Working at Night After Work

I have a project for a client who didn't know for certain when they'd need it, and since they sent me home with a laptop and I can work from home, I planned to do it at night. What I didn't know was that it would take so long. It took about an hour and a half to back up the database, and it's not a very big database. Imagine if it was a large, active client like some of the ones I go to? I can't complain because I changed into my jammies and I'm watching TV as I'm doing this, but it's a lot of "hurry up and wait". I need to process a reverse split (if you don't know what that is, you don't care, trust me) and then do a recon and send the file to E*Trade so employees can see their stock tomorrow when the market opens at 6:30 am. I was told that some people who are "higher up" asked about their stock today. You know what? I don't care if they are "higher up". If an employee wants to see their stock, they should all be able to see it, whether they are "higher up" or not. That always gets my dander up.

I was in SF today and it was a beautiful day.

No pictures tonight. I'm watching Home and Garden TV and watching the process go very
S L O W L Y . As long as it doesn't get hung up, I can't complain.

Sunday 11-11-07

If you are into sevens and elevens, this is your day! It's Sunday and while it rained a lot starting yesterday afternoon and much of the night, the gray at the beginning of the day turned into a beautiful, cloudless fall day.

Diann and I felted our hats. She's right - felting is cool. Here are my hats before felting. Real "Joan" colors.

Here is Diann's hat before felting. Definitely Diann colors.

Checking on my hat while it's washing:

After felting but before shaping:

Here are my hats shaped and drying:

And I am doing the "model pose" with my pink hat:

It's like magic!

Saturday - lots of errands and then rain!

Sunrise this morning was beautiful!

I'll say it again...we really lucked out with the weather when my parents visited last weekend. Perhaps they brought the 75 degree temps with them from LA.

This morning we went to:

- a garage sale

- a flea market at the local college (see photos below)

- Kohl's (because they sent $10 gift cards in the mail, but they'd better get more prepared for the holiday shopping season because most shoppers didn't know how to get in one line and then proceed to the next available register)

- Half-Price Books (which used to be so convenient and close)

- Linens 'n Things (for one gift, but found another instead)

- Jo Anne's Fabrics (nothing I wanted)

- Trader Joe's

- a jewelry store (where I finally got batteries in two watches that I stopped wearing about two years ago when the batteries quit)

and then finally H O M E. Just in time because then it rained.

We passed by the farm near where we used to live. Mr. Guardino owns the property. He's in his late 80s and we know the farm will become housing once his heirs take over. Our city council already designated it as "high density housing" so if (make that "when") someone builds on it, it must be high density housing. I once wrote him a letter thanking him for the farm.

The trees are on the Ohlone College property. Even when the flea market doesn't have anything of interest to us, it's still a beautiful site.

This looks like it was probably an orchard at one time, and you can see the big houses peeking thru. This is just north of the campus.

Look how these trees lean? I was glad I had my camera with me today. Sometimes I think about bringing it, but this time I did bring it!

When Will bought me a digital camera for a present several years ago, I didn't think I'd use it. He knew I would. I take pictures of EVERYTHING, and those that don't make the cut get deleted. I was in the passenger seat, not driving.This is our first fireplace fire of fall 2007.

Last weekend we rearranged the TV room so we could fit two extra chairs for my parents, but this week the bar stools are back (holding clean and folded laundry waiting to be put away) and you can see the pillow and throw on my recliner, with the TV turned around so we can be in the living room with the fireplace and still watch TV.

Alex is so tall he stood next to my desk and put his front paws on it. Then he left, and with a running leap, he jumped up and is sitting behind my monitor where I don't think he's ever been. This has been a favorite spot of Mowry's, but Mowry is much smaller. Does he look happy? Well, it's hard to tell with Alex, but I think he's very happy.

TGIF November 9th, 2007

Is it really November 9th already? This is the time of year that seems to fly by. I'm not a fan of the holiday season, especially when we get Christmas commercials from our retails friends this early. I don't want to hear Christmas carols this early (I haven't yet) and I'm not sure I need to see Christmas items in the store yet, UNLESS it's a store that sells things to make, then we need them out early, but if it's Christmas decorations, etc., it's too damned early.

Nordstrom used to be the only store who put an ad in the newspaper around Thanksgiving telling readers they want their employees to enjoy the holiday and will put out Christmas merchandise after Thanksgiving. I don't know if they still do that, but hooray for Nordstrom. I may have even posted something like this before because it really annoys me to see Christmas in October. It's just greed. Why is a holiday season unsuccessful if sales didn't far surpass last year's sales? At least wait until after Halloween. Unless you're a craft supply store. Sheesh, why don't some stores just have Christmas stuff out all year. And by the way, not everyone celebrates Christmas.



This weekend we have to cut and trim things growing out front of our house. The picture above is from last year with the sale pending sign - escrow closed on October 6, 2006, so it was before that. Notice how short the bushes are.

The pictures below were taken today. The plant between the two windows up front and the plant next to the sale pending sign above and the plants to the right of the driveway have grown and need some trimming!

It's rare, but we occasionally get all 3 cats in the same place, and this time they are in 3 tiers:

Curious Mowry looking out the window on top, lazy boy Alex in the middle, and old Cinders all curled up and sleeping below. Alex is doing so well, and we are crossing our fingers that that continues. Doesn't he look happy here with his eyes closed on the cat cushion?

Mowry has been sleeping on my chair when I'm not here, but yesterday I came home and found Alex on my chair. This afternoon I finished up early at a client's office and was able to beat the traffic. That doesn't mean I didn't still encounter stupid, unsafe drivers, like the man who was in the right lane on the Dumbarton Bridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbarton_Bridge_(California) until he encountered a very slow moving truck (that's what the right lane is for, dummy man) and he signaled and got into my lane, but I had to break in order for him to get there since there wasn't room in the lane for both of us), but there were fewer cars at that hour, and maybe fewer jerks.

When I came home and got onto my computer, instead of finding Mowry on my chair, he joined me for a few minutes on the desk. I happened to have a picture on my screen of my blue hat that is now completed, and that I am going to felt this weekend.

My new haircut. It was getting a little too long before.

Have a nice weekend!

Tuesday November 6th

I was told by my (one?) loyal blog fan that I hadn't updated it in a long time, so here I go.

Today is one year since we moved into our house. It seems like a lot longer, and that is good. We love it here. It's perfect for us. I'm looking at this picture from the house listing, and today those bushes are a lot higher and need to be cut BADLY!

Some people come in for the first time and mention the things we can do - "you can knock down that wall and make the kitchen bigger, or "that has to go" usually refers to the chandelier over the dinette set that I no longer notice, or the floor in our little master bathroom that I do notice, but it is what it is. I told someone, "you must have paid a lot less for your house (on this block, since you bought it years ago) because we don't have money left for those cosmetic changes" or something to that effect. I say it nicely, but it's true. Some people with our model have done incredible upgrades, but we like retro. If you watch "House Hunters" on HGTV, most people notice the work that needs to be done. "It's outdated" is the most common groan by realtors and house hunters, but we like our retro house. It's a 1955 house! Some of it was updated in the 1970s, but we love it that way.

My parents visited us this weekend. We had a lovely visit. Last time they were here in May we went for a ride on the Niles Canyon Railway, and then we went to casino night where Will's former band played, but at their request we didn't plan much this time. We had lunch out twice, (once after Will picked them up from Oakland Airport and I was working, but I got away early and met them where they were eating lunch) and once we met Ken and Diann for our favorite spring rolls at The Nile Cafe. I made dinner twice, we watched some TV, visited, took a walk around the neighborhood twice, and walked in town thru a knitting store and a few antique stores. Ken and Diann came over for lunch on Sunday to finish up the leftover spring rolls that were a result of a misunderstanding that led to a double order (NO problem!), and then we were off to San Francisco Airport.Mowry helped me knit while we visited. We moved the two bar stools out of the TV room and moved in two small chairs so we could all fit.

We lucked out with weather. My mom gets cold if it gets below 72 degrees, and during the day it was an unusual-for-the-bay-area in November temperature of 75 degrees and gorgeous, with the exception of some also unusual-for-the-bay-area haze. We were even able to eat dinner in the sunroom.

Alex wasn't happy to have visitors, but since we closed off our bedroom, where my parents slept, he was on the sofabed in the guest room, where we slept, and my parents got to see him. Once we opened the bed, he hid underneath most of the time. Mowry came out and visited.

Friday November 2nd

This is from my online viewing of the status of the Southwest flight my parents are on. It was a pretty table on the SW site, but when I copied and pasted, I got this. Same data, harder to read. Here's the link, but it may not stay on the page after awhile:
http://www.southwest.com/cgi-bin/flifo?flight_number=392&origin=LAX&cnx_number=&cnx_code=&destination=OAK&Arrival=1

View Flight Status Information Friday, November 2, 2007 03:08 PM CDT (1:03 pm PDT)
Below is the most updated information about the flight you selected.This information may change as the flight status changes.

Arrival Date: Friday, November 2, 2007 Flight Number: 392
City: Los Angeles (LAX) ScheduledTime: 12:00 PM Gate: 5

Arrival: Oakland (OAK) Scheduled Time: 01:10 PM Status: Arrived
Gate: 28

This was posted at 1:03 pm for a flight that was due in at 1:10 pm. Is it possible that Southwest was not only on time, but early? Maybe they are just ALWAYS late when I am flying.

More later.

The parents are coming for a visit

No pictures today, just links, because I'm at a client's office eating lunch so I don't have access to any of my pictures.

My parents hadn't been up to visit from LA in YEARS, so we convinced them to come up last May, and now, just a mere 6 months later, they are coming back! Last time we went for a ride on the Niles Canyon Railway with a few friends www.ncry.org and then there was casino night for the local little league at which Will's former band performed. I thought they might want to leave early since it could be loud, but these are people who love Las Vegas (are we really related?) and they loved it. This time we'll just visit. I can't think of anything to do and my dad keeps saying we need not do anything special, so we'll see. Saturday morning is usually garage sale day, and I found one estate sale and one garage sale that I may have to visit, so it's possible we'll do that.

I have a 'to-do' list before they get here -

1. Trader Joe's - Grocery shopping tonight www.traderjoes.com
2. Target tonight (I'm almost out of shower cleaner, so why didn't I buy this when I was at Target last week?) #1 and #2 are in the same shopping center! Boo hoo to the people in Fremont who whine because there's no Nordstrom or Whole Foods. We have Trader Joe's and Target - and Michael's and Marshall's - in THE SAME SHOPPING CENTER!. www.target.com
3. Change sheets on our bed - tomorrow morning before I drive to a client's office
4. ALMOST FORGOT - 24 hours before the flight, which is at noon-ish tomorrow, I can process the online checkin but they'll have to print the actual boarding passes online. I just did this. Apparently it didn't help that I wrote it on my calendar. Will I remember to do this on Saturday for the flight home Sunday? www.southwest.com (the most annoying airline, but they are cheapest and fly where I go, so while I threaten each time I'm in a Southwest line or annoying situation that I'd rather pay more and never use them again, I continue. This time I lost $50 for cancelling a flight and the credit expires soon, and I would have lost $50 more but my parents moved up their visit by a few weeks so they could use the credit.)
5. Will pick up parents at Oakland Airport Friday. www.oaklandairport.com I will be at a client in Redwood City - blech - that means driving and I'm spoiled. Even the most annoying BART ride (read below - people who don't carry tissues and sniff and snort the whole way, people who smell, people who talk loud, people who SHOULD drive in their cars and get away from me) are still better than driving across the bridge with the masses of drivers who think they are the only vehicles on the road and put us all in danger. Every time I go to this company, and thank goodness it isn't often because of the commute, there's a problem on the other bridge so more traffic on the one I take.
6. More laundry tonight? At least put away the laundry I did last night - clean towels, etc.
7. Clean the two bathrooms, especially the one the parents will be using - swap out the things we need, such as toothbrushes, etc., to the other bathroom.

And it's a "school night", so I hope I get home early!