Mornings.

Yay, sleeping well. Yay, pleasant dreams.

Yay, easy fixes. All the services needed from the server are back online this morning (some in slightly modified form, I grant), with less vulnerability. Wonder why we didn't do this before. Of course, the virus can still jam the hard drive full of files - I'll check it periodically for that. The virus scanner is running in auto-protect, so it will nail any such attempts, but it's set to deny access, not delete with prejudice, which means I do have to watch in case it floods the drive.

It'll take it a lot longer, though. Each run only (I think) puts one file in each directory. There are a lot fewer visible directories. It never infected that computer; now it can't, as it doesn't have access to the key directories. :)

Now to get my regular job done.

Every day.

Every single (work) day, I get a message, "Maximum users on [System] exceeded; please log off if you are not actively using the system." Usually around 1 in the afternoon - why usage peaks then, I have no clue. I already got one this morning. Already.

We hit our licensing cap every day, or at least every other. (I would check back emails, but I delete those - they're not really "keeper" messages - but I do think it's almost every day).

If usage is that high, if it happens so often, we need to do one of two things:
1. Retrain personnel. Clearly, since sending out the email is perceived as helpful, people do log off when they get it, which means they are logged on when not actively using the system. It should not be necessary to hit them with email to get them off; they should do that themselves, when they're done for a while. (Setting up some agreement whereby the west coast offices - or some people in them - access the system late in the day after other offices have closed might also help.)
2. Get more licenses. If, on the other hand, the email does not have an effect, or has an insufficient effect, then we simply don't have enough licenses, and they're trying to scrape a few more logins.

Either way, why must we see this email every day? Goodness, set the system up to detect everyone logged in and email them?

Heh.

Deli. Again.

Okay, so I should be making my own lunch, and I haven't been lately. At any rate, I didn't again.

Let me describe Athena's Espresso and Deli, and its environs, because I don't believe I have yet. The Deli is located in a business park of three three-story buildings, long and sprawling, full of offices. There are not so much as soda machines in most of these offices (since the landlords don't put them in, and soda machines cost more money than your average business can afford after the rent here...). About a block down, across a major four-lane street, is a cluster of businesses, banks, medical centers, etc. This includes one restaurant, which is a sit-down restaurant with slow services, a limited selection of (good, but strongly-flavored) food, and moderately high prices.

Also a block down from the office (in another direction) is a Very Busy Road. The Very Busy Road, if you go a half-mile or more, will yield up fast food, a Chinese place, convenience stores, etc. All of which are crammed at lunchtime. (Seriously: the drive-through line at McDonald's can take 15 minutes. For fast food, that's lousy. Getting OUT of their driveway also takes a while, because the VBR is, well, very busy. Time lost just to bring McDonald's back to your office? About 30-45 minutes, give or take.)

Now, back to the office buildings. Athena's is on the ground floor of one of the buildings, tucked into a space that can only be described as "useless for any other purpose" (except maybe filling in with cement). It's a narrow, open-fronted space, with a grille that can shut it off when it's closed. There's a back room to it that has more walls, and is equally narrow. I kid you not, the people in there cannot stretch their arms to both sides without hitting something - unless they're facing straight forward, and their coworkers duck. I have never seen two employees pass each other in the front space; in the back room, there's just enough room they can edge around each other to make stuff.

It's small, long, thin, and generally horrid. The front has a cart front of the sort you're used to finding standalone at supermarkets; this one displays signs and hosts the cash register as well as chips, pastries, and candy on its surface; and its interior is refrigerated and shelters various coffee-making items, unknown other things, and cans of soda pop. The counter opposite it, against their back wall, holds espresso makings. Somewhere off to the right where I can't see it is a below-counter freezer, because I've heard them talk about it, and seen them retrieve frozen stuff, but you can't see anybody when they're in there (and they're careful backing out, which leads me to believe there's an overhang).

The other "room" (really an extension of the front, just not open to the hallway) hosts most of the food stuff: the soup, the containers with all the salad and sandwich fixings, etc. It is marginally wider than the front, and about the same length. Aie.

Sample costs: soda pop, 75 cents a can; chips, 55 cents a small bag; etc.

So, I decided to have the chef salad. Now, the chef salad is $4.25. I was not aware of this, but while the ingredients are already prepared (I would swear the croutons were hand-baked, and the garlic seasoning on them was perfect), they are put together by hand by the employee at the time of order (nice, as it means you can decline stuff if you wished). Lettuce, croutons, tomato, shredded cheese (cheddar and swiss), ham slices, turkey slices, and a hardboiled egg. Along with a packet of salad dressing. The non-vegetable things make up 1/3 or a bit more of the "salad".

So, how much do you think I got for that price?

The tray was 7" on each side, square, and 3-4 inches high (sorry, my ruler is part of my desk mat, and I was not dumping the salad for accuracy of measurement ;).

And it was as full as it could be without pouring out when opened.

I. Love. This. Place.