#1 - It's snowing. It's supposed to keep snowing off and on for the next day or two, but they swear there won't be any significant accumulation. Not more than 3" all told.

#2 - Working on various projects today. Trying to get all of the changes for the new site to The Webman. (Thinking, quite privately, that no matter what Bernie's other faults are, he never complains when I take a page of his text and shred it to bits and rewrite the fragments that are left. That's a virtue. Many who cannot construct a coherent sentence are unaware of the fact.) (Wow. The scansion on that one was ugly.)

#3 - Preparing for TechBoy's imminent descent upon our office. I anticipate he's going to be thrilled to hear that we want him to help us figure out how to rid ourselves of those four antique rack servers and that Bernie is going to insist on getting at least $8 or $10k for them.

Also by the news that we want him to move the network up to Bernie's little home office in Boulder.

I don't think Bernie really understands how complicated this whole process is going to be.

There's the proprietary and hard-to-use software he desperately insisted we have a server here in the office for, and that no one here has any idea how to use, the actual network server, which belongs to Buehler's parent company, and the data storage computer which belongs to Buehler but has all of Bernie's company's previous employee data on it, the Tweeneybopper's PC which has to be kept connected because it handles our spam filtering, and the PC I'm working on all have to be set up and running. That's four computers, besides his laptop. They all nave to be networked (three of them through some weirdo techhie box that allows them to share a monitor and keyboard) and all of them have to have internet access.

That's only a fraction of the miscellaneous computer equipment we have sitting around the office, too. What about that Mac machine that they bought to test stuff on and never used?

And then the VPN has to be set up on my PC at home. (I can't take my PC here home with me. I mean, I could, but it would be a stand-alone machine and I have no idea where I'd put it. And no internet access. I mean, I can't get my stupid wireless network working, much less figure out how to hardwire another PC into my cable modem box.)

Bernie's already going to have to find room for five filing cabinets in that office, plus all of his office stuff he's taking home. And he shares the office with his wife. Where's he planning to put all of these computers?

Anyhow. I don't want to be involved, but I'm going to tell TechBoy to review what we have, write up what it will take to move the network, and send it to me and Bernie in writing.

#4 - I Hate Yarn update:

Scarves, misc. Worked on the funky black/gray scarf. Did about 6 inches. Looked it over. Decided it was a mess. Ripped out 15 inches. Put all that yarn back in anew. Looked it over. Ripped out 8 inches. Worked some more, looked it over, and finally noticed that there's a big ugly spot right down by the beginning--10 rows in. Wept. Laid it down to wait for another day.

This isn't going to be like the cream-and-pastel disaster. This stupid scarf is going to behave itself or else. Mallory would probably forgive me for sending her a scarf of ugly mistakes (it doesn't affect the warmth), but can I bring myself to do so? I doubt it.

After that, I packed up several of my latest projects in a bag to show Meg, one of my best friends and now also my Knitting Friend when we meet tonight.

#5 - Surfing. I got through most of my backlog of surfing. (It's becoming clear to me that I can either have a hobby that keeps my hands busy all evening, or I can surf the internet in the evenings. I don't have time for both.)

A certain amount of delay was created by my need to download 25 parts of a story (nothing illegal, BTW) I've been reading, so I can finally read the beginning and figure out who all of these characters are and what's going on, but I got them all downloaded and unzipped and even got about half of it all read. (Aha! So that's how they got into this mess!)

Because of that, the box o'Amazon.com Joy that arrived in my office yesterday? Is still sitting, unopened, on the floor of the living room today.

Some days, it's really very inconvenient to have a job. I need a lot more free time. Not even sitting up until 11:30 in the evenings is helping. (Also, it's made me late to work every day this week.) 5-1/2 hours is less time than you might think.

(Drat. Just went out for a smoke-break and saw that I'd left my lights on this morning. I need to get out and run my car for a few minutes, to recharge the battery.)