This collection of entries is from December 23, 2003.
Well, we got an unexpected piece of news today at work: "... a mandatory holiday deployment stand down throughout the NE region effective COB 12/23. ... All NE region Dell staging, deployment and sweep activity will stop from COB 12/23 until after the first of the year."
Crap. We had a lot of work planned for next week. What's worse (from my perspective) is the typical contractor's lament: no work = no pay - a <sarcasm>wonderful place to be during the holiday season</sarcasm>. So, I am on Stand Down until January 5th, the day after my birthday.
The flip-side to all of this negativity is that we've hired a new Admin who'll sit next to me. It was bad enough last time when we had a new tech join us (she's been great to work with), but this time it's going to cause more problems - younger, taller, and gorgeous. There's too many geek guys around for her not to get hit on...
I bid adieu to my colleagues and walked out to the car where I noticed it started snowing. The traffic home made the drive miserable. The Tri-State was a mess. It's not normal to actually come to a stop on the tollway, so I got off on Golf Road to take that all the way home. Well, that was fine until I was within a mile or so of Woodfield Mall. We were stopped again. This time, I realized that right at the mall, the traffic lights were out. Not good, especially right at Christmas around one of the biggest/busiest malls in America. Then I saw what the problem was - a white panel van slid off the road... and ran right over the top of the traffic control electronics box. That's going to be down for a while.
Stopped at White Hen to get a few tickets for tonight's Mega Millions game (the pot is up to $100 Million tonight). After I slid into my parking place, I had to wait for one of those "Lottery women" that have all of their multiple tickets all filled out, leaning over the counter with the worker, just chatting up a storm, and moving pretty damn slow. Then she starts singing Christmas music... not what was playing over the Muzak in the store. And she's terrible. And in a syrupy-voice she says (to no one in particular) "Oh! How beautiful the snow is!" and she starts dancing a little in place. I just want my effin' tickets - get the hell outa my way!
So, there's snow on the ground, traffic sucks, I'm not working for almost two weeks, and - worse yet - Carol & I are broke. So, needless to say, I'm a bit down in the dumps.
But then, I see a box from Amazon.com on the counter.
I can't tell you how much of a surprise and how much it meant to get something from your Amazon.com Wishlist from someone out there in the Blogosphere.
In this case, it was the Eddie Izzard DVD of Circle from Erin (we saw Eddie in Circle here in Chicago back in March of 2000). Erin, it made my day! Thank you! Make sure you visit her blog! She's a good egg!