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Jessica from Florida who works in north San Jose has called me several times in the past month, the first time she had a job opening which came up with my name recommended for it, but it was way off base. The other times I think she just wanted to chat. Today she invited me to come in for an in-person interview, we agreed on 4 pm, I forgot how horrible traffic would be - took me half an hour to go a couple of miles. 7 mph average I think.

Got there, found her building, went to the 6th floor and found her door.  No sign identifying the company, and I surprised them. Two guys and her, all on their phones. I think I was supposed to check in on the 5th floor. Anyway, she found us a room to chat in, we talked for an hour about all kinds of things. She's kind of an airhead, but easy to talk with. Went away with zero accomplished on the job front.


Morning was the usual except I made a small souffle with best of the egg, swiss cheese and whipping cream. And black olive slices.

Drank a lot of Thai tea, mostly from the DeDe packet mix.

Delivered was litterbox cartridges, need to change Spook's litterbox tomorrow. Mail arrived late, in it was a small box with another brand of Thai tea k-cups. As awful as the first batch. I'll stick to the packets.

But I should get back to cold drinks.

Watched the NFL draft on Tivo about half an hour after it started, at 7:30 paused it to stream on Twitch. This time I had a lot of visitors, several from other streams I follow. Far flung conversations. Only two trolls and the bot handled them.

Back to the draft. Very annoyed that the undersized QB everyone said would be #1 and go to Arizona actually did so. AZ has a perfectly good QB in Josh Rosen, he just needs a better team around him. This new shrimp won't do any better. I have a feeling AZ just didn't want a Jewish QB. It will be interesting to see where he is traded to. The 9ers made a so-so choice in pick #2, choosing a defensive end when what they need most IMHO is a center or another O-line heavyweight. The QBs get tagged too much.

I may tune in again tomorrow. It'll be on Tivo, anyhow.

PTI did not like the way the Sharks won their 7-game playoff series. The officials made a bad call which helped lead to a huge scoring jag. But they also agreed that Vegas choked.

Dinner was mac & turkey franks & cheese. Mochi for dessert.

Plans for tomorrow:
Safeway - need ice cream sandwiches & popsicles & marinated artichoke hearts. Turkey bologna. HB eggs.
Maybe Target Starbucks with the laptop? Nah, their wi-fi sucks.
Change the litterbox cartridge
5 pm phone call from cardiologist. Uploaded the pacemaker data this morning.
Stream at 7 ?
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My body was not built for 7,000 feet above sea level. I knew this from Denvention, which is only a mile high, but since then I have not gotten any younger. Shortness of breath after only walking a few feet, worse on an uphill grade. If I sit down I am not eager to stand back up, and will daydream in between. Dehydrated (yes, I carry water) which is not good because the CHF calls for less water than the average citizen. Even though I have been speed eating peanut M&Ms and had regular meals, and not injecting much insulin, my Hgl has been low. Did not bring my BP meter.

And then there's the weather. Tuesday was overcast, so photos of the parts of the rim we saw on the bus tour were not the best. But it was warm, spring-summer temps. The wind gusts were sometimes violent and always cold, but I was not surprised, being at the top of that vast canyon.

So of course for my free day yesterday I woke to half an inch of snow on the ground, and temps cold enough to keep it there.

The park buses are free, run every 15-20 minutes, and there are three routes out of 5 which hit different viewpoints.

The bus from the hotel to the general store was first, I bought immodium liquid and tablets, Afrin, diet Coke in bottles, two bananas, two HB eggs and chocolate dipped mini donuts.

Crossed the street - it was longer than it sounds - to catch the bus back to the hotel, medicate myself and drop off the food.

Back on the bus, this time to the bus station by the visitor's center. First bus Orange #1, up to a trailhead and then to Piper Point, where I got off and took photos. Minor breaks in the clouds, but we had snow flurries which got worse until the bus came.

I'd had enough for the morning, caught the Blue bus back to the hotel, had lunch in the main building.

The immodium was working, so blue bus to the visitor's center, looked around, then Orange #2 to Mather Point and I got off at the next stop, which has a geological museum with huge windows overlooking the canyon. Very cold and windy outside, but clouds were moving so I was outside taking pix till the bus came. Got some far-away photos of an idiot jumping for the camera, too near the edge, as the wind gusted.

Blue bus back to the hotel, Amtrak Vacations was able to upgrade my Flagstaff-LA to roomette, for basically full price minus senior discount. Worth it.

In the main building, dinner was the driest smoked pork loin ever, but the mashed and cole slaw were great. Apple pie was still partly frozen. I looked into the pizza pub, but they only sold 16" whole pizzas, 12"gluten free (no thanks) and slices.

The hotel room was very noisy. People upstairs and next door sounded like they were using treadmills. Or roller blades. I watched some TV, there was no guide, and the channels were all mixed around. Found local news/weather.

Restless night. Woke up at 11:30 pm for water and Afrin. Kept having the same dream, something about Facebook friends from high school, which reminded me of what should have been my First Time, Lois took us out to the back of a field, and pretended sleep expecting me to take the hint. I had no idea. Knew nothing about sex. Lucid dreaming, I navigated to the time we made up for that.

But up almost every hour, same dreams.

Plans for Thursday:
Pack up
Check out by 11
Write this
Bus to train depot by 3
3:30 train to Wilson
7:30 shuttle to Flagstaff
Amtrak to LA
howeird: (Headshot)
Up at 6:30, this standard time thing is not kicking in quite yet. Got caught up on amazon and on FB so was half an hour late to work. I streamed my ride, and several people watched, but I am done with that because cell service is so intermittent that huge chunks of my ride are skipped, and the audio goes in and out. But I am stuck with the unlimited plan till next week. Verizon only lets you change plans once a month. Fair enuf.

No tests to run, but I had to explain to Tall Manager that the tests he was asking me to run I had run and documented Monday, and he might consider actually reading the bug he was linking to. It took way too long for him to get it.

NP and NNP came in dressed in very beautiful & ornate saris, headgear and all, they looked stunning, and were handing out Diwali sweets. Yum.

Lunch was a ham salad from the fridge, and mango upside down cake. I had brought a Safeway chef salad, but the ham salad is equivalent and free.

No call from the body shop.

Texted Eddie, the second Adecco rep, who now works elsewhere, but got no answer. Typical Eddie. Candace answered my email. She had noticed me back on FB.

Put the headphones on to listen to some Twitch streamers, but ran the video on an HDR TV for Blade Runner and the latest Mad Max. Both had outstanding cinematography.

Plugged in the car at 4:45, left at 6, Spot was in the front window when I pulled in but was in the carport window by the time I parked. He is fast. I think he is part tachyons.

I had left the guest room door open, Spook is in the under the futon. I'll shut the door when she comes out. I'm having the junk guys haul away the futon & TV & tv stand on Saturday.

Watched PTI and Below Deck. The crew is a hot mess. I am hoping that Cap fires the boson and promotes #2 to that slot. #3 and #4 will be fine with boson gone. And I think chief stew will send #3 home and hire someone who doesn't cry and panic all the time.

Dinner was wheat thins and goat milk cheeses followed by turkey summer sausage which went into the disposal after two pieces, and then turkey baloney which is an old staple, and a pickle. Mango upside down cake for desert.

Streaming from the PC as I write this, no issues with signal at home, using the internet connection not Verizon cell data.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work-free work
Body shop???
Look for a new job (cont)
Home
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Up on time, out on time, tried to stream my ride to work but it locked up a minute or two in. Samsung phone did that several times since I started using it to stream, which is rude because I got it because it is supposedly built for streaming. The Pixel 2 never did that, although it did overheat once and shut itself off when my stream settings were way too high.

So, the S9 is going back to Amazon. Gonna use USPS because the closest of the 6,457 available lockers is downtown San Jose. Major WTF. Someone is not doing their job of collecting from the lockers. Or the database is hosed.

Blame [livejournal.com profile] susandennis for pointing out the generous Pixel 2 buyback program, which brings the Pixel3 price down to about the same as the S9. Strange but true, I can get mine Saturday with the free delivery/setup help. Nov 5 at the earliest on free standard shipping, self setup. In order to do that setup thing, I needed to put my Pixel back - I'd wiped it. The Google phone swap app is not as thorough as the Samsung one, but it is good enough. Anyway, thanks, Susan.

One thing which surprised me is the barometer app worked on the Pixel, using the phone's sensor. Did not know it had one.

So tomorrow I'll stream my ride to work on the Pixel 2, and we'll see.

Work today was a pain. The test servers were intermittent again, and just when they got solid, the internet connection in the lab went down. The big lab in the back of the building also went down, but they are on a different circuit, which it took tech support a while to figure out. Once they did, mine was fixed in 10 minutes. And another 20 for the server connection to see my router. Big lab was still offline when I went home.

Lunch was a Safeway Asian Chicken salad. Quite a construction project. Almond bits, tiny mandarin orange slices, the obligatory dried noodles, chicken cubes, special sauce. Strawberries after. And baklava.

Testing was interrupted when bozomanager wanted three tests re-run which NP had allegedly marked as failed in the prior release. Except she hadn't. And they still failed. For good reasons. Tall manager was confused, he asked how they passed when NP ran them, but they didn't.

Boss showed me an OLED TV from LG which looks stunning, and she wants me to have it in the lab for show. Apparently someone ordered one and got two, so she grabbed it.

While I was out there she went over her roadmap with me & NP and she suddenly realized I won't be around in mid-December. :-(

Home at 5:30, stream froze before I got 3 blocks, so I pulled into the cinema parking lot to reboot the phone and start again, but the two people who had been watching never returned. The rest of the ride was recorded.

Home, delivered was a case for the S9. It's pretty, I may sell it on eBay.

Transferred all the stuff from the S9 to the 2XL, made a chopped liver & onions sandwich for dinner, dark chocolate covered tangerine slices for dessert. Watched PTI and Below Deck. The chief stewardess and her #1 steward, whom I think are both gay, are an item. The crazy #3 stewardess has a crush on the incompetent boson, who is thinking with his dick. I expect him to be fired in a charter or two. Meanwhile we are waiting for the huge hunk #3 crew stud and the #2 crew gal who is of amazonian proportions (except she still has both breasts) to find each other.


I can't believe Gruden traded away Amari Cooper.
Re-programmed the food tower to do 3 feedings, total of 5 cups a day I think. Spook still gets a small pile of treats because she asks for them. Comes right out and sits facing me and meows. Rubs her head against the container when I take the lid off. Spot comes running, but he's just being a brat. If I put some down for him he walks away.

Need to get a plumber to fix the master toilet. It keeps stopping up, and probably needs both a long snake and a new flushing mechanism which stores more water in the tank.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Maybe plug the car in at Pear Ave and go to their cafeteria for the eye candy. Then Hedda Gabler at The Pear theater. I doubt that Ibsen will fill the house on a Thursday.
Home
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Been listening to the Bing Crosby station on Pandora. They play a lot of Dean Martin.
Up early this morning when I didn't have to. 4 am. I felt like I'd slept all night. Back to sleep, up at 7:15, waited for the alarm before pushing Spot off the bed and taking care of business. Spot likes to lie alongside me, purring up a storm, between me and the bathroom.

Watched part of Shark Tank in the bedroom, because I could. And because I had time to kill.

9 am, poured Spook into the carrier, but the gate came off so I had to collect her from the cat tree and do it again. At the vet a few minutes early for the 9:30 appointment.  A tech helped her out of the carrier (we took the top off)and then went to get the vet. Spook hid under the couch. Vet is a totally hot cute petite woman, amazing eyes. Married, of course. She collected Spook from the corner she was curled up against and weighed her (she has gained a little weight) took her temp and stethoscoped her. The red on the tip of Spook's nose she thought was either due to allergies or impending infection, so she gave me anti-bacterial wipes (which Spook is not letting me near enough to use) and allergy pills (which I will not even try to use). Tech came back and took cat backstage for shots. The poop samples I brought were useless fossils - the crystal litter dries them out and she poops small.

Took her home, she tried to bust out of the cage before I got the gate open. But she was totally calm and silent on the ride home. In a flash she was in a bedroom closet.

Next stop, Kaiser, and since I had not eaten yet they were able to run all the tests, not just the A1C. Results are in, kidneys are better, liver is worse, A1C is up again. Surprised about the first 2, but not the 3rd.

To work, NP gave me the sound bar to test, Boss said it was hotter than all my other projects, which were all borked anyway.

So I spent the day doing a boatload of Netflix audio tests. It was not pretty. Audio artifacts so bad and varied I made videos. Tomorrow I need to pair those with either bug reports or similar. Have to ask Boss what she wants.

Lunch was beef portabella and strawberries.

Had to park way over on the side of the building. Due to the errands, it needed charging, but when I went outside at 4 and 4:30 all the chargers were taken. Finally one freed up a little after 5.

Stayed till 6:30, I think. Some to let the car charge and some to recover from all the work. I hate testing junk, especially when it's supposed to be ready to ship.

Streamed my ride home, it came out well now that I've tweaked the rez and fps. And set Twitch to save the Streamlabs broadcasts. My page is here.

Went online to check, and another window showed Thursday Night Football, which I missed. Watched PTI and Below Deck. Mike and Tony are getting louder in their old age. Steve Young was their 5-minute guest, he is great to have on. On the yacht, somehow the crew has been made up of 4 total jerks. No, 3 total jerks and one fairly balanced guy who is #2 deckhand. I would fire the crew chief and the motor mouth woman. We'll see.

Dinner was a can of tuna and a can of sardines. Sardines have gotten huge since I was a kid. Also warmed up a criossant. Dessert was a single scoop of chocolate chunk ice cream.

Spot loved the remains in the tuna can. Spook is out of sorts from the vaccinations, having trouble climbing so she is parked on the floor or on the window sill. She is growling at Spot from about 3x as far away as usual.

Delivered was a couple of boxes of Kind bars (a week early), three small honeysuckle plants, and a polyester Hawaiian shirt which I may send back. I found a couple of cotton ones online which are on their way.

Also delivered to my bank was my Social Security dole. And in email a message that my refinancing is complete, and they will send me my final papers Real Soon Now.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Home
Set up the Samsung phone
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The ant traps greatly reduced the number of those tiny ants on the kitchen floor. They had been attracted to a couple of chicken cartilage pieces I'd left for the cats, who apparently were not interested.

Took my time getting lunch packed and my butt out the door. Took back roads to the Ellis 101 junction, which may have saved me a lot of stoppage because there wasn't a single car behind me as far as I could see, and only one black Scion or something else aerodynamically stoopid about 1/4 mile ahead of me almost stopped, trying to decide if he didn't get the memo and should take the next exit. He slowed down in the lane I wanted to be in, I passed him at 65mph.

But then reality bit, and it took 6 minutes to get off at my exit.

Had all my snacks in the cooler, so straight to the Hole.

After reading a bunch of email, plowed through the rest of my test cases, they all passed, and NP said hers did too. Done by 1 pm, project done. We hope. Will know Monday.

Lunch was beef broccoli steamer & strawberries. Out of diet coke, so had a diet mountain dew.

back to the Hole, took a photo of the not running HVAC machine outside and of my thermometer inside which read 79.9°. Apparently I was late coming back because some folks from away wanted to count their TVs in my room, the manager with them forgot to bring the lock combo, and they didn't want to wait around in the heat & humidity. Next time, tell me, okay? Added the images to the facilities ticket.

Turns out we were not done, I needed to re-run a test so I could tell Them in which step it failed. And take a video.

Boss was bothering me about the move, which is not till next week. Pissed me off because testing is the priority. I did not need the interruptions.

Did very little useful for the final hour. No Asia Twerp meeting, it's his Saturday.

Home, lotsa traffic.

Took a lie-down, made corn on the cob and reheated some baked chicken for dinner. Watched PTI and some of Below Deck.

Sent my BP and weight data to new cardiologist, She wants more blood, but I may not have time to leave work.

Wanted to get to the massage place around 9 to get my preferred person. She was busy, so was #2, and #3, who was taking out the garbage as I walked in, was it. Very light massage, not even close to one of the best. Almost adequate. I think I'll give that place a rest for a while.

Stopped off at Arco for 5 gallons. $18+. :-(

One thing I hate about the Ford is it has one of those cap-less gas tanks, which never makes a tight enough seal to use the automatic shutoff gadget.

Home, Spook was trying to come out to the litterbox and the food/water, Spot was harassing her. I sprayed him a few times, and he knows I'm mad at him, but he keeps doing it.

Watched the rest of Below Deck, and some of Happy Hour, because I needed ice cream. And greevin**. And a Kind bar. 

**The goyishe web sites call it greebens, but in our Ashkenazi household it was greevin. In Yiddish/Hebrew a B without a dot inside it is a V. In modern Hebrew the B is always a B, they don't write the dots. Except for children. And the Torah. The Torah scroll also has musical notations above the letters, which are not printed in the Torah books.

Ran a load of laundry - undies. Delivered today was the long-awaited pack of 6 more of those. Shirts & socks are in the washer now, headed for the dryer soon.

Ran a Photoshop image to scale of how my photos will fit on the two 3x4 boards I paid for, it looks like at most 18 will fit if they are all landscape. If I put in the two portraits that knocks off 1.

Ants are all gone.

Plans for tomorrow:
Nothing.
Relax
Maybe go to the park
Maybe shop at 99 Ranch for Longans.
Catch up on Tivo

In Sync

Jun. 19th, 2018 11:32 pm
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Up at 6:30, in the shower before 7:30. Slept well, thanks to no Spot fighting with his toys in the bed. Shower had hot water, after getting dressed I spent some time with Spot in the guest room. Spook was in the kitchen waiting for treats but ran away to the top of the tree when I poured some out for her.

Packed lunch, took back roads, which was a mistake - sat through three long traffic light changes because greedy drivers kept blocking the intersections. Amazon traffic was even worse.

As I pulled into work, AG called, so we chatted for a while. Our ex boss apparently is still unemployed, but from what AG asked him, I think he is volunteering at a local school. The layoff hit him hard, he had just bought a house in the middle of nowhere, which would be a long commute, but doable on the ACE train. And he had finished building a second home in the middle of nowhere in NE Thailand.

AG ought to be looking at Amazon jobs to transfer to, he keeps complaining about his micro-manager. Outside of Amazon he could have his pick, but he doesn't like taking the risk.

Core sampling continued in front of The Hole, and interns continued to be silly in the break room.

Wrapped up the Chromecast-ish device, started re-testing a couple of things on the mini. Got a clue from the HK engineer on how to pair the remote, which had been holding up everything.

Lunch was beef & multi-grain rice, and strawberries. Lots of intern eye candy, but no short shorts today.

Reading Hugo nominees I bailed on one which annoyed the hell out of me with a bad grammar choice. The author was trying to show that in the story's world, before puberty a child has no sex. He and she are not appropriate pronouns. So "they" was chosen, and in my lexicon, "they" is plural, and using it confused me, especially when we are introduced to twins who do everything together. The author kept using "they" instead of the child's name, and awkwardly. Author ought to have taken a hint from Dark Tower and invented a singular neuter pronoun. Anyhow, the writing was kind of plodding anyway. So I'm now reading Scalzi's entry, which shows what a master of the craft can do. He has come a long way from taping bacon to his cat.

Back to the Hole, finished the re-test and treaded water by watching live feeds from three tornado chasers on Twitch.

email from Cardiologist, he saw the EKG, wants me to add half a pill 2x a day to the new one.

3:30 to Hole #2, synced with Boss, who finally fixed some bug issues I needed access to, once I got her to shut up and listen. She has a way of putting 2+2 to get 22. And then defending her math @ 100 wpm.

Back the the Hole, finally had access to the tree for the Chromecast-ish device, and sent the list of bugs to the owner. He's in Korea.

After work, BB&B to exchange the soda stream cartridge & get cola & orange syrup. And a lime press.Then to OSH and bought a couple of wild roses, a pair of lantana and a Coreopsis.

Home, delivered was the NBA t-shirt, but not the drink holders. T-shirt was in the mailbox. Hidden on the front porch was the insulin pens. Spook was in the office window to greet me.

Dinner was a couple of steamed pork buns and some ha gow. Cantaloupe for dessert.

PTI was pre-empted for some brainless sports talk, so I watched the entire Bachelorette episode. She finally showed the door to the jerk who said he collects perfume for a living. She did not ditch chicken suit guy. Or the phony cheater guy. They make her give too many roses. By now I think she has it narrowed down to two or three guys. Chicken boy and male model are only there to feud with each other and create drama. The man she gave the first impression rose to looks like a fine match. I personally am rooting for the stunt man, the only one with long hair. His hair is nicer than hers, which is probably a show stopper.

Backup completed.

Let Spot out, and he managed to stay near me and away from Spook for about 20 minutes, but then he attacked, so I tossed him back into the guest room.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Nails? Writer's meetup?
Plant roses?
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Up on time, out of bed late. Have to quit looking at the tablet in the morning.

But it does come in handy. Have now read three Hugo nominated novelettes. The one on 3D printed steaks is still winning. One about children of water and wood is all about magic and mostly the author pulls the rules out of a sphincter. Another is a spin-off from a previous novel - a particularly gruesome one. Not too jazzed with the current story, about the world's oldest starship maintenance bot.

Email from Ford with a heads-up on what to do at the end of my lease. Which isn't until next February.

Traffic to work was the usual, took back roads. No bicycles, which is odd for a summer day.

Nothing to do at work, so I disconnected the last European unit and fired back up James Bond. Watched tornado chasers on Twitch, and set a YouTube Live channel to start when Trump meets Kim, but as it turned out that didn't happen until after the end of my shift.

Lunch was Saffron Road Beef Bulgogi. Excellent, except for it being a small portion. Grapes & cantaloupe.

Home, traffic wasn't the usual cluster. I have taken to going down the Hole #2 road, now that there's a traffic light at Shoreline. Much safer than Charleston or Amphitheater because there is no traffic from across Shoreline. And by that time people have juggled into the right lane while I want the left lane.

Spot was waiting on the laundry counter, yelling at me as usual. Spook was on the tall cat tree, waiting for treats. Changed the laundry room litterbox, need to do the same in the guest room but am out of cartridges. Ordered more.

No deliveries, the only thing in the mailbox was the Rolling Stone, which, like all the print magazines these days, is a throw-away. Except National Geographic, which still feels like its old self.

Watered the new plants and the Lilies of the Nile in the front garden, which are blooming. The Russian sage on the carport strip is covered with honeybees. Yay! Some bumble bees too.

I need to take a rake to the front garden and clear out the rest of the bee's friend and poppies.

Took a nap, woke up aching everywhere. :-(
May need to change my sleep number setting, but I don't know which direction.

Watched the 6 o'clock news on Tivo, saw The Handshake™. Whether or not anything comes out of the talks, this is epic.

The Bachelorette is recording. Probably will watch in fits & starts.

Spot is still rushing Spook, but Spook is less daunted now. I ordered a pair pheromone diffusers (piano room & guest room) to see if that helps.

Had another high pulse episode. Tomorrow I'll ping Cardiologist about the new meds. Haven't heard from him, it's been a week since I had the EKG he wanted. Typical.

Been listening to KIXI (Seattle oldies station) on Sonos. It was on Mom & Dad's radio almost 24/7, except when dad tuned into his favorite investment show. I could do without the traffic reports.

Dinner was baked pork buns & mixed veggies. Chocolate mochi for dessert. Added 4 Tylenol Migraine to my evening meds.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Home
Haircut?
Rake time?
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Up in time to leave early. Into the mailbox: 23&me, Alzheimer's study DNA sample & 2018 coin set for sis.

Traffic was miserable. Almost didn't make it from the commuter lane to my exit 6 lanes away.

Grabbed two bananas because they were almost as small as plantains, HB egg, cheese, cola, coconut water.

Greeted online by manager's notes on the tests I wasn't quite done running. Ran the last ones, then started filing bugs per his comments. Two of them were stumpers for the engineers next door whose machine it is.

In between bug filing, new kid in Hole #2 asked for help setting up her server to run the automated tests. Worked on that on and off all day via hangouts app, made the mistake of assuming she knew linux, since she has a CS degree. But no, she had no idea how to edit a file in vim, and to top it off, when we started, Boss had not given her admin permissions, so once she edited, she couldn't save.

I'm pretty sure I can fix it, and was planning to do that tomorrow afternoon when I went over for sync, but she's out the rest of the week.

Lunch was cold tuna salad and warm rice. Strawberries for dessert.

email from cardiologist. He finally saw what I was talking about re: very high pulse rates. The plan is for me to get a baseline EKG tomorrow in Mountain View, start stronger beta blocker meds, then another EKG in 3 days.  

Near the end of the day head Taiwanese engineer came over to grab a board from Jame Bond which wasn't working for me, then came back to find out how to launch the app which controls the board. Turns out if the board is not working, the app won't launch. But there's a work-around which he now knows.

After work, to UPS store in MV, dropped off the echo to return it. Already have the refund email.

Home.
Replacement BofA credit card arrived. Called to authorize it, and they sent me to a rep instead of the automated routine. Stupid because it was my Apple account, not the card which was hacked. Took way too long, but got it done. Come November I won't be using it anymore as the 0% interest deal becomes 17%.

Let Spot out. He is yelling a lot. And being a brat. Spook is doing a good job repelling his bullying. So far. If he doesn't behave himself I'll lock him up again.

Cooked up two onions and the remaining half of cooked chicken skins, in the schmaltz. Now have the carbonized greeben I was aiming for. Dee-licious!

Dinner was the second Korean ribs serving, this one not as much meat as the first. Still yummy. A slice of whole wheat bread with it. Ngaw for dessert.

No PTI, I know not why. Watched the news. Lots of time devoted to The Catch™. For sad reasons.

Took the sourdough lump out of the fridge, added 2 cups of flour and some salt and mixed it by hand. Way sticky/heavy, lots of it had to be washed off my hands. Will let it rest on the counter, covered, overnight. The recipe says at least 5 hours. Odd that there is no oil in the recipe.

Plans for tomorrow:
Vote - possibly only for issues because Top 2 voting is a sham, designed to keep out third parties and lock in the most corrupt candidates.
Check the bread dough
Work
Kaiser - EKG
Work
Home
work the bread dough, maybe bake it
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Up on time for a change, out by 8:45, so the commuter lane was useful (it stops being one at 9).

Nothing useful to do again, but there was a new version of YouTube on the reference STB so I exercised that by playing Thailand beach videos. And some of  my old haunts like Ekamai in Bangkok where I used to work and there is now a children's science museum which has expanded since I last visited. And Haad Yai night market, which is now under a roof instead of open to the sky. Ko Chang now has a road.

Lunch was Marsala fish, and mixed fruit. I have gained 10 lbs in the last month, I need to not eat throughout the day.

3:30, Hole #2, both Boss and U were late. U gave me the device she had been testing, I gave her the spare NDA-protected device. Boss suggested I test YouTube with the diagnostics turned on. Tomorrow I get to tell Boss that there are issues.

5:30, went to get my nails done, but was 15 minutes early so went to Safeway, and asked if they sold the chicken skins from the huge pile of skinned chicken parts in the butcher display. No, they don't.

Got my nails done. She clipped off the ingrown piece of thumb nail, so it doesn't hurt any more. Got salmon color which looks almost flesh tone.

Next stop was Piazza's in Palo Alto, their butcher said normally people show up early in the day for chicken skin, but he ripped some off a few thighs and "sold" me half a pound for 16 cents.

Home, cooked up an onion and some garlic, and the two remaining beef patties.  Poured shredded cheddar on two pieces of rye bread and one patty each. Open face. This time the burgers were well done, the way I like them.  Almond chocolate lactaid ice cream for dessert.

Pulse went high again, as I was watching the news. I wrote a note to the cardiologist last night, no response. Typical.

No word from Roku either, so I'm not getting that job.

Spot has been a terror. He managed to knock things off the top, middle and bottom shelves of the guest room linen rack. Spook spent most of the day out of sight.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
May be called to Hole 2 for a really stupid menial project with U
Home
Pizza night with theater friends
howeird: (Default)

Was the first one to the Hole this morning, after grabbing an egg and some soft drinks.

Again, nothing to work on so I tested Twitch, and monitored the news to find out if Reuben Foster was going to be back on the team. Turns out the ex who recanted her domestic violence charges against him had a previous conviction for lying about the same thing, different boyfriend, a few years ago.

Lunch was a "power bowl" of falafel and tahini, from the same folks who make the steamer bowls. It tasted fine but the quality/size was not good. Mixed fruit for dessert.

I spent a lot of the day bit by bit making the new tablet match the old one. Android does a great job of restoring automatically all the apps and most of the logins.

Headed out at 5:30, none of the Chinese engineers were in, so I locked up. Two who did not have the key came back as I got to my car, so I let them in. Without a key, though, they can't lock up.

Home, nothing delivered. Put the lunchbox away, put on a jacket & hat and walked to the community center for bingo. First session the cards I picked up were tiny and did not clear correctly after a round. I exchanged them for more functional cards at halftime.

Almost all the rounds were won by three people in the row in front of me. And to add insult to injury, they also won all the raffles. Excrement occurs. At least I'm only out $10.

Home, whipped up a batch of onions and mushrooms in one skillet while I used the newest grill to heat up two hamburger patties. Added garden grown oregano and rosemary to the onions, poured the mix over the burgers which were slapped onto a slice of sourdough. Not being much of a hamburger chef, they were a bit too rare for my taste, but not rare enough to put them back on the grill. Lactaid almond-chocolate ice cream with maraschino cherries for dessert.

Watched PTI and the news. Spot sat on my lap for some of it while Spook hid under the futon across the house.

**Foster was invited back to the team for tomorrow's practice, with the usual caveats. The ex incident was not his first rodeo.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Call for a nail appointment
3:30 Hole #2 sync with boss and U. Maybe I'll get a device to work on.
Nails
Visit local high class market to see about uncooked chicken skin.
Home

howeird: (Default)
Up on time, but took my time getting on the road. Traffic was a mess.

Flashed the test phone with today's build and ran the tests, and sent the results to the managers.

Lunch was Beef merlot steamer & grapes.

3:30 drove to Hole #2, synced with Boss and "U", the new person. She is stuck in the open plan area, shoulder to shoulder with two other people. Not a good situation.

Had a nice long chat, covered a lot of stuff, but bottom line is U is still training on the STB which I want to be testing, so I went back without any work for tomorrow.

Home, traffic was very slow. Took the long back road route at the IFH.

Delivered was the new tablet, which I plugged in and set up, and let it slurp up stuff from the cloud which my now-old tablet had put there. I also need to transfer the SD card.

Spot jumped up onto my lap and curled up in the crook of my arm, purring, for about half an hour. Then he attacked Spook, who was on the small cat tree behind me.

Re-thought my audition piece. My Way is what got me my first musical role, so it has sentimental value, but the more I thought about it, the less I liked it as an audition piece. At auditions you want something which only needs one verse to show off your skilz, and My Way needs the whole 4 minutes to get there. So I went to what I used for my last audition, In My Own Lifetime, from what may be the most obscure Broadway show ever, The Rothchilds. It's a great show, many tuneful and memorable songs, and the only reason it is rarely done is it is about a greedy banking family. Pretty much Fiddler on the Cash. It calls for 7 Type A personalities, plus Mom, who wishes it would stop, but puts up with being rich, somehow.
Here's the song from the OBC album:



That's Hal Linden, believe it or not. Sammy Davis Jr. covered it, but he doesn't quite give it enough depth.

After auditions, I went to Safeway and stocked up on cut fruit, tangerines, milk, and 4 kinds of ice cream. Breyer's was on sale 2-for-1 so I got 2 lactose-free chocolate. And one almond chocolate Lactaid (also on sale) and chocolate mochi (three brands to choose from).

And a combo of chicken drumsticks and thighs with lots of skin, because I want to make schmaltz and greeben. Most of their chicken is skinless. Wish they sold just the skin. I wonder if the Mexican market does.

Also bought some hamburger patties to go with the steak sauce, because steak prices were astronomical.

Dinner was congee with sausage bits and egg whites and pepper. I ate way too much. And finished way too much chocolate ice cream. Watched PTI and the news. And about 1/4 of the latest Below Decks. A loser -- the original yacht (based in the Bahamas) was damaged in a hurricane, the new one is in the Mediterranean, and its captain is below par. And the crew even moreso. And don't even ask about the guests.

Golden State blew tonight's game, so now they are 2-2 in the series. Bummer.

Plans for tomorrow:
Boring day at work
If I'm not called back for The Wiz, which I probably won't be, it's bingo night at the park.
And I need to set up the new tablet.
howeird: (Default)
Got out late, AG phoned, stuck in traffic - which was unusually slow for even a Monday. Arrived at the hole just in time to check email and flash today's not quite the right release onto the test phone. Roku manager phoned at 10, we talked for half an hour. He did not seem very enthusiastic. I did not hear back from the recruiter, so probably not a "yes".

OTOH, my former Modis rep messaged asking for a resume, his new company does have a vendor relationship with Google, so that may save me.

Boss changed our sync to her building, which is a small PIA for me, but much smaller than her bailing every time. We'll see how that works tomorrow. I expect to meet Uma, the new slave.

Meanwhile, one of the manufacturers found a bug during their testing, and Boss asked me to try to reproduce it. I sort of did, but not the way they had tested it, so I started again after lunch. It seems to happen after 9 hours, so I'll know tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, after avoiding GOT, this test played all the gory scenes on the first test. The second test was a loop of many different resolutions, one of them was the last half of the 2016 NBA finals game 7. Gee thanks.

But the way they made that test run meant I couldn't finish testing the phone.

Lunch was Saffron Road Bi Bim Bop, which was pretty good but kind of small. Grapes for dessert. I need to make a supermarket stop for fruit. There was a visit by a group of women who were relatively attractive from the neck up, but had ginormous asses.

Out at 5:30, traffic was not bad. Grocery Outlet had strawberries on sale, and canned pears in light syrup. I also got some more lunch frozen meals. And frozen mixed tropical fruit, but that's not good for lunches. Too messy. And two bags of Jasmine rice.  And other stuff.

Home, delivered was something for the medical equipment which may make it usable. Will try it tonight.

Spent some time digging through my music library, decided on Sinatra's version of My Way for tomorrow's audition. Looking at the info sheet online, pit singer is probably the only part for me, they plan on being as black as possible on stage. And as dance-crazy as possible.

Spook came out a bit, but Spot is still being a jerk.

Last night's rice was mushy, good for soup/congee but not much else so I used the right proportions this time and made a better batch, but the cooker still didn't do the best job.

Dinner was another 1/4 trout, with sauteed mushrooms and green sweet pepper and minced garlic over it. Yummy. Mochi for dessert.

Watched PTI and the news.

Did not get a call from Cardiology, the system does not work.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work - check the test status, maybe finish the phone tests
Sync @ Hole #2
Home
8 pm audition at the park where the Sunnyvale photo club meets.
Home, snack.
howeird: (Headshot)
Up with the alarm, but it was a fraught night, had to throw Spot out of the bedroom when he wouldn't stop attacking my back with his claws. Let him back in a couple of hours later, but tossed him out again soon. 4 am let him back in during a pit stop and he behaved himself until he got bored and went elsewhere.

Out early, packed a light lunch just in case Eddie canceled. AG phoned as I was getting on the freeway, we had a good chat. He decided not to continue interviewing with Google because Amazon has him working too hard. Sheesh.

Grabbed breakfast, checked the automation test, it was still running on an android phone. No other work to do, not a word from Boss. Odd, she usually apologizes for not showing up.

Noon, met Eddie, my second former contract rep, for lunch at the lovely bistro on the edge of Shoreline Lake. Talked about everything, caught him up on my medical marathon, and he caught me up on his job change. He has landed in a smaller place with more responsibility. He will look into having his company hijack me, but stay in the same job.

Back at the Hole, watched a lot of TV and YouTube, looking for 420 Festival reports, but they were few and not very well done. No live streams, which surprised me.

As I was watching, all kinds of noises came out of the test phone, even though I had muted it, the test un-mutes to test the alarms and touchpad sounds. Annoying.

Made up for the boredom by shopping. Windshield wiper blades - this time OEM so they will fit - a flow-through car wash mop & soap because at $26 a car wash it will pay for itself, and the drought is over. Re-stocked Kind bars because the break room is being stingy with them. And a set of folding plates and bowls meant for camping but good for when I bring homemade food for lunch.

Left at 5:30, that test will run for at least another day, maybe 2.

Lots of traffic. Home at about 6. Nothing delivered and only junk mail.

My back is hurting a lot, taking Tylenol more than I want to. Meat loaf on sourdough for dinner, chocolate ice cream with newly re-discovered maraschino cherries (they were in the back of the fridge).  Watched the latest episode of One Strange Rock. They keep being excellent. And the 6 o'clock news had two sand-ins anchoring. Both were okay but not spokesmodels, and probably not far out of their internships. They had an OK 420 festival segment, but only OK because the festival had closed down at 4:30 and they only had one brief shot of the peak when 30,000 people were making artificial fog. Thankfully, the feds stayed away.

Spot spent much of that splayed across the right arm of the recliner.

He managed a well-timed #2, which I double-bagged and set on the laundry room counter with his adoption paperwork. His carrier is in the livingroom with Zoe's blanket inside. Later, he was totally miffed to see his poop missing from the litterbox.
TMI about feline poop habits )

The new office lamps are very bright, so I've aimed them at the walls and ceiling. Much better.

I have a new go-to Sonos station, 1940's Radio, from the UK, on TuneIn. https://tunein.com/radio/1940s-Radio-s284305/
I test the TuneIn app on all the Android boxes at work. But I usually play Thai and Hebrew stations.

Plans for tomorrow:
Up on time
Pack Spot into the carrier. 10 am vet appointment
Home, re-pot the orchid and water all the plants
7:30 pm The Pear for the 8 pm improv show

Doldrums

Apr. 16th, 2018 08:51 pm
howeird: (Default)
Y'all know my morning routine. This morning add cutting two big slices of meatloaf for lunch. Overnight in the fridge and it solided up, and is now the consistency of actual meat loaf. A last minute addition to the mix was sliced baby carrots, and since they went in raw they add a lovely crunch.

Late getting out the door, blame the massive hail storm. Apparently the earthquake hit about the same time as I reached the hole. I didn't feel it, but it was small <4. 1989 and 1965 I was in 7+ ones. Those I felt.

Again nothing to do, so watched a lot of YouTube.

Message from a consulting firm's recruiter for a job which sounds like mine. Turns out is was mine. Sort of. Boss is hiring someone to help me set up an automation rig. She doesn't get it that I know how to do that myself. And have plenty of time.

Home, raining again, no BASFA for me, didn't want to mess with traffic.

Dinner was lamb steak with mushrooms & onions, my last batch. Vanilla lactose free ice cream by Bryers, sprinkles only, did not want to mess with walnuts or chocolate syrup. Tasted fine. But not as fine as mint chocolate chip or chocolate.

Hooked up the first RAID drive to the Star-tech housing, because the PC did not recognize it connected to the plain USB cable. Initialized it and am formatting it, full format which was a mistake because it will be going all night.

Binge watched Long Island Medium again, until it started repeating last night's. Tried to play last night's Lost Lives, but it had recorded LIM instead. Boo Hiss.

Spot has been a PIA tonight. He tried to climb up the tree Spook was on, and though they both made fight noises, he backed off when I admonished him. I gave Spook a meat stick for her staunch defensive moves. Spot has found yet another pair of rubber bands.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Probably go to Hole #2 with a bricked device. And see if a big TV from before jury duty is ready to test.
Home
howeird: (Default)
so this will be short. but first, natal day salutations to [livejournal.com profile] susandennis, one of the few people who still posts regularly here. Many happy laps & innings!
mostly normal morning except I forgot to take the gauze & tape dressing off the pacemaker wound after showering.

Out at 8:45, break room at 9, where  one of the Chinese engineers followed me back to the Hole because he didn't have a key.

As I unlocked the door, phone rang, doctor's assistant asking if I could come in at 10 instead of 4:15. OK, just enough time to have a banana and message boss, who forgot to leave a unit for me to work on.

Doctor did a full exam, EKG, 4 vials of blood drawn in the lab.

Back to the hole, Boss asks me to come Hole#2 to get two machines. I do. Back in the Hole, one machine is the one I had been working on when I left last Monday. I was not amused.

Spent the rest of the day finishing the tests. It was not pretty. I would not recommend this box.

Next stop, nail parlor. re-did the silver. She said next time should be blue.

Safeway, got all I need for the week and more.

Home, 4 trips to bring stuff in because caution about pacemaker wound.

Theo had been out and about during the day but wouldn't come out for me. Left him to himself, turned the light out again.

Faebooked. Looked at webcams, Theo was out by the food & water so I turned the light on and went in.

Had to lure him out of the closet, but after a bit he smelled Spook at the door, so I opened it a crack. After a while Spook hissed and both of them backed off.

Unloaded all the food first.

Hgl almost 300. Decided to shoot up & skip dinner.

My hands are not cooperating and I keep hitting the wrong mouse button.

Time for bed
Plans for tomorrow:
work
maybe starbucks
another try at Spook-Theo detente
howeird: (Default)
Up an hour and a half before the alarm, back to sleep after a pit stop. Then up with the alarm, Spook helped. She stuck around a bit longer than usual. Usual morning routine, figured out that it's easier to put on the gauze dressing if I put the first piece of tape on it before slapping it onto my chest.

Found Theo in the closet - one more cat who can open closet doors, lured him out for a bit. He's fine in the room if I'm there.

My sister says he is a Savanna, which is sort of a diluted Bengal. 


Packed lunch & a banana just in case. On the road by 8:45, at the break room before 9. Lots of bananas, grabbed a tangerine and an egg and a couple of cheese rounds.

Got into the Hole, and was shocked to see the machine I had been working on was gone, so was the next one in line. And there was a big box with (probably) a speaker in it by the window from Crazy Dave's Music. And an empty coffee cup on my desk.

Turns out Boss had given the machines to some person in her office, and the China manager left the coffee and the box.

But now I had no work to do. Boss sent a bug my way to troubleshoot, but it was a huge failure - couldn't get past the first step in the steps to reproduce. It did give me work for a few hours, though.

Lunch at 1, the expected crowd had gone elsewhere, but it was still kind of crowded with people working. And waiting for Uber. Beef teriyaki steamer bowl.

Back to the Hole for just long enough to wrap up. Boss said she will bring me more things to test tomorrow.

3 pm, off to the cardiology department. They scanned the pacemaker, tweaked some things just to make sure it responded, and declared it 100% functional, but not working very hard because it didn't have to. Head tech said I can go back to wearing my cell phone in my left shirt pocket, the pacemaker is well shielded against that. But he agreed that the stun gun is out, and I should try not to get tazed.

Cardiologist made a quick visit (not one of the two I saw in the hospital), removed the dressing, declared the site okay. Apparently I don't need the dressing anymore.

Went to the cafe, but it was mostly closed. However, I did see this:

This is at the Kaiser Permanente facility.

Home, with an ATM stop along the way.

Gave Spook some treats, made a pit stop and paid Theo a visit. He was in the closet again, but came out when I opened the closet door. He did a #1 in the small litterbox, then after some thought, some vocalization, and a 180° turn, he stood straight up with his front paws on the front of the plastic tub and did a #2 standing up. There wasn't enough gravel to cover it, so I took the tub outside, scraped the contents into a garbage bag, and went outside with them. While I was thinking of it, I changed Spook's litterbox. Threw the bag & box in the garbage, and washed out the tub. Got the spare electric litterbox from the shed.

Spook watched from the window.

Back inside, I set up the litterbox in Theo's room, and sat with him for a while. Turned off the light when I left.

Facebooked, watched PTI and the news. Dinner was stuffed cabbage, a croissant and some brownie pieces.

One more Theo session, turned the light back on, he came out and made a lot of progress. He finally figured out the water fountain, ate some more kibble, but he is ignoring the treats and the meat stick. I tossed a yarn ball, but he wasn't interested. And he ignored the scratching post, preferring the carpet. It's a cheap no-shag thing, and he has very strong claws. He jumped up on the futon next to me when I signaled, and purred away. I turned the light back off on my way out. The webcams have IR, and I saw him out & about. Right now he's on the sill looking out the window.

Spook parked outside the door for some of that, and when I came out I let her sniff my hand. She looked apprehensive.

Middle sister emailed for a cardio update, so I called her. Turns out it was my 2nd niece who made me a great uncle for the 28th time. Her 8th. Big sister's 26th grand child. Middle sister has 2.

In the mail was my official "your rent goes up in August" notice. It's built into the lease.

I finally gave up on Michael W. Twitty's The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South. He's just not a very good writer, and this book is mostly him showing off his vast research into his many roots. A lot of the food names he claims are from African languages are actually French. I was expecting recipes, but there are only a couple of those, and they are more parodies than recipes. He mostly just goes on a tear listing ingredients, dozens at a crack.

At the suggestion of a sci-fi musical friend, I am now reading Octavia Butler's Seed trilogy. Excellent writing, so much better to be reading a story instead of random lists.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
PCP is scheduled to phone at 10:30
Home? Starbucks?
howeird: (Default)
Maybe because I've switched to caffeine free coke. Been sleeping well, not having much trouble falling asleep.

No Spook this morning. She decided to guard the front porch instead.

Took my time getting out of bed, but still got to work on time. There were bananas and tangerines. No munchies, though. People standing up eating cereal. I don't get that. Cereal or standing while eating when there are seats available.

Went to the Hole just long enough to have breakfast and start one more round of re-tes. Grabbed my kit and drove to Hole #2, did not see a big TV of the right brand, so went upstairs in search of that TV's manager. Not there. Boss said he was on the bus from SF, would arrive in 25 minutes or so. She messaged him, he had forgotten to have the TV set up. Boss suggested it would be this afternoon. She would have him ping me.

Back to the Hole, spent a couple of hours collecting data from the re-runs and putting it into a color coded spreadsheet which showed clearly that the test rig was inconsistent.


Not a peep from TV manager. Just after 5 I checked the jury web site, and I am called for 8:30 tomorrow morning in San Jose. Bummed because it's the 2nd furthest from me of all the courts, and parking is in a garage on the wrong side of a split street. And I need to go to be early to wake up in time.

Home, still scattering showers around. Saw a nice rainbow when I went out to the car. Traffic was a mess in the usual place, but light the rest of the way. 101 was not moving at all so it was back roads all the way.

Spook was waiting for me. She does this all the time now, leaves whatever perch she is on, and parks herself in front of the door when she hears the car drive up. Lately she has been on the countertop window sill looking out. Zoe taught her that trick - before Zoe, Spook had no idea she could jump that high.



Webcam photos I took from outside.

At a loss for what to make for dinner. Found some long lost white fish in the fridge freezer, and stuffed grape leaves in the big freezer. Had to defrost the latter before heating them up. The fish was inedible, way too salty, which is how it ended up not being eaten in the first place. The grape leaves did not fare do well being nuked, but they tasted swell. The 12 I didn't consume are in the fridge, thawing the rest of the way. they are fine at room temp.

Watched PTI, and Graham Norton. This episode had that amazing bearded lady singing This Is Me. I'll plop that in here.

Enjoy!
A friend who moved from here to LA to be in Ghostbusters II and has not gotten much work since tells me this resonates with her. She's tiny and while I think she's beautiful, the camera doesn't. Some day, maybe, her ship will come in. Meanwhile another local girl who took the stage route has just landed a leading role in a major sitcom, after several Broadway leading roles. 

Plans for tomorrow:
Jury duty
Whatever
 
howeird: (Default)
Though I did watch my dear friend Nancie on Hallmark Channel making a strawberry rhubarb pie. Can't say I like rhubarb, though.

Woke up at 6-ish, went back to sleep till almost 8. No rush, car appointment was at 10, and even though I was en route at 9:30, I was still 25 minutes early and parked behind the theater, listening to the radio until 9:45. I figured being 10 minutes early was okay.

Sunnyvale Ford has a seriously whacked service department entrance. And they made it even more whacked. Used to be two lanes in and one lane out, with angled parking from the street halfway to the building on the "out" direction, but angled in. Now the rightmost lane is for oil changes, so there's only one in lane for service.

Rep didn't get to me till 10:10, he understood the issue - needed to take the car and the charger, because the car's computer has info on the charger, but the charger is dumb.

Set up the PC in the waiting room, and after a while needed to make a pit stop, but the men's room was closed for cleaning. They must train their cleaning people the way they train the rest of the service staff - it took 20 minutes.

Call from the loan officer, they insist on pay stubs. And they insist that pay stubs exist. Morning call to my contract rep went unanswered.

Got back from the loo in time to check the jury duty page - I was not called for today.

Soon the Ford rep found me, they agreed it was a bum charger, and brought the car around with a new one in the back seat.

To work, arrived around 11:15, but oddly was the first person in the building. There was a message from the lead engineer of the gang next door, sent from off-campus, asking if I was there, from an hour before. I answered, but he said the problem was solved.

Did an online search and found my pay stubs on the contract company's parent company's web site. Weird, after the big hullabaloo they made about being separate now. Emailed the last 3 home.

Checked the automation results, and they were inconsistent, which made Boss want way more data than I could get in a day. Not happy because for two weeks I had nothing to do, and now I have a backlog of 6 machines. I'd rather be testing than collecting stats.

Message from another manager that there is a huge TV for me to test in Hole#2, so I'll go over there tomorrow with my kit, after grabbing breakfast. Hole #2 has a markedly under-supplied break room. It does have a padded stage and a stripper pole. That must count for something.

All of my day today was re-running a set of 12 tests which failed during automation testing, and tomorrow I need to parse those test by test to see how many times each one passed/failed. We're trying to show Big Nameless Company how unreliable their test rig is.

Lunch was a chicken liver on rye sandwich with an HB egg sliced into it. Brownie for dessert. And a tangerine.

Made up for being late by staying 90 minutes late, which meant lighter traffic, especially on 101/237.

Home, nothing delivered.

Forwarded the pay stubs to the loan people.

Poked around on FB. Poked around on YouTube. Dinner was steamed Ha Gow. Dessert was microwave thawed strawberries on a bed of walnuts and honey.

Watched Nancie's Hallmark Pie segment on Tivo, and then PTI.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work - grab breakfast at the usual place, then grab my laptop, test phone and BT mouse and head on over to Hole #2
Back to the hole, dive into those stats.
Home
Or see Wrinkle In Time. Or The Greatest Showman. Which may no longer be playing.

Fly Day

Mar. 3rd, 2018 01:44 am
howeird: (Default)
Just remembered ti flip the calendar to March, and saw I had the photo for Valentines Day there. Locks of Love. When I put the calendar together I totally missed the connection.
Kind of a rough night. Went to bed early, to make up for last night's insomnia. Spook curled up at my feet for a while. Half past midnight not having dinner got me into a low blood sugar condition. It took 3 scoops of mint chocolate chip and three of fudge brownie to stabilize. And maybe some lactose free milk. I don't remember.

Back to bed, didn't wake up till 7:30, and the alarm was a total surprise. KGO was running late, so instead of the useless traffic report, I was hearing some interesting business news. The Bose remote did not cooperate, it took a lot of button pushes to mute that. Turned the Sonos speakers to my favorite Thai pop station. Spook was on the bed yelling for treats.

Took the bedding out of the dryer and put in the whites from the washer.

On the road a little late, took the back roads because of the rain.

Checked the web cams more than usual, Spook is happy to have the guest room back. She was on that window sill a lot, and on the futon bed, and she has adopted the squishy balls which both cats had ripped from the cat tree, and they now appear all over the house.

Boss asked one of the staff to get me a tiny STB to test, he emailed that I could pick it up from him at Hole #2. I took my time because it was raining and I didn't want to give up my good parking space.  Went there at about 10, it took him half an hour to get it ready, meanwhile I also chatted with China manager. And got to sit in my Official Chair.

Back to the hole, fired up the tiny STB and found a show stopper bug right off. No way to run the automated tests. And all the manual audio tests failed. And most of the video tests. The unit doesn't have enough memory.

Watched some 49ers-combine news on YouTube.

Lots of email from women on the Thai dating site.

5:30, drove the the Pear Ave building, set up the laptop and cranked out the previous posting.

7:30 drove around the corner to The Pear theater, was happily surprised that the new artistic director, who was womaning the concession stand, knew my name. Blame FB. I have a huge crush on her, too bad she is happily married with adorable kids. Too bad for me, not her. :-)

The audience was filled with theater friends, which is not surprising because it was a performance by 3 of the more prolific local actors, plus the very best accompanist in the world. And they also had three other well known backup singers hiding in the front row. I enjoyed the show a lot, heard three great songs I had never heard of before.
Four Jews in a Room Bitching from Falsettos.
Big-Ass Rock
from The Full Monty


and I didn't catch the name or show of the third. Or I forgot. Or both. And there was something from A Chorus Line I had somehow managed to miss. Maybe it was from the revival.

Anyhow, lots of fun. After I told artistic director I work real close by, I ought to get involved. Will shoot her some email.

Have not heard back from La Cage.

Home, dinner was Marie C roast chicken, which is about a day's sodium quota. Popsicles for dessert.

Delivered was a sewing kit, the zipper broke as soon as I opened it. It is now secured with a rubber band. Nice kit, though.

Plans for tomorrow:
Probably won't wake up in time to go to the monthly meet & greet at the community hall
Need to make something for the potluck. May need to go to the store for chicken wings.
Norcal peace corps alumni annual meeting & potluck
Maybe Bad Movie Night at Bob & Sharon's

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howard stateman

September 2022

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