Thursday, December 04, 2008

Item 1: I haven’t been able to send email via Thunderbird since we switched to Verizon FIOS. I needed to know the SMTP server info. So finally, today I set up an online account with V-F and got the server info, but it’s still not working. I then spent about 45 minutes on hold with no response by tech support and eventually hung up because I have things to do and I can’t spend all morning on hold on the phone.

Item 2: I mentioned yesterday my need for a free FTP client. Turns out it needs to be SFTP, so I downloaded WinSCP, but I’m not able to access my host FTP. So I submitted a trouble ticket and I’m waiting to hear about that.

I’m really not in the mood to deal with this kind of stuff today.

[UPDATE]: Item #2 is fixed. Turned out to be a password problem - even the host techie couldn’t get in using my password. So they fixed that lickety-split and now I have FTP access to the backroom of the blogs.

As to Item #1, I’m not happy with Verizon and reluctant to call them back only to be placed on hold again. I also need to talk the billing section because they have not implemented any of the discounts that were promised at the time we set up service. I’ll eat some lunch and then try calling later this afternoon.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

It all started last week when I got an email from KN with a witness flight itinerary attached.

I emailed back to ask if there were court documents sent or faxed - a copy of the summons/subpoena and an order for us to make travel arrangements (we only arrange witness travel if the court orders us to do so). No documents, nothing except the email from the travel agent.

I recognized the name of the witness as being a guy we had previously arranged travel for this summer and I remembered, too, that he was a pain in the rear - very demanding, which I don’t tolerate well.

So today, I finally did the research to find the name and phone number of the attorney who had summoned this dude in the summer to find out what he knew.

Turns out he was stunned to hear that his witness had travel booked - his office didn’t do it so the witness himself must have done it. I impressed upon the lawyer the illegality of this action on the part of the witness and made it very clear that we either better receive those necessary court documents post haste or his witness would suffer dire consequences. I’m giving him until Monday to send the docs. If I don’t hear back from him by then the travel gets cancelled and I take it to HQ to find out what to do about the witness and also to let them know that our travel agent booked travel for a witness by a witness directly. That is not supposed to happen.

So with the server migration of my blog, the host internal ftp is no longer available. I need a recommendation for a good, free, easy to use ftp client so that I can do stuff behind the curtain with the jenspeaks.com based blogs.

For instance, I’m in desperate need of updating both this and Ticklish Giggles blogware, but I can do it without ftp access.

Leave your opinions (with links, please) in the comments. Thanks!

Two super quick movie reviews…

1. Get Smart - Here’s the thing that always surprises me about Steve Carell - he is a very good actor whose ability to show genuine vulnerability in the midst of hilarity is a rare talent. We laughed a lot more than we expected to. We both thought the first half was better than the second half. We both liked the movie a lot. 3 stars out of 5.

2. Miss Potter - I knew I was doomed for tears the first time Peter Rabbit blinked. I found the story of Beatrix Potter compelling and very sweetly told. We both liked this movie a lot and I enjoyed watching the extra biographical bit in the DVD special features section. 4 stars out of 5.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Starting today we were required to update one of our passwords to a 12 character monstrosity that includes at least one of each of the following:

1. Capital letter
2. Number
3. Symbol (ie, @#$&!)

And the reuse of previously used passwords is restricted to waiting until the 21st round of passwords. Oh, and we’ll now be required to change our passwords in 60 days instead of 90 days.

I have passwords for more than a dozen systems and some of those systems have two levels of passwords. What makes them think that they’re actually increasing security by making it so much harder to remember all of the passwords? Because at some point a cheat sheet is required just to avoid calling the help desk several times daily to get your passwords unlocked because you entered them incorrectly too many times.

Looks like I’ll be travelling to Phoenix in January for a training thing. Amazing One will be going, too, so that will make it more fun. I called Beau to warn him and he seemed pretty blase about being left alone with Jesse for a week.

I was supposed to meet with the Chief and A-Chief to discuss financial stuff. Turns out that they met with my boss for 2 hours instead and then my lunch hour consisted of having them quiz me about how I pay the bills. The rest of this week will be all prisoner medical all the time because Useless One hasn’t been doing her job again. I discovered a 3” stack of claims in her inbox last week. Joy.

My cough and congestion linger and after watching The Lord of the Rings on cable last night, I realized that I sound more like Gollum than Brenda Vaccaro. Lovely.

Church was great this weekend. I was on worship team again, which was very fun even with my hacking cough. I had enough raspy-ness in my voice that I blended very well with the other female singer. And the message was good - our pastor did a series on Jonah the past few weeks. His message this week resonated with me because of something that happened recently with a friend that is still somewhat unresolved. I’m at a loss as to how to resolve it and I have been praying about it constantly since the blow up happened. It’s a complicated situation for which a solution may not be possible, not because I’m not willing to work on it but because the other person is not and may never be, and that makes me sad. Anyway....

Coming up: Reviews of Get Smart and Miss Potter.

Friday, November 28, 2008

I left work early on Wednesday, thanks to the powers-that-be, got home and pretty much crashed with my hacking cough. They hot, dry air in my office only made my cough worse as the day progressed. I drove home with a window open to see if the cooler air would help - it did a bit, but I was desperate enough to take some Mucinex to try to loosen things in my lungs. I set up the humidifier in our bedroom and then I took a full dose of cold meds at bedtime, too.

I woke up yesterday feeling better, but still coughing. I ended up sleeping away most of the mid-day since I decided not to take any Zofran - it seems that the onset of my nasty cold matches the offset of my morning sickness. No puking at all the past couple of days and no nausea at all during the days. Praise the Lord! That only took 5 months.

Jesse has a slight cold - he’s not nearly as sick as I have been, thankfully. And Beau is pretty much well at this point.

All that complaining to lead into our lovely, low-key Thanksgiving afternoon/evening with my parents and Uncle Bill. We feasted and enjoyed each others company and watching Jesse be Jesse.

One sweet Jesse thing from yesterday - he loves our cat and that translates to any cat. Unfortunately, my parents cat isn’t people friendly and she kept running away from Jesse. The poor little guy was upset about it, so it was so great that when we got home Mr. Kitty rushed right up to Jesse to give him loving headbutts and even followed us all upstairs to Jesse’s room for bed time. Kitty hung out in the room while Beau read prayers with Jesse and as we put him in his crib and turned out the light so that he could gaze at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the wall, Kitty stood guard outside the doorway.

I hope you all had a wonderful time with your families yesterday as well.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Filched from The Port Stands At Your Elbow. Items in BOLD are those I have done.

1. Started your own blog - Hello.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band - junior high counts, right?
4. Visited Hawaii - Not super interested.
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity - At times.
8. Climbed a mountain - Mt. Ampersand in the Adirondacks of NY.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo - Too many times to count from high school to today.
11. Bungee jumped - I’m increasingly acrophobic.
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch - jewelry making count?
15. Adopted a child - I’m open to the idea.
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables - Do herbs count?
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse - Of the moon, yes.  Of the sun, only partials.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise - with my motion sickness problem?
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors - not the specific towns, but I have been to Scotland and England.
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - at times.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing - it’s that acrophobia thing.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (badly) - not in the classic sense.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt - I think we went to Yellowstone when I was a baby.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie - in my college film class. I was the seriously miscast murderer.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business - Bead on a Wire.
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - this and the camping thing were the reasons I quit Girl Scouts.
62. Gone whale watching - not on an official whale watch. I did see whales when at the Outer Banks for a long weekend with friends years ago, though.
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma - attempted many times and was rejected because I’m too anemic.
65. Gone sky diving - Not. A. Chance.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar - I don’t get the appeal.
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job - I quit before she could fire me.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle - did not like it at all
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House - in the Reagan years.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

My cold is progressing nicely. I sound like Brenda Vaccaro.

It’s a busy week at the office because of Thanksgiving and month end close out of the books.

Light blogging ahead for the rest of the week, I think. I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving with your families.

Monday, November 24, 2008

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Beau catches colds easier than anyone else I know and he managed to catch his third in the past 6 weeks or so at the end of last week. I now have it, too.

I’m grateful for an old school OB who says I can take cold meds as I need them. For me so far, that just meant a half dose last night before bed, which was awesome because I finally got a full night’s rest.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Bill Whittle posted today about his first day on the job training.

Having had to endure this form of training every two years or so in my current job, I commiserate with Bill. What I appreciate about the folks in my office, though, is the mockery that ensues when the video starts up. Common sense and common courtesy go a lot further for most people.

I saw this earlier in the week at Thinklings, but it was always while at work and I can’t view YouTube stuff at work. So today is the first chance I had to see it and Jared is right, “This is some of the most accurate (and hilarious) social commentary I’ve ever heard.”

So one of the needed items on Jesse’s Christmas list is a winter coat. With the cold snap lately, I’m reluctant to wait another month for that necessary item - also not knowing if it was going to be under the tree at all. So I did some quick and dirty shopping at Walmart.com and found a good coat (size 3T, so maybe he’ll be able to wear it next winter, too) for only $15.00. Nice.

If anyone already bought a winter coat for him for Christmas, please accept my apologies for getting ahead of things. Sometimes waiting isn’t prudent. A second coat would be nice for options, though.

Beau took Jesse for a walk and some run around time at the park. We bundled him up as much as possible, but really a fleece sweatshirt isn’t going to do much against a stiff wind in 30 degree temps. We think the wind chill this morning put the temp in the 20s. He did have on a hat and mittens and wasn’t out for more than an hour, but that’s still a long time with little protection against bitter cold.

Pictures were taken and will be posted here later.

ESFP?

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

That’s really funny, since I usually test as an ISTJ on the MBTI.

[via OTB]

Reagan Rulz.

[via Thinklings]