Who Knew?

The highlight of my day, and maybe week, was the visit from my little sister, who flew into SJC on her way to a gardening workshop tomorrow in Santa Cruz. She arrived at my work at noon, but everyone on my team had gone to lunch. I gave her a tour of my cubicle and the lab, showed her a couple of video magic tricks, then took her to my favorite little Thai place for lunch (she loved it) and then to my apartment where Domino got more than enough affection to last her.

And I gave her a small bag of goodies, which she got a kick out of. ( Read more... )

Back to work, where she had a chance to chat with my boss and the Israeli IT guy who sits in the next office, at the same time - open doors and we were right outside in the hallway. IT guy was thrilled when Sis said she had been to Israel a couple of times. She had some interesting answers to his questions about places there she had been. She wrapped up with a joke, which I think I may have told her:

( Read more... )

She is a very people person, and the fact that she is an engineer and understands what kind of work we do, she had some good conversations when I took her around to meet the team members. I had always thought of her as shy, but she talked a blue streak, and is very much a people person, it turns out. I'd never seen her interact with strangers before - she has a gift for it.

At about 3 I sent her on her way south, with a couple of hints to add to the directions she already had. She texted at about 5 that she got there okay. And emailed a photo later taken from the pier. Overcast, but not raining.

1-on-1 with the boss, he said he heard the team liked my sister, when can she start work? She probably would enjoy working there, but not living someplace so non-rural. Got some things to do from boss, which may help fill some of the time till my next formal assignment starts in May.

Was very tired, not enough sleep the last few nights (stayed up too late). Home, tried to crash but the first nap was only half an hour. Next nap took me to 9 pm.

Put a pizza in the oven while making an SD card with both the 2011 Garmin map and my personal points of interest on it. The map takes up 2GB, so I needed a 4GB card, which is SDHC. I'm not sure if the Kenwood can read that kind of card. Will see in the morning.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
3:30 - head for the Domain Hotel with my photos
Hang whichever ones they have space for, and attend the 6 pm reception.

Friday and I Forgot About The Donuts

Got to work about 10 minutes after the donuts were gone. Work was mostly research today.

No lunch break, left at 3:30 to go to the Domain Hotel and help set up for the art show at Contact. Chatted with a couple of the artists, walked to KFC for dinner, then back to the art show where there was supposed to be a reception but wasn't. I think a grand total of a dozen people walked through. There was enough room for me to hang all 15 of the photos I'd prepared. Also had a stack of 2012 calendars to give away, only one was left by the time we closed up at 9.

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Office Depot called, apparently the laptop I'd dropped off at the Sunnyvale store to be picked up never was picked up. When they called the store (I was on hold - I should have been part of the call) she came back on the line to tell me the store manager says that model was out of stock. IDIOT. I straightened her out, and she said she would refer the case to a higher authority. A few hours later the higher authority called back, said the package would be picked up on Monday, and I would get my refund when it arrived.

These people are complete idiots, I will not be buying anything online from them again.

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Also got a reply from the cretin at Garmin. I asked how I could use my POI data and my new map at the same time. Instead, he emailed me a cut and paste canned response to "how do I make a POI data SD card?" This time I replied in 30 pt. type, very simple words with key phrases bold and underlined.

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Sis had a great time at her workshop in SCruz. I think the plan is to meet up in the morning before her 1 pm flight back to SEA. No idea why she isn't staying the weekend.

Also, the photo shoot I was signed up for tomorrow night was postponed till May. Organizer claimed it was due to photog cancellations and not enough attendees, but looking at the meetup.com event listings, all but one of the three sessions was sold out, and that one only had 2 out of 10 spots open. Probably the organizer wasn't able to book a venue (it was still TBA on the listings).

Plans for tomorrow:
Meet up with sister
Attend some of Contact