It is 11AM and everything that must be done for work is done!!!!
I know I was super, SUPER salty about working this past weekend, but I am so glad I did it. Monday and today would have been SO awful otherwise, especially with the one system being down all day Monday.
I may have snuck out to pick up a celebratory Starbucks.
Told one of my buddies in support the plan for the day was to just keep my head down and hope everyone forgets I exist – and it’s been OK so far!
If I could get away with logging off right now, I’d absolutely do it, LOL.
But I am content with just being online and available and not drilling myself into the ground over the next 4 ish hours.
Last day before I am on vacation, YAY!! Plus I have a hard stop at the end of the day for a post-work appointment with my lovely acupuncturist to disconnect my shoulders from my ears.
Just gotta get through 8 hours without losing my shit, LOL. I can totally do that. I think. Of course, today start with meetings, which is the worst way to start the day, but I will just keep my mouth shut and keep my eye on the countdown clock. In retrospect, I probably should have taken Monday and today off rather than torture myself with these two days in office, but hindsight is always 20/20 isn’t it?
Be interesting to see if the system that shit the bed on Monday is functioning today for working the remainder of Thing #3 and/or if Thing #2 has been fixed so I can retest Thing #1. That dead system on Monday…I was told “oh wait for the next build” – and we couldn’t run a special build Monday – so, we shall see if the regular build reset whatever got out of whack.
Oh and between Monday & today, the 7/19 deadline has been moved to 7/14. Can’t find any explanation yet, just that it changed. And that right there was why I worked this weekend to knock out as much as I possibly could – cause even though someone had pointed out, “Oh, the deadline is Wed 7/19” – which means internally we always shoot for the day before – I’d only have 2 days when I got back to finish shit – and now I’d have zero days.
But, looks like a bit of a reprieve on Thing #1/#2 and I only have ~2 hours to do on Thing #3, so today might be OK!
This is not a joke post, though the best answer is “don’t try to bathe the cat.” So, somehow Lily the Indoor Cat has picked up fleas and of course can’t tolerate the flea drops. So along with vac and wash and vac and wash – a flea bath was in order. I use the Wondercide Geranium bar shampoo for her – it works very well.
First, take every towel you have in the house, set aside a couple for drying time, and line the floor of your bathroom with the rest of them, You basically want a big, thick towel mat, for two reasons – one for the water that will be spilled, and so kitty has a secure/stable place to be sitting during the process.
You’ll also need a big container for water – I just grabbed our stock pot, and a small container with a spout, like a measuring cup, for pouring water over the cat.
Fill the big container with warm water. Grab the cat and get them in the bathroom on the big towel mat.
Get some water in the measuring cup, and start at the head/neck and slowly pour a small amount on the cat. You don’t have to get the cat all wet at once. Just small amounts at a time.
Then massage in the shampoo, and move on to the next section and repeat all the way to the tail. The tummy is a little challenging – if you can tip the cat up on its back legs and pour, great, otherwise you may have to cup the water in your hands and splash it up on the tummy.
For rinsing – same thing from head to tail – small amounts at a time, gently squeeze the excess water off the section, move to the next. Then go to town with the dry towels you set aside earlier. You won’t get the kitty totally dry, but certainly good enough.
I’ve only had to bathe Lily a couple times in 14 years, but this is SO much easier on both of us vs trying to get her in the bathtub, even if I line it with towels.
She didn’t love it, but she was very, very good and she smells lovely and this should keep the damn fleas off her while we continue to wash and vac and wash and vac…
Not really celebrating the 4th around here, cause this country is quite shit at the moment. But I’ll take the day off, for sure. (Hypocritical anti-nationalism, I guess?)
Lily’s meet & greet with our friend went so well and I didn’t realize how unconsciously worried I was about it until I could feel the stress leaving my body, LOL. I guess I was worried that she’d hide when he got here or at best, just be indifferent, but she was very HEY, NEW FRIEND AND YOU SMELL LIKE THAT DOG THAT MY BOY SMELLS LIKE SOMETIMES! She let him brush her, and she was all twirling around his ankles and it did my heart good. Also, many thanks to Bailey the Best Doggo for making our friend smell familiar, LOL.
We all went out for some beers afterwards and damn if those little webcams I got aren’t the best thing ever – I had way too much fun peeking in on the LilyMonster while we were out. And apparently Lily has entered a portal somewhere, because the parlor camera just picked her up walking by – and I have no idea where she actually is now, LOL. And I just walked around rubbing her slicker brush (it makes a very distinct noise) to see if she would appear and *poof* caught her walking out of the parlor. WHERE WAS SHE? I WALKED THROUGH THE DAMN PARLOR LOOKING FOR HER.
I’m definitely already mentally on vacation, which is great except for the fact that I have to work tomorrow, HAHAHAHAHAHA. That is going to be ROUGH.
But that is tomorrow and today I am just enjoying the day off.
Have a great day and don’t blow of your fingers with fireworks.
And I got off work ON TIME!! And a holiday tomorrow to boot!
They got a solid four hours of work out of me today, and I’d feel bad had I not worked 18 hours over the weekend. I was online and available all day, just not always at the damn grindstone like every other day. (I keep reading about these folks with jobs where they only work 3 hours a day. What are these jobs?)
The system I did need today shit the bed this morning and welp, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The weird shit I found yesterday – all total edge cases because I come up with some seriously whacked out test scenarios – bounced them off a couple other folks and we agreed, that clients aren’t doing that, and shouldn’t be doing that. So we’re gonna let those sleeping dogs lie.
My brother’s buddy has come over to get the keys and meet Lily and they both like each other VERY MUCH! That’s such a load off right there.
Thing #1 is done, but needs to be retested, because Thing #2 is broken, but I am not responsible for testing Thing #2. Thing #3 is 3/4 done. Thing #4 has been successfully yeeted. Today is Thing #3 and investigating TWO WHOLE NEW DAMN THINGS that I found yesterday, but all I’m doing with that is figuring out what is happening and getting bugs opened for those.
Again, these are things that are being split/parallel tested, so I don’t know if I’m just the queen of edge cases, or everyone else is just not having to bulldoze their way through the testing and I’m ahead of the curve. And I have had two folks ask why I worked the weekend. Um, my workload, plus 2 day workweek, plus PTO?
I am also slowly coming to the realization that perhaps it’s not understood that testing Thing #2 isn’t just “does the tickybox actually check & uncheck” but is in fact then looking at the aftermath. Even though I added notes to that effect, in bold and red, in the tracking system. Sigh.
FedEx, which I’ve had zero problems with in ages, decided last week would be the perfect week to lose Lily’s Chewy package – last seen in Hagerstown, MD, 5 days ago. No updates for 2 days, Chewy said on Friday, “No worries, we’re sorry, we will re-ship!” Order is now in 2 shipments, one left Ocala, FL 3 hours ago, the other is in Mount Juliet, TN. Both should be here before we leave, but not before we run out of crunchy treats & packet snacks… Fortunately, her prescription food arrived on time.
There will be an emergency treat run to the market today to at least get us to the Chewy delivery. I hope Lily appreciates the grocery store premium, LOL.
And in an act of work rebellion today, I’m keeping my jammie pants on and I think I’ll be working on the sofa with Sports Center on.
So, Thing #2 that I took a swing at today is broken. It is intertwined with Thing #1, which is working wonderfully on its own.
So, once that is fixed, Thing #1 will need to be fully retested.
I know what you’re thinking, “Why didn’t you test Thing #2 first?”
Well, cause I’m an idiot. But – Thing #2 also wasn’t assigned to me (granted I kept forgetting that and kept it on my list) so, technically it was never my problem.
But, I’m glad I took a swing at it anyway, cause this is best found now and not the middle of next week.
Got a BIG work thing finished yesterday and it’s all working properly, so that is a HUGE load off. There is one thing I won’t be able to start, much less finish before I go, so I am going to be telling She Who Assigns Things tomorrow that it has to go to someone else. I’d feel bad except for the fact that I literally remembered just this morning that I have picked up things for other people going on PTO with much less time to finish. It’s not huge and if I toss it tomorrow, whoever gets it will have 9 business days to work on it.
Of the 4 things that needed to be done, the aforementioned big thing is done, another component of that will be done today, thing #3 should be done before I leave, and thing #4 will be yeeted to the rest of the team. I am not working late tomorrow or Wednesday, I’m not working the holiday, and I’m not sacrificing my Thursday, cause I need that day to get ready to go. I am not leaving on a road trip completely exhausted, goddammit.
I have a feeling the folks on the other side of the world get pissed when I set boundaries and whatnot, but they should be doing it, too, and it sure seems like they don’t. There is no honor and sure as shit no reward for working yourself into the ground.
On the home front, things are in…good enough for my brother’s buddy who is looking after Lily to swing by tomorrow for keys and instructions, with no panic cleaning? That’s a first in an exceptionally long time. Couple deep cleaning bits I hope I can get to before leaving, and I have a fuckton of laundry to organize, but honestly, not bad at all.
And in very silly things – I’ve gotten some webcams for the house so I can peek in on Lily while we’re gone. I always miss her so much when I’m gone, and being able to see her will be awesome. (I have warned the petsitter of their existence and will make sure he knows where they are.) For $50 each for the cameras & SD card – they’re great! Picture quality is really good, they work at night, and I got the motion detection settings right so it picks her up when she walks into frame. Bonus, we’ll be able to tell the petsitter her last known location if he can’t find her. :-D
Welp, time to go do the work thing so I’m not angry and stressed the rest of the week,
(Narrator: She was still angry and stressed the rest of the week.)
Trash-assed, shitassed, racist, motherfucking, christofascist on-the-take SCOTUS. We’ve made discrimination great again, fucked student loan borrowers, cause you KNOW Congress ain’t gonna do shit on it, ever, and there was some other trash decision that I can’t even remember at this point, because I’m so blind with rage. I’m 99.9% sure there was one that fucked the environment on top of everything else.
D’s need to come up with something a hell of a lot better than “give us money and vote harder” – tell me how you’re going to SCOTUS-proof any good legislation you can get out the door. Cause as it stands right now – this country is basically being run by a handful of hateful assholes being paid to be that way. That’s sure as shit not what I voted for, and short of sending them on a fishing trip in Orca-laden waters, I’ve got no solution for this, thanks to lifetime appointments.
BUT – in things that are NOT complete shit – IT’S LILY’S BIRTHDAY TODAY!!! She’s 14 years old and still going strong, despite early stage kidney disease. She sleeps a lot and is generally pretty chill, but she still loves to be brushed, have her treats, and post-work cuddle and nap time. On the whole, despite her age, she seems happy, content, and comfortable – and that’s the most important thing.
Happy Birthday to ME!
She’s staying at home when we go to the beach and one of my brother’s buddies is going to take care of her – I sent him an advance “LilyMonster Fact Sheet” and all I could think was “he’s gonna see just how fucking unhinged I am about this cat” – but he LOVED it.
And with the beach is right around the corner, true to fucking form, guess who is working this weekend and probably Tuesday? I only have two things I’m working on – both of which are a “priority” (FML, if everything is a priority, nothing is) and everything was under control until it wasn’t… Had either app *not* had to go back to dev multiple times…I’d be fine, but every time it goes back to development, I have to start testing again from scratch. And of course, the testing deadline is the day I get back from PTO, so it has to be done before I go or passed off to someone else.
That being said, I have no issue with telling She Who Assigns Shit that these may have to be reassigned to be finished off, because the work laptop is not coming with me. And honestly, there are 7 business days it can be worked on by someone else in my absence. And there is also the fucked up issue of both these apps being in parallel testing and no one else has been finding anything wrong?
One thing I have done is in my personal capacity scheduling going forward (and should have done back in May) – I’ve added pre-PTO padding for every time I’m out. If it can’t be done by the padded date, I’m sending up a flare. I am so tired of this shit of having to work late/weekends/whatever before time off. “Oh, this will only take you X hours” except no, it doesn’t, it’s )(the realistic amount to do it right) * (the number of times it has to go back to development)), and that is never, ever X hours.
But, gotta deal with this current fuckup of not realizing soon enough that there wouldn’t be enough standard work hours to get this shit done first. Onwards and upwards and all that happy horseshit.
You have a fantastic day, and don’t let yourself get overscheduled at work like I keep doing.
Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female. 