Kate Barnes

So, I've been at the job a bit over a month. Yesterday, I went to my car for lunch, and it wouldn't start.  I tried a few things, nope. I sent my sister a message, she came, we tried to jump it, no dice. But, we attracted the attention of other CCCS employees, who gave me names of nearby mechanics (with card), or who stayed with us as we tried to jump it, etc. In the end, we left it over night. I was feeling sorta yucky last night, so, I scouted for some options, but, in the end, just turned in early. No Word of the Day, which I feel baad about, but, eh.

My sister dropped me off this am. The lady who had stayed with us last night, (who is a mechanic, but now does Perkins Grants) had been thinking about it, and thought we might need to try it again. She'd parked her car across from mine, borrowed my keys (I can't leave my desk), and left her car hooked to mine for over an hour, just to be sure. Nope. No dice. I tried it on my break. I told the person covering for my break what was going on. She went and mentioned it to my boss. My boss called around, and found a facilites guy who volunteered to pull out my battery.  My battery went into her car, and she volunteered to drive me to get a new one, and the facilities guy said when we got back, he'd put it in for me.  Yup, sure enough, all together, and the car is working again.

Really, I'm just feeling really grateful to a bunch of people I barely know.

Birthday Happies to fantasma713 . Hope your day is awesome!

Happy Birthday to psyclonic ! I hope you're doing well, and that there is thunder in your forecast.

Also, I just realized I'm exceptionally belated in wishing tiggz  a Happy Birthday. Hope it was good!

I wanted to share the turtle tail with you all, and, also, experimenting with Flickr's blog utility.

( Story underneath )

I posted this in Facebook, but, I'd meant to post it here first, and forgot.

Come Saturday, May 23rd for the annual ECKAS! (Eeek-Ass!) (Event Commonly Known as Slayerfest). There will be trivia, and food, and

This year, the theme, is sorta a Potpourri. It's the remainder of last year's episodes, plus award winning episodes. Some episodes I've not yet picked, so, they're as TBA for now. Dinner will be provided, srotu27  and I are co-hosts.

Here's the schedule, which might yet change in the next day or so:

11:00 AM Battlestar Galactica: "33" (Hugo Winner)
12:00 PM X-Files: Small Potatoes (TV Guide's top 100 episodes)
1:00 PM Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Conversations with Dead People" (Hugo Winner)
2:00 PM Lost "Walkabout" (Emmy Nominee)
3:00 PM Angel "The House Always Wins"
4:00 PM Joan of Arcadia "Double Dutch"
5:00 PM Alias "Truth Be Told"
6:00 PM Dinner break
7:00 PM Twin Peaks, Pilot (TV Guide's top 100 episodes)
9:00 PM Firefly: The Message (Hugo Nomination)
10:00 PM Simpsons: Krusty gets Kancelled / Crepes of Wrath (TV Guide's top 100 episodes)
11:00 PM Doctor Who: Blink (Hugo Winner)
I have a few "extras" that will get played late, if people are still up for it.

Everyone is invited, e-mail me if you need directions to mi casa.

Happy Birthday to austin154 ! Hope it's exceptionally awesome!

I've got a falling ceiling filled with mold in my bedroom, but, today I am being grateful that I have a house at all, and that the insurance and mortgage is paid.

Wednesday is date night, which is essentially an internet-enhanced MST3K-ing of Ghost Hunters with my sister in Iowa. Fun stuff. A bright spot in any week.

I also managed to get a bunch of data entry done for the site, so, yay!

Today, I got to talk to both my nephews on the phone. The older of the two sang "London Bridge is falling down" to me, and the younger giggled.

In other news, I am doing data entry, trying to get all the cemeteries I've done into the online system. Much easier now than it had been. If you'd like to see for yourself what I've been working on, with the help of ng_nighthawk , go see http://search.colorado-cemeteries.com. Use "brinkerhuff" as a search term.

So, it may seem like I'm a broken record, but, the "heavy lifting" on the PHP stuff for the site has now been completed. Again, thanks to the generosity and knowledge of Mr. ng_nighthawk , whose experience got the big stuff wrapped up this evening. There's some cosmetic work to do, and some data entry, but, it'll be ready for its promised launch time. YAY!

Let's see. Today was sorta low key. I got a lovely dinner and visiting with ng_nighthawk  and rg_rothko  and clan. I'm definitely getting the better end of this deal, for, tomorrow, we finish up the last bits of the PHP.

Today, my youngest sister told me she was going to try Twin Peaks, which pleased me, and I'm going to send her my copy of the pilot, so, she can watch the series and not be more lost than necessary.  I re-watched it today to more accurately describe the point she needs to stop the tape. It was fun.

Good night of game. On the way home, I stopped to get a mailer for sending the pilot tape, and in the office supply aisle, discovered my favorite manufacturer of writing pens had a set of 4 pens in 4 different colors than they usually sell. Office supplies make me very happy. I am nearly ashamed to admit this, but, me, who doesn't really write fan letters of any kind (fewer than 5 in my life, not counting about 20 Save Angel postcards), sent one to this company on behalf of these pens. The colored ones in question were $8 for a pack of four. Ridiculous. But, I've been wanting to have a few colored pens helping mekeep track of things on a project. I stood there for probably 10 minutes, as $8 is pretty spendy, and being unemployed, well, yeah.

In the end, I bought them because they made me happy.  At some level, this is my favorite thing that happened today, and the minute I got home, the package got ripped open, and I'm now trying them out. I love them. Yay!

This is for Friday, and totally counts 'cause I've not gone to bed yet. Today was an all around good day.

My good pal ng_nighthawk , swooped in with a cape, and superpowers, and saved my PHP bacon, sanity, and all that. The search engine-y part is working now. Still needs some tweaking, but, it feels pretty glorious, and I've got some more work to do on it, but, bless him.

Also, my federal rerun got deposited today.

And, there was birthday cake, good friends, and raspberry sauce.

So here's the skinny:

Rules are:

1. Post about something that made you happy today, even if it's just a small thing.
2. Do this every day for eight days.
3. Tag eight of your friends to do the same

I've decided it's a good thing to cultivate gratitude, and, coincidentally was tagged for this one, so, it seems a lovely synchronicity. 

Today was a bit of a roller coaster, but, I did get my state refund in my account today, so, I could pay bills. Yay!

Birthday happies to glow_boy ! Hope your day has been exceptional!

Birthday Happiest to foot_tapper1 ! Hope it's a terrific one!

Happy Birthday to helygen ! I hope it's an awesome day!

It's traditionally right around the corner!

Maybe I need to have it as a charity benefit this year. Or postpone it? I dunno. 

I'd probably use the stuff we didn't watch last year, and maybe add a few extra episodes for "safety" (and do a better job for trivia than I did last year, in which I failed, really) .

Any thoughts?

I wrote a follow-up to my column on the Rocky Mountain News, whose last issue was today.

It's here: http://www.k8space.com/2009/02/requiescat-in-pace.html

and the sun is high!

Well, you know how that ends...

So, I'm unemployed again. Mostly relieved. Severance should float me for a few months, and, I'm hoping to bust out a bunch of work for my projects, and forget about having to live with the anxiety of sitting in an office, waiting for your fate to be determined by someone else.