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It was a good trip. Delta "snack" lunches and dinners are quite nice (as long as you don't have a problem with wheat products, given that only the fruit and small piece of cheese were safe in that event).
And, yeah, I back-wrote entries. Amusing note: R and I got to Logan Airport around 9:30. His flight left 11:15 (United, via Chicago) and mine at 11:30 (Delta, via Dallas/Fort Worth). In Portland, I arrived slightly early, retrieved my luggage, and headed out to catch the bus to the economy lot.
Whereupon I found myself walking through the rotating door with R., who had just arrived (and had no luggage to collect). The world is strange.
Oh, and bad schedules: depart hotel 8 am eastern (5 am Pacific). Fly all day (well, not quite, but times above), arriving Portland a bit after 5 pm (8 pm Eastern). Get luggage, get to office by 6 pm. Check in changes. Collect expense check, file new expense report (rotating expense reports - will this company ever not owe me expense money for a whole month again at this rate?). Depart office 7:30.
Stop at Fry's electronics on the way home and geek out, get grouchy 'cause they don't have the program desired, but not too grouchy because the smart media cards for my camera were cheaper than expected so I got two....
Anyway, back entries.
2002-09-26 5:28 am (Pacific)
I'm at the airport. Whee. I'm waiting for them to give me my seat on the plane - in the 45 minutes prior to boarding (which is about an hour and twenty minutes away). Color me thrilled. Overbooked, anyone?
I've got a confirmed window seat on my second flight. Here's hoping I get to it.
I woke up this morning out of an amazingly normal-feeling (not me-feeling) dream. I was in some area, a school or other area. And I was just - doing things. The big irritation was some music group playing in one of the gathering-points in the hall, which was too damned loud and it hurt to walk past. I reached a room away from them with some - I think they were exercise machines - and I knelt on one to get a closer look at something, and set off this loud, beeping alarm.
I woke up. It was, of course, the real loud, beeping alarm. I can now say safely that it takes about a half hour to get ready (if the laptop is off and I'm rushing), and in clear traffic, another half hour or thereabouts to get to the airport.
Handy to know. The line at the ticket counter took a bit longer, but what the heck. Now as long as I get a seat, I should be fine.
Security was amusing. My backpack got put back a second time on the conveyor belt; my laptop got swabbed (for explosives, I assume, since he especially checked the areas where the memory goes in and the like) and then I had to open it, but not turn it on - so he could see the screen and keyboard.
Whee. That was all the more fun I had, though; I didn't set the gate off, at least. A quick stop at Wendy's got me a Dr. Pepper and while that may not be the wisest drink at this hour, it sounded good (and is).
I found the shirt I mean to give the PM (it's an in-joke, basically) and everything else I needed or wanted to bring along (well, except Scott - I found him, but I don't get to take him with ;). Scott got up when I did (poor man!) but had the good sense to go back to bed after wishing me a good trip. I hope he was able to get back to sleep.
2002-09-26 9:37 PM (Eastern)
Okay. So far, it's been a good trip, considering how it started out. Apparently they had some real troubles today so tomorrow may be a bit stressful/workful, but the trip part at least has been great. I was really nervous about the seat thing, since when I checked in they gave me a seat-request card and said no seats were available but I was listed for at the gate. Um, not reassuring, that. But I was given a seat more than an hour before the flight - 22A - a window. I thanked him a lot, since I'd just been praying for a seat actually located on the plane. I don't know if my joy at that influenced his day or what, but the luck of things had me called up to the podium again. I get the impression from their conversation that they had put someone else in the same seat as they did me.
Not arguing: they responded to this by moving me to 1A. Yes, I got upgraded to the business executive class for free. :) On a 767? That rocks. I had a window seat with a chair that adjusts better than anything I've ever owned in my home, viewscreen, and an in-flight breakfast that was hot and delicious. (I would never dare to order a hot breakfast in coach. Cereal's safer. I did skip ham and eggs, but waffles sounded safe. And were. Mmmm.) It's true that I didn't have any space under the seat in front of me and had to put everything overhead, but as I was planning to mostly sleep (and did)? Big deal.
Takeoff was beautiful. I wish I could have gotten pictures of it. We lifted up over the river just as the sun was just working its way up, and the clouds and even the river were touched with pink. It was just gorgeous, seeing it in that light.
I wasn't as lucky on my connecting flight; I "only" got my window seat, and an over-wing one at that. But the flight left on time, arrived early, and by the time R (my former boss, not the coworker back at the office, obviously) arrived (he was on a flight with United; I was on Delta; but we'd timed them within a half hour), I had my luggage. As he hadn't checked any, we proceeded out and got the rental car (which he's picking up and driving, thank heavens, I'd rather not drive if I can get out of it - but he's also an Emerald Aisle member so he gets a better choice, better deals, and much reduced paperwork). That was where it got bad; the computers were slow, so the reduced paperwork wasn't much of a bennie since it relies on them, and then traffic sucked. It took us two hours to make the drive. Which is 1 or 1.5 hours anyway, to be fair, so still not hideous.
I saw a couple things I wanted photos of, none of which would photograph well in the evening light, so I didn't bother. It was clear while we were in Boston but, by the time we'd made it through the Sumner tunnel (need I say more? argh...), it was raining. Which I rather liked, but I wasn't having to do the driving in it.
Got up here by about 7:30 and met up with C. The shirt made her laugh, the chocolate squares were appreciated, and we three went for Italian. She'd never found the Italian place we told her about, but now she has, and she really liked her food there. N skipped and ate fast food because she didn't want to miss the premiere of Friends. :)
I haven't totally lost my mind, anyway. We're not meeting till 8:30 tomorrow but I'm going to get up early and fuss around in the morning, not now. I'll be more human then and also if I misestimate time I just spot it instantly and drop the non-essentials. :)
2002-09-27 11:42 am (Eastern)
Yay, client sites. We've narrowed down the problem and think we know what started it, and are in the process of correcting that bit of code. At the same time, some of what we're seeing/doing is not making sense, so I am not real confident.
The hotel's continental breakfast this morning included French Toast; and R paid for the 50-cent toll. In pennies. The counting-bin was still ticking away at them when we gave up and drove off - just before we did that, he threw two more in "to be sure" (I think just to get them out of his pocket).
Poor machine. But it does say 50 cents and doesn't specify acceptable coins...oops. Heh.
I'm already hungry but there was an impromptu meeting in the break room where the vending machines are, so I skipped. If I can get C's attention I'll ask if there's a sandwich shop or something we could get subs from. That would be ideal. Or anything, really, that one person can go and bring back. I know some folks here can work right through but I am not one of them. The sandwich would be better for me than those snacks from the vending 'chines anyway!
2002-09-27 9:45 pm (Eastern)
Okay, that's not so bad. We found at least a big part of it and have improved things. There's still more to find, but we identified the cause of what was reported, and I heard that the other site did okay. Just after I wrote the last entry, they got our orders for a sandwich shop! I had a hot chicken sandwich because N. recommended it. It was really good, but too much cheese; lamb for dinner was better.
I guess this is a food entry, but - I have my maple sugar candy. :) I'm happy.
C. wants pictures of a steeple downtown. She forgot her camera. If we have time, I'll get some for her. Otherwise, not. Dinner included a lovely little four-way grumble about the way the company documents say they value our time, but that's not how they act. Gee, imagine that.
I'm sort-of watching a Discovery special on pandas. There's not much else on the tv and it will do for the bit till I go to bed. My brain is mostly off, I fear.
2002-09-28 8:28 pm (Eastern)
Today really sucked. We got the rest of the problem solved but when it first started showing symptoms, it was in the map program. R was tired, C was tired, I was tired - N left to go home (lucky her, but her role was over and she did a good job, plus tomorrow is her birthday). We were snapping at each other.
It turned out I was wrong, too. Ooops. I'd read the code three times and it looked good but there was a missing set of braces. The formatting "looked" right but wasn't and it totally changed the meaning of the code. Ugh. Good news is, put in the braces and blammo, the whole problem went away.
We left the client site at about 5:30 - we made it a normal work-day in other words! Which, being as it was a Saturday, is still a bit much, but it was good considering I was expecting another 12-hour day. We had sandwiches for lunch (N and C got them - N didn't have to leave for the airport 'til about 2 pm), and we got out on time.
C and I drove around and tried to get pictures of things, but she was doing quick drive-bys of neat places which really gave me little framing chance, and I was often moving. A couple may be salvagable at small size, but that's about it; I didn't have any of the spectacular luck that got me that gorgeous river shot in Chicago. Which is okay, it was still fun.
We got together in the lobby at 6:30 to go to dinner and went back to the Italian place. I think C is addicted - I knew she would love it; she likes Italian, and this is very good Italian. I had the lasanga, and I probably shouldn't have, as it wasn't as spectacular as some of the others, but nothing was sounding super-must-have and it was good. It was early enough that there was an after-dinner relaxing period where C had coffee, I had hot chocolate, and R finished off the remaining chianti (he and C demolished a bottle of it during dinner).
In retrospect, I should have offered to drive, though neither was speaking/acting impaired. As it was R's rental car and he didn't have it approved for another driver, I doubt he would have let me. The only reason I say this is that when he parked it, he drove it up onto the curb (which is slightly taller than the front of the car) - hard enough to jolt all of us. So perhaps a bit more affected than he'd been coming across....
I've vegged around, dug out my poetry books and my files of stuff-to-do, and I'm settling in pretty happily here. I mean, over two hours of time to blow after the work day, at a client site? And we're not leaving 'til 8:30 in the morning. I'm debating whether to move the alarm from 6:30 to 7:30 or not. I could stay up later and sleep in. Thinking I won't; I can also get up early and do stuff in the morning, after all.
I have Dungeon Siege as an option as well, but I'm not in the mood for that really. I'm restless; and I want to hang out with/read/chatter at all the friends I'm away from right now something fierce. It's strange, realizing I have time, and less to do. I didn't even bring a book this time (I was packing so hastily, since it had been all chaos and fury preceding this, that when I couldn't make up my mind about a book, I just decided to forget about it - heh).
2002-09-28 10:23 pm (Eastern)
Of course, what did I do? Any of the above-listed things? No, I loaded my email program and read stuff from email lists I've fallen behind on, including Heroic Stories. Which I think was good for me.
Maybe I'll do something "useful" in the morning. Maybe I won't; I like having that choice.
2002-09-29 7:54 am (Eastern)
We meet for the continental breakfast, and to go over to the client site, in a half hour. As for today, color me not-thrilled. I mean, yes, it's down to 34 degrees out, it's vaguely pretty, and we're not facing nasty bugs.
But that damned filling came out again last night, after I'd turned this off, which I was brushing my teeth. At least this time, when I get home, I've got 2-3 weeks free which means I don't have to rush it. Which means it's time to start hunting up a new dentist, at the least for a second opinion as to how hard it really ought to be to keep a filling in that spot.
Other than that, I set the alarm to "music" instead of "alarm" which is bad, because I also deliberately left the music on all night. And I woke up at 7:15 anyway. I'm totally ready, dressed, hair brushed, etc.
Weird. Cool, but weird. Anyway, I don't really have anything to say except I wanted to whine about that tooth.
2002-09-30 10:28 pm (Eastern)
Tomorrow is our last day on site. I'm glad of that. Looking forward to having Thursday & Friday off. But I'm also pleased with much of the time here (not all of it; I got stressy and blah, especially Sunday, but I still dealt with the job stuff pretty well, I think). Tonight we were lazy and went for fast food and holed up, I think because we worked until 7 or 8. We all had stuff to get done, though, and with tomorrow our last day on site - we'd like the system to hold up well.
For some reason I'm still up. There's this bizarre show called "Depth Charge" on. Underwater robot wars? Not my usual thing, but the narration is amusing, and so is the student team, controlling their robot even when the controls start sparking against their hands. (They used duct tape to guard and the next round, they had rubber gloves.)
I got the geo server all cleaned up today, and put in the fixes for several issues, getting progressively more minor. I've still have a couple of things to look for, but - this is so much better than when we got here. And hey, I got my maple sugar candy, right?
I'm going to get to take my first day of vacation as comp time (per my boss). I'll check email in the morning when I get up, and file my time. From there on out, I'll be out of touch through Monday. (Why that? Well, partly to make him feel better, but mostly because if I don't charge something that day, they'll dock vacation, whether he meant for it to be comp time or not, and even though I've already worked almost 30 hours this week (28-something). Tomorrow will probably be 9-11 hours, at a guess, and then all day Wednesday will bill to travel (well, not quite, but it's a loooong trip back). So.... yeah. :) That's sounding really good.
I've found a little time to do stuff just for fun. I haven't gotten much done on my carry-along projects, though. It's felt too much like work - after too much of my regular work first. Which is okay. I'll get back to some of them when I get home. And hopefully I'll play with my camera at some point in here. Or not. We'll see. There's some utterly gorgeous architecture in this town. And I haven't gotten a decent shot of any of it, mostly because I haven't gotten a chance to get out and walk around downtown (or anywhere else, but some areas around here, I wouldn't want to walk around...).
2002-10-02 10:08 am
I posted a bit online yesterday so I didn't say as much - no, that's not really why. Actually, we left the PD at 6:30 and I was really tired, but then we went to dinner (at an absolutely excellent restaurant - family atmosphere, fairly formal/historical decor, and DELICIOUS food). After that, C and I ended up hanging out in the parking lot and discussing how things ought to be done. When I got back to my room, between driving time and all the rest, it was 10 pm! And I still had to pack.
I turned the tv on to keep my company and ended up watching two Discover shows, one about surgery and one about forensic evidence. Which resulted in my staying up until midnight when I really should have, and could have, been in bed by 11, but I kept stopping my packing to watch, and watching, and.... Heh.
I never did get to see the building the client recommended. I did get to see some of the foliage change, and my first reaction was annoyance at the hype. It looked just like changing foliage back home. Then a little further on, there was some with the astonishingly brilliant colors you see in photos, and I had to take back my "ho-hum" thought from earlier. I mean - it's just changing foliage - but it is pretty and different. Even if there's not much of it yet.
Client is targeting the weekend of the 20th. I'll have to be available by phone (I'm not available to be on site that weekend). I'm sort of glad, and sort of sorry. They picked the one weekend I couldn't come out. I won't have a chance to take advantage and schedule more time around the area for myself. But I also won't have to travel out and deal with all of that.
Of course, now I have to deal with the tooth when I get home (but it's not bugging me at all, which I consider a good thing - I'm very zealous about keeping teeth that are missing fillings clean, so that probably helps), and set up an appointment to get the mole on my back removed (it's irritated again and looks sort of nasty, so I'm trying not to be nervous, because she did say it looked benign) as I discussed with my doctor a while back. Once I have that, work can't schedule me out of town unexpectedly - I'm just going to get very stubborn about it - until two weeks afterward (they said a week and a half, but...).
Yes, I'm rambling on again. I'm not going to get much useful done (I've gone through 20% of my battery power already, updating time sheets, fiddling with other things, and now writing this). I am, though, going to try to get a bit done.
And, yeah, I back-wrote entries. Amusing note: R and I got to Logan Airport around 9:30. His flight left 11:15 (United, via Chicago) and mine at 11:30 (Delta, via Dallas/Fort Worth). In Portland, I arrived slightly early, retrieved my luggage, and headed out to catch the bus to the economy lot.
Whereupon I found myself walking through the rotating door with R., who had just arrived (and had no luggage to collect). The world is strange.
Oh, and bad schedules: depart hotel 8 am eastern (5 am Pacific). Fly all day (well, not quite, but times above), arriving Portland a bit after 5 pm (8 pm Eastern). Get luggage, get to office by 6 pm. Check in changes. Collect expense check, file new expense report (rotating expense reports - will this company ever not owe me expense money for a whole month again at this rate?). Depart office 7:30.
Stop at Fry's electronics on the way home and geek out, get grouchy 'cause they don't have the program desired, but not too grouchy because the smart media cards for my camera were cheaper than expected so I got two....
Anyway, back entries.
2002-09-26 5:28 am (Pacific)
I'm at the airport. Whee. I'm waiting for them to give me my seat on the plane - in the 45 minutes prior to boarding (which is about an hour and twenty minutes away). Color me thrilled. Overbooked, anyone?
I've got a confirmed window seat on my second flight. Here's hoping I get to it.
I woke up this morning out of an amazingly normal-feeling (not me-feeling) dream. I was in some area, a school or other area. And I was just - doing things. The big irritation was some music group playing in one of the gathering-points in the hall, which was too damned loud and it hurt to walk past. I reached a room away from them with some - I think they were exercise machines - and I knelt on one to get a closer look at something, and set off this loud, beeping alarm.
I woke up. It was, of course, the real loud, beeping alarm. I can now say safely that it takes about a half hour to get ready (if the laptop is off and I'm rushing), and in clear traffic, another half hour or thereabouts to get to the airport.
Handy to know. The line at the ticket counter took a bit longer, but what the heck. Now as long as I get a seat, I should be fine.
Security was amusing. My backpack got put back a second time on the conveyor belt; my laptop got swabbed (for explosives, I assume, since he especially checked the areas where the memory goes in and the like) and then I had to open it, but not turn it on - so he could see the screen and keyboard.
Whee. That was all the more fun I had, though; I didn't set the gate off, at least. A quick stop at Wendy's got me a Dr. Pepper and while that may not be the wisest drink at this hour, it sounded good (and is).
I found the shirt I mean to give the PM (it's an in-joke, basically) and everything else I needed or wanted to bring along (well, except Scott - I found him, but I don't get to take him with ;). Scott got up when I did (poor man!) but had the good sense to go back to bed after wishing me a good trip. I hope he was able to get back to sleep.
2002-09-26 9:37 PM (Eastern)
Okay. So far, it's been a good trip, considering how it started out. Apparently they had some real troubles today so tomorrow may be a bit stressful/workful, but the trip part at least has been great. I was really nervous about the seat thing, since when I checked in they gave me a seat-request card and said no seats were available but I was listed for at the gate. Um, not reassuring, that. But I was given a seat more than an hour before the flight - 22A - a window. I thanked him a lot, since I'd just been praying for a seat actually located on the plane. I don't know if my joy at that influenced his day or what, but the luck of things had me called up to the podium again. I get the impression from their conversation that they had put someone else in the same seat as they did me.
Not arguing: they responded to this by moving me to 1A. Yes, I got upgraded to the business executive class for free. :) On a 767? That rocks. I had a window seat with a chair that adjusts better than anything I've ever owned in my home, viewscreen, and an in-flight breakfast that was hot and delicious. (I would never dare to order a hot breakfast in coach. Cereal's safer. I did skip ham and eggs, but waffles sounded safe. And were. Mmmm.) It's true that I didn't have any space under the seat in front of me and had to put everything overhead, but as I was planning to mostly sleep (and did)? Big deal.
Takeoff was beautiful. I wish I could have gotten pictures of it. We lifted up over the river just as the sun was just working its way up, and the clouds and even the river were touched with pink. It was just gorgeous, seeing it in that light.
I wasn't as lucky on my connecting flight; I "only" got my window seat, and an over-wing one at that. But the flight left on time, arrived early, and by the time R (my former boss, not the coworker back at the office, obviously) arrived (he was on a flight with United; I was on Delta; but we'd timed them within a half hour), I had my luggage. As he hadn't checked any, we proceeded out and got the rental car (which he's picking up and driving, thank heavens, I'd rather not drive if I can get out of it - but he's also an Emerald Aisle member so he gets a better choice, better deals, and much reduced paperwork). That was where it got bad; the computers were slow, so the reduced paperwork wasn't much of a bennie since it relies on them, and then traffic sucked. It took us two hours to make the drive. Which is 1 or 1.5 hours anyway, to be fair, so still not hideous.
I saw a couple things I wanted photos of, none of which would photograph well in the evening light, so I didn't bother. It was clear while we were in Boston but, by the time we'd made it through the Sumner tunnel (need I say more? argh...), it was raining. Which I rather liked, but I wasn't having to do the driving in it.
Got up here by about 7:30 and met up with C. The shirt made her laugh, the chocolate squares were appreciated, and we three went for Italian. She'd never found the Italian place we told her about, but now she has, and she really liked her food there. N skipped and ate fast food because she didn't want to miss the premiere of Friends. :)
I haven't totally lost my mind, anyway. We're not meeting till 8:30 tomorrow but I'm going to get up early and fuss around in the morning, not now. I'll be more human then and also if I misestimate time I just spot it instantly and drop the non-essentials. :)
2002-09-27 11:42 am (Eastern)
Yay, client sites. We've narrowed down the problem and think we know what started it, and are in the process of correcting that bit of code. At the same time, some of what we're seeing/doing is not making sense, so I am not real confident.
The hotel's continental breakfast this morning included French Toast; and R paid for the 50-cent toll. In pennies. The counting-bin was still ticking away at them when we gave up and drove off - just before we did that, he threw two more in "to be sure" (I think just to get them out of his pocket).
Poor machine. But it does say 50 cents and doesn't specify acceptable coins...oops. Heh.
I'm already hungry but there was an impromptu meeting in the break room where the vending machines are, so I skipped. If I can get C's attention I'll ask if there's a sandwich shop or something we could get subs from. That would be ideal. Or anything, really, that one person can go and bring back. I know some folks here can work right through but I am not one of them. The sandwich would be better for me than those snacks from the vending 'chines anyway!
2002-09-27 9:45 pm (Eastern)
Okay, that's not so bad. We found at least a big part of it and have improved things. There's still more to find, but we identified the cause of what was reported, and I heard that the other site did okay. Just after I wrote the last entry, they got our orders for a sandwich shop! I had a hot chicken sandwich because N. recommended it. It was really good, but too much cheese; lamb for dinner was better.
I guess this is a food entry, but - I have my maple sugar candy. :) I'm happy.
C. wants pictures of a steeple downtown. She forgot her camera. If we have time, I'll get some for her. Otherwise, not. Dinner included a lovely little four-way grumble about the way the company documents say they value our time, but that's not how they act. Gee, imagine that.
I'm sort-of watching a Discovery special on pandas. There's not much else on the tv and it will do for the bit till I go to bed. My brain is mostly off, I fear.
2002-09-28 8:28 pm (Eastern)
Today really sucked. We got the rest of the problem solved but when it first started showing symptoms, it was in the map program. R was tired, C was tired, I was tired - N left to go home (lucky her, but her role was over and she did a good job, plus tomorrow is her birthday). We were snapping at each other.
It turned out I was wrong, too. Ooops. I'd read the code three times and it looked good but there was a missing set of braces. The formatting "looked" right but wasn't and it totally changed the meaning of the code. Ugh. Good news is, put in the braces and blammo, the whole problem went away.
We left the client site at about 5:30 - we made it a normal work-day in other words! Which, being as it was a Saturday, is still a bit much, but it was good considering I was expecting another 12-hour day. We had sandwiches for lunch (N and C got them - N didn't have to leave for the airport 'til about 2 pm), and we got out on time.
C and I drove around and tried to get pictures of things, but she was doing quick drive-bys of neat places which really gave me little framing chance, and I was often moving. A couple may be salvagable at small size, but that's about it; I didn't have any of the spectacular luck that got me that gorgeous river shot in Chicago. Which is okay, it was still fun.
We got together in the lobby at 6:30 to go to dinner and went back to the Italian place. I think C is addicted - I knew she would love it; she likes Italian, and this is very good Italian. I had the lasanga, and I probably shouldn't have, as it wasn't as spectacular as some of the others, but nothing was sounding super-must-have and it was good. It was early enough that there was an after-dinner relaxing period where C had coffee, I had hot chocolate, and R finished off the remaining chianti (he and C demolished a bottle of it during dinner).
In retrospect, I should have offered to drive, though neither was speaking/acting impaired. As it was R's rental car and he didn't have it approved for another driver, I doubt he would have let me. The only reason I say this is that when he parked it, he drove it up onto the curb (which is slightly taller than the front of the car) - hard enough to jolt all of us. So perhaps a bit more affected than he'd been coming across....
I've vegged around, dug out my poetry books and my files of stuff-to-do, and I'm settling in pretty happily here. I mean, over two hours of time to blow after the work day, at a client site? And we're not leaving 'til 8:30 in the morning. I'm debating whether to move the alarm from 6:30 to 7:30 or not. I could stay up later and sleep in. Thinking I won't; I can also get up early and do stuff in the morning, after all.
I have Dungeon Siege as an option as well, but I'm not in the mood for that really. I'm restless; and I want to hang out with/read/chatter at all the friends I'm away from right now something fierce. It's strange, realizing I have time, and less to do. I didn't even bring a book this time (I was packing so hastily, since it had been all chaos and fury preceding this, that when I couldn't make up my mind about a book, I just decided to forget about it - heh).
2002-09-28 10:23 pm (Eastern)
Of course, what did I do? Any of the above-listed things? No, I loaded my email program and read stuff from email lists I've fallen behind on, including Heroic Stories. Which I think was good for me.
Maybe I'll do something "useful" in the morning. Maybe I won't; I like having that choice.
2002-09-29 7:54 am (Eastern)
We meet for the continental breakfast, and to go over to the client site, in a half hour. As for today, color me not-thrilled. I mean, yes, it's down to 34 degrees out, it's vaguely pretty, and we're not facing nasty bugs.
But that damned filling came out again last night, after I'd turned this off, which I was brushing my teeth. At least this time, when I get home, I've got 2-3 weeks free which means I don't have to rush it. Which means it's time to start hunting up a new dentist, at the least for a second opinion as to how hard it really ought to be to keep a filling in that spot.
Other than that, I set the alarm to "music" instead of "alarm" which is bad, because I also deliberately left the music on all night. And I woke up at 7:15 anyway. I'm totally ready, dressed, hair brushed, etc.
Weird. Cool, but weird. Anyway, I don't really have anything to say except I wanted to whine about that tooth.
2002-09-30 10:28 pm (Eastern)
Tomorrow is our last day on site. I'm glad of that. Looking forward to having Thursday & Friday off. But I'm also pleased with much of the time here (not all of it; I got stressy and blah, especially Sunday, but I still dealt with the job stuff pretty well, I think). Tonight we were lazy and went for fast food and holed up, I think because we worked until 7 or 8. We all had stuff to get done, though, and with tomorrow our last day on site - we'd like the system to hold up well.
For some reason I'm still up. There's this bizarre show called "Depth Charge" on. Underwater robot wars? Not my usual thing, but the narration is amusing, and so is the student team, controlling their robot even when the controls start sparking against their hands. (They used duct tape to guard and the next round, they had rubber gloves.)
I got the geo server all cleaned up today, and put in the fixes for several issues, getting progressively more minor. I've still have a couple of things to look for, but - this is so much better than when we got here. And hey, I got my maple sugar candy, right?
I'm going to get to take my first day of vacation as comp time (per my boss). I'll check email in the morning when I get up, and file my time. From there on out, I'll be out of touch through Monday. (Why that? Well, partly to make him feel better, but mostly because if I don't charge something that day, they'll dock vacation, whether he meant for it to be comp time or not, and even though I've already worked almost 30 hours this week (28-something). Tomorrow will probably be 9-11 hours, at a guess, and then all day Wednesday will bill to travel (well, not quite, but it's a loooong trip back). So.... yeah. :) That's sounding really good.
I've found a little time to do stuff just for fun. I haven't gotten much done on my carry-along projects, though. It's felt too much like work - after too much of my regular work first. Which is okay. I'll get back to some of them when I get home. And hopefully I'll play with my camera at some point in here. Or not. We'll see. There's some utterly gorgeous architecture in this town. And I haven't gotten a decent shot of any of it, mostly because I haven't gotten a chance to get out and walk around downtown (or anywhere else, but some areas around here, I wouldn't want to walk around...).
2002-10-02 10:08 am
I posted a bit online yesterday so I didn't say as much - no, that's not really why. Actually, we left the PD at 6:30 and I was really tired, but then we went to dinner (at an absolutely excellent restaurant - family atmosphere, fairly formal/historical decor, and DELICIOUS food). After that, C and I ended up hanging out in the parking lot and discussing how things ought to be done. When I got back to my room, between driving time and all the rest, it was 10 pm! And I still had to pack.
I turned the tv on to keep my company and ended up watching two Discover shows, one about surgery and one about forensic evidence. Which resulted in my staying up until midnight when I really should have, and could have, been in bed by 11, but I kept stopping my packing to watch, and watching, and.... Heh.
I never did get to see the building the client recommended. I did get to see some of the foliage change, and my first reaction was annoyance at the hype. It looked just like changing foliage back home. Then a little further on, there was some with the astonishingly brilliant colors you see in photos, and I had to take back my "ho-hum" thought from earlier. I mean - it's just changing foliage - but it is pretty and different. Even if there's not much of it yet.
Client is targeting the weekend of the 20th. I'll have to be available by phone (I'm not available to be on site that weekend). I'm sort of glad, and sort of sorry. They picked the one weekend I couldn't come out. I won't have a chance to take advantage and schedule more time around the area for myself. But I also won't have to travel out and deal with all of that.
Of course, now I have to deal with the tooth when I get home (but it's not bugging me at all, which I consider a good thing - I'm very zealous about keeping teeth that are missing fillings clean, so that probably helps), and set up an appointment to get the mole on my back removed (it's irritated again and looks sort of nasty, so I'm trying not to be nervous, because she did say it looked benign) as I discussed with my doctor a while back. Once I have that, work can't schedule me out of town unexpectedly - I'm just going to get very stubborn about it - until two weeks afterward (they said a week and a half, but...).
Yes, I'm rambling on again. I'm not going to get much useful done (I've gone through 20% of my battery power already, updating time sheets, fiddling with other things, and now writing this). I am, though, going to try to get a bit done.
