Thursday, May 31, 2001

Thursday, May 31, 2001

Another demo this morning. The client put me through some paces but overall seemed pleased with our software. Yippee, I can go home & see Galahad now.

I bought my new cellular phone today. Way too many choices out there. And, mine isn't even cellular. That was so last year. Mine is PCS, and I can hook it up to my laptop and dial out. How cool is that?!

Wednesday, May 30, 2001

Wednesday, May 30, 2001

I'm flying up to Orlando today. I'm not too pleased about it since I still have a migraine.

Ken Jenne, Broward County Sheriff, was on my plane. I can't believe how much security they have for him. I guess he's important, but who knew how much? He was filling out an application for a gubernatorial-appointed application.

My demo at the client went well. Everyone was very friendly. Now, on to my drive to Tampa..

Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Time to make an emergency visit to my chiropractor. Hopefully, he can fix my head!

Monday, May 28, 2001

Monday, May 28, 2001

It's lovely to have another day off. I almost took it in stride as just an extra weekend day except that Galahad happened to put on NPR. They had quite a show on. It made me contemplate just how fortunate I am to have not lived during a major war. Somehow, the Gulf War counts but doesn't really. Also, it made me silently thank all the men & women who did go off to fight for my country's sake.

I ended up getting a killer migraine. Maybe it was the pizza?

Sunday, May 27, 2001

Sunday, May 27, 2001

We're both pretty tired of lazing around all day. So, we tackled the yard. Galahad planted several palm trees that my brother had given us. He also moved some shrubbery around. It was kind of similar to rearranging the living room but a lot dirtier. The humidity was stifling at first, but then I re-acclimated.

Galahad's mother called this morning, distraught about the orchid plant we had given her for Mother's Day. Apparently someone had stolen it from her front porch. We went shopping to try to find another one, but they were all sold out. Hopefully, they will get some more in. How shitty is that to steal someone's Mother's Day present?! It was almost definitely an inside job since the plant wasn't easily spied from the street. So, the perpetrator knew the story behind the plant and how much she loved it. Rat Bastard!

Afterwards, we went to his parents' house to have dinner. On the way, we stopped at my brother's house to drop off some bones for his dogs. They were so excited to get those, & they made short work of them.

Saturday, May 26, 2001

Saturday, May 26, 2001

What a fabulous day! Galahad & I stayed in bed all day, being decadent & watching movies. We both caught up on a few hours of sleep and a few more movies. Plus, as a bonus, it rained most of the day. Boy, did we need it!

Friday, May 25, 2001

Friday, May 25, 2001

Woken up this morning at 4:30 by my pager and an unhappy client. The day didn't get a lot better until it was time to fly home. Then, I got my first class upgrade and had a mostly okay trip home to see my lovely Galahad. Shot some adrenaline through my system on the drive home. A car accident happened right in front of us on the freeway while we were traveling in excess of 65 mph in a light rain. Fortunately, Galahad has great reflexes & great karma. We missed the accident and all of the debris. It looked like the two cars were banged up but no serious injuries. Also, two other cars stopped as witnesses & to give assistance, so I was able to make my way home after a long day with a clear conscience.

Thursday, May 24, 2001

Thursday, May 24, 2001

Much better table today. I think I got some conceptual solidification out of this class. At least now I will understand my salespeople when they speak this seemingly mumbo-jumbo to me.

Went for sushi tonight at a former Sumo wrestler's restaurant in Issaquah. Excellent food. And, they had moochi!

Wednesday, May 23, 2001

Wednesday, May 23, 2001

Much better breakfast of smoke salmon & dill sauce on toast points.

Time for my Miller Heiman Conceptual Selling course. It was a little tricky to make it applicable to my job duties, but our instructor really tried to do just that. It was kind of difficult to go through this class with salespeople. Somehow, salespeople and techies don't mix really well in classroom settings.

At dinner with my fellow techies, I vowed to switch tables (& hence groups) tomorrow. Mine was not a good fit for me and not conducive to my learning.

Tuesday, May 22, 2001

Tuesday, May 22, 2001

Breakfast was weak at the hotel.

Jet lag is kicking my ass!

Went through some semi-educational meetings at my company and then on a "nature" hike through a questionable park for at least 4-5 miles, some of it up a hugely steep hill. Afterwards, we went downtown and wandered about aimlessly for a couple hours. My legs were burning by the end of the day. Dinner back at downtown again at some seafood touristy place. I brought back some leftovers to put in my hotel room refrigerator so I would have a decent breakfast tomorrow morning.

Monday, May 21, 2001

Monday, May 21, 2001

Very disappointed in last night's episode of the Sopranos. And, the X-Files finale was a little weak also.

Long flight from Ft Lauderdale to Dallas. No first class upgrade for me. I thought the flight from Dallas to Seattle would be just unbearable. But, I sat next to a very sweet older couple from Asheville, North Carolina. They were on their way to take a World Explorer cruise in Alaska. I had such an enjoyable time with them, and her especially, that I never even opened up my book. For those of you who don't know me, I am a book fanatic. I read when I have 10 extra minutes in between anything.

I had dinner with my brother & sister-in-law. It's been great seeing them so many times this year. Usually I see them once a year, if that much.

Sunday, May 20, 2001

Sunday, May 20, 2001

Getting ready for my trip to Seattle tomorrow. Catching up on laundry, mail, and yard work. We ended up cutting down a sizeable portion of one of our trees. Now, I'm all sweaty & sticky with sap. Ewwww!

Saturday, May 19, 2001

Saturday, May 19, 2001

Galahad & I slept in, watched some cartoons, and then went over to go out on his father's Donzi. That was lots of fun. We were home & back in bed by 8PM. That's what I call a perfect Saturday.

Friday, May 18, 2001

Friday, May 18, 2001

Yay! I figured out how to get my business Internet access software to work on Windows 2000. Actually, I had it installed just fine. It turns out that it needed me to enter my old password instead of the one I changed it to on my previous laptop. Weird, huh?

I went into my local office today to watch a friend & co-worker of mine get awarded the esteemed & prestigious President's Award by our esteemed & prestigious company president. My friend was just bursting with pride & happiness. He definitely deserved it, which is why I had written a long letter to our pres. to explain that.

After that, my manager and I went out for sushi so that he could give me my annual performance appraisal. It went very well except the money part. My company is notoriously cheap when it comes to merit raises.

Since my manager was in from out of town, I showed him the sights and took him to one of my favorite nearby parks --- the Arthur R Marshall National Wildlife Refuge. And, finally, we met up with Galahad and went out for sushi again.

Thursday, May 17, 2001

Thursday, May 17, 2001

I'm getting really frustrated with my DSL nonsense. Supposedly BellSouth is sending me another modem to try, but I've heard that line before. I also cannot seem to figure out how to install their software on my new laptop with Windows 2000. I called their tech support, but they don't support it. Nice, huh? Hopefully, I'll have Internet connectivity when I'm away in Seattle next week. Otherwise, no email for me for a week. Won't I be jonesing (any idea how that is spelled?)?

Wednesday, May 16, 2001

Wednesday, May 16, 2001

I'm searching for a whale-watching tour for my trip to Seattle next week. Look at this cool clip of an Orca breaching. Another site has a Live Orca Camera.

Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Tuesday, May, 15, 2001

I cried yesterday. The Mother's Day sadness finally hit me on the drive over to my father's new home with his new wife. I guess listening to Moby didn't help much either.

While leaving my dad's condo, a young man approached my sister-in-law and I and gave us invitations to a Dennis Rodman Birthday Bash at a local nightclub. Think we'll go?

Monday, May 14, 2001

Monday, May 14, 2001

Received my new laptop! I'm so excited. 'cuz I'm a supergeek, supergeek, supergeeky, yeow!

Sunday, May 13, 2001

Sunday, May 13, 2001

Today is a difficult day for me. My mother died a little over a year ago. So, mother's day sucks for me mostly. I do have Galahad's mother in my life, for which I am very thankful, but it still feels weird not to have my mom.

Saturday, May 12, 2001

Saturday, May 12, 2001

We stayed up way too late last night, but we had a grand time. My brother hung out with us after giving us some of his palm trees and a very LARGE terracotta pot. Now, we're just trying to recuperate our sleep deprivation.

Wednesday, May 9, 2001

Wednesday, May 9, 2001

My niece, who is down from college, came over today, and we had a chance to hang out & chitchat. I ended up having her, her boyfriend, their new puppy, my brother, his dog, and then later, my sister-in-law & my nephew, over to my house. For those of you who know me, this is a BIG deal for me. Plus, my brother's dog went swimming in my pool. I called Galahad at work (he usually works later than me) and let him know that I was having a party here without him. Poor thing, by the time he came home, almost everyone had left. He was a little disappointed and probably a little relieved. I think he was pretty exhausted at this point in the evening.

Even though my day started out badly (I woke up many times throughout the wee hours of the morning with a major migraine. I even dreamed about it. Yuck!), I had quite an enjoyable time today.

Tuesday, May 8, 2001

Tuesday, May 8, 2001

I'm a little fed up with being a human barometer these days. As happy as I am that we're getting some rain, my head is f**king killing me! Three doses later, I'm starting to feel better. And, I still have two bruises on my legs from my last two injections.

Time for a family dinner tonight. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I needed to be medicated tonight. Not that I don't like & get along with my family, but they can be difficult to cope with when we are all together. Sometimes, there is a weird dynamic created that disintegrates & feeds off that & then disintegrates further. It can become a vicious cycle. Tonight felt like one of those times. It reminded me of a novel by Terry Brooks that spoke of these nebulous creatures called feeders, which fed off of hostile human emotions & ambiance & provoked further unseen bad energy.

Monday, May 7, 2001

Monday, May 7, 2001

Can you believe that my foot got sunburned yesterday?!?! I don't think I've ever had a sunburned foot.

Sunday, May 6, 2001

Sunday, May 6, 2001

Today, we're going to the Air/Sea Show. Poor Galahad - he's really sore & fatigued from yesterday's stump removal ordeal. But, he did get the whole stump out.

The air show was absolutely worthwhile. What made it even better is that we viewed it from our friend's private beach instead of being thrust into the masses of humanity at the regular beach off of Sunrise Blvd. I put on SPF30 and then was able to have a big umbrella & lounge chairs to use. After a while, I actually got cold because of the wind.

The Navy F-14 Tomcat was by far my favorite --- because when the pilot flew down by us away from the crowds, he broke the sound barrier and did the huge ka-boom thingee. There was a little boy who got so frightened, he was bawling for at least 15 minutes. I felt pretty sorry for him. Actually, I was pretty startled as well. There was the loudest roar imaginable, and then I felt this explosion rock my body and my lounge chair. Galahad had to explain to me exactly what had happened and who with. He was my narrator for the entire event. Who needed to hear the official announcer? Galahad gave me all of the facts & figures I needed (and maybe even more than that) about all of the planes we saw. After 8 years, he still amazes me with what he knows. My friend walked over from his house and told us that all of his windows had rattled and he was certain that some people's windows must have broken from that. He also said that an ambulance went screaming down his street shortly afterwards. Someone's heart may not have been able to take that pressure/noise.

Saturday, May 5, 2001

Saturday, May 5, 2001

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

It was nice not to wake up with the birds so that I could legally & rightfully water my plants. Yesterday & the day before, we'd been deluged with 2-3 inches of much needed rain.

Cartoons are a repeat this morning, so Galahad is already outside surveying his domain. He looks so adorable when he does that. Today he decided to tackle the avocado stump removal. It's been over a year since he and his friend chopped down the rest of the tree. It had bad-tasting avocadoes on it, but I still had a hard time letting go.

Friday, May 4, 2001

Friday, May 4, 2001

Getting excited about trying to see the Air & Sea Show this weekend. Not sure where the best place is to watch it & avoid the crowds & avoid too much sun & not get too hot. Did I mention that I'm a princess? The sun avoidance is a result of my cancerous skin and should not be held against me for my princess requirements.

Thursday, May 3, 2001

Thursday, May 3, 2001



Yippee!!!! I finally got my DSL running & networked again. Wow, I was really going into withdrawal. BellSouth kept giving me such a run-around that I was determined to figure it out myself before I had to suffer further with any more of their senior techs. I deleted & re-installed my network & DSL modem about 5 times, in varying order. Works like a charm now. Of course, maybe the 5 or 6 times they reset stuff on their side did something, too. Somehow they lost connectivity to a whole batch of IP addresses on Monday, and now it became my problem when it knocked my network & DSL down.

Don't forget to vote for the SEXIEST GEEK ALIVE. I'm doing the whole girl-power thing & voting for a woman. I know that may sound wrong, but women have so much working against them in this industry (& many others) that for one to do as much as she's done, she has to be a supergeek. Someone should redo that Rick James song, 'Superfreak.' Where's Weird Al when you need him?

And, while you, my avid reader, are in a charitable mood, check out this site, Tennessee Class Project for the Holocaust, and do a good deed. (Tennessee & Holocaust seem like they shouldn't be in the same sentence together, huh?) Well, I have some paper clips to mail out. See ya'

Wednesday, May 2, 2001

Wednesday, May 2, 2001

That was fun. I just spent TWO hours on the phone with BellSouth's technical support for my DSL. And, of course, they swear everything is working just fine on their end. Well, maybe they could check into a few more things after I got cranky with them. I did have fun playing with my neighbor's beagle puppy. She is so cute. Since I had my headset phone on, I went outside & played with her in-between LaRon coming back to ask me to try something else.

Well, off to the pool store to get chlorine for the pool. It's starting to turn a slight shade of green. I just took Excedrin & am wired right now, so pool cleaning should give me something to do. Last night I was fine until about 10PM. Then, at 10:05, my head started hurting just a bit. By 10:25, I was in serious pain & had to give myself a shot. That came on fast! But, it meant rain for our drought-plagued land. It's kind of a curse being a human barometer. At least I didn't have to get up early to water our plants this morning.

More time wasted on the phone with BellSouth. What a pain in my ass! It's been escalated so many times, until they came back and tried to tell me it was my problem. It's hard to defend when I'm using Windows ME. But, it was working not too long ago, and I didn't change anything except for what they told me to. They just want to be able to say it's not their problem. Great customer service, huh?

Tuesday, May 1, 2001

Tuesday, May 1, 2001


Man, I've been working like a dog today. Thank goodness I finally got off my lazy butt & bought a headset telephone. My ear is feeling fine right now instead of being bright red & achy from 4 hours of phone fun with clients. I have a stack of mail sitting on my entry table looking at me with accusing bills. Maybe I'll tackle that pile tomorrow.