To the Wire.

The presentation on knights was a success last night. I could have spoken Klingon and the kids would still be fascinated by the armor that I brought. It was a large group - 26. That seemed like too many to have kids try things on. I ended up letting them try everything but the helmets. I told them that the chain mail would snag their hair without a coif. They weren't happy with that but they accepted it. The kiddo's were whip smart too. Knew what made a knight a knight and knew why knights stopped being.

Of course the evening was not without drama. I piddled around most the day at work. People kept asking "are you leaving early?" Except the users who asked "you aren't leaving early are you?" At 11:30 or so my boss called me in to tell me that just because I hadn't had a retention meeting didn't mean that I wasn't going to have a meeting because they weren't done yet with the meetings. He said he had told his boss that they should try to meet with me before I went on vacation. I think he's scared because they don't know how to support the application when I'm gone.

I met a couple times with my vacation backup and while he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed he appears to have the ability to methodically work through what you give him and synthesize it into a clear set of step by step instructions. Who knew. He took my write up, 3 sitdown meetings and a couple hours playing on the test box and wrote up a beautiful, simple guide for himself. He's slow and simple but he jumped in my esteem with just how good that document is.

At 3:30 things picked up. First I proofed the above document. Then I got an email saying "I need a report done, I'm almost ready, please don't leave yet". At 3:45 my bosses boss called to tell me that he was sorry they hadn't met with me. They intend to meet with me but the division head has to be present at the meeting and she didn't come in. He said he didn't want me to go on vacation thinking I wasn't essential because they think I am. (Boy they are really nervous about supporting the application.)

At 4:00 I get the ok to run the report. I print it at 4:30 and discover I ran the wrong customer. I start the report again. The user goes home says another user will pick it up. At 5:30 the report is still running, the other user goes home and tells me just send it to their printer, it will be fine. At 10 till 6 I realize that if the report finishes I won't have time to load it in the development environment and print it and still be at the school in time for my talk. So I leave thinking I'll go back later.

I zipped home in time to eat a piece of pizza, grab the boy and head to the school. At 9:30 after we were done at the school I realized the database backup was running and I couldn't print the dang report.

I ended up getting up early today and going to work to print the report. It was bad (no sleeping in) and good (earlier start) all in one. Now I'm washing many clothes and trying hard to finish it and put it all away today. That will be a challenge. Soon I'll pack. I'm working my way down my list to be ready for O dark thirty tomorrow when I head out on vacation.

The winter storm warning is making me nervous about delays but otherwise I'm getting excited.

For the folks going to 3tacon - stay warm! Drink one in my honor. Bring a lap blanket for the sleigh ride. You'll be glad you did!