Much Done

Did lots of stuff at work.

Lunchtime went to UPS and shipped the photos to Chicon7. I expected to be shipping them with a return label, but the guy said (I know this is not UPS policy) that they only do return labels for 2nd day air ($175). So I shipped it plain vanilla for $35 including the box, and when I got home I logged into my UPS account and had them email a return label to the Art show coordinator ($23). I hate it when they get stupid. I had to wait for several hours for the tracking number to make it onto the system, because the receipt did not say how much the box weighed. It did give the dimensions, though. Since it was next door I went to Popeye's for lunch.

On the way back I stopped in at Keypoint CU and chose a PIN for my ATM card.

More work, automation guy said I had to do the whole matrix of tests for something I was working on, which means two days of fun.

Browsed around for places to move to, found three possibles, all in the same neighborhood. I'll check one out tomorrow.

Checked the rehearsal calendar, and they had changed it. I'm not called at all Mon-Tues. I thought it was a mistake, so called the SM and he said they decided not to block the Big Number(s) until they had the set built. Good plan, I think.

Called to close my Tech CU credit card, instead got the fraud dept. There was a hold on my card. Apparently while I was in Thailand someone at Walmart.com tried to pull two $100 charges from it. That's what they said, but I doubt it. She said it was too long a hold time for the line to close my account, but they were open late so try at night.

Home, ran Quicken, saw that the rent had not cleared till this morning, and it was from Keypoint, not TechCU. I know how that happened, so no worries.

Went to BASFA, I was not really into it tonight until the last minute, and managed to bribe my way to getting the rumor of the week. I would have reviewed my trip, and announced my musical, but it was too noisy, and too many other announcements & reviews.

Home, called TechCU credit card, closed it. My main reason is their online service sucks. You can only get a Quicken download after the monthly statement is sent. No nightly downloads, which is a major security issue for me.

I thought I had an ACH connection from TechCU checking to Keypoint, since that's how I initially funded the account, but that was a one-shot deal. So I cut a TechCU check for all but $100 and will deposit it tomorrow in Keypoint's ATM. We'll see if my PIN works.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Lightweight apartment hunt
Home with the feline

Busy but Boring

Work consisted of cleaning up an automation script which changes one or two configurations, reboots the machine, and checks that the reboot did not clobber the changes. On my machine there are 4³ combinations to test. A total of 64 reboots, at about 10 minutes per. I can do some web surfing while the machine is booting back up, but as soon as I see it come back it's hands-off, or I might skew the test.

So, lots of work, but boring.

Lunchtime I deposited a check from TechCU into Keypoint CU because neither of them had a way to do an ACH transfer in less than a week. Brain fart, I wrote the TechCU account number on the envelope. I expect they will ignore that and go with the ATM card imprint. We'll see. This was also a test of the Keypoint ATM PIN I created yesterday. It worked.

From there to look at an apartment which looked good on Craig's List. First thing I checked for was speed bumps. Minimal. Good. Looked at the patios, not cat-proof but easily made so. But some of them had sliding doors off their tacks. A closer look at the paint job shows they didn't scrape off the old blistered paint first. Very old complex, new leasing office. No one was home at 1:05, which is a FAIL. I walked around the office building to check out the landscaping. Once very pretty pond with a water spout in the center. No water spouting, pond is full but has been stagnant for a while. The back of the office building is the fitness center, and its double doors were wide open to whatever might fly in off the ugly pond.

Crossed this one off my list. The location is not so bad, even if it is too far from 101 it is  minute from shopping, and maybe 3 minutes from 237 or Central.

Back at the office, checked Craigs List some more, but it's to soon. Except for one place in MV next door to where I lived a LONG time ago, announcing newly remodeled units open in mid-August. I may check them out. If the low-rent apartment is still around the corner, that may be a show stopper.

Looked at the calendar again, decided Sept. 24-25 is the best move date. Gives me a week to deal with inspections at the current place.

Movers. I need to find movers. The one I had last time sent a crew of Russians who were not on the same wavelength as me.

And I should probably start making Goodwill and electronics recycling runs this week.

Back to work, one more 3-hour automation run. At least one more similar one to do tomorrow which won't take so long, I won't bore you with why.

Checked Keypoint, and the Paypal test deposits were there so I activated ACH for that on PPal. Now all the CU transitions are done. did I mention I was invited to apply for a 0% Capital One card? I was and I did last night, right after closing the TecCU credit card account. I should probably also close the Slate card (Chase) now that it is done giving me 0% and has been idle for a couple of months. 

After work I slogged up the expressway to my fave close-to-work Starbucks, which is where I am now.

Last night at BASFA I won a lovely dark green fleece blanket for $2 at the auction, expecting the bid to go higher, but okay with having it. I figured Domino would like it. I put it on the foot of the bed, and she was on it when I woke up this morning, and also a couple of times when I checked the furcams.  I think it's from the National Wildlife Federation. Jerry told me it was the same blanket the Humane Society sells.

So, that's it from here.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Computer History Museum talk on how they do Google Doodles. BTW if it's still 8/7, you should check it out and run the hurdles.