Catch Up Post...

It's been pointed out by several people that I'm suffering from a severe case of blog neglect. So here is a summary of the last several months...

Work:
I'm now officially in the Sim Flow!! This is big news because it puts me one step closer to getting certified in time to help support the 1J mission in April. Now I'll be spending about a day a week practicing my flight controller skills in the simulator with a full flight support team.

I'm excited because I'm to the point where I get to apply all of the knowledge I've been studying for the last year and a half... And I'll be honest - I'm super excited to be getting near the end of my studying time! It is notoriously the most painful portion of getting certified and I'm about 3 weeks away from being completed.

Other than that, I'm OJTing this week for the second half of the 10A assembly flight... Keep an eye on Spaceflightnow.com for some detailed info on the progress. There is some concern regarding our Solar Array joints, but I'm sure we'll find a solution like always!

Running:
I just completed one of my first training runs on Sunday... I ran a half-marathon relay race with Nel! Needless to say, it was a hard run because I haven't run that far since the Bolder Boulder. But we finished - and in under 2 hours 20 minutes! My goal time for the half is 2 hours 30 minutes, so that was a good start. Here's a picture from the end of the race - play nice. It was really freaking early and in the middle of my funky flight sleep schedule.


Lillie:
She's still an angel one day and a demon the next... Last night, demon. Right this minute, angel. Hopefully she stays angel for the rest of the night! But I do have a couple of pictures of her in her Halloween costume. It's adorable - and makes me laugh so hard I almost want to pee my pants.

I woke her up to put this on...

Apartment:
I know - I've been promising apartment pics since I moved in in May... I swear, they are coming. I have a new motivation for getting the place all picked up - Thanksgiving is right around the corner! And we all know what that means... CHRISTMAS DECORATING!!!

I can't wait... Only 3 and a half more weeks. :)

The Birthday Present...

I realized that I never said what I got myself for my birthday! (Actually, I was reminded that voting isn't any fun if you don't find out the results...)

And the winner was . . .

None of the above. The occasion arose where I needed a new cell phone so I ended up with this beauty:

It's so pretty...

Nightmare on Best Buy Street

On the way out to the parking lot after work, I decided that 3 weeks was long enough to fix the fan on a laptop... So I gave Best Buy a call to find out exactly what happened to my computer.

I dialed the phone, pressed 5 for the department list, pressed 3 for customer service, and pressed 2 for the Geek Squad. Then I proceeded to listen to the phone ring ... and ring ... and ring. For 2 minutes. Why would I wait that long, you might ask? Because for most companies if someone doesn't answer the phone after a certain length of time you get passed back to the operator! Best Buy? Apparently not.

So I called 1-800-Best-Buy and proceeded to press 2 for customer service, then pressed 5 for whatever else, followed by an obscene number of button presses to get to a live person. Once I finally got to a live body the operator proceeded to inform me that I had to speak to the people at the store where I got the service. Where I was just sitting on ring for 2 minutes...

Once I got to my car I decided that it was time to give Best Buy another call - maybe I just hit them at a bad moment. So I call, press 5, then 3, then 2 (of course) and FINALLY got a live body! Woohoo! And what did that live body say? "Thank you for calling the Best Buy Geek Squad! Can you please hold for a moment?" He didn't even let me get out my "no" before he put me on hold. So I held... and I held... and I held some more. Since the drive home is almost the same as the drive to Best Buy I decided that I would start to drive home and if I hadn't heard anything by the time the routes diverged that I would just go to Best Buy and try to talk to someone in person.

So I drove... and I held... and I continued to hold the whole way to Best Buy. Now one might ask "Erin, how did you know that they hadn't just hung up on you?" Aside from the TERRIBLE jazz-ish-wannabe music, my cell phone continued to tick up the minutes as I sat on hold.

Once I parked, got out of the car, and got in line for the Geek Squad service line I decided it was time to run a social experiment on lower end retail service. So I kept the phone on hold, walked up to the counter and was immediately served by a nice gentleman who was messing with a computer that another customer had clearly left to be backed up.

Now, don't get me wrong. The guy was doing something. The issue I took with the situation was that he was helping the customer who was nowhere in sight - all while leaving another live customer hanging on the phone. I could see my little light blinking on their phone and actually saw one of the service guys walk by, look at the phone blinking, and continue walking straight by. He didn't help another customer... He just walked up to his buddy and started chatting about the day and the other customers they had seen so far.

So I continued to hold on the phone, proceeded to pick up my laptop from the nice gentleman, and walked back out to my car. I held... drove home... and continued to stay on hold. Amazing. They finally answered the phone - 45 minutes later!

The only words out of my mouth? "Thanks for letting me hold, may I speak to a manager, please?"

Jerk heads. I realize that they aren't paid anything and that the majority of the time all they catch is flack, but COME ON!!! 45 minutes on hold without any indication that I'll be helped at all??? No thanks. I'll just take my business elsewhere next time.

Grr.

It's Alive!!!

No, not me. Though that is true too. My laptop is finally back from Best Buy (a blog in and of itself) and operational. I ended up with a lot more crap that I had to reconfigure after this fix, which is upsetting to me, but it's back which means ...

I'M BACK!

I'm probably the most excited of anyone... Without further ado - may I present to you July '07.

... Okay, I'll be honest. I don't remember what was special about July. D'oh. Let's try this again...

Crowd hears a growing drumroll...

Ladies and Jellybeans! May I present to you - August '08!

Cymbal crash!

Okay. That seems like sufficient build-up.

There is one primary and significant addition to my happy home this August. No... not a roommate, and yes... many of you already know. But here she is - the pride (sort of) of my life:

LILLIE!

Lillie

I know, I know. Erin? Dog?!? Wait... Erin, right? And that is a dog, right?!?

Well, there's a bit of a back story to this one. One for another day. I have a midnight sim that I must get to work for... I shall be back soon (much sooner than two months from now - I promise). Try not to miss me too much...

--tap-tap-tap--

*Ahem* ... Is this thing on?

What's this? She's back? No... this must be a mistake. And yet...

I know, I know. I've been silent as of late, and I swear there are good reasons!

Good reason #1: The Laptop
Excuses, excuses - but this one's a doozy. I literally just got my laptop back from the manufacturer. Apparently my motherboard was melting AC adapters at a fairly rapid rate (not to mention my harddrive and the battery) so they sent it in to get the whole schebang replaced. I'm officially on the "buy an extended warranty on your day-to-day electronics" bandwagon... But whatever you do - make sure you remember to have them replace the part your laptop melted in the first place so you don't have to try and get it shipped to you after the fact. Twice. Then a third time when they finally get your correct address.

Good reason #2: The Trip
What's that you say? Wasn't it forever and a day ago that you went to Colorado? Well... yeah. It was a month ago now, and no. I still don't have pictures. Actually - I'll be honest. I haven't missed them since I haven't had a laptop to not post them on, but now that I have it back I'll be pestering Nel to get me the pictures soon.

Good reason #3: The Apartment
Who would've thought that moving, going on vacation, coming back, and then supporting pre-flight operations, flight operations, and post-flight recovery would be such a bad idea? I swear - the apartment is one solid day's (that'd be tomorrow's) work away from being picture perfect and ready to display for all on the web to see. The pillows are sown (thanks Ann!), the furniture is in (thanks guys!), the painting is complete, and all that's left is a good old fashioned cleaning (the worst part).

Good reason #4: The Flight
See... I'm not certified yet. So working the flight shouldn't be as stressful for me, right? Almost right. While no - it's not my immediate neck on the line when the Space Station threatens to come crashing down around our heads, it certainly puts everyone in the hot seat to help as much as possible in coming up with solutions. Did I do a lot? Not compared to the ridiculously talented group of people I work with, but I'd like to think I did my small, uncertified part. I helped certify procedures that had never been run before... I helped replan and rework the flight on a day to day basis (and by that I mean I helped the people who were actually doing it check their work)... and I tried to stay out from underfoot as much as possible.

Overall, the past couple of weeks have been madness and I was glad for a nice relaxing day to recover. I appreciate all of the support everyone has given over the last few stressful weeks, and I promise - after the scrub down this apartment is getting tomorrow, you will all see why I was so excited to be moving in!

(And man... I might have to get upset. My laptop is feeling awfully warm already...)