I’m alive!

Promise. I’m just… busy? After two months (three?), I’m pretty sure that “I’ve been busy” loses something of its validity. However, I’ve been too busy to look that up.

I do have some neat stories to relate; most of them (judging by the fact that I still haven’t said anything about our honeymoon, and we’re now nearing the one-year mark) will probably never be told. The important highlights… Mandrina and I both won National Novel Writing Month (again); Mandrina’s birthday gift involved French food cuisine and bottle feeding 6-month old tigers at Cougar Mountain Zoo (we now go back almost every week — the tigers remember us, and come to sniff at us and “chuff.” It makes me smile like an idiot, and we’re on a first name basis with half the keepers. There are pictures, don’t worry.); Mandrina and I celebrated our first married Christmas snuggled up together in Everett — and were beseiged by cats who were fascinated by curling ribbon; and other stuff. A lot of other stuff.

I don’t have much time (obviously, see “busy,” above), but I figured it was better to quit stalling and put up a status before much longer. Otherwise, I’d become as bad as Mandrina.

SO! I’m working on something I can’t tell you about at work. It’s very hush-hush, but high visibility, so that’s good… except I’m going out of town for a week (on work-stuff).

To that end! I’ll be in Boston!!!! For three nights, admittedly, but still. I contacted everyone who I’m sure would want to see me AND that still lives in the Boston area — if I don’t know you’re in those categories (or I lost your phone number/email address when my computer died and I reformatted my phone — no joke, bad timing), send me a note! I still have some slots open in my schedule.

Immediately following that trip, I’ll be headed to San Jose, California, for the Office Developer Conference. It’s rather a nice privilege (I’m the only non-customer facing rank-and-file employee going from my team), but there’s a bit of pressure. Dress code, talk to customers for hours every day, be surrounded by my new managers (Did I mention the re-org at work?), miss wife, miss cat. Apparently there’s heavy drinking involved — fortunately, I only do sophisticated drinks that don’t make me drunk (if I can manage to expense a Johnnie Walker Blue… Ooooh… that’ll be a good night!).

So, that’s my life. Work. Wife. Cats. More cats. Some trips. Some more blog posts so I can link to adorable pictures and videos of Taj chuffing at me.

Since I’ve been home…

I’ve disassembled an errant tablet pc, diagnosed a failing harddrive, backed up mounds of data to clear off another hard drive, taught myself how to use the new BCD system, and setup a harddrive to install Vista onto the aforementioned tablet pc. The last would have been easy if it had had either: a) an optical drive, or b) support for booting from a USB device, or c) a floppy drive.

See why I don’t post much?

Card Services – Are you calling to lower your interest rate?

I just received an unsolicited business call on my cell phone. It came from an unidentified number; as I had been expecting a call from a friend, I answered it.

Here is the spiel, as near as I can recall:
“Attention all Visa and Mastercard holders! This month credit card companies may RAISE YOUR INTEREST RATES! If you’re interested in lowering your interest rates, please press nine now!”

I pressed nine, to try to get some more information. I was placed on hold briefly, then routed to someone who DID NOT provide any information, other than:
“Are you calling to lower your interest rate?”

“I don’t know, is there a number I can call back on…”

CLICK.

They hung up on me. I have no idea who they are, I got no search hits when I probed on the two terms I could cobble together quickly. Anyone else pissed off?

(Do Not Call Registry Violation, too!)

STUPID stupid Bank of America idiots…

So I discovered about a month ago that Bank of America had jacked my interest rate to 24.99% LAST NOVEMBER because I actually used the majority of the line of credit that had been extended to me.

I have been a cardholder for nine years with this card; when I called to inquire, I was told that if I paid off over half the debt, they would INVESTIGATE lowering my interest rate.

INVESTIGATE, not do so.

I’ve been investigating my alternatives, but today just took the cake.

Today, I received the following in an email:

We are inviting some of our most valued customers to join Bank of America’s Credit Card Online Advisory Panel.

This is an opportunity to provide your opinions and feedback on services and new products you might receive.

HA HA HA HA. Pay back is a bitch. 🙂

I love thermodynamics

I filled up a water bottle today, and that was my thought.

Allow me to elaborate, at length, and with no good reason. Then, if you’re good and comment, I might record an actually interesting series of events, which triggered responses such as, “Gasp!”, “Ha!”, and “Snore!” when recited to a captive audience over lunch today.

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