Saturday, June 26, 2004

Storms over Newark

Typical...hot and sunny all day but, as I wait for the car to take me to the airport, the sky darkened and the heavens opened. Amazing storms so of course we were delayed....actually only delayed for boarding by about 30 minutes. Must have sat on the runway for over an hour...I was asleep so I couldn't actually tell you how long we were in traffic. All I know is that I stepped through the door at midnight.....when I was originally due in at 10pm. It's nice to be home!

We were lucky. There were so many flights cancelled that the line at the service desk went on for several gates, and then wrapped round and back down the other side of the airport. Yuk.

So, very tired, off to bed...my bed....yayyyyyy :-)

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Flying South

...to NJ. Off to see the team. Tell them they're not being closed down and that our boss is no more...actually he's going to do that bit. Keep getting emails from one of them asking me what the news is. What news would that be? Luckily she's on a course tomorrow so I might be able to escape the interrogation until the news is officially released on Friday. The rumours have been flying around for weeks so I wish they'd just get on with it and make things public.

But first I'm waiting for a call from Chicago to tell me that I can test a hyperlink on our website. Can you believe this. We must be on the only server that has case-sensitive URLs. Our welcome letters go out with the URL in capitals (part of it anyway)...and it doesn't work unless you type it all in lower-case. Totally sucks. So today they're meant to be releasing a redirect for the upper-case version. To make things worse the release means the whole site needs to come down for a couple of minutes while the techies do their stuff. Big YAWN!

Monday, June 21, 2004

On the subject of men...

...since Greybird alluded to the fact that she had a spare few lying around the house (give them my number if there are any cute, non-married ones!)....here's an update:

Cuban: moving back to NYC end of next month. Saw him Saturday, he complained that I didn't call him and ask if he wanted to hang out last week. Hmmmmm....probably helps if you give me your number dahling! Don't want to get involved in a such a short-term opportunity but my horoscope is telling me it could lead to "interesting experiences".....I think that's astro-speak for sex!

Far too young but lovely dance instructor: still pining desparately after him. Robin tells me that's a good sign...means there's still potential. Suppose it's a reason to learn Tango....LOL! Too young, too young. :-( I think Chris is starting to get suspicious...sure he was watching us on Friday.

Canadian: driving me mad! Nuff said.

Jerk in a minivan this morning....tatoos down his arm...green van on Washington about 8:40am. You're a jerk! If I yell "f*ck off" at you, that means leave me alone...it doesn't mean continue to stick your head out the window and leer at me!!!!!

And to the twat in the silver convertible on the 33 this evening.....hey, if I'm in the lane next to you, don't pull out on me.....I had to swerve to avoid you...luckily there was nothing in the outside lane else I'd be suing you for every penny you got. There is something about that road that is beginning to scare me. Not a single day goes by without some idiot trying to cut me up.....I can only think that my car is invisible......?????

Got to interview someone tomorrow afternoon. Apparently he is "easy on the eyes"....I asked about him earlier...can't wait....mmmm mmmmmmmm ;-)

Sunday, June 20, 2004

June was Blooming

Fred's party...June in Bloom...come floral. Suprised Chris by actually turning up in something flowery...silk and see-through....nice "wedding" attire (though don't think anyone I know is planning on getting married in the near future!). Not many of us there and I'd given up a ticket to a party at the zoo (freebie from work...some fund-raising thingy). Just wasn't in the mood for work things so passed it on to someone else. Glad I did. Had a much better time. Lots and lots of dancing with my fave. Mmmmmmmmm.

So...work. Hmmm. Been interesting recently. My team is about half the size of the Personal team...which sucks but is about par for the course. Us poor Commercial people are usually the poor relations....volumes are never as big but we make a helluva lot more $$$$ per customer. So, the head of the department, who's meant to be impartial (but isn't), decides that we're short of testing resources at the end of the year. We have a release planned but he wants to cut it due to lack of testers. Really he wants to cut it so he can do a Personal release. Screw that. My boss and the guy in charge of product development fought him on it but still seems like it's going to be cut...or at least shrunk. Dammit. Chris is deeply depressed, although he keeps telling me that he doesn't care anymore. Yeah, right. The second someone starts on that line I know it's a lie.

Then we have the website, which we also look after. If I hear one more time that we don't have as much going on as the Personal side I'll scream. We have fewer people, how the hell are we meant to do as much as them? It's not possible! Then some bitch from the other team really bugged me. We had a three day meeting with the team from Chicago. Due to start at 8:30am, which is a little early for me but I was there, on time. The developers didn't turn up til after 9am so we started an hour late. When I pointed out the fact that we were behind the bitch makes some comment about how she always gets in at 7:30am. Yes, indeed you do but guess what....I'm not the one running for the door at 4;30pm....I hear them counting down the minutes (yes, totally serious).....plus I happen to have a team that's spread over 3,000 miles and 3 time zones. If I left at 4:30pm I'd miss their entire afternoon. Geddit?

Anyway, that last issue is about to be resolved....we're restructuring. The North American alliance is about to me no more. The US is handing Canada back to the Canadians. In some way that's nice.....too tough trying to manage two countries when nothing else is aligned. On the other hand, I now have to report into my boss's boss (at least we think that's the plan, not yet official). I do like him but he's really not into our side of the business so, up til now, I was just able to set my boss off and he'd go deal with the messy political stuff. I hate that....too prone to speaking my mind and I'm not sure how well that will go down.

Oh well.....that's life I guess.....never a dull moment.......

Sunday, June 13, 2004

Arts Festival

Spent the whole day in the sun....nice...although i have a little pink bit where I must have missed with the sun lotion! We were hanging around the Latin American Institute stall....partly cos he was giving us free beers and partly cos it was kinda of interesting watching the dynamics of two Cubans. One I've met before as he comes to Spanish classes, sometimes the same one as me, sometimes the earlier one. He's been making comments about "hot British chicks" and getting friendly. But not in a pervy way. He's a huge black (am I allowed to say that?) guy but he's really sweet and entertaining so I don't mind. Plus other than the occassional brush past me it's not like he's been groping me or trying anything. Even if he did, there's no chance, he's moving back to NYC in a few weeks and I don't need the hassle.

Then there's another one that appeared for the first time yesterday. Was making these comments that were annoying the hell out of me. Came to a climax when he asked if I was married. No....but that doesn't mean you have a chance. Think he got the message but then he starts quizzing me about what's going on with the other one. Nothing. I've been watching you two. Really? Well, I guess your imagination's running wild then! Probably didn't help when we left together (number one and me)....so I could give him a lift to his car which was parked miles away. Oh well....more to come today I guess...although I'm not staying all day, gotta buy some shoes!

Other than that, only saw one "beautiful" person who was totally to die for. Unfortunately he was with some girl. Dammit!! Did get a kiss off him though..... :-)

Overall, festival went well. Didn't sell too much but we got Carlos an interview with a local magazine (they took photos) and he signed up a few new students. I think he was pretty pleased...which is really the main thing.

Today's freaky story...woke up with blood all over my face. Freaked me out til I realised I'd scratched the side of my nose (must have been in my sleep). Was washing my face and blood started pouring out again. Mystery solved but still pretty gruesome to see the dried blood on my hand and face when I got to the bathroom this morning.....YUK. My skin seems to be really thin at the moment....scratched my arm last week and have a 2" gash on it now. I take so long to heal as well...there's probably something wrong with me although I've always scarred really easily.....totally sucks.

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Hot!

Mmmmm....sunshine..... :-)

Walked for an hour on Sunday. That's the longest I've managed for ages which is a sign that my back is getting better...I hope!

Boss is in town. Went out for dinner last night. One of the guys from the office drove. Directed him all the way back to my boss's hotel....errr....wrong hotel! He always stays in the same one...except this time. Ho Hum!

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Just for Giggles:

HCDT!

Spanish class yesterday deteriorated into a Rum tasting session and a debate on whether Cuban Rum was better or not that Rum from the Dominican Republic. Apparently Cuban sugar is the reason Cuban Rum SHOULD be better. My verdict....who cares!!!! LOL

Saturday, June 05, 2004

Happy Hour

We had Office happy hour last night to celebrate the fact that we migrated our website (at last) to Chicago. Out on the patio in the sunshine. There was someone filming and, for the few of us that got there early, it seems we were "caught"! We had arranged gift certificates for the people that had put in extra hours to help with testing and stuff so we had the official "handing out" ceremony. What was really sweet was that I and my counterpart on the Personal team also got one.....awwwwww :-) So free drinks, free food and I came home with more money than I started out with...what could be nicer???

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Little Red Dress

So, I've never actually bought any clothes on eBay before but, after having spent Monday cruising the Internet (while it rained) looking for dance stuff, I decided the only place that had anything that I could afford was eBay. Have you any idea how much "professional" ballroom stuff costs???? I found a place that had a sale on....some sale.....prices reduced from $2,000+ to $1,500+!!! Yeah, I suppose that's a "bargain" but somewhat more than my little piece of plastic wanted to handle...and certainly not worth the money for the amount of wear I'll get out of it....after all, can hardly pull it out for work!

So...instead....I found a very cute red halterneck dress that should do the job. Perfect for Cha Cha. Tried describing it to Sharon over the phone and she decided it sounded ok. Just waiting for it to appear...and hoping it lives up to its description/photo/measurements! Then we went to see Raising Helen...very funny. Was trying to get her to see Shrek 2 cos I hear Antonio is fabulous as the Puss.....but she was having none of that. But it's Antonio!!!! Yes, but it's not like you actually get to see him...plus there'll be CHILDREN. Nuff said! LOL And June 24th is bring child to work day...not the official one, the Bank one. For me...official work at home day...I have marked it in my calendar....