Once again, I report from the road with tidings of boredom. This week, so far, has been an undending procession of repetitive tasks, comparing data from one list to the data generated by a realtime system report (i.e. another list). The title of this entry is essentially the process I've been following to complete my task. Try doing that for seven hours in a row sometime. Actually, after a while, I find myself falling into something of a zen state, raised to a higher consciousness through the repetitive ritual. Systems troubleshooting as meditation - I like it (at least to the extent that it makes the time go by more quickly).

Otherwise, the Parker family has spent the last week or so trying to beat the nagging flu strain that seems to have everybody other person I run into down for the count. Colleen and Mary were both overcome Tues-Wed last week, mostly recovering in time for me to take a hit not unlike that of a high speed japanese bullet train saturday (at least it held off until I managed to finish my take-home mid-term exam for grad school). I was basically out of action for the whole weekend (spent mostly huddled on the couch watching my Spider-Man DVD), though I managed to shake it just enough to get out the door Monday morning to drive up here. After a regimen of heavy self-medication and lots of fluids, I thought I had it beat by yesterday afternoon, but relapsed a bit this morning. Hopefully if I'm able to relax tonight, I'll have this beat by tomorrow.

In between spells of illness, Mary got out to experience the wonders of Halloween not just once, but twice this year. On the saturday preceding Halloween, she and Andrew got dressed up in matching 'scary cat' costumes (pictures forthcoming) to attend the annual Halloween party at Creatures and Crooks Bookshoppe, a neat little local book store, specializing in mystery, sci-fi, and horror. Mary got to see a few other kids in costume, paint a pumpkin, and add her name and handprint to the store's 'wall of fame'. On Halloweeen proper, Mary suited up once again for trick or treating at one of the local malls (much safer than our neighborhood, with it's lack of stop signs, street lights, or sidewalks), so she could partake of tradition, and so the rest of the family could give me some quiet time to work on my mid-term. Anyway, she brought lots of candy home and I'm told she had a pretty good time.

After weeks of emails, phone calls, and digging through records, I finally wrapped up the refinancing efforts I've been undertaking. All in all, I managed to reduce my interest rate by almost two full points, and lowered my mortgage payment by almost 100 bucks. The best news, however, was how high the house appraised. I wasn't terribly confident about the perceived value of our property, it being a tiny little cape cod on a lot with no grass (thanks to this summer's drought), and no particularly striking features. Imagine my surprise that our little real estate investment increased in value by almost 20 percent in the four short years we've occupied it! Anyway - the whole process was pretty painless, and with luck, will allow us to get our finances in better order thanks to the increased cash flow.

Making the usual home improvement update, Mary and I managed to get new grass planted on the property two weeks ago, the day before we got started with a full week stretch of soaking rain. I don't think my timing has ever been that good. The kid was a big help, too, spreading her own little bucket of seeds (though I had to convince her that she didn't need to seed the driveway), and helping to cover the new plantings with a couple of bales of straw. She's also looking forward to planting flower bulbs with her mom some day soon. When I left home Monday morning, the first little green fingers of the new plants were just starting to poke through. Hopefully, this planting will stick around a while, and Mary and I can have a yard we can be proud of come spring!

Few other events of note came to pass in the last week or two, beyond my finding and reading possibly the worst book ever written by human hand (worthy of it's own entry) and my being snubbed by my 10 year high school reunion (a story to be told in a future entry, already in progress). The coming Veterans' Day weekend looks to be 'clear out the crawlspaces' weekend at home. And I know, I still owe faithful readers a new photo gallery, which is also on it's way. I've got the photos on CD in my posession right now. I've had about all the monitor time I can stand this evening - I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

just two links (because I'm tired):

• Terrifica: great concept, poor execution

• Veni Vidi Dormivi - why didn't they have this kind of club when I was in school?

until next time
-chuck

I know it's been more than four weeks since I posted something, I apologize, and plead busy. My weeks, whether at home or on the road, have been filled with meetings, class sessions and schoolwork, late hours at the office solving system problems, late hours at home working on home improvement projects, coordinating with financial professionals, entertaining children and visitors, and occasionally taking a break from everything to eat and/or sleep. I also made several aborted attempts to write up something for public consumption (however small my reading public may be), but got sidetracked before I finished, and had too many changes/additions to make by the time I got back to it that I figured, in the interest of clarity (ha!) and brevity (double ha!), it would be best to just start over. Hopefully I'll be able to carry this dispatch through to completion.

In the interest of clarity and brevity, I'll borrow Herc from AICN's Q&A format that's fast becoming an internet standard:

So, Chuck, where have you been, and what have you been doing to keep you from updating for so long?

After spending eight or ten weeks in Richmond working on local deployment issues and doing a lot of training and hand-holding with the buyers, I've started travelling again. I've spent the last four weeks in Arlington, working side-by-side with various consultants from private industry to fix our problems with reporting and metrics. We're not done yet, but we're making significant progress. I've also managed so far to avoid getting tagged by a sniper round while inhabiting the D.C. metro.

Oh, that guy? Don't you fear for your life while you're travelling?

Not really , working a few hundred yards from the Pentagon (and generally being able to watch big planes from National fly over it all day), I've cultivated a healthy fatalistic attitude to go along with my general pragmatic way of looking at life: There's not much I can to to avoid random acts of violence, terrorism, or sniping, and I'm still more likely to get whacked by a cell-phone using driver while crossing the street than get caught by a 5.56mm slug while pumping gas. Look both ways before you cross the street, and generally be aware of your surroundings (always a good idea, sniper or no), you're doing the best you can. I have been gleaning hours of entertainment out of watching seemingly intelligent people bobbing and weaving through grocery store parking lots, watching police officers count white vans on the highway, and getting caught up in the 'van hunt' on I-95 two weeks ago. Also, paranoia didn't stop Colleen and I from going up to Fredericksburg last weekend for dinner (it'll take a lot more than a sniper scare to keep us from taking advantage of a babysitting offer - Thanks, Sarah!).

...And the Death Card? How unorginal is that?

Back to updates: that was a lot of time at home! Surely, you guys accomplished a lot on the home improvement front?

Indeed we have, though not nearly as much as I'd like. Still, the new doors are finally on, and to all but the carefully discerning eye, we've finished our work on the kitchen painting project. We're also doing some housecleaning, getting rid of a bunch of stuff that's just taking up our precious space. The next project on my agenda is to do some basic fall lawn maintenance.

You mentioned financial professionals in the first paragraph - what's the deal with that?

No longer able to abruptly end sales calls by reciting my already low interest rate, I decided to pursue the idea of refinancing the mortgage in an effort to re-organize our finances and debt into a more advantageous arrangement. So, I've been collecting and perusing documents, calculating payments, and coordinating with mortgage companies to see if we can't do a bit better for ourselves.

Enough about you! Who we really care about is the rest of the family - what are they up to?

Colleen and the kids are doing well, overall. Mary's started up a new semester of dance class, and is getting really good at counting. Andrew's recently started pulling himself up on things (stable things, like the coffee table and couch, no longer unstable things like rocking chairs, vacuum cleaners and the dog) making tentative attempts and 'cruising' and has the rug burned nose to prove it. He's also finally taken to solid foods, enjoying a number of pureed vegetables daily. Colleen and Andrew have started going to a weekly Gymboree class, both to develop Andrew's social and motor skills, but to provide some quality mom-baby time. As for Colleen, she's busy taking care of the house and the kids, and is dilligently planning for the kids' educational development. She's also delved a bit into the sordid world of scrapbooking, flirting with Creative Memories parties and crimping shears.

Oh, and if you're good, I'll post a new page of webcam pics of the kids playing one of these days!

So, what else is on your mind, O wordy one?

I'm not liking the fact that the country is inching closer toward another war in the middle east to distract the population from it's flagging economy. I took time out of my busy schedule to write up a quick note to my representatives in Congress about the subject, as I wish everyone would do if they feel strongly about an issue. With the internet, it's a quick and easy thing to do- in fact, there are several sources out there of all the various political persuasions that track all sorts of issues and even come up with sample letters for you (they'll even send the emails to the right people automatically, based on your zip code). You can find my personal favorite on the links page! Oh, and remember to vote in two weeks, I know it's an off year, but there are lots of important races (especially for you Pennsylvania folks!) that will be very important to how the next two years play out, and set the tone for the 2004 presidential race. If you want to see how your candidates stack up, check out CNN's allpolitics, again, just enter your zip code to see who you're voting on!

So, what sort of clever links do you have to share this time, smarty-pants?

A couple of good ones:

• 'The Sniper Shuffle', one gas station attendant's perspective.

• Colleen told me that the points in this article are going to keep her awake at night. Partisan source? Certainly. But it still doesn't make the information less important if you are a woman or happen to care for one.

• Not to undo the goodwill I garnered with the last link, even if I do agree that you can have too much of a good thing.

• While certainly a talented musician, Ryan Adams really needs to work on his sense of humor.

• Presumably, more from the too much of a good thing department.

• At last, a cause truly worth supporting!

• Send your shiny coasters to these guys (especially since AOL stopped using amaray DVD cases!)

• ...and finally, in honor of Halloween, as seen on one of the world's greatest television shows, World Championship Punkin Chunkin'!

keepin' my head down
-chuck

Some big news this time around- that possible promotion I've been going on about for months now has finally been announced officially. Beginning on September 8, I'll finally be putting behind me the life of a Contract Specialist, assuming instead, the title of better paid Procurement Analyst. This means (in my case, anyway) that I'll be getting a moderate pay raise right now, and a much bigger one after a year. The change in title means little (it's the same job series, just indicating that I'm working to support the procurement process, but not working actual contracts), as in practice, I will be doing exactly the same work as I'm doing now, only, as my boss says, they'll finally be paying me what I deserve (though doesn't "analyst" sound much cooler and important than "specialist"?) I also get divest myself of the title of "the new guy", since they also brought someone else onto the team at the same time they promoted me. Now, I get to be "grizzled veteran", which has a much nicer ring to it.

As for work, I've been off the road now for five or six weeks, still supporting the deployment effort at the home site. Still helping the buyers to learn the new processes to do their jobs, teaching a few classes (which is going more smoothly as I get my chalk legs back), and working to come up with fixes to problems we encounter as the effort progresses. Travelling (mostly to Washington) will problably start up again in a few weeks, getting team back together to plan for Release Two, tentatively scheduled to deploy in December 2003. In the meantime, I get to do a lot of walking around our facility between different work areas, many days accosted by the Richmond office's amphibious security squad, who think they have the run of the place.

With our getting the entire summer's ration of rain inside four days, our plans to revisit the county fair this weekend were unfortunately dashed. Instead, after the customary Father-Daughter grocery shopping expedition on Saturday morning, we got a call from our friends Kenny and Jean (who I know from work, and recently moved a few blocks away from our place), inquiring of our availablility for the evening (we'd been talking about getting the families together for a few weeks, but scheduling problems kept things from happening). So, Colleen whipped up one of her ought-to-be-famous apple pies, and we headed over for an evening visit. While the ambulatory children kept each other busy, the adults settled into a nice evening of conversation and socializing. Of course, with the kids as part of the equation, all was wrapped up by nine pm.

With the rain continuing, Sunday became a kitchen-work day - we made a good chunk of progress in pulling down the multiple layers of wallpaper- one more day, and we ought to be ready to sand and paint. Things are moving along, slowly but surely. I must report one casualty of the day's events- our venerable hand-me-down microwave oven, the one I remember purchasing with my mom sometime during my middle school years (the manufacture date on the back says "1985"), and has been serving our family faithfully ever since, wouldn't power up after being unplugged so it could be moved away from the wall. Sharp Carosel, we salute thee for your tireless years of service.

Monday's activites outside the house (our inside activities were pretty limited - a couple of loads of laundry and some basic housecleaning - Mary had us up REALLY early - 3am early- so neither Colleen or I were at the top of our game) centered around procuring a replacement microwave oven. In the interest of getting the most bang for the buck, this meant a trip to Wal-Mart. On Labor Day. The last day before Virginia kids go back to school. This wasn't going to be fun.

<rant>
I make no secret that I really can't stand Wal-Mart. I agree with the usual "swallow up small town mom&pop businesses, treat their workers like crap" arguments, but for me, it's simpler: The store is way too crowded, and full of really rude people who insist on parking their carts and/or rascal scooters right in the middle of aisles so those of us who just want to get in and out with a few items can't navigate properly, then get annoyed when we politely ask to be let by and interrupt their mid-store gossip-mongering about the latest NASCAR statistics. They also have 50 registers across the front of the store, but normally only three or four of them open, so when I buy a quart of milk, it's generally curdling by the time I get to the front to pay for it. Still, because of their 800lb retail gorilla status, sometimes, the savings over other outlets justifies the severe hassles involved in shopping there, A new microwave oven for around 65 bucks is a reasonable example. That doesn't mean I can't complain a little bit. Especially when you have to run the gauntlet through six pairs of local firemen, playing up their "American Hero" status to full effect to collect donations for Jerry's kids at every turn or intersection on the way to getting your car into the parking lot (mucking up traffic patterns already badly mangled by the rush to get kids'school supplies), then face another pair at the door to the store (within view of the "no soliciting" sign). I dont' dispute that MD research is a worthy cause, but isn't one collection location per venue enough?
</rant>

Anyway, we got our new microwave (with cool keypad lock feature to keep Mary from pressing errant buttons!), navigated the obstacle course parking lot (don't get me started parking lot layouts!), got home, and got the new appliance set up. That's enough about that.

In other news, Andrew kept us up late last night, being too excited to sleep at figuring out how to push himself around the floor backwards. Not very fast or consistently, but he's managed to get himself mobile. That should make life much more interesting for us in the weeks to come.

and now....links!

Experience with opinion polling during undergrad PoliSci classes assures me that a poll can say anything the author wants it to, but I still find this pretty scary - support for free speech down

This story is even scarier

Another terribly prescient piece of satire from the folks at the onion. As for me, I plan on leaving the big glass babysitter off that day.

Stripping Secrets: hot tips for taking it all off, straight from the professionals!

Are you ready for some football? Week One: Philadelphia at Tennessee

later
-chuck

P.S: Don't Disturb the sexy

Because I don't want to relive the anguish, I won't get into great detail about my week at work. Sufficed to say, There were two of the usual five of us present to handle the normal ten persons' worth of workload. Priorities kept us walking the babysitting, handholding, fixing problems, and deflecting sarcastic barbs from the huddled masses regarding the "failure" of our project, despite the fact that when compared to previous government software deployments and our own estimates, we're doing quite well. Some people just like to bitch, I guess. I was relieved of floor duty one day this week, to teach an equally unruly and hostile group of ancilliary (those people who need occasional access to support the mission) users basic navigation in one of the new software packages. This was the second attempt, as the first try last week ended after 90 minutes of frustration, beacuse some security person on high forgot to set up the proper conditions, which made the audience all the more peeved, as they'd been inconvenienced once already. Overall, the experience served to remind me why I left teaching in the first place.

As you may be aware, I had a birthday this week - which I actually kind of remembered for once. Granted, I had all sorts people reminding me, because at work they have a list. Lots of friendly people offering greetings, and telling me they have shoes older than my 28 years. A good chunk of my old intern group, and a couple of hangers on (including the wife and kids) got together to take me out to lunch on friday to celebrate. A good time was basically had by all, except Joe, who became Mary's special friend. Also present, fresh off of two years of slave labor with the US Army in Hawaii, was Colleen's drunken salsa dancing partner, the "Big O", Oscar Najera, husband of my co-worker and partner-in-crime, Debra. It was good to get the whole crew together again, now that we're spread all over the place, working in different offices. Thursday evening, as I wouldn't be around much Friday evening (more on that later), I arrived to a birthday cake (that mary helped to bake) and presents from the kids. The quiet, intimate celebration at home after dinner was very nice. Overall, I had a pretty good birthday.

As to why I wasn't home on Friday night, I started my third semester as a graduate student at Florida Institute of Technology (fort lee VA graduate center - I don't actually teleport to south florida - too bad, I guess). This semester Information Systems, which I believe will be pretty easy. It's very basic; topics include description of what's inside a computer, basic networking, and systems integration stuff. Still, after statistics last semester, I could use a bit of a break. It's on Friday nights, which stinks in principle, but it won't interfere with my travel schedule once the trips to Washington start up again in six weeks or so. And really, what else am I going to do on a Friday night?

Of course, the rest wasn't home Friday afternoon either - Andrew had his six month checkup with the pediatrician. The vital statistics, 29 inches tall, 22 pounds, 4 ounces. He's very healthy, and the doctors don't quite know how to deal with that. Colleen is also a very informed and well read parent, which frustrates her a bit when the doctor "talks down" to us from time to time. I don't imagine the doctor realizes he's doing this, being used to people simply deferrring to his recommendations- it's the whole dominion over life and death thing that goes to thier heads occasionally- that, and most people with kids don't bother to do the reading (there probably should be a parental licensing program....).

While we had grand plans this weekend to keep moving on our kitchen remodeling project, however we didn't get around to it, as we were all feeling rather under the weather, what with the stress of work (see above), excessive heat (see the weather channel), and lack of sleep (see life with two young children). So, instead, on Saturday, we did some cursory straightening up and then sat around in the air conditioning watching movies: This weeks schedule: Disney's Beauty and The Beast (which Mary'd never seen, but has watched three times this weekend already), Godzilla 2000, in order to broaden Mary's experience with classic monster movies, and Spy Kids, which for some reason, we'd never gotten around to seeing, despite the fact that it's a Robert Rodriguez film, and I see all his stuff (even the Faculty) because he's just that cool....

The highlight of Sunday (so far, anyway - it's 6;45pm as I type this) was a trip to the Chesterfield County Fair. For those of you up in PA, our county fair is on the scale of one of the bigger town fireman's carnivals, with less live music and more animals. Mary milked a fiberglass cow, pet a bunch of goats, took the obligatory pony ride, and ate half a corn dog and some funnel cake. I passed on the opportunity to win my sweetheart a stylish Def Leppard mirror from the carny ring toss, but we might go back next weekend (the fair runs through Labor Day). I won't, however, be buying Colleen a 4-H bunny, as we've already exceeded critical mass for pets in this house (he was cute, though....).

The word for the week is Hamster:

• an internet classic returns...
• Rodents' preferential treatment on public transportation is in jeaopardy! (special bonus, Boo Boo the attack cat)
• HAMTARO!!!!!
• ...and finally

until next time-
-chuck

Well, it's been about two weeks since we flipped the switch on release one. We were prepared for the worst, and it threw us for a bit of a loop when we didn't get it, but we quickly regrouped. Overall, the effort so far has been fairly painless. We have a decent local organizational plan in place to efficiently process security/access and process problems, which has worked pretty well (at least until it gets to the remote help desk people, who are more interested in passing problems around than in solving them). My primary job through all this has been as first line resource to the concept demo buyers; walking the buying floor, solving or referring system problems, and answering process questions. I'm basically a well-paid computer lab consultant.

Despite our well-conceived strategery to quickly douse the fires, we still faced a number of worthy challenges...

A few of the more interesting issues the effort faced in the first days of deployment:

• The first day's automated orders went out multiplied by 1000, thanks to the wonders of international numeric expression (one of our systems is European by design - hence, it defaults to its native manner of formatting numbers and currency, which uses commas and decimal points differently than American convention dictates).
• The first official contract processed by a buyer, for reasons unknown, printed up in numerous diffent font styles, including greek characters and wingdings.
• The gods of security, for reasons known only to them, felt until recently that the good people administering the system locally (such as myself), did not have a need for access to said systems. We still haven't been granted admin access, which would alllow us to solve many problems on the local level. If they're not going to give us access, then why did they bother to send me to sysadmin training?
• Blame those unknown reasons again for why I've become the favorite resource of all the older (i.e. with middle-school age grandchildren) ladies on the concept demo procurement team. My phone never stops ringing. If only I were this popular in high school...
• The web based tool that vendors use to view and bid on solicitations seems to be working properly, though, it would probably be more useful if the prospective bidders would be able to find it - it seems that someone forgot to publicize its location on any of the official agency web sites or correspondence.

• and finally, for most of the first week, with several folks on leave or triple-booked in meetings, the responsibility of representing the procurement shop in management level briefings and status meetings, for better or worse, fell to me, the lowest guy on the totem pole.

obigatory door update: we finally heard from the contractor, and it doesn't look like we'll be getting the doors installed until September 12. Grr Argh.

In other news

• I feel bad for the folks being injured, but there's just something about an eight foot sturgeon careening through the air that puts a smile on my face
• Imagine finding this on your walk through the forest. Amelie was unavailable for comment, though I'd imagine these folks might know something...
• I guess they do make cartoons like they used to when I was a kid: He-Man is back in a brand new cartoon series!
• "Somewhere in Brooklyn, Wesley Crusher falls silent forever" (at least until the special edition DVD comes out)

My apologies for my poor attempt at Japanese poetry, but since reading a few entries in the fark.com haiku contest, I've had 5/7/5 on the brain. This does not mean, however, that the sentiment expressed is not genuine. Today, according to the t-shirts we're all wearing, is the project "go live" date - the day when we start the first "live" test of the new systems, using real buyers, real requisitions, and real money. The concept demo users don't start logging on until tomorrow, so this week's been all about meetings and planning sessions to map out strategy in order to anticipate problems, questions and PEBKAC* errors that are certain to come up in the first days of deployment. My role, for the next week or so (starting tomorrow morning), is to wander the production floor and assist the users with systems and process issues. Luckily, I have years of experience working as a university computer lab attendant, which makes me uniquely qualified for the task at hand.

In order to mark the milestone, the agency has been holding numerous pat-on-back ceremonies (most notably, a finely catered virginia barbeque luncheon this afternoon). It's an opportunity to recognize the folks who have worked very hard to get us to this point, as well as to draw executive attention away from the furious rush to get the last details in order.

Last evening, the Richmond team had a less formal gathering to mark the occasion. We and our families gathered to blow off some steam; eating good food, engaging in ridiculous party games, and numbing ourselves with strong drink in order to soften the blow of any potential disasters that loom on the horizon. In any case, a good time was had by all, particularly by Mary, who once again, chose my friend and co-worker Rusty as her "special friend" for the evening.

At home, things have been pretty quiet - I'm just enjoying coming home every night and sleeping in my own bed. We're still waiting to get our doors installed; despite the recent rain, the grass in the backyard is still brown; and the Monte Carlo purrs like a kitten since I took it in for a long overdue tune-up yesterday morning. Mary's last dance class for the summer session is tomorrow (I'll be taking an extended lunch break to attend), and I'm in the middle of grad school paperwork to make sure that this semester's class gets paid for. This semester, I'll be taking MGMT 5014, Information Systems, on Friday nights (ugh,I know, but what else do I really do on Fridays? It also won't interfere with my travel schedule once things start up again). It's the basic course that everyone in the MS Mgmt program has to take: IT for non-techies. Based on what my predecessors tell me, it's basically the "This is a LAN cable" class, which is nice, since I could use a break after statistics last semester.

And now, the customary interesting links:

• Looks like Orwell was only 18 years off. An extreme position? Probably, but I think the author has a point...

• a modest environmental proposal: I wonder if they'll have frikkin' laser beams on their heads?

• Yet another excellent quote from the HTF Buffy discussion:

  The crack-selling bastard that is Whedon stole my wife away from me!!! By the end of the second season finale, she was in tears screaming, "MORE! MORE!" Hell, it's sad when a tv show can illicit more of a response than a night in the sack. Oh well, it IS that good of a show.
  -Brian Kidd

until next time,

-chuck

Last Thursday, I had, over my lunchbreak, composed a long-winded, comprehensive, and fairly melancholy update to post to this site to fill this site's massive readership in on what's been going on. It was full of despondent platitudes about how I didn't want to be in Washington on my wedding anniversary when my wife and family were back home in Richmond. Of course, I got distracted by life around me and left it lying untouched on my laptop until it was mostly irrelevant. So now, during bits of downtime (allow me to apologize up front for the disjointed nature of my prose), I'll run over the highlights, and cover the past week as well, or at least the more notable (notice the absence of the word interesting...) bits.

We're just over a week away from flipping the switch on the first live test of the software, and the tension is mounting here at Arlington office. Last minute interface problems and scheduling headaches are taking their toll on everyone, particularly on our fearless leader here in Arlington, who's exorcizing his frustration by falling back on his Philadelphia roots, using language that's much better suited to a chilly November Sunday at the Vet when the Cowboys are in town than to a supposedly professional office environment. Despite the setbacks, everyone's still fairly upbeat about the process, though I think we all wish we could just put the "go live" moment behind us and get on with the business of fixing the problems that crop up once regular users get tossed into the mix.

For my part, I've been spending ten and eleven hour days, cranking out test contracts for last-minute interface tests, and continuing my efforts as the reports "guru" for the project team, working my database mojo on workload management and delinquency reports (logging more time with the rainbow fish). Everyone's terribly impressed with the reporting tools I've come up with (mostly because no one else has really bothered to learn how to do it - hence, I appear to be endowed with supernatural conjuring powers to others), though we can't get the higher-ranking-than-I folks to agree on how the tools will be made available to the folks on the floor once the system's up and running. I guess such decisions are not for low level functionaries such as I to contemplate. When TPTB get around to deciding, the tools I gave them will still be there.

As mentioned previously, I was here in Arlington last week, Thursday of which was our fourth wedding anniversary. I felt really bad about it, too. Anyway, working away dilligently on Thursday, I discovered early in the afternoon that my services weren't really required. So, I checked out of the hotel a day early, and tried to sneak home to surprise Colleen. I almost made it, too. I got to Fredericksburg before my pager went off. Figuring that I couldn't ignore the page (Colleen's not in the habit of beeping me frivilously), I pulled into a rest area and commandeered a pay phone. Of course, once on the phone, she came right out and asked "Where are you calling from?". While I could get away with avoiding the issue, I couldn't evade a direct inquiry (especially with the big diesel trucks in the background). So, it wasn't a big surprise when I got in the door, but I was still managed to be home for my wedding anniversary, and I think the effort was appreciated.

As for the rest of the weekend, I worked in Richmond on Friday (filing travel claims, tweaking reports, and sitting for a mid-year performance review - the result? They're very happy with me), took the family out to dinner and did a bit of shopping with the bonus I picked up with this week's paycheck. Saturday - more shopping- Colleen wasn't feeling well, so Mary and I spent the afternoon taking care of the grocery shopping and a few other odds and ends. We spent the evening relaxing and watching a few episodes of BUffy on DVD (my treat for myself from the bonus money). Sunday included even more shopping, the major acquisitions being a new cordless phone (we lost the other one almost a year ago when the house caught an electrical surge during a thunderstorm) and a new vacuum cleaner (a fancy HEPA filter bagless thing, with a really cool headlight). The rest of the day's activities consisted primarily of cleaning (an excuse to test drive the new vacuum), packing for this week's trip, and more Buffy.

This week, work's been more of the same, though I managed to get out last night to check out "Reign of Fire", the latest contribution to the mostly neglected "killer dragon" genre. I really enjoyed the movie, which was really a small scale character piece, with some really good, not at all overdone dragon effects thrown in. Of course, I had some moron sitting behind me making obnoxious comments in the vain effort to impress his girlfriend (a example: During the trailer for "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", he offered such witty observations as "why are they making another one, since the first one sucked!"); though these outbursts abated quickly once the feature started, either because he was into the movie, or he realized that he was rapidly losing the esteem of his date.

For those following the home improvement situation, the doors were supposed to be at Home Depot on Monday. Once they actually arrive, the contractor is supposed to call us to set up a time for installation. We've yet to hear anything, but I'm confident we'll have it done soon.

Well, that's the view from here. If anything interesting happens, we'll be sure to post it as soon as we get around to it. In the meantime, here are some random things I've found on the net in the past few weeks that I found interesting....

you'd think this picture was really cute, that is, until you think about the circumstances that brought about the arrangement.

Guitar hero, how we mourn thee...

Friday, July 26 is Systems Administrator Appreciation Day. So, if you know a sysadmin, let them know you appreciate their patience as you burden them with all your computer questions (or at least make note of the gift suggestions).