Three weeks ago I started my new job, working for a fairly large retail company, doing what I do best: building a content management system and a dynamic website. The website already exists, but is in pretty sad shape, code-wise. Like so many other web projects, it was built a little bit at a time, with things being tacked on as needed and no real framework in place to keep things orderly and easily maintained. This is really a great opportunity for me to build a content management system from scratch (sort of - I'm repurposing some older code I've written in the past) with newer technology: components, flash update grids, ajax...all kinds of cool stuff, actually. And I also get the chance to streamline a lot of their code and make it faster, more functional, and much easier to maintain. All in all, it's a good gig, and of course I'm happy to be employed again full time and not have to worry so much about how we'll pay the bills each month. We were managing fine with the consulting business, but I wasn't putting anything away for taxes, just hoping that what I'd already paid out (I got gouged on the taxes for my severance checks) and my not-inconsiderable writeoffs (hello, new computer!) would cover the IRS bill at the end of the year.
This is the first time I've worked for a company this large, though, and there's a bit of culture shock for me. I had a phone conference a couple of weeks ago on a new project that I'm building and not a damn thing got decided. It's now been over two weeks since that meeting and I have yet to get some actual specs on the project. I have just been shooting blindly in the dark, hoping that what I'm building will work, because of course I'm supposed to be working on the project in the meantime. I mean, what? How do I build something that I don't have specs for? Apparently the plan is for me to just put on my "mind-reading" cap and hope for the best.
Anyway, I figured it was probably time for an update, considering I've been drawing a regular paycheck for almost a month now. ;-)
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wedding & job update
Oooh boy, things are in full swing now!
Still no job, but I've been doing some contract work for individual clients and for my old supervisor, who quit working for The Boss and is now opening up her own consulting business. So there's some money coming in. In fact I'm hopeful that I'll be able to just do consulting, as that would solve my issues with telecommuting quite nicely.
The wedding is set for May 2, at a large regional park. We've reserved a lovely picnic spot with a bunch of picnic tables, BBQs, a small deck for dancing, and a beautiful flagstone patio area that will serve quite well for the ceremony. I built a wedsite & found a free web host, and then sent out email invitations. We're doing a potluck BBQ reception, telling guests not to bring presents, but to bring food instead. I'm actually really excited; this is just the kind of wedding I would have wanted originally - something fun and laid back that we could invite all of our friends & family to. We're getting a great response - most of people we've invited are coming, I think.
My dress is in, and it's gorgeous and needs almost no alterations - just a bustle and maybe to tack down the sleeves to the elastic underneath. I made a beautiful silk flower hair clip for about $10. Mr Wonderful is renting a jacket for his tux, and we're getting some of the more esoteric accessories (sporran, hose, etc) at the Scottish Games in Woodland on the weekend before the wedding. And the kids? Well, Kohl's had an enormous sale and we ended up getting Tomboy a dress and Rugrat a pinstriped suit for less than $100. Awesome.
We got our rings too. Mine is a just simple white gold band, so it doesn't compete with my engagement ring. I already had a tungsten ring purchased for Mr Wonderful, but then he lost about 20 pounds and it ended up being too big. Unfortunately you cannot resize tungsten, so we bought another tungsten ring for him (one full size smaller!) on Overstock.com, for about $50. So now if he gains weight, he can wear the bigger one, but if he stays all skinny like he is now, he can wear the new smaller one. They're very similar; just the celtic knot pattern in the center is different.
There's not much left to do -- find a solution for music (speakers or boombox, battery-operated, that will accommodate an ipod), get a bouquet (Grandma has graciously offered to pay for my flowers!), decide on shoes (whether to buy some new ones, if I can find something good and cheap), find someone to do my hair, and figure out the cupcake situation. My wedding shawl is well on its way, and if I continue knitting a full repeat each day, I'll have it done in plenty of time. I'm working my butt off at the gym, so I should be in better shape than I have been in years when I walk down that aisle. Oh, and we have to get our marriage license.
Things are falling into place, and I am so excited! I'm not nervous at all about marrying Mr Wonderful - there hasn't been any doubt in my mind about him. I just can't wait to make things official, and to celebrate with all of our friends and family. :)
Still no job, but I've been doing some contract work for individual clients and for my old supervisor, who quit working for The Boss and is now opening up her own consulting business. So there's some money coming in. In fact I'm hopeful that I'll be able to just do consulting, as that would solve my issues with telecommuting quite nicely.
The wedding is set for May 2, at a large regional park. We've reserved a lovely picnic spot with a bunch of picnic tables, BBQs, a small deck for dancing, and a beautiful flagstone patio area that will serve quite well for the ceremony. I built a wedsite & found a free web host, and then sent out email invitations. We're doing a potluck BBQ reception, telling guests not to bring presents, but to bring food instead. I'm actually really excited; this is just the kind of wedding I would have wanted originally - something fun and laid back that we could invite all of our friends & family to. We're getting a great response - most of people we've invited are coming, I think.
My dress is in, and it's gorgeous and needs almost no alterations - just a bustle and maybe to tack down the sleeves to the elastic underneath. I made a beautiful silk flower hair clip for about $10. Mr Wonderful is renting a jacket for his tux, and we're getting some of the more esoteric accessories (sporran, hose, etc) at the Scottish Games in Woodland on the weekend before the wedding. And the kids? Well, Kohl's had an enormous sale and we ended up getting Tomboy a dress and Rugrat a pinstriped suit for less than $100. Awesome.
We got our rings too. Mine is a just simple white gold band, so it doesn't compete with my engagement ring. I already had a tungsten ring purchased for Mr Wonderful, but then he lost about 20 pounds and it ended up being too big. Unfortunately you cannot resize tungsten, so we bought another tungsten ring for him (one full size smaller!) on Overstock.com, for about $50. So now if he gains weight, he can wear the bigger one, but if he stays all skinny like he is now, he can wear the new smaller one. They're very similar; just the celtic knot pattern in the center is different.
There's not much left to do -- find a solution for music (speakers or boombox, battery-operated, that will accommodate an ipod), get a bouquet (Grandma has graciously offered to pay for my flowers!), decide on shoes (whether to buy some new ones, if I can find something good and cheap), find someone to do my hair, and figure out the cupcake situation. My wedding shawl is well on its way, and if I continue knitting a full repeat each day, I'll have it done in plenty of time. I'm working my butt off at the gym, so I should be in better shape than I have been in years when I walk down that aisle. Oh, and we have to get our marriage license.
Things are falling into place, and I am so excited! I'm not nervous at all about marrying Mr Wonderful - there hasn't been any doubt in my mind about him. I just can't wait to make things official, and to celebrate with all of our friends and family. :)
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Post-panic
OK, so things aren't quite as dire as they seemed last Saturday. Mr Wonderful chatted with his supervisor at work on Monday and discovered that I could be added to his insurance as a "domestic partner." It won't be free, but it will be MUCH cheaper than COBRA and it doesn't require us getting married immediately.
So now our plan is to wait three weeks and if I don't have a new job by then, we will schedule the wedding for sometime in May. My dress is coming in within the next few weeks, but Mr Wonderful wants to wait until he's able to get the rest of his outfit (sporran, jacket, dagger, what-have-you) at the Scottish Games in Woodland in late April. We won't be getting married at a winery with fancy catering, of course, but we can get married in a park on a sunny Saturday and have all of our friends and family there. And we can have a potluck BBQ "reception" at the house afterwards (probably on Sunday).
And of course, if I get a new job within the next couple of weeks, we can still have the wedding in October as planned. But this way we've got an alternative solution that we can pull together quickly, while still preserving some of the things that were most important to us.
In the meantime, be sure to let me know if you hear of any available web developer positions! I'm scouring the interwebs, but the more eyes & ears on the lookout, the better. :)
So now our plan is to wait three weeks and if I don't have a new job by then, we will schedule the wedding for sometime in May. My dress is coming in within the next few weeks, but Mr Wonderful wants to wait until he's able to get the rest of his outfit (sporran, jacket, dagger, what-have-you) at the Scottish Games in Woodland in late April. We won't be getting married at a winery with fancy catering, of course, but we can get married in a park on a sunny Saturday and have all of our friends and family there. And we can have a potluck BBQ "reception" at the house afterwards (probably on Sunday).
And of course, if I get a new job within the next couple of weeks, we can still have the wedding in October as planned. But this way we've got an alternative solution that we can pull together quickly, while still preserving some of the things that were most important to us.
In the meantime, be sure to let me know if you hear of any available web developer positions! I'm scouring the interwebs, but the more eyes & ears on the lookout, the better. :)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Life, rescheduled
Yesterday morning I met with Boss and was laid off from the job I've been at for the past five years. Of course he said he was all broken up about it and felt terrible, blah blah blah. But I'm pretty bent that he's keeping our SysAd on staff. SysAd left the company to work for someone else and was doing "on call" occasional work for my company for about a year. Then a month or so ago he got laid off from that job and he's been essentially working full time at our company again. So I feel like I got dumped so that my boss could keep paying the SysAd -- you know, the one who hasn't been working loyally for the company for FIVE YEARS straight. Am I pissed off? Hell yes.
And of course, looking back over the course of the past week I can see how they were trying to finish up outstanding issues in which my expertise was required. And it really pisses me off that I got ONE day of notice before the end of the month, which is effectively the end of my health insurance. Meaning, if I want uninterrupted health insurance, I have to do COBRA for at least a month. I cannot be without health insurance; I have too many issues, between the high blood pressure and the cholesterol and the skin cancer and everything. I also can't get individual health insurance; I've been denied coverage before, and that was even before I got diagnosed with the skin cancer.
And this brings us to the rescheduling portion of our program. Because Mr Wonderful works at a hospital, he has excellent health benefits, and I will be covered by those same excellent health benefits as soon as we're married. So we're moving up the wedding; we're getting married this week, at the county courthouse. This is not the way I pictured my wedding. This is pretty much the OPPOSITE of what I wanted - although we'll be keeping it very small, I wanted something that was more personal and meaningful. And now we are having this rushed wedding, done as cheaply as possible, with possibly NO family there (my father might be able to make it, but that's it). This is not what I wanted, and it's definitely not what Mr Wonderful wanted. I am pretty depressed about it, actually. I've got this beautiful dress that hasn't arrived yet, but is totally paid for, and I won't get to wear it to my wedding. We were going to get married at a beautiful winery, with amazing food and flowers and our family surrounding us. And we may still have some kind of ceremony and reception later, after I get a new job and we can afford it, but it's not going to be on the day we get married. And that just makes me want to curl up and cry.
And of course, looking back over the course of the past week I can see how they were trying to finish up outstanding issues in which my expertise was required. And it really pisses me off that I got ONE day of notice before the end of the month, which is effectively the end of my health insurance. Meaning, if I want uninterrupted health insurance, I have to do COBRA for at least a month. I cannot be without health insurance; I have too many issues, between the high blood pressure and the cholesterol and the skin cancer and everything. I also can't get individual health insurance; I've been denied coverage before, and that was even before I got diagnosed with the skin cancer.
And this brings us to the rescheduling portion of our program. Because Mr Wonderful works at a hospital, he has excellent health benefits, and I will be covered by those same excellent health benefits as soon as we're married. So we're moving up the wedding; we're getting married this week, at the county courthouse. This is not the way I pictured my wedding. This is pretty much the OPPOSITE of what I wanted - although we'll be keeping it very small, I wanted something that was more personal and meaningful. And now we are having this rushed wedding, done as cheaply as possible, with possibly NO family there (my father might be able to make it, but that's it). This is not what I wanted, and it's definitely not what Mr Wonderful wanted. I am pretty depressed about it, actually. I've got this beautiful dress that hasn't arrived yet, but is totally paid for, and I won't get to wear it to my wedding. We were going to get married at a beautiful winery, with amazing food and flowers and our family surrounding us. And we may still have some kind of ceremony and reception later, after I get a new job and we can afford it, but it's not going to be on the day we get married. And that just makes me want to curl up and cry.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Crazybusy
God, things have been so busy lately, I've barely had time to think. Quick recap here:
Things I still need to get done:
- Attended & helped organize a protest against Prop 8 in WC on the 15th
- Waged war on the pantry moths that had completely infested our dry goods cupboard; I think I've won but it may just be a lull in the battle
- Semi-regular dinner out with supervisor
- Fought off a cold
- Attended big Adobe conference in SF, 17th-19th (which entailed unfortunate late nights coupled with even more unfortunate early mornings in which I had to ride stupid BART into the city. Hello, two-hour commute!)
- Parent-teacher conference
- Thanksgiving dinner planning, including ordering the organic free-range turkey breast (even though it's just the four of us, and possibly Babydaddy, we will still have the requisite big turkey feast)
- Finished two sweaters (Sister's Christmas Present and my big green squishy Mmmmmalabrigo v-neck)
- Started a baby sweater
- Started and FINISHED a super-secret surprise Christmas present for someone (at least those long BART rides were good for something)
- Successfully kept myself from killing the kids so far (they're home a lot this month thanks to Thanksgiving, Veteran's Day, staff in-service days and parent-teacher conferences)
- Finished most of my Christmas shopping
- Crazy busy with work stuff (being gone for three days at a conference does not help)
Things I still need to get done:
- Family picture for Christmas cards
- Order Christmas cards, and when they get here, address & send them out
- Thanksgiving
- Get paver stones to edge the patio (between cement patio & new sod)
- Finish baby sweater
- Sleep for fifteen years
Friday, September 05, 2008
Greetings from low-carb land
The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of back-to-school prep, board meetings, PTA volunteer duties and all kinds of things. Rugrat started back to school last week, and he's already had a clash with his new teacher. Big surprise. The kid is nothing if not strong-willed, and when the teacher asked the class to lay out their math homework a certain way, he decided that HIS way was better because it used less paper. And proceeded to argue the point with the teacher. So we had a little phone conference yesterday, and of course Babydaddy and I hammered the point home that following instructions is just as important as getting the correct answers. I love my son like crazy, but honestly that kid is not an easy one to live with sometimes.
I'm editing the monthly PTA newsletter this year, as a way to stay more in touch with what's going on at Rugrat's school, and because it was something I could do from the couch. You know how I am about my couch. LOVE it. Anyway, this is a bit of an adventure; there's lots of people involved in submitting articles, reviewing the draft of the newsletter, and sending me changes. There are a few people who (I have been warned) are consistently difficult to deal with: late submitting articles, etc. I've laid down the line in the sand though; I have said that I can work on this on weekends only since I have a full-time job, and if the principal of the school doesn't get me her article on time, oh well. The world won't stop turning.
I am also on the board of a new project that my supervisor at work is starting up: Classes for Causes. The basic premise is that people will teach classes, and the proceeds from those classes will be donated to the charity of the teacher's choice. The site is currently in development but we will be rolling out the beta version very soon, because we're planning to have our pilot class at the end of October. Supervisor is holding the first class: Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing. I am considering teaching classes in knitting and creating your own cell phone ringtones. Mr Wonderful is even getting in on the act; he'll be teaching a course in self-defense. Anyway, we've had two board meetings so far, and as the Board Secretary, I am responsible for typing up the minutes. Which took like an hour and a half last night, because we had a three-hour Strategic Planning meeting on Tuesday. My eyes were BURNING by the time I shut down the computer.
And things have been crazy busy at work. I'm desperately trying to get on top of things, but there is just SO much right now. So I'm working like a demon, trying to get done by the end of the day, so I can pick up Rugrat or go to the gym and fix dinner.
Speaking of dinner, Mr Wonderful and I have started the South Beach diet. Essentially it's a low carb diet for the first two weeks (meat, veggies and lowfat dairy only), then you add in complex carbs (whole grains, fruit) for the second phase. We started the diet on Monday, which was interesting because we were gone all day - since it was Labor Day and we both had the day off (joy!) we took a day trip to the coast. A nice drive through Sebastopol and Guerneville, out to where the Russian River dumps out. We saw a bunch of seals frolicking in the water, skipped rocks in the river, watched the pelicans dive for fish, saw a paraglider (is that a word?) jump off a cliff and float down to the beach, and ate crunchy veggies with a vegetable/ricotta dip.
Phase one hasn't been that bad, actually, although I do miss Dr Pepper and chips. Crunchy salty things are my downfall, and I've been missing the faux-cheese flavored snacky foods. But we've stuck to the plan (on day five now!) and have each lost five pounds already. We took measurements (waist, chest, hips & thighs) at the beginning and will compare when we take measurements again at the end of phase one. I'm pretty excited about this; I didn't think I'd lose weight this fast, and it's a great incentive to keep going. I doubt it will continue falling off at this rate (it must be mostly water weight, right?), but it's great to have some validation.
But man, I would LOVE to have a piece of fruit right now. I can't believe how much I am craving fruit these days, now that I know I can't have it.
I'm editing the monthly PTA newsletter this year, as a way to stay more in touch with what's going on at Rugrat's school, and because it was something I could do from the couch. You know how I am about my couch. LOVE it. Anyway, this is a bit of an adventure; there's lots of people involved in submitting articles, reviewing the draft of the newsletter, and sending me changes. There are a few people who (I have been warned) are consistently difficult to deal with: late submitting articles, etc. I've laid down the line in the sand though; I have said that I can work on this on weekends only since I have a full-time job, and if the principal of the school doesn't get me her article on time, oh well. The world won't stop turning.
I am also on the board of a new project that my supervisor at work is starting up: Classes for Causes. The basic premise is that people will teach classes, and the proceeds from those classes will be donated to the charity of the teacher's choice. The site is currently in development but we will be rolling out the beta version very soon, because we're planning to have our pilot class at the end of October. Supervisor is holding the first class: Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing. I am considering teaching classes in knitting and creating your own cell phone ringtones. Mr Wonderful is even getting in on the act; he'll be teaching a course in self-defense. Anyway, we've had two board meetings so far, and as the Board Secretary, I am responsible for typing up the minutes. Which took like an hour and a half last night, because we had a three-hour Strategic Planning meeting on Tuesday. My eyes were BURNING by the time I shut down the computer.
And things have been crazy busy at work. I'm desperately trying to get on top of things, but there is just SO much right now. So I'm working like a demon, trying to get done by the end of the day, so I can pick up Rugrat or go to the gym and fix dinner.
Speaking of dinner, Mr Wonderful and I have started the South Beach diet. Essentially it's a low carb diet for the first two weeks (meat, veggies and lowfat dairy only), then you add in complex carbs (whole grains, fruit) for the second phase. We started the diet on Monday, which was interesting because we were gone all day - since it was Labor Day and we both had the day off (joy!) we took a day trip to the coast. A nice drive through Sebastopol and Guerneville, out to where the Russian River dumps out. We saw a bunch of seals frolicking in the water, skipped rocks in the river, watched the pelicans dive for fish, saw a paraglider (is that a word?) jump off a cliff and float down to the beach, and ate crunchy veggies with a vegetable/ricotta dip.
Phase one hasn't been that bad, actually, although I do miss Dr Pepper and chips. Crunchy salty things are my downfall, and I've been missing the faux-cheese flavored snacky foods. But we've stuck to the plan (on day five now!) and have each lost five pounds already. We took measurements (waist, chest, hips & thighs) at the beginning and will compare when we take measurements again at the end of phase one. I'm pretty excited about this; I didn't think I'd lose weight this fast, and it's a great incentive to keep going. I doubt it will continue falling off at this rate (it must be mostly water weight, right?), but it's great to have some validation.
But man, I would LOVE to have a piece of fruit right now. I can't believe how much I am craving fruit these days, now that I know I can't have it.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Short-timing
I'm totally short-timing right now. You know, when something you've been looking forward to is coming up really soon, and you're just counting down the minutes until it happens, and you're totally not in that "work mode" at all? Yeah, that's me right now. I've been looking forward to this family camping trip for months, and next Wednesday morning we're outta here!
My sister & I have been obsessively planning (ok, maybe she's not obsessive about it, but I am) for weeks now. We've got our meals planned & coordinated. We're each cooking a "group dinner" one night, and our Mexican-themed dinners will also be on the same night (tacos for us, burritos for them). Unfortunately, my cousin & her son are not going to be able to join us, but in a way it turns out to be a blessing in disguise, because now we'll get to spread out a bit more. I was a little worried when I saw "small tent sites" on the notes for the campsites, and here we are with TWO tents to set up (one for Mr Wonderful & I, and one for the boys to share). So it might be a good thing that we've got an extra campsite available.
And the weather is going to be fantastic -- I've been checking, and it looks like the highs will be in the mid-80s all week, with lows in the mid- to upper-40s. Nice.
But in the meantime, I've got work to do and my mind is SO not on it. I'm short-timing, y'all.
My sister & I have been obsessively planning (ok, maybe she's not obsessive about it, but I am) for weeks now. We've got our meals planned & coordinated. We're each cooking a "group dinner" one night, and our Mexican-themed dinners will also be on the same night (tacos for us, burritos for them). Unfortunately, my cousin & her son are not going to be able to join us, but in a way it turns out to be a blessing in disguise, because now we'll get to spread out a bit more. I was a little worried when I saw "small tent sites" on the notes for the campsites, and here we are with TWO tents to set up (one for Mr Wonderful & I, and one for the boys to share). So it might be a good thing that we've got an extra campsite available.
And the weather is going to be fantastic -- I've been checking, and it looks like the highs will be in the mid-80s all week, with lows in the mid- to upper-40s. Nice.
But in the meantime, I've got work to do and my mind is SO not on it. I'm short-timing, y'all.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
OMFG! iPhone!!!
I have the greatest job ever. Today we had an in-house staff meeting (which means I had to go in to the office, horror of horrors) and then a belated birthday lunch for the boss. After lunch, as I was packing up to go, the boss called me in. He asked me a quick question about a client and then said, "I got you something. I don't want you to make a big deal about it, but..." And DUDE!! It was a 16GB iPhone!
Yes, I "need" it for work because I sometimes need to check mobile websites to make sure they're displaying properly and my phone doesn't work for that, for some reason. But seriously??? A freakin' iPhone, y'all! FOR FREE.
I love my job.
Yes, I "need" it for work because I sometimes need to check mobile websites to make sure they're displaying properly and my phone doesn't work for that, for some reason. But seriously??? A freakin' iPhone, y'all! FOR FREE.
I love my job.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Miscellaneous tidbits
This weekend, the company I work for is having its long-overdue "holiday party". We're all heading down to Monterey for the weekend, with a Saturday night stay at a B&B in Pacific Grove, and a kayaking trip if the weather cooperates, which...it doesn't look like it's going to do. Mr Wonderful and I are extending the trip a little bit; his day off this week falls on Friday (unusual, but very welcome!) so I took the day off as well and we'll be going down there a day early, staying Friday night at the same B&B. Nice, huh? I'm looking forward to spending a lovely long weekend eating great seafood, going to the aquarium, and snuggling with my man. It certainly sounds like more fun than sitting at home watching the Superbowl. Heh.
The other day Tomboy asked me how much I liked her daddy, on a scale from one to ten. I told her "Eleven." Her eyes bugged out a little, and she asked me if Mr Wonderful and I were going to get married. What could I say? Mr Wonderful hasn't really talked to her about it yet, but she's a smart girl; she sees where things are going. I told her that we would probably get married "someday." Her reaction was predictable: "Ewww, then HE [Rugrat] will be my brother?" And of course there was the inevitable question about babies, which I told her wasn't in the cards. She actually seemed disappointed about that, but...no. Not happening.
Mr Wonderful is planning a trip in April...on a weekend that we have the kids. He has this "once in a lifetime opportunity" to go to a free, very intensive GUN TRAINING class in Nevada. Yes. Gun training. How did I end up with a guy who thinks that spending a weekend in Pahrump running around shooting paper targets with SWAT team members is fun? Totally opposite of my "type," and yet...apparently this is my type. Anyhoo, this means that I will have the kids, all by myself, all weekend. Can I just say that I am really, really not looking forward to this? Tomboy is warming up to me, finally, but I have a feeling that this is going to be a watershed moment for us. I remember very clearly how awful I was to my stepmother when my dad took his first business trip away after she moved in. I was a raging bitch, honestly. And I am not looking forward to this karmic payback, nope, not at all.
I finished my So Called Scarf! First FO of the new year. Now I'm back on track with the Spider-man Sweater; I've picked up the stitches again at the (newly expanded) second armhole and am really motivated to get the damn thing done, finally. Once it's done, I can move on to new, fun projects, like my shrug, and my first pair of socks, and Tomboy's shrug that I'm planning to make with some gorgeous hand-dyed cotton, and my stripey top-down raglan v-neck sweater, and so on...
The other day Tomboy asked me how much I liked her daddy, on a scale from one to ten. I told her "Eleven." Her eyes bugged out a little, and she asked me if Mr Wonderful and I were going to get married. What could I say? Mr Wonderful hasn't really talked to her about it yet, but she's a smart girl; she sees where things are going. I told her that we would probably get married "someday." Her reaction was predictable: "Ewww, then HE [Rugrat] will be my brother?" And of course there was the inevitable question about babies, which I told her wasn't in the cards. She actually seemed disappointed about that, but...no. Not happening.
Mr Wonderful is planning a trip in April...on a weekend that we have the kids. He has this "once in a lifetime opportunity" to go to a free, very intensive GUN TRAINING class in Nevada. Yes. Gun training. How did I end up with a guy who thinks that spending a weekend in Pahrump running around shooting paper targets with SWAT team members is fun? Totally opposite of my "type," and yet...apparently this is my type. Anyhoo, this means that I will have the kids, all by myself, all weekend. Can I just say that I am really, really not looking forward to this? Tomboy is warming up to me, finally, but I have a feeling that this is going to be a watershed moment for us. I remember very clearly how awful I was to my stepmother when my dad took his first business trip away after she moved in. I was a raging bitch, honestly. And I am not looking forward to this karmic payback, nope, not at all.
I finished my So Called Scarf! First FO of the new year. Now I'm back on track with the Spider-man Sweater; I've picked up the stitches again at the (newly expanded) second armhole and am really motivated to get the damn thing done, finally. Once it's done, I can move on to new, fun projects, like my shrug, and my first pair of socks, and Tomboy's shrug that I'm planning to make with some gorgeous hand-dyed cotton, and my stripey top-down raglan v-neck sweater, and so on...
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Gaaaahh!!
Sometimes I really wonder why Boss is in this business. He emailed me, asking about adding a captcha to a website form. I navigated to the page, and it was down. The whole site was down. So I emailed him back, asking which server the site is hosted on.
An hour later, he gets back to me saying that he doesn't think we have access to the site. Seriously? Boss? Do you not understand how this business works? If I do not have access to the files, I cannot make changes on them. I must have FTP access in order to do my job.
Sometimes, the mind...it just boggles.
An hour later, he gets back to me saying that he doesn't think we have access to the site. Seriously? Boss? Do you not understand how this business works? If I do not have access to the files, I cannot make changes on them. I must have FTP access in order to do my job.
Sometimes, the mind...it just boggles.
Friday, August 17, 2007
F*ckwits
Yesterday I had to go into the city for a meeting with a prospective client. The client (hereby called L) insisted that they needed to have a meeting THIS WEEK, even though the Boss is out of town on vacation, and L specifically asked for me to be there since he couldn't. Fiiiiiine, I'll go, but totally under protest.
I toss and turn Wednesday night, wake up at 4 AM on Thursday, and can't get back into deep REM sleep. Fine. I get up at 6, do my hair & makeup (ugh), put on the clothes I spent half an hour deciding on the night before, and get Rugrat up to make sure he's ready to go in time. I fight the horrible traffic to WC, drop off Rugrat at daycare, park my car at Babydaddy's house, and walk to the BART station. In high heels. Because I am meeting a big client in the financial district in San Francisco.
I get there, an hour early (because I never go to the city and didn't know how long it was going to take on BART). Fine. I have a cup of coffee and a pastry, talk with Mr Wonderful on the phone for a while, and then head up for the meeting. I make it inside, up to the 36th floor, and I swear the office is practically deserted. It's 10 AM on a Thursday for crying out loud! Five or ten minutes later L, who coordinated the meeting & insisted on having it THIS WEEK, comes out and takes me to a tiny conference room, and says she's going to go try and find the other people who are supposed to be in the meeting. She comes back a few minutes later, alone, and says she can't find them, but she'll sit down and talk with me. As she's sitting there, going over what I already know about the project (which is that it essentially consists of migrating their Access DB to SQL and making some modifications to a few reports), the two guys come in. One of the guys is leaving the company and his last day is today (Friday) - he's the person who's been maintaining the database for all this time. And because he's leaving the company, L wanted to have the meeting THIS WEEK. OK, that makes sense...if the guy even really had anything to say to me about it, which he doesn't. He says, "She really just needs to get in and poke around and look at it" which is what I told them when we met two months ago. And the other guy says that he can set up Remote Desktop access for me, which is fabulous, and which we also talked about when we met two months ago. And they wanted to know when I could start on the project ("Could you start today? When you get back?" Um, no.), and I told them I'd have to check with the Boss, because I don't know what other projects/clients I might be committed to in the near future. And that was it. Meeting adjourned.
A ten minute meeting. A TEN MINUTE meeting!! Four hours round trip travel time to go to a TEN MINUTE meeting!!!!!!
Fucking fuckwits. I told the Boss that we need to bill them for all that travel time because THAT? Was completely fucking ridiculous. There was not a damn thing said in that meeting that couldn't have been said in email.
To add injury to insult, I got a big blister on my baby toe, and so I was limping a bit and I ended up pulling a muscle in my groin. Goddammit!
I toss and turn Wednesday night, wake up at 4 AM on Thursday, and can't get back into deep REM sleep. Fine. I get up at 6, do my hair & makeup (ugh), put on the clothes I spent half an hour deciding on the night before, and get Rugrat up to make sure he's ready to go in time. I fight the horrible traffic to WC, drop off Rugrat at daycare, park my car at Babydaddy's house, and walk to the BART station. In high heels. Because I am meeting a big client in the financial district in San Francisco.
I get there, an hour early (because I never go to the city and didn't know how long it was going to take on BART). Fine. I have a cup of coffee and a pastry, talk with Mr Wonderful on the phone for a while, and then head up for the meeting. I make it inside, up to the 36th floor, and I swear the office is practically deserted. It's 10 AM on a Thursday for crying out loud! Five or ten minutes later L, who coordinated the meeting & insisted on having it THIS WEEK, comes out and takes me to a tiny conference room, and says she's going to go try and find the other people who are supposed to be in the meeting. She comes back a few minutes later, alone, and says she can't find them, but she'll sit down and talk with me. As she's sitting there, going over what I already know about the project (which is that it essentially consists of migrating their Access DB to SQL and making some modifications to a few reports), the two guys come in. One of the guys is leaving the company and his last day is today (Friday) - he's the person who's been maintaining the database for all this time. And because he's leaving the company, L wanted to have the meeting THIS WEEK. OK, that makes sense...if the guy even really had anything to say to me about it, which he doesn't. He says, "She really just needs to get in and poke around and look at it" which is what I told them when we met two months ago. And the other guy says that he can set up Remote Desktop access for me, which is fabulous, and which we also talked about when we met two months ago. And they wanted to know when I could start on the project ("Could you start today? When you get back?" Um, no.), and I told them I'd have to check with the Boss, because I don't know what other projects/clients I might be committed to in the near future. And that was it. Meeting adjourned.
A ten minute meeting. A TEN MINUTE meeting!! Four hours round trip travel time to go to a TEN MINUTE meeting!!!!!!
Fucking fuckwits. I told the Boss that we need to bill them for all that travel time because THAT? Was completely fucking ridiculous. There was not a damn thing said in that meeting that couldn't have been said in email.
To add injury to insult, I got a big blister on my baby toe, and so I was limping a bit and I ended up pulling a muscle in my groin. Goddammit!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
It burns!
My eyes are burning. I need to blink more often, I think. I've been installing software & copying stuff over to the "new" laptop all week (in between taking care of the occasional minor issues that co-workers request). It's not difficult, but it is time-consuming and irritating, especially when I import like 100 sites on Dreamweaver and when I reopen the program they are ALL FUCKING GONE. God. Because you can't just click a button and import them all quickly and automatically. No. You have to specify the local directory that DW should use to store site files. What a pain in the ass.
Speaking of pain in the ass, that would be me this week. I'm PMSing pretty hard for the first time in several months (I get my PMS the week AFTER my period, which is completely bass-ackwards and weird, but I haven't had it in quite a while) and Mr Wonderful is having his "time of the month" too, when he's a little less patient. Plus he's a little under the weather. So what did I do? Oh, what did I do? Yes, I picked this time to have a fight with Mr Wonderful - our first fight, actually. And...it really wasn't bad, as far as fights go. It was more like a conversation where we both discussed our differing points of view, with a little side order of me being edgy and feeling like I'm about to cry (thank you, PMS). And basically, it all boiled down to a little breakdown in communication (plus, yanno, the PMS). It was the most adult "fight" I've ever had, I think. In fact, the worst part about the whole thing is that I haven't seen him yet since we had this conversation, so there's been no hot make-up sex yet. I plan to remedy THAT situation tonight. ;-)
And speaking of drama, I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. I tend to put this off for about five years, and then finally I'll break down and go see a dentist for a cleaning & checkup (thank goodness I have nice, strong teeth). I just get more and more phobic about the dentist each time I go to one. It's been like this ever since the time I had two fully impacted wisdom teeth taken out with nothing but novocaine. Horrible. Awful. Traumatic. And so this time, I found a dentist who would prescribe me Valium for the initial exam & cleaning. My preference would be to sleep through the whole damn thing, but if I can't have that, at least I'll be so drugged up that I won't care. Right? Right??? God, I hope this works.
Speaking of pain in the ass, that would be me this week. I'm PMSing pretty hard for the first time in several months (I get my PMS the week AFTER my period, which is completely bass-ackwards and weird, but I haven't had it in quite a while) and Mr Wonderful is having his "time of the month" too, when he's a little less patient. Plus he's a little under the weather. So what did I do? Oh, what did I do? Yes, I picked this time to have a fight with Mr Wonderful - our first fight, actually. And...it really wasn't bad, as far as fights go. It was more like a conversation where we both discussed our differing points of view, with a little side order of me being edgy and feeling like I'm about to cry (thank you, PMS). And basically, it all boiled down to a little breakdown in communication (plus, yanno, the PMS). It was the most adult "fight" I've ever had, I think. In fact, the worst part about the whole thing is that I haven't seen him yet since we had this conversation, so there's been no hot make-up sex yet. I plan to remedy THAT situation tonight. ;-)
And speaking of drama, I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. I tend to put this off for about five years, and then finally I'll break down and go see a dentist for a cleaning & checkup (thank goodness I have nice, strong teeth). I just get more and more phobic about the dentist each time I go to one. It's been like this ever since the time I had two fully impacted wisdom teeth taken out with nothing but novocaine. Horrible. Awful. Traumatic. And so this time, I found a dentist who would prescribe me Valium for the initial exam & cleaning. My preference would be to sleep through the whole damn thing, but if I can't have that, at least I'll be so drugged up that I won't care. Right? Right??? God, I hope this works.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Holy Mary Mother of God
I finally figured out what was dragging my computer down. I've been having horrible problems with my computer in the last couple of months. Things have just gotten slower and slower until finally I was waiting actual MINUTES for my computer to respond to stuff, especially on Firefox. Today I realized (lightbulb moment!) that it wasn't happening with IE. Just with Firefox. So I went into the Mozilla forums, and lo and behold, what do I find but a bunch of threads talking about how Panda (anti-virus software) is conflicting with Firefox. It seems that Panda kept thinking that the web pages were throwing out spyware, and so it was slowing down my computer to a crawl. No, not a crawl. it was worse than a crawl. It was slowing my computer down to almost a full fucking stop. So, that's it. No more Panda for me. I finally uninstalled it and installed the free AVG anti-virus software, and my computer is like brand-new. There may be a hiccup or two but NOTHING like I was dealing with for the past few weeks. And it's probably only slightly slow now because I am running the scan - and yet I'm still able to work and get decent response times while the AVG is scanning my entire computer.
Speaking of irritations, I got my first bikini wax yesterday. Preparing for the coming weekend that will consist of mass quantities of sex, I hope. And actually, the bikini wax wasn't bad AT ALL. I'm thinking about getting a Brazilian next time, because this was really nothing.
Much more irritating is the damn cough that is still hanging on for dear life. I finally went to the doctor this morning because I just cannot take it anymore. He hooked me up with an albuterol inhaler (which doesn't seem to really do much of anything for me, thanks) and cough syrup with codeine. I took a shot at about 11:30 this morning, and to be honest, I'm not feeling much decrease in the coughing, but at least I'm high as a kite and I don't care. Heh.
Tuesday night I went out to visit D. We went to a new Vietnamese restaurant in town, a little hole in the wall place in Springtown, and it was FANTASTIC. Really excellent food, especially the curry chicken soup (which I tried to sort of duplicate last night with the Thai red curry paste; it turned out pretty good!). Then we went back to his place to drop off the leftovers. I met his roommate, who seems like a pretty cool guy. Apparently he remembered me from high school; he was a year behind me at LHS. I had absolutely no clue who he was. Heh. Then D and I drove out Patterson Pass and "parked" - how high school is that? Totally made out in the car for an hour or so. It was awesome, but we were both so goddamn horny afterwards, it's not even funny. We'd made a pact to refrain from...um...releasing our passion...until our big night on Friday, but we decided to take a night off from the celibacy pact because it was just too hard. No pun intended. ;-) So anyway...tomorrow night! In fact, he'll be here in 26.5 hours. And it will be fabulous.
Speaking of irritations, I got my first bikini wax yesterday. Preparing for the coming weekend that will consist of mass quantities of sex, I hope. And actually, the bikini wax wasn't bad AT ALL. I'm thinking about getting a Brazilian next time, because this was really nothing.
Much more irritating is the damn cough that is still hanging on for dear life. I finally went to the doctor this morning because I just cannot take it anymore. He hooked me up with an albuterol inhaler (which doesn't seem to really do much of anything for me, thanks) and cough syrup with codeine. I took a shot at about 11:30 this morning, and to be honest, I'm not feeling much decrease in the coughing, but at least I'm high as a kite and I don't care. Heh.
Tuesday night I went out to visit D. We went to a new Vietnamese restaurant in town, a little hole in the wall place in Springtown, and it was FANTASTIC. Really excellent food, especially the curry chicken soup (which I tried to sort of duplicate last night with the Thai red curry paste; it turned out pretty good!). Then we went back to his place to drop off the leftovers. I met his roommate, who seems like a pretty cool guy. Apparently he remembered me from high school; he was a year behind me at LHS. I had absolutely no clue who he was. Heh. Then D and I drove out Patterson Pass and "parked" - how high school is that? Totally made out in the car for an hour or so. It was awesome, but we were both so goddamn horny afterwards, it's not even funny. We'd made a pact to refrain from...um...releasing our passion...until our big night on Friday, but we decided to take a night off from the celibacy pact because it was just too hard. No pun intended. ;-) So anyway...tomorrow night! In fact, he'll be here in 26.5 hours. And it will be fabulous.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Holy frijoles!
Damn, my house is clean! I mean really super spic-n-span clean. Yesterday I called a cleaning lady who came highly recommended by someone on the local parents' mailing list. She came this morning with her sister and cleaned the FUCK outta my house for three hours. They did the windows and the blinds. They cleaned the grody shower door track. They made the beds and neatened the place up. They even got the cobwebs that hang out in the highest reaches of the two-story cathedral living room ceilings. They folded all the toilet paper rolls into little triangle ends - and the paper towel roll too! And the woman only wanted to charge me $100! I gave her $200 - seriously, they cleaned the place so well I think I could happily eat off the floors. I asked her to start coming every other week and it is going to be so nice to have it done professionally on a regular basis. Because, yanno, I am a total slob and lazy to boot.
Oh, and my computer is dying a slow, painful death. Last night the speakers went all wonky, and so I ran the anti-virus software, thinking maybe it was a virus. Halfway through the scan, I got the Blue Screen of Death. *sigh* Boss is meeting me tomorrow afternoon to take the laptop and have the hard drive replaced - hopefully that will help a lot.
Oh, and my computer is dying a slow, painful death. Last night the speakers went all wonky, and so I ran the anti-virus software, thinking maybe it was a virus. Halfway through the scan, I got the Blue Screen of Death. *sigh* Boss is meeting me tomorrow afternoon to take the laptop and have the hard drive replaced - hopefully that will help a lot.
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