Domestic Geek

So, last Friday was SysAdmin Appreciation Day and I tried really hard to drum up support for the holiday for Marcus. Unfortunately, I work with dolts.

First, I went to Marcus' immediate supervisor to get permission to decorate his door and to get her to drum up the day with the rest of the staff. Well, she didn't bother to tell me that she was going to be on vacation for most of last week. Hmph. Turns out she didn't bother to tell anybody before she left, either.

Then I talked to my supervisor and told him we should celebrate for Marcus and the prepress tech guy. It totally slipped his mind (so he says). Nevermind that I wrote it on the CALENDAR that he looks at every darned day.

So, Friday I stopped at 7-11 and bought him one of his favorite canned caffeinated coffee beverages and proceeded to decorate his door.

Apparently nobody I work with learned how to read. All day long, people wished Marcus "Happy Birthday." After a while, he got tired of telling people it wasn't his birthday. Others thought the mini CDs in between words in my HAPPY SYSADMIN DAY banner were letter Os. I thought they might have trouble with the banner, so I printed the sign at work that morning with the URL for the SysAdmin Day site. Clueless...the whole lot.

At least Marcus knows one person in the building truly appreciates him.

[more photos in the SysAdmin Day 2007 gallery]

Just wanted to make a quick note to remind myself and everybody else that July 27th is System Administrator Appreciation Day. Show some love to the guy (or gal) that keeps your computers and networks humming along. When they're doing their jobs right, it's usually a thankless job, so please do something nice for yours.

This year's event is the 8th annual one. Read more at SysAdminDay.com.

Hope everybody had a good Independence Day yesterday. I took a bit of a holiday myself since I wasn't needed at work.

We had a little BBQ with some friends and then watched the Aurora fireworks display from the parking lot of PetSmart over at I-225 and Alameda. There was this one drunk dude there that was throwing fireworks up in the air and getting belligerent when people complained that sparks were falling on them. He made the mistake of throwing one right in front of an Aurora police officer that was patrolling the crowd on a dirt bike. Ha, Loser! I was amazed at all the dumb asses that tried to stop on the interstate to watch the fireworks. This one van load of people even got out of their vehicle. Yeah, like that was smart. Good thing the police were patrolling and moving them along before someone got hurt. Right after the fireworks ended, a really cool wind blew in bringing a heavy downpour with it. It was kind of cool to sit in the back of the Escape with the back door up watch the rain and waiting for the crowd to dissipate before heading home.

The sucky part was I didn't get to sleep until after midnight with all the fireworks being shot off in the neighborhood and a nightmare woke me up at 4 am. Working on 4 hours sleep was no fun today. Thankfully, I got a little nap in after work. It's going to be early to bed for me tonight!

OK, I haven't had much to complain about at work yet, but today I was really P.O.'d. Even though we have paid holidays, I was planning on working on Wednesday because I really need the money (it would've been time and a half for an extra 8 hours). I haven't had any OT in weeks and I was looking forward to getting a little extra money this pay period. I also hate taking days off midweek because it screws up my rhythm. No such luck. I was told by my supervisor that with as little work as there is in the shop right now, I wouldn't be able to come in. Dammit! That put me in a mood that spiraled downward the rest of the day.

With Mother's Day right around the corner, this time of year always makes me think about my mom. It's been 11 years since she passed away. I remember my mother always loved getting carnations for Mother's Day. She thought that they were less pretentious than roses and they lasted longer. They also have a lighter smell and there are no thorns. It turns out that they were the appropriate flower for her as carnations are the flower of her birthday month (she was born in January). I guess since she loved them so much that's why carnations are one of my favorite flowers, as well. I really love mixed flower bouquets, though; especially arrangements with lilies and irises in them. I love variety and color.

I keep seeing ads for ProFlowers and wish that she was still around so that I could send her some. Since the flowers are delivered fresh from the fields, they would last even longer than those I used to bring home from the grocery store for her. Did you know that you can support breast cancer research when you order certain floral arrangements from ProFlowers? They have a line called The Pink Ribbon Collection, 10% of the sale price going to The Komen Foundation.

Speaking of flowers, the lilac bushes outside should be blooming soon. I love how the smell of fresh lilacs just fills the house.

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