Writing Wrongs

Worked from home until the furnace guy arrived at about 1. Well within the 10 am - 2 pm window. He said the thermostat I'd bought would work, but was unreliable, and the one he had to sell cost less too, so I bought his. I doubt that Honeywell is less reliable than Emerson, but I didn't need the wifi anyway.

CU had sent a note last week that someone would come by to check the outside of the house. He came by just after the furnace guy left, as I was changing belts on my pants. I don't think I've lost weight, but my butt no longer hold up my pants.

Work was more spec reading. Weekly report was very short. Today's WTF is they scheduled an all hands meeting in the break room at the same time as the holiday party a couple of miles away. I may call in with eye trouble.

Home after work, discovered the new webcam wi-fi stopped working. Sending it back to Amazon, ordered a pair of white ones (need one for the office and for the side door). Also ordered body wash and toothpaste. I know you were wondering. I was going to order Fancy Feast, but the 2-day delivery was after a week's handling time. I'll get a case at Petco, everything is on sale this month.

Grabbed my uke book, trimmed the nails on my left paw and went to class. This time I was actually able to play some chords, C, Am, F,  though Em is a challenge and my fingers don't want to unbend after playing a G. Strumming is not working either, I am more comfortable using my thumb, and playing melodies a note at a time.

Stopped off at Lowe's on the way home, returned the thermostat. Then Fresh & Easy, because I needed frozen veggies for dinner and wanted to give the neighborhood grocery a chance. Very limited choices, reasonable prices, but all the aisles are self check-out. One of the staff was nice enough to bag my stuff (I brought bags) but I gathered that was not usual. The prices are not low enough for me to work for them, so I'll be only shopping there as a last resort.

For dinner I reheated some duck and sweet corn, and finished off the chocolate cookie mint ice cream. I had another low in the middle of the night, which is where much of that went. Have to lower my pre-bedtime insulin by a lot, now that I am no longer mega-stressed about the house, and am eating less.

Watched an episode of Elementary and was disappointed on many levels, but mostly that they chose to make the leading man more of an asshole than ever, when they had the chance to let him defrost. They also changed writing styles from chronological to one of discovery in no particular order. Nice try, but not well executed. 

During the day finished unpacking the last big kitchen box, and just have the one with the breakable dishes, which I will do after I write this. Also moved the big cat tree into the office, Domino gave it a try but she prefers the recliner. I also put the leopard pattern velour slipcover back onto the sofa.

Plans for tomorrow:
To-do stuff:
Take down the livingroom shades and put up the new ones
Take down the kitchen curtains and put up the new ones
Pack the car full of flattened boxes and take them to the SMART station.
Meet Janice for coffee 3:30, earlier than our usual
Hang the transporter room somewhere. Probably next to the sofa.
Put up the curtain rod & curtain in the guest bathroom
Obtain a small set of drawers for the main bathroom closet. Reverse sides (I set up everything by the sink near the shower, because the movers had blocked the one near the door. Turns out the light above the one near the shower is broken.
Call an electrician. Need to have the bathroom light, one bedroom outlet fixed and the kitchen light replaced. Though I may do that last one myself.

 

One thing that has changed about Bangkok is the smog is back to being as bas as, or worse, than it was in 1975. My other trips, 1989, 2004 and 2008 it was not nearly as bad, thanks partly to it being the end of the rainy season, but mostly because both the city and national governments spent money and passed laws making vehicles cleaner. I am having a lot of trouble breathing, especially climbing the interminable stairs up to the Skytrain. They did not design that system to be accessible. And it's my main way for getting around.

Today it rained a little, on and off, and that meant all the little leaks sprung up. The usual solution is a bucket, and maybe a mop, and a yellow folding sign. Repair is out of the question. The flooded crosswalk was only slightly more flooded. I was out at about 9, the hotel tailor shop does not open until 10. I went out looking for a hat, and while waiting to cross the main street (a multi-lane divided almost-highway) a crew of road workers converged on the opposite side of the street and did all those things which workers do to make it not be flooded. Except the side they were on was not flooded in the first place, and they never crossed to the flooded side. Welcome to Thailand.

Did not find a hat, but did buy two bags of T-shirts and a pair of swim trunks.

Back to the hotel, went to the tailor, was measured by a middle-aged woman who seemed to know what she was doing. We settled on material and color for suit & pants and a shirt. She said to be sure to come back at 5 for a fitting.

Somewhere in there I had the free breakfast buffet at the hotel. Faux western food, mostly. Nice mini-croissants, though.

Skytrain back to MBK, had a strawberry smoothie and then walked a lot to finally find a floppy hat which would not get in the way of photography.  went back to the store which had the Nikon 28-300 new lens in stock, they wanted retail + 3% to buy it with Amex card, but I tried it out anyway. Way too heavy, the zoom is a rotary control which is very stiff. It focuses instantly and looks like it takes sharp pictures.  But not worth paying full price + 3% plus Amex's foreign currency fee plus US customs. And I would get tired of holding it pretty fast, so no didn't buy it.

Back to Skytrain, headed to what used to be the last stop at the other end of the line, Thaksin Bridge. When we got there, they announced the next stop instead of saying "end of the line". I stayed on till the end, which was across the river and two more stops. And there was even more track going off into the distance. The newest cars' route list showed about 3 or 4 more stops. Crossed to the other side and took the train back to the bridge. Tooled around and found a lovely park provided by the department of rural roads, with public restrooms. I didn't need one at the time, but they had signs everywhere.

Got to what used to be the water taxi landing, but all I saw were river tours. I finally asked at the biggest tour ticket booth and they said just pay the guy on the boat to get to the hotel where the Peace Corp doings are happening tomorrow.

Back to Skytrain and the stop nearest the hotel. Had lunch at the first place I saw with seating away from the street. Mediocre shrimp & cashews. Weird non-Thai sauce, but okay. Went through two bottles of soda water. Dehydration is serious stuff over here.

The phone was not connecting to the data network, so I figured I had blown through the MB which came with the phone. There is a phone fix place a few blocks down, across from the hotel. It took 20 minutes for them to figure out how to add 2GB to it. Meanwhile this is an enclosed space with a ceiling 4 storeys high, and two Arab moms chose to make their children scream while we were trying to do this. I wanted to stop by the Starbucks there, but screaming children.

Back to the hotel, did some email (the CU replied that they took the hold off of my card. Somehow the travel notice I took an hour from work to go to their office to do was not in their system. As if.) And did some facebooking.

At 5 I was at the tailor shop, the boss lady said she thought the woman who measured me did not get it right, so she re-measured me. Then the actual tailor arrived, he took one look at me and said the measurements were not right, they were too small. He had a prototype of the jacket for me to try on, and sure enough, it needed to be let out about half an inch in various places. He even stuffed shoulder pads in to pin them. I really like the material, it's Navy blue light weight raw Thai silk. Boss lady was marveling over my Thai, and she, me and the tailor had an interesting conversation about English as it is taught in various countries.  I am surprised how much of my Thai came back for that chat. I told the tailor that I always get fatter in the evening, it's "nature". Boss lady chuckled and said she could accept that.

She also convinced me to buy another pair of pants and a shirt. The prices are good for custom-made, and for a change it looks like everything will fit.

Back in the room, as I am writing I am eating fresh longans, bought from the stand across the street. Also have a huge bag of rambutan which needs attention.

So here I am, on the agenda:
Take a nap
Grab a cab to Patpong and check out the night life

Tomorrow:
Skytrain to bridge, water taxi to PC hotel. Hang out. Take pictures.

Sleepless night, even though I went to bed way early, because I wanted to call Sprint at 9:30 Eastern. Woke up a few times, Domino didn't help, she was head-bumping me and being vocal. 4:30 I finally gave up trying to sleep, because both knees hurt a lot, so I grabbed a pair of cold packs, and slapped them on when I got the recliner reclined. Domino stared at me from the foot rest. Half an hour of that and then 4 Ibuprofen, then back to bed. Woke about 6, knees felt okay. Called Sprint at 6:30 my time, and was told the person who had sent me a letter Friday telling me to call as soon as possible was out of the office until Wednesday.

Looking at the letter again, the date on it was Feb 26. The date of the postmark on the envelope was April 26. The letter said to call between 8 and 5 Eastern Standard time. New Jersey is on Daylight time at the moment.

Between the cretin's absence and lack of attention to detail, tonight I gathered up all the paperwork, copied it, and sent it with a letter to the director of the organization saying (a) we will do this all in writing and (b) assign someone with an IQ greater than her shoe size to handle the case.

Dragged into work at about 8, 9 o'clock team meeting was weird because boss did not show, and nobody was able to make the conference call work until 10 minutes after. Boss' boss came in at about 15 minutes, and told us boss would be late, but we had not gotten the memo. After that the meeting went well, boss showed up eventually, and confirmed that my bug forced an extra build for two releases. Everyone was having trouble staying awake.

I did my usual morning email and FB and stuff, but by 11 I was thinking it might be best to go home. Something came up which woke me up for an hour, but at noon or so I drove home, took a nap for an hour, and then went to the PO to mail an eBay item, and then to work. I'd packed a bagel and cream cheese with lox which worked okay for lunch, along with a tangelo and some cracker jacks. I think what was going on last night was low blood sugar.

The rest of the day was fine, I was awake and had work to do, some of it around that bug. It was fixed in today's build of the first product. It didn't make it into today's build of the other two products.

Home after work, let Domino walk across my lap a few times. Walked to BASFA, which was not heavily attended, which made it more enjoyable for me. I got some good zingers in.

Walked back home, caught up on stuff, did some eBay, bought replacement parts for my soda siphon, wrote the nastygram to Sprint,  caught up on LJ & FB.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
???

Moving has made me miss friends performing in Oliver, HMS Pinafore, 42nd Street, Gypsy, Shout, Bandstand Beat and probably a couple of other shows I truly wanted to see. Foo.

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Woke up this morning with a handful of Pumpkin. Petting him revealed huge mats - I found the kitchen scissors and chopped off several of the bigger ones. He was not amused.

I mentioned that I had not found the wireless controller which turns on the lights in the apartment, or the radio from the night stand, or the bedroom's DVD player or the Comcast box I have to return to them or pay $500 for. This morning I heard a clock radio's backup alarm beeping from deep inside the closet in the computer room. I had to unpack the entire walk-in closet to get to it, it was at the furthest corner below several other boxes. All those items were in there. The box was clearly marked "bedroom" in the chief mover's handwriting. It had to be one of the first boxes into the apartment, when there was plenty of room in the bedroom closet. Foo.

But I did manage to set up the DVD player and test it. I need to re-think the clock radio, though. It's awkward for a bedside alarm machine, the buttons are not in intuitive places.

That made me a few minutes late for work, but not the 20 minutes it would have been from the old apartment. Yay.

Work started out slowly, but when I finally got together with the Person Who Knows, I was able to knock out two test cases in maybe half an hour. There was some administrative work to be done, and I took time during a break to try to set up automatic payments with Comcast, but for some reason they have tied that to the IP phone service, and want a PIN number I don't have and should not need for this. I'll try calling a human tomorrow - the online chat people don't understand much English.

At lunchtime I went to the CU and did the verified signature thing, and got my full account number for direct deposit (the one they give out when you sign up is missing a bunch of ones and zeros which are filler to appease the federal banking system).

Had lunch at St. John's, which was way noisier than I remembered it, and out of >100 customers I saw maybe 4 women.

Just as I was getting ready to wind things down at work, a bug I'd filed was reported as fixed, so I gave it a try and it failed. The engineer came over to see, but then it worked. And it stayed working, so I closed the bug. He thinks it's the home made test software QA uses to get around buying a lot of very expensive servers, and I would tend to agree.

After work I went to the 2nd nearest Safeway (the nearest is in the evening commute direction) and was somewhat boggled - it is maybe 3x larger than the ones I used in Mountain View. Lots of eye candy. Lots of Halloween candy. Took a while to find where they hid the dishwasher detergent. Took longer to find the ice cream, but that's because I was coming from the detergent aisle. Got lots of frozen stuff, microwave dinners mostly, one or two of which will be dinner after I write this.

Weather has been very odd. Cold in the morning, very hot and humid in the evening. One thing I am grateful for is last week when we had the unseasonable several days of rain, I heard nobody say "but we need the rain". I want to smack people who say that, it just annoys me. This year topped the rainfall charts in the Bay Area so no, we don't need the rain. There is no more room for it to be stored.

This evening I have slacked a bit on the unpacking, I'll have the bathroom all done tonight, may get some more of the kitchen done. I thought about printing new return address labels, but I am out of the blank forms. And new business cards are designed and ready to print but that printer is still on the floor across the room.

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Plans for tomorrow:
Work
More unpacking

Was all set to be way early to work (as in as early as the commuter lane 9 am switch-over would allow) when some stuff came up on my computer screen which had to be dealt with. Don't you hate when that happens? Darned porn sites. Just kidding. But seriously, some email coupled with an entry in Quicken needed attention.

So I got on the phone and emailed in late. Only a little late, so just a courtesy.

The Device from Heck continued its nastifications, and much of my day was spent trying to reproduce intermittent bugs, and then documenting them. The iPhone is real handy, I use it to do screen captures both JPG and video and USB them over to the PC to upload into the bug reports. Just as I'd finally captured a sample of truly bad quality video, the cable connector came apart (thus revealing why it only cost $2.50). It came at a convenient time, I needed to go out and get something notarized and there is a Radio Shack next to the notary. Two birds, one dollop of petrol.

Finished all my test cases, wrote up all the bugs, and that'll be that for this device. The three of us working on it strongly recommended throwing it back.

Went straight home, was pleased the UPS person paid attention to the brand new "don't throw packages on the hard cement patio floor, a**hole" sign and placed them on the conveniently located rack just inside the patio wall, where they can be seen but not easily purloined. Today's goodies were three olde tyme CDs (Journey, REO Speedwagon and Air Supply) and ( cut for TMI )

Also in the mail was a check from one of the estate's money market funds which goes into the trust's bank account tomorrow morning. And an announcement from Palo Alto Players that they are auditioning for Sunset Boulevard, which I would really really really like to be in, but it conflicts with Babes in Toyland. Sigh.

Was going to try to edit the 8mm film transfers tonight, but got caught up deleting the 1,542 messages left in the parental gmail account, putting up an auto-reply message and setting up Pop on my PC to let me scan messages and delete them from Outlook. It was mostly news and updates from investment companies Dad did business with, including a barrage of items from Morningstar. I unsubscribed from them a week ago but the crap keeps coming.

Plans for tomorrow:
Bank at 10
Photo shoot at noon
Manicure
Break down several dozen cardboard boxes and recycle them (7 months of amazon &tc. deliveries).
Maybe I'll see a play. So many to choose from, it seems all my theater friends are on stage this weekend.

It's been busy, which I suppose is a good thing. Too busy to write, which is not so good. To be honest, it has not been too busy to write, I just shifted my priorities a bit the past couple of days. Been ending the day watching episodes of Californication on Netflix.This will be long, so lots of cuts.

Wednesday was busy at work, ( Read more... )

I ducked out for 90 minutes to go to the Postal Annex which has a notary,( Read more... )

After work, a quick stop home and then hunted for the improv class location I had not been able to find last week. Found it ( Read more... )

Yesterday was a rush at work to get Wed's tests done by noon. I also introduced myself to our newest product manager, ( Read more... )

Ye Olde Towne Band practice last night was interesting. My horn's 2nd valve, which I had dropped last year and was allegedly repaired has started sticking again. I had bought a replacement baritone on eBay at the start of the month but it had not arrived yet. I haven't heard anything from the seller and was afraid I might have been ripped off. ( Read more... )

Home, there was a big package in front of the door made from Home Depot boxes. Didn't know Home Dept even had boxes. I couldn't think who would be sending me something this big - about the size of a moving company's smaller wardrobe box.Looked on the label and lo and behold, it ( Read more... )

Stayed up till all hours printing out cost basis info from my Dad's brokerages online, very surprised that all the accounts are still accessible, I was told they were locked out as soon as I reported the passing of my parents. Not surprised that all the assets are still there, they all said it would take a week or more. Needed that for brother-in-law to do the final taxes.

Time to get showered and shaved and drugged and off to work. The jewelers should have my repairs/appraisals ready this afternoon. No plans for tonight.