Lord Andrei's Blog

Yesterday I got an IM from an online acquaintance who I hadn’t chatted with in a few weeks. She asked me how life is and I gave the stock answer that I’ve been using over the past few weeks. “Busy, busy, busy”

Currently, my yet to be publicly described application has a whole bucket of bugs and we are on a tight time frame. I now have ‘New Guy™’ working on some of my app’s bugs. He’s absolutely great. He’s found some bugs in areas I didn’t even think of. This is why two sets of eyes in the code is great.

I also had a great lunch break yesterday. We have a couple of guys at the office who play poker. So that diversion is relaxing.

But the all important question came out, then.
   “Well, how is life outside work?”
I said, “Even busier. I am getting married in 17 days.”
   “Really?!? Did you post about that? I didn’t know”

I think I’ve commented about this but not really put it out there. So…
Way back (Nearly a year ago) on September 7, 2003; well, in football terms one could say, I took a knee.

Since then, we have done the strangest thing… We’ve gone on with life. This will be H’s 2nd walk down the aisle, so after much discussion we decided to not make it a huge affair. This ruled out my wishes for a Disneyland, Cinderella wedding with snipers and ninjas… But I’m strange that way.

The wedding will be on August 14th at out local temple. Our local priest and priestess will be officiating. This is an honour from me because these are the two primary clergy I studied under in my own pursuits as a priest. They will be performing a mass and then a special marriage ceremony.

It’s not big, we haven’t announced it to the world, and this is okay.

Someone at work asked me yesterday if I was nervous. (Just a general ‘nervous’ not actually directed at anything) So I responded, “About the bride to be? No. I’ve never been more sure of anyone in my life. And I’ve had some relationships go wildly in the wrong direction. About the day in particular? A little, but that’s because we have more to plan than we have, but not as much as people would think and we both ended up horrendously busy with other responsibilities leading up to the day in question.”

So… life is good. Crazy. There is much to do… And a wedding imminent. It’s going to be a wonderful change in my life… but we will still both be us… And still be crazy about each other. Albeit with different names 😉

Questions? Problems? Complaints?

I just got a call from the store that has had my cell phone. It sounds like UPS will be picking up the package today. At my request they will be shipping it COD overnight. This will be under $50. Which means that either Wednesday or Thursday I will be sidekick enabled again.

They actually called me, which is a plus. They told me that they are waiting for a UPS pickup where they will get a tracking number and then call me again. They said pickup will be anytime between now and 4pm. So we will see what happens.

EDIT 04-08-16: For the sake of history, this is post #1000 in this journal 🙂
Thanks to schnookiemuffin for pointing out the post count.

Why haven’t I seen Andrei on line…

Last month I travelled to S.F. for the World Wide Developer’s Conference. At the airport on the way home I clamored, tiredly out of the cab. I missed the fact that my cell phone didn’t clamor with me.

Fortunately, aryel_moffet read my frantic posting from the airport. She called my cell phone and the driver discovered it. The phone was live long enough for her to get his name and cell number.

From there the driver wanted me to pick the phone up from him directly. The driver had a lot of difficulty combining the concept of me going to the airport with the concept that I wasn’t from S.F. For a week I tried to locate someone who could coordinate with the cabbie. Most of the people I know don’t actually live _in_ S.F.

Eventually, I called T-Mobile. (Who I was very ticked at since they told me the day of the loss that I did not have phone insurance and would be glad to replace the phone at full cost.) T-Mobile told me to instruct the driver to bring the phone to a T-Mobile store and they would see to it that it was returned to me. (Charging my account their shipping costs). I explained that this driver didn’t speak English very well. (What a f*#&ing surprise!) They asked me what his native language was. I have to admit… As many accents as I have taught, imitated, and analyzed… I had no clue.

They gave me their main number and told me that they had translators on call on request. He should call them and ask for a translator. Several hours pass. I get a call from the cabbie from a T-Mobile store. The tell me they have the phone and will call me back with the shipping information.

A week passes.

Yesterday, I call the cabbie once again who gives me the name and number of the woman where the phone was left. I call the number, it rings 8-9 times and then I get a fax or a modem tone. *sigh*. I call information for another number for the company. The number they give me is for another store with the same name. It apparently isn’t a T-Mobile store. I of course was foolish to believe that the guy actually could follow instructions. But then again I was the moron who couldn’t hold onto a cell phone in a cab. They tell me that the woman in question is on vacation. They also tell me I’ve called the wrong store and that I want Geneva. The person I’m talking to on the phone is (to be honest) not very bright and getting out of her the information about the other store is very difficult. She gives me the store number… it’s the same number. I explain the fax issue. She does not understand this at all. She tells me to keep calling it, I should reach someone.

I call again… fax tone. I write a fax describing the situation. I print it and try phoning again. I reach a man at the store. (who eventually explains that they have no modem or fax… {At a cell phone store they don’t have a fax?!?!?}) Oh, yes. My phone’s there. It’s just been waiting for someone to take it to the post office (for a week?!?!). I ask if it can be over-nighted COD. He says he’ll call UPS and call me right back. (4:45pm)

That was yesterday. I have now been without my cell for almost a month. Many people have kidded me about how I’m surviving without the drugs. To be honest it’s a damned annoyance. I don’t really use this as a cell phone. The thing about the sidekick which puts it above just about everything else out there is that it has AIM built into the phone. I haven’t found another product that has AIM built into a cell phone and until I do I’m stuck with T-Mobile. (Love Danger’s Hiptop… despise T-Mobile)

So, this morning I will take another shot at getting the phone back…

Thus… Outside work.. been too busy to sit down and log on… Inside work.. been too busy to have conversations.

*sigh*

Busy busy busy.

Warning: This is Political Cartoonist Mark Fiore of the Village Voice.

This warning is to anyone who may feel the need to rebuke the attempt at humour based on the fact that it’s issued from a liberal mindset 😉

Tom Ridge – Minister of Fear
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