Coool. It's Christmastime.

I'm not doing much in the way of gifts this year - a couple people are getting packages, I have stuff for my parents.

I did all the toys for the Salvation Army toy drive, and that was a lot of fun, and I feel really good about it, too. Plus giving to the food drive at work.

My cards aren't done yet (though the packages I sent today have those people's cards in them), but I can get those done by the end of the weekend.

I told Scott I didn't know what to get him, and asked what he wanted. We've established that neither of us is getting anything for the other. ;) He can't think of anything he wants, and I'm happy with that answer.

There are a couple games I want, and people who know I want them; if I don't get them, they won't cost very much to buy after Christmas.

Sometimes, I really love the holidays. Except for the whole traffic part, of course. It took me ten minutes to get from Main & 99 in Tigard, where the plumbing store and the Catholic school are, to the strip mall with the shipping place and Bi-Mart in it. Ten minutes. That's 1-3 minutes in normal traffic, depending on how bad your luck is with left-turners and lights. On the other hand, at least I wasn't going any further on that road. ;)

Mmm. Nice Saturday.

Sunday's going to be busy, now, but today was good. Got no work-work done. Scott did the laundry. I shipped Christmas boxes, snagged a few last items, wrapped stuff for my parents (have to figure out how we're doing gift-exchange, since Christmas weekend I have that blasted pager...), cleaned the refrigerator out and took out the trash (two tasks that go great together).

I also did a little experimenting on the new laptop to see if the VPN would work without the domain stuff. It sort of does (well, once dim-bulb me turns off the firewall, which was blocking the VPN server). I can get to the email box; I can get to my (Windows 95) office desktop, I can get to the timesheet page.

I canNOT browse through directories on NT boxes in any domain, even if I fill in the passwords. I've got a few more ideas on that one. I'm debating whether I really want to get to those badly enough to void my warranty, if I can't make it work. I almost never do that from home.

The other issue is IPSEC through NAT. XP home can't. That's fine: it has its own IP address, here.

But it wouldn't be fine at a client site...I'd have to do dialup to connect to our network, probably.

So far, it still looks like a good trade, if I get $300 back, stay in warranty, and avoid headaches. Question is, will the company still reimburse me if I do that?

Update: I got it to browse directories, just have to be really explicit about it. Really, really explicit. And I found the receipt for XP Pro. It goes back. If the company doesn't reimburse me because I strayed from the party line, then that decision will cost me $700. But I will be in warranty. And I think they'll reimburse me, I really think they will. Oh my god it works. I am so glad now that things were so damned screwy.

Because if they hadn't been, this wouldn't've dragged on long enough for me to think of trying that, slow as I am.

Mind you, I still don't think much of IBM's sales division. But. That's a separate issue.

I wonder if I can re-extend my warranty. I wonder if they hate my guts yet.

I don't think I'll ask till I've checked with the company on Monday about reimbursement...though I should probably extend it anyway.

It works...jeez....