We really need a camera here to fully understand my workplace

So, a while back we had the whole fiasco with CoreComm. See the previous CoreComm Sucks posting. When all that was going on my boss and I were discussing the fact that CoreComm has been unreliable for both email and Web hosting. Due to them being completely unreliable and making changes without notifying customers we decided we would switch vendors. We decided to go with one of our ISPs to do our hosting of email and Web services.

I received the information on setting it up over the summer and asked my boss when I should aim for it to go live. At that time I was told to wait until things settled down a bit as it was the beginning of the school year which is crazy around here. So I waited and when things calmed down I got email and our Website setup with our ISP.

Needless to say it's been 2 months since it's been set up and about 4-5 months since we took on the ISP for these services, so we're paying for both at this time! I've been sending emails to my boss about them being ready and have even asked our accountant/boss' right hand man to see if she could get an answer out of him. Well today, she brought it up in their mini meeting. He acted like he had no clue what she was talking about! His response: "Why would I get rid of Core Comm?" Really? Are you serious???? In response she told him to ask me. That was an hour ago and he has yet to come. I'm trying to resist sending an email to him explaining the situation!!

This isn't the first time something like this has happened either. Recently we had a problem with a ISP that had local outages. When that happened he found out that our new version of the product was on this line (which hasn't had outages that effected us within the last 3 years). As soon as he found that out he was in here to tell me to switch that product to the other comm line permanently. Mind you that last school year we had MANY problems with that line and informed him about them. Usually it was a quick outage, but noticible by our customers. So I told him I wouldn't recommend that then he freaked out and said we have to keep a log now.

Next was we had issues with our new product last week. My spurr of the moment job was to back up the production files every time our off-site developer did an update. OK, fine, but I don't know .Net I don't know what needs to be backed up and half the time I'm not informed when an update is going out. Wouldn't it be better to tell the developer to make a copy of it when he puts it out? He's already making a copy of the previous stuff.

See everything suddenly becomes an emergency.....then when the problems are worked out they're forgotten. Really, I sometimes wish we had hidden cameras here so people could see that things that happen here are not in our imagination or we're not making them seem worse. They really ARE this bad!

On the plus side. My kitchen drain unfroze on Friday. Since we had the snow day I set up a space heater to warm up the cabinet all day and now I have my sink and dishwasher back!!! Just in time for my Birthday!

Welcome Home

This past weekend we went up north for Christmas with my Parents and Mom's side. It was a very nice weekend and it was nice to see my family that I haven't seen for a while. I was kinda sad to see how bad my Grandma is. She has Alzheimer's and it is pretty bad. Within 5 min she asked me then Rick how she got to my Aunt's house, when she got there, and how she's getting home. She also spent most of the time in her room curled up on the bed under blankets and was very anti-social. Over all it was a good weekend. We returned on Monday evening after dropping off chocolates to some of our northern districts. This resulted in an 8.5 hour car ride!! That's far too long to be in a car for me!

Once we returned we noticed we had a not so nice surprise. Our kitchen faucet was dripping while we were gone. Since the temps were below zero and the drain area is not well insulated the drain froze. I spent a majority of Tuesday evening trying to get the thing to unfreeze to no avail. Salt, boiling water, keeping the cupboard door open, and taking a hair dryer to the pipes did nothing! I am so pissed and so frustrated! I went home at lunch today and nope it's still froze. Not sure what to do here. Any ideas????

The frozen drain mixed with me falling on my ass at the end of the driveway and hitting my head hard enough to knock my glasses to the top of my head, dinner made the house smokey (grease hit the broiler part), the dog whining, snow, and the fact I did not want to go to Puppy KG made me very crabby and unhappy. I'm still crabby and unhappy because of drama at work. Here's hoping to a better evening....and the salmon not making the broiler smell!

Snowfall

Last night was the first major snowfall of the season around here. Forecasters were predicting 6-8 inches of snow. However, in the end we ended up with about 3 inches due to warmer temps by the lake. Since our house is so close to the lake we ended up with rain/sleet for most of Sunday and the snow had not started sticking to the ground as of the last time I took the dog out last night (around 9:00).

This morning the snow was up to the brown markings on Bella's legs in most spots. She loves the snow...I think it somehow gives her more energy! She loves running in it and shoving her face all the way up to her eyeballs into the snow. She kept me laughing through our walk this morning! However, she wasn't too thrilled with the shovel this morning. I thought I'd let her play in the snow while I shoveled. She just sat by the door so I let her in. This is one of the times I wish we had a completely fenced in yard so I could just let her run free.

This was a very pleasant weekend! On Sat. Rick said he was going to go clean out the garage so both cars could fit. I gave him a hand and it only took half an hour or so and we had both cars in there! Perfect timing too!! It was so nice not to have to brush off the van this morning before coming to work! Turkey pot pie turned out beautifully we didn't even have any leftovers...which we usually do when I make chicken pot pie. We also watched a movie...The Strangers. I'm not quite sure I'd say that's a good movie, but it's not horrible.

Vacation

I'm on vacation this week. Not going anywhere or doing anything special. I just had 3 vacation days left prior to my 3 yr mark and REALLY needed a break from the "special" place I work at. Somehow I thought that the purpose of a vacation is to be away from work. Apparently not for me.

I understand in my position I may need to be called if something happened like servers failed. However, if it's not an emergency I should not be called. Well, this afternoon I was working on hanging a new set of blinds (which really sucked b/c of the angle). I hear my phone ring and go to answer it. It's my boss. I hit ignore so it'll go to voicemail right away. He calls back 2 more times, then finally leaves a message. Apparently he's scheduled me to go with him to visit 2 of our districts on Monday. One of which threatened to look at other vendors if they're not fixed on Monday when he comes. Therefore I have to go.

Here's my stance: when your only IT person comes back from a 3 day vacation you should probably keep them in the office. That's just me. Plus you should give them a day back in the office so you don't have to call them while they're on vacation. Apparently though that's not how things work at my "special" place of employment. If only the economy were a bit better...I'd look for a new job in a heart beat then.

Sigh. Is 2:30 too early to have an appletini?

Puppy

On Saturday while Rick and I were out and about we stopped by the WI Humane society. While there we found these adorable 10wk old German Shepherd mix puppies. We have discussed getting a puppy many times in the past and we have concluded that we will get 2 dogs ~ a German Shepherd for Rick and a Pug or Wiener dog for me :) However, we plan on getting them about a year or so apart....we need to adjust to one at a time.

Since we knew we wanted a Shepherd we HAD to have one of these puppies. So, I talked to the lady up front and put my name on the waiting list to meet with a counselor. The lady informed me that it would be an hour and a half wait and asked if I could wait that long. I said of course. So, we sat around, filled out the application, walked around and watched the puppies. Rick had his eye on the male in the room that with the traditional shepherd markings and I had my eye on this little female that was mostly black with patches of tan on her legs. As we were waiting another couple met with a counselor and was looking at these puppies, specifically the little boy. Rick was devastated. Of course shortly after they were meeting the pups our beeper goes off and we meet with our counselor, Holly.

She took us into the room meet the pups. The little girl I had my eye on was adorable and SO sweet. Holly showed us another little boy that may have been from the same litter. He was a pretty cool pup too. We met with the pups again trying to make our decision. Finally we decided on the little girl I had my eye on. Roughly 2.5 hours after we arrived at the Humane Society we left with our little girl.




Meet Bella (which means beautiful in Italian) the newest addition to our family. She's been a good pup thus far. She's doing okay on potty training, but is starting to become a stinker and going in the house shortly after we bring her in. She's also in the fun stage of I'm going to chew on EVERYTHING I see. Puppies are a lot of work, but totally worth it. Like Rick said, this is the next step before children. I think I'd have to agree with that one, she's just like a toddler!

Brewers

So today is game 1 of the playoffs for the Brewers. Go Brewers!!!! I've suddenly become addicted to them. The other day I found myself glued to the TV watching the game against the Cubs yet I was home alone and could have watched anything I wanted. Heck I even cheered at the TV!

Since today's game is in the middle of the day I'm listening to it at work. It's bringing back good memories. I remember being young and visiting my Grandparents in Spring Brook. It seemed as though there was always a Brewers game on. I came very familiar with the sound of Bob Uecker's voice. Grandpa must have had a lot of patience, because he never yelled at us noisy kids. :) RIP Grandpa Dale ...much love!

Raid on a Lanyard

At work we have a problem with centipedes. Centipedes are my arch nemesis as I've posted many times previously. Since they are such a problem around the office (they particularly like my office for some reason) we came up with the idea of Raid on a lanyard. It would be perfect! I would never be without Raid - EVER!

I am working on this phobia I have, and today I made a step in the right direction.....I ran and got the Raid and killed the centipede all by my self! I could not pick up the dead body, I relied on my co-worker for that, but actually killing it myself is a HUGE step for me (baby steps are the way to go)!!!

I have also discovered that I would use my Raid on a lanyard at home as well. One of the cats killed a centipede on the fireplace. Man was that thing big. EWE! In my usual freakout mode I backed away and told Rick to get it. It was already dead, yet I was completely frozen and couldn't bring myself to picking it up. Given the amount of spiders in our house and the fact that South Milwaukee is known for their centipedes I am pretty sure I'll be needing Raid.....it would just be great if it was on a lanyard so I would have it with me everywhere. :)