Friday, September 29, 2006

Snerfful

I truly hope this isn't a sign of what's to come this winter. I just got over that chest cold I had a few weeks ago and yesterday I wake up to a clogged head.
It's not allergies, the benedryl didn't help.
Crap.
The DayQuil I took this morning isn't doing much either. The NyQuil I took last night knocked me out, but not much else. I guess I'm going to have to see about getting something stronger for this. It's probably a sinus infection. Joy.
Ok. I know you didn't tune into this page to listen to me rant about not breathing.
This week has been both very long and very short. Today feels like it should be a Tuesday, not Friday. Mind you, I'm very glad that it is indeed a Friday. But with that trip Monday and Tuesday, it feels like it should be next week, not this week. Oh well.
This weekend sould be good. I don't have anything planned for tomorrow. (I'm blowing off the gym, which I shouldn't do, because I can't breathe...) Sunday we've got friends coming over to continue our Werewolf game. That should be fun and hopefully I'll be breathing by then.
Well, I'm off to try and get in touch with a painful customer. Two months ago they asked about next week. I said let me know how many courses you want and when and I'll get a quote out. I finally get an almost answer yesterday afternoon on my voicemail. Nope, sorry. We normally have a 'must have PO 2 weeks in advance' rule with training. Try calling back, voicemail. Sent an email.... we'll see how it goes. At least my boss is backing me up on this one...
Peace (and no sniffles) to all!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Well... at least the drive was pretty...

I spent about 20 hours in the car to do about 5 or 6 hours worth of 'work' Monday and Tuesday.
Yep, 20 hours.
In a car.
In western New York.
At least the drive was pretty. I don't have any pics as I was driving and trying to use the camera phone and drive at the same time is not something that is advised. The trees in northern PA are turning nice colors. For some reason, a lot of the trees in New York are behind. We're getting some reds in PA, but NY trees are still all green and yellow. Oh well. I think I saw more of NY in 2 days than I've seen in my past 3 trips up there. As I said, nice but a looooong drive. The trip really wasn't that bad. I would have even enjoyed it if Gak was with me and it was a weekend long trip just the two of us. I got to see 2 of the Great Lakes, several rivers, creeks and lakes and lots of mountains and trees.
Peace to all and hopefully not much driving for me!

Sunday, September 24, 2006

What part of 'NO' don't you understand?

Subtitle: If we bug her enough she'll give in and say yes!

The picnic on Friday was very nice. It wasn't too warm or too cold, the sun was out and everyone had fun. Even Ed for a while. That is until he blew out his ankle.
Why is this fact important to my life? Ed doesn't work in the same department as I do. Our paths don't cross very often any more. We did work in the same department for a while, but we've both moved on from that job.
This fact became important to my life at about 4:45pm. I was looking a few things up and finalizing a few things for the weekend. (i.e. I was looking up what was going on at Celtic Fling on Sunday...) I get an IM from the head of projects (Ed's boss). Call me x1234. Uh-oh. "You know Ed hurt himself at the picnic." "Yes, I'd heard...." "Are you in the office on Monday?" "I was supposed to be coming in late... Why?"
To make a long story short, Ed was supposed to go on a sales call to upstate New York Monday and Tuesday. Can I go? I can, but I don't really want to. I'd have to reschedule things. (An almost lie... I was coming in late Monday so I could spend the morning with Gak, since it is his birthday...) I try and beg off. I state very clearly if you can't find anyone else, I'll do it, but I really don't want to.
My former boss calls me Friday evening all but harassing me about it.
I play phone tag with my current boss (his cell died...).
I get guilted into going. "Mike could go, but him getting back Tuesday in time to pick up his son from daycare would be really tight."
This means that instead of sleeping in a little and having breakfast with my honey on his birthday, I'm stuck leaving here by 7:30 or 8am to drive up to Syracuse, NY then over to Buffalo and back. I'll be home Tuesday night or Wednesday some time, depending on where I am Tuesday and what time we're done with the meetings.
I keep telling myself at least it's local. But it's not. I mean, local would be going down to Philly or something within a 3 hour drive where I could come home that night. No, this is not local. This SUCKS!!!
I tried so hard to tell them no. I even thought I was off the hook yesterday when my boss didn't get back to me. I guess I was wrong. I could have pressed the issue a bit more, but I guess I just felt guilty that my excuse for not going wasn't as 'valid' as Mike's.
Work owes me big time for this, but I doubt I'll ever be able to collect.

We did have a good Sunday. We didn't go to either the Faire or Celtic Fling. We did go down to the mall and bought new video games. If it wasn't so gray and almost raining we would have headed up to Bethlehem, but we just didn't feel like it. I hope I did OK for Gak's birthday. He really deserves more. He deserves a lot more time with me, but work cut that short. I'm going to be cranky about this for a while I think.
Oh well. I hope the rest of your weeks are good and stress free. Peace to all and safe travels.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Scheduling Nightmares!

The training this week went well. Or at least that's what the customers told me (although I haven't read the course evils yet...).
What the real struggle this week is with 3 problem children and scheduling.
One is the site that continues to blow me off, so therefore, no training for them in 2 weeks.
One site was the final site in New York. The one that got flooded back in June. That was a several email adventure. I'm not thrilled with the scheduling, but at least it's almost local and will get them done. That week I go up to Canada overnight Monday and fly home Tuesday. Wednesday afternoon I drive up to New York, train Thursday and Friday and drive home Friday evening. UGH! Oh well, at least I don't have to change time zones this time.
The final one involves a customer to our south. As in Mexico. The biggest problem is the fact that I'm going through about 3 corporate people instead of dealing with the customer directly. This always creates problems. I thought we'd settled everything, but no. Now I get an email today saying that the Thursday and Friday won't work, how about the next Monday and Tuesday? Mind you, this is in 2 weeks. We also don't know if I'll be doing it or if our field guy who's done this before in Mexico will be available. Oh, yeah, it's for 70 people over 2 days. Major AARGH!!!!
At least this afternoon is the company picnic. I can relax and let my brain leak out my ears. Yes, it's the end of September and we're having our picnic. It's not as warm as I'd hoped, but it'll be nice all the same.
Peace to al and enjoy the start of Fall!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Random thoughts

Ok. Just a random post.
The training goes well. It's both a blessing and a curse to be doing it in my own office. It's a blessing because if the customers have questions for specific people, I can drag them in here. It's a curse because everyone is here.
Overall it's going well. I had one customer transfer their registration to the December class. One lady left her job a few weeks ago, so I wasn't really expecting her. A third person stood me up. Again. This is the third session she said she'd come to but hasn't shown. To top it off, I've been playing phone tag with her about a training session in New York in two weeks. I need to nail that down this week. AAARGH!!!
I'm working on several more projects this week. I hope to get at least one of them done soon. I'm also fighting off this stupid cold. I think it's almost gone. I think it would have been gone sooner if I hadn't had to talk all day Thursday, yesterday and today. Oh well.
Well, I've got some more stuff to clean up before I head out for the day.
Peace to all.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

DONE!!!

Subtitle: Pardon me while I go girly-girl crafter on you...
I'm sooo proud of myself today! Well, kinda. I blew off going to the gym and doing the laundry. But I did finish up my two projects before I logged in to the computer! The blankie across the back of the couch is for a friend's baby who isn't here quite yet. It's a neat waffelweave texture. I used a larger yarn than the pattern called for and it is a very warm and cozy snuggly. The big bear is for my nephew's first birthday, which is a week from Tuesday. The only thing he actualy needs now is a bandana coller, but I didn't have any I liked here. The little bear is Scout. She belongs (?) to Gak. She came home with me two years ago now for his birthday. Last week I made her the blue and purple poncho she's wearing. She likes it. I think I made it a little too long. It's pretty though. I didn't use a pattern as such. I'd found several online and they were all just different stitches to make two rectangles and join. I found a stitch pattern I liked from one of my books, figured out a color pattern as I went along and just saw where it took me. Overall, I'm happy with it. She really is a cute little bear and the poncho is definately unique. You should see the looks I get carrying her or her 'brother' Sam through the airport. I had one guy ask me if I had a ticket for Sam and I replied that no, he quallified as an infant in arms.
Well, I'm off to reward myself with some game time. Have fun, keep doing what you love and peace to all!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Loooong week

This week was an almost travel week. I wasn't at home, but I was at home.
Huh?
I was doing a training session for four days at a corporate office in the area. It is about an hour and a half or so from my house. But only 45 minutes or so from my parents. Therefore, I spent four nights at my parents this week.
It was good to be able to spend time with them. Things seem to be going fairly well. Mom had a preliminary doctor's appointment about replacing her knee. Scary thought, but it is something she's decided she's put off long enough. Dad is dad and worries about everything. Their business hasn't been great this year so things are very tight. This just makes his worry worse. Nothing I can do, but still....
It was a good training week. I don't really want to go into the office tomorrow, but I have to. I'm doing the same thing next week over five days at my office. And there are about 100 little things I've got to do in order to make sure everything goes smoothly. This means that I may or may not have time to post this week.
Good news though, I've got about 10 or 15 minutes worth of work to do on my nephew's bear and about an hour's work to do on the baby blanket for my friend's baby. I'll try and post pictures when they get done. They're both really cute! I can't wait to give them to the people who are getting them. I know they'll be appreciated.
Well, I'm tired and should probably get a few things done before bed.
Peace to all.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Busy!

Last week was a non-post week.
I'm sorry.
Tuesday was a Monday of a day and just didn't feel post-worthy.
Wednesday was really a lost day and pretty useless. The only thing I accomplished was driving up to New York for the week's training.
Thursday and Friday were both very long days. This was the third or four startup trainings at some sites in upstate New York. Very pretty locations. Good people. One in particular was trying this week, but not in a bad way. Just very detail oriented and intense. Frustrating, but not bad enough to strangle. Friday was really long since I taught a full day and then drove home.
I'm beginning to get to the "what's rest?" phase again, and this travel heavy period is just starting. Oh well. Saturday was busy, but productive. I'm almost finished the project for my nephew. I'll post a pic when it's done.
Today was a good day, even if it seems too short. I went to Valley Forge for a Score-O, or so I thought. I didn't really read the event listing. I knew there was white and yellow today as well and they threw in a sprint as well. What I didn't read was that the score started this afternoon, not this morning. Doh! Since I promised Gak I'd be home for at least a bit today, that meant that was out of the question. Oh well. My friend Kathy convinced me to do the sprint 'with her'. That is, we walked together and tried to take turns navigating. It worked well. We had a blast and got pretty good times as well.
This afternoon I spent some great time with my husband. I really do miss him when I'm on the road. Oh well, makes the time at home that much more special I guess. (Or at least that's what I keep telling myself to get through the lonely days some times...)
Tonight I'm driving back down to VF to stay at my parents. Why? Because the training session I'm doing tomorrow through Thursday is about 35 minutes from their house, as opposed to well over 1.5 hours from mine. It still sucks that I won't be home, but at least I'll be staying in my own bed, of sorts, and not eating out all week. That'll make it a bit better. Next week I'm home though. Teaching all week, but home.
Oh well, I've rambled on long enough. I've got to throw stuff together for the week and then Gak and I are going out to dinner.
Peace to all and have a good week. I'll try and post at some point....

Friday, September 01, 2006

What part of "I'm booked" don't you understand??

Subtitle: Why do people wait until the last minute?

Ok. As everyone knows I travel for business. A lot. July and August are actually some of my slower months. Mostly this is because the people setting up the training have people they want in the training on vacation. I understand. I'd rather be on vacation too. Then summer ends and everyone and their brother finally decides they want training.
I suddenly have 6 people wanting training "As soon as possible!". (Read: I want you there tomorrow but didn't call until today...). I give them each a list of dates with the warning that I have several other people looking at these dates. The result is whoever responded fastest is happy and then I have the slowpokes who think 'tennative' means 'positive'. Nope, not positive until I get cash in hand or a decision on course and number for startup projects.
Then you get people in the business promising sites X+5 when their turnover packages only say X. I schedule for X and then they tell you someone promised them X+5. AARGH!!!

So, to make this drivel a little shorter, I'll be on the road most of the next 3 weeks if not 6 and November is booked solid. That's OK though, because I'll be driving to a local headquarters about the same distance as to the office.

Next week I'll be in update New York again, which will be nice. Then it is another semi-local trip followed by a week of hosting people here.

I hope you've had a good week. Mine's been almost productive. I just really wish it would stop raining, it's been just about a week now... I'm thinking of building an ark...
Peace to all and have a good Labor Day weekend!