Bust a Move

First, let me say that we are thinking of all you poor freezing souls in the Midwest and East. Youch! Stay indoors, bundle up, buy the Costco sized Swiss Miss!

Here, it's normal winter- chilly, damp, foggy, etc. I am dwelling a bit on work this week because today is the last day I will have my bland, nondescript, but wonderfully private office all to myself. We are moving buildings. For the past several weeks, there have been piles of computer-related debris (more than usual, that is) cluttering up the hallways, server racks, table lamps, great big boxes the size of hot tubs full of network cable, coworkers feeding print copies of documentation from 1997 into the shredder bin, and endless emails about what we need to do to get ready. Sigh.

The big immediate change for me (and all my coworkers) is that we will be sharing offices. More than that, though, the new building, while swankily situated lakefront, is for me a straight-up degradation of my day-to-day work experience. My (now) old office was located near a nice little shopping plaza, on the other side of which was a lovely park, on the other side of which was a charming shopping and restaurant and gallery-packed downtown, on the other side of which was the marina park and the beautiful shore of Lake Washington. On any given summer lunch break, it took me about twelve minutes to walk down to the water.

Of course, I will only have to walk out of the new building to be at the water, so I should probably take some comfort in that. But what of the bagel place? What of the nail shop where I get cheap cheap facial waxing? What of the beautiful giant mimosa tree outside of the 24 Hour Fitness? I have a soft spot for mimosas. What of that kooky Greek place that sells wonderfully greasy subs? What of the grocery store I can walk to for apples and milk and salty soup?

When I was cleaning out my file cabinet (which has barely anything inside), I found two tiny purple post-its covered with name ideas for the then still unborn Muriel, and Muriel had two underlines. We have a winner. I also found many, many To Do lists. Do you ever wonder, just what does J. Khooler do at work all day? Now you know:

- Set up meeting with K. - ppg #? IUG #? XX guide #? quick starts?
- Install AE! on WS for docs XX
- XT install? (on CE machine?)
- PPG work
- Template updates
- XT stuff in PPG
- move AE app server prequisites into config topics in IUG
- ping T and M on APAR
- Close defects that are done!
- Check whether XT IUG should refresh
- Check and read email from L.
- Review recent publishing requests from S.
- Review recent posting requests, update any outstanding dates for new posts
- Send out notifications
- Talk to A about coverage levels
- Talk to B about DCF dedicated to HW SW doc
- Worksheet related activities- ppg section, IUG section? Actual appendix, brief explanation, link to file
- Other tracking doc items w/ my name.
- Check to do list (really, this is on there)
- When I get part numer, update XT cover!
- AE install topic, delete the TASKMAN step. XT too?
- Investigate DCF thing
- R.'s spnego thing
- Ping T. on the installer panel

These represent a sampling of the four pages of items I found. Yep, mostly reviewing, talking to, and "pinging." Neato. Progress is charted by scribbling out, underlining, and multiply circling the incomplete items. I think the random punctuation illustrates how vividly I converse with myself, nonstop, in my head. And sometimes, out loud, as I am sure my new office mate is about to find out.

Speaking of which, she (a stranger to me) approached me about being office mates, because she has the same first name as me, and thought that would be funny. Hmm. Of course I said yes, mostly because I rightly suspected someone else was going to ask me, and I needed to secure an excuse but quick, but also, I guess, it's funny? Maybe I will let you know next week. Until then, stay warm, friends.

Christmas Trip Photo Essay

Yes, Jim needs to be in more pictures. Agreed! He really was on our trip with us- how would I have gotten all these lovely photos, if not? And I posted a picture of our breakfast with friends, because seeing old friends was one of the highlights of the trip. C and B, if you object to your guest appearance, say the word and you shall be edited. More soon, and Happy New Year!