Monday, February 11, 2008

"Confidential" ???

The mail just arrived here at the office and with it was a large envelope from the company that administers our corporation's 401(K), with a big blue "confidential" sticker on the front of it.

But whoever affixed the brightly colored "confidential" sticker to the envelope? Then failed to seal it.

Whoops.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Updates? Huh?

You know it's been awhile since your last post when you're in Second Life at a Friendly Fire concert and even the performers (okay, 1/2 of them, Case) are heckling you from the stage about updating your blog.

I tried to blame my lack of posting on some serious typoing issues I've been having lately, but since Case hollered from the stage, "Oh yeah, it's not like it doesn't have spellcheck!" ...

Dammitall, he's right.

I've been busy, but busy hasn't stopped me from blogging before. It's just that I really haven't had much to say here. I mean, well... there's lots I could say, and believe me I've thought about it, but it's not exactly appropriate for public consumption, And considering that I blog mercilessly about my periods (last one took 33 days to arrive, if anyone was wondering... let the erratic annual fun-fest begin!), that's saying something. I could vent off about it privately, and may still, but there's a fine line between getting something off one's chest and dwelling endlessly about things that cannot be changed and likely will never change.

There, that vague enough for you? Heh...

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At any rate, life continues to progress. We're implementing a new timekeeping/ billing/ etc. software program at work which is a new level of fresh hell. We were doing the same thing last year at this time, but with the world's most god-awful program. Administrative types, take note: do not ever, on pain of extreme torture, purchase a business program from the very people who coded the damned thing. We had several valid complaints about the initial program we purchased which were treated in an exceptionally unprofessional and defensive manner. I'm sorry, but if your program sucks? It sucks. And for our purposes, that thing was borked beyond all hope of redemption. Do NOT call the managing partner and whine about why we aren't using your pitiful scrap of a program anymore when we've already told you that it doesn't meet the needs of our office. Because when the ridiculous slowness of your program is blamed on us having "too many jobs"? It means that your program doesn't have the capacity to handle the workload generated by our business.

The new program we're working to get up and running appears to have more than the capacity to handle the data load required by the company, with the additional benefit of an upgrade being available should certain areas grow beyond current levels. It's just getting all that information into the program that's a bitch. I've been making various screamy noises for about a month now. They don't really help with the implementation, but I feel better about it all for about five seconds.

Oh well. This too shall pass, and fortunately once we do get this program functional it should be excellent. It's just getting there that's the issue.

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The boys are currently working on me about getting a puppy. It's been eight months since Little Guy's death, and in spite of our feline housemates, there is a dog-shaped hole in our home. It's going to have to wait a bit to be filled, though. A dog is a huge responsibility, and more time-intensive than the cats. There's the housebreaking to be done, the puppy-proofing... oh my. It's been nearly twenty years since I last did this and back then I was a college student who only had to worry about going to class and then rushing home to take out my baby dog. I was gone at most four hours at a stretch. Now, though, we leave the house by 7:15 a.m. and don't return until about 5:40 on an early day. That's far too long for a little puppy to be left alone, even if one is crate training.

Sooo... the puppy will have to wait until this fall when my younger son starts kindergarten. This will make it so I have only one stop to make on the way to work, which I'll then add another stop to as I'll be dropping the puppy off at my mother's house for Doggy Daycare. Oh well, at least it's less of a commute than I currently have as my parents' house is only about three blocks from the office rather than making the great circle of town that dropping the younger off at his daycare necessitates.

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Speaking of the younger, he's quite the little showman. I took the boys to the park to play yesterday and he wandered over to the bench I was sitting on, looked at the gentleman sitting on the other end of the bench, and out of the blue burst out, "You know, two plus two equals four."

"Yes, it does. How did you know that?"

"Because I'm smawt."

"I can see that."

"Yes."

*choke*


Next thing you know the child will be running for office. God help us all.