Ahh, I love a long weekend. Even one that does its best to ring in the official start of summer with the hottest weather I've encountered since last summer. I sure hope that's not a harbinger of things to come!
It wasn't a particularly restful weekend -- we had Jess over on Saturday afternoon to have a sleepover with Penny, and then Sunday KT and Kevin came down to pick her up and we had a cookout with them before they went home. (Mmm, venison burgers...)
And then we had a lot of leftover cookout stuff -- hot dogs, corn on the cob, and a whole watermelon we'd been too full to cut into Sunday evening, so Monday we had Braz and Adin and crew over so they could do laundry and we cooked out again (this time with sausages instead of venison for the adults).
So there was lots of running around and shrieking and giggling and noise and parents being needed to mediate issues and cleaning of messes. There was shucking of corn and mixing of drinks and grilling of meats and carving of melons. We offered to set up the sprinkler for the kids to play in, but Penny scorned it, so we didn't. Alex wasn't quite asleep when everyone came over on Monday, so naturally he didn't get any nap at all -- but was not too terribly fussy about it (though he leaned on either Matt or I for the entire duration of The Wizard of Oz when Matt put that in as a way to get the kids to calm down for a bit, and I think that doubled as a rest, if not a nap, for him).
I finally gave in to a long-standing urge and bought a snow-cone machine maker on Friday, along with three bottles of sugar-free flavor syrup. That turned out to be the Best. Idea. EVER. No calories, no carbs, no guilt, and every time over the weekend that the kids started making me crazy and I needed them to quiet down and sit still for ten minutes, I'd fire up the machine and squirt guilt-free syrup and everyone would sit down and shut up and eat shaved ice. Yay! It's a cheapie little machine and I expect it'll be nonfunctional by the end of the summer, but that's okay -- by then, I'll have gotten my money's worth out of it.
It was a good weekend, in the main, and we had fun and ate and enjoyed ourselves and welcomed summer properly in with excellent food and even better company.
But now I need a day or two off so I can recover from my long weekend.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
In and Out
So my "empty" schedule for this week is busier than expected, due to: a) one software delivery from last week that got delayed, and b) one software delivery for next week that needs to be prepped in advance because of the holiday on Monday. There's also some other administrivia-type work to be done, but that stuff can pretty much be done whenever.
I'm still taking some time off this week, but not as much as I'd expected. I took yesterday afternoon off; I'm working today; and I'm taking Wednesday off. But Thursday and Friday are both still up in the air. If I had my way, I'd work Thursday and half the day Friday, but given how slow the documents are likely to be for next week's software delivery, it's more likely that I'll work half the day Thursday and all day Friday. But we'll see, I guess. Not having to burn through as much of my vacation time is a good thing -- I just wish I could make plans instead of calling it at the last minute.
So my posting this week may be a little sporadic.Sorry about that. But you haven't been missing much, anyway. All I'm doing outside of work is playing Dungeon Raider (curse you, Wil Wheaton!) and trying to write two different stories. And picking out movies to put on my iPad to take with me to the gym and Mexico (I ripped Season One of Leverage yesterday).
I'm still taking some time off this week, but not as much as I'd expected. I took yesterday afternoon off; I'm working today; and I'm taking Wednesday off. But Thursday and Friday are both still up in the air. If I had my way, I'd work Thursday and half the day Friday, but given how slow the documents are likely to be for next week's software delivery, it's more likely that I'll work half the day Thursday and all day Friday. But we'll see, I guess. Not having to burn through as much of my vacation time is a good thing -- I just wish I could make plans instead of calling it at the last minute.
So my posting this week may be a little sporadic.Sorry about that. But you haven't been missing much, anyway. All I'm doing outside of work is playing Dungeon Raider (curse you, Wil Wheaton!) and trying to write two different stories. And picking out movies to put on my iPad to take with me to the gym and Mexico (I ripped Season One of Leverage yesterday).
Monday, May 23, 2011
I should post something, but my brain is completely nonfunctional this morning. Guess I'll just go for the dry weekend report...
Braz and Adin and crew (henceforth referred to as "the Hegemony" for reasons that would make no sense and be really boring if I tried to explain it) came over Friday night; we put all the kids to bed and stayed up late drinking and playing silly games. We did a couple of rounds of Guillotine, which was giggly fun, though I think what it really needs is for players to deliver a Last Words speech for each noble they collect or action card they play.
Then, since I'd spent an hour printing and cutting out the cards, we played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity, which is like Apples to Apples, but offensive, NSFW, and politically incorrect. Needless to say, it was a big hit for us. (It especially worked for me, because while you gather points in the game, it's not particularly competitive.)
Saturday was mostly quiet. Matt took Penny to Ray's birthday party that evening, and while they were gone, Alex's cough devolved into a full-blown illness, complete with a 103-degree fever. He spent most of the evening laying on the couch with his head on my lap and watching videos. I let the fever burn while he was up, but gave him a dose of children's Motrin before bed, on the theory that helping him get comfortable enough to sleep was more important than continuing to let the fever burn out the germs.
In the meanwhile, Matt and Penny had eaten dinner at Ray's party (mm, pizza and cake!) and Alex didn't have much appetite, so I ordered sushi delivery. (The restaurant has a name, but I have no idea what it is, because thanks to Adin, we all just call it "Forbidden Sushi.") I ate my salad and was retrieving my miso soup from the bag when I realized the bag held no sushi. By that point, it was late and I was tired and I was debating even bothering to call them back to complain about it, but before I made up my mind, the guy came back with the sushi. Yay, Forbidden Sushi guy!
Alex was mostly better Sunday morning but still running a low-grade fever, but since it didn't get any worse, the Hegemony came over that afternoon to borrow our washer and dryer and stuck around to have homemade fajitas with us for dinner. Yum!
Alex was all better this morning, so yay for a quick-burn bug, I guess, and not having to miss school. (Though what with the whole needing to take time off thing, it wouldn't have really been a problem for me -- I just wouldn't be getting to do as much fun stuff.) Of course, Penny's blood sugar, after being low or borderline low all yesterday, popped up 100 points overnight, so we're half-braced for her to get hit with whatever Alex had over the weekend.
So, that was my weekend. 'Scuse me now while I go get some coffee.
Braz and Adin and crew (henceforth referred to as "the Hegemony" for reasons that would make no sense and be really boring if I tried to explain it) came over Friday night; we put all the kids to bed and stayed up late drinking and playing silly games. We did a couple of rounds of Guillotine, which was giggly fun, though I think what it really needs is for players to deliver a Last Words speech for each noble they collect or action card they play.
Then, since I'd spent an hour printing and cutting out the cards, we played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity, which is like Apples to Apples, but offensive, NSFW, and politically incorrect. Needless to say, it was a big hit for us. (It especially worked for me, because while you gather points in the game, it's not particularly competitive.)
Saturday was mostly quiet. Matt took Penny to Ray's birthday party that evening, and while they were gone, Alex's cough devolved into a full-blown illness, complete with a 103-degree fever. He spent most of the evening laying on the couch with his head on my lap and watching videos. I let the fever burn while he was up, but gave him a dose of children's Motrin before bed, on the theory that helping him get comfortable enough to sleep was more important than continuing to let the fever burn out the germs.
In the meanwhile, Matt and Penny had eaten dinner at Ray's party (mm, pizza and cake!) and Alex didn't have much appetite, so I ordered sushi delivery. (The restaurant has a name, but I have no idea what it is, because thanks to Adin, we all just call it "Forbidden Sushi.") I ate my salad and was retrieving my miso soup from the bag when I realized the bag held no sushi. By that point, it was late and I was tired and I was debating even bothering to call them back to complain about it, but before I made up my mind, the guy came back with the sushi. Yay, Forbidden Sushi guy!
Alex was mostly better Sunday morning but still running a low-grade fever, but since it didn't get any worse, the Hegemony came over that afternoon to borrow our washer and dryer and stuck around to have homemade fajitas with us for dinner. Yum!
Alex was all better this morning, so yay for a quick-burn bug, I guess, and not having to miss school. (Though what with the whole needing to take time off thing, it wouldn't have really been a problem for me -- I just wouldn't be getting to do as much fun stuff.) Of course, Penny's blood sugar, after being low or borderline low all yesterday, popped up 100 points overnight, so we're half-braced for her to get hit with whatever Alex had over the weekend.
So, that was my weekend. 'Scuse me now while I go get some coffee.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Time Off For Good Behavior
My office runs, usually, about a dozen individual projects at any given time. It's been as high as eighteen, and dropped as low as six, but as a rule, around a dozen projects.
If you've never worked as a government contractor, you may not know this, but the way you spend the money on those contracts is extremely specific and controlled by a ridiculous number of laws. What it comes down to is this: at the end of each day, I have to divide my time very carefully into a number of buckets, depending on what task I was working on for which project. Occasionally, due to the nature of my particular job, my work can't be neatly divided. Sometimes my work equally benefits all our projects, or it's support work for the office as a whole and doesn't benefit any of the projects themselves.
Those tasks get charged to one of a number of special buckets that I'll lump together (because there's about six of them, and even I have trouble figuring out which is which) as "overhead." This is basically money that the company sets aside to cover these non-specific support type tasks. I'm one of our office's biggest overhead users, but I'm not the only one.
This year, the company -- in an effort to Improve Shareholder Value -- decided to drastically slash the amount of overhead money we're allowed to use. Which means that time charged to overhead beyond the small amount they gave us is coming directly out of our profit. Spending profit does not Improve Shareholder Value, as you may have guessed.
So right now, we're in a bit of a dry spell. We only have eight projects, and most of them don't have a lot of actual work at the moment. Looking at the calendar, we've got about a month ahead of us where there just isn't a lot of work, before some of the new contracts we just got kick in. Once those contracts kick in, we'll be all kinds of busy.
But in the meantime, we've got a month to kill... and we've already burned through most of our overhead for the quarter. If the Corporate Pinheads check their bottom lines and notice that we're burning profit, they will come down here and yell and scream at my boss and then demand that he lay some people off. Even though we've got work lined up. Because that's how Corporate Pinheads think. At least, around here.
My boss is trying to prevent this. He does not like it when Corporate so much as remembers this office even exists, much less starts trying to "help" us. So he's asking us to please do whatever we can to limit our overhead charging. Up to and including taking vacation time.
My schedule has been a little sparse for the last couple of weeks, and next week, has only a single delivery. So I'll be taking two or three days off, to help out our overhead situation.
Now I just have to decide what to do with it...
If you've never worked as a government contractor, you may not know this, but the way you spend the money on those contracts is extremely specific and controlled by a ridiculous number of laws. What it comes down to is this: at the end of each day, I have to divide my time very carefully into a number of buckets, depending on what task I was working on for which project. Occasionally, due to the nature of my particular job, my work can't be neatly divided. Sometimes my work equally benefits all our projects, or it's support work for the office as a whole and doesn't benefit any of the projects themselves.
Those tasks get charged to one of a number of special buckets that I'll lump together (because there's about six of them, and even I have trouble figuring out which is which) as "overhead." This is basically money that the company sets aside to cover these non-specific support type tasks. I'm one of our office's biggest overhead users, but I'm not the only one.
This year, the company -- in an effort to Improve Shareholder Value -- decided to drastically slash the amount of overhead money we're allowed to use. Which means that time charged to overhead beyond the small amount they gave us is coming directly out of our profit. Spending profit does not Improve Shareholder Value, as you may have guessed.
So right now, we're in a bit of a dry spell. We only have eight projects, and most of them don't have a lot of actual work at the moment. Looking at the calendar, we've got about a month ahead of us where there just isn't a lot of work, before some of the new contracts we just got kick in. Once those contracts kick in, we'll be all kinds of busy.
But in the meantime, we've got a month to kill... and we've already burned through most of our overhead for the quarter. If the Corporate Pinheads check their bottom lines and notice that we're burning profit, they will come down here and yell and scream at my boss and then demand that he lay some people off. Even though we've got work lined up. Because that's how Corporate Pinheads think. At least, around here.
My boss is trying to prevent this. He does not like it when Corporate so much as remembers this office even exists, much less starts trying to "help" us. So he's asking us to please do whatever we can to limit our overhead charging. Up to and including taking vacation time.
My schedule has been a little sparse for the last couple of weeks, and next week, has only a single delivery. So I'll be taking two or three days off, to help out our overhead situation.
Now I just have to decide what to do with it...
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Improvements
I've been mildly addicted to playing Words With Friends lately. It's essentially a smartphone/iPad equivalent of Scrabble. At any given time, I'm in the middle of games with five or six different friends. It's interesting to see variations emerge in the ways different people play, and it's fun even when I'm having my ass handed to me (as a couple of my friends do on a regular basis).
It could be better with some variations, though. For example, games with more than two players would be nice, though I suppose it's possible limiting the game to two players may be one thing that keeps the game from infringing on Scrabble's trademark.
Mostly, however, I want dictionary editing options. Braz tried to play "oxen" the other day, and the game told him it wasn't a word. Um, yes it is! I'd like to see, for example, an option to submit a word to the other player(s), possibly with a note of explanation -- if they agree it's valid, then the word can stay; otherwise, the play counts as a pass. Yes, it's a system that could be abused by the approving player, but they might want to submit words of their own at some point, so they'd have to be careful.
And it could make for theme games that ignore the usual rules: allowing the names of famous people, for example. Or permitting fictional words from your favorite sci-fi and fantasy franchises, say. (I want to watch Braz and Jeremy go toe-to-toe on a Lord of the Rings game, right now.)
It could be better with some variations, though. For example, games with more than two players would be nice, though I suppose it's possible limiting the game to two players may be one thing that keeps the game from infringing on Scrabble's trademark.
Mostly, however, I want dictionary editing options. Braz tried to play "oxen" the other day, and the game told him it wasn't a word. Um, yes it is! I'd like to see, for example, an option to submit a word to the other player(s), possibly with a note of explanation -- if they agree it's valid, then the word can stay; otherwise, the play counts as a pass. Yes, it's a system that could be abused by the approving player, but they might want to submit words of their own at some point, so they'd have to be careful.
And it could make for theme games that ignore the usual rules: allowing the names of famous people, for example. Or permitting fictional words from your favorite sci-fi and fantasy franchises, say. (I want to watch Braz and Jeremy go toe-to-toe on a Lord of the Rings game, right now.)
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
BrainDrain
Buh. Mental collapse. I didn't post yesterday because I didn't have anything to say. I'm thinking a lot, about a lot of different things, but none of it is organized enough to post here (and given how scattered some of my posts have been, that's saying a lot!) and lots of it is interlinked with other thoughts.
For example -- publication and e-books and piracy. I've read some articles and essays on rising self-publishing models, now that e-books are becoming more and more popular and print-on-demand is becoming more and more affordable. I don't think there's any question that traditional publishing houses still add value -- but it's a different set of values, or at least a different distribution of those values, than it used to be.
This is substantially linked to the issue of computer piracy -- if an e-book is pirated, does it actually hurt or help sales? Neil Gaiman posted a link on Twitter last night touching on this, but the answer is... "sometimes" and I like that the article calls for some serious study to determine the other factors.
Which ties into my thoughts about what I want to do with this writing sideline I've got going, and what I want to do with my short story when its rights are returned to me in September (the charity story contract is only for one year, as opposed to most of the rest of the publisher's contracts, which are for two). Do I want to try to spruce it up and reprint it? Self-publish it on Amazon for 99 cents? Offer it up as a free read?
Thinking about that particular sideline has me also thinking about sex, and sexual psychology -- I bought a book on Kindle last week on the topic that completely fascinated me, and I'm trying to figure out how to fit what I learned into what I'm writing -- and whether I even should. (For example: Despite the subject matter, about 80% of my audience is female. Does it make sense, then, to try to make my male characters act and think more like "real" men, when it's those unrealistic qualities that appeal to the majority of my readers?)
And the psychology aspect of that ties into a book I'm reading now, for book club, which is about a man trying to follow the rules set down in the Bible as literally as possible for one year. (He started out as an agnostic with the understanding that he's practicing a psychology experiment on himself.) Up to this point, I hadn't much been using the Kindle app's ability to highlight or make notes in texts, but in this one, I've got dozens of highlights and at least ten or so notes with my own thoughts on various points. It's fascinating stuff.
See? I'm kind of all over the map. And this isn't even touching on my thoughts about Penny's growing independence as a diabetic, or Alex's intellectual development and his new gibberish speech, or my sex life, or the assorted games I'm playing on my iPad/iPhone, or the family's social plans for the next few weeks, or my plans for assorted summer activities (my summer is already just about slam full, and it's not even here yet).
My brain, it is full. Does anyone know how to turn it off?
For example -- publication and e-books and piracy. I've read some articles and essays on rising self-publishing models, now that e-books are becoming more and more popular and print-on-demand is becoming more and more affordable. I don't think there's any question that traditional publishing houses still add value -- but it's a different set of values, or at least a different distribution of those values, than it used to be.
This is substantially linked to the issue of computer piracy -- if an e-book is pirated, does it actually hurt or help sales? Neil Gaiman posted a link on Twitter last night touching on this, but the answer is... "sometimes" and I like that the article calls for some serious study to determine the other factors.
Which ties into my thoughts about what I want to do with this writing sideline I've got going, and what I want to do with my short story when its rights are returned to me in September (the charity story contract is only for one year, as opposed to most of the rest of the publisher's contracts, which are for two). Do I want to try to spruce it up and reprint it? Self-publish it on Amazon for 99 cents? Offer it up as a free read?
Thinking about that particular sideline has me also thinking about sex, and sexual psychology -- I bought a book on Kindle last week on the topic that completely fascinated me, and I'm trying to figure out how to fit what I learned into what I'm writing -- and whether I even should. (For example: Despite the subject matter, about 80% of my audience is female. Does it make sense, then, to try to make my male characters act and think more like "real" men, when it's those unrealistic qualities that appeal to the majority of my readers?)
And the psychology aspect of that ties into a book I'm reading now, for book club, which is about a man trying to follow the rules set down in the Bible as literally as possible for one year. (He started out as an agnostic with the understanding that he's practicing a psychology experiment on himself.) Up to this point, I hadn't much been using the Kindle app's ability to highlight or make notes in texts, but in this one, I've got dozens of highlights and at least ten or so notes with my own thoughts on various points. It's fascinating stuff.
See? I'm kind of all over the map. And this isn't even touching on my thoughts about Penny's growing independence as a diabetic, or Alex's intellectual development and his new gibberish speech, or my sex life, or the assorted games I'm playing on my iPad/iPhone, or the family's social plans for the next few weeks, or my plans for assorted summer activities (my summer is already just about slam full, and it's not even here yet).
My brain, it is full. Does anyone know how to turn it off?
Monday, May 16, 2011
Cheated
Matt had to work this weekend. A lot. Like, 9am until after midnight on Saturday, and then 9am until 4:30pm on Sunday (and then some time spent working from home that evening). Which cheats both of us out of the weekend -- him, because he has to work, and me, because I'm pulling the single parent gig.
So I really, really wasn't prepared for the work week to start this morning. And the less said about this morning and its distinctive flavor of Monday, the better. (Nothing major, just one little frustration piled on top of another, on top of another, on top of... you get the idea.)
But instead of whining (more), I'm going to tell you about the awesome thing that happened this weekend. Friday afternoon, Penny was trying to convince me that she wanted a sleepover with one of her little friends, and I was trying to explain to her how other parents don't usually know how to give insulin shots, and that sleepovers would be a lot easier when she'd learned how to do her own shots -- that way, the parents just have to help with food measurement and carb counting and then calling us to figure dosages.
"But I can do my own shots!" she protested. "I did it before!"
"Well, I need to see you do it, and I need to see you've practiced at it."
She pouted, but wound up having a sleepover at Adin's, (having friends who are medical professionals rocks), so she was happy.
But on Saturday, as we were getting ready for lunch, I said, "Do you want to do your own shot, and show me you can do it?"
Penny hesitated, waffled a bit, and then bargained: she would do the shot if I would hold the shot-blocker for her.
Deal.
So she used her knee to pucker up her arm the way they showed them at diabetes camp, and I put the shot-blocker down for her, and she picked up the needle... hesitated one last time... and then did it.
She did it again at snacktime. And dinnertime (which, being a leg shot, she held the shot-blocker herself). I did her bedtime shot, but she did all her own shots on Sunday, including the bigger bedtime shot. For a couple of them, she not only gave herself the shot, but drew the insulin, after I'd told her how much to draw.
I was incredibly proud of her. So was Matt, when he finally got to see it at dinner last night.
And now I'll feel much more comfortable with her going on sleepovers to houses that don't contain a medical professional or fellow diabetic. (I'll still have to brief the parents, of course, but it's a lot easier for people to agree to tracking food and limiting the random snacking than it is for them to agree to give someone else's child a shot.) And I'll feel a little easier about putting her on an insulin pump -- she needs to know how to do shots for "just in case" events (e.g., the infusion set getting pulled loose and not having a spare on hand).
But mostly, I'm just incredibly stinking proud of her for taking that next step toward independence. (This morning, she was trying to work out how many units of insulin she needed for her breakfast. I talked her through it, but since they haven't started multiplication yet, let alone division, it was kind of tricky. At least breakfast is easy, because we're dividing by 10.)
So I really, really wasn't prepared for the work week to start this morning. And the less said about this morning and its distinctive flavor of Monday, the better. (Nothing major, just one little frustration piled on top of another, on top of another, on top of... you get the idea.)
But instead of whining (more), I'm going to tell you about the awesome thing that happened this weekend. Friday afternoon, Penny was trying to convince me that she wanted a sleepover with one of her little friends, and I was trying to explain to her how other parents don't usually know how to give insulin shots, and that sleepovers would be a lot easier when she'd learned how to do her own shots -- that way, the parents just have to help with food measurement and carb counting and then calling us to figure dosages.
"But I can do my own shots!" she protested. "I did it before!"
"Well, I need to see you do it, and I need to see you've practiced at it."
She pouted, but wound up having a sleepover at Adin's, (having friends who are medical professionals rocks), so she was happy.
But on Saturday, as we were getting ready for lunch, I said, "Do you want to do your own shot, and show me you can do it?"
Penny hesitated, waffled a bit, and then bargained: she would do the shot if I would hold the shot-blocker for her.
Deal.
So she used her knee to pucker up her arm the way they showed them at diabetes camp, and I put the shot-blocker down for her, and she picked up the needle... hesitated one last time... and then did it.
She did it again at snacktime. And dinnertime (which, being a leg shot, she held the shot-blocker herself). I did her bedtime shot, but she did all her own shots on Sunday, including the bigger bedtime shot. For a couple of them, she not only gave herself the shot, but drew the insulin, after I'd told her how much to draw.
I was incredibly proud of her. So was Matt, when he finally got to see it at dinner last night.
And now I'll feel much more comfortable with her going on sleepovers to houses that don't contain a medical professional or fellow diabetic. (I'll still have to brief the parents, of course, but it's a lot easier for people to agree to tracking food and limiting the random snacking than it is for them to agree to give someone else's child a shot.) And I'll feel a little easier about putting her on an insulin pump -- she needs to know how to do shots for "just in case" events (e.g., the infusion set getting pulled loose and not having a spare on hand).
But mostly, I'm just incredibly stinking proud of her for taking that next step toward independence. (This morning, she was trying to work out how many units of insulin she needed for her breakfast. I talked her through it, but since they haven't started multiplication yet, let alone division, it was kind of tricky. At least breakfast is easy, because we're dividing by 10.)
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