2016-12-30:

HE'S GOT A KNIFE!

Fri:
Very much as expected, no-one was up much for actual work, but at least some was done. We're giving them the first 1.7 version as the partial fix is holding and better than more, somewhat riskier, code changes.

Managed to straighten up the lab as I did last year at that time, and got the usual stuff done afterwards. Very busy down empire gee I wonder why? Aldi was somewhat busier than usual as well.

Had a nice dinner with the family and gave mom her gifts.

Made calls when I got back, no new work thankfully.

Sat:
Finished up Elementary, cleared some ice from the driveway and then went out to the setup. Went a bit better than last time, but his internet speed is crap. Didn't know that they had an even worse plan than basic, but they do! Amazing. 2Mb/s. Not that he's getting more than 1.00 usually. UGh. No wonder iTunes took so long to update. Should have told it to skip it. Ah well. Called TW and they're coming out Monday.

Back here I watched a few things and straightened up, got a call at 4:10 from dentist guy. Really? Christmas eve? Well, I'm not getting back to you tonight. And I'm not getting back to you tomorrow. So it'll be Monday night at the earliest and I have Wednesday booked already so it'll be Thursday at the earliest I can see you. So what was the point of calling now? Of course he didn't know my schedule but it's christmas eve, dude. Have a little restraint, it's not a burst pipe or a dead furnace.

Warm-ish out. Ice is melting. Let's keep it that way, my driveway is packed with the stuff.

Went over to my parent's house for the eve.

When I got back, he had called twice more! Did the thought that I would somehow get back to you on christmas eve actually enter your brain? Did you think I was just sitting there at home waiting for 7:00 so I could call you back? Did you think I was coming out the next day?

And the guy I set the iMac up for is complaining he's having the "same problems as with the old one." Yeah, I told you that you would. I repeatedly said buying a new machine when yours was not that old was stupid. You plowed ahead anyway. Shock and surprise, I was right. The trouble was not with the machine. It was with you.

Very nice dinner with the family, and the usual game where 1/2 the people randomly chose the gifts chosen for them. Not bad, not bad.

Back here, saw more stuff to complain about. Wrote it up.

Went to bed.

Sun:
Merry- oh it's over already.

Had a very nice christmas with the family, thanks again to all of them for everything.

Went to visit my mother's sister and my grandfather.

Got home and pretty much went to bed immediately. Guess it's my advanced age catching up with me, but I was pretty tired.

I can now show you what I got for Sean/Mizzy. Sean got a huge stack of comic books, and Mizzy got a Sailor Moon jewelry set, each piece representing one of the four generals and being made of what their name is.

[[image file="2016-12/p1016610.jpg" alt="box" ]]

[[image file="2016-12/p1016613.jpg" alt="comic stack" ]]

Looking at my pictures I think I forgot to post the picture of the 200 chapters of the Susan story I edited. Here it is.

[[image file="2016-12/p1016630.jpg" alt="stack o paper" ]]

Got some nice pony stuff, a mountain of books which I needed now that the editing is about done, comics, a ceiling fan, and tons of food. Thanks everyone.

Mon:
Got Christmas put away before I left. Went and got new shiny paper and more light holders as all mine were used up this year. They get so brittle!

As I thought, first guy was just logged in with a temp profile. Easily put the registry entry back that put it back. Stupid MS.

The iMac also fell before my superior skills. It wasn't hardware because it still booted into Mac OS just fine. (shock and surprise) Ran chkdsk and mbam and it seemed fine. (600+ days. AARG)

Got home, ate lunch, then out again for the setup. That went pretty well, they didn't have much to move. Called dentist guy but he didn't want me to come just then. Up to you bud, but you don't take me now, it's gonna be some time before I can come again. Your loss.

Came back here, watched more Lost Girl while I tried to figure out why a bunch of the lights on my tree don't work. The very top was easy. The middle part… I couldn't figure out. Didn't try the bottom after that. Sigh.

Here's another one for you. iMac guy wants to send the new one back now too. Wants me back to pull his info off before he does it. Moron.

So I'm going there Thursday. And that's the week booked. Neat!

Watched more lost girl, and then read some.

Tues:
Got up at the normal time and read a bit, did some cleanup stuff on the computer I’ve been putting off. The guy came a little early so I got that going. It went smoothly, now that I know to format the drive even though the process erases the drive. Took a little less than 2 hours to get 200Gb moved over.

Ate lunch during the last bits of that process and put it back together. Realized I still had the system for the guy I let borrow the laptop so instead of one place to go I had two. So I left at 12:00. Got that set up and moved his stupid 50,000 emails into the inbox. That took the longest.

Then took a look at the RAID guy place. His RAID was degraded again, something with the new drives I guess? It wouldn’t even boot, stupidly, so I put the old drive back in and I’ve brought them with me. I’ll test them and see what’s going on. Sigh.

But it worked out because I got there at 2:30 and our two companions had just arrived. So as I sit here at 3:30 I know we are not getting to play tonight because I thought they were supposed to be there far earlier so they could have characters made. As I already did. Ah well.

So we spent some hours doing that.

Many… many hours.

Did about a half hour of actual gaming. Sigh.

Wed:
Parking lot was nearly empty today. Wonder why?

Spent the day loading machines. They wanted them brought back to a pre-office depot configuration, then updated from there. Took a long time. Then something weird happened with mine, and I was trying to see if it would happen to the others, and then reloaded mine again. I left before it finished.

2.5 hours at the appointment. It was a stupid all in one unit so I had to hook the SSD up via USB 2.0. Groan. Not pleasant. Then of course there was the partition shenanigans. But at least it's… not all that much faster. Why? Ah well, don't care.

Got home about 8:00 and made my calls. Reached most but not two. Thankfully no new jobs so Saturday is still free.

Now I'm about to check my sites and, uh, go to bed. Great day!

Thurs:
It remains rather quiet and empty at work. Go figure. I did a bit of testing but it's pointless. So pointless now.

Went to see iMac guy. He had called Apple and said he was led through wiping the stuff. Who knows if he actually succeeded, but the machine was already gone. I answered a few questions and came right home. 

Seems I might be the only one in tomorrow, and that's only after my orthodontist appointment.

So I'll get up early to go there, go there, then come back here, get my stuff to go to my parent's house, go there, then go to work. I'll load the new weblet, make sure the stop button works again and anything else the only person who will be there wants me to do, then leave.

Bank, shopping, then visiting my parents.

Come back here, make the sausage dish for Saturday and that will be the Friday.

Saturday I'll probably have jobs in the morning, though I only have the one in the afternoon at the moment. Then after that one that's nearly to Sean's anyway, I'll go over there for the eve. Looks like the "pyre group" will be in town after all, so it'll be… seven of us? If Stan/Sean are coming, don't know about that yet.

Then recover on Sunday, and maybe, just maybe, actually take Monday off? As in actually not do either job? Apart from paperwork, which I'll have to do by then.
I guess we'll see.

Have a good eve and leave 2016 behind forever. Don't even think about it anymore. As new and even greater adventures await us in 2017. We've got another weirdo for president, for instance. I mean the one was bad enough (no, not the current one, you know which one I mean) but this year should be interesting.

Yes, we will live in interesting times.

See you next year. I'm getting ready for bed early, yay.