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 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!

Classes and Cat spit dispensers

I really need to organize my life. I have all these things I want to write about and no time to write them.

I started taking a class in the evenings. It’s an accounting class. George and Kevin are hopeless when it comes to the books. I know a bit of Quick books, the idiot version and that is about it. However, our client base is just wide enough that we either have to hire an accountant or one of us  has to learn to do the work.

George is trying to switch the office over to use nothing but Open Source software. Great! I love my Ubuntu OS laptop. I like Firefox and Thunderbird. However, I don’t know Scribus, Gimp, or Nola Pro accounting software. Granted, I’m learning some of it. Fast! However, I don’t know enough accounting, so I’m taking this class.

I feel like the village idiot. All these 20 yr olds whipping out the homework faster than I can type Double Entry Bookkeeping. Better yet, we have a 85 yr old in the class who is there to “refresh” her skills. Awwwwghhh! If George hadn’t paid for the class with business funds, I’d have quit.

On top of that, I had a cat adopt me. I came home from work just before Halloween to find this cat on my front porch. He was very friendly, but I really didn’t want a pet. So, I shooed him off the porch. Next morning, he was sitting there as I went to work. Black except for one white patch on his chest, and beautiful orange eyes. Oh, and a purr to knock you over with.

I came home from work and he wasn’t on the porch. I figured that he had finally gone home. George came by about twenty minutes later, because we were going to watch the elections. He opened the door and the cat came in with him! I explained that it wasn’t my cat, and tried to toss him out. George just laughed at my efforts. I got the cat out and ten minutes later, Kevin came in with the cat!

When I went to toss him out that time, I got dirty looks from both of the guys. You’d think I was a serial killer. Good grief! The cat meanwhile has wound itself around my legs, purred, jumped up in my lap, etc. All the cute tricks. I like cats but… I didn’t want one yet. I tried the tack that I had no cat food or litter box. Nope, Kevin called his girlfriend and she brought over food and a spare box, complete with sand. I gave up. His name is Mr. Clark, after the spy-guy character in the Tom Clancy books.  Why? Well, he has this way of disappearing  and reappearing that boggles the mind. Oh, and he tries to protect me from dangerous things like the microwave, vacuum, loose newspapers and of all people, Kevin.

Mr. Clark has one other weird habit. When I get in the shower, he cries. Like I’m hurting myself. The whole “oh my gods, your getting ALL Wet!!!”. When I finally get out, he does his best to lick my ankles and feet dry. I told George about this and he laughed. I asked him to explain what was so funny. George said that most cats don’t understand the great big box known as the Cat Spit Dispenser and therefore fear it.

I about choked on my tea that he had just handed me. Cat Spit Dispenser! Oh Gods! It fits! It took me five minutes to stop laughing. I’ll never look at the shower in the same way again!

OK, I’m Home!

I took a vacation! Between my parents getting new furniture, me inheriting the old stuff, moving house myself and a few other things, I took a break!

George was ok with this after I realized that there was no way to help my parents and go to work. I was exhausted after the first afternoon. This was with my sister and brother both helping! Good grief! My mom is a slave driver. Love her to death, but she decided to totally clean her house before the new furniture arrived. After she cleaned, she decided to paint. Oh, and rewire the phone system. (it hissed) George and Kevin helped me with that at least.

However, her house now looks beautiful. Clean carpets, new phones, new living room and dining room furniture and a new bedroom suite. That took a week.

Then, my old landlord decided to sell my itty bitty house I rented from him. He had another one to rent to me, but it was across town. A whole 15 blocks, but… still. So, I packed up  stuff and hauled it over to the new house. Thie was after cleaning and painting there too. If Kelly, Jim or I see a paintbrush before next summer, I think we will all scream!

Best part though is that I had the local thrift store come get my couch, bed, and easy chair. I just  took the stuff my mom was done with out of her garage and moved it straight in to the new place. I now have a matching living room suite. Not sure what to do with it, but… Hey! I’ll have a housewarming party. yeah…. Now adays, that means me, the dog and a pizza. Well, maybe George and Kevin would come over too. The girls would have to come a different night. Oh well.

I also finally have the hang of Ubuntu!!! I only got my DSL connection yesterday. So, I have ten gillion emails and this blog to update. Wheeee~! It does feel good though to be back online. I was having withdrawl symptoms.

I also went on a couple of hikes up in the mountains. It was so nice to get out and just be all by myself!

Ubuntu on my mind…

Yet not totally installed on my laptop. I have had no time whatsoever to do a damned thing with it. Grrrrr! I even have a book on it and understand what the book says. not sure if that is a good thing or a scary thing!

We’ve had lots of clients loosing their cookies. No, not the ones in the computers, but the ones in their wee tiny minds! I have had more idiotic tech support questions this week than I ever have. That one guy that calls once a week has called FOUR times. I couldn’t believe it! Plus, we have been having lots of thunderstorms. Six blown power supplies, two dead power strips and an entire blown phone line. Now, most people would call the phone company. However, anyone with a brain in town calls us. Why? Because George is the best ‘wirer’ in the area.

We went down to the store with the blown phone line and had them up and running in just over 90 minutes. She was so happy. Plus, she ordered a new keyboard and mouse that came in. When I went down to install them, she asked if I could look at her computer because it was acting up. The previous tech who had worked on it, doesn’t know his ass from his elbow.   not one of US! The guy put a package deal on it of Microsoft Word that expired after 90 days use! You don’t do that kind of thing to a business computer. So, I put Open Office 2.4 on it. She is really happy with that. g33k gURL does it again!!

Oh, and at a client’s house on Friday, the woman’s son called while we were updating her computer and she told her son what computer wiz’s George and I were. I tried to say no, and George elbowed me. Told me later that I was good and needed to learn to take a compliment. maybe…

This weekend I get to help my parents clean house. They are getting new furniture. Wheee… Maybe, just maybe that means I’ll get their old stuff.

Penguins, wolves and thunderstorms

Yesterday when I left the office, I didn’t even get to my truck before the skies opened up and dumped. Drop, drip, whooooossssshhhh! I was soaked. This is scary as my truck is parked about 50ft. away from the office front door.

And, I’m happy to report that my laptop case kept my computer dry. I was bringing it home to work on Linux. George and Kevin are trying to switch all of the office computers over to some flavor of Linux.  yes, there are penguins all over the office. Kevin uses Ubuntu. George uses Ubuntu and Wolvix. I got given a hard drive with Wolvix on it to play with on my laptop. In a few minutes I’ll be exchanging hard drives and take it for a walk.   yeah, bad joke… wolvix, walk…

If it all goes wrong, George gets to deal with a screaming person on the other end of the phone for once.

Wish me luck!

Whirlwind!

Or at least that’s what I feel I’ve been in for the last two days. Saturday is still a blur. I got there on time and was determined to make the office mine. HA! Silly me. George and Kevin decided to show me the inventory. The parts area of the business takes up a space about 12ft by 10ft right in the middle of the living/dining room. A big wire shelf unit and five black shelf units. All sorts of bins and bags of parts are organized on the shelves. right, just keep dreaming! Well, they think it is organized. If they let me get my hands on those shelves, I’ll label the bins and put them in a logical order. Not that I expect that any time soon. It really is a mess. What my mom would call “boyz organization”, because the only people it works for are boyz.

By the time we stopped for lunch I sort of understood what were routers and antennas. I know where the power cables are kept and what an RJ45 is. That’s the little plastic thingy on the end of CAT 5 cable. I gave up trying to take notes, because George and Kevin were like two little kids. Talking over one another in the effort to show me what was the coolest thing on the shelf. toyz, boyz, …

After lunch, I tried again to organize my office. I got a little farther. The cupboard in my area holds all the ‘office’ products. Paper, pens, plastic paperclips, etc. I made a joke about thinking this was the age of the paperless office. George and Jake just laughed. I think we probably use just as much paper as a pre-computer age office. Even though we buy stuff online, there has to be a printed copy of the invoice. Or, you get something in email and you have to print it out. Weird. I’ve also discovered that I’m odd. I read equally well off of the computer screen or off printed paper. Apparently, not everyone comprehends it equally. Which is why George prints off everything!

I also spent part of my time learning about my computer. I’ve never had a laptop, let alone a computer that was less than 6 years old and third or fourth hand. I always ended up with my brother’s hand-me-downs. This laptop isn’t new, but it is in very good shape. George said I could take home if I wanted. geeep! I’m nervous enough just using it. I think I’ll wait a bit. Plus, they have DSL at the office. I have dial-up here at home, and its so slooooow.

The most confusing thing was the Buzzword Bingo. So many acronyms, oddball words, slang and concepts. Bloody confusing at times! Dropped packets, latency, skip, dependancies, HTML, DSL, RJ45, Cat5E, Ubiquity, Netstumbler, BSD, and my favorite, Ubuntu! in case you don’t know, it’s an operating system based on Linux. I have to admit that I was glad to go home!

Sunday I went shopping. I actually drove into the city to shop for once. I know I needed new clothes. Too much of my stuff was only fit for Burger Bar. Or, it still smells of french fries even after a trip to the dry cleaners. I got new jeans, a few blouses and a skirt. It will be so nice to wear a skirt to work.

Today I got to work five minutes late. I got caught by the train. I felt really bad about it and was trying to apologize when both Kevin and George told me to not worry about it. So I took a deep breath and went to make myself a cup of tea. Everyone here except Jake drinks tea. Its this English stuff called PG Tips. Strong! I like it though. It’s not as rough on my stomach either.

Still never got my office organized. I have it in three main piles. Old notes, things to be filed, and the OMHG’s pile. When I get to it, I think I’ll ask George what to do with the stuff. I also got my first bit of reading to do. Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks. Looks dry enough to rival Grey’s Anatomy. Oh well. I guess I’ll take my new book to bed. Too bad I don’t have a cup of that tea. Makes my Lipton’s taste weak.