Meme abuse.

Go, and add to the confusion.

Yes, I'm easily amused. I'm also killing time because getting to the gardens even before member hours start (at least, so MUCH before they do) would be silly.

So far so good.

I'm at work now, but I can get everything I need to done. (Including one extra task that was waiting for me when I arrived.)

I got to the gardens about 8:45; even members-only hours don't start 'til 9:00 but I wanted to be early rather than late, because I wasn't sure how long I'd want to spend. So I spent 10 minutes or so in the rose test gardens (which are still moderately boring to look at, to my eyes, but at this time of year smelled absolutely gorgeous). Then (reminded by the roses) I took my antihistamine, and walked up the path to the gardens.

So very peaceful. I like the gardens with few or no people in them. (Various staff members at the gate, setting up for the day; two members sitting and chatting very quietly along one of the paths, one volunteer sweeping gravel off the concrete paths and back onto the gravel areas.) I wandered; I stopped and stared at things I love; sometimes I sat down.

I took 85 pictures. (Yes, I finally recharged a set of batteries. Yes, that was one set of batteries. No, I did not have a low-battery warning after the last picture.) Admittedly, all but three were 900x600 rather than the 1800x1200 mode. And only twice did I turn on flash, and only once zoomed. (And the bratling of a bird that had been standing there the whole time took off JUST as I finished zooming, before I could get the shot. BAH.)

Half or more of them were also slow exposure. Given that I seldom had good bracing points, I'm dubious about how many of those pictures will come out. But they were awfully fun to take.

Then I stopped to buy clothes (specifically, business-style shirts, of which I found three, and yes, they actually fit; and shoes, another pair exactly like my current ones, only not yet scuffed to death). And then I came over to work.

Hopefully in just a few hours, I will be home and can launder my new shirts.

Ah, yes. I remember why I figured on 3 hours or so, now.

I was thinking everything was going awfully fast, why did I think my in-the-office tasks would take 3 hours?

Answer: because they will. Initially, I correctly factored in the sheer pain of sucking the entire dataset from a client site (for as close to perfect replication of the environment as possible in our lab)....

...over a 56k dialup line. Ooof.

It's more done than not-done at this point, having gotten past the worst of the data. Once I have that, I drop it on the desktop, merge in the updated code I wrote, compile, test the whole thing (to make sure the updated code I wrote works). As long as it works, I run a build, drop it in the lab, set up the configuration parameters for the lab environment....

...write an email and go home. Here's hoping it all works that smoothly, I might come in just under three hours at this rate. Put like that it sounds complex, but it isn't, really. It's mostly having the patience to wait for the data to get here.

(I could have shortened it by testing my code while downloading. If I'd remembered to transfer my code to the other machine before dialing into a site whose ip ranges overlap ours, and block out most of the rest of my office. As it is, I'll eat another 10 minutes to an eternity - depending on wehther the code is good or not - for that. Oh well.)

Update: Drat. Code not good. Add at least another 45 minutes, maybe more, it looks like. I've found one of the two problems, if I can just figure out the others, I can get all of this back on track.

Still, not doing too badly. Not giving up my whole Saturday by a long shot, after all.

End result: Four hours instead of three, everything appears to be working and set up, with the database I wanted, even. Yay, getting to go home.

The tornado fan always wins.

I got to roleplay tonight, and had a great deal of fun in the scene. I borrowed an Enya CD from the library (I like her - but not enough to listen to her often, hence not enough to buy). I also borrowed three paperback books, we'll see if I get into any of them. But I do have a library card now! The poor guy ahead of me wanted one and had no proof of residence, not even a bill or check.

My driver's license stickers arrived yesterday, so I just presented it.

And now laundry is done (but not folded). And the upstairs didn't stay hot very long after I turned the tornado fan loose on it. However, we haven't used the tornado fan in so long, I forgot to grab my hair before turning it off. Switch is on the BACK of the fan. So my hair got sucked in - briefly, and just the tips; I yanked back and got a good hold on it and did it again, hair now held out of the way.

Most of the garden pics were non-blurry. Not so many were good. A few were worth the effort of uploading, and they are in the "Japanese Gardens 2002-06-15" folder here:

http://photos.yahoo.com/alieran