Intriguing morning so far

[annathepiper]

So I got up half an hour early today to come in for an all-hands meeting for our overall group at 9am, which ran overtime and wound up being 90 minutes. Oof. I'm all information-overloady, since the meeting was all about where the group is going over the next couple of years and such, stuff that will probably not impact me unless my contract gets renewed. So I don't know if any of that will wind up meaning anything to me.

What does wind up meaning something to me, though, is being informed that my immediate manager is no longer my immediate manager. There's a PGM guy leaving next week, and my manager's stepping over into his job. Which means that now I answer to the guy one hop up the food chain for the time being, until such time as a new QA director is hired. So this'll be... interesting. It probably won't affect much of my actual day to day testing as I've been working with one of the FTEs on a daily basis anyway, helping him test stuff, but I'll find out more about this this afternoon.

Just before (as it turns out) we're all heading over to GameWorks this afternoon anyway--partly as an all-hands morale event and partly as a sendoff for the guy who's leaving. So really short work day today. Can't say I mind that much. ^_^ And GameWorks is right by my bus stop, so I can head home from there very easily.

Meanwhile, I am stunned, STUNNED I TELL YOU, to have discovered that the U-district got snow (it turns out one of the FTEs on my team lives in the U-district, not terribly far from MurkSouth, and he reported snow there) and Kenmore didn't. We only got a few random weird granules of snow on the steps and on the deck, though there were some icy patches on the roads this morning as I headed down to the bus stop. There was more noticeable accumulation further in towards town along Lake City Way, though. Very weird weather.

I have started J.D. Robb's Origin in Death, on which I made fairly decent inroads on the bus on the way in, given that the commute was so slow. I don't know if it was a matter of the roads being slick or just rush hour traffic or what, but it was significantly slower than my usual commute half an hour later.

And last night, I wrote like a crazy mad writing thing. I hit nearly two thousand words. Something about simultaneously working on multiple books seems mysteriously easier than trying to through that many words into one book at once. I think I must be hitting the same section of my brain that used to be in charge of me roleplaying in multiple windows at once in tinyfugue. ;) It's almost exactly like that, as I go back and forth and add more words to each file, lather, rinse, repeat.

And oh yeah--on the way home last night I spent my Borders coupon, but since they didn't have rachelcaine's Chill Factor in that store, I wound up buying a CD instead. The Young Dubliners' Real World. Yay!

Also, raspberry-flavored Lindor balls are really, REALLY good.

Thursday evening miles: 1.85
Friday morning miles: 1.6
Miles out of Hobbiton: 729.45
Miles out of Rivendell: 271.45
Miles to Lothlórien: 192.55

Comments

[ceallaighgirl.livejournal.com]

I also heard about the U-District snow! Not fair! Down south we had a little bit of slush falling around 9:30 pm, and in the morning my car was completely frozen over and it was all pretty icy, but that's it. My friend in Buckley got about an inch of snow (so she and her daughter ran out barefoot and played in it; crazy people!).

Going skiing tonight at Snoqualmie though. In the last 24 hours they've gotten 14 inches! (Yay! Look at that! (http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/snoqualmie/))

[annathepiper]

Huh, I can't get the cam images to load. I wonder if the page is broken, or if it just doesn't like Firefox!

Skiing scares me. I can't bend my brain around the whole "so I'm supposed to strap these long skinny boards on my feet, throw myself down a hill, and hope I don't hit the trees?" thing. Of course, it might be less scary if somebody actually taught me how to do it properly, but then, I'm all twitchy about the possibility of broken bones. I broke one before, really would rather not do that again. ;) But I'm down with the whole playing in the snow part! Also the drinking hot tasty beverages afterwards part.

I am very sulky that Kenmore got no snow. :)

[ceallaighgirl.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I've never used firefox. It works for IE and Safari though.

Oh, I love the idea, although you do learn how to aim. It is very intuitive. I'm actually terrible at it and I still haven't ever hurt myself. :-D

I LOVE playing in the snow too. I'm sad because I bought a new sled this year (identical to one I bought last year but, uh, sorta messed up trying to sled on, um . . . some really big rocks . . . ) but I haven't been able to use it at all!

[annathepiper]

Testing this theory, I find that it does indeed load for me in IE, so I guess the site just doesn't like Firefox! Sigh. :)

Bummer about not being able to use the sled! One of the things I miss about living in the U-district is that when there's enough snow there to matter, it's fun to watch people sledding down the hill on 54th. Especially all the students making sleds out of anything--big pieces of cardboard, cartons, bits of sofa, whatever!

[ceallaighgirl.livejournal.com]

When I lived in Bellingham we used to stand out on the front porch and just watch cars slide down the street. The beauty of N. Garden St. is that it is deceptively steep. People look at it and say "hey, I can make it up that!" so they start going and they get near the top and realise they're not going to make it when they get stuck, and then they try to turn around to go back down and end up sliding down the hill sideways. Hee hee hee. It was actually a really good way to get to know our neighbours because we'd all come out and watch (and lend a helping hand occasionally).

Unfortunately one crashed into mine overnight two years ago. Fortunately, they left their info and I got a way cooler car (not a great, car, just a better one).

[annathepiper]

Pulling out of our driveway was always a bit adventurous at MurkSouth since you had to slowly inch your way backwards onto the street--and keep looking both ways pretty much constantly, less someone come along and plow into you. Happened to solarbird in our car once.

At MurkNorth, we're in a cul-de-sac so we don't have to worry about that at all. But our driveway is quite steep, and actively bothersome to get a car down if it ices up at all!

I can just imagine folks all hanging around to keep an eye out for the cars, though. I don't think such a thing could happen in the U-district at all; there's no real sense of neighborhood cohesion, at least not right near the campus. Kenmore, though... I could see it. I'm still not entirely used to walking on the streets of our neighborhood and exchanging greetings with people I pass. :)

[ceallaighgirl.livejournal.com]

Ooh that's scary. Fortunately I just live in a small apartment building and our parking lot isn't near traffic, and I back into my parking space anyway, so I get to pull out forward.

People in Bellingham are very friendly. Well, they are when it snows. It is the snow that seems to bring everyone together. That is when everyone takes the bus instead of driving, and everybody bonds while sitting at a stop in 25-degree weather. I lived only about a block north of campus and it was very neighbourhood-y, but it all really just came out when it snowed. Occasionally on nice sunny days too, though. That sort of thing makes me happy, getting to know neighbours.

[annathepiper]

Cool beans, it sounds like a lot of fun. I remember seeing hints of that last time we had a good snow in the U-district--it was suddenly a vacation-y snow day all over the neighborhood, and that was very cool. And I've been in fun conversations struck up on the busses as well when the weather gets amusing. :)

[annathepiper]

That sounds specious to me too. Heh.

Still, I am most put out that we didn't even get a dusting in Kenmore. :)

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

oh.

I saw those granules all over the ground on the way into work and couldn't figure out what they were. It looked more like the kind of salt that's thrown on roads in winter to prevent ice.

I had no idea there was actual snow anywhere in the area.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I thought it was salt too! I thought maybe solarbird or spazzkat had salted the steps, but I had left Dara upstairs in bed and I knew there was no way Paul was up that early either since he's between contracts now. Some of the oddest-looking snow I'd ever seen. And it was further down along Lake City Way as well. It looked like a lot of the greenery along the road had been dusted with frosted sugar.