It’s pretty par for the course today. Computers and technology, my bread and butter, are conspiring to make my life one big voyage on the cruise ship Failboat. If you want to see a grown woman turn into a seething mass of incoherent rage, ask me how I’m doing with the test server I’m setting up for our new system at work. The short answer is: not well.

I’ve been told again and again by a very patient friend who’s helping me with it that making mistakes is good, and that we learn from them, and it will all be fixed eventually. I know this, and when I’m not parked in front of the test server [1. It actually has a name: Galactica. It was someone's old desktop computer which was being decommissioned (aka replaced) until it was drafted into emergency service. Except I can't quite figure out who the Cylons are in this scenario. ] pulling out my hair in frustration I completely understand the wisdom of it.

So, pictures and updates tomorrow, then.

However, I still ended up with a cold. Actually, I’ve been under the weather since Sunday, and by Tuesday it had turned into a full-fledged bug. I went home early, stayed home yesterday and today was my day off (but I wouldn’t have gone in anyways.) Normally I’m a lousy patient because I hate not being able to do anything. I feel like that, if I’m off for that long, I should at least get some work done. And yes, that’s counterproductive, as I’ve learned. On Tuesday, there was some work done on the network at the library, and since then there have been several major issues. Knowing about them is one thing, and being able to do anything about it is a whole other matter. I did what I could from here, armed only with my work laptop and Blackberry, and actually snuck in yesterday afternoon because I couldn’t find the instructions to talk someone through a certain procedure [1. Which ended up not working anyways. ] However, there were many things I couldn’t do, and the emails and phone calls are backing up. Even if I needed another sick day, I would feel like I had to go in and fix things.

The other thing stressing me out is that I’ve been trying to set up a test server for a new system at work for almost three months, and have had nothing but bad luck with it. Last week I was at a conference for other libraries who use the system, and had success installing it on a virtual machine on my laptop [2. Translation: a pretend computer on my computer. ] and am itching to actually get it up and running. The operating system is installed, but I couldn’t access it from home, which only increased my frustration yesterday.

However, it hasn’t been all stress and frustration, which are not conducive to recovery.

• I reread the three books in The Losers, the graphic novels on which the movie is based. I really, really want to see it!
• I wrote a blog post here and one for Toronto Thumbs.
• I finally got to see the movies Gamer (expectedly crappy and unexpectedly amusing) and Terminator Salvation (crappy and loud but with lots of shiny machines!). I also watched Gangster Exchange, which was surprisingly charming and reminded me of Bon Cop, Bad Cop if it had been about Japanese and Serbian gangsters.
• I was also able to get caught up on several blogs I’d been neglecting in my feed reader.
• Much quality time was spent as a human pillow for the cat.
• And, of course, naps whenever I wanted!

Okay, now I’m hungry. Awesome.

In all fairness, it’s been a busy few weeks.

The Family Day long weekend was lovely and relaxing. I’d get up in the morning and change out of my night pajamas into day pajamas, and then spent the day knitting, watching TV, or going to the gym. It was the first Family Day I didn’t have to go into work because some major systems update/server migration absolutely needed to be done and since the library was closed, it was an ideal time. I’d also like to mention that both times I had to do this? Whatever we were doing ran into unexpected obstacles that required a tech who wasn’t in because it was a holiday [3. The official techs were located somewhere in the States, and I walked through it here in Ontario. The tech were usually someone over in the IT department who were smart enough to say "Hell to the no!" when I asked if they were going to be available. ]

Then there were the Olympics, of which I need to say no more. Y’all know how it turned out. I did participate in the Knitting Olympics and successfully finished a pair of mittens for my sister.

I lack just enough modesty to say these are pretty awesome, considering that I designed the pattern and knit them up in just 17 days. In retrospect though, because I can’t resist the urge to punish myself for my lack of modesty, I should have made the pattern on the back a mirror image on each mitten instead of the exact same pattern. Normally that’s not a problem because the motifs are symmetrical, but these are asymmetrical and should have been flipped between the two.

Last week I was in Toronto for a conference where I:

• Ran myself ragged for five days. Sit-down meals were a rare luxury, and food was mostly eaten on the fly. Fortunately, I seem to have made it through with no ill effects except for a desire to catch up on my sleep, while my boss is suffering through his annual post-conference cold.
• Sat through a session about programing with Perl, which is complete Greek to me. I compared it to looking at a lace chart which makes no sense at first, but once you know what all the symbols and lines mean, you know what to do. Actually writing and editing the code is like learning how to knit, and one day I will get there. [4. When I made this analogy to a group of the coders, they gave me blank looks, much like I assume I was giving them during the session. ]
• Had fly-by visits with three groups of friends, with whom there is almost no overlap. Julie, who also shared a room with me, knows some of my Sudbury friends, so I was able to combine some of those encounters.
• Didn’t get to the Mexican restaurant, which has been our conference tradition for the past few years. Instead, we went out for delicious Thai food, so I’m still happy.

I will begin the following post-conference story by telling you up front that my sister and her friends are fine, the place they are staying has very minimal, if any, damage, and she will be coming home sometime next week.

Saturday, the last day of the conference, my mother was supposed to come up and we were going to go for lunch before heading home. However, she hasn’t been feeling well, I was exhausted, and the weather was kind of craptacular. I called home to tell her not to bother coming in, as I would be heading out after the session I was presenting [5. Oh yeah, I also was a co-presenter in a session. ]

Mom: “I hadn’t planned on coming because I need to be here in case your sister calls.” (My youngest sister is on holidays in Chile with some friends and they were staying in some kind of conservation area.)
Me: “Why? What’s wrong”
Mom: “Have you seen the news?”
Me: (blood running cold) “No – what. happened?”
Mom: “There was an earthquake in Chile, between Santiago and where she is. It was bigger than the one in Haiti. We haven’t heard from her and we don’t know how to find out if she was okay.”

Everything after that was a bit fuzzy. I think I suggested she call the Red Cross, but I don’t remember what her response was. My mom sounded pretty calm even though I knew she wasn’t, and I managed to hold it together until I got off the phone and burst into tears in front of Julie, who then offered to go to breakfast with me instead of going to the plenary session like she had planned. I called my mom back and gave her my cell number, and told her to text me if she heard anything (fortunately, my sister had taught mom to text before she left.) During my session, I got a text from her telling me that they had heard from one of the other girls in the group, and that they were all okay, except the power had gone off. You can imagine how relieved we all are that they are okay, and that the greatest hardship they suffered was that they didn’t get to watch the gold medal hockey game Sunday night because they went to see the penguins. Yeah, I kind of hate her too.

When she gets home, we are confiscating her passport and not letting her leave the country until she is at least 40.

Not everyone is irredeemable. Now and then, someone will ask me for a recommendation, and based on questions I ask the person about their musical tastes, where they will be listening to their music, if there is a particular occasion, etc, I can make a calculated suggestion based on their answers [1]. Blue Rodeo is one of my top suggestions, along with a classical music compilation that’s pretty awesome. I’ll pitch Canadian Indie bands, modern torch singers like Duffy and Adele, and bluegrass music for those weary of new country. For those who inquire about our lack of Tori Amos, I point them to Regina Spektor or Royal Wood; for those wondering what ever happened to the B-52′s, I tell them I still haven’t been able to find their latest release and give them The Scissor Sisters to tide them over.

Sometimes I feel a little like an evangelist when someone asks what I think about a particular movie or book or CD. If I don’t like it, I don’t come right out and say “I hated it!” – I’d probably just say that it wasn’t to my taste and suggest something similar. It’s such a great feeling to have someone come back later on and say, “Wow – I really enjoyed your suggestion!”

[1] Also, depending on what we have in the collection. I’m not above pointing to the suggestion box and telling them to leave me a note about something I want to give them but we don’t have.

Now, here it is almost 11pm, and I’m just slightly wired. Which is the story of my week – stress and running on caffeine. I had an awesome [2] work-related stress dream the other night where I finished doing up the work schedule for the next few weeks and then someone asked if I’d remembered to add the new employee in my department to it. “Of course,” I replied, knowing that I’d spent so much time making sure that everything was in order. “No, not her – the other [woman with same name].” At which point I realized that not only was I not in my library, I didn’t know half the people waiting to look at the schedule, meaning that the schedule I’d been slaving over was completely wrong.

Sunday night I dreamed that I was smoking two cigarettes at once. Just so you know, I don’t smoke, nor have I ever been a smoker [3]. I think it’s a sign I need to chill out.

[1] On Wednesday, I go into work in the afternoon and stay late, so I usually pick up a latte on my way in. It’s become a ritual, and something to which I look forward.
[2] And by “awesome” I mean “nightmare.”
[3] I have smoked cigars on a couple of occasions. That can be chalked up to two things: grad school and the awesome cigar bar in Halifax.

Tuesday:
Up at 4:30am to catch the bus to TO. Normally, I’d take the train, but the train doesn’t get there until 7pm, IF it runs on time. Getting up at an ungodly hour to take the bus means I get into the city by early afternoon, leaving me enough time to do some sightseeing and shopping. Which I did – I walked up Spadina to Queen West, and hit Americo Yarns. Then I wandered into Kensington Market, went to Lettuce Knit for yarn and help [1]. I also found a cool artist’s market, and bought a print for in my living room [3]. Caught the subway back to the hotel, ditched my purchases, and set off to Jorge’s. I finally got to meet Mrs. Jorge and Olivia, both of whom are adorable. Quite possibly the funniest line of the evening was when Jorge described Olivia’s reaction to the vacuum cleaner: “She went all Leonidas on it.”

Wednesday:
An all-day pre-conference session. More people than had signed up were there, so we were pretty packed in. There were a few people I knew from other meetings, Facebook (Hi Joanna!), or through other friends (Hey Debra!) Met some new friends for drinks and dessert, and then hit the opening reception to find Karen and Steve [4]. Also ran into a couple of librarians from up this way (Hi Leslie, Shelly and Rebecca!) and Jennifer, who was making the big move to Montreal and wouldn’t be convening my session [5].

Thursday:
First official day of the conference! We [6] started it by heading out to our traditional conference breakfast spot for our traditional conference breakfast, which consists of waffles/crepes with fruit and chocolate and/or whipped cream. Delightful! Then onto the first session of the day, which was about getting and using user feedback. Then onto the session I was convening on open source software in the developing world, and a stint in the AskOn booth after that [7]. Finally, I met up with a bunch of other librarians to go see a taping of The Hour. I could spend a great deal of time talking about how cool it was; instead, I’ll give you these pics:

Friday:
Seriously, it’s kind of a blur, it was that busy. However, I do remember the most important part of the day – going out for dinner! The same group of usual suspects went to the Mexican restaurant Karen, Steve and I found last year. We were worried that it wouldn’t be as good as we remembered, but that fear was completely unfounded – not only was the food as spectacular as we remembered, this year they had a mariachi band! Afterwards we hit the Indigo flagship store, then headed home.

Saturday:
Checkout! Fortunately, I do it early enough to avoid the crush. Then off to a session, and then to my presentation. There’s not much to tell about it, at least not much that wouldn’t bore most people to tears at this point [8]. Except to say that it went well, and I didn’t make any egregious mistakes. Walked down to meet my mom and sister for lunch, and then headed back home with them – hell, I’d come that far, I might as well take a day or two to visit the folks. Had a great supper, and polished off many bottles of wine with my sister and cousin while playing Settlers of Catan, at least until I started falling asleep at the table and my b-i-l took over for me.

Sunday:
A big family outing to celebrate my dad’s birthday and retirement. The neph was adorable, and flirted with all the waitresses. Then home for more Settlers of Catan, and sitting around watching some football game. Are they still playing at this time of year?

Monday:
Home again, this time by train. Again, slept most of the way.

So, there you have it – my week down in the T-dot. It was fun, and I’m already looking forward to next year.

[1] I started knitting a sock on the bus when I wasn’t sleeping [2]. At some point, a whole lot of stitches fell off the needle and started unraveling. The kind and friendly woman there picked them back up and put them on the needle for me.
[2] Which was most of the time.
[3] Once I get a frame for it.
[4] Or as I started calling them, The Nickel City Posse.
[5] Yeah – I was also presenting at the conference. More on that later.
[6] By “we”, I mean Karen, Steve, Joanne (from TBay) and her sister Cathy who’s also a librarian.
[7] I’m one of the friendly AskOn operators, by the way.
[8] Maybe some other day.

This morning was the official weigh-in, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that my actual weight wasn’t far off what I expected it to be, despite the fact I haven’t weighed myself in over six years. It’s still too much, but not nearly as bad as I feared it would be.

I’m hoping for good things to come out of this – I’m already pretty careful about what I eat, and I don’t keep junk in the house because I’ll only eat it if it’s there. I’ve seriously cut back on the amount of pasta I eat, and if I do, I try to make sure it’s whole wheat. My only weakness is my Wednesday latte, with which I usually get a couple of oatmeal or gingersnap cookies; however, I bought a package of cinnamon snaps which are supposed to be low fat. On the exercise front, I’m getting back in the habit of walking to work when it’s feasible (i.e. when I’m not working until 9pm) or going for walks on days when I don’t work. And I’ve also pledged to do at least half an hour of Wii boxing in the evenings.

(Others at work are talking – not seriously, of course – about how they’re going to sabotage the competition by bringing in chocolates or do extra baking. However, we found out today that our “office” was this week’s winner of the local radio station’s lunch contest, so on Wednesday we get a Swiss Chalet lunch for 12 [1]. Fortunately, I don’t start work until after lunch, so I’ll miss it.)

[1] The Executive Assistant entered us over a year ago, and this week – the week we start our weight-loss challenge – we win. Proof positive that the gods are a whimsical and capricious lot.

• Meeting up with various people who live in and around the city who aren’t officially librarians (hey Jorge! Hi Jackie!)
• Go to that really tasty Mexican restaurant that none of us remember the name of, or where it was, except that moments before we found it we’d seen the MTV building.
• Steve and Karen are trying to get tickets to see a taping of The Hour for a whole pack of us.
• This will be the year that we finally get our act together and go on an honest-to-goodness pub crawl. Most years, we wimp out before we get to the first one – this year, we’re going to hang on until at least the second place (I’m taking suggestions, seeing as none of us live close enough to Toronto to know the bar scene well)

So, if you live in Toronto, be prepared for a very sober group of librarians to invade, starting sometime around the 29th. Chances are good you won’t know what hit you.

[1] Whenever I say the word “Superconference,” I want to do a Mary Katharine Gallagher.

Whenever anyone on our public computers sent something to the printer, it printed immediately. Then there were discussions/arguments about what the person had to pay for, and sometimes the exchanges were heated. Or, someone would print something and never pick it up, so at the end of the day we were stuck with a stack of paper no one wanted.

The company who made the reservation software we have on the public computers also makes a piece of software which will hold print jobs until the person comes to pick them up, thus cutting down on arguments and wasted paper.

So, yesterday, the rep was coming to install it on our computers. We’ve been corresponding for weeks about network setups, system requirements, blah blah blah. Monday night she sent me a confirmation email, making sure that the computer I wanted the control software installed on was able to print to the printer the public computers use.

Which is when it hit me: the circ computers don’t use that printer. In fact, they can’t see it at all because the public computers are on a completely different network, so they wouldn’t be able to control the print jobs. In the three months we’ve been corresponding about setting this up, I somehow managed to forget this minor, but key, detail.

In the end, our IT folk came up with a workable solution, and basically saved my ass. I’m still reeling from how foolish it was to overlook that last bit, and how much stress it put on me and the IT folk. There’s no excuse for this, and the only defense I can offer is that I’m currently overseeing three other major projects, all of which are coming to a head this month, not to mention all the day to day details, like scheduling and vacations and overtime.

Fortunately, today I was back to my usual self. Not quite brilliant, but far from the idiot I felt I was Monday night.

Thursday, when I get back, I have to turn around and haul myself down to Markham, for a demonstration at the new branch of the public library – I hear it’s so nice that I might not want to leave. Once I escape from there, it’s down to the family homestead for the rest of the weekend, and then back to the north on Monday. And you know what the worst part is? My CEO was more than happy to let me do all this – in fact, he didn’t even put up a fight when I asked to go. How much does that suck?