EDIT: paycheck now, but no word from the benefits people. Sigh of relief and all that rot.
Totally not my day today.
I'm seeing an accute lak of paycheck in the ol' bank account (both of the accounts which should reflect that, actualy), and this is going to become a problem due to scheduled payments.
Ordinarilly, this wouldn't be much to worry over, and I'd be prone to think, "I'll give it until business hours and check again." Or, I would if this were isolated.
I figured I'd check to see what my paystub says about this, but it appears I can't get into the benefits website either, because I've "never logged in with this user name." which is not precisely true, I've logged in with that user name a good many times in the last month. Couple this with the lack of paycheck, and I'm a mite worried. I've submitted an email to the tech support folks for the benefits site, and I'd love to forward it to my HR person... but my desktop Outlook has auto-archived my inbox, and I don't have anything with her email address on my handheld. Yes, I could crack open the work laptop, but I shouldn't need to.
Also, I left my doorcard and train pass home this morning, so I would be in a world of hurt if I hadn't noticed until after getting on the train... not only would I not have been able to get into work, I would have had to pay for a train ticket out of the account with no money in it. And the conductors don't take plastic for tickets on the train. Fun!
Hopefully, this will get sorted once I get to work.
It's a shame, really... the weekend was pretty nice. Well... with exception of the prat where I took a perfectly nice scroll and turned it into a ham-handed mess. That sucked a bit.
-ir out.
- Location:US, Pennsylvania, Montgomery
- Mood:Meh
No breakfast, nothing to bring for the potluck, but hey. At least the kitchen floor is scented with Moroccan Pumkin Soup.
-ir out.
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- Location:US, Pennsylvania, Montgomery, Hatboro
- Mood:Peeved
I've noticed a new wave of spam lately, mostly offering me exciting job opportunities in SWITZERLAND, or messages about fraudulent activity on my Bank of America account... sent to the fencing marshal email address which forwards from the barony.
These are chuckle-worthy, but sad - I'm certain they snag a certain percentage of the people that send those to. Tonight, however, I received a new one.
Sent from notifications (at) smidgeonink.com, it said my mail account had been suspended and that to reinstate it, I'd need to download and run the attached utility. Riiiight. If that wasn't enough to trip my red flags, it was signed, "smidgeonink.com support".
Last I checked, as I own that domain, and administer it, "smidgeonink.com support" would be... me. Funny, I don't remember sending myself an email (to a suspended email address, no less), but it looks so official.
Guess I'll go download that utility, if it's the only to get email again...
-ir out.
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---
That aside, this is a picture post. I had two serendipitous things happen at the end of last month (three, if you count starting a new job): first, I saw this cool leaf on the curb outside the train station one evening, sprinkled with perfect round water drops, each one picked out by the headlights of a nearby car. I saw it, and I did the mental effect that they showed in the movie about Weegee... I saw what the photo of the scene would look like. That's a skill which I envy in good photographers, and which I usually don't manifest myself.
I got off about 5 shots, but in the last three, the car had moved and the light was no longer optimal. I was pleased with what I had, and a teeny bit disappointed that the wallpaper orientation hadn't come out well. :(
Then, I heard a review of Mobile Photoshop for the iPhone, a product I had poo-pooed. It's apparently one of the better iPhone image modifiers out there, and it's free. It's really just some filters... but filters in the right hands can work magic.
It doesn't hurt that there was something interesting in the shot to begin with. :)
-ir out.
This weekend was K-man's Boy Scout trip to Mystic CT. He was grub master, which meant that although his behavior was less than promising (or age appropriate) during the week, he had to go as he was responsible for the food. :) I finally brow-beat him into making up a shopping list on Tuesday, and then we played the "What did you forget" game until we had something we could work with. It took until Thursday night to get to the store, but that's kind of what I'd had in mind anyway. Food was purchased, and we didn't even go too far over "acceptable"... $15 a head for the whole weekend.
Friday night the weather was bad, so the troop didn't leave until Saturday morning - at 6:30 am. Got up at 5, packed the food in the car (remembering all of it), packed the gear in the car, packed the boy in the car, and got him there in time. Much of the troop gear had been packed the night before, so there was some concern about getting all of the personal gear and patrol food in as well, but they managed it.
It wasn't until they'd all left, the last of the dads had chatted, and I'd gotten back in the car that I noticed K-man's raincoat and jacket.
I called Christoffel and Izzy, knowing that even in Waterbury, they were closer to Mystic than we were. I also knew they were at St. Eligius... but I figured I'd at least try. :) We didn't come up with anything, and I didn't end up having current phone info for
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
lord_strider , who was also in the general area (usually). In the end, I called one of the Asst. Scoutmasters who usually looks out for K-man and let him know - he reported that K-man was fine, and so was the temperature, and they'd address if and when it became a problem. Apparently, it never did. The food worked out well enough, with the exception of Saturday breakfast which fell by the wayside with the rescheduling. We ended up with the pancake mix, but someone else went home with our unopened bottle of syrup which we donated to save costs. :(
He had a good time, toured a schooner, and hasn't once said he wants to quit BSA over anything this weekend. :) Also, he wants to be a den chief.
---
Saturday included project day at
alysten 's, complete with total melt-down quality nommage. CHEESE, GROMMIT! The first Yule remove will Not Suck.(tm) Nor will the dessert.annyswolf and I even got some scribal work done, which seldom seems to happen - the girls were well-behaved enough to allow that. We progressed on the wordsmithing for one scroll and the illumination for another, now we can cut down the paper and start scribin' fo' reals. Today was less productive, although laundry happened, as did showers and hairbrushing for the girls.
annyswolf just got home with the groceries, and I've done a little (very little) more work on layouts for sexy reports. Seriously, it's better if you don't ask. It's not worth it.-ir out.
artisticphoenix: S dniom razhdjenia, Mom!---
Secondly, a brief view of the two sides of Becczilla:
1. "Sometimes, very rarely, I make two sandwiches for myself."
Yes, I'm pleased that all of my children have had decent, "real" vocabularies from early ages - this is a quote from a six-year-old who knows how to correctly use the phrase "very rarely".
2. B, singing: "I'm smackin' my tushie.... I'm smackin' my tushie..."
Me: "But... why?"
B: "I just wanted to. I'm just smackin' it."
This is a six-year-old. Matter-of-fact, but child-like. I'm strangely pleased by that.
-ir out.
[edit - fixed the formatting code.]
Famous last words:
Plumber: "I'm gonna hafta open up this wall a bit... You don't mind if I do that, do ya?"
Actually, so far, so good. I took out the smoke detectors in the hall near the bathroom with the busted pipe and the girls, room, but forgot the one in /my/ room. :) The plumbing work is going OK, though.
Looks like we have copper pipe behind the wall, rather than lead, so that's a plus. The house is 60-some-odd years old, so it could very well have been built with lead pipes. Happily, the plumber doesn't think that's the case.
Ok, all done! We can has sink again! And stronger pipes. :) He ended up extending the connection out further from the wall, so next time we need to do something like this, it'll be less troublesome. I'm voting for "no next time", m'self.
---
In other news, which one of the Powers That Be did we cheese off? Because it sure /looks/ like a higher power has a problem with math5 fencing, or more specifically, working with me. Last week, it was the deity of Poor Time Management. This week it was the god of In The Wrong Place at The Wrong Time - so no FKN. Sigh.
---
In closing, many people believe there's a reason for everything. In some cases, I'm prone to agree: I took a phone call before leaving the house this morning to catch the train to work. The call took juuuust long enough for me to be too late to get to that train, which ticked me off. Turns out, my train line's suspended because of a fatality earlier today, so I wouldnt have gotten to work on that train /anyway/. Funny how that works out. :)
-ir out. (well, in really... Working from home.)
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The 7:54 was a leetle late this morning, like 4 minutes. That stretched into an extra half an hour by the time we rolled into my stop. Luckilly, this is still before I need to be at my desk.
alysten is not so lucky - she takes (er... took?) the bus to work. She even composed unwitting SMS poetry yesterday:It is fall
I am cold.
There is no bus.
That is all.
The worst part for the striking workers is that I've sensed no sympathy for them whatsoever. I understand the distaste they have for working without a contract, really I do. However, the "gulf" between their demands and SEPTA proper's demands isn't all that great in the grand scheme of things, unless you count the difference in amount of guaranteed pay raises in the next few years. But then, you'd be back to the whole loss of sympathy thing, in addition to angry transit patrons.
---
Right now, though, we're being serenaded by revving stock car motors. :) There are four stock car Monte Carlos parked by the curb at the building next door, looking like part of a promotion. (Photo ops. Ride in a stock car. Use our product/service. That sort of thing.) Lovely throaty rumbling engine noises are reverberating through the streets, bouncing against the tall buildings and rattling the small ones. I'm presuming the "ride in a stock car" part, because randomly there are only three cars there, and occasional vrrroooooOOOOMMs.
---
Here comes one of the cars again! Yay trip around the block in a race car! :J I will now commence doing the work that Shanghai was going to do last night, but had other work in the way - which is fine. I was of the opinion that many of the changes were already done, this gives me the chance to follow that lead and see if I'm mistaken in what I remembered doing yesterday and the day before. So win-win: I have work to do AND I get to perform the detective work which was on my mind last night.
Then: Barony meeting! FKN! Working with cadets! (
math5 , I'll be late, but you're still first on the docket. Let me know if there's something specific you'd like to focus on.)---
Lastly,
annyswolf is feeling exceptionally down today, so in lieu of actual company (which I'm sure she'd love), please send her any spare good wishes and such which you might have lying around. :)-ir out.
- Location:work
- Mood:
amused
-ir out.
(SOMEBODY overpaid their "extra carriage return" bill. I'm just sayin'.)
-ir out.
- Mood:
awake
HAPPY ALL-CAPS DAY, EVERYONE
(THERE'S EVEN A SALE ON AT ZAZZLE -GO BUY SOME SMIDGEON SWAG ON SALE!)
-IR OUT
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Employment, I has it. SRSLY!
I started at the new job (which nobody knows about, I know) today, and I find there's more and more to like about it with each passing moment. :)
So I'm a User Interface Designer at StarCite now, working on software which interfaces event planners and hospitality companies for event bidding, and that's the dullest part.
The best part, of course, is I HAVE A JOB.
Following that, they're willing to pay me for something I'm good at, and pay well, too. There are benefits that are not aimed at a lowest common denominator like my last comany - "some of you, we figure will steal from us and abuse benefits, so all of you get sucky benefits".
I don't have to punch a clock.
Hell, I don't even have to drive - the office is LITERALLY upstairs from Philly's Suburban Station. It might take 45 to get to and from, but I don't have to drive any of it. I can't tell you how cool that is.
My manager's pretty cool, too. Hi, alysten! Thanks for lobbying for me!
I do apologise for telling anyone much of anything about this, but I felt as soon as I did, I would jinx it. So, I waited until it was real (I have a door card and everything!) to tell everyone. Rest assured I will now tell anyone willing to listen. :)
---
I spent today getting stuff set up - email, voicemail, stapler, what have you. I received some company swag (drinking vessels, mainly) my door card and my computer, and met some of the folks there. Glazed over quite a bit trying to wrap my mind around some of the more esoteric elements of the underlying software. Had a really nice lunch (thanks again, alysten). Shared Amish Cinnamon Deathbread.
And, it's Friends-Killing night, too. So, yay.
-ir out. (and employed, did I mention that?)
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- Location:US, Pennsylvania, Bucks, Richboro
There are two parts to Dubai, the Old city and the New city.
The Old city is 15 years old.
I r amused.
-ir out.
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I put some chicken breasts in the fridge yesterday to defrost for tonight, and this afternoon decided to pull out my prized possesion from high school - Everyday Cooking with Jacques Pepin.
My uncle gave me that years and years ago, and I loved it. There are about three recipies where the spine is broken so the book lays open, and the damage which comes from giving a tween a cookbook and having them use it. Hell, I brought it with me on a scout trip one year.
So with the defrosted chicken, I made mustard chicken - my be-all, end-all favorite. The Eggs Jeanette are good, but the mustard chicken was what I pulled out if I needed to impress (even while camping). A culinary hadouken, if you will.
I haven't made the dish in many years, but it proved it's worth tonight. :) I say that, because it came out AWESOME even though I was constantly distracted by yelling at the kids - it takes a lot of effort to avoid killing one's progeny, especially while surrounded by frypans and chef's knives.
So anyway, one thing I realized is that I very well not have made mustard chicken since moving to the state... thirteen years ago. It's also possible that I haven't made it since becoming observant, but I can't be sure. This is only an issue since it's a chicken recipie which begins with 3 tablespoons of butter. :) I used science instead. (For a little while, we used a brand of margarine with the claim to fame of being formulated by food scientists at Brandeis, so we call all magarine 'science' now.)
Anyhoo! I measure success tonight by the notable second helping Becczilla had, and the fact that Mr. "You KNOW I hate chicken" K-man finished his. And his corn, and his broccoli. AJ gave up some of hers so B could have her seconds, and quite graciously.
Now my only problem is keeping myself from eating the leftover gravy. It's Sooo good, I can TELL it will kill me.
So despite the yelling and fighting, dinner felt really good.
-ir out.
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2 notes:
1. The feedback stops quickly.
2. It's funnier with Wil Wheaton than with monkeys, for once. :)
-ir out
- Mood: impressed
- Music:JoCo PAX concert footage
collin_m . Hope it's happy, even if you are a no-birthday-record havin' luddite. :D"STATE OF NJ - LA UEMPLOYMEN" <-- This is not a typo. This is how it comes in.
Those crazy Francophile government Jersey-folk.
- Mood: amused
spinpsychology suggested I needed pictures or it never happened... I realized I never posted them. Well, ( here they are now )-ir out
Wha-POW!
The competition is ON in our house. Wednesday night, annyswolf impressed the Tads by killing a mouse with a shoe. argenttyger surmised she has mouse-killing poultice packs on her shoe heels, and it may be true... Her denials have been a bit on te half-hearted side. :)
That said, today has been my day on the hunt, with Becczilla as my spotter. She was excellent at sighting the critter all day, but I had some shoe-aim troubles. So it looked for a while like annyswolf was the Great White Hunter in this house, but I turned it around in the clutch - not five minutes ago, I wiped out today's mouse with a crosstrainer. (And, I might add, without the aid of poultice packs.) BOO YAH.
So it appears we have our specialties, my wife and I - she has her Poutlice Packs of Mousedoom, whereas I, like the Native Americans, depend on stealth to get near enough to deliver the Fatal Sneaker of a Thousand Deaths.
Lucky for us, the current crop of meese seem to be juveniles, and therefore dumb enough to venture out where we can see them. Unluckilly for the meese, their presence upsets the rabbits, so we have no choice but to respond with extreme prejudice.
In other news... um, Shannah Tovah tikah tayvu! Also happy birthday to thomas_delbroc today, and katyaehal day after tomorrow.
-ir out.
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- Location:US, Pennsylvania, Butler
