of Marcia's Musings October 22-28, 2001
Saturday, October 27, 2001
Wonderful Day!!
It was a gorgeous Autumn day here in Northern California. We woke up late for us-- 7:45am to the sound of our phone ringing. Cousin Barb was returning my call having forgotten all about the time zone differences!!
After breakfast and showers, I went out to look for Halloween treats for the kiddies that are bound to come by the house on Wednesday night. (We never got very many kids at the apartment but, I figure on this street, we'll get a lot of kids.) That creates a problem, however, due to the fact that many parents are concerned about letting their kids trick-or-treat because of possible poisoned candy. (I can see some weirdos doing that-- they've done it for years and this year, it is bound to be even worse!) In an effort to avoid that problematic worry for the parents and to keep us from eating up the difference between what's given out and what's left, this year, we're giving "bug" pencils and neon erasers. Much safer and certainly lower in fat and calories although higher in fiber if we try to eat them! ;>) I got enough for about 50 kids which should be enough-- when that's gone, the door is shut and the light goes off.
After I got home from that, Brian and I went to Grammy's house to help her. He painted the door frame while I went grocery shopping. In the meantime, my mother-in-law and the live-in helper stayed with Grammy. My mother-in-law sorted out the guest room where the live-in helper will stay. We were there a couple of hours starting laundry and sorting through things in the permanent guest room. Brian "scrubbed" the rug with a non-foaming carpet cleaner while my mother-in-law and I put things in the garage or boxes.
When we came home, even though our house needs to be cleaned, we took the afternoon off since we were both tired already. I, of course, took a nap which ended up being too long and now, after cleaning my office, I'm headed out to work on some crafts tonight. I've got some scanning to do for a friend later so that'll relax my shoulders when it gets closer to bedtime. I get tense muscles working with intricate things in the limited space in front of me but, yet, it is relaxing. Go figure!!
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Yes, by the way, I succeeded at winning in Trivial Pursuit and rummy last night!! What fun!!Have a nice evening!!
Friday, October 26, 2001Very Happy Camper
That phrase has extra special meaning to me this week-- man, I am really glad this week is over. So, today went better. It was still busy but it went better.
What happened yesterday is that the customer from Wednesday became even more unreasonable: they wanted unlimited transferability and, as I've said before, that is not possible with our software. The software that my company licenses is tied to a specific site and if we allow a transfer, it is under very limited circumstances. That's the difference between an application and a toolkit.
The AVP got so disgusted, he told me to flip everything back to our standard contract-- the allowances that had been given to them for transferability were completely removed. Site specification requirement stayed: period!
That's the agreement that I sent to the customer today and, about 6pm EDT, I received a phone call response from the customer's attorney: "This isn't the document that they expected to get." Oh, really? Ya think, huh? Hmmmm, who'da thunk?
Everything's tabled until Monday and, with the temper of the AVP (not my AVP), my guess is that they're (the customer) going to be lucky if they are even allowed to buy the software anymore!!
Progress
I'm making progress on Christmas ornaments and crafts-- lots of fun. Before I could start making my Christmas crafts and ornaments, I needed to organize my ribbons: you don't want to know how many different spools of ribbons I have or how many of the same one (there's a particular pattern that I like). Brian commented very casually: "Wow, it doesn't look like you'll need to buy any ribbon soon." He was very cool and casual about it-- silly guy!! I don't need ribbons but I do need . . . oh, I'm sure I could find something at the crafts store!!
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The gaming table awaits-- Trivial Pursuit (he'll probably win cuz I'm tired) tonight which should be fun and relaxing. You have a nice evening, too!
Thursday, October 25, 2001Nope-- Not From ME!!
You aren't gonna hear it-- from me. Let's just say that, by 7:10am, having talked to a sales rep, district manager and Area Vice President (for a region other than the southeast), I was walking around the house muttering and mumbling under my breath. Yes, Brian had a very worried and concerned look on his face-- he's a very considerate husband. All I'm gonna say is that I've had an unbelievable day!!
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Brian decided that he wanted to have snack night tonight so, I'm making cauliflower with cheese sauce (yes, the cheese sauce is high in points but it is worth it!). He's on his own but he has leftovers and lots of fattening food to eat, when he gets around to it.So, after dinner is finished, I'm heading off to the garage to continue my work on crafts and, as a result, I will have a glorious evening of crafting and classical musical. I hope you have a nice evening, too!
Wednesday, October 24, 2001Why Bother?
There's a woman in my department who had the flu this week. Her first thought: Anthrax.
Now, there are several things to point out: 1. She is Israeli and is extremely aware of biological weapons and threats; 2. She is not only a college graduate but a lawyer so she is not someone who is prone to paranoia; 3. She is 7 months pregnant. Oy!!
The thing that keeps running through my mind is this: Why did I quit smoking? Did I quit smoking so I could gain 50 pounds? Did I quit smoking so that I could die from biological warfare in the form of Anthrax, small pox or ebola 3 or 4 years later??? I don't think so!! I'm seriously re-thinking this, ya know? Unfortunately, the more I think about it the more depressing it gets so who knows the answer?
More of the Same
These last two days have been really rough!! I've had three major contracts going in negotiations and calls in between doing research, etc. Customers are demanding even when you've gone above and beyond the call of duty with getting the things that they want/need for the deal. You don't even want to get me started on their ungrateful attitudes!!! ARGH!!!! I need a dog so I've got someone to lick my face when I come home from work-- Yes, Brian offered to lick my face for me but it isn't the same thing!!
Is it me or what? My stress level seems higher than it has been before-- I was chatting with my sister tonight and started going off on her about all of the negotiations that I've been having for the last two days. She's a teacher, for crying out loud-- she doesn't "get" software license negotiations and smarter for her yet, she doesn't care!! Yet, there I sit, telling her all of the little nits of the negotiation and the "he-said, she-saids" of it. The poor woman!! No wonder she claimed to have papers to grade-- I'd prefer grading papers to hearing me going off, too!!! ;>)
Yeesh!!! We need a retreat and, yes, we are soon going to be taking one. Its a secret but you'll get pictures after so don't worry about it.
Weekend Plans Developing
I think Brian may have mentioned that Grammy took a tumble on Saturday last-- not a Good Thing for a 93-year old Grammy to do!! She has full-time live-in help now (YEAAAHHHH!!!!) so she'll be safer than living alone. We're going over on Saturday so Brian can help with some fix-it stuff around the house and I can be generally cheerful and sit and talk with her. I'm already looking forward to it-- maybe we can bring lunch with us? We'll have to see.
Sunday is a little more nerve-wracking-- for me!! Some long-time friends of Brian's that I've never met are coming over. They're in town visiting from Colorado. We are looking forward to it and I am a little nervous about it, too. I have to remember however that it is, afterall, a little too late for them to keep him from marrying me! Like-- way!! ;>)
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Okay, I'm getting silly-- time for some R-n-R! Have a nice evening!!
Tuesday, October 23, 2001Just like they always say . . .
Be careful what you wish for!! Man, were they right!! Today was a zoo!!! I was supposed to be on one call as an observer but had to decline that to bite into what developed in my late morning: a letter of intent; a master agreement; a professional services agreement; a license with the foreign entity of a US-based company and . . . and . . . Yowza!!! From about 11 on, I was either on a call or waiting on a call to start the whole time!!
On the call with the attorney for the US-based foreign entity, I started talking with him about the changes that were made to the document. Twenty minutes into the call, the first attorney apologized and excused himself from the call because he wasn't able to answer the questions since he hadn't edited the document. Everyone involved with the document (the sales rep, his manager and the end users) were under the impression that the document was edited by him but, apparently as we came to find out, it was edited by an of counsel attorney. He cut our conversation short saying that he would have to have the other person call me-- he apparently thought he could wing-it with my questions. Once the real editing attorney called, I was on the phone for an hour and a half working through the first draft. In the meantime, three other customers suddenly wanted their documents done and their conference calls either held or scheduled-- sorry, not gonna happen!! Oh, well, I was anything but bored today, that is for sure!!
Hands Slapped??
I finally had a chance to talk with John today about the sales rep from last week that wanted to sign documents-- again. John's reply to my inquiry about the situation was: "It has been handled". Hmmm, doesn't sound very much like fun and games to me-- how about you? That's all he would say and I wasn't about to push it. We'll see how that one goes in the future.
Calendar-Ized
I've just realized today that I've only got about five weeks to Thanksgiving-- I try to have my Christmas ornaments out by Thanksgiving and, frankly, I'm not ready to send them out!! I've got ornaments to make as well as ornaments to finish painting-- Argh!!! Speaking of which, while this is short, I'm gonna sign off so I can get back to it-- there is no rest for the creative, right? Yeah, sure!
Monday, October 22, 2001Uneventful . . .
In fact, work was downright boring!! I did things, don't get me wrong-- there was work to be done its just that it wasn't like an end of quarter month and, frankly, I miss that. Yes, I know: I'm a sick puppy but, its not like I've not told you that a few times.
The highlight of my day was a sales rep that chose to whine at me about something. My boss had told me one thing a few months back and so we went on that premise and, now, we've been told something else so it changes things and, in particular, changes the amount of work he (and I) has to do on the deal he's working. He whined at me in one phone call and, at the end, I said to him: "Do you feel better? I hope so because that's about all the good that whole five-minute schpiel is gonna do for ya." That, however, was not the end of it: he called back later to whine at me again but this time, I cut him short: "Hey," I said, "I gave you your five minutes to whine before-- neither of us has time to go through this again." "But-- but" was his reply to which I responded by saying: "We need to get over what cannot be done-- it cannot be undone because we were ALL told the wrong thing. We have to leave it alone and cope and go on with our jobs." Yeesh!! What a whiner!! Yes, it continued into a third and fourth phone call but, it is getting to be more constructive-- every time he tries to say, "If we only knew about this X-months ago . . ." I just cut him off by telling him to get over it. Man, life is too short!!
Bicycling/Televiewing
I started my day with my bicycling and watching the news-- it seemed to go a bit faster since I was capable of more distraction. We've now got the heater programmed so that we don't have a house that's too cold overnight so it took me a little longer to cool down this morning with the heater running. My knee is still hurting-- a dull aching really-- but I'm not going to stop cycling since it doesn't hurt while I'm cycling. I need the "practice" for hiking or fishing or something . . . Brian and I are going to go away for a fishing/hiking trip in the future and I'll need to be in shape for it.
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Thanks for stopping by-- I've gotten quite a few emails lately from the readership and I really appreciate it. If you haven't had a chance to look at my Trip Report from "My Cousin's Vacation in California", feel free to do so-- there are some great shots of SanFrancisco Bay Area scenery in there. Enjoy!!
I guess that's a good way to start our week, eh? I thought so, too. Have a nice evening!
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