Artist Mad Scientist

I'm just pretending to be here for 10 minutes before I go to bed.

Things are getting crazier and crazier. Work is hitting an interesting frantic note that just may settle down into a harmonious hum of production or become a fevered scream of insanity. We'll know by Thanksgiving. Either way, interesting times.

My class has hit its halfway mark. The midterm was on Thursday and it kicked my ass. Hopefully it kicked everyone else's as well cause the curve? I'll be needing it. This is the first weekend in a LONG while that I wasn't staring down 10 hours of homework on Sunday and I very much enjoyed it.

My deck has decking AND stairs. Getting fancy, there. No railing or privacy screen yet but its coming.

The snow storm from the other week turned into a 70 degree GORGEOUS day for Halloween. Our party rocked, despite my cop out costume (Viper pilot, Battlestar Galactica). My ghosts are STILL glowing and waving in the wind above the new deck and all my little pumpkins are glowing.

Pony continued having allergy problems this autumn until we finally put her on horse antihistamines last week. Now she's doing MUCH better and is thoroughly enjoying all the apples from the nearby orchard. We've started doing walk to canter and canter to walk transitions. Marty has promised me long lining lessons this winter so Atisa at least will be ready for passage and piaffe, should I ever get all of my problems fixed.

Next week, requirement's review, design meetings, energy audit and then a trip back to the great Mt. Onion for IlluxCon. I think there's turkey in there somewhere.

I've just been given THE Software System Safety Handbook for this type of program. We're talking hundreds of pages of "thou shalt" goodness.

Funny thing is? The only part that is relevant to me is one section of one appendix, roughly 20 pages. And even then, I've been told, it should be taken more as a guideline, not a set of rules because everyone throws out the parts that are inconvenient for their particular project.

Sigh.

Family has returned to points south and everyone survived. I think three days of entertaining that particular set of family members is just about the right amount. We did the Duck Tour and wandered around the various battle fields in Concord and finished the visit by making lobsters for everyone who'd eat one. (Gram Does Not Do Seafood!) So, yeah, good visit.

Of course, I got no exercise while they were here and ended up deciding that, knee be damned, I was going mountain biking after they left. I'm tired of fricken rail trails.

I spent about two hours out at Great Brook Farm, plowing my way through the mud and trying to remember the proper timing required to bounce down a rocky hillside trail. Lets just say the bouncing skill did not return as quickly as I had hoped. I did the Acorn Trail and Acorn Trail North loops, then finished with the Lantern Loop, which is fairly flat. I figure when I can navigate Blueberry Hill with stopping/crashing/falling over, then I'll be ready to expand my hill trail set. I am now covered in bruises and I am sore everywhere. Hopefully I'll get to go back and try again sometime later this week.

My knee survived just fine. It even held up to playing a couple hours of sand volleyball last night. In fact, my knee feels better than my shoulder does. It was not happy with how much bike carrying I had to do (much of the trail I choose was underwater, so there was a lot of "bike on shoulder, now play leap frog" work on Sunday) and did not like spiking last night, not One Bit. I guess I just need to keep timing things such that I don't do too much of any one activity on the knee.


edit - My manager just stopped by to give me a bonus for the What Were We Thinking Project. Yay, bonus!

I don't know what I did but Murphy, he is pissed.

1) None of my tests this week could be called a success. Most were absolute failures. One or two, if you stretched the truth until it screamed and turned purple in the face, could at least be called useful.

2) Snow in April and me in a light weight fleece. Boston, I hear, is having a lovely spell of spring weather.

3) My main credit card account was closed on me. It worked yesterday. Today, nada. After about an hour on the phone with the nice automated system, I got a human and found out the account had been compromised in one of the recent grocery store credit fuckups. So now I may or may not have enough credit in my little backup card to cover a week at a decently nice hotel and a rental car. To make matters more fun, I'm supposed to drop the car off before the office opens on Saturday ... which means I'll spend tomorrow on the phone with Avis getting them to change which card they use.

4) I learn of the existence of these shoes ... http://www.dmusastore.com/pc-2190-11-3989-w.aspx . Trust me, the picture doesn't do them justice. They are all old lace and dusty roses. They are beautiful in a beat the shit of you with a delicate lace covered brass knuckle sort of way. Unfortunately, DM only does whole sizes and I am firmly a 7.5 in their sizing. I kept trying on the 7 & 8 and no, they just don't work. Its sad to see a grown woman cry over shoes that she doesn't even own.

5) While we'll probably get out early tomorrow due to lack of things to test, I can't find a reasonable flight home on Friday and will be stuck here until my scheduled departure time.

So Murphy, I'm listening. Your Law is all powerful. I haven't forgotten. Please forgive my crimes, whatever they may be, and don't work your Law on my return flight home. I don't want to be stuck in Houston ... really, I don't.

Work decided to thwart my grand schemes of rebellion by giving me a promotion and raise this year.

I am vastly amused at being a Senior Member of Technical Staff before I reach 30. I am also amused that the words "gutsy" and "strong willed" showed up in my written review. I'm sure both will bite me in the ass sometime in the future.

In other news, I got a 3rd Gen ipod nano for Christmas. I also got the latest two Dropkick Murphys CDs. I can now code to punk music played on bagpipes and accordions. Life is good.

65 hours this week. That's what my time card said. That was BEFORE I knew I couldn't leave work at noon today like I had planned. So an actual 68 hours at work.

That takes some doing, it does.

Some doing involves getting up before 5 AM and not getting home till way after dark and then working more at home.

I haven't pulled a stunt like this since the OS semester of college. With a little bit of luck, I won't do it again for another 8 year.

So burnt now ... talk to you all once my brain defries.

So there are no flights out of Denver that would get me back to Boston before Christmas Day. In desperation, my co-workers and I started hunting for a relatively near-by city that could get us a flight east. If you haven't looked at this storm, though, it pretty much runs from Texas to Canada, with a lovely mixture of thunderstorms, heavy rain and massive snow all along it. East and north were just as bad as here. West involves crossing the Rockies ... which currently have State Troopers on all the passes turning people back due to snow, avalanches and whatever other reasons the police choose. That's okay, though. I wasn't all that thrilled with the "drive to Vegas" plan anyways. We may call it the Donner Project but that doesn't mean we're quite ready to relive history yet.

Long story short, the only direction to drive was South. The only airport with flights to Boston within reasonable distance is, you guessed it, Albuquerque.

I keep waiting for my secretary to call me up saying "Sir, I got a very black cat, Friday the 13th feeling about this. The gods want you in Albuquerque."

Ah, well, here's hoping the roads open up sometime tomorrow.

... most days

Today, though, my flight leaves for Albuquerque at 11:20 AM. The Go-No Go decision deadline is 10:00AM. That's right, people, I will be sitting in the wonderous Boston International Airport waiting to find out if I have to fly out.

That's assuming I can even get to the airport this morning. Lets hope the Callahan Tunnel stays in one piece for the next few hours...