Sudokuaholics Anonymous 3

Hi, Stella. It feels like ages since we chatted.

Had a lovely day so far. Kids are on half term break this week so I have take them out to lunch to the Outback steakhouse. Now have to do some work... boring trying to match up companies to a company Id code. There are about 5000 companies and roughly 2/3 haven't got their codes....going backwards and forwards between two spread sheets. It would have been simpler if the company names were all spelled correctly on both spread sheets

Who made the spread sheets?

Hi Ruby, Becky

Hello, Becky.

How are you guys doing? It's been a long time since I've been able to catch up with anyone.

You have Outback Steak Houses? That seems so un-British.

Yes, it has, and I want to say, Becky, that I appreciate your attitude about the rugby thing.

The spread sheet comes from a television distribution company who use the software our company produces. They have acquired a new catalogue of programs and have asked (and paid) us to sort the problem out... guess who got the boring part of the job some of the production companies can go by different names and some have been input using abrieviations.

Ruby, always up for a good scrap.

Brenda, maybe treat it like a puzzle. Always did that when I got that sort of job and it made it seem more like a personal challenge than a chore.

Yeah we have a few Outback Steakhouses in the south.
They are really nice.. a little expensive but some of the food is so different. You would think by the name that it is an Australian company but it isn't it is American and as far as I know there is only one Outback Steakhouse in Australia. If I am incorrect with that piece of information I apologise

Different names and abbreviations are going to make you make lots of mistakes. Good luck.

Hi Ruby and Becky, how are you both?

What rugby thing?

Brenda, it does sound funny that you have an Outback. Just had the blooming onion as takeout the other day. Too late to make anything at home after the soccer game and we had to pass right by it on the way home.

Thanks Ruby I need it. I am about a 1/4 of the way through so I'm having a break

Oh I love the blooming onion, though didn't have it today as it is lunch time

Our Outback's don't do takeout

OCSH is an American company. I wonder what Aussies would think of the menu?

Haven't had one of those in years, but then haven't been to an Outback in years.

I don't envy that job Brenda. It sounds like it will cause eye strain trying to catch the different names.

I have no particular plans today. So many things to do before winter comes and I don't know where to start. I guess I'm also still tired from not getting good night sleeps lately.

The rugby, Stella, is on p. 159.

Overnight guests, no matter how good, make you tired. Stella, you need a good rest.

The blooming onion is good, but now a lot of places have them.

Stella, take the day off. If you feel like you have to do something, make a list of the chores. Tomorrow pick one or two things on it. It feels good when you can cross one off.

It's about 3:30 pm there, isn't it Brenda?

Speaking of chores, guess I better get busy. Nice chatting with you all.

Good by, Becky.

Yes it is 3:30 here.

The rugby discussion was very funny! I'm sorry I missed it!

See you later Becky, have a good day!

Bye Becky.

Well, I should get some breakfast. Or brunch? I forgot to eat this morning and my tummy is growling. I'll check back later. In the meantime, I think I will make a list so I can start tackling the "stuff."

I would have a day off to Stella, just remember that jobs will always be around even after completing everything on a list something else always crops up.

Bye for now Stella, I suppose I should get back to my paid work Talk again soon

Lists of things to-do never have a last item. I never make them for just that reason.

I'm signing off, too, Brenda. Good to "see" you again.

Thanks for the chat, all.

STELLA, let me know how the tankless water heater works out for you. Al wants to go to that in our someday new house.

Thanks for the good wishes and thoughts and the assurance that today would be a better day. Only problem is, it did not start that way!

My continuing saga starts below, and you may scroll by if you prefer.

OK, where did we leave off? Al's flight from NC to Atlanta was cancled and rescheduled, so we added 3 hours to the trip. then layover in Atlanta was 2 hours, a bit more than needed but I have seen worse. BUT they got into Altanta, 40 minutes late, he now has an hour and 20 for a layover, less time to sit around but did not change his total travel time. you keeping up with the math here?? Might want to get out the calculator!! OK, they tell him his flight OUT of Atlanta has been delayed, estimate 40 minutes, so time in airport back up to 2 hours, but add 40 minutes to total travel time!

anyone lost yet?

OF course thier estimate was a bit optimistic, the plane for his last leg of the trip arrived in Atlanta in the time they said it would LEAVE Atlanta, so we add another 20 minutes. All in all, he spent 11 hours to travel 400 miles, and arrived homr at 11:30 last night.

Ready for the next chapter?

I had been watching the California fires on live coverage on CNN, and had just clicked onto local channels as he drove in. what do i see on the TV? Regular programing is interupted for TORNADO WARNINGS in the state. That got our attention, and as we watched, the line of the tornado containing part of the storm was headed straight for us! About then, the satelite TV goes out. RAIN FADE. Luckily storms are fast moving and was only out for bits and pieces through the night. So we spent the next 2 hours watching the weather, and the storm comming toward us became weaker as a storm further north now intensified and stole our tornadoes energy. OK, we were our of danger, but someone else was now in danger.

I find it hard to say YEAH when a storm changes like that, it is almost like cheering for someone else's misfortune! The line of storms passed us with some strong straight line winds, and after passing over us, that same area of the storm re-intensified and tornado warnings were for an area east of us, but moving east, we were behind them and went to bed. a long long day!

To be continued. . . . .

When I woke this morning, first thing was turn on the computer to see if I have mail from daughter overnight. OK, this starts a new chapter to the saga! NO INTERNET! The DSL line is dead. I do all the rebooting, thinking maybe in the lightning some electronic necessity had it's little electronic brains scrambled. No luck. So I pick up the phone to notify the DSL carrier, and , you guessed it, NO PHONE.

OK, lets check with the neighbors and see if this is a wide spread problem or just us. I know I paid the bill, but did they LOOSE my payment? Phone and 'DSL are same provider and same line, which is a totally different story we will not go into at this time. Suffice it to say, it was not MY decision to have them from the same carrier because I knew soner or later we would loose both at the same time!

No near neighbors at home. The day shift ones already gone to work and the night shift ones not yet home. Our cell phone will not work at home, not enough towers here either, sound familiar?

After a brief wait, night shift neighbor came home and I went over to see if she had phone. NOPE, so it is a wider problem. Al said he would drive up the road to the magic spot where we pick up cell service, but "later". AGGHHHHHH

I am stressing out at this point, not enough sleep and all this drama. I am used to living in the slow lane, I do not need this kind of entertainment! So as a true sudokuaholic, I go to computer and start my computer resident sudoku game! I need a fix! I am beginning to regain my composure, when I see a pop up, Avast Security has found an update, do I want to install it?

WAIT, if Avast found an update, it found it ON THE INTERNET, so I check and YEAH, we have Internet.

No phones yet,and they are over the same line. Just how did the phone company restore the DSL and not the phone? Go figure.

Ok, now I must tear myself away from here and go out to the front oprch and see what will be needed to reinstall my Market umbrella. Wind tore it loose from it's moorings over night. but first, let me see if i can notify the phone company by internet that they did a half a$$ job of restoring service today, only the inter net part is working.

maybe I should just go back to bed and pull the covers over my head!!!

Oh my MizT, you and Al have certainly had a time of it. So maybe now things can only get better!?! Have you heard from your daughter yet? The news seems to indicate that things are not getting any better.

When D#1 flew to the Notre Dame last weekend, she was supposed to have a 3 hour lay over in Phili. They were late getting out of Boston and the 3 hours turned into 5 minutes! Luckily, they caught their flight! Over the summer, hubby took S#1 to North Carolina to a soccer tournament and drove down leaving at dawn Friday morning. Our neighbors flew down because they didn't want to waste time driving and left for the airport at 7am Friday morning. Hubby and S#1 got to the hotel in NC by dinner time and before our neighbors did because of all of the delays and layovers!

Stella, I'll bet a) even with the price of gas, Hubby and S#2 saved a chunk of change, and b) they were free to ride around in your car to restaurants and what-not.

STELLA, just heard from daughter. she and family are safe. there was a wild fire, started by embers, just blocks from her father's house. Fire crews put it out with only 6 acres burned. The media is not reporting those "saves". this was in a green belt, now brown from drought, in the middle of a tightly packed residentual area. A fire here would have meant hundreds more homes gone.