15 February 2001
Last year: The MeadeHall was pretty intense last night.
Yes, we had a nice Valentine's Day. Matt had fifty tulips sent to me at work again - this time they arrived all in one bundle, and were purple. (A decided improvement over last year, when they came in two packages, one of which contained twenty in "Valentine" colors of red, pink, and white, and the remaining thirty all in streaky orange. I still liked them, but orange really isn't my favorite color.)
I'd say this was a tradition, but Matt was asking questions last night that hinted that he might try to think of something different for next year. We'll see.
Already the big vase is missing four stems, though: One I discovered was broken as I was putting them into the vase, so I pulled off the flower and put it in my hair for the rest of the evening. And this morning I pulled out three to put in a small vase to take to work. They add a much-needed hint of life to my windowless office.
Speaking of life, I noticed this morning as I was pulling out of the driveway that not only are my crocuses starting to come up, but several of my miniature irises are up, and one of them is already in full bloom. I'm very excited; I've waited months to see these flowers! I'll have to go out this weekend and weed - which I've been putting off lest I accidently yank out my flowers.
Matt and I went to Carmella's - a nice local Italian restaurant - for dinner last night. It's a little pricey, but well worth it. Amusingly enough, we both decided we wanted the same thing, right down to the dressing on our salads. (Though Matt had water instead of iced tea.) Whacko or not, it was a fantastic meal, and we both took half our entrees home.
Looking at the pile of pasta and chicken in its box, I mused, "You know, this might make two lunches..." And when I divided it up into tupperware containers, I knew I was right. It was at least as much food as some of the microwave meals we regularly eat, and probably twice as filling.
It probably goes without saying that I don't want to be at work today. Nevertheless, I'm going to say it: I don't want to be at work today. I'm supposed to start setting up an issuing station for my project. Not because we need to issue cards soon, but because the big honcho project manager is going to be in the office tomorrow and the local project manager wants him to be able to see the very expensive card printer printing cards.
That means I get to spend today in an office that's not mine, wrestling - almost literally - with a recalcitrant bit of machinery and with Oracle, which doesn't set up ODBC connections as neatly and cleanly as you might think. And no, it won't really help me to rope one of the Oracle developers into helping, because - since they all have Oracle installed on their computers - they don't have the slightest idea how to set up a connection without it.
Bah. Oh, well. Things could be worse. My week could have been like Jim's. He was out of town to fix a problem that should have been fixed over the phone by the other company's tech support, then ordered to hang around for two more days and watch to make sure things don't break again. Then he had two flights cancelled on his way home, so he didn't get home to his wife on Valentine's Day until after 10 PM.
Few though they may be, I'm counting my blessings.
(And one of them is that Monday is a holiday. Thank goodness. I wonder if I could get away with taking Friday off?)
Word of the Day:
rectilinear - moving in or characterized by straight lines
Currently Reading:
- The Macintosh Bible by Sharon Aker
Current Projects:
- Kris' afghan
- placemats