Responsibility Ping Pong

Well, Customer orders three widgets and gets licenses for two widgets. We in tech support tell them, "Sales screwed up, call them and let them know you need another widget license."

Customer calls sales and says, "Yes, you should have another widget license. Just call tech support and tell them to make an replacement with the new widget license."

Customer calls us back and we in tech support tell them, "I'm sorry, but I can't authorize a replacement because I cannot add additional items."

Ah yes... Responsibility Ping Pong.

So anyway. I will now refer to my photo of utter bliss, the Dread Pirate Lewthwaite playing guitar.


If only I could be so happy every day!

I Know This Feeling

more cat pictures

It's Good To Be A Pirate

Everybody say "Avast"!

I am SOOOOO looking forward to Disney World!

Gripe Gripe Gripe

OK, so I am playing with my video capture box learning how to edit and convert the data so I can burn DVDs for the kids so they can watch their favorite shows. I'm not doing this to be a pirate, but so I can reclaim my DVR (kind of VCR-ish but more geeky). This keeps getting interrupted by this thing called WORK!

Ewwww...

So anyway, guy called in a couple of weeks ago and I had to walk him through completely configuring his VOIP PBX. Well, we told him he had stuff programmed all over the place and rather than do it by hand he should use our programming tools.

So, he did... Kind of.

The problem is he is STILL doing enough by hand to screw things up. So congratulations to me. I get to walk him through programming it AGAIN!

I am going to yank this guys credentials.

Recovering From The Holiday Weekend

Oh my goodness. I am pooped from the weekend.

Spent ALL DAY Saturday at the ball field as Christopher's team was in the playoffs. They played three games on Saturday in the brutal Texas heat and then they played another game on Sunday.

Tough weekend, I know all the kids were worn out.

I also played at a church for the first time since Cali's funeral. I really enjoyed myself and hope to do it again. Everyone took it easy on me and I only had to play three songs, so life is good.

In other news Andrew is mad at us for not celebrating him passing his TAKS test. Apparently his friends are getting a bunch of parties and taken out to eat and all. I guess I didn't understand why THIS ONE was so important even though it is the last one.

Perhaps we should have celebrated this one and not made a big deal out of graduation?

How I Love Thee

Have I said how much I love my wife (THE WIFE) lately? No?

Shame on me.

OK, so seriously. I love THE WIFE for all the little things she does (the big ones are appreciated as well). I love the way she is annoyed with me because I NEVER quote her correctly. I love the fact she comments on my blog about me having too much free time when I blog about an antenna ball (seriously, you would think I could find something more interesting than a goofy antenna ball and paper bag I use to make fun of the Rangers).

All in all, she is my love, my life and the reason I go on day after day.

Jen, I love you. No matter how big a dweeb I am, I love you and always will.

Sleepless In Seattle!

If only the movie had been like this, I would have enjoyed it more.

Danica Patrick

Would anyone really care what Danica Patrick has to say about racing if she wasn't a hot chick?

Does being a hot chick make up for being a so-so racer?

Discuss.

Life In A Cubicle

My laptop has been randomly resetting itself, so while I wait to see if it happens again I will share some insight on a day in my life.

Here at PHONE CO. INC. my area listens to Rangers' day games on my radio. Because they have a tendency to SUCK HARD, we have devised a barometer where one can quickly tell how the Rangers are doing.

I have a Jack In The Box Texas Rangers Antenna ball on my radio.

When they win, he looks like this.


When they lose, he looks like this.


Pretty simple huh?

Message For Me?

I think THE WIFE is trying to tell me something...




I just can't figure it out.

Lunch Bag

HA! I have returned.

Not Dead... Yet

Sorry, I am still alive, just very very busy.

Quick Rundown

Sato - Still cute
Red Legs Baseball - Going to the playoffs (YEA Chris)
Andrew - Still planning on the Navy
Ben - ... Still Ben
Lucie - Still the boss
Sadie - Still cute
THE WIFE - Still the love of my life
Me - Still crazy and overworked...

In funny news, I have a headhunter calling me and emailing me for some Microsoft evaluation job. Hmmmmm.

Trying To Keep A Chin Up

Terrible mood today. Enjoy this.


more cat pictures

Can You Say Relaxed?

Would you be nervous if you were going to bed and you saw this on your pillow?




Nope, he's not dead. THE WIFE says she thinks he was coming down off a catnip binge.

Princess / Terrorist

I have been a victim of a plot by my children to drive me insane. My two sweet, precious little girls are systematically teaming up to destroy my home and sanity.

Last night I hear Dozer barking like he does when he is playing rough with Sato. Sato is howling the "Help me, I don't want to play like this" howl. I turn around to discover Sadie has Sato by his hind legs swinging him in a circle as she spins around. Every time poor Sato swings over Dozer's head he is barking trying to intimidate poor Sato. All poor Sato can do is cry for help as the world flashes by.

I managed to save him from "Death By Love."

A little later THE WIFE accidentally knocks a wall decoration down. This is about a four foot piece of ironwork. Nothing too bad so I go to the garage to grab a couple of screws and by the time I get back (approximately 30 seconds later) the two girls have teamed up and a team carrying the ironwork across the living room to an undisclosed location.

Dad comes unglued.

Drunk Neighbor Alert

If anyone would like to see what a drunk neighbor (who we suspect to be part of La Raza's underground railroad) run around aimlessly while hooting and yelling, feel free to drop on by.

Depressing

You know, I usually enjoy working from home except in two cases.

One of which is extremely slow days where nothing happens. That makes for a vey long and boring day.

The other is when something hot lands on my desk and I can't get anyone who is actually "In" the office to answer their phone, email or IM.

So now, I have a hot issue and no way to look at it. I am sure things will be much calmer on the issue by morning when I am able to load it and test it myself.

Darn You Murphey!

OK, so THE WIFE wanted me to work from home today so if the weather gets bad she doesn't have to drag all the kids out in it. I agreed seeing as last week was just terribly busy and stress inducing and I worked off and on all weekend.

Now I think I made a mistake.

We have a guy out at a site and every time we send him a database, it won't load or something won't come online.

(sigh)

I don't know what to do at this moment. We load it in the lab, we make modifications, we send it to him and something doesn't work.

I am waiting to hear back on the latest as he was supposed to change things and we would see what happened.

A Real American Hero

Thank you G.I. Joe!

I Love "THE WIFE"

I love you Jen. Thank you for loving me.

A little something for you to watch.

This Is So Stupid!

I just wish I had thought of it!

Dang It!

Dang it, THE WIFE made me get all teared up. If you are a dad, listen to this and remember that the dance doesn't last forever.



Lucie and Sadie, I love you.

What The Fishsticks!!!!

Around our house, WTF stands for "What The Fishsticks." Daddy's potty mouth gets him into too much trouble, so I try to keep the blog here PG at worst.

With that in mind, I believe Sato sums it up nicely with this expression as he defends his castle.


Bye bye, Lucie. Have fun stormin' the castle!

I Need This Cat

more cat pictures

I have a little red annoyance it might find delicious.

Frustration

I know I gripe and complain about work, but it never ceases to amaze me. We have a center where we demo our products. Apparently a PC was replaced out there and they are trying to log in with someone's credentials to demo some functions. The problem is, no one knows what the SERVER credentials are. So I can't log in and modify anything, make changes, or verify anything.

The two guys who do know BOTH had knee surgery and are out and they emailed back and said "Just use your normal log in stuff." That would be fine EXCEPT for my login credentials don't have rights on THE SERVER or to utilize this application.

So I can't do anything but fiddle while Rome burns.

Worries Of A Three Year Old

Last night I was getting ready to put Lucie to bed and since she still sleeps in a diaper I was helping her change.

"Oh hang on Honey," I say in my non-threatening Dad way. "I need to use a wipe on you before you put on the diaper."

Lucie looks up at me with big blue eyes of pure trust and innocence. "Why, Daddy? What's Wrong?"

"Nothing, Sweetheart. You just have a little something I need to clean."

"What, Daddy? What is it?" Now she is starting to look worried.

"Nothing, Sweetie, I just need to get this."

"What is it, Daddy? Do I have a MONSTER on my bottom?"

...

Really folks. You can't make this stuff up?

Happy Cinco De Meow-Oh

Si se puede?

Another Rant

While I am on a tear, during the chaos surrounding the hospital cut this weekend, I had a conversation with someone who shall remain nameless here at PhoneCo. He was quite angry that he was "Gonna have to work tomorrow," (Saturday) he guessed.

I don't know why this aggravated me so badly. Maybe it had to do with the fact we had a meeting with the Big Boss where he emphasized how important it was to hit our numbers this year. This was emphasized by the Big Big Boss being there.

I thought to myself, here is an opportunity to shine, the kind of thing that gets brought up in company-wide meetings as a success story, rescuing a down hospital and restoring them to service, retaining a customer, keeping a competitor at bay AND making some money in the process.

Perhaps I am mistaken in my analysis. I would like to keep the doors to PhoneCo open a while longer. If it takes an occasional late night or weekend day, well that is a small price to pay to provide for my family.

BTW... Backup completed, modifying the database and running additional list ups. And no, I did not post this as a scheduled post, it really is taking this long.

Working Late

So anyway, I am still at work. Why you ask?

Well there is a hospital somewhere in America that God decided needed an upgrade. So he sent down a bolt of lightning and sent several circuit cards to their fate.

Now, don't think I am blaming God or mocking him because this phone system has served it's usefulness and should have been replaced as it hasn't been made in 12 years or so. It was time to move on, but any unplanned outage is painful.

Now this happened a week or so ago, but the wheels just now got to getting everything rolling along and the parts going out the door over the weekend. My job is to prepare the existing database for the new system. It's an easy conversion, the problem is the guys taking care of the site do not have a backup.

None, not one, nothing... Nada...

Did I mention this was a hospital?

So I am backing the system (which is limping along) over a 1200 baud modem. I am about 4 and 1/2 hours into the backup right now. Then I have to do the conversion and get it emailed to the guy who is flying out to do the upgrade.

Go ask your phone man when he last did a backup to your system. If it was today, buy him/her lunch. They are making your life much better when the worst case scenario becomes real life.

Stealing From THE WIFE

So is it stealing if I swipe videos like the one THE WIFE posted here?

I am amused dismayed by the accusations she is throwing my way (not to mention her pointing out I can't spell).

What do you all think?