One In The Oven
There is nothing worse than a Monday morning fire drill. For some reason I cannot explain, the Meat Packer's SSL VPN just went down out of nowhere. I was on their firewall looking around, but had made no changes. I was trying to troubleshoot potential issues with this moron at Slate and Co. All of a sudden I was kicked out, as was everyone else. I'd needed to run a firmware update for weeks, and tried again this past weekend. But, I never scheduled it (because I just don't know what my availability will be on the weekends and I don't feel like obligating my personal time to such things lately) so it never got done. And there ALWAYS seems to be someone remote connected. Even at 6 AM on a Sunday morning.
I used this calamity as a reason to load the new firmware, which may or may not have been the factor that solved the issue. The initial reboot before doing that did not. And I generally don't trust when a problem of this magnitude is fixed so simply. For the rest of the day I am going to be sitting here having an anxiety attack about the issue reoccurring.
Yesterday was fun. We found out that Gayle is going to be having a girl. I think the BIL was initially a little disappointed, as he'd wanted a boy. But, I am sure that will all pass. We spent several hours throwing names around and they may decide on calling her Ruby Talulah. I think Ruby may have been one of my suggestions, but I like Talulah too because we can call her Lulu for short. And another Lulu famously sang the title song for 'The Man With The Golden Gun', so I am all for a good Bond reference.
We also spent a lot of time talking about the kid's future. The BIL and I (and Gayle and the Sparrow) mostly agree that the kid should have limited exposure to television. ESPECIALLY any modern kids shows and Disney. I already said I'd be more than happy to track down old Looney Toons, Tom and Jerry and Wood Woodpecker cartoons. Gayle loves to read and we talked about exposing the kid to that as soon as possible. I may try to track down a set of Nancy Drew books as a gift. They are interested in potentially home schooling the kid, but that is a lot to ask if Gayle is going to continue to work.
I am happy for them I just wish they could have planned this better so they were more financially secure and ready for this new life. The BIL doesn't love his factory job, but thankfully he's on a day shift starting today. I really wish these two would get married, as I personally think that is very important for the child. I guess also they did finally tell their mom and sister. The Sparrow seemed to be even more excited about it yesterday than he had been.
I think it is cool, but I also feel a little weird about it. I mean, she will be my niece, but for the first time I suppose I feel some disconnect since it is a relation by marriage and not blood. So I feel a bit on the outside of all of this. It's stupid, because I've never been treated like anything less than family by the Sparrow's family. I think maybe there are just traumas and wounds there with my own family this event has exposed further. Like the drama with my sister and how this now prevents me from sharing this joyful event with my own family. I held off even telling my mom they were having a baby until a month or so ago. I have to have these two separate lives now, because of my sister. I wanted to be able to share this, but because of Miss Piggy's selfishness, my mother likely won't ever even get to meet this baby. It's sad, because I think it would have made things more fun and interesting around the holidays.
Instead, my sister has to be appeased and placated and that has to take priority over everything and everyone else. Because that miserable, fat, purple-haired bitch can be the only one at the center of attention, everyone else has to be denied any kind of pleasantries.
It's a rainy, cool day today. Another reminder that the cactuses and tropicals need to come inside. If work quiets down, I may try to accomplish some part of that today. My stress level is still through the roof after that VPN issue. I had more to say, but with that I am just burnt out. And to add to it, my fingers are freezing and I am having a hard time typing.
I used this calamity as a reason to load the new firmware, which may or may not have been the factor that solved the issue. The initial reboot before doing that did not. And I generally don't trust when a problem of this magnitude is fixed so simply. For the rest of the day I am going to be sitting here having an anxiety attack about the issue reoccurring.
Yesterday was fun. We found out that Gayle is going to be having a girl. I think the BIL was initially a little disappointed, as he'd wanted a boy. But, I am sure that will all pass. We spent several hours throwing names around and they may decide on calling her Ruby Talulah. I think Ruby may have been one of my suggestions, but I like Talulah too because we can call her Lulu for short. And another Lulu famously sang the title song for 'The Man With The Golden Gun', so I am all for a good Bond reference.
We also spent a lot of time talking about the kid's future. The BIL and I (and Gayle and the Sparrow) mostly agree that the kid should have limited exposure to television. ESPECIALLY any modern kids shows and Disney. I already said I'd be more than happy to track down old Looney Toons, Tom and Jerry and Wood Woodpecker cartoons. Gayle loves to read and we talked about exposing the kid to that as soon as possible. I may try to track down a set of Nancy Drew books as a gift. They are interested in potentially home schooling the kid, but that is a lot to ask if Gayle is going to continue to work.
I am happy for them I just wish they could have planned this better so they were more financially secure and ready for this new life. The BIL doesn't love his factory job, but thankfully he's on a day shift starting today. I really wish these two would get married, as I personally think that is very important for the child. I guess also they did finally tell their mom and sister. The Sparrow seemed to be even more excited about it yesterday than he had been.
I think it is cool, but I also feel a little weird about it. I mean, she will be my niece, but for the first time I suppose I feel some disconnect since it is a relation by marriage and not blood. So I feel a bit on the outside of all of this. It's stupid, because I've never been treated like anything less than family by the Sparrow's family. I think maybe there are just traumas and wounds there with my own family this event has exposed further. Like the drama with my sister and how this now prevents me from sharing this joyful event with my own family. I held off even telling my mom they were having a baby until a month or so ago. I have to have these two separate lives now, because of my sister. I wanted to be able to share this, but because of Miss Piggy's selfishness, my mother likely won't ever even get to meet this baby. It's sad, because I think it would have made things more fun and interesting around the holidays.
Instead, my sister has to be appeased and placated and that has to take priority over everything and everyone else. Because that miserable, fat, purple-haired bitch can be the only one at the center of attention, everyone else has to be denied any kind of pleasantries.
It's a rainy, cool day today. Another reminder that the cactuses and tropicals need to come inside. If work quiets down, I may try to accomplish some part of that today. My stress level is still through the roof after that VPN issue. I had more to say, but with that I am just burnt out. And to add to it, my fingers are freezing and I am having a hard time typing.