Oi, how did I miss Soap’s post?
looks at the times
feels less like an idiot
Congratumalacations to your “baby”, Soap
Awake. Mostly.
The house was very very very cold when I woke up this morning. The tech came by to check our furnace and says the motor must be defective, because the bearings are worn out completely. Sigh.
Then he wanted to charge us $655 for parts and labour when I know full well that the part is warrantied… but of course, he can’t possibly confirm that when the office is closed. GRRRR. So we told him thanks but no thanks, someone can come out in the morning when the office is open and do the repairs under warranty - I’ve had too many issues with handing over money to companies and then chasing down my warranty refund, thankyouverymuch.
Nice dress, Haze, I’ve got my fingers crossed that someone doesn’t sneak in and snatch that auction out from under you this time.
Soapy, they sure grow up fast, huh? Happy birthday to the little bug!
TagFree, I’m jealous of your jasmine. I love the stuff, but it doesn’t do so well with our winters and I’m a low-maintenance kinda gal. I was over the moon last summer when I realised that we had two very large honeysuckle bushes growing in our otherwise weed-filled backyard… it’s not the same, but it’ll do.
(a previous owner must have had a beautiful garden once upon a time, but it clearly was neglected for many years before we moved in… once spring came, we also discovered we had a big mulberry direly in need of pruning, a positively ancient gnarly lilac bush, and several clumps of beautiful irises hiding amongst the dreck)
I just realized that soon #2 son will be 10–no more single digit kids! :eek: Hmmm…I share a slight bit of your angst, 99and[sup]44/100[/sup]!
I am up–what is up with this I can’t sleep shit? I did better last night, but I had a hard time falling asleep again. I think I need more exercise (rephrase: I think I need SOME exercise). I really must get out and walk more.
Shortened time at the library today–The Husband is having oral surgery. I also need to spend time online looking for a new range. 30 inches across, 25 or so deep, stainless steel, gas, 4 burners, need broiler. Go!
I need a miracle for dinner–someone arrange something, ok? Ta.
Morning!
That’s all, really. Checking in. Everything’s fine over here (except for the damn snow).
Happy Thewsday all!
Thanks lem. She was a good old gal. Got a nice card from the vet yesterday. Got me all teared up again.
bratti, you live in Idaho Falls? Back when I lived in Jackson, WY, nearly 30 years ago, that was where you had to go if you wanted McDonalds…and it was up hill both ways! No kidding!! 
I am currently working on a PowerPoint presentation that was originally constructed about 16 years ago and has been modified by various people annually ever since. It is full of graphs and charts and tables. Of the people who have modified it, some have very little knowledge of the software, or even common typing methods. It really needs to be completely redone from scratch but there isn’t enough time. It’s not even for my department but to “help out” another department that is losing staff members right and left. 
I really need to get back at it.
Tupug
Afternoon all. I have some serious grrrrrs with 'im indoors. In fact, next time he has a bright idea, he’ll be finding out just what “bugger me sideways with a haddock” feels like.
Did I say “grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” there?
Always remember pizza delivery (well, for most of us) is just a phone call away. I assume no major religious figure and somebody with a basket of loaves and fishes will show up at your door, so pizza delivery is as close as I can get to a miracle dinner. Besides, you don’t really need dinner for 5000. I am dangerously close to bein’ hit by lightnin’ ain’t I?
Yep, y’all, the don’t wannas won out. I just couldn’t go in today. However, lest you all begin preparations to stone me for slothfulness, I have cleaned the bathroom and have a load of laundry drying and a second in the washer as I post. I believe I’ll even clean up the kitchen a bit. Oh and I have chicken boobies defrosting which I shall turn into some kind of nummy evening repast. No sloth goin’ on here, so put those rocks away.
ETA: Or in BooFae’s case put that haddock away.
Muppet(did I get that right?), over wintering my jasmine was so easy, I couldn’t believe it. It’s starting to bud right here in the house too! 'Corse I’ll have to pinch it back after that, and transition it outside when the time is right, but other than dragging it into the shower once a month, and the initial leaf drop, it’s virtually maintenance free.
I’m a sucker for honeysuckle too, I’ll be transplanting my three year old vine to the new place. I’m aiming for a nice mixture of fragrance and color, and with the land I’m gaining, it’ll be no problem. I’ll even get some shade loving plants! Something I couldn’t do here.
I plan on the night jasmine being on the front porch, I’m hoping the smell will waft through the house on perfect nights.
The folks directing this project are sure I must be useful to them somehow. I mean, all this experience, plus I (unlike most consultants) have Real World Experience. There’s been a couple times already where another consultant wondered why the customer wanted Item A and I knew it and was able to explain (I do hope my coworkers were telling the truth when they said “ooooOOO, ok, that makes sense!”).
But I’m not technical. I can make the “standard” dance, I’m great at taking down processes and designing new processes and convincing the client that the new process is great and designing tests and designing needed programs from a functional point of view - I can’t write the programs, though. And I can test programs but in a “black box” kind of way… I can run the program (in a design-of-experiments designed kind of way, not just “change something at random” like the testers here are doing), see what it’s doing and figure out what logic is wrong; I don’t know how to make the program go step-by-step so I can tell the programmer “change line 371 from ‘Insert mincemeat’ to ‘Insert hamburger’”. What I can say is “we need hamburgers but we’re getting mincemeat, we need to fry the thing at some point.”
Third time they’ve assigned me to something which requires technical knowledge, only to say “oh damn, I forgot you’re not technical, well I’m not going to explain this.” :smack:
Why do so many people expect other people will always be trained by anybody-else?
Had pizza on Sunday. Don’t quit your day job…
[/QUOTE]
Be careful, BooFae–some men quite like that!
Well, crap. I was a good girl and worked yesterday instead of goofing around online, so when the time finally came for me to get caught up on the Dope and say hi? Our internet went out. :smack: And at that point, since I truly cannot do this Smithsonian stuff without constant access to Google (I tried, I really did, but within half an hour had six things marked that I needed to research), I said the heck with it and went to bed.
So now I’m driving by and saying hi, yay, boo, {{hugs}}, and any other random, positive, and/or inappropriate actions/words as necessary. I’ll be back later once I’ve caught up – assuming today’s dose of congressional [del]drivel[/del] work gives me the time!
It wasn’t HER school iirc, it was the school near her house. looks at the snopes link Yeah, says she was shooting at children by the elementary school across the street from her house. She managed to not kill any kids (pure luck on the kids part), but did kill two men (the principal and the custodian). It also says she’s been refused parole four times, next time she’s up is next year.
Done my coffee, doing my work now. I went to bed early last night because I was falling asleep in my supper since I don’t adjust easily to the time change.
We’ve been having odd Intertubes problems here at La Casa de Spaz y Roommates. Turns out the modem was finally crapping out and dropping random packets. Today is the first day I’ve been able to get on imdb through my bookmark link.
Stayed up way too late last night watching TV and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I think I would have liked that movie better if I were either Californian or fifteen years older.
Ended up sleeping too late this morning. Found out the mouse that refuses to die chewed into a packet of alfredo and noodles I got at the store yesterday. I’m looking for poison now. That mouse is going down.
I feel like crap. Today can go to hell.
Ah. I haven’t been there, since when I moved out here I drove up through Utah (among a bunch of other states, of course). I’ve only been here since last August. The Castle Rock fire was such a fun introduction to Idaho. Not. On the other hand, Larry Craig was freakin’ hilarious, and sad. But seriously, I love it up here. It’s decidedly weird but fun living in a small town, since I’ve lived in at least one city that had more people than the entire state of Idaho! I wonder how many Dopers there are.
yawn Thank Og I don’t have to be at work until 12. The time change is going to take me a few days to adjust to.
Not much happening here. I must caffienate.
Isn’t that how projects are supposed to run?
In the past year, I’ve identified functional requirements, reviewed and edited impact assessments, designed process maps and narratives, created and delivered training, updated knowledge management tools, reviewed and completed user acceptance testing of the new systems, provided user support at a pilot test site, and acted as an all-round Subject Matter Expert on things I know nothing about.
My training for this, you ask? Well… ummm… I have a BA in Philosophy.
TagFree, I had thought about buying plants that could be wintered indoors, like flowering maple, but I worry about the furkins munching on them. We don’t get much direct sunlight inside the house either. Maybe I’ll take a chance and see if I can snag me a jasmine plant at the garden centre this spring, though… you give me hope!
Rigs, good luck with oven hunting. Think of this as an opportunity, not a problem (yikes… I think I’ve been on project too long… I’m starting to talk like them now).
So we finally heard back about the furnace. They’re charging a whopping $370 for labour, but at least the part is covered by warranty as we’d suspected. As long as nothing goes wrong, they should have the part from the manufacturer by midday and we should have heat by the time I get home.
Of course, that means our entertainment budget for the month is blown… but at least we’ll be warm.
Evenin’ all. Skipped out of work early today, because I felt like it! I had a feeling TB was going to hand me something at 5:30 (my official quitting time) so I quietly packed up and left at 4:30!
In even better news, the big boss told me today that, as I have been camped out in the boardroom for the last 4.5 months[sup]*[/sup] and there are some (even bigger) international partners visiting next week who need to use the room (and talk about secret partners’ business), I can/should work from home next week! Which means I will be doing bugger all, other than checking my emails on a regular basis and barely even pretending to work! w00t!!!
HRH is asleep and hubby is [del]out[/del] just back from being out. Not sure what to do for dinner. I might make cheesy lamb meatballs with tahini yoghurt and some salad.
rigs, you should come over here and order [insert meal of choice here]. Every man and his dog does home delivery here! Remember from way back - I told you even McDonald’s delivers (no need to drive to Idaho Falls!).
- The office has gone through a massive recruitment/expansion in the last 8 months, so everyone is doubled up two to an office but the big boss hasn’t found the time in the interim to clear off the spare desk in his office that is supposed to be mine. They are moving to newer, bigger premises in about 4-5 months (after I have left for greener pastures).
I’m at post 119 - don’t these people know I need to read the MMP???
At least I’ll have plenty of leisure time next week.
Hugs, yays and boos as required!
I was a bad girl and called in sick today. I woke up and just didn’t feel like going to work. It was the weirdest thing, because in all my … :: counts on fingers :: seven years of teaching, NOT ONCE have I ever called in sick. I’m sure my students were thrilled.
At least I got to catch up with the Mafia game.
gotti, thanks for the tip! They have 15 days free service - I’ll see how successful I am. 
Happy Bday to Prof. Rapunzel-ette!
:: hugs for Spaz :: Death to the mouse!
I have donuts!
A marketing guy/manager for one company who is bringing loads in popped by to see how things were going with the stuff they are bringing in now, and he brought me a box of Tim Horton’s donuts.
So I got my pick and then left them out for the guys. Mmm apple fritter…
I had the training a couple weeks ago. DH is doing what amounts to an entrance exam for a career change. He’s still unemployed three and a half months later and has all but given up on the headhunters and placement agencies.
A friend of his mentioned that he was retiring from his position and needed to find a replacement, so DH has begun the process to be hired by the state of California as a law enforcement officer. He got the highest possible score on the first exam and is finishing up the second exam at this moment.
From here, he has a lot of physical training - there are some very specific strength and endurance tests he’ll have to pass. For this, he’s working with a personal trainer at the gym to get buffed up. I’ll have a hunky hubby with handcuffs - what’s not to love? Once he’s through the academy, I’ll soon be able to swap stories with elfbabe.