The last few weeks have just been crazy. I'm looking forward to a normal evening tomorrow and hopefully a fairly normal week next week.

United Way Week: 1st - 5th

Mutual has a week dedicated to United Way fund raising every year. This year was my first encounter with the food-fest that can only be described as a never-ending schmorgous board of tasty treats combined with raffles. You could get any variety of bake sale items, pie with ice cream, Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, nachos, enchiladas, chili dogs, sloppy joes, lasagna, pizza, etc. They even created a Lotus Notes database that listed the food specials for the day and the locations to find them in the building. Almost every department in the company organized a daily "lunch special" to be served on their floor. I ate lunch at work everyday. A pretty expensive food week for me. I also worked at one of the Information Services sponsored lunches serving food till we ran out. There were also plenty of different things you could register to win. They had two people from the show "The Biggest Loser" visit to promote a gift basket that included a $200 boot-camp. There were plenty of themed baskets too like Halloween, wine, baby stuff, beauty items, cooking, etc. It was a fun week, but also nice to get everything out of the hallways and back to normal work schedules. I don't think many people got a lot done that week.

Weekend!

The weekend was pretty packed (but with mostly fun things). John and I went to one of his friends' house and we played through the entirety of Halo. Yeah, it took quite a few hours. I think we started playing around 10 and didn't leave their house till about 4am. I wasn't as terrible at it as I was expecting. Although, I do have to admit that a lot of my time during the first 1/2 hour of play was focusing on walking and looking (and not getting shot). That was the first time I'd ever played anything on an Xbox of any type. It was fun and the graphics were pretty awesome. John really wants to get an Xbox and Halo so he can play on his own. We'll see when that happens.

We saw Brad and watched part of the game with him. It was pitiful. About half way through it, we ended up looking for something else to watch. Sunday was laundry, cleaning and dinner with John's family.

Dataloads and Training: 8th - 12th

I spent all of last week creating a video using video editing software to teach someone how to use the video editing software to create training videos. Yes, that sentence is very confusing. Anyway, my team supports the software that Mutual's customer service department uses to update customer information. Every time we push out a change that affects how the Customer Service reps interact with the software, they have to go through two weeks of training to learn how to use it the "new way." (This makes me very glad I don't work in that department. I think I'd go nuts having to train for two weeks every time something changed.) We are exploring the idea of creating training videos to show the screens and describe how to use them. The people who facilitate training aren't very technical, so I needed to create documentation on how to create training videos. Well, what better way to do that than create a video using the software you're going to train them how to use? I'm hopeful that it will be easier to understand than a written document (although I made one of those to supplement). It was really easy to do and a nice break from the more mentally intensive tasks I usually work on.

Speaking of which, we also started dataloads last week. Every six months, all the testing data is deleted and a fresh set of data is reloaded to the various environments. Doesn't sound too hard right? Well, the way all the data has to be loaded is by using the mainframe (which I had never even attempted to use until I started work here). Learning hasn't been too bad, but the entire structure and interaction is completely different than anything else I've worked with in the past. The most painful parts are remembering what all the commands mean (many aren't intuitive) and enduring the painfully slow pace at which I do things in this particular environment. I'm sure I'll get faster eventually, but it definitely feels like things take forever for me to do.

Weekend!

Dataloads were still running so I had to check on those a few times during the weekend. We went to Vala's pumpkin patch (my first time). It was a pretty cool place but I definitely wasn't expecting all the traffic. They actually had police out at the place directing traffic. You can definitely tell that we're in the middle of po-dunk when they have to get cops to direct traffic at a pumpkin patch. Abby and Drew came with Allana. She was pretty happy to run around on the hills and look at things. We took her through a haunted house, but she didn't get scared at all. I think she was too young to understand that things were supposed to be scary. She just seemed irritated with a few of the louder noises. Mandy and B.J. were running late and ended up in the middle of game traffic. They arrived right as Abby and Drew were leaving. So, we went through the whole thing again. But hey, I got fudge out of the deal! I've only eaten about half of the first brick I bought (I have four more after this one). Sadly, the weather ended up being pretty bad later in the afternoon. It started drizzling about 45 minutes after we started the second trip through the place. We ended up huddling under some shelter while the boys found pumpkins. Later that night, we ended up stopping at Gamestop to see if they had a Wii. They didn't...but they did have a crimson and black DS lite. Yeah, it was really shiny, so I couldn't pass it up. The good thing is that one of the guys I work with bought my old DS for his kids :-). They've started playing Rocket Slime from what I hear.

Sunday was busy too. We went to church and then ran a bunch of errands. We needed to get a birthday gift for John's mom and get groceries. The grocery store was an adventure because we kept seeing this same couple who should never be allowed in another grocery store when there are more than 20 people in the store! They argued about everything. "Is this the aisle we need to be in?" "Are you sure this is the brand we bought last time?" And of course they'd do this while their cart was in the middle of the aisle and they're bending over in both directions looking at things on either side so you can't get around them. The lady snarled at John and said "Excuse me!" as if he was in her way. This is why I hate the grocery store. John also bought a new microwave so we don't die from the radiation from his old one. It made funny noises and took 12 minutes to cook popcorn. I'd always start it and go across the room. It was also John's grandmother's birthday so we celebrated that on Sunday night at his parents' house with a nice dinner and cake. John and I did the dishes but he did have to scold his mom for not resting and taking a break like he wanted her to. Overall a fun weekend but there wasn't much rest to be had.

Week of Birthdays: 15th - 19th

Along with John's grandmother's birthday, it was also John's mother's birthday and my dad's birthday this week. My uncle was also in Lincoln on Monday because he left on a bus tour with my grandma and one of her friends. I hadn't seen him since my aunt's funeral so it was important that I saw him. John and I drove to Lincoln to have dinner with my parents, my grandma and her friend and my uncle. It was good to see everyone because it had been awhile. We had a really good time.

Yesterday was John's mom's birthday, but I still had volleyball and I was getting ready for my dad's birthday which is today. I had some checks to cash, I needed candles and a cake too. I found some cool candles fairly easily and then went through the bank drive-through downtown. It is a complete mystery to me why they only have two people working at the windows when there is a line of 10 to 15 cars solid from 4:30 till about 6pm. I waited for 15 minutes before I finally got up to the tube to send my stuff off. I was concerned that I was going to run out of gas before I'd make it to the gas station. I did finally get out of there and got gas. But that was a generally frustrating experience too. Kwik shops will take the Baker's plus cards which give you gas discounts. Well, it was before (as in just a few weeks ago) that you'd swipe the Baker's card, then your credit card to get the discount. But it wasn't working. It kept telling me to see the cashier. I was less than pleased to have to go inside, but what made it worse is that she didn't seem to understand me at all. It apparently is a foreign concept that anyone would want to put a full tank of gas in their car. She kept telling me I could either prepay for a specific amount or I could leave the card with her, then pump my gas. I wanted to ask her if I looked like I was an idiot because there was no way in hell I was leaving my credit card with her. But, I didn't. I just went and paid at the pump. So, then I went to Dairy Queen to pick up an ice cream cake for my dad's birthday. Apparently Dairy Queen decided that the log cakes were too convenient, so they've discontinued them. I bought the smallest one they offered and managed to lodge the cake in my freezer, but it will be an adventure getting it out of there. I didn't think it would fit. Then, I had to clean my apartment as fast as possible, run off to volleyball, take a shower, and go over to John's parents' for his mom's birthday. We had cake and sat around and talked for awhile. It was fun, but it ended pretty late.

So, finally the last busy day has come. I'm having lots of fun learning more mainframe stuff (self-study classes). They're about as fun as sandpaper on chafing skin, but hey, I have to learn it sometime. Fortunately, I only have to know enough to start jobs, check and send messages, and verify that a few things are working. I'm very grateful I don't have to program in COBOL. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, think really old in programming languages. My parents should be arriving at work late this afternoon and I'll give them a tour and then we'll have drinks, dinner, cake and presents. It should be fun and I hope my dad has a good birthday, but I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow when I can go home from work and crash. It should be a fun evening and I'll get to try one of the new Blizzard cakes, so the Dairy Queen adventure wasn't all bad.

But enough about that, I'll have to keep my eye out for some more amusing things to post about so we don't have to many more of these. Oh, also, the new Zelda game (Phantom Hourglass) for the DS is pretty cool. I suggest it to those of you who appreciate a good puzzle game.

We went out for dinner at Anthony's Steakhouse last night for my dad's birthday. It was a really good evening and I think we all had a lot of fun. The funniest part of the evening, however, after dinner. As we were leaving Anthony's, a guy (who I can only assume to be a partial owner) stopped John on the way out the door and said "You are the slowest eater I have ever seen. In all my years here... I could have eaten three meals in the time it took you to eat one." We all just started laughing because almost every single time we're out for dinner, the server tries to take his food and box it up. We thanked him for not trying to steal John's food before he was done eating and we headed toward my apartment.

Good thing John looks like one of those guys who can take a good joke. Otherwise, I wouldn't have fun moments like this when we're out in public.

Last night, I came back to my apartment only to find that the toilet was backed up. I tried using the brush to fix the problem myself, but it definitely wasn't working. So, I called John. Yes, John, not the maintenance guy for the apartment complex. He brought over his plunger and walked into my bathroom where the toilet had slowly been draining (thank goodness it didn't overflow). He looked at me, standing there in my bathrobe and was like "Oh, you want me to do it?" I never thought I would be one of those girls, baffled by a toilet and completely at a loss for what to do other than calling someone to fix it. In theory, I really do know how it works, but I was sure I'd screw something up. So, of course John fixed the problem and then went home.