Meltdown

It's 8:00 a.m. on the Tuesday of a three-day holiday week, the week before I have to fly to Austin/Oklahoma City for two workshops, and two very bad work-related things happen. First, the office copier starts making a jet-engine type noise. Not good when I need 120 copies of a 50 page presentation (and 120 copies of about 6 other handouts). Huge pain in the ass, but nothing the Copy & Print Center at Staples can't help me with (3,328 total copies; bitchin'!). The second (and FAR nastier) problem is that my computer crashed this morning. The computer that I normally connect to my projector. So people can actually see my PowerPoint presentation. I called the "help desk" at my Home Office and got all the usual "helpful" suggestions. "Take the battery out and try again". "Take the battery out, unplug it and try again". Didn't work. Shocking. They finally told me they'd send me a new machine and I'd have it by Monday. That would be great if I was going to be in Sacramento on Monday. Unfortunately, I'll be in Texas. Now it's supposed to be shipped to my house on Friday. I've got my fingers crossed.

Anniversary

Anniversary
Originally uploaded by klycolllins.

Rachelle and I celebrated our 6th anniversary last week. To help commemorate our solemn and glorious Las Vegas wedding, we decided to hit the Indian casino near our house for the buffet. Rock on! We actually could have gone someplace "nice", but the casino really seemed to fit. And it was only $9.99 per person. Drink included. Anyway, to anybody interested in getting married, Vegas is really a pretty good option. Book yourself a package through one of the better hotels and you're set. Pictures (that I wasn't told about), video (ditto) and you are in and out in 30 minutes. Pretty painless. And you can take care of the reception by giving everybody a roll of nickels and sending them towards the slots. Free cocktails for everybody! Thanks for sticking with me for six whole years, Rachelle. Only 30+ to go.

Election Day

Election Day
Originally uploaded by klycolllins.

Election day today! As you can see, people weren't exactly fighting to get in to vote for their favorite elected/hopeful representative. I heard on the radio that California was expecting a +/- 50% turn-out, and 45% of those had already voted absentee. With all the talk about problems with electronic voting, I was feeling pretty confident that our optical scanners were pretty safe. There's an actual paper ballot that you fill in like a school test and feed through a scanner when you're done. Pretty simple. Problem is they "forgot" to send a power cord for the scanner, so they'll have to "hand count" them later. I see my vote for Charlie Brown getting "lost". Of course they'd have to toss out my Schwartzenneger vote, too. God, I love the political season! Seriously. I'll be glued to the TV all night. Might be some yelling, some swearing. Whatever.