Tales from the Steppes

2005-07-15

5:15 p.m.

Cotton candy was king
On the midway that spring
--Aimee Mann

Ok, so I forgot one of the best things that happened today. I convinced one of the IT guys to log in to my computer as an admin and then leave me alone to have my way with it. I did get the driver installed for my camera, as was my pretense. Even more importantly, I got Rhapsody working correctly so I can listen to music online and stop bringing my MP3 player in with me. Woohoo!

And there is a rogaine in Blacksburg this September.

And I got a drafting surface moved into my cubicle. Must remember to make cookies for the maintenance guys.

And amazingly, those revisions have already shown up in PDF format. No idea if they're correct yet, but what speed those engineers can move at when they have to! Makes me wonder if they were already done and these guys were just seeing if they could yank me around.

I'm gonna make waste my time
Cuz I'm full as a tick

No shit. That is a real lyric from Fiona Apple. Seems appropriate for a Friday afternoon.

Today has turned into a relatively banner day. I am in an exceptionally good mood and plan on staying that way, at least until I get home to find out how the downpour has affected my cellar. Will it have taken out my hot water heater again? Or perhaps an air conditioning unit this time. It will have to wait until later.

I have finally resolved an engineering issue with a developer, whose site planners could not seem to understand why I was jumping up and down about a 75% slope on unconsolidated fill. I had been playing nice and leaving messages and waiting for them to take care of my requests. Apparently they did not understand that I was actually serious about what I was asking for. The person I was dealing with kept taking her time returning my phone calls and had not provided me with the least of my requests. So today I talked to her superviser and explained that if I did not have these changes made and in my hand by Monday noon, the plan was not going forward. Low and behold, the changes can be made by first thing Monday morning. This is my first less-than-minor case going to the Planning Board and I have no interest in not having the plan together when it finally gets there.

In an exchange with Fred and Khalid, I was told that not only was I going to hell but I was going to get to skip to the head of the line. This is mighty praise coming from a pair of infidels. I do miss sitting with them and I think they miss me. I have been told that it is much quieter since I moved downstairs. Not that I was the noisy one - Fred wins that prize, but that they talk and laugh less since I've been gone. Khalid actually came down to visit me, in the suburb of south bumfuck I sit in. We have agreed to arrange a drinking expedition in the next few weeks, when we can all arrange for our spouses to deal with our children. Of course, given how little any of us actually drink, this should be more accurately called a "lubricated talking" expedition.

The final victory of my workday occurred on the smiley front. I found some free smileys from AOL itself, so I knew they were safe, and emoticonned the SU. While he certainly replied with quantity of smileys, I definitely won on quality. Sometimes it is the small things in life...

Stupid icons