The Ankle Biter @ Quibbling.net

In honor of my trip to California, I had Rice-a-Roni for dinner.

Heh.

So, a week ago, I noticed on my direct deposit reciept, which I had gotten well in advance, that Two Bits’ payroll company was planning to pay me all the way through the 30th, even though I had only worked through the 17th and explicitly told them so.

Being a person of reasonably good moral character, and being the person who had called in that payroll, I alerted the board president right away.

For some unknown reason, she had the payroll company contact me to find out how much I should be paid. Good thing I’m honest. I told them very specifically how much I should be paid.

Today, I checked my bank balance. They paid me all the way through the 30th anyway. More than double what I was owed, even with the vacation pay I had coming to me. So I have several hundred dollars in my bank account that I specifically told them, twice, wasn’t mine.

Does that make it mine now?

Ho: “I’m very comfortable with my sexuality.”
John: “Yeah, it’s First Come, First Serve!”

And shortly thereafter…

John: “You’re touching me.”

Tom’s party last night was very successful. Lots of people came and enjoyed the weather, the company, the food, and the foosball table. Oh yeah, and the John and Ho Show.

We were also joined by an old high school friend of mine, Ian, and his fiancee (I think) Gabby. I hadn’t seen Ian since I was about 15, but now he’s down here in DC, so there was much catching up to do. An outstanding evening, all around.

Today, after Tom and I finish clearing up the wreckage of the par-tay (which isn’t bad; all the guests were quite civilized), we’ll be heading out to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall, since this is the last day for it this weekend, and we won’t be in town next weekend to see it. Hurrah for the digital camera.

In other news, I did snag a new apartment today!

I wasn’t going to commit to it today, except that I was able to secure a place in the same building as the leasing office and all the models. Which means that building will be both quiet and well-kept. Even if the other ones suck. The complex does seem to be reasonably well-maintained, it’s just that I’m rather a skeptic about apartments.

It’s a 1BR, it’s in Arlington, and best of all, I can actually afford it. W00t!

So, I have been having trouble sending email. I finally found out why today.

Cox Cable had recently changed their network so that customers using their service can’t use non-Cox SMTP servers. From home, I can’t send through smtp.mac.com, mail.quibbling.net, relay.pair.com, mail.[newjob].com, or any other server I would legitimately want to use.

Why? To reduce the amount of spam sent from their network.

While I applaud their efforts to reduce the sending of spam, there is really no need to penalize the rest of us for it. Their policy should be simple- anyone caught sending spam will have their account terminated.

This wouldn’t bug me, except that I suspect, since no authentication seems to be needed to use their SMTP servers, that sending to a Cox SMTP server from, say, Tom’s house, where the ISP-of-choice is Toad.net DSL, just won’t work. I will quite possibly have to switch SMTP servers every time I use my computer from someplace else.

Which is often, because I have a LAPTOP.

But while I was researching the problem, I think I ran across something at macosxhints.com about setting up Mail.app to use multiple SMTP servers for one POP account. I’ll have to look into that if sending mail from Tom’s place or Common Grounds doesn’t work.

Work is slowly starting to make sense. I have learned that the CEO, when he wants your opinion, doesn’t say, “What do you think?” He just sort of looks at you expectantly. He’s a good guy, but he doesn’t usually react the way I expect him to, and it’s a bit off-putting.

Yesterday was Free Freeze Pop Day at the burrito place in the shopping center where the office is. It was a perfect day for it. So I sat outside with my cubicle buddy and we ate our freeze pops, and I watched him chat up the cute girl who works the register.

Today I had lunch with another coworker at the same burrito place. Mmm burrito. We had a very pleasant chat- she’s new there too, so it was nice to compare notes on our new workplace.

And we found out today that we’ve been bitched. One of the sales guys had been talking at length with an IT consultant for a potential customer. He showed the guy a detailed PowerPoint presentation about our product. He gave him a demo. He had several conversations with the guy.

Turns out, the company wasn’t interested in buying our product anyway. Oh no. They’re building their own, directly competing, product, and they were basically picking our brain for product research. Great.

Frank explains the concept of executive orders to Dick Gephardt.

PSA: Men, when cheating on your wife with a friend of hers, in your car, remember to lock your cellphone keypad.

Tonight:
- Laundry
- Rip more of my CD collection into iTunes
- Get crackin’ on the blog redesign

Before Sunday night:
- return the pants that don’t fit to the store
- pay bills and order Virtual PC
- go look at an apartment

A couple of random observations from the last week:

Fitting room mirrors are a conspiracy.

Being the new kid sucks.

Apple rocks. Every time Steve Jobs gets on stage, I hear my credit card sigh.

I appreciate the fact that Last Comic Standing puts a check on the vote that’s based on who actually is funnier. And if I’m going to watch people’s petty personal dramas, I’d rather watch comedians rip on each other than the latest bimbette flavor of the week.

Dear Employer-type people:

I can do almost anything you’d ask of me. If I don’t know how to do it, I can learn. But I need something from you.

Clearly defined and agreed upon expectations.

Love,
Tiff

Also today:

Accountant: “This copier isn’t on.”
Me: “Press the ON button.”
Accountant: “Oh.”