Run Silent, Run Shallow

Made huge but slow progress at work, resurrected my original test machine, despite a broken internet widget. Ran a test which has been on the books for months, just as I was leaving at 6:30, the engineer showed the changes I made to test his fix somehow disappeared. Mystery to be solved tomorrow. He's one of my favorite ones to work with, but come to think of it we have no bad apples on that team.

( TMI boring process stuff behind the cut )

Had a long chat with Automation guy. Just a chat. Sometimes he needs something to wake him up so he comes over and chats with me.

Called the former apartment customer service center to find out why there was a $500+ charge on my final bill which said "accelerated rent" when I had pre-paid the week of rent I owed for October, and moved out a week early. We walked through the numbers on the bill, and it turns out the "accelerated rent" is an accounting software bug, the amount of the check they sent is the deposit minus the cleaning charges. It looks like maybe someone is doing some embezzling at the head office. Bottom line is I got the $$ I was entitled to, almost 2 weeks before I was entitled to it. Yay!

Still no word from the sleep clinic on what all I need to do to be ready on the 30th.

So, the apartment fixit guy called me this morning, the leak in the small bathroom was not from the sink, it was from the air conditioner condensation line, which was somehow mysteriously loosened and several feet from where it should have been. There is a very loud blower drying out the space under the sink, and they replaced the TP that was soaked.

I was so engrossed in work I didn't even notice it was lunch time till 1:20. Went to the nearest burger joint and had the nearest burger.

After work I went to Costco for gas and sundries. The line for gas took half an hour, people were being slow. It is the only place in town with gas for <$4/gal. $3.99.9. Somehow I spent 90 minutes in the store wheeling the cart around. I got everything on my list except sauerkraut (they don't sell it) and a couple of things which made their way onto the list as I saw them.
The list:
- kleenex in small boxes
- TP
- napkins
- Dolmathes
- Hot dogs, and if I found ones I liked, buns
- Bananas
Added:
- Bathroom sized dixie cups
- BBQ beef ribs package
- Pot roast package
- Two packages of half a duck each
- Lox

Home, surprised they had left an 8-pack of TP. I was expecting two or maybe 4. They did not replace the Kleenex, which was also soaked, so I bagged that and hauled it to the dumpster.

Re-arranged the freezer and unloaded all the stuff. Couldn't fit the three matzoh balls so I made soup, which I put in the microwave, then went onto the computer and forgot all about for 2 hours. Re-discovered it when I opened the door to put in the spare ribs. Had both for dinner. Dessert was frozen Tollhouse cookies.

My routine on FB these days has been to hide almost all the political posts/pictures/links. Once in a while one of my buttons will be pushed and I will point out to my Obamaniac friends that ( rant under the cut )

Your choice is between The Master and a Dalek.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Something with eye candy
Maybe write a review of Allegiance

Much Adon't about something

Slept real well, did not wake up till the lights came on at 7. The "alarm" eases in too, but it's on the internet radio, and it's KOMO, Seattle's news station, which doesn't help clear the morning disorientation. My phone was blinking, reminding me there was an online corporate meeting at 8. My plan was to watch via VPN from home, but after my morning stuff I got dressed anyway.

Could not get connected to my work machine, something screwy with the new wireless setup which kept shutting off the router as soon as VPN connected. So I drive to work and got there at 8:30, and the Q&A session had already started. Odd, because this was billed as a 2-hour meeting. It was the usual non-answers. A little after noon the replay was available, and it was half an hour of my life I will never get back.

The rest of the morning was spent in much more constructive activity, I solved the mystery of the disappearing files from last night, it seems a feature of the machine is to clean up the files on every reboot. So I had to not reboot after I applied the patch. As soon as I got that going, the new patch crashed the machine a few times. I helped the engineer duplicate my test setup, and loaned him my machine. He had it fixed in less than an hour, so I re-tested. Yup, working. Now we need to wait for the next release where his code is in as a regular part of the product.

Lunch was at Barn Thai, a nice hole in the wall place in an obscure shopping plaza. Very slow service today, but while I was waiting for my change, I went over to the wall and tried to read the gold inscription around a pair of 50-Baht bills in a fancy frame showing heads an tails. The one staff member who always speaks to me in Thai came over and I said the writing was too small, what did it say? She said it was a 50-Baht bill. I asked her what made it special, and she said it was very old. But looking at it, it could not have been more than 30 years old, judging by the age of the King in the picture. It looked more like it was a special edition. Next time I'll bring my ancient 100-Baht bill and impress her. It's at least twice as old as that 50.

Which reminds me, I need to look up glassine envelopes on the web. It's about time I tried again to put some of my foreign bills on display.

The afternoon at work was spent creating test cases for a new feature which may or may not make it into the release we are working on. There are more to write, but I need to have a working model of the feature before I can write the cases, since we have no detailed spec for them yet.

By the time I got home, the Giants were ahead of the Tigers 4-0, so I mostly ignored the game. I tuned in for the start of the 9th, but shut it off when the manager made what IMHO was a stupid pitching change, which resulted in a 2-run homer. I didn't want to see if the home team would blow a 4-point lead. They didn't, maybe because I wasn't paying them no nevermind.

I am impressed by the Giants this October. It is a team's team. Everyone on the squad has made a positive difference. It was good to see the fat kid go 4-4 with three of those home runs. And Timmy has come back from the dead. Funny to hear the fans shouting "Barry, Barry" again, for a pitcher. A pitcher who hit an RBI. There is a rumor that at one point the manager smiled. The game still bores me to death, but the highlights are a lot of fun, as are the many friends of mine who are fans.

With the game in the bag, I Took The Bull By The Horns™ finally, went out to the patio storage room, removed almost everything and then:
- Cleared a space in the livingroom near the bedroom door
- Moved the big storage rack into that space
- Moved a wide, 3-drawer plastic cabinet full of parental snapshots & postcards into the space alongside the rack
- Lugged four very heavy boxes from the storage room and office into the rack area
- Re-arranged the remaining stuff in the storage room (luggage, plastic tubs of Stuff, musical instruments, spare cat carrier, etc.) so it is easier to get to
-- this included bringing the big tub with my big scripts and posters and the little tub with my little scripts, programs and posters near the front
- Placed two boxes of framed photos and art in there where I can pull them out later. They belong on top of the rack, but I need ballast first

Dinner was half a roast duck with orange sauce, iced jasmine tea, reheated frozen tollhouse cookies.

Someone de-friended me here after I went all Le chevalier des miroirs on his ass on Twitter. Looks like he unfollowed and blocked me on Twitter and FB too. BFD, not someone who makes any impact on my life, and I'm  sure I make even less on his.  

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Home, unpack the photo records, photo albums and big mostly framed family photos onto the rack
Consider installing my New Orleans bead art and framed Thai temple rubbings on the walls of the livingroom