2005-05-08 - 10:36 a.m.

Ah, such a nice weekend I've had so far. Right now I'm drinking my second mug of coffee and all is right with the world.

This past week at work I feel like I got nothing done. My current task is reading/editing a very technical document written by the division's R&D boss that eventually will make it to customer release. He's English, and as such is completely infatuated with the passive voice and wishing/wanting. I'm having a heck a of time wrapping my head around the technical content, never mind trying to figure out how to rework the document so that a global audience can use it. It's about making just about any numerically-controlled machine work with our software, which is a whole new area for me to learn about.

Also at work this week, I got to participate in three second interviews for a new QA Engineer position. I've never done that before and I felt somewhat awkward. I went in with two of my QA teammates (the grunts who do the actual work). One of them couldn't shut up about non-germane information and the other was less chatty than an Easter Island idol. I did the best I could to guide the conversations toward, you know, actual useful content. The offer is going to a candidate who wasn't my first choice, but since I will most likely have very little to do with the person, I don't forsee that being a problem. I really wish I wasn't part of the team I'm on. I'm really an island unto myself and I would prefer to report directly to the head of R&D like I used to before my current team was created.

Also, hello? My allergies have been kicking my ass. One day at work I took non-drowsy sinus medicine...which made my drowsy. I hate it when I physically have a hard time focusing on my monitors.

Friday night Cheryl and I went to dinner, and then the mall so I could shop for my mom's Mother's Day gift. I wound up getting a necklace she wanted and had sent me a link to earlier in the week. I'm a firm believer in giving people things they ask for.
The only problem is I think I don't have any non-Christmas wrapping paper, and my gift bag selection is for naught...I'll have to improvise. Cripes, I'd better get cracking this morning - I forgot I had to do that, and I have to pick Mom up in 2 hours. We're meeting Melanie's family at Bertucci's for lunch.

Last night I met Jennifer, a local blogger with whom I've struck up a conversation since I commented on her blog once a few months ago and she then saw my picture in the paper a few weeks ago and wrote to me about it. I picked her up at her gigantic apartment (I'm jealous!), where I admired her radiant 1970's couch. She insisted it was superior to TWUC, but I was quite adamant that while hers was sure something, TWUC was way uglier. We then went to dinner at the Apollo Grill (yaye! OMG teh yum) in Easthampton. After that we came back here where she admired TWUC and the rest of the museum, and we chatted the night away. It was very pleasant and I had a great time. I hope to see her again soon. She said she loves Indian food so we must go to Pintu's.