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I went and visited my family this weekend for an early Thanksgiving.  My niece was a lot of fun – she’s constantly on the move and learning all the time.  And she’s getting more words  – and starting to put them together into sentences.    We chased each other around the house and played with my iPad  – and of course read plenty of books.

We didn’t do too much during our visit, but we still had fun.  Mostly just telling stories and eating way too much.  I did get a little exercise in the form of helping get a load of firewood.  Oh, and I cooked too.  Well, I put the turkey in the oven at the specified time and temp while the rest of the crew was at church – I don’t think that really counts, but I stuck to it.

I headed back home on Sunday evening – in the dark and the rain.   I had no trouble getting up to Columbus – but as I approached the all important exit to 71, I found it was closed.  Closed.  Who would close 71?    I swore a bit, railed my fist against the inhumanity, then saw that there was an overturned truck blocking the entire exit.  Then I felt a little bad.

And then I realized I didn’t know where I was going.  I don’t know Columbus hardly at all and there weren’t many landmarks I could use in the dark.  I kept going north, hoping for the best and getting more and more anxious.  Finally, I gave up and called my dad.  He reassured me that I was on the right track and sure enough, the signs for 270 to Cleveland (71) soon appeared.   I stopped and got fuel not long after I got onto 71 – just in case – and made my way home without any further incident.

Looks like I need to get the outlet in my car fixed and get myself a GPS.  Just in case.

Crazy busy at work this week, but I’ve gotten a lot done.  Today especially was intense.  We launched 3 sites this morning and fixed a ton of links.   I also had a meeting and pretty much saved the day.   There is work being done on a campus wide survey and I brought up the need for some kind of incentive in return from some essential data.   I also solved some technical issues, and reminded them the importance of protecting the privacy of the data.  It was epic and I would have given myself a high-five if it wasn’t such a silly idea.

A quick lunch then off to another meeting.  This was a collaborative day-saving, but it still counts.

I also got a really nice note from the home sellers.   They are throwing in a desk in the office and a foosball table!   Sort of a nice counter-point to the ping pong table in my sister’s basement.  🙂    They offered to leave the piano as well, but I think that would just be something to dust.

I’ve been working with bank to keep things on track.  Sort of cranky about their process, but not a dang thing I can do about it.

Think it’s time for me to log off and hit the rack.  Got a long day ahead of me tomorrow and then a long drive tomorrow night to my sister’s place.  My Mom wants to have thanksgiving a week early so we can – mostly – all be together.  My Dad may end up having to work on Saturday, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work out.  Being that I’m the least sentimenal person on the planet, I’d be fine with Bob Evan’s or a deli turkey sandwich, but I suspect I would be over-ruled on that.

So, update.  The home inspection went well – the guy was very through and really gave me a new appreciation for the house.  There was one issue – a broken chimney in the attic  – that had me concerned.    But, the seller has agreed to fix that prior to closing.  Pretty cool.

I’ve dealt with the title company and talked to my insurance agent. Today I talked to the bank and got a rude surprise.   I’ve been jumping through the hoops and providing all the paperwork as requested – and thought I was ahead of the game.  I paid the (exorbitant) mortgage application fee and then the loan guy told me that it could take as long as 40 days to process.   40 days!   Really!  In the age of computers and the internet, how can anything take 40 days?  Sheesh!    And to make matters worse, I’m hoping to close in 30 days.

I feel like I missed a step or didn’t move fast enough.  But still… 40 days from me having everything turned in.  Grumble…

So, I talked to my realtor and was glad to hear she was surprised too – at least I’m not off base.  She suggested another bank to look into.  It’s maybe a little late now since I’ve already paid my fee – but maybe I can apply a little pressure if I can show my bank I could get a better deal.   Really, in this housing market, they should be taking me out to lunch to say thank you or something – not slapping me with huge fees and another hurdle to jump through.  Sigh.

In happier news, I went to a fun party over the weekend.  One of my friends was turning 40 and they had a surprise party for him.  All the guests were encouraged to wear wigs.  I totally forgot about the party and was running late without a wig.  So, I stopped at target and bought a card and a mop head.  It didn’t stay on my head very well, but it was fun and got some laughs.

I’ve got to wrap this up and get back to work.  Yeah, actual work.  It sucks, but I didn’t get enough done today and it’ll suck more if I try to pack all that in tomorrow with the rest of the stuff that is sure to come my way.

That really awesome house I found? I found I was comparing the rest of the places I looked at to this one and realized that I had my house.

So. Offer made, then a waiting period while they considered. They came back with a counter offer and then I followed up with a counter-counter offer – which they accepted. I put down the earnest money and we got the disclosure sorted out – tomorrow I’m headed there for the home inspection. I drove past today and saw the sale pending sign – which was kinda cool.

If the inspector goes according to plan, then it’s off to the bank to get a loan. Then, closing.

It’s pretty exciting. And pretty scary too.

Today I launched two websites, attended four meetings, updated a bunch of webpages, set up a survey, and pretty much saved the day a couple times over. I got a lot done, but it was mentally tiring. And for all the frustrations, it was fun. I found myself really enjoying all the things I was working on and the multitasking. I know humans don’t really multitask – we just switch channels quickly – but I got pretty close.

In other news, the web team got some cookies from another group recently. They had some of those cookies too, decided the were stale, felt bad for giving us stale cookies, and sent over another batch. Of course we ate the first batch even though they were stale and pretty well polished off this batch as well. I wonder if they are pulling a Hansel and Gretel on us. 🙂

Also, I got an iPad! My boss gave it to me to test the mobile app – which I did and is very cool – and also to get familiar with mobile in general. So, at the moment, I’m blogging from my couch in my living room. Way cool- and I’m getting pretty fast with the typing. Well, sort of. 🙂

My walkout on campus had three good stories.

1. I was in the administrative building and as I stepped out of the elevator, one of the staff members walked past. She saw me out of the corner of her eye and freaked out. As in, she ran and hid in a corner. It was awesome. Another of the staff members came out of their office and calmed her down.

2. I was walking back to my office and saw my boss’s daughter. I approached her and tried to say hello, but she didn’t realize it was me and ran off in a near panic. She stopped by the office later to see her dad and with his help I got to scare her again. Once she realized it was me, she was cool and really liked the costume.

3. The only real downside to the day was when I went to the student center. I went to the main office to see a few people and I was told that I had to take off my mask. I identified myself and the woman recognized me, but still insisted that I take it off. There was a rule, apparently, that students not wear masks. And it was extended to staff. She was unable to produce the rule, however.
I took off the mask anyway,talked to her a bit, then left the office and put the mask right back on. I figured, “treat me like a student, I’ll act like a student,” Next thing you know, they’ll be telling me there’s no Santa Claus.

My trip out on campus as the housefly was awesome this Halloween.     Here’s the link to my site with more photos and comments.  As always, it was a blast and I really enjoyed visiting my friends on campus.

My room-mate came home from the hospital last week.  He still has the infection and he’s still not moving around real well, but he’s able to get around on his own.  He’s supposed to see his doctor this week to try and get a summary of what’s going on and what the next steps are for treatment.

On Saturday morning, I went on my second trip with the realtor.  We saw a bunch of places up in the Akron area, but had to cut things a little short.  I did see one place that was awesome and in my price range that shot to the top of my list.    I’m supposed to go out with her again tomorrow, but I think I’m getting close to focusing on one and going with that.

That evening, I went to a Halloween party.  Had a lot of fun and won a prize for most original costume.  So, a few people have seen it, but the rest will just have to wait.   One of the best was a friend who is a university professor.  He got an evaulation from one of his students that said, “Looks like a serial killer, sounds like Kermit the Frog,”  The student then added a picture of Kermit wielding a knife.   So, he dressed up in a trench coat with a bloody shirt and knife – and a Kermit mask.  It was pretty funny – even if he did have to explain it to everyone.

On Sunday I went to brunch with some friends at The Office.  It’s a resturant and bar that has some really good food and complimentary mimosas for Sunday brunch.  I think the bartender was disappointed that I only wanted plain OJ.   I wowed the group with some origami and we had a nice time.

I made some repairs on the costume on Sunday afternoon and just kind of hung up for the rest of the day.   Had trouble sleeping last night for some reason and I’m dragging a bit today.

I went and saw my room-mate in the hospital last evening.

Against the surgeon’s better judgement, she went ahead and opened him up to try and get at the infection and clear it out. (She was apparently getting pressure from the higher ups at the hospital)

When I saw him, he had a huge bloody bandage across  his torso.  Looked like someone went after him with a weed-wacker.  And they apparently didn’t stitch him back up.  Instead, they left it open so it could drain.  Not sure what they expected to drain since they couldn’t get to the infection, but that’s what they did.  He was getting pretty good at changing the dressing and the nurses were impressed.

There is talk about him leaving the hospital today, but it seems like they should be doing more to get things cleared up.   And the Cleveland clinic reported in and still don’t know what is going on with the results of his biopsy.  It’s a mystery.

In other news… I’ve gotten a hand-me-down laptop at work to use along with my regular desk computer.  And because it’s a laptop, it’s got encryption on it.   And it sucks.    The password won’t sync with my UAnet ID well and every time I try to use one of these encrypted machines I’ve got to call support because I don’t have access.

As a funny side note – I also don’t have access to any kind of sensitive data.  So, even if I got this stolen – which I won’t because it won’t leave my site when it leaves the office – there couldn’t possibly be anything on there that could be used against someone.

I doubt the merits of the system, but it’s apparently one of the best on the market.  We’ll see how it goes the next time I have to change my password.

We lost power at the computer center yesterday.  Very very suddenly.

BAM!  Darkness.  Especially bad for our group since our office it partly underground.  It came right back on, but not before it hammered our computers and shut them down.  Except for the machine of my smug  co-worker on an uninterupted power supply.

My boss came back to the office a bit later and told us that it was actually a scheduled shut down.   When we asked about notification, he smiled and said it was on the divisional calendar.   When we asked about the calendar, he smiled again and said that was a good question – something even the associate vp’s didn’t know.

A bit later we got an announcement over the speakers about another power cycle and we lost power again shortly thereafter.  I suspect someone got scolded about notifications

This evening, when I went to the hospital to visit my room-mate, I inadvertently left the lights on with my car.  I didn’t realize that until I got back to the parking garage.

I got in, turned off the lights, and let it sit for a moment while we both gathered our courage.  It hesitated a moment when I first turned the key, then it started up.  Thinking I might want to invest in Triple A at some point before the snow flies.