Thursday, April 12, 2007

I’m happy to report that I’ve had a steady and quick connection to the network all morning.

Woo!

Now I need to plan for bringing home more to work on so that I’m busy all day. The stuff I brought home yesterday I’ve already completed, although there is one thing I could try to do. I’m meeting with a guy tomorrow about it and I’m thinking of waiting for that so that I don’t royally screw up something important.

Fortunately, I need to go for a training thing at the courthouse this afternoon, so I won’t be sitting around here with nothing to work on all afternoon.

No more complaint posts about the telework thing, I promise.

I forgot to mention that our cable TV came back at about 6:30pm last night. What’s weird about that is that there was no signal to the TVs, but I was able to watch TV on the computer and our internet was not affected.

Anyhoo, all is well in technology land and I’m happy.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Technology can be great, but it can also frustrate me no end.

Again, I have not been able to keep a connection with the VPN for longer than a minute or two all afternoon.

In addition, our cable has crapped out. However, it only seems to be affecting our cable boxes because I can watch TV on the computer just fine.

I’m about ready to pull my hair out. Or burst into tears.

If I can’t be productive working at home, then I can’t justify the telecommuting thing.

Lord, help!

[UPDATE (7:45 pm)]: My husband is the best. He went right out to buy the router and ethernet cables. I’m now hooked up to the cable modem and so far everything is working perfectly...and much faster, too. Thank you, Lord!

Sleepy Beth very kindly named me as a Thinking Blogger as a part of the Thinking Blogger meme that’s been going around lately.

As I understand how this works, I’m now supposed to name five Thinking Bloggers to pass this thing along. Sadly for me, Beth already named two blogs that I would have named. Although at this point I believe this meme has been around long enough that anyone I name has already been named. However, I’ll try to name five that I have not seen listed yet.

Without further ado:

1. Absinthe & Cookies - Ith is a lovely writer of many topics. Her pithy posts often have me clicking a link to explore more or at least nodding my head in agreement.

2. Fluid Pudding - Angela makes me laugh all the time. She’s witty and sarcastic and her daughters are completely adorable.

3. Spare Change - Bryan is a thoughtful writer. He is one of the rare bloggers who has a true gift for writing. Most of us just spew the thoughts that roll around our heads all day long. Bryan may do that, too, but what he spews is often witty or lovely or inspiring.

4. ePiscoSours - My friend, Pisco, expounds on his still new and growing faith in Christ. It’s been fun to read of his spiritual journey for the past year and I look forward to the coming years as continues to grow in his faith.

5. Cootiehog - I’d be remiss if I didn’t name my sister’s blog. Jaynee is the one who got me blogging in the first place. She is one of the funniest people I know and her blog is an eclectic mix of home and hearth and pop culture.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

So I was thinking that maybe the day would end early? And then the return of the opening subplot that got set aside while Jack and Co. dealt with the middle eastern nuclear terrorists. I’m hoping the return of the opening subplot will mean the season gets more interesting? Then again, maybe not.

Was that cryptic enough for those of you who haven’t seen last night’s episode yet?

Monday, April 09, 2007

New pics at Whiny Complaints.

For some reason I think I’ve done this test before. But I took it again for giggles and because I’m procrastinating… Scroll your mouse over the colors to see where I rank on certain personality traits.

[via Jaynee]

We’re tired today. The weekend was very good, but long. Beau was great to let me laze about on Saturday until I had to head over to the church for our practice and the two services. He and my parents came to the second service that evening. Jesse was in this adorable little outfit that Marmie gave to him. No pictures, for we are terrible parents who never take the camera anywhere.

Marmie and Pop were great to Jesse sit yesterday morning while Beau and I were at the church. All three services were well attended. He had set up the room the youth use for overflow and in the 11:00am service there were 140 people back there. Very cool. I was told we had 625 in the 9:15am service. Our pastor’s message was excellent, as always, and I’ll be interested to see how many of our visitors choose to continue attending and what kind of response we’ll see in future baptisms.

After church we went to my parents for Easter dinner. Uncle Bill was there as well as my Mom’s good friend Kathy and her husband Bryan. Jesse was on his best behavior and lay quietly in the pack-n-play while we ate our meal. We were getting ready to have dessert when he let us know that he had had enough of being alone.

When we got home at about 5pm, I fed Jesse and then he took a good nap while Beau and I chilled out. We were hoping to nap, too, but neither of us could doze off. We did manage to get to bed earlier than usual - Jesse went down at about 9:30pm for the night and we weren’t far behind him. That Jesse then didn’t wake up until a little before 5am tells me that he’s ready for an earlier bedtime, which is nice because we are, too.

Anyhoo, I now need to get to work. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. 

Friday, April 06, 2007

I was able to buy some new CDs on the cheap because I was part of the BMG class action suit. I only bought three CDs, one of which is Nichole Nordeman‘s Brave. I’m a long time fan of Nordeman - she has an amazing, almost haunting voice and is a gifted songwriter. She’s a true poet and storyteller who manages to make beautiful music as well. I envy her talent.

So I was listening to the CD for the first time yesterday in the car and got to the 5th track, Crimson. Immediately I recognized the piano accompaniment as being Chopin’s Opus 28, Prelude 4 in E Minor. I mentioned that her voice is haunting? The blend of the minor piano melody with her lyrics is brilliant and evocative. It may be my favorite song on the album. And its message is fitting for today, Good Friday, the day of Christ’s Passion. It’s a reminder of why Jesus came in the first place and why he accepted his death on the cross on our behalf. It is today’s Song of the Day.

Crimson
(Nichole Nordeman)
For Donald Miller, who finally connected the garden and the cross for me.

One choice
One tree
One fall for humanity
One lie
One liar
One bite is all death required
One great regret
One squandered chance, and yet
One hope
One day
One name above all other names
One bridge between then and now
One way to discover how
One price
One tree
One drop of crimson covers me

Thank you, Lord, for the drop of crimson that covers me.

‘Tis Tartan Day and the 4th annual Gathering of the Blogs. Thanks, as always, to Ith for hostessing the blog-event again this year.

The Declaration of Arbroath is why we of Scots descent celebrate this day. It was used as a model for the American Declaration of Independence. What I find fascinating is that it’s really more of a prayer than a declaration. It’s also a good recollection of the history of Scotland.

One excerpt that I think rings true for all Scotsmen and Americans alike:

It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom—for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

Please go read the whole thing. It’s quite powerful.

Happy Tartan Day.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

I’m not a prayer warrior. I’m not one who wakes up in the middle of the night with a burden for someone and knows that I’m to pray for them in that moment. My mother is one of those amazing people - so many times when I was in the hospital I would call her in crisis and she would say that she was praying for me. There’s such comfort knowing that there are people with that gift and who exercise it regularly and faithfully.

It’s not that I take prayer lightly, although I suppose I really do. But it’s not because I don’t believe in the power of prayer - I do. I believe that God is in control and that he hears our cries - He knows all, after all - that’s why I don’t go to Him in prayer often enough. I forget that even though He already knows my heart he wants me to express it to Him.

There are occasions I do get an overwhelming burden for someone and tonight is one of those times. It’s why I’m going to ask that if you pray that you join with me in praying for two friends:

1. A couple I know are in the process of adopting a little girl they met while on a mission trip to Zambia last summer. Our church sponsors and supports the staff of a place called The Farm. The Farm has a medical clinic and an orphanage. T & K met Freda when they visited the orphanage and T instantly fell in love with this precious baby girl. They came back home with a deep desire to add her to their family and started the legal process. One of the stipulations was that they spent 90 days in country. The judge was counting their time last summer, so T left in late January and was supposed to return by Easter with Freda. However, the other day a new judge was assigned to the case and he decided that their time in Zambia last summer does not count. The 90 days started in January. So K left today to be with T and Freda for the duration - as long as it takes until they can bring their baby home. At this point the prayer is that the judge will be honest and fair with them and that their jobs won’t be too adversely affected by their long absences - at this point T has been gone from his job for about 3 months now.

2. I was talking with our worship leader on our way out from band/choir practice for the Easter services. I never got the full details when it all started in January, but he’s been losing his voice. He doesn’t have nodes on his vocal chords and he’s not experiencing pain. It’s just that his voice isn’t as strong as it once was when he sings. There’s no clear physical explanation for the problem. He took several weeks off from singing all together and has backed off a lot when he does sing. He’s worked with a vocal coach to fix some bad habits that he thought might be contributing to the problem. He shared that it’s starting to affect his confidence when he sings. I assured him that he sounds great - honestly, I never would have known there was a problem if I hadn’t been told. He’s worried, obviously, and heartbroken at the possibility of losing his passion. Music is his life and his ministry and I’m sure he can’t imagine a future without it. Please pray for him to have the confidence he needs and healing for whatever is the problem with his voice.

Gary at The Llama Butchers outlines the troubles with this awful season of 24

In the comments, Steve offers an alternative that I think has promise:

Maybe this---Chloe sneaks out of CTU to get a bite, is menaced by a cougar in the Quiznos. Chloe kills the cougar with a #2 pencil, jammed between its eyes. Chloe kidnapped by Gredenko, as he too was sneaking out of terrorist sooper sekrit HQ for a toasty late nite sandwich. Jack proceeds to blow up Quiznos, provoking an international incident as the Quiznos is technically part of the Vatican consulate in LA. Flying pieces of Sun Chips (french onion flavor) get sucked into the ceiling fan units of CTU, coating the place in a toxic orange paste. Morris’s shoulder becomes infected and he almost dies.

Chloe licks the Sun Chip crust off Jack’s face....

Completely unrelated side note, Beau just took Jesse into the nursery to change his diaper after feeding him a bottle. I’m enjoying listening to them talk* to each other through the monitor.

* Beau does the talking; Jesse does the cooing.

OK, back to the topic of Thai cooking. I like Thai food, but we’re on a budget so I’ve been wanting to figure out how to make things at home. While at Wegmans on Sunday, I spent some time inspecting the A Taste of Thai seasoning packets and bottles of sauce. I knew I wanted Pad Thai, but I wanted to try some other things, too. I bought the Chicken and Rice Seasoning - the packet promised a one pot meal in 30 minutes and that is exactly what we got. It was delicious! I also bought the Peanut Sauce Mix and a packet of something spicier that I’m not finding on their website found it - Spicy Peanut Bake.

It’s tempting to try one again tonight, but I don’t want to wear out our enthusiasm for the flavors, so I’m probably going to do salmon instead. That also depends on how the afternoon goes work-wise.

If you like Thai food but have been nervous to try making it at home, give these seasoning packets and sauces a try.

Getting a lot done this morning. Miracle of miracles, I’ve had a good connection on the network for about 90 minutes now with no hiccups. I’ve even managed to take care of email pretty quickly. I wish every day at home was like this.

A new slight snafu I discovered is that I cannot access the timekeeping website remotely because of a security issue. I’m hoping that can be resolved or I’ll have to make a quick trip into the office to take care of something that I could do in 10 minutes. That would be a waste of an hours worth of driving, but if I have to do it, I’ll do it - maybe I’ll take Jesse in with me since folks have asked when I’ll be bringing him in again.

Anyway, it’s been a good morning so far, which is nice.

[LATER (3:15 pm)]: Ended up having to make the trip to the office since I got no response to my email inquiries about the problem. The task itself took less than 2 minutes. The total round trip was 1 hour 20 minutes. It took more time for me to walk from my car in the parking garage to my office than it did to do the task. Oh well.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

This is a rant I can get behind. Preach it, sistah.

[via caltechgirl]

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

The good thing about my frustration when working at home? I’m much more productive and focused when I’m at the office. I got a lot done today, including my nemesis - timekeeping. As a result, I’ve made the decision, after a conversation with my mother, that I’ll work from the office on Wednesday mornings. She had long planned to take Jesse to MOPS at church when they meet (she’s a mentor to the younger moms and she thought it would be fun to take her grandson since the other moms have their kids with them); now she’ll take care of him every week even though MOPS doesn’t meet weekly. Thanks, Marmie!

The bad thing about working from home will always be my remote network connection. Our IT person said that even with using the cable modem I’ll have problems with it since it’s a problem at the remote server. She said that the folks who use DSL still have problems. What a mess. Funny thing she told me was that where I had relative success yesterday keeping my connection, regular dial up users had a terrible time apparently. Their frustration made my day easier.

As for the craziness of holy week - tomorrow I have choir practice. And then we practice with the band on Thursday night. And then we have to be at the church at 2pm on Saturday to practice again before the two services that night. And then we were told we would have to be there at 6:45am on Sunday for the three services that morning. I emailed our worship leader and choir director to let them know that it would be pretty much impossible to be there that early on Sunday with Jesse’s nursing schedule. As it is, getting there for the 8am service will be a challenge. Beau is working the parking lot that morning, too. Fortunately, Marmie and Pop are babysitting Jesse that whole morning and then we’ll all meet at their house for Easter lunch-dinner after we’re done at church. (Btw, Marmie, no luck finding the lamb-shaped butter - I searched all over that store with no success.) Five church services, people. Five. Should be fun. I’m just hoping to actually be able to enjoy and worship one of the services in its entirety.