One More Time For Spook to be spooked

Slept okay, got up maybe 4 times, but took my time getting out of bed. Had to wait for a phone call from the latest mobile home repair company making sure I was home for a 10-noon estimator appointment. The call was set for 8-9. Since 8 is my usual shower time, I didn't have my usual shower.

AG called at 8:15, I told him I'd call back. Contractor call was at 8:25, I called AG back at 8:30. He's having thoughts of changing jobs. It's been a year, but this is all panic from having a steady job for 10 years and then suddenly being caught in a mass layoff. Sad part about the layoff is he unwittingly trained his replacement. Who is now moving back to India. Anyway, I pointed out that his new job is high paying, secure, and he's moving up in the department, and the only real issue is the commute, but he's okay with the long drive.

At 9:30 I went outside and passed the time by clipping herbs in the garden. All of them are getting a little out of hand. I harvested enough rosemary to fill half a kitchen trash bag, a quart bag of oregano and another half trash bag of mint. I was finishing that when the estimator arrived at about 10:30.

Good guy, articulate, aware that his big LA-based company gives higher estimates than the fly by nighters, and he knew the competition. What he told me about them matched what I'd found out online. Bottom line is I signed an estimate for $2250, to replace the carport posts and the kitchen lights. He said they would make a best effort to install the remote controlled light switch in the kitchen as well. I don't think they'll have any problem with that, I was in that switch box and all the connections are there. It just needs more finesse than I have. 10% deposit check printed and contracts signed.

Heading to work at 11-ish, it took almost an hour to get to the main building to pick up my next test unit (I checked work email from home, Boss had left a note). Today was the first of two breeders' days, people from all over Google were bringing their kids to work, and even though they were supposed to park by the amphitheater and take shuttles, they all wanted to park on campus. The underground garage was quadruple parked, the lot for the building across the street was full too. I was lucky to find a spot near the hole. Had to walk to the big building, it took till noon.

I met the guy who wrote the software I'm using, he and Boss and I had a nice chat. I told him about a glitch I'd seen, by the time I got back to the hole he had filed a bug about it. Saved me the trouble. Bug filing system is not kind to newbies.

Got the new unit set up and started the regular testing, it's a nice set top cylinder and it's for Latvia. Good news is that after the first screen, there's a setting to change to English.

Lunch was lasagna noodles & meat sauce bake, I added some cheddar. Famous Amos for dessert. Lots of visitors, mostly men, no lookers among the women. Or men for that matter.

Stuck around till 7, partly to make up for being late, but partly to finish the screen saver tests. Which go like this:
Set the screen saver to start in x minutes (the choices this time were 5, 10, 15, 30)
Hit play
wait 30 seconds
hit pause
wait x minutes
if the screen saver doesn't start, wait another 2 minutes just in case
record the results

In between tests, I took the required privacy/security training. Very amateur, written by college freshmen for high school sophomores. The sparse graphics were poorly done, and inconsistent. Some looked like Legos. None included photos. My job doesn't deal with any of the privacy or security issues they covered. The closest they came was to not talk about anything the company has in production except for what has officially been published. I don't work on the company's products, only on third party hardware. 

Went straight home, took back roads until Ellis and then the freeway, which was slower than it should have been in the right hand lane.
Miracle - the two festive stretches of potholes on the ramp from 101 to 237 have been oiled over. That's rural WA talk for a layer of asphalt. That needed doing a year ago.

Home, Spook was out and about, having recovered from one more intruder event.

Contractors did not call with the ETA for the work, but estimator said it might be tomorrow, so okay.

Dinner was another packet of Kao Mok Gai, this time I defrosted it some in the microwave then wokked it. The paper towel thing was a better solution - wok made the rice more soggy. Just for grins I stirred in some eggbeaters. That's more of a central/northern Thai thing, not strictly ethnic for KMG which is a southern dish.

Watched some NFL program on who the 49ers ought to draft. It's really great that finally they are hiring women broadcasters, but they are only hiring spokesmodels, none of these women have any actual sports knowledge to contribute, all the analysts are men. The women only act as announcers and moderators. I know there are sports savvy women out there, I know several. Many are theater friends who would be every bit as good in front of a camera as the spokesmodels. A couple of them are serious eye candy as well. ESPN is HQed in Bristol, CT, not a hotbed of sports fandom or feminism.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work. I have mine cut out for me
Home, do something to get the mint and rosemary into freezable form.

One More Time For Spook to be spooked

Slept okay, got up maybe 4 times, but took my time getting out of bed. Had to wait for a phone call from the latest mobile home repair company making sure I was home for a 10-noon estimator appointment. The call was set for 8-9. Since 8 is my usual shower time, I didn't have my usual shower.

AG called at 8:15, I told him I'd call back. Contractor call was at 8:25, I called AG back at 8:30. He's having thoughts of changing jobs. It's been a year, but this is all panic from having a steady job for 10 years and then suddenly being caught in a mass layoff. Sad part about the layoff is he unwittingly trained his replacement. Who is now moving back to India. Anyway, I pointed out that his new job is high paying, secure, and he's moving up in the department, and the only real issue is the commute, but he's okay with the long drive.

At 9:30 I went outside and passed the time by clipping herbs in the garden. All of them are getting a little out of hand. I harvested enough rosemary to fill half a kitchen trash bag, a quart bag of oregano and another half trash bag of mint. I was finishing that when the estimator arrived at about 10:30.

Good guy, articulate, aware that his big LA-based company gives higher estimates than the fly by nighters, and he knew the competition. What he told me about them matched what I'd found out online. Bottom line is I signed an estimate for $2250, to replace the carport posts and the kitchen lights. He said they would make a best effort to install the remote controlled light switch in the kitchen as well. I don't think they'll have any problem with that, I was in that switch box and all the connections are there. It just needs more finesse than I have. 10% deposit check printed and contracts signed.

Heading to work at 11-ish, it took almost an hour to get to the main building to pick up my next test unit (I checked work email from home, Boss had left a note). Today was the first of two breeders' days, people from all over Google were bringing their kids to work, and even though they were supposed to park by the amphitheater and take shuttles, they all wanted to park on campus. The underground garage was quadruple parked, the lot for the building across the street was full too. I was lucky to find a spot near the hole. Had to walk to the big building, it took till noon.

I met the guy who wrote the software I'm using, he and Boss and I had a nice chat. I told him about a glitch I'd seen, by the time I got back to the hole he had filed a bug about it. Saved me the trouble. Bug filing system is not kind to newbies.

Got the new unit set up and started the regular testing, it's a nice set top cylinder and it's for Latvia. Good news is that after the first screen, there's a setting to change to English.

Lunch was lasagna noodles & meat sauce bake, I added some cheddar. Famous Amos for dessert. Lots of visitors, mostly men, no lookers among the women. Or men for that matter.

Stuck around till 7, partly to make up for being late, but partly to finish the screen saver tests. Which go like this:
Set the screen saver to start in x minutes (the choices this time were 5, 10, 15, 30)
Hit play
wait 30 seconds
hit pause
wait x minutes
if the screen saver doesn't start, wait another 2 minutes just in case
record the results

In between tests, I took the required privacy/security training. Very amateur, written by college freshmen for high school sophomores. The sparse graphics were poorly done, and inconsistent. Some looked like Legos. None included photos. My job doesn't deal with any of the privacy or security issues they covered. The closest they came was to not talk about anything the company has in production except for what has officially been published. I don't work on the company's products, only on third party hardware. 

Went straight home, took back roads until Ellis and then the freeway, which was slower than it should have been in the right hand lane.
Miracle - the two festive stretches of potholes on the ramp from 101 to 237 have been oiled over. That's rural WA talk for a layer of asphalt. That needed doing a year ago.

Home, Spook was out and about, having recovered from one more intruder event.

Contractors did not call with the ETA for the work, but estimator said it might be tomorrow, so okay.

Dinner was another packet of Kao Mok Gai, this time I defrosted it some in the microwave then wokked it. The paper towel thing was a better solution - wok made the rice more soggy. Just for grins I stirred in some eggbeaters. That's more of a central/northern Thai thing, not strictly ethnic for KMG which is a southern dish.

Watched some NFL program on who the 49ers ought to draft. It's really great that finally they are hiring women broadcasters, but they are only hiring spokesmodels, none of these women have any actual sports knowledge to contribute, all the analysts are men. The women only act as announcers and moderators. I know there are sports savvy women out there, I know several. Many are theater friends who would be every bit as good in front of a camera as the spokesmodels. A couple of them are serious eye candy as well. ESPN is HQed in Bristol, CT, not a hotbed of sports fandom or feminism.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work. I have mine cut out for me
Home, do something to get the mint and rosemary into freezable form.