Last Updated : Sunday, 27 January, 2002 at 09:24 PM -0600
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| Daynotes On a Budget Last Updated : Sunday, 27 January, 2002 at 09:24 PM -0600 |
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Monday, January 21, 2002
Well, that was a brutal Monday. Here's a test for you. Which problem is bigger?
Now, in looking at that pile, I'd say one and two could be pretty ugly, whereas three would be an easy problem to solve.
And you'd be right, if we lived in a cartoon world. Since this is the one where I get paid not nearly enough money to deal with this sort of thing, you'll get the benefit of my struggles.
Problem 2 was actually the shortest. It took only about 45 minutes, all told. Problem 1 took a bit longer, but most of it was waiting for rights to propagate.
Problem 3? Yes, that's the one that caused me to miss lunch, work all afternoon long, and in the end, solve nothing. Though a brief conversation at the very end of the day was the "well, duh" part. Through the course of the day he happened to mention that he hadn't used the network card he had in the computer for something over a year, that he was quite happy with Windows NT on his notebook, that he'd actually given away his dongle to someone who needed it, and he'd had no problem with it previously.
As the gentleman was leaving, he said "well, normally, I just shut the computer down, remove it from the docking station, restart it, shut it down, insert the network card, and start it up - and the computer says 'configuring new hardware' or something like that. Well, see ya in the morning."
Did you catch that? Well, I expect that some of you would go "well, Duh". I looked at one of my associates and after the door had been closed about thirty seconds or so, I said "did you catch that?"
"Catch what?"
"How he disconnected his computer?"
"Yeah, he just ... wait a minute - he's got NT 4.0 on that, right? Workstation, right? It doesn't have Plug and Pray!"
Yes, folks, that's right, give that man a nickel. Someone, somewhere, somehow, just didn't bother to test the network card he'd had hidden in his desk until they got to my office. Lovely.
So that was my Monday. Any deep thoughts I thought to think were flushed under the pressure of "what the hell's wrong here?" Lovely.
Tuesday, January 22, 2002
Phew.
Another long day. This one made only slightly more bearable with the fact that, early on, I decided that I would wait to contact the help desk before I spent my weeks trying each of the 6,144 possible combinations for IRQ, I/O, and Memory address for that stupid PCMCIA network card. Yuck.
And I'm still waiting for the help desk to call back. The most informative thing the fellow said this morning was "gee, I didn't know he traveled. I know all of our traveling laptops have a docked and an undocked hardware configuration on them to make them work. I don't think his does. That could be a problem." Wrong, kemosabe, that would be THE problem. Oh well.
I tried their suggestions (including removing and reinstalling the Softex PC Card Controller control panel, about twelve times), and so far, no joy. The Softex thing doesn't want to start. At all. And the fine fellow helping me got smart, left the wrong number to contact him, and so I'm back in the "pool" waiting assignment to some other poor schmuck. Lovely. At least I gave the visiting developer one of my test servers with the appropriately installed software to do his work. So at least he's productive...
In the mean time, I've flipped through a bunch of XP-related issues, including one where someone "downgraded" his software to work with a server - and stopped everything from working. Well, that worked. Not. And the other was the fellow who inquired about XP working with a three-major-versions back version of our software (around here we have the minor "patch" release, which is the X.x.123 part, then we have the Major release, which is x.123.x release, then we have the "Version" release, which is 123.x.x. We're just about finished with our new "Version" release. Near as I can tell, the "Version" Code was frozen back in November so it could be tested in the lab. We've done eight minor changes since then, and the ninth is just about done. No, there is no such thing as "perfect" software. Not when you've got to support six different OS versions, two different versions of SQL Server (both versions with creeping service-pack-itis), and at least three major versions of Internet Exploder. So, folks, the short version is "no, I didn't test it all." The good news is that we haven't made huge changes in the underlying operation - it's sound. We've just added "desperately needed enhancements". Which have been well-received. But boy, is there ever job security in some of this stuff - as long as the powers that be know that's what I'm doing...
And, as it is late January, Cookie Sales are in full swing around here. Which means the delivery headache approaches like a normal January's Alberta Clipper... I will predict here, at 11:22 am on January 22nd, 2002, that my wife will find some way to blame me for the various problems we will undoubtedly encounter in the storage and delivery of the cookies. Therefore, I'm working to come up with a better way to handle that lot.
I'm going to put all of the names into a spreadsheet, and track their purchases. And where they get delivered to. Then, I'm going to make a "label" in Word using mail-merge (one of those neat little tricks one can do between Excel and Word - turn an Excel spreadsheet into a mail-merge source). On one part of the sheet it will record the name of the person and the amount due, in large (36 point or better Arial Black) type. On the other side will have the cookies which they've purchased.
Those sheets will be printed out for Rhiannon to write "Thank you - Rhiannon" on them (a personalized touch in sales never, ever hurt), and then we'll collect paper grocery bags for the inevitable distribution headaches that will result.
Come the day we get the cookies, they will come to our home, then we will spend the evening with those sheets, packing/boxing the cookies in the appropriate container (I'm thinking of getting one of those cargo containers for my folk's lot - when they order in bulk, they really order in bulk). Then there's the delivery headache, which will be only slightly painful (I hope) this year...
And of course, all of this dithering is to avoid me having to look like an idiot. However, as I've married a woman who likes to be right and believes in casting light onto my flaws (her preferred method used to be a flame-thrower, but the smell of burning hair caused her to give it up - now she uses kajillion-volt sunlamps, and I go from "normal human" to "The Kentucky Colonel's Leftovers" faster than you can say "windows boot time"), I made an error.
It seems that the tire for my lovely bride's car is a P225/60R16, not a 255. So all of those people who don't carry tires like that aren't all those things I said, and since you didn't hear them, you can't apply them to me. However, as She heard them, there will be little peace tonight. And no, Mat, no piece either.
Wednesday, January 23, 2002
Long, difficult day, which ended with stuff I've been waiting for for several weeks all coming back to me in something like 20 minutes before I normally leave. Lovely.
At least we know what we're looking at for the tire stuff. That'll be taken care of tomorrow morning.
And, it seems that someone thinks I'm tired and cranky tonight, so rather than inflict that upon you, I'll just take a pass and see ya tomorrow...
Thursday, January 24, 2002
Yes, I know - I was a bad boy yesterday.
Several reasons for that. First, the post I had written was on a floppy, sitting on the desk. It got left there when I sprinted out of the office at 4:45 to get the kids. I was late in leaving because I had gotten three different responses to projects I'd been working on. One had sat a week, one had sat for over 24 hours, and one was from earlier that morning. All piled into my in-box after 4 pm.
So I took off like a bat outta hell, hit the car, picked up my daughter, then headed to Mill's Fleet. Where they had a tire sale. So, I found that they don't do appointments or anything like that, and it was first-come-first-serve. So I returned there this morning.
And, despite being the first car in the lot, I was second in line, and then the nice lady behind the counter told me "I'm sorry, we can't get into the store, you need to buy the tire in there." Uh, OK. Actually, I could transfer the tire, so in and out and back again and it was 8:15 before they got my keys.
Then I looked through hot-rod magazines until the time came for them to tell me I was ready to go. Not nearly as much fun as wandering in the shop, looking at tools, mind you, but it's just waiting.
And again I was reminded that it's not about the computers... Yesterday, the folks at Mills Fleet apparently got a new computer system in the auto shop. How do I know it's new? Trust me - when they dust the top and complain that they need dust covers, that's a clue. The other major, major clue is when the lady who checked me in needed help in finding the "#" symbol on the keyboard. Now, this was an older lady, but boy, was that an eye-opener.
Back when I did straight tech-support and installation for a living, I formed the not-unique theory that those fine folk who design and build software need to spend an awful lot of time in front of a computer, with the intented victim er, client, to get a feel for how things should work.
The group that put together Mill Fleet's package certainly did not. While I was waiting, I was treated to ...
So, that was fun at the Shop this morning. And yes, I do miss the days when you could stand under the car and ask the mechanic "what does that do?"
After that, back to work for another long day, with some progress on several fronts - I put to bed one problem hanging around from November, and managed to make some progress on another front... We'll see if that continues.
Then we did the grocery thing, and came home to crash. And I guess I'm one of the few who will be going to work tomorrow humming "Sugar Sugar" but then again I'm just plain weird. You can tell all your friends you already knew that, though. G'nite.
Friday January 25, 2002
Well, it's finally Friday. I have no idea why it's so much farther from Monday to Friday than it is from Friday to Monday. I suppose the extra days could be somewhat responsible, but I think in this day and age, a case could be made for paying me the same amount of money to work two fewer days in the week. After all, I'm good-looking enough to pull it off, aren't I?
There. Now that most of you have had your laugh for the week (or your attack of hysterical blindness, as the case may be), we're off like a herd of arthritic turtles into the sunset... which, I might add, has crept back from it's near-four-in-the-afternoon time to the much later (but still unsatisfying) hour of 5:11 pm this very day. Which, I suppose, explains why I prefer to leave the blinds at work open and blind myself when the sun makes it's rare appearance. Lord knows I'm not going to get a decent tan like this.
Let's see. What kind of fun can we have today? Well, there's Tell-My-Mom.Com which is a site where you pay your money and get a bumper sticker with a unique number to put on your vehicle. Then, when your knuckleheaded offspring does something stupid like try to jump the family station wagon over half a dozen picnic tables in a local park, and someone (besides the police, of course) sees him pulling this stunt, they can call an 800 number and report the kid - and you receive e-mail or unmarked envelope notification with the details of Junior's misbehavior. Which means you can attempt to correct it before the little ape gets caught by the cops or something.
Oh well. We can hope.
Now here's a headline that sounds vaguely dirty. Unless you know ice-fishing, that is.
And that reminds me - I think I've figured out the reason for the open cells in Camp X-ray. Consider the side-effect of taking someone formerly malnourished, and suddenly feeding them a more balanced, high-fiber diet. Then locking them in a relatively unventilated room. With my recent experiences with higher-fiber intake serving as a guide, I can but guess how toxic the air is down there right about now... I'm sure camel dung is probably an improvement, all things considered...
Saturday, January 26, 2002
Supposedly a relaxing day. Not really though. We did the get up late thing, then decided we needed to shop for Rhiannon's first communion dress. So we went to the Mall of America. Well, if you consider that we could look for a dress at Bloomies, Macys, Sears, Nordstroms, and a half-dozen other clothing stores without going out into that brutal January cold (especially since it was all of about fifty yesterday).
Of course, "browsing" in anticipation of "shopping" with at least three other volunteers for the shopping trip lead in due course (through scads of "25% off the already 75% marked-down-price of the half-off original price" type of sales) to Macys, where we found "the Dress" at 25% off the 50% off price - or something like that.
So the dress is done, the veil is in the planning stages, and we're headed out to visit six or seven houses tomorrow. If one of those doesn't perk us up, we'll go back to the "well, I guess" criteria.
Sunday, January 27, 2002
Well, remember those pictures of the guys laying on beds of nails?
That's me. We found the house. Now we're going to be on those pins and needles for a couple of months until we get there.
Short version - I've been torn between two houses for the last couple hours... well, actually, the last week and a half. One was a house which needed a bit of work, but could be made into something pretty special. The other was a house that, well, we hadn't found yet. Now I know why.
We walked into one today. The price came down on this one and put it into our price range. Our fear was that we'd be looking at something 30-45 minutes from Rhiannon's school, and a bone fide long haul to everything else we're comfortable with.
This house we pass every single day, twice a day - and at least once on Sundays, as well; it's between us and her school, and a whole lot closer to the school. Further deponent sayeth not, because we're still working on it. It's got two bedrooms on the main floor, and one downstairs. It was built in 1984, and the roof was replaced shortly thereafter (we don't know why, but we're finding out). The downstairs is almost completely finished, and it's got a crawlspace under the kitchen. The backyard's a little small, but not bad. It's got a fence that needs work, a shed, a timbered-in area we can turn into a garden, some playground equipment, and some other fun stuff to work with. I've even got a small nook next to the stairs that I can use for the computers.
And, more importantly, Rhiannon not only likes the bedroom, but she also likes the idea of a loft - which is a bunk bed with a desk underneath. This is a good thing, because her room isn't exactly small (it's something like 13x12) but it's also going to be a good use of the space. I think.
Anyway, rather than listen to me blathering about the house we might not get (and I need to remember that when this whole thing started I told Ann "we'll fall in love with four houses, write two purchase agreements which will be rejected, and buy one house" - since we're writing our first purchase agreement, I really really really hope I'm wrong), I'll toss up some pictures we finally grabbed from the digital camera (no, I haven't had a chance to work on the computer this weekend...
Above is a "Buck Hill Shot" that's pretty exceptional. We had one of those very spectacular sunsets about the middle of last week, and Ann got a good picture of it.
And the same sunset, another picture. Just gorgeous.
And the dreaded dress. Ignore the decoration behind the young lady, as we're still admiring all the Christmas Cards. The dress isn't really made of plastic - it's just very, very shiny satin. Or something. Though, I'll be honest - it looks like it's made out of recycled gallon milk jugs in this picture - it's not, it's really a very pretty dress.
But yes, that's my baby girl in the dress we picked up yesterday. It sparkles a whole lot like that. Pretty spectacular, I think. The kid, I mean.
Other than that, I hope your Sunday was as nice. Now, we're going to have to semi-clean this place and start scavenging boxes. Let us hope that we can pack up enough stuff so that moving's not a horrible pain in the posterior.
Actually, we used to be in pretty good shape when it came to moving. At one point in our married and nearly-married life, we moved eight times in five years - and six of those moves occurred in the first three years. And that doesn't count Ann's move to school her senior year in college, her move in the middle of the year, or her move down here from St. Joe. So that's probably a major factor for why we've been here for nearly ten years now.
Of course, we'll see what tomorrow brings. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that we get there. We've been through all the tough financial stuff, now we just need to make the seller think we're decent folk. Let's hope they don't drop by here for a visit and get scared off by me. Well, I'm going to post this and then trundle off to bed - to sleep, perchance to dream? Yah, right. Most likely to toss and turn and twist in the wind.
Oh well. This time, it's of my own design. Serves me right. At least this time I'll profit, I hope, from the efforts...
G'nite...
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