mythicalgirl | Entries tagged with work

I know. I never blog anymore. I'm on Facebook now but honestly I rarely post over there either. I have become a very uncommunicative, anti-social butterfly.

Work is work. Busy as hell with all sorts of politics and bullshit. Some days I like what I do; other days I hate it with the angry hate of a thousand suns. I have yet to decide what I want to do - do I want to look for another job? Would things be any different someplace else? Do I even want to stay in IT? If I could actually answer those questions (and the whole host of others swirling around in my head) I might be able to make some decisions and move forward. As it is I'm pretty much in limbo.

So I'm focusing on non-work stuff for the moment. Things like upgrades and renovations to the house. Getting new toys now that I (FINALLY) got wifi at home. Vacation. You know, fun stuff.

Here's the list:
1. Schedule the first home visit with the bathroom re-modelers. We did the phone estimate so now it is time to have him come out and measure, draw pictures, and provide a somewhat more accurate estimate. If I'm cool with what he tells me (and I like him, that's a big thing) we'll move to the third step of picking out fixtures and finalizing the estimate.

2. Research the various tablets available and decide if a) I really want a table and b) which one.

3. Research laptops and decide if a) I really want a laptop and b) which one.
You might ask why I'm looking at both tablets and laptops. Well, I have a desktop and I use that for surfing the web right now and when I work at home. I'm thinking of adding a laptop to that so I can work via wifi and I'm not tied to my office. I also prefer writing on a laptop rather than a PC because I can get more comfortable. But I don't want to lug a laptop around when I travel or back and forth to work, etc. Plus sometimes I just want to check FB or Tumbler without booting the PC up but with a bigger screen than my phone. So I may get one or the other or both. Yes, I like toys.

4. Schedule excursion for the next vacation. Dad and I are doing our usual thing of going on a cruise. I just haven't gotten around to scheduling the excursions yet.

5. Schedule my vacation at work. This is important!

6. Get a new couch. I replaced the cushions on my old couch and that worked but now I'm ready to get a new one.

7. Have Goodwill or AmVets pick up the old couch.

8. Other house stuff. Like painting the mailbox. And pruning the almost dead trees. And cutting back the plants that are trying to take over since I haven't had time to garden this year.

I'm sure there is more. There is always more.
Now it is time to go to yet another meeting (I swear I spend half my life in those). I would promise to blog more but we all know I'd fail horribly so I'll just say later.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: cube farm
Crossposts: http://mythicalgirl.livejournal.com/90829.html

I really should be working. There's a metric shit-ton to do and just no freaking time. The weekend is the only time I have where I'm not getting bothered or in meetings or answering everyone else's questions.

And yet here I am on the weekend NOT WORKING! I did log in to work for about 5 minutes - long enough to block out my work calendar in a vain attempt to carve out some time for me to do my own assignments rather than attend meetings, etc. Then I logged out and said forget it. Not working today. Yes, it means I'll have to work 10-11 hour days this week but damn it I deserve my weekends.

So I'm not working, and not feeling all that guilty about it either. I am tired and sore - cut the grass for the first time yesterday then today I roughed up the bare spots & seeded, overseeded the front-and side yards, put down plant food + weed control on all the flower beds, spread fertilizer on the entire yard, and watered. All that after the trip to Lowe's to get the seed and stuff.

Tired puppy is tired.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go play. Or take a nap. Or something. Anything but work!

Crossposts: http://mythicalgirl.livejournal.com/89897.html

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. Although there have been days when that would have been preferable.

Things are OK but not great. My Mom has cancer and has been in the hospital and rehab since a week after her first chemo treatment the week of Thanksgiving. The cancer has her liver all whacked, which has led to massive fluid retention, then the chemo knocked her on her butt. She's out of the hospital and in the rehab facility now but its going to be a long slog to get her strength back up so she can go home. Then chemo will start again (albeit without one of the drugs).

Everyone is doing as well as they can with this. I'm dealing but my being here in Indiana and her being in Texas makes it difficult. Not that I could do anything if I were there, of course, but the feeling of helplessness gets to me some days. My appetite has pretty much come back - I lost it for a couple weeks at the start of all this - but I'm still not sleeping for shit. The best sleep I've had in months (even since before the cancer stuff) was this past Saturday from 10 to 2 on the couch. Slept like a baby and no work dreams (that I can remember).

The stress of worrying about my parents is coupled with the stress of working my ass off. The last month has been absolutely fucking insane. I just don't even know how much I've been working. Even when I'm not working, either in the office or at home, I can't get away from it. I get called after hours for production issues. I think about solutions when driving or in the shower. I fucking dream about this place and all the things I have to do. I'm working like a fiend getting shit done and my To Do list hasn't dropped below TWENTY tasks in over a month. As soon as I get one thing done more tasks show up.

The good news is that the second project I was on as an architect has been moved to one of the other architects as I just can't give it the time it deserves. The bad news is that one of the developers I had working on my apps quit. The even worse news is that now that I'm having to support the code again I'm finding that he sucked as a developer and I'm having to fix shit right and left. The worst news is that the other developer I should be able to rely on to help take up some of the slack isn't doing the job so I am currently doing the work of two people. I am an architect and a developer and somehow I'm supposed to get 80+ hours of work done each week.

Yeah, that's not happening.

In my off time (Ha!) I'm reading, mostly fluff shit that doesn't take much brain power, watching TV and surfing the web. If it takes much more than that it probably isn't getting done.

As of right now I'm still scheduled to be on vacation the first week of February. Whether Dad and I take the trip or cancel depends on how Mom is doing by then. If we cancel I'll likely use the time to go to Texas for a visit. Or sleep. Sleep would be good.

Crossposts: http://mythicalgirl.livejournal.com/88459.html

Things over here at DW are similar enough to LJ that I'm not freaking out. I like having my RSS Feeds on my Reader page (if you could do that on LJ don't tell me, please).

I imagine I'll be tweaking things over here for some time. Themes and icons, etc.
For now I'm good. I'd love to have everything in one FList but I haven't figured out how to do that yet for people that either aren't on DW or don't allow RSS feeds. I'll figure it out, of course. But probably not until this weekend.

And yes, I'm still at work. I think I'm nearly done for the day but it means I won't get home until Trick or Treating has already started, which is fine with me. It is cold and yucky and I really, really don't want to go to the block party tonight. Even if they will feed me.

OK, later.

Oh, and Sissy, I got your voice mail. Saturday is better to call - I have to work part of Sunday as we're moving servers to Houston.

Current Mood: indifferent
Current Location: cube farm
Crossposts: http://mythicalgirl.livejournal.com/87676.html

I did not get breakfast eaten at home this morning (I know). Too much time coughing, trying to hack up a hairball or something. Every couple of minutes while getting ready this morning I was stopped by a major coughing fit. Damn cold. Left me running late to get out the door although I still managed to get to work only a five minutes after 8am. No, I don't know how I did it either.

Luckily it was an easy morning and breakfast was eaten in peace. Today was lighter on the meetings than a normal day as well - an hour and a half white board design meeting (think three people around a conference table taking notes while I stand, draw, and talk out what is in my head) and an hour project core team meeting. Leaving me lots and lots of desk time. I'm still woefully behind on pretty much every one of my tasks - most of which are due either Monday or Thursday of next week - but I did make some progress today. So Yay Me!

The coughing has only made me miserable about a dozen times today. Sadly that is not an exaggeration. And yet it represents a slight improvement over yesterday! I still feel pretty much like crap but improved crap if there is such a thing.

Now, despite the fact that I have far too much to do, I am going to call it a day so I can go home and collapse. I have housekeeping/life things to take care of - like paying bills, cleaning the bathrooms, vacation prep stuff, etc. I think most of that will wait for the weekend though as I expect to completely fall out on the couch and be a slug once I get home. I will eat because the cold meds make me loopy if I don't (although I'm not hungry, at all). Then sleep. As much of it as I can get before it's time to get up and do this again tomorrow.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: cube farm

By Friday evening, after the crappy week I had last week, I got a cold. Or a sinus thing. Or the flu. I'm not really sure what it is except that it has included aches and fever and snot, oh my!

I didn't make it to work yesterday*. Fever. We aren't supposed to come in when we have a fever or for 24 hours after. I'm at work today, maybe a wee bit early for the 24 hour thingy, but I looked at my schedule and couldn't figure out how to stay home another day.

I managed to eat at home this morning so yay me. I did not manage to make my lunch though. One of of two ain't bad. Plus it is actually a quiet day so far. No big crisis to deal with - that might have something to do with all of management being off-site this morning. Funny how that works.

Anyway, I'm going to get some lunch, deal with my afternoon meetings then go home and collapse.

*watching Sesame Street with a fever and while on cold medicine is a trip.

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: cube farm

I just can't even...

I am so busy today I can barely remember my own name. The To Do List? It just keeps getting longer. Some of those items have been on there for weeks! if not months! and I still can't get to them. Today its because of planning for 2013 so I walked into work finding invites to meetings on five (5!) new project that we need high level scope and estimates on. All of which needs to be done by, oh, Wednesday. Yes, this Wednesday.

If anyone sees my brain can you please tell it to come home, like right-the-f!ck-now? I had it this morning during all those meetings but as soon as I went to Subway to get lunch it ran away. And the little shit isn't done for the day yet.

Blogging may be sparse around here for a few days. Oh, who am I kidding? Blogging is always sparse around here these days.

If you'll excuse me...

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: cube farm

I was called in to the CIO's office yesterday.

Yes, I freaked out.

Not long after I got here the CIO's admin sent me an email to see if I'd have a few minutes around 12:45. Seems the big man wanted to "touch base" with me on something. *gulp* Of course I said yes because 1) I didn't have any meetings then and 2) I can't see saying no to the man. She did tell me it was a good thing but that didn't stop the nerves.

So at 12:42 I get to his office on the ninth floor...and I'm met by the head of IT Security. WTF? At this point I'm not only nervous I'm frantically trying to think of what sites I've been surfing on work time lately! We go into the The Man's office where we all shake hands and they start talking about what a great job I've been doing on The Project From Hell and it was a really tough decision and even though I lost they wanted to recognize me for my contributions, etc.

I finally asked what they meant by a tough decision and what exactly did I lose? Seems one of my co-workers on TPFH nominated me for a Platinum Rock IT award. We do these things called Rock IT where we nominate each other for a gold CD when someone goes above and beyond to help us out. The gold ones are monthly. The Platinum Rock IT basically means you moved heaven and earth to fix something, help out a project, solve the problem of world peace, whatever and are done quarterly.

I was nominated for the fourth quarter of 2011. And lost.

I didn't know I was even nominated until yesterday so I'd had no idea I was a loser. Anyway they told me that the decision had been super hard and the committee had gone back and forth between me and the gal who won. They talked to our team mates, our bosses, our project teams, pretty much everyone they could get a hold of to try to make the decision. The deciding factor was that her project is done and in production while mine doesn't have the signature on the contract yet. Totally understand - why reward me for something that may never be used if we don't sign off, right?

But The Man and the committee felt that it was so close that they needed to recognize me for my work anyway. Thus the meeting with the CIO and the head of IT Security (who is also the chair of the committee, which explains his presence). I got a nice thank you card, a $50 Visa gift card and got to talk face to face with the CIO for ten minutes. For losing.

Sometimes it pays to be a loser.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: cube farm

This week has been nuts and it isn't even done yet.

The Project From Hell (TPFH) is a little less hellish than usual this week but not for good reasons. Our Project Manager got very, very sick and is currently in the hospital. He has pancreatitis and will be gone indefinitely. While he is away the rest of us are continuing to move forward with all our tasks. Its different though. The pace hasn't really slowed any - in fact I've accomplished more in 3.5 days this week than I usually do in a full week - but things just don't seem as stressful. And yes, I'm saying that our PM is part of what makes this TPFH. At least for me. I am sorry he's ill and hope he gets better soon - but I'm enjoying work more without him here.

Yes, I'm aware that my attitude means I'm a cruel, hateful person and I'm going to hell. I accepted that a long time ago.

In other news you may have heard that the Super Bowl is in Indianapolis this year? I may not have mentioned it recently but I live in Indy and work right smack in the middle of Downtown. Boy howdy has it been nuts this week! I've had to deal with the traffic and crowds for GenCon, Promise Keepers, various concerts and conventions, the Circle City Classic, etc. I have never seen so many people in Indianapolis in my life. And I'm one of the few people who hasn't gone to the Super Bowl Village! I'm seeing these crowds and dealing with all this traffic out on the edges. I can't imagine what it is like down on Georgia Street.

As for the Super Bowl Village and all the activities, well, I haven't made any effort to participate yet. I might go down this afternoon as some co-workers are going to zip-line. Kind of depends on how long they have to stand in line to do it. I have no desire to hang out for hours just to see them fly through the air. If I don't go today I might walk around at lunch tomorrow. Otherwise I'll be one of the seemingly few people to miss it. Which would be totally fine with me as I'm not one for crowds, strangers or crowds or strangers.

Due to the traffic it took me 45 minutes to get home Monday and an hour to get home Tuesday, most of the time just trying to get a mile to get out of Downtown. Yesterday I went a different route and took the interstate. It still took 45 minutes to get home since it takes me out of my way but at least the traffic was moving. The only start/stop section I had was on the street waiting to hit the on-ramp. The problem with the interstate is, like I said, it take me out of my way and I have to go through both the North and the South splits where there is an accident on a pretty much daily basis. So just because it worked well yesterday doesn't mean I won't get stuck today or tomorrow. It isn't a popular opinion to have - and I really am happy to have the Super Bowl here and glad things are going so well - but I will be "super" glad when it is over.

That's it. My life is work, traffic and the Super Bowl. Welcome to Indy!

Current Mood: complacent
Current Location: cube farm

I was hoping to start blogging more regularly but obviously that hasn't happened.
The weekend sucked big time. I did not get the metric shit-ton of work done that I needed to do as I ended up sick. I took it easy on Saturday as planned, going to the bookstore and generally doing not much of anything. After the bookstore I stopped at my favorite Thai place and had Pad Pak Rum Mitt (mild) as an early dinner. The food was super fantastic as always. Went home and finished a book then went to bed. About 3:00 AM I woke up sick as a dog - gastrointestinal distress of all kinds. I won't go in to TMI but suffice it to say that it lasted until six ayem and when the smoke cleared I was desperately dehydrated, had a sore throat, and had pulled a muscle in my back.

So Sunday I recovered. I shouldn't have done anything but I got kind of OCD about the house being dirtly so I cleaned the kitchen, both bathrooms, and vacuumed. After that the dehydration headache was too bad to contnue so I made myself relax. Called the parents to tell them I was sick and not really in the mood to talk - they were sympathetic and understanding. No one likes being sick. Then I slept on the couch for three hours. I wasn't intending to sleep that long but hey, I guess I needed it. Didn't keep me from sleeping Sunday night either.

Even though I've recovered from the sickies I've been taking it easy on the food front this week, doing cereal, rice, soup and yogurt for the most part. Now it is lunch time on Wednesday and I am starved. I have soup with me but I may go get a sandwich or something as I think I need something more substantial.

In other news we had a meeting today for The Project From Hell where we went over the project plan for the next month. Yeah, it won't work. Not only because I'm leaving for vacation in three weeks so I won't be here for half of it but also because last time I checked I actually need to sleep occasionally. The project plan is for 4 items that we haven't done requirements or design for yet and the vendor assumed 100% resource commitment to get it done. Unfortunately I'm already at 100% for other tasks on The Project From Hell like ETL and Web Integration. I'm good (if I do say so myself) but I can't commit 200% of my time. At least not without going crazy. Plus it isn't just me - the whole team was over-committed big time. So the PM is going to have to redo the schedule and play some politics. In the end we'll probably all still be over-committed and over-whelmed but maybe not as bad as it looks right now.

Oh, who am I kidding? We're going to be told to work overtime and do whatever it takes to get it done in the timeframe that the vendor set so that it doesn't cost us anymore money.

Meanwhile I'm counting down to 2:00 PM on the 20th. Freedom!

Current Mood: cranky
Current Location: cube farm

Holy Crap! How long has it been since I posted anything?

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. I've been busy, mostly at work, and posting just really hasn't been on the radar.

Work: Well, nothing much has changed here. I'm still on the neverending project from hell although it is possible the end is in sight. Or at least the end of this phase. We have a proof of concept with the vendor this coming week, M-W, and then evaluation to see if we want to keep working with them or just say fuck it, find a new vendor or do it ourselves. If we say no at the end of the week then I expect to get a break for a while until we decide what our next move is. If we say yes to staying with this vendor I likely won't be free of this project until it is done or I quit, whichever comes first.

Garden - veggies: The tomato plants are both doing well. The squirrel is leaving the one on the deck alone this year, mostly because the one in the raised bed is so much easier to get to. I've picked two tomatoes that were just turning red to bring them inside to ripen only to find little squirrel teeth marks in them. I've already gotten two servings of beans from those plants with another two about ready to harvest. There are green peppers that should be ready soon and basil for making pesto. I lost the cucumbers though. Not to bugs this time, just to my own stupidity. I put them in the raised bed where they were doing great. Seriously great - the things were taking over the entire bed and several feet of yard on all sides. I was trying to maneuver them around so that the mowing guys could continue to do their thing back there when, well, I accidentally pulled up both plants. I considered trying to replant them but decided against it. So no cucumber this year. I expect I'll add another bed and try again next year.

Garden - flowers: The flower garden in the back corner is doing very well. So far I've only lost about half a plant, one of the hot papaya cone flowers. The whole plant isn't dead though so I'm hoping I can save it. The colors are great and it looks lovely if a little wild, which is what I was going for. It should be even better next year as things fill in. Although I keep losing the cone flowers form some of the plants. I think something is eating them as they are snapped right off the stem. Birds? The ducks or geese? Who knows. We don't have deer but we do have squirrel, chipmunks, opossum, raccoon, geese, several kinds of ducks, and stray cats.

Reading: My friend B- has been trying to get me to read George R.R. Martin's Son if Ice and Fire for years. I picked up the first book several months ago then just let it sit in the TBR pile. B- finally convinced me to "just read the prologue". I did and then some. In the last month I've read the first four books and I'm not working on book five that just came out. These are some seriously amazing books. I even loaned the first one to another friend, Z-, who was saying he needed something to read. I also gave him an Ian Banks Culture novel and Mira Grant's Feed. We'll see if he likes any of them as he tends to read more straight literature than genre. But since genre is what I have to lend that is what he gets. I'm about 25% of the way through A Dance With Dragons. I don't know the exact page though - I got a Kindle so I'm reading this one electronically. As much as I love the feel of real books I can get used to ebooks. If nothing else there is the convenience of being able to buy and donwload right then and there when I find something I want to read. Plus the ebook is usually cheaper. The bad part is that some files don't contain page numbers (this SUCKS!), it isn't as easy to flip back and forth through the book, and I can't sell them later to HPB. Still, even given the limitations I find myself looking at the e-version of books now. In fact I went to Borders yesterday (had a coupon) and couldn't bring myself to buy much of anything as I kep thinking that it would be so much easier to have the book on my Kindle. I think amazon must have implanted some sort of subliminal mind control in the device or something.

Personal: I think I mentioned here before that I hurt my foot when I was putting in the raised bed. I finally went to the clinic at work (free!) and had them look at it. The NP had me wrap it in an ace bandage and take NSAIDs then come back in a week. I did and the swelling went down a bit but the knot was still there so she sent me for x-rays. Luckily the films came back showing that nothing is broken. The swelling has gone down more and the pain has eased up a lot so I canceled my follow-up appointment this past Thursday. I've stopped wrapping it although I'm still taking ibuprofen at half the original dosage she had me on. I've also been using Blue-Emu on it which has done wonders. It may be a timing thing, coincidence, or the placebo effect but I swear that the foot has healed more since I started using the Blue-Emu. I'm keeping an eye on it though and will go to a podiatrist if it gets worse again.

That's it for now. I'll try not to let it be another month before I post again!

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: home

I am doing shit today.

I overseeded the front and side yards yesterday, a necessary step after last year's drought, so I went a bought a sprinkler today. That purchase is currently running on the front lawn as I type, watering in the seed. I'll move it to the side yard in about 15 minutes. Then to the other side yard about 30 after that. Then watering for today will be done.

I also got my seed starting supplies so sometime today I plan to start my tomatoes, eggplant, basil, maybe the beans, and several types of flowers (cone flower, wallflower, and portulaca).

And I have to work today. Seriously! No rest for the wicked, right? I actually don't have much to do but we got an investment add from Marketing last week, at the last minute of course, and it has a really short time frame. I've been doing these things for years so I told TPTB that I'd set everything up this weekend as I can get it done faster by myself than it will take me to train someone else. Everyone agreed, some reluctantly (more on that in a minute) so I need to get it done today as I spent all day yesterday out in the yard raking, cleaning up leaves and debris in the gardens, seeding, etc. Oh, and I hurt like a mother today but its a good hurt.

The reluctance was on the part of my new boss's boss, whom I'm kind of working for - think dotted line on the org chart. Anyway I had my one-on-one with him earlier in the week and one of the big things that came out of that was that he needs me to start saying "NO" on the investment maintenance and discretionary work as that shit is taking up too much of my time. If I'm going to be an architect and make time for the training I need, etc, I can't be spending half my week doing small work effort stuff. He is absolutely correct, which is why I've been training the two new guys we have so they can take over. But that takes time, they aren't quite there yet, and sometimes we get things last minute that need immediate response. At those times I'm your girl because I know what I'm doing and I can move fast. Thus the agreement to let me do it albeit reluctantly.

The other part of that conversation is that he definitely sees me as one of the architects although we don't agree on where my talents lie. He thinks in the Technical Architect and Business Process Architect quadrants. I think in the Application Architect and Business Process quadrants. We do agree that I can flex well and play in all four quadrants when required to (the quadrants are Technical, Application, Business Process, and Data). So we'll see what happens. He's still coming up with his plan but I get the feeling that in the next couple of months I'll be reporting directly to him and no longer doing what I'm doing now.

Lots up in the air but I am seriously enjoying work more these days than I have in years!

OK - need to go move the sprinkler and get to work.

Current Mood: creative
Current Location: home

Temps in the mid 90s today. When I came in to work this morning it was already in the 80s and way humid. This is our 11th day over 90 this year - the average is 14 a year.  And the forecast is calling for 90 or higher all weekend. So yeah, I think we are going to beat the average this year.

No word from the window company on my new windows.  Its early yet though. They should be here around the first week of August but I was kind of hoping to get a call saying they were here early so that the installation could happen when Mom & Dad are here next week. If not I'll just have to work from home a day or two while they are being installed. No biggie.

I made it back to the gym twice so far this week.  I got my routine all out of whack in May/June what with being sick, pulling a muscle in my back, and the brother-in-law situation. It's taken me weeks to get back into something like a routine and it still isn't really 'set' yet.  Tonight is yoga so long as I can get away from my desk by 5:00 pm. If not I'll head down when I can and do weights and the eliptical.  I really want to go to yoga even though it kills me every time - lots and lots of Sun Salutation B.  This isn't the easy stretching, hold the pose for 5 minutes type of yoga. This is ashtanga, move quickly with the breath, raise the heat in the body, dripping sweat and shaking by the end kind of yoga.  Kicks my butt every time but damn if I don't feel great when its over.

In brother-in-law news, he is still in the LTAC but doing great.  His kidneys came back on line so he is done with dialysis and they removed the port. He's eating although not as much as he probably should. Sissy is going over for a slumber party with him tonight - going to stay the night in his room and bring pizza & breakfast - so maybe he'll eat better when it isn't hospital food. He has a Passy-Muir valve on his trache now so he can talk, etc. Hopefully he'll be done with the trache by the end of the week and they can let that close up.  I think once they can do that and remove the feeding tube, and once they finish the IV antibiotics and do new cultures, he should be close to going to a Physical Therapy rehab. The LTAC is great but PT isn't their big thing and while they are doing PT he will need to go to a specialized rehab to learn to walk, etc.  So still a ways to go but everything is still moving along in the right direction.

And lastly in garden news, my zucchini plant bit the dust. Well, more like it got infested. I checked it last night and the dirt was just teeming with all sorts of bugs and worms and spiders. Ughh! The plant itself was looking really sad and when I started trying to mess with it pieces started breaking off so it was diseased from all the insect activity. It is now in the back corner of the yard where all the debris goes. I'm letting the container dry out a bit before dumping the soil - I didn't want to try to carry it back to the back corner last night as all the bugs were very active. Just thinking about it gives me the willies! Hopefully the other plants will be OK but I'm not confident about that. They seem fairly bug free but with the weird weather this summer (too hot then too wet then too hot then too dry, etc) they all look a wee bit sad and aren't producing like they did last year. I'll have to do some research on zucchini pests and see if there's an organic way to control them before I try those again.

OK. Lunch then back to work. Today is merit increase day so I find out at 3:30 if I got a raise, and if so how much. Wish me luck!

Current Mood: hot
Current Location: cube farm

Many great and wondrous plans for the past weekend, all of which were meant to get me back on track with work as I'm really tried of being behind.

Lo, the laptop died.

Shut down at work on Friday, no evidence of a problem. Tried to boot the thing up Sunday and no joy. Blue screen of death with the message "Registry cannot load the hive file". Which means something in the registry got KO'd during the last shutdown. Stupid thing just kept going blue screen - reboot - blue screen - reboot. Many curse words were said. I may have invented some new ones.

I was able to get some work done from my home PC via Citrix but the majority of what I need is on the laptop. Which is dead. Brought it in today and handed it over to the tech guys that deal with that stuff. Now according to Google all they need to do is boot from the XP disk and run a repair as this 'usually' works. So I'm thinking "great - I'll have my code back in no time".

No one can find the stinking disk!

The tech guys that deal with this stuff decide they need to set up a new laptop for me. I tell them fine but I need my files from the hard drive so when was the last backup. The first answer I got was March 3. What? There's a process running the the background on the stupid thing that is supposed to be doing a back up of my files four times a week. How could it have gone more than a month without doing a backup? After much questioning the tech guys that deal with this stuff looked a bit deeper at the most recent backup and found files from April 7. This news made me very happy as it means I didn't lose as much as we originally thought.

I am currently doing email and not much else on a co-workers PC while I wait for my new laptop to be set up. She doesn't do the same stuff I do so I'm missing almost all of my tools. I should have the new machine today along with all my files from the last backup. The hard drive from the dead machine is currently being decrypted and hopefully we'll be able to get the most updated files and anything that is missing from the backup. It will take me another couple of days after I get the new laptop to get it all configured, of couse.

So instead of being caught up after a weekend of diligently working on my projects I am now even further behind and currently sans computer. Today is a wash, as will be tomorrow. It will be Wednesday before I'm truly productive again.

Meaning I'm even further behind than I was before. Project Managers have been informed as have my boss and my tester. I am amazingly calm, all things considered. Either I'm getting better at handling stress or I've given up.

Current Mood: indescribable
Current Location: cube farm

Disclaimer: This is just venting because I need to blow off some steam. I'm very thankful that I have a job, especially this one because I really like it (most days). I am well aware of how lucky I am.

I should have worked over the weekend. I didn't because I pretty much put work out of my mind for a few days, doing yard and house work instead. But I really should have logged in and done some work-work.

There are only two of us that can code our IVR (automated phone) system. Well, 2.1. The third person is training but doesn't know enough to do more than add voice files, stuff like that. The other resource is currently swamped doing database design for the same project where I'm doing our IVR changes. There's also some extensive changes to some COM objects that I have to do as well.

Thinking ahead I was a good girl and blocked out two days last week to allow myself to dive in, headphones on, and program the shit out of this thing. I'm currently on way too many projects that all have the same freaking due dates so this is the only way to get things done - pretend I'm not here, don't answer the phone, block out my calendar, put up my "Go Away" sign and just code.

Guess what happened? Yep - there were "problems" in production. Crisis mode. And yours truly is the girl tapped to get everything fixed. I lost both Thursday and Friday to two separate emergencies. Nearly 16 hours that I had planned for doing this IVR stuff sucked into the black hole of production issues. *sigh*

Today has been better and I was able to tune out everything else for most of the day. I managed to pound out quite a bit of code but in the process found out that some of these changes are going to require entire rewrites instead of just tweaks. Not what I was hoping for, no. So by my best guesstimate I am about 20 hours behind. All this stuff is supposed to be to the tester when he gets here on Monday 4/5, which means that I will almost definitely have to work this weekend. (My losing two days doesn't change my to test due date. I asked.) A three day weekend as we have Good Friday off since the NYSE is closed. I was planning on re-staining my deck on Friday while the weather is nice. I may still be able to do that but this work stuff comes first.

So yes, my stress level is way up for a few days. I'm on my way to the gym because I can't go any further until I have data and for some reason my data isn't loading into the freaking database and both guys I need to talk to are gone for the day. Thus I hit the gym. Then home to a glass or two of wine and some more of Season 4 of Robot Chicken.

Current Mood: stressed
Current Location: cube farm

The vacation recap obviously didn't happen this past weekend. I meant to, I really did. But the tax software and Windows Vista were not playing well together causing me fits. And yesterday I cleaned the house and caught up on Netflix.

Unfortunately it isn't going to happen today either. My .NET program came back from the tester with a whole list of broken stuff so I'm now reworking one of my pages completely. Plus I still have to finish the maintenance page for the users. And all this should go to user acceptance testing like a week ago. Pressure!

I could really use the hour and a half I wasted in a meeting this morning back, please. Thank you. Since that won't be happening I suppose I'll be here late tonight. I brought my gym stuff - I bring it every day - but I may not get there today. 4 days a week is my goal but it sucks when I start out missing Monday. Maybe I can get down there at least for 20-30 minutes on the bike if nothing else.

Time to take a deep breath and dive back in. Wish me luck!

Current Mood: stressed
Current Location: cube farm

I made it home on time - to 12 inches of snow.

I caught a cold on the last day of the cruise which meant flying back on Monday with a head full of snot and a low fever. Got in around 11:00 PM to find that my luggage made it home with me but beaten all to crap - they broke one of the wheels off so I had to drag the damn thing along behind me through the snow. Dug my car out in the parking lot only to get home and get the damn thing stuck in a drift in my own driveway.

I got home at midnight. I actually made it into the house at 12:30 AM after shoveling a path in my driveway and getting my car unstuck. Then couldn't sleep due to the above mentioned snotty head. I meant to transfer the pictures off my camera and start the vacation recap but, yeah, the only thing I did Tuesday was go grocery shopping and do my laundry. I took yesterday off work as I still couldn't breathe - knocked myself out with NyQuil instead.

Today I am back to work and slowly but surely catching up on everything I missed. More snow is expected this weekend as two more storms move through. Hopefully I'll get a chance sometime in the next few days to finish digging out my driveway. I haven't even tried to find my sidewalk yet. Right now the only thing I have scheduled for this weekend is a haircut so I hope to get the recap started and some pics up by the end of the weekend. Going to the gym is on hold until I can breathe again.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to get an emergency code change to the tester and then do a conference call.

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: cube farm

Got your attention, didn't I?

I just picked up a copy of Death's Acre by William Bass and Jon Jefferson. The book is all about Dr. Bass and The Body Farm - aka The Anthropology Research Facility - at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. This is where forensic anthropologists, among others, do experiments with dead bodies to learn things like how a body decomposes and other fascinating (if kind of gross) stuff. It may sound bizarre and kind of morbid but I really love this kind of thing. Seriously. Stiff by Mary Roach is one of my favorite books and where I first came across mention of The Body Farm.  Then I read Carved In Bone by Jefferson Bass, aka Dr. William Bass and Jon Jefferson. Fiction but still lots of forensic anthropology so I was thrilled.

The other book that I'm going to try to find soon is The Big Necessity: The unmentionable world of human waste and why it matters by Rose George. It is all about poop and fecal contamination of our water supply, how that leads to diseases, how we can change things, etc. Really. Go check out today's Unshelved as Dewey does a much better job describing this book than I do. I know it must seem weird but I really want to read this book. Maybe I can pick up a copy before I leave on vacation. Can't you just see me on the plane reading a book about poop?

In more serious matters, my boss retires today.  Probably one of the best supervisors I have ever had the good fortune to work for, B has always been of the school of thought that says her employees are grown ups and know what they are doing and her job is to stay the hell out of the way and let them do it. Now personally this works fabulously for me. I do not handle being micromanaged very well, nor do I like being ignored. B has always found the right balance with all of her peeps. And today is her last day. I am really happy for her (and a little envious) and I will miss her terribly.  Cake and presents starts shortly. Tears will probably follow soon after.

And finally vacation starts in less than a week. Actually at this time next Friday I will be on the ship sailing the Pacific. Three and a half work days left, five and a half days total. All I have to do is provide a couple of brain dumps to people here at work, fix a couple of bugs, print off my paperwork, pack and make my flight out early Thursday morning. I am so ready. Dad and I will have some web access while on this trip so I may do the occasional blog entry instead of saving everything for when I get back.  And I'll post pics when I get back - some here and the full set of all the pics on my Flickr account (family and friends only so if you are interested let me know in comments or e-mail so I can send you a pass).

Current Mood: content
Current Location: cube farm

For those of you following along at home....

My first .NET program just moved up to test. It doesn't work yet as I'm still waiting for security to finish setting things up (slackers). I expect to be able to run it and turn it over to the tester any minute now.

Yes, I am doing the happy dance.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: cube farm

I have been quite virtuous today and now know more about C# .NET than I did yesterday. Studying this weekend payed off in that I wasn't a complete ignoramus while working with my co-worker / Teacher. He was very pleased with my knowledge so far and with the questions I asked. The program isn't anywhere near done yet, of course, and it won't run but at least I have a logic layer started to go with the presentation layer! Virtual cookies for me!

We also had our team X-Mas lunch today, which is always fun. One of the team is off on vacation and brought her teenage son. You would think this would put a damper on the festivities but really all we did was watch our language a bit more. And Le Peeps was a good as always and the boys (the grown ones I work with) were all happy with our waitress calling them "Honey" and flirting. A good time was had by all but the teenager. Poor boy - he looked so bored. I really think she could have left him at home and all would have been well. Overprotective parent is overprotective.

The only other item to note is a weird dream I had the other night. After watching a couple of episodes of Dogs 101 on Animal Planet I went to bed and dreamt that I finally got a dog. A mastiff named Julia Droolia! In the dream that dog was a big as I am and drooled. A Lot! She was such a gentle giant, a real sweetheart. When I woke up it took a minute to realize that no, I don't have a dog and even if I did I doubt I'd have a mastiff. While I love big, gentle dogs I can't imagine one that size in my little house. And while I do not normally qualify as a neat freak the idea of all the drool....yuck! I do think the dream may be telling me that I am closer to being ready to get a pet though. I supposed this means I need to fence the yard this spring then. Along with getting new windows, having more insulation added, etc. A homeowner's work is never done.

Oh, and I'm a bit more than half way through City of Saints And Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer. Still very well written, still weird, but I can safely say that the first story, "Dradin, In Love", was the least of the stories and they get much better. This is definitely one of those books that is an experience to read.

And now - back to work!

Current Mood: silly
Current Location: cube farm

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mythicalgirl

September 2013

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Voices In My Head

Entries tagged with work

Too Much To Do

No-Work Weekend

Still Here. Barely.

Still figuring this out

Another Day Survived

Sick. And Tired.

Scheduling Time To Breathe

Recognition for a Loser

What A Week!

The Project From Hell

All the Scoop

Not True...

HOT!

Death Comes For Us All

My Stress, Let Me Show It To You

Not Going To Happen. Sorry.

Vacation Recap Is Delayed

Dead Bodies and Poop

I Am Now Officially A .NET Programmer

Growing Smarter By The Minute