Archive of Marcia's Musings September 3-9, 2001Sunday, September 9, 2001
Lazy Day
Its not like there have been a plethora of them around lately, ya know-- I've decided that I will do essentially nothing today. I'm gonna try to get to my crafts desk because I'd like to start pulling some stuff together for Christmas gifts but that depends on if I can clear a path to it. [That part of the garage has been a staging area for trash which we seem never to run out of after moving. We got the "extended" service so that we could put out more than one barrel per week however, we seem to have enough for four barrels per week so there's always something left that can't go out. That's the stuff that ends up in front of my crafts desk that I want to clear away today.]
Anyway, other than clearing that out, which is sorta work, I'm planning to do nothing at all. Natali is thinking maybe to go back to San Luis Obispo-- its been nice having her around for a visit again. She won't be back until December with her folks (Sue and Bill will be coming here for a visit, too) so it is nice to spend time with her when we can. I've got groceries to get later on, too but . . . yes, I know, its beginning to not sound like a lazy day, isn't it?
Oh, well, we'll see how it works out . . . ya never know. Have a nice one!
Saturday, September 8, 2001Short-n-Sweet
Today has been a busy day-- we've (Natali & I) re-potted plants while Brian's been working on the lawn. He is very meticulous about putting it in-- my father would be very proud of him. (There are a lot of things that Brian does that make me think that to myself-- my father would really like Brian a lot.) Anyway, we started out with a run to Home Depot for some lawning supplies (sod prep & seed cover) and some new plants for a hanging basket now that fall is upon us. The hanging baskets, in the location we had them at the house, get full sun and Impatiens cannot take full sun so we got some verbena (purple and pinkish-red) that I think will look great. We re-potted the VERY rootbound spider plants into much bigger planters and started some chives and a few other things. Hopefully, everything will take their transplant well.
Tonight, we're out for dinner-- either Chinese food (our favorite restaurant, of course) or Mexican-- we'll all be hungry, that's for sure.
I know this is short but not much more to write about-- have a nice afternoon and evening!
Friday, September 7, 2001Tempted into Bed!!
I am writing this portion of my post before I go to work: my hours are later (roughly 8am to 5:30 or 6pm at the office) so I've got a bit of time to kill this morning. Why do I have extra time? Because Brian tempted me back into bed this morning when I tried to get up to go bicycling! He said "Maybe it would be a better idea if you didn't bicycle every day". Well, I'm sorry-- I'm human-- tell me not to get out of bed and, by gum, I won't!! I got back into that nice warm bed and we stayed there for another half hour or so!! Now, of course, I feel guilty for not having bicycled but, I'm warmer!!
Typical, eh?
My niece, Natali, has let us know that she is going to be coming up for the weekend: She'll be arriving Friday or Saturday and leaving Sunday or Monday. Decisive, don'tcha think? Yes, I had to chuckle at that one, indeed-- sounds so much like me when I was her age!
Anyway, when she comes up this weekend, it'll be the last time since she is heading off to Brazil to live with her folks for a few months (she'll be teaching ESL classes and making a mint with the business crowd!). Following that, according to this week's plan, she'll be going to the University of Michigan in December (probably more like January) to finish her degree in Sociology (or was it Psychology?). Then, she'll end up back in California when that's done. Ah, to be young again.
Later that same night . . .
. . . No, I realize you don't know that I typed the above earlier today. As it turns out, I think I'm going to start doing a morning and evening post-- that would probably be the easiest way to do this thing with my new schedule. That way, I'm not posting at 9:30 at night and trying to cram all of the memories from the day into one post which can be trying to say the least!! So, starting Monday, I'll be doing twice-daily posts in the morning and evening. Watch for it, 'kay? 'Kay!!
Busier and Busier
My workload is getting busier and busier-- I reviewed a document that's going to require that I amend it today and spent two hours drafting out the points that are going to be in the Amendment. There are going to be approximately 40 paragraphs that need to be altered. No, the customer isn't going to like it but, I spoke with him the other day and told him that "its just not the way that we do business anymore so, we have no choice but to alter the agreement, one way or the other". The one way is to amend the existing document and the other way is to replace the document that's old with the document that we're currently negotiating for another of our services. He doesn't want to do the latter but said he would look at what we had to offer in the way of an Amendment. We really can't license the software the way the old document has us doing it-- an example is a one year warranty (in this industry, NO ONE gives a one year warranty on software)-- even the accounting department has figured out that things have got to change with this document! Now, I just have to spend the weekend preparing the Amendment and convincing the customer of it next week. Should be fun, eh?
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My niece, Natali has arrived, toured the house, eaten dinner and is resting in the living room as I write this-- you'll forgive me but I must go spend some time with her now as it'll be a long time before she's back for another visit!
Have a nice evening!
Thursday, September 6, 2001Happy Birthdays ALL Around!!!
Here we are with another day with a bunch of birthdays in it-- well, okay, two may not be a bunch but, oh, well!! Who today, you ask? Well, Miss Danielle Syroid has turned today!!! Anyone else??? Well, let's see: Perhaps that adorable YOUNG cousin of mine that'll be visiting us next month? Yep, you guessed it!! My cousin, Barb, is having a birthday today, too!!
Happy Birthday to both of these lovely ladies!!
Still Looking . . .
Remember a week or so when I asked for tips on how to gain three to four hours a day each day? Well, in response to that request, Barbara Thompson suggested that I set my watch (and all surrounding clocks) to Eastern Daylight Time. Hmmm, I think that wouldn't work for long because somewhere along the line, I'd still end up losing out on some time.
The sad part is that she was the only one with a suggestion!! Come on people-- I need help!!! Speaking of the aforementioned birthdays, I'm so outta time that I didn't remember to call either of the Birthday Girls!! Barb called me tonight and so did Danielle-- Yeesh!!! This is not good!!
HELP!!!!
Bicycling in the Morning
For the last two mornings, I have arisen from our nice warm bed to put on bicycle pants, tennis shoes, t-shirt, sweatshirt, helmet and gloves to go bicycling in the morning, before I go to work. I'm doing this because, once the time changes back to standard time, I won't be able to bicycle at night. Of course, then you might think my excuse will be that its too cold but, frankly, it was already too cold this morning!!! While I'm riding my bike, my upper body gets and stays warm but my legs don't-- they stay cold throughout the whole ride!!! Tomorrow morning, in addition to the items noted above that I don, I will be adding a pair of sweat pants over my bicycle pants to (hopefully) warm my legs or at least, make it a little more tolerable.
Some of the funny bits about riding in the morning are that there is (thankfully) no smell at the KFC that I ride by-- however the Starbucks is making me crazy!!! Unlike the evening rides when I have about 50-100 cars passing me in a half mile's distance (and I ride 6 miles so we're talking about a lot of cars in one night's travel!), I'm pretty certain that I don't even see 50 cars through the whole ride (I'm gonna try to remember to count tomorrow morning!). (Believe me, that makes for a safer, quieter and more peaceful ride!!) I am actually enjoying lingering over my coffee and reading my virtual newspaper-- I always thought that I had to get to the office and I'm finding that I enjoy taking my time getting into work. And, while I am enjoying lingering over my coffee and taking my time getting into work, I'm only getting there an hour later than I was getting to work last week!! That is probably the most surprising part-- I would've thought that it would make me crazy not to be the first one at the office and, I really expected that I wouldn't be at the office until 8:30 or 9. I'm actually getting to the office around 8 which isn't that bad as far as this "morning person" is concerned.
Philosophy, Revisited
This was sent to me in the recent past; I've read it before but, for purposes of reminding myself, it bears repeating:
A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks right to the top, rocks about 2" diameter.Doggie UpdateHe then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them in to the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The students laughed.
He asked his students again if the jar was full? They agreed that yes, it was. The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
"Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life. The rocks are the important things- your family, your partner, your health, your children- anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed.
“The pebbles are the other things in life that matter, but on a smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff.
“If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important.
“Pay attention to the things that are critical in your life. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal."
Take care of the rocks first- the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand.
I'm still working on getting one of the dogs next door to like me-- there is usually not a dog around that doesn't like me but, the people who rented the house before us had two pitbulls that terrorized the dogs next door. The two dogs next door (Jillie & Dora) have never gotten over it and those other people haven't been here for more than 6 months. Dora is charmed-- she's a sweet Irish setter but Jillie is half-wolf (yes, WOLF!!) and half German Shepherd and is trying to protect her pack (the family, William & Angela and kids). Every time we go over there, she goes nuts-- if we're outside in front of our house, she goes nuts!! I've been trying to win her over with bribery (doggie biscuits) and sweet talk but it is going to be a long process.
In an effort to move the "getting over it" process along, this evening Angela brought The Girls over to show them that "Felony" and "Bondo" have moved (yes, those were the names of these people's dogs!!!) and weren't here to be mean to them anymore. Hopefully, Jillie'll figure it out-- eventually. We were both there doling out biscuits and petting and talking with the dogs trying to win them over.
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I spoke with Leah on the phone tonight-- she is really busy these days (with family and Susie and work and . . . LOTS of stuff!) and, thinks she'll get around to posting again someday. The Netwidows credo says something like posting when you can because life does get in the way sometimes. Well, life's doing that to Leah now but she'll be back-- eventually!!
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With that said, its nearly 9:30pm and I've got our new bedside lamps to put together. Yeesh, I am never going to catch a break!!
Have a nice evening!
Wednesday, September 5, 2001Fax Spamming Common, Eh?
Well, I don't feel too bad now-- John Dominik commented on my post last night that at his company, the fax machine is turned off unless they are expecting a fax. Unfortunately, this isn't feasible for me but, if it ever becomes a possibility, I will be the first to jump on it!! I suppose I should consider myself lucky that this isn't worse than one or two pages a day-- Oy, the stories that John can tell!!
Work From Home
Well, I hafta tell ya: if anyone ever says that when you work from home, i.e., telecommuting, you don't work as hard, they need to be corrected cuz they are SOOOOO wrong!!! With the exception of one document that I couldn't convince to open up (it was done in a format that my computer didn't recognize), I was able to get all of my work caught up. The most critical was a document that one of my sales reps needed to be reviewed from the bad ol' agreement days, prior to when they had actual negotiators that knew what they were doing. It was incredibly obvious that the person negotiating on my company's side wasn't familiar with software licensing-- this is not, needless to say, a document that we want to keep in place going forward. Not good indeed!!
Speaking of negotiators knowing what they are doing, John made a comment to me today: he said, "I couldn't do what you do-- how do you do this every day?" Needless to say, we were waiting for a conference call on a long-dragged-out agreement to start. He's a little tired at the length of time it has taken to get the agreement settled but, to show you the spirit of the opposition that I'm dealing with, on a separate call with the same customer that took place after John was off the phone, the customer's attorney said to me: "I think that change is okay but, if I think about it when I get off the phone, I may change my mind." Oh, yeah, I think we all know why this negotiation has been dragging on and on for so long. Yeesh!!
Virus Messages
This morning when I logged into my computer, I had 22 new emails-- 3 were actual emails and 19 were virus emails. Yes, indeedy-- the "As Per Your Request" virus showed up on our computers today!! It was so fun-- NOT!!-- I'll bet I had over a hundred emails generated just from that stupid email virus!!! Yes, I set up a "Rules Wizard" to the Deleted Items file but, man, what a waste of bandwidth!!
I'm not sure it is related or not but, at one point, the entire email system at the office went off line so I was pretty glad I was at home!! Not a good day at the office, apparently!!
New Sewing Machine
My new sewing machine has arrived!! Last night I made curtains for the garage door and window (yes, it was Brian's idea!). They are a medium color but made from a broadcloth so they are heavy and thick and can't be seen through from the outside. They look nice but, more importantly, I have my new sewing machine!!! I'd offer to sew something for any one of you, my gentle readers, but, I'd have to steal 3 to 4 hours out of your day to do it and then, where would you be?
Okay, I've now spent 12 hours in front of my computer-- I'm sick of it and I'm going to leave. Brian's cooking dinner (after having turned some more of the back yard) so I'm gonna go catch some news and see if I can power nap for a bit.
Thanks for coming by-- have a nice evening!
Tuesday, September 4, 2001Happy Birthdays All Around!!
Not one but TWO of my brothers-in-law are having birthdays today: First, my sister's (Karen) husband, Ron is having a birthday and my husband's brother, Pete, is also having a birthday!!! Happy Birthday to both of you!!!!
Fax'd Spam?
I quite often hear the guys on the Daynotes Gang comment about the spams that they get but, has anyone ever received spam that's faxed to them? Besides the fact that I have repeatedly called all four of the 800 numbers provided to have my fax number removed from the company's listings, I have even gone so far as to contact the company for whom they are representing this to be a service of: DirectTV. Ya know, I knew there had to be a reason that I preferred cable to satellite dish but had no idea it had anything to do with the intellect of the companies that run the local offices!! Man, these people are STUPID!!!!!!!
I've got email in to the "head" office of DirectTV along with faxes of the faxes and emails to the local consumer reporting assistance line at one of the SanFrancisco TV stations. Maybe, just MAYBE I'll get lucky and someone will help these people to understand how flippin' annoying they are to "potential customers". The very last service I would ever use for a satellite dish is either of the companies (I think there are two although their faxes are unclear) is DirectTV-- if their employees are too stupid to handle removal of a fax number from their "spamming" lists, the last thing I'm going to do is buy their services so that they can either mess with my credit or my credit cards!!! I do NOT think so, Tim!!!
Experiment is at Hand
Well, the never before is about to be tried: Tomorrow I'm going to work from home. I've brought all of the files, my computer, and even emailed some of the documents to me at home so that I can work on them from my preferred split-keyboard. I've got a bunch of documents to work on and everyone keeps calling me at the office. I'm going to change my voicemail message in the morning so that it says that I'm working from my home office but to leave a message and I'll return calls periodically. It may be the only way that I'll get any work done!!!
Yes, it was another busy day in the contracting neighborhood today-- annoyingly so, as a matter of fact. I had an okay-conference call with one customer but, a little disappointed at the way part of it came out. That added to my workload as I now have to revise the original customer agreement in addition to working the new document as well. I'm not pleased, needless to say. This just added to the reasoning behind NOT working from the office tomorrow. I'm going to get something done if it kills me!! Hopefully, it won't get to that point but, you know my flair for dramatics.
Anyway, I'm outta here for the night-- you have a nice one!!
Monday, September 3, 2001Success!!
I managed to do everything that I wanted and set out to do yesterday-- NOTHING!!! I went with Brian to Costco in the morning but from that point on, I was definitely in a vegetative state for the balance of the day!! It felt good, too-- even after an hour or so nap in the afternoon, I had no problem falling asleep last night so obviously, it was something that I needed as well. No huge surprise there, I suppose!
Brian's got the two pictures that we took during the party posted on his site-- sorry there weren't more but, it was a bit difficult to juggle everything at once. Some of the leftovers are going with me to work tomorrow and some others in our lunches and some others will hang out here for the duration. Olives and pickles are an okay thing for me on Weight Watchers so I'm going to enjoy them since it is so rare that I have them in the house.
A Little Busier
Today was a bit busier-- I went shopping with my friend, Pat. Her company has finally fallen prey to the dot.com death disease of the past few months and she was laid off as of Friday. On Saturday when she and Nathan stopped over to the Open House, she looked a little "shocky" so I called her to go shopping with me. I wanted to see how she was progressing in her adjustment and, thankfully, she was back to more of her usual self. That was a relief-- I was a little worried about her. The poor thing has no idea what she's going to do next-- she's just not the type to sit around and do nothing and she's been having so much fun working 12 to 14 hour days!! (You see, its a sickness here in Silicon Valley... Workaholism. What else can ya say?)
Anyway, I needed to pick up a set of sheets for our new spare bed-- its double-sized (full-sized) and we had no sheets to accommodate that size. Then, oddly enough, an outfit and a top or two jumped into my arms screaming that they wanted to come home with me. Since they're all in sizes that I can wear through the balance of my weight loss, I agreed to allow them to come home with me. ;>)
Brian and I went to Home Depot to pick up a couple of large pots for repotting some spider plants next weekend-- I just wanted to get them this weekend so that we had them. If he gets a chance during the week, he could also re-pot them without me being here.
End-O-Quarter Again
This is another end-o-quarter month and it appears that it is going to be another busy one. I've already got two conference calls scheduled-- one for tomorrow and one for Wednesday so, it is going to be another bumpy ride, I believe!!
If I miss posts over the course of the month, bear with me as it just means I'm snowed under-- not buried completely.
Have a nice evening!
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