2019-09-27:

Fri:

Didn't exactly go as planned but what does.

Started in with Alerts and Faults once again, yes, I just did it like two releases ago you are not wrong. It should be the last thing so we're actually done a week ahead of schedule. You're welcome, Bob.

Left at 2:40ish to make my deposit, and went over to the "pub." Here was me thinking we were going to get something to eat while there. Nope. They just stood around, talked really loud, and drank. Even Adnan, who just that day or possibly the day before insisted he didn't drink anymore. Oh really? Then why did I see you consume at least two very tall glasses of beer? Saw tire place girl again, a normal person probably would have said "Hey, how are those tires?" to her but that's not how I roll. 

When Adnan and Lewis left I took that as my cue. I should charge them for another hour, I didn't leave until 5:00 and normally I would have been done with "work" by 4:00. What a waste of two hours, honestly. How do they do it? How do they just talk, talk, talk, talk? I still can't figure it out.

My parents were nice enough to feed me despite me telling them previously I would have already eaten. And this even after burning her foot making me food earlier. My mom didn't even poison it, she's the best!

Only ten minutes late to Sean's, we really didn't solve the nymph situation and we got pulled in another direction with a supposedly amnesiac doppleganger wizard in a stolen robe. If he's a plant I can't see the angle. Didn't get too far with him.

Came back here and did some borderlands.

Sat:

Got caught up with yesterday by going shopping first thing. Even got there before they opened at 9:00, whoops. I only had to wait a  few minutes, I figured if it was nine it was nine, and it would be fine. It was fine. I spent the same amount there buying eggs, milk, salad, tissues, tortillas, toothpaste, and more as I did at Wegmans the day before buying 3 muffins, a croissant, and 6 bengals. Oh, and a jug of OJ. Figure that one out.

Back here I put wood up in my crawlspace to hold up the insulation that's fallen down. It's not pretty, but I think it'll work.

Then did the cleaning. Took a picture of Sean's gift that I got back, I'll show you after I give it to him, of course. 

Checked my sites from yesterday/today, watched videos, ate lunch, put the parts of Neil's gift in the box and took pictures, so once I seal it up again his gift will be done. Need to get on with the other two.

Looked over my weapons and got rid of stuff in borderlands. Just easier when I don't feel like I'm holding everyone up. I may have gotten a tiiiiiiiicy bit further in the story? Don't tell anyone.

Other minor stuff like taking care of the dead grass in the driveway. Was walking around the back yard seeing how things were, it's really warm out, and realized something was different. It was! Three more trees are gone from the back. 

[[image file="2019-09/7-12-picture.jpg" alt="before trees" ]]

[[image file="2019-09/9-21-picture.jpg" alt="after trees" ]]

See? Less trees. I was thinking, I have all these althea bushes, maybe dig them up and put them back there? I don't like the just open yard from there to here. And are they going to take care of the stumps? They're just sitting back there still. Weird.

Got my first Christmas catalog already, I guess the firstist is the bestist? 

Watched the latest DanMatchi. 

Finished chapter 25 just for kicks.

And more Borderlands.

Sun:

As I knew it would come, so it came to pass. Got up fairly late after a cat fell on my head. I thought it was a real cat, but it was a stuffed cat. I was like, wait, you're not a real cat, why did you fall on my head?

Out to my 11:00 which went fairly smoothly but long. Oh, so long. His machine has a video card not supported by Win10 so to upgrade that I want to get a video card that actually has 10 drivers so we avoid the situation with wire jaw. Otherwise got the SSD installed, the printer installed, questions answered, and left just in time to get to my next one at 2:00. Lunch? Who needs lunch? 

She had just a handfull of odd stuff, I did my best, honestly.

Then was late mo my 3:30 by about 15 minutes and got him set. Installed Win7, activated it (oh, how I've missed you phone activation. They make you agree to being recorded and punch a code "for security purposes" was someone trying to hack the phone system, MS? Poor guys. Anyway, upgraded to 10 just fine, put the usual stuff on it. He saved me 45 minutes of copying stuff from the external drive too so that was a relief.

Got home at 6:00 (yay machines that don't have SSD!) and finally ate, er, lunch? 

Checked my sites, made phone calls, a lady with some sort of email issue, I'm not really sure. It says no new mail so the system responds but she says she isn't getting any new mail. Okay. That's Tuesday, and with taking Squeaker in Wednesday that's most of the week gone. 

Have to get up early Thurs/Fri to feed everybody over at my parent's house, probably not staying late any time this week (thursday is the only time open at the moment anyway) so I won't be able to do what I did last time and not get up early. Eh, not a big deal, I simply mention it.

Getting ready for tomorrow which will be another laugh a minute. The meeting (Oh boy Bob is back!) then finishing up faults and alerts, then ??? and then dentist guy who shall unfurl his list like a butterfly's wings in the morning sun, and I will be there for flipping hours. And every minute a joy like being wrapped in velvet.

I can't wait.

Mon:

Here's your thought for the day: Why isn't CO2 listed as an ingredient in soda, yet is clearly added artificially and you drink it. It makes up some percentage of the beverage, and in fact have you ever had flat soda? It's not good stuff! Yet I have no idea my daily recommended value of it or how much of the "soda" is actually just a gas. Crazy!

Meanwhile…

Good news from an unexpected quarter. The IRS has finally worked out my taxes for last year, and in response to their calculation of about $400 more income than we came up with…

sent me a check for $2000.

Yup.

Seems we didn't include the money I had sent as estimated tax in the "this is how much I paid" which if you think about it means that they took so much out of my "real" job in taxes that even if I had sent *nothing* as estimated taxes for the 2018 year they still would have owed me $800 back. Wha?

Glad to have that behind me for sure. And a whole month's salary to boot! I won't have to go live on the street now, so that's a relief.

And I can buy little Timmy his medicine! (who's timmy???)

Anyway, back to recounting the day. Had the morning meeting, went over the next tasks for everybody. I finished up FAX service in alerts, then went to performance testing for the office depot stuff. Useless, but what can you do? Then started a machine upgrade and went to see dentist guy.

He hadn't yet bought the mini-laptop so what I thought I was there to do I was not there to do. Don't worry, the list still unfolded like a butterfly's wings in the summer sun. But mostly mundane stuff, nothing too crazy. Shocker.

Came back here, ate dinner finally, checked sites, tried to figure my taxes out, ordered stuff, no calls today, and that was that.

May get in a tiny bit of wandering around in Borderlands but that's it.

Tues:

Found some stuff to do that I'll have to redo today, all in good fun. All in good fun. 

Giuseppe started the move, I'll be in with Adnan for now until 5.3 and I move back to "my" lab. My old manager wants even the developers in the same room as us, we can't get them in the same country. But for political reasons, if that's a term for not losing lab space, we get further apart. Whatever.

Finished up alerts, turns out I had the password I needed all along. Weird, when did I get it? Also did some more performance stuff, I have more to do because there just soooooo much variation in the results. (there's not any)

I need to redo the office depot performance because she wants it done on this weeks' release, not last weeks', because there's just going to be so many code changes. (there isn't.)

And she wants me to do another staples code test, which as you can guess is not only pointless it takes away time I could be doing something productive. Cleaning the floors with a toothbrush, perhaps?

Went to see the lady about her email. I honestly think the Spectrum IMAP server was just unequal to the task of her 3000+ unread emails. It would try to get them, but I think time out? It started asking for the password even though the password was correctly put in. Strange stuff. I switched her over to POP and that seemed to work better. Thanks, Spectrum.

Oh, and I got gas. Apparently Monday they're closed and when they open again it'll be under new ownership. Huh.

Tomorrow we get the new code so it's bug fix city, then timing tests, then the vet at 5:00.

No calls, so we're playing Borderlands in a few minutes. Have to go feed the kitties!

Wed:

Pretty busy today, and still lots to do for tomorrow. All that work I've already done. Love it.

Got performance data for the office depot solution running the new code, so I'm sure Gina will be super happy. Installed the new version, oh, and had the demo but there wasn't much to it. Reopened almost all the bugs slated to be verified. Finally found one that was fixed, good effort guys. You're 1 for 4. 

Giuseppe had moved and we got clarity on what machines were joining him. I guess we'll have two locations, which is… uh… odd? Plus me being over there *points* once 5.3 starts up again. 

Did I do anything else? Stayed a bit late. The new office depot code, right. Did the print from USB tests for that, no issues. 

Then came back here, got a kitty, and took him to the vet. He was fine, got the appointment for the teeth but it's next month, the 27th. So you get a reprieve Squeak.

Went to mom's, put Squeak in the bathroom. Did part of the job for tomorrow, the birds, inside and out, cleaned the boxes. Just so it takes me a little less time.

Came back here, one phone call so I have a job for Saturday morning, 10:00 which is doable. Checked the sites, the usual stuff. Hope to have a few minutes to look through my guns after I get ready for tomorrow.

Thurs:

Morning went largely as anticipated. Went over to feed everybody, Gabe was there in his little bed.

Got everything I hadn't done the day before done, no troubles there.

Got to work at 8:30, so that was the half hour from yesterday consumed.

Had the meeting right away, forgot it was at 8:30 on Thursdays so good thing I did it that way. 

Then got to work. Did staples performance, did staples reliability. The sad thing with that test is, a lot of the test is either blocked (fax doesn't work), the feature isn't there anymore (reduce and enlarge is mysteriously missing), or it makes other assumptions like 2 sided rotate that doesn't exist. Ah well. Maybe I'll cook up a more "interesting" one using my tool?

Also loaded the latest version of it, had the second meeting, checked out a huge Mac monitor, the usual. 

Stayed until 5:00 getting the test done, and I can come late tomorrow though we probably won't do borderlands tonight so I could get up early. But who wants to do that?

Talked to a lady about why her dropbox account was taking over her puny 256gb hard drive on the PC laptop she was using. Found out why! 

And talked briefly to another guy with an internet issue I'll see Saturday afternoon. 

Looking to the future I'll go to the outing tomorrow afternoon, the bank after that, then get cat food and litter, then do the shopping, then come home, then go over to Sean's to run my game. Busy day. Don't know what I'll do work wise, but I'll only have the morning (and only 3 hours at that) so it won't be that bad.

Then  Saturday two jobs at the moment, and hopefully a fairly quiet Sunday. Monday is the last day of September, we're into the decline of 2019. And boy oh boy has it declined. 

Hope it's been good to you though. See you all next week.