Friday, August 31, 2007

Something crappy this way comes...

If I wasn't so tired and on the verge of hysterical laughter (well, not that bad, but still), I'd probably be crying.

Spencer's buddy just overflowed the toilet. Lovely shitty water all over Spencer's bathroom. All my towels soaking up lovely shitty water. All my towels now currently going through a second bleach wash getting rid of said lovely shitty water. So lovely. So shitty. As I was on my hands and knees disinfecting the bathroom floor, all I could think of was...why can't teenage boys take a nice normal dump? You dump your load, you wipe your ass, and you flush it down. It soooo simple. Scrub scrub scrub wipe wipe wipe. I smell like bleach...yay.

Now I sit surfing while the second wash finishes so I can then throw them in the dryer for an hour. Damn friggin' teen boys. They are SOOOOOOOOOO helping me take as many loads as I see fit to the storage unit tomorrow morning. So there...

Oh yeah, I went ahead and got a storage unit. The smallest one I could find. The boys are going to help me take a few loads of boxes over to it tomorrow.

Can't wait to clear out this place for a while. Now I can bring back stuff a few boxes at a time and have room to go through it. Sigh. I can't tell you how happy I am to have found a small unit. I am happy. Even shitty towels can't get me down now...

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Not-so-quick quick update

OK, still making progress in the Chaos. Still just with work crap tho, but it's still progress.

It was Scorchio! here yesterday...the link is a video...the weather report is at the end.

102F...gah....

Anyhoos...after much wading through crazed parents and kids last minute school supply shopping - at 3 different stores no less - Antonella and I finally found some expandable file folders for me. I've been slowly but surely organizing my remaining files into it.

Didn't move too fast yesterday because of the heat. I can usually leave the a/c off all day and just have my fan running on days like these. Helps with the whole conserve power thing. Today is gonna be another Scorchio! kind of day, so it's the fan on again during the day and the a/c at night. And before you go off on how much the a/c will run and just moot the whole conserve energy thing by trying to catch up and all - actually, no it doesn't. My apartment is comfortable during the day, so the a/c doesn't have to do any catching up at all. I turn it on, and sometimes it's runs for a bit right away, sometimes it doesn't. And yes, I consider myself VERY lucky that my apartment stays comfy all day when it's 102F outside. VERY VERY lucky...

Now where was I...oh yes, Antonella and I shopping...organizing my work files...OOOOOH...time to brag about my back-to-school bargains for Spencer.

First store we hit after dinner was Kohl's. Have I ever mentioned how much I absolutely love and adore this store? Well, I do! Especially when I find Spencer size clothing on the clearance rack that is still in season for school. I.E. cargo shorts and t-shirts. Tuesday night, I found a pair of shorts for $3.40 and another pair for $6.00. And 2 t-shirts on sale for $9.99. Tuesday's total? $33 and change.

Fast forward to last night, Spencer and I go to the Kohl's close by (Antonella and I went to one further away 'cause that's where we ended up for dinner) because he just loves the shorts and wants to check out the t-shirts. So we head over and what do you know...we get 3 more pairs of $6 shorts, and another t-shirt for $33 and change again. Spencer still needed shoes and Kohl's doesn't carry what he likes at a good price (even on sale), so we headed out....

...to Ross Dress for Less. We found a pair of "really cool shoes" for $30 and a new set of earphones for his iPod. $40 and change spent here.

$111 later (I got another t-shirt at WalMart for $5), Spencer has a new wardrobe for school. Booyah! No way could I have ever afforded to buy him 5 pairs of cargo shorts and 4 t-shirts at regular prices. He's in men's sizes now folks...no friggin' way I could have afforded regular prices...each pair of those shorts were normally $35!!! Add this new stuff to the 8 or so t-shirts he still hasn't ruined from last year and he's all set. And I for one, am relieved.

Until of course the weather turns a bit and he'll need jeans. But there's no way I'm going to go and buy him jeans now...he's in the middle of a growth spurt. That would just be ca-razy!!

Knitting content: What, are you friggin' kidding me? Knitting when it's 102F out?!? No freakin' way dude...besides, still don't have the rest of the Honey Scarf yarn anyways....

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

More progressing in the Chaos

Finished off going through work boxes today. Oooh, and felt a 3.0 quake around 4ish. Centered in Berkeley, which is about 18 miles away, so it was just a wee jolt here. Spencer however, was 3 miles from the epicenter and got a good shaking at his friend's house.

Anyway, back to the progress making. All 4 work boxes emptied out. Lots of old paperwork, stuff, and CDs filling up the recycle bins and trash. All that is left fits in the 4 drawer rolling cart thing and the printer stand with room to spare even. Tonight, I'm go out to dinner and shopping with Antonella and I'll pick up some expandable file things. The files I have left will fit in there. I've got about a 13 inch stack of paper to be organized into them, but I'm sure I can get rid of a few more unnecessary papers if I really want to... I have lots of cords, and cables and all sorts of other junk associated with having computers around and that will go in a bin in the closet. I won't need it that often. Then it's on to my personal crap.

Finishing up the work crap has been very encouraging. I think I've got the momentum to attack the personal stuff now. Wish it was that easy to go through my personal papers and crap. Not so much personal attachment to work crap, but it felt good to clear it out, so I'm ready to dive in to the personal stuff now.

Once I get the dining area a bit more cleared out, I'll post pictures of my new organized home office. It's so cute...

And now for some knitting content:
Still don't have all the yarn for the Honey Scarf. Almost had the blue in transit, but it was the wrong yarn, so oops! now it's not. Argh. Donna needs some knitting around here! And no, we won't mention the large amount of stash yarn that could be knitted on while waiting for the Honey yarn to show up. I'm too obsessed with wanting to start the Honey scarf to notice it all.

Well, back to sorting crap...Honey is coming in 19 days!!!!

Monday, August 27, 2007

By jove, I think she's made progress...

Sunday night I was up late going through work crap. I was copying over files from the server up in Sacramento down to my laptop. Anyone who knows (or cares) how this works knows that's a slow process. So, I had plenty of time to get things organized. Before I get into that though, let me fill you in on how my day went...

Started off with a trip to Urban Ore looking for bed tables. Things didn't quite work out there, and some young kid who works there was rude, so I left. I was going to buy a cabinet and convert it, you know put legs on it and so on...but after the rudeness thing, left it and moved on.

Next stop, Ikea. I was in the area and needed some organizing crap for my office crap, so what the hell. Total madhouse at 11am. Note to self, stick to going on Saturday night around 8pm. Everyone else is out having a life, so you've pretty much got the store to yourself and you won't wait in line for 45 minutes to check out. Anyway, picked up some plastic bins inserts that had sections in them for my metal basket drawer thing. Two metal basket drawers all organized...check. Picked up a pack of wheels so I can roll the drawer thing away when I want. Check. Picked up a big plastic bin to replace the bottom two metal drawers...check...but wait...can't put too much weight in it or it keeps falling off the rails. Uncheck. Oh well, I can use the plastic thing in a different metal rail setup and have put the two basket drawers back. Re-check. Went through 3 of 4 work boxes. Recycled a lot of paper. Really wish I would have had the time at work to go through all this before I packed it and lugged it all home. I didn't though, so there you have it. Last box is filled with archive CDs, Blank CDs, plastic CD cases and a few files. That box will be history in no time. Just need to find out if I even need to keep those archive CDs any more. And need to get maybe a hanging file box for the remaining files I've got. Don't have enough to fill a two drawer filing cabinet and don't really have the room for one anyway. With the file box, I can tuck it in the closet and not worry about it taking up too much room. Maybe a few of those expandable filing envelope things will work...that way, I can store them under the printer. We'll have to see.

On to where I went after Ikea...

On the way back, an idea popped into my head to go visit a thrift store that I haven't been to in a long time. Anna's Attic on Clayton Road near Ygnacio Blvd in Concord. SCORE...BIG TIME... As I approached the store from the Ygnacio side, I spotted the 75% off everything sign. It was the last full weekend of the month. They put the whole store 75% off to clear out as much inventory as they can. They always have good housewares, jewelry and the occasionally awesome piece of furniture, so I highly recommend it. Go early, though 'cause the deals go fast! They usually have good prices anyway though, so go whenever you can. As I pulled into the lot, I noticed the big tent along the other side of the building...ESTATE SALE...LAST DAY...EVERYTHING 75% OFF. Damn, was my timing right or what. I parked in the first available spot, ran into the tent and there sitting all by it's lonesome was a bed table marked at $20. I scooped it up and dropped a fiver at the register. Mid century style, which is my favorite. Two drawers. M-I-N-E. Looks great next to the bed...perfect height and everything. Packed it up into the car with my Ikea treasures and went back to the main store to see what was left. Got a nice bowl for my fruit for 5o cents and a string of pearls (real) for $5. After all that excitement, I headed home - with the biggest smile on my face - I had finally found the perfect bed table...

Was so worn out after all that bargain shopping that I took a nap. Once I got up, I was all set to attack the work stuff and am really happy with my progress so far. I think I'll work on that last box a bit tonight and see what I've got going on in there. Tomorrow while I'm working and waiting for stuff to finish doing it's thing, I think I'll start in on all the bags of paper I've got stacked next to me here in the dining area.

And lastly, today's WFH episode started out rocky, but with the help of a co-worker and my Honey, I've got things working a lot smoother now. Oh, and the other problem that I'd been working on for two days with no resolution? Solved. WOOT! All had to do with working out stuff with vpns, old ids, new ids, migrating from old domain to new domain and all kinds of other geeky crap I almost have no clue about - but am learning in detail quite quickly. Sigh.

Well, back to the boxes and bags. I'm on a roll...

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Time for a break

So...I'm sitting here this morning on the laptop, making plans with friends for Honey's visit, scheduling out Spencer time with the ex while Honey is here, and the whole time looking about at the Chaos.

How depressing.

Then I get to thinking, I haven't really been out this week, or have I? Well, yes I have, but I'm really feeling like I haven't. That's because all the time I've spent out this week was either for work, or for Spencer...not for me.

I'm thinking I need a break from the apartment, from the total Chaos that is my living/dining/kitchen area. Yeah, that's it. I need to go wander around a bit. Get some fresh air, see if I can find some bed tables, get some stuff so I can store my work crap.

I need to get all this work crap sorted out, and then start in on the regular crap. I can't seem to get started right now, so a bit of time away from it is in order. Clear my head, come back and dive right in...yada yada yada.

I got the bright idea yesterday as I was bringing more work crap home(I'm finally done with that - got word that most of whatever is left is being trashed, so I went back and got some stuff), that maybe I should get a small storage unit. Put all my Holiday decorations, my big cooler, my power tools, my fabric, and some of Spencer's stuff that he can't bear to part with yet into it. Sounded like a plan. Until I started researching online and found out just how much it's going to cost me. Plan aborted.

Now I'm back to having to go through it all and be completely brutal about what can stay and what has to go.

And that is probably why I feel the need to get out. I'm not quite ready to be that way today. I need a little bit of time to build myself up to it. Just a few hours away from it all should be enough. Just a few hours away from it all to buy a few things I'll need later before I start my brutal sort.

Yeah, that's it.

Don't know how this'll go...I'm having to give away lots of my stuff. Some of it I've had for so long, I don't know how I'll take it. And that my friends is why I haven't done it before.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

The weekend is here...

I know, I know, such a clever title. Makes you all want to read further, right? Right.

WFH this week has worn me out. Work all day on a problem for two days and it's still not resolved. Gargh. Makes one want to bang their head on a wall. Worst part of it is, I don't get to wind down from work on the commute home. I just get to walk over to the couch and stew in my frustration until it wears off, or head into the kitchen and eat until it does. SUCKS!

At least on days when I have Spencer, I'll get to go pick him up from the train station. That'll get me out of the apartment and thinking of something else when the work day ends. In the meantime, I suppose I could go thru crap for an hour, or knit for an hour, read for an hour, sew for an hour, nap for an hour, or go scrub something for an hour.

Instead, I've grabbed food, headed for the couch and stewed in my frustration while I ate. Lovely. Good thing I'm not buying crap food.

Well..now that I've got the Honey Scarf project almost underway, I should really sit down and work on that after I sign off. And yes, signing off on time is still hard, but I'm getting closer and closer to 5pm every day. I think Friday I got it to 6:15pm.

WFH is not a glamorous or easy thing for me. It all sounds wonderful to anyone who hasn't done it before, doesn't it? It has it's good points and it's bad points, but to someone who is unorganized and undisciplined like me, it's rough going for a while until you get things under control. I'm about half way there.

Speaking of unorganized...today is filled with a trip to SF, then a return to work thru some crap. I've got to get rid of as much as possible before my Honey comes! With the addition of the boxes and bags from work, you can hardly move around in here. The closets must be cleared out so our permanent storage crap can go back in...sigh. I've got a lot to do in 3 weeks.

3 weeks!!!! Honey is coming in 3 weeks!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYY!!!! But I'm still not counting...

Thursday, August 23, 2007

24 days...

...but I'm not counting. yeah, riiiight....

Anyway, sitting here in my "office" looking across at the "kitchen" thinking I really need to get in there and clean up. Don't want to though as tonight was the scene of a total. cooking. disaster. If you can't cook, is it really a "kitchen"?

I've had the hardest time cooking anything other than my usual, boring standby meals lately... and it's becoming very discouraging. Tonight's failure? Fried chicken. And I make good fried chicken. I have made good fried chicken. Damn good fried chicken. Tonight's dinner? Damn good salad and turkey/cheese sandwiches. Argh.

Now that the smoke and smell have finally dissipated, I guess I should get in there and clean it up. Argh.

But first, some knitting content: One of the skeins of wool for Honey's scarf arrived yesterday! The not-as-white-as-I-thought-it-was white. But it'll do. Cake balled it - Yay Hugo! Haven't seen or heard from him in a long while...it was good to play with him again and make a nice big wooly ball... Started swatching. First up, the hunt for needles. I have them all sorted and what not according to needle size...all in nice neat zip lock bags labeled with needle size. Now, where the hell did I put them? hahaha

Finally found what I wanted...in both wood and metal varieties and went at it. Hmmm....no hand itchies yet...just might be able to get by knitting this wool. Label says it's all natural and has not been treated by any chemicals. So far so good. :o)

Uh oh....here we go...coughing, itchy nose, watery eyes. Seems it's the airborne wool particulates shedded from the yarn once I start working it that cause the problems. Well, I have a solution for that. Oh and the yarn dries out my hands. How do you folks knit with this stuff?!?

Anyway, I'll try and get some photos of the Honey project such as it is so far up this weekend along with some of the solutions I've come up with to knit with this stuff called "wool". In the meantime, I've got loads of work to do (but not 'til work hours tomorrow), a nasty kitchen to clean up (I really should do that now), a kid to get off to bed (I think he's already asleep on the couch), and some hands that need TLC.

Seriously, how do you guys work with wool?!?

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Like, Oh m' Ga-awd!

OK, so I'm in a silly mood and that's all I could come up with for a title.

But there is a bit of excitement going on here in the Chaos. Honey is coming for another visit in a few weeks. This time he's staying for TWO. WHOLE. WEEKS. YAYYYYYY!!!!!!!

I'm very excited, can you tell? He arrives on Sept 15th in the evening, so you'll most likely hear from me that morning or afternoon, and then not until Sept 30th...or maybe later. Depends on how long it takes me to come down off Cloud 9.

WFH is going a bit better now that I have all of my connections working. All except the latest. A co-worker and I headed up Sacramento way today to install all the software I need to do my job on one big honkin' server...ok, so it's not a big, huge machine, but it is powerful with lots of gigs of whatever and whatnot and it's all mine...well, not really mine, but it's totally dedicated to my position and what I do. YAY!! Have just been asking for something like this for 6 years now...now that we've been bought out and various things have been shut down, etc, they have a bunch of extra machines laying about. My boss pushed to get one for me. Yay boss! Once I get everything set up and working on that one, I can transfer everything off my old machines - yes plural - 6, yes six to be precise - and they can do what they want with those oldies...

Enough work.

And now for some knitting content! Yes, knitting. We here in the Chaos still remember how to knit and shall start getting back into the thick of it pretty soon here. Starting with a scarf for the Honey. Seeing that I want to make something special for my Honey, and that he does, after all, live in the UK where it gets cold and rainy and all, I went ahead and bought wool. Yes, she who is sensitive to wool, has bought wool to make a scarf for her Honey. No acrylic for him. Totally nothing against acrylic or blends thereof, since that is mostly what I use, and you can get the softest most prettiest acrylic blends now-a-days...but needed something warm and that would work well with the wet weather and that meant wool. Sigh. Definitely must be love if I'm going to be knitting with wool. I've come up with some ideas to be able to work thru this all, and will of course, be blogging the whole thing as I predict it will get quite amusing...just sayin'...

I do still have some very neglected WIP's hanging about the Chaos: periwinkle cotton shawl, mohair blend shawl (the one I wear a mask to knit), and the Phoenix beaded shawl. If I ever find any of them, I shall post pictures to remind you all and myself of course, what the heck I'm working on...

In the meantime, panic has decended...clean apt, get rid of crap in the apt - Spencer will be staying with us about half the time, so no hiding crap in his room this time - darn it!!!! Oh and don't forget, haircut, hair color, mani, pedi, lose 50 lbs, I've got nothing to wear...you know, the usual womanly panic crap associated with a woman getting ready for her man....gargh...26 days...ARGH!!!!

Even tho I know none of that makes any damn difference at all...when we're together it's just about us, we don't really notice much of anything. But still, I can't help it...the alarms are going off...panic...panic...

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Wild streak...who me? Nah.

You are Bettie Page

Girl next door with a wild streak
You're a famous beauty - with unique look
And the people like you are cultish about it

Actions speak louder than words...


DonnazChaos --

[noun]:

A dance involving little to no clothing



'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Get your groove on....

Friday, August 17, 2007

Kilt Hose? What kilt hose?

Go here...my favorite kilt-wearing knitter is at it again...

Yarn? Check
Knitting? Check
Male body parts um... Check check check check...

Hey, finally got some knitting content! Yes, this counts as knitting content!

Decided to stop floating down that river in Egypt...

No more De-Nile...facing reality here folks...have moved the weight loss ticker back up topside to remind me that I'm slacking off here. There are a few factors behind the weight gain, but only one which is not something that I can control. This is what laziness and slacking off has gotten me. Garh. All that hard work gone...or should I say back? 'Cause the back is definitely back. Time to start taking better care of myself. The eating habits are acceptible - thank God for that otherwise the damage would be a lot worse - but there has been no exercise or any attempt to start any up. Double Garh. Time to get back to the old routine - what I was doing was working, and so it shall work again.

Why the hell did I get a new bike and blades if I'm not going to use them dammit? (but we did go off one day and blade...but that doesn't count, it was only one time...oh shut up)

I'll update the ticker whenever I damn well feel like it, so there will be no weekly weigh-ins like before. It's still all about how healthy I feel and what size my jeans are...

The hardest part of it all was bringing back the size 16 jeans. They are a bit big, so it's not all that bad...but dammit it all! I was in a size 12...soooo close to the size 10 of my dreams...

Sigh.

Just checked my calendar. Need to get busy...next check up with the doc is going to be in mid-November...and neither of us are going to be happy if I haven't gotten myself healthy by then...the least I can do is get back to where I was before...10 lbs...I can do it...

Don't drink it, but I can be a wine I suppose...

You Are Chardonnay

Fresh, spirited, and classic - you have many facets to your personality.
You can be sweet and light. Or deep and complex.
You have a little bit of something to offer everyone... no wonder you're so popular.
Approachable and never smug, you are easy to get to know (and love!).

Deep down you are: Dependable and modest

Your partying style: Understated and polite

Your company is enjoyed best with: Cold or wild meat

(Wild meat? Hmmm...that could be interesting, I'm sure....)

Taking the easy way out and having some fun...

Had today off, so was finally able to unwind a bit from this past week of working from home. To add to the WFH craziness, Spencer was home sick the last few days with a bad cold. Sent him off back to sport camp again this morning, then came back for some quality on-line time with the Honey...only to be cut off...he lost his internet connection. Bummer. Totally. Feeling down and out and suddenly very tired, I took a nap. Aaaahhh...Donna renewed.

So now I'm up, there's nothing but crap on TV...can you believe football has started?!? Gah.

Headed to the computer to catch up on some blogs I haven't had time to read for oh, the last month or so...

Found lots of quizzes and memes, so that's what you'll get for a bit here. I'm working thru a few things here in the Chaos, so this is all I can do...no clever knitting stories about balls...not yet anyway...

Here's the first one from J :

1. Go to Google.com
2. Type your name and the word ‘needs’ in quotes in the search engine and hit the button. Give us 10 that make sense, if you can.

Let’s see what “Donna needs”…
  1. Donna needs two hands to keep things steady. I am sort of clumsy sometimes...
  2. Donna needs a good crowding. Hmmm...this could be interesting...is this kind of like a mosh pit kind of crowding?
  3. Donna needs to find the ten things she needs. Isn't that what I'm doing here?!?
  4. Donna needs to go. I need to go to the UK to visit the Honey! NOW!
  5. Donna needs to be transferred to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee where she can walk and roam on soft ground and graze on fresh vegetation. HEY NOW...I'm overweight, but really, did you need to rub it in like that?!?
  6. Donna needs some help. Of course I do, don't we all?
  7. Donna needs a chocolate fix. Yeah baby! NOW we're talkin'...
  8. Donna needs to go back to talking about her vagina. Ummm...not gonna happen here.
  9. Donna needs a man so her Mum won't think she's repellent to the opposite sex. I got one, and Mum's never thought that...
  10. Donna needs a donut. Nasty...only if I want an upset stomach...hate donuts...

So there you have it folks...what Donna needs. Now, I think Donna needs to take some more quizzes where she only has to do multiple choice and then cut and paste into the Chaos.

Much easier!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Working from Home is tough...

Once I get used to it though, I'm sure it'll get better.

Friday was my first full day, and I've already blown thru my 3 most important "Rules":

Not going to eat all day....first one to die...at least it wasn't junk food.

Going to step away from the computer for lunch...next one to die...never left the damn thing from 8am to 7pm - except to get food and visit the bathroom.

Going to stick to strict hours and not work more than 8 hours unless absolutely needed...see the statement above - and no, it wasn't needed.

I've got to get myself into a routine and the quicker I can do that, the better.

Tomorrow will be spent trying to get all my connections up and running and making sure I've got all my access. Work is piling up quickly...I need to be able to get it done...

For a break, Ms. Puffy and I are going to head out for a few errands at lunch. Please oh please oh please don't let it get up to 100 million degrees tomorrow! Please?!?

And please oh please oh please!!!! Give me the ability to get my ass out of the chair and onto the bike in the first place. I'd appreciate it...

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Change is good, but can be painful

Well, today ended many years of commuting to offices and sitting in cube farms. I am now officially "Working From Home". Sigh.

We've had major network issues all week. The guy who was supposed to come today to pick up all our machines and the remaining servers had to cancel and will be back tomorrow. He was stuck up at the main office working with the rest of the IT guys trying to get things working again. When I left at 3:45pm...we were still down. Sigh.

Packed up my 'children'...I have six desktop towers....made sure they were all labeled properly...said my goodbyes to the guys and the final goodbyes to my desktop children and headed out to Spencer's Art Show. Sigh.

Art Show was awesome. The kids did some great work. I'll post pictures of Spencer's work once I get all my photos sorted out. I'll also post a link to his claymation short once I get a copy of it up online as well.

Today has been long, sad, happy, tiring, you name it.

Tomorrow I will sort through my boxes of work crap and finish setting up my little space here. Might as well, I won't have access to anything until the network issues are fixed and my machines are plugged in and turned on. Sigh.

I don't have to commute any more. WOOOOOOOT!!

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

99% of the Office Crap is now in my apartment

Lovely. For now, 4 boxes sit in Spencer's room. Poor kid, if he only knew how much I abused his room when he's not around...

Lots of chaos happening the last few days, so yesterday afternoon when the network just up and died, I got pissed...and in a fit of frustration just threw everything...and I mean everything into boxes to bring home. Figured it's going to take a while to get this whole access crap worked out - not only are we going to be working remote, but we are also being migrated from the old company's domain to the new company's domain - so I can sort it all out when I get it home and am sitting in front of a blank screen cussing the network gods to kingdom come. Garh. Bungeed one box to my luggage cart, grabbed the 'new' laptop and my tote and headed home.

Got to thinking on the train about the 3 boxes I had left and the 2 days I had left to bring them home and decided to go back to the office last night for a two more boxes. What the hell, why not? I was just going to go home, park my butt on the couch and vegitate...might as well do something constructive. Today, I brought home box #4. Tomorrow, I bring home just a tote bag full of the final last loose ends.

Thursday is our last day in the office. Lots of mixed feelings all mixed up with stress, frustration, and general cranknicity about the way things have been handled. Doesn't matter though, after Thursday morning, I don't have to care about the office any more. The IT guy is coming from the main office on Thursday to disconnect the whole shebang and move all machines to the main office up near Sacramento. Once he pulls the plug, we can't work again until he plugs it back in and gets it up and running. I don't plan on getting anything work related done until about Monday or so. Server moves are always painful, so no point in torturing yourself and making Friday commitments. Told everyone "Talk to me next week".

Was excited when I got home...a small package from Day-Timer was waiting for me when I got home. While going through stuff this weekend, I found the old Day-Timer set that my first employer here in CA had bought for me. A very nice leather folder with my name on it. Figured I'd use it again since I will be needing to keep track of a lot more stuff now. Don't know how many of you are familiar with Day-Timer, but the refills are very expensive. I remember when I first got it (10 yrs ago), they had software that you could use to make all your calendars, yada yada yada and then sold pre-punched paper in the size you needed. Well, went online to find it and wouldn't you know, they don't sell that anymore - discontinued. Disappointment major.

Not one to give up easily, I Googled "free Day-Timer templates". Lo and behold, this popped up...full of templates to fit just about every planner out there. Jackpot! I downloaded about 50 or so templates that looked interesting and have been slowly going through them while waiting for my monthly tabs (only $7.99 from Day-Timer) to arrive. Got rid of a lot that won't work and kept quite a few that will. Greatest part? I only have to print what I need, I don't have to buy a whole freakin crap load of stuff I probably won't use but one small part of...woot!

And a really really good part? They have a template for knitting....

Oohh, and for anyone interested, got this out of the Day-Timer catalog...a website dedicated to Home Offices. Only got as far as the current tips, but like what I'm reading...will definitely be checking in to the Tip Archive this weekend.

Well, it's late, I'm exhausted and have a pounding headache thanks to stress, lack of sleep and the construction dudes at the office. Yes, the work that was halted when the Acquisition happened has started up once again. Oh joy...makes me want to start working from home yesterday instead of Thursday. Just one more full day though...I can do it!

Monday, August 06, 2007

Happy 1yr Blogiversary to Donnaz Chaos

Well...it's been one year since I started here on Blogger. It's been a busy year. Lot's of things have happened, lots of stuff still undone. That's life. I thought about having some sort of celebratory contest, but I'm too lazy (still) to think of something to do and I really don't have the time right now.

La Officina de Chaos is in the process of moving into my Casa De Chaos. Just typing that made me cringe....just what I need around here...more crap.


Well this week is the final push to get the rest of my office crap moved to my apartment. My little cluttered apartment. I have lots of stuff in mind about how I'm going to organize the office bit. I suppose I'll be doing that while trying to get work done the first week or two. First thing, there are lots of papers that need to be scanned and archived onto CD. Never had steady access to the scanner at work, so couldn't ever make progress on that. Now I have my own dedicated all-in-one...I'll be able to make some progress on that. Yay!!


Well Happy 1 Year Blogiversary Donnaz Chaos...let's hope the next year is just as exciting as the first...and oh yeah.... a lot more organizing gets done....hee hee....