One More Monday Achieved

[howeird]

Short team meeting at work this morning, even with 15 minutes talking about one of the team's return from laser eye surgery. Boss had that done not too long ago, but it was a different procedure. Makes me happy I don't need glasses, probably never will. Cataracts will probably get me first. One of the few traits from Dad, who never needed glasses.

Got off track trying to set up a test case so I could write the step-by-step part for Automation to use. One setup works for two cases. I frankly don't think these two can be automated, but now they both have the setup requirements and about 20 steps, plus expected results. Kinda fun tests to run manually, I don't think they should be automated. The test verified that when the incoming TV program loses part of the signal (video, primary audio, secondary audio) what you see on your TV is what the cable company wants you to see. They have a choice of showing a backup program or a "slate" - that's color bars, or maybe a sign which says "technical difficulties, please don't throw your shoe at the cable box". If they lose video but not audio, it can put up a slate while still playing the audio.

An then Automation Guy asked me to see if I could reproduce something which he saw in his testing on the older machine, and I did. And when we asked Boss, he said he forgot to send The Memo. It's a new feature. Poorly implemented because it breaks a very popular procedure.

A few weeks ago I threw a USB bluetooth adapter on the floor thinking the cats would maybe bat it around a little. Kaan is on the floor next to me, having way too much fun with it. It;s the size and shape of a cheap thumb drive, but he can pick it up in his teeth and fling it across the room. He is currently staring at the stack of packing boxes which it is buried in between somewhere, planning his attack.

Late late lunch because of the "new feature". Went to a Korean buffet named China China. They have sushi. Just the basic ones, and they fall apart in your chopsticks, but the fish part is tasty. I don't need the rice, anyway. Lunch is only about $10, so I am fine with just having egg drop soup, one plate of buffet items and a bowl of chocolate soft serve. The calamari rings were especially good today, the spare ribs were especially hard and dry. As usual there was no eye candy at all.

Home, it was already dark by 5:30. Boo, hiss. Watched MNF until 7, a good game for a change, The Bears vs Green Bay. Halftime arrived a couple of minutes after 7, so I headed for Kaiser (the commuter lanes on the expressway open to everyone at 7) to pick up my 3 month's supply of high octane insulin, and a bottle of baby enteric aspirin. Lots of traffic on the roads, and a long slow line at the pharmacy. As I was leaving, I remembered I also wanted some alcohol swabs, but decided the line was too long and I'm not very close to running out of them, and I can probably get them as cheaply online.

Back home, watched the rest of the game with half an eye as I tackled one of the more difficult packing tasks. But first, there was this distinctive box, water-damaged white with silver diagonal bands, falling apart and bearing my Dad's familiar trademark of tons of clear tape, now yellowed with age but still sticking. This used to be the box in which my Bar Mitzvah photo album was stored, but I could see some 4x5s sticking out through the cracks, so I put the box on a tray and exhumed the contents. And broke down the box.

The 4x5s were about 200 sample B&W photos - all the shots the photographer had taken - which my folks used to choose which pictures to have in the album. The album is in pristine condition, though the majority of the people in it no longer are. Myself included. There also was a set of matted photos of each table, and the invitation list divided by table assignment, hand written by Mom, I think, with penciled in (by Dad, I think) notes when people bailed and assignments changed.

There are two photos in larger mattes which I think I asked my folks to have made in color. One is me in full gear in front of the altar, and the other is me & middle sister toasting each other with what look like full wine goblets. There were a lot of shtick photos like that in the 4x5 set.

I rubber banded the table pix and the 4x5s, and set everything back on the shelf minus the box, after seeing that they would easily fit into the medium sized boxes. What went into those instead was from the same shelf, all the vinyl 45s in one box, protected by a pair of pillows, and all the oversized LP and 78 albums, padded with bath towels and cutoffs. I'll put the standard sized 78s albums into a small (book sized) box.

So the big black rack in the livingroom is almost completely packed. There are still some loose, small framed photos and Dad's 8mm Bell & Howell camera. And I'll need something like a mirror pack sized box for the Thai temple rubbings, they are too tall for the medium sized boxes.

Maybe tomorrow I'll visit the movers and see what they have for sale. I apparently get a discount.

Speaking of movers, the one I tried to contact a week ago Saturday tried calling me at the office this morning. I may email him tomorrow evening, which would be a month before the move.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
???
Mover's?
*$s?