Classes and questions

Okay, I’ve started more classes. Since I’m not doing just a one off adult ed class, I had to do all the financial paperwork like FAFSA. Of course, I had to tease George. Told him I needed to quit work, as I made too much money. Once he got over the ice cream headache, I explained that if I wanted a Pell grant and a free ride, I’d have to make less money. As it is, my cost is about $150 a month. Not bad as I am going for a business degree.

I no sooner got my first class roster than Pete grabbed it, hauled me to an adviser he’s friends with and changed it all. Now it’s a business TECH degree… Can I scream now? Oh, and George took one look at my first class-MS Office Suite… and decided that he could crib from it for his project with Kevin. The business is branching out into training. sigh…

On a sad note, our 9am joke calls will now have to be made from heaven. Our client who called and told us a joke each morning died suddenly.

I also switched my machine to dual boot. Not happy about it, but most of my classes use Windows. grrrrr….. I don’t wannna~~~~~waaaaaaaa!!!!! My computer now runs Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04. I will get use to it eventually. Answer me this though if you have a clue…. Why does a college that touts just how advanced it is in technology not cater to anything except Windows apps? They won’t even use Firefox! That was a real culture shock. I haven’t used Internet Exploder in 5 years! However, as I told George and Pete, I do wash my hands after I log off Windows….  I thought that they were going to die laughing. Kevin who overheard me sprayed Dr. Pepper all over his lap.

Back to school

Good thing I like him… Pete and George were talking and the two of them ganged up on me… About college. Granted, Pete has an unfair advantage. He is a college professor. Don’t know how I missed that at first. I guess I just figured he was a high school teacher when he said he taught. Never asked where… But George did! (sigh….) Pete picked me up at work one afternoon and George started talking to him while I got ready. George found out more in 15 minutes than I had in five dates! Pete teaches political history, and governmental studies at the college. Which is why I didn’t run into him when I was taking my accounting class.

This of course lead to a conversation as to why I hadn’t gotten my degree… Now they are trying to talk me into getting a Bachelors in Business management. I’m still trying to resist.

I also learned a lot about George listening to the two of them talking. George did stuff in the military, which I suspected he was in, but never had any conformation. He and Pete were talking about the job George had last month. The one where the government was milking techs for information and not paying them. It was this whole scheme where they’d call you up, and give you a few trial jobs as part of the interview process… You’d fix the tech issues and then have an interview. Next thing you knew, after maybe 20 hours of work, you’d be waiting to get a phone call saying you had a job…. Instead, you got a call saying “no thanks!”.  George billed them for 50 hours with most of the the work done on this virus, Ghost.rat. They did the whole “yeah, get the contract signed and paide at the end of the month…” I don’t think he even got home before they called him and said “thanks, but no thanks!” Oh he was furious. Once again, there was military crap that he couldn’t talk about and that kind of thing, but oh… He was so angry. The only good part of the whole deal is that he made a patch for the virus, but didn’t give them all of the documentation. This way, they can’t do anything but let his repair work. No source code to play with or anything else. So, if Ghost.rat  eats them for lunch, they are just screwed.

The other thing going on around here is an effort by George and Kevin to revamp the business. Repairs are going down the tubes. People rather just throw things away than fix them. Expecially if the fix is going to cost almost as much as a new computer. The guys are trying to figure out how to make the business work without the repairs section bringing in as much revenue.

argh……

rePete or is that Repeat?

I haven’t posted much, because I feel like I have nothing new to say. Gads, that sounds lame, but it is true.

Viruses… I am still doing all the low level tech work because George is gone so much of the time lately. He’s up working with this company that has a defense service contract about 100 miles from us. George actually got ahead of the big boys on this monster and now he is being tapped to help kill it. Makes me really wonder what George did before he ended up here. Oh well, I’ll never know. Not unless I get George really drunk… (ha! like that will ever happen)

Frustrating part is that George can’t talk about a lot of what he is doing because it is “classified” stuff. sigh… No juicy stories… pout. I’m not sure what is irritating him more. The work, the stupidity of the people he’s working with, the hush hush games or the virus. Either way, he is antsy as all hell when he goes up and must call me 8-10 times a day while he’s gone. Mostly to let off steam. Last week he called and asked me if I had those laptop parts yet. I said “Huh?” because I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he said, “You know, the one for the Yarr’s computer.”  The Yarr’s have a desktop pc older than dirt, which is when I figured that he wanted to come home. I replied that I had it and he had better get back quick, because they wanted it yesterday! George then said he’d be back in 2 hours. Found out later that he’d had enough bullshit, and needed a way out. Whee!!!

George left this morning in the snow, and I’m sure I’ll hear from him once or twice before the day is over. This is one job I just wish was over and the invoices paid. Over 75 hours logged and not a dime yet, because it is a sub-contract. grrrr.

Our other two techs, Dan and Kevin have only been working part time. Not enough work. The only reason that I still work full time is because George is out of the office so much that someone has to answer the phones. Hughes, our competition we love to hate has closed his shop. Still working from home, but no more storefront. They had a picture of the guy in the newspaper rewiring a phone system. Oh my! What a mess… George figures it will be about a month before they call us in to repair his “repair”.

Then there is Pete. sigh…… Ah, the way to a g33kgURL’s heart. He likes that I’m computer savvy. That I have a brain and I’m not afraid to use it. We went to the local bookstore’s chess night last week. He played. I watched. It has been way too long since I played chess. I could have sat down and played with the beginners, but it was nice to just watch. Afterwards, we went out for chinese.

Mr. Clark likes Pete too. I guess that is a bonus as my sister and brother suspect him of some dire deed. Can’t figure that one out, but neither one really likes him. Oh well. They aren’t dating him.  Maybe it was the fact that the other day I missed a family dinner because Pete and I were too busy smooching on the couch!   Oh well. Don’t care. And for the record, this blog is staying G rated. I so am not publishing my love life online.

Viruses are us…

Oh. My. God! I am so sick of viruses that I could scream. Here I am supposedly studying for my A+ exams in a month and all I do is load Clamwin and debug machines at the moment. There are a bunch of new viruses out that just hammer machines. Open up back doors and copy keystrokes, take screenshots, turn off your virus and update programs and make a hash out of your system. Ugggghh….. And why am I doing it all? Well……

After the other day when I made an off the cuff comment and came up with a solution, I get to “sharpen” my skills. All I said was that “if you can’t get the desktop to respond, why don’t you shove a live distro disk in and see if that will let you access the data”. Apparently, that was the answer sent from heaven and I didn’t even know it. I’d just been listening to George and Kevin complain about this virus that left your icons up and didn’t let you use your mouse. I thought about the live distro and suggested it. It was an answer to the problem. Wow…..

So, I’m doing all the low level stuff so that they can concentrate on the big and bad stuff. Oh, and redoing yet another Hughes job. The guy is an idiot. However, he is our best asset. He gets us more customers than an ad in the papers.

However, the best thing going on lately and the main reason I haven’t posted as much…. is because I have been dating!!! No fainting! Oh hell, I about passed out. Pete, the guy I did the install for….. the #7 on the cute scale, came in a few days later to say that he was having some issues with Fedora. Learning curve stuff. So, George sent him over to me. I was so embarrassed. Here is this gorgeous guy asking me computer questions. So, I took a deep breath, pretended he was my brother Jim, and started answering questions. It took about an hour. Most of it was file issues and music. Fedora doesn’t do mp3’s, so you have to add stuff via root. It took a little bit, but not too long. I gave him the bill, and as he paid it he said he had one more question. I said, “ok”, and was putting his check in the drawer when he asked if I’d like to go out for lunch.

I’m pretty sure you could hear a pin drop all the way to the corner. I just blinked and then like an idiot, asked him “What?”. Where upon he was nice enough to aske me again. After turning beet red, I said yes. Ten minutes later, we were out the door and off to the Bistro. It’s a new place that serves decent food. I had only been there once as it is clear across town and I usually don’t have time. We ate and then Pete dropped me back at work.

I was ready to hit George and the other techs, because they would not stop asking questions. And, if I ever find out which one of them called my mom,…… Geeze! One Lunch, and they have me married. OOOOOOOOHHHHHhhhh!!!

Three days later, he called and asked me out. Pete had forgotten to get my home number, so he called work. Of course, George answered the phone…. and afterwards I had to deal with him teasing me.

We went to the movies, and saw Taken. Wow! That was a cool movie. Funny part is that I kept thinking that the Liam Neeson character reminded me of George. Odd….. Granted, I don’t know what George did before he came here. Maybe I’ll ask. Back to the date. It ws a nice relaxed date. He didn’t even try to kiss me. However, we chatted a lot about work and families. (single, no former wives lurking in dark corners, 1 dog, fairly new to town, no family locally, works for the city) When I asked him why he decided to ask me out, he said….”you seemed a bright and intellegent woman. someone I could hold a real conversation with who didn’t giggle everytime I said file, byte, gigs or notebook in a conversation.”

Huzzah for being a g33k! I love being appreciated for my brains. Even if they are scrambled by blue screens of virused death!

Install goddess-hood!

We got this laptop in a few days ago. Totally virused and the owner wanted a new operating system on it. No one had time to do it what with the work load we’ve had. The owner called and asked how it was going. I didn’t want to lie, but said that it was being worked on and should be ready by the weekend if all went well.

I gave George an update when he came in that evening and he said that starting tomorrow, I could back up all the data and start working on the computer. I flustered. He said I could do it, as I’d done it on my own machine. He had me there. So, I got started on copying the data to these little thumb drives that Patriot makes. 8gb in a drive the size of my thumb joint. The guy had about 14gb of data on this thing. I got it done and then told George it was ready for him to put on the new operating system.

George laughed and told me to get on with it.  huh??? George smiled and told me I could do it.  yeah, right! He said he’d walk me thought it, but I had to do everything.  Okay…. The guy wanted Fedora 10 on the laptop. I got on the web, and went to the Fedora project page. I started downloading the iso image and answered a few calls while that was going on.

Then, I burned a cd of the iso image. George just smiled. After that, I checked to see if the laptop could boot from CD and then booted the disk. Up it came, and I did the install. It was a LOT easier than I figured it would be! After I got the basic install done, I got the updates and then loaded some of the programs on that were needed like Open Office, Gimp, Scribus and such. Then I re-installed his data, restored his bookmarks on Firefox and his email on Evolution. Wow that one was easy! Everything worked!

Today, the guy came to pick it up. (a 7 on the cute meter!) He was very happy with it and told me to give the tech his thanks. I said, “Your’re welcome.” and he gave me a puzzled look. I then had to explain that I was the tech who did the work. Oh was he surprized. He paid his bill and even gave me a $5 tip! Wheeee!!! I could get use to this.

What I didn’t know was that George and Dan were watching from the breakroom. After the guy left, they teased me about flirting with the customers! argh…. However, even their silly Boyz behaivor couldn’t spoil my day. I wouldn’t share my tip either!

Wheeeee!!!!

ps…. George wants me to go for my A+ exams now…..

Certifiably Geekieeeee!!!

We have been working our asses off! Hughes screwed up some major jobs and we have been rewiring things until I’m seeing wiring diagrams in my sleep. Oh, and let’s not forget the phones. They  have been ringing like crazy too. I’d thought with so many out of work, that we’d actually slow down. Nope! Weird!!!

We had to go up to our warehouse supply store that does all the right bits for the right prices. Windtronics. They are always so nice. Bottles of water, good conversation, cookies sometimes and lots of cool stuff to buy. George went in for two phone connectors. (yet another Hughes job) What he found though was this bag he could put all of his tools in for half the weight and price of other bags he’d been looking at.

George wrenched his back a week or so ago trying to lift a toolbag weighing 75 pounds on the run. (stupid man!) So, he has been trying to downsize his stuff ever since. His new Samsung NC10 came in and he has been over the moon with it. But,… back to the bag. It was adjustable, just like a camera bag. Lots of bits to change around and fiddle with. He put it up on the counter and said if he could make things fit, he’d buy it. The counter help at Windtronics just laughed and helped him out. 25 minutes later, everything except the laptop was in the bag! We were paying for the bag and the connectors when the boss came out and gave us each a tool kit with pouch about the size of a small apple and a pocket protector with Windtronics on it. I laughed so hard I could barely breathe!

They said that I was now a certified geek! LOL!!!! I proudly stuck it in my handbag with the ad flap sticking out. The tool kit is pretty cool too. Drivers, hex tools and a mini wrench. Best of all, I don’t have to share!

Back at the keyboard…

At last.

My laptop died. Not just the BSOD, but the No Screen of Death. No backlight. No power etc. Not sure what really happened, but it took forever to fix. sigh…

Work has been slow. Good thing, as I’ve been having to use the training computer at work for my workstation while my laptop was fixed. This thing still has Windows on it. XP, but… only because our A+ training software needs a Windows machine. I felt like I was stepping back in time. After using Ubuntu, it was like driving with your grandma. Slow, plodding and doesn’t always go where you want it to. (sorry Nana!) It made me really appreciate Linux.

Then I got sick. I got the flu. Ugggghhhh….. I hate throwing up. I hate being sick. For the first few days when I wasn’t in the bathroom, I was asleep. I know George called and Mom came by, but what we said??? No clue. I just knew that Gatorade appeared out of nowhere and Mr Clark wasn’t crying to be fed. So, someone had to of been by.

By the time I started feeling better, I realized that it had been eight days (!) since I’d last stepped out the door. Called George and asked him if he really needed me, or could I take a few more days off. I just couldn’t see me coping with work yet. Plus, no voice. A squeak, a rasp, but no voice. George teased me about trying to sound sexy on the phone. If I could have reached through the phone, I’d have thumped him. I settled for telling him to hit himself for me. He laughed.

He also said it was fine, and by the time I got back on Monday, my computer should be working. Huzzah!!!! What they didn’t tell me until I got into work on Monday-Groundhog day!- is that they had switched me over to Fedora 10. It had been so long since I’d been on my laptop, that at first I just thought it was that… But then I noticed some subtle differences. Like when I went to switch to a second screen and the CUBE Flipped!!! It was so cool that I shouted! George and our new tech Dan came in to see what all the noise was about. However, they both had such cheesy grins on their faces that I knew something was up. Apparently, Dan lost a $3.00 bet. He figured it would take half the day for me to notice. George bet 15 minutes. He was closer. 19 minutes.

It is really cool. I like the new features and oh my is it fast. I feel like I’m doing 90 mph on the highway in comparison to the training computer. Oh I am happy. I even forgave them for springing it on me.

Well, I had better get going. Today looks like it will be busy. Our favourite client still calls at 9am to tell us a joke. George’s latest angle is to have one ready for him. Only 25 minutes to find our joke of the day!

Ummm…..

The computer ate my homework?

I lost the story in a handbag?

I was lost on a blind date?

I couldn’t come to work because I didn’t have anything to wear?

Ok, fine. I fell off the blog wagon. I’ve been working my butt off, and barely remembered to call my mom or my sister for the last month. Gahhhhh!!!

We did the worst job I have ever worked on in my life last week, and we are still trying to finish up all the bits. It wasn’t difficult in many ways. It was just horrid because of all the things that were done wrong. Things that we had to fix. And yes, it was our favorite competition. Hughes.

They did a job for a non-profit group. Six months later and lots of tears, one of their volunteers told the boss about us. George bid the job at 4 hours. It took 8. On the day after Christmas. This is just a partial list of what we found and fixed:

• used boxes with reused double sided sticky tape. It still had paint on it from another job!
• Bad wiring!!! OMG’s. You know, the jacks have a wiring guide on the side. They didn’t follow it! Crossed wires that wrapped around other wires and cut wires because they used a pocket knife instead of a punch down tool!!!
• a phone jack splitter and phone jack used to splice phone cable together!!!!
• Cat 5E jammed in a triple loop inside of a wiring box. 4 strands in one box and 2 in another. Some of the wire was so tight, that it was bent in half!
• wall plates not mounted.
• extra cable race-empty!!!!!
• boxes not wired.
• 4 wires where 1 was needed
• 1 wire where 4 were needed

Oh it was a mess. I knew things were bad when George started cussing in Russian. He was so pissed. Worse yet, Hughes charged this group over $1300! George gave them the non-profit rate and the whole repair cost them $350. Plus, it was done and tested on time. The head of the charity was so shocked that she about cried. Didn’t know what to think. He still fumes every time he drives by the place.

Mr. Clark is no longer mad at me for fixing him. He still hollers at me when I am in the shower, but he also knits my hair when we snuggle up in bed.

Oh, and it’s movie night again. George and my brother are coming over tonight.  I think we are watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls.

Happy Holly-Daze!

It’s been slow at work today. Slow enough that I took time off to pay my electric and utilities bills.  I guess everyone figured that we’d be closed by noon and so kept their computer problems to themselves for at least a day or two.

If it is anything like last year, the phone will be ringing off the wall by the 27th. All the new games, computers and such will be plugged in, instructions lost and we will get called to bale them out. Wheeeee…… Good thing I don’t go back to work until the 29th. George gets to deal with the calls.

Speaking of George,… I got him to take me shopping!!! I don’t understand why, but my truck likes him better than me lately.  So, I provided the vehicle and he provided the muscle to get us to the mall.  Oh, and I bought lunch.

We found this little Mexican family diner that is to die for. Wonderful food that you can mix and match your chile sauce to make it as hot or mild as you want. So, we ate there after we did most of the shopping.

I got everyone something. Even George’s, because he went off to look at the magazines while we were at Barnes & Noble. Ha! Everything is wrapped and delivered too.  Kevin and George will get their presents tonight. I rented Wall-E for tonight. I figured if we didn’t have a Sci-Fi series to watch with our popcorn tonight, the least we could do is watch a Sci-Fi cartoon.

Mom is having her regular deli supper stuff tonight. I think we are having hamburgers if Kevin is his usual self when it comes to providing food for the feast.  A&W if we are lucky.  George actually made chile last time.  He’s a fairly decent cook.  Me, well… I guess the best thing you could say is that Mom tried. Kelly is an excellent cook. Jim isn’t bad as long as he can add wine or brandy to it or cook it on a barbecue.  Somehow though, I missed the gene. However, I make a mean toasted cheese sandwich and don’t have to use an iron!

I got my certificate of completion for my class in the mail. Wheee…. I can now say I’ve completed an accounting course and have the right to mess up finances legally. (ahem…) George is being nice though and not changing over the accounting system until January.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll head over to Mom and Dad’s for breakfast and presents. Dinner will be around 2pm.  I’m suppose to bring the salad and bread rolls.

Guess I’d better head home and clean off the couch. Only three hours until movie night!

Winter storm watch-Akkkkk!!!

Why am I in a panic? Oh gee…. been sick, been busy at work, and No Time To Shop!!! On top of that, we have a winter storm warning and that means not fast easy trip to one of the big shopping centers. Unless I can pursuade George to drive tomorrow, I will be giving everyone IOU’s or cash in a card.

I usually don’t wait. I usually have everything bought, wrapped and under the tree by now. Not this year though. Between crazy clients, our bank loosing our statement, (don’t ask… don’t EVEN ask) and me getting sick right after finals, I’m behind.

Oh, and it is cold. Windy and Cold! My office is like an icebox. Even my little heater isn’t helping.

Kevin and George are happy though. They’ve been playing with the new antennas and hope to order more next year if they work out alright. They have one of the Ubiquity bullets set up in the windy zone out at the one ranch that blows an antenna every few months. If it lasts a month, our supplier had better be ready for a bulk order.

Meanwhile, Mr. Clark is still pissed at me. I think he had great plans for those balls… Oh well.