dmv was...easy

This morning I decided to go to the DMV to get my real license plates. I thought it would be a good morning to go since it snowed last night, the roads were kind of suck, and schools were closed.

I got there at 7:30 and there were 4 people already there, including a guy who was just wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. It was 8 degrees outside. The guy who was at the head of the line was really excited. He said "I've never been first in any line before!" And then a few moments later he said "They'll probably tell me I don't have the right paperwork." That ended up being true, he brought the wrong insurance card (it was for his old car, not his new one).

Luckily the dealer transfer of my car information went through and in 10 minutes I had my license plates (I brought my old plates in with me and asked the woman to not give me another "MEN" license plate - my old license plates were "number number number MEN"). She laughed and gave me a really cool license plate. The whole transaction took 2 minutes.

I would add that after she processed me there was no one behind me. I could have gotten to the DMV at 8:05 and not waited at all. Oh well.

Another thing off my to do list!

so that's what's causing my work related issues...

The past few weeks have been a struggle at work. Talking to my brothers and friends, I don't think it's me. For example, what kind of manager sets up a kick off meeting knowing that I'll be on vacation and unable to join? What kind of manager has meetings with my project, that I'm not invited to, to discuss what I'll be delivering, and I find out about the meeting from a consultant who doesn't even work for my fucking company? What kind of manager makes someone redo a presentation 6 times and then chooses the first iteration of the presentation?

This was my horoscope today:

who does trust someone's words over their actions????

In other news I have to go to the DMV tomorrow to register Major Jake. Hope the roads aren't a crazy shit show mess. I miss the old DMV that was only a few blocks from my house...

about Bob

To brag a little about my other brother Bob...

This week I was given an insane work assignment. I had been researching it (it's something to do with migrating Lotus Notes apps to sharepoint) and trying to figure out how to complete the deliverable. I wasn't making much progress. So I reached out to my brother Bob to get some advice.

First, I was glad he confirmed the assignment was insane (I wasn't given enough information to do the assignment, and the info that I asked for, and was told I didn't need, Bob confirmed I did need). Then he spent two hours on Saturday helping me come up with something (and while we were on the call his water heater pipe burst - it's that fucking cold where he lives - but he kept helping me instead of worrying about having no hot water).

Anyway, the assignment has been causing me major stress and it was nice to have someone to turn to to help me. And I think what he came up with is great.

It's nice to be in a family of geniuses.

snow, snow, snow!!!!!!!!!!!!

My friend Jess invited me to go snow shoeing with her, her sister, and Edge today so last night I was going to have a chill night, watch a movie, and go to bed early. Instead, for reasons I can't explain, my asperger's kicked in and I became obsessed with shoveling the front walk maybe also being concerned about the arrest threats the city of Denver made when no one shoveled while I was in Costa Rica. Forgot to write about this, let's step into the wayback machine:

(thursday, in Costa Rica checking email)

my neighbor:

You received a notice of violation saying: You are hereby notified to remove snow and ice from walks with 24 hours.  Then it specifies "along 28th street walk."  Failure to comply will result in a penalty of $150 for the first time, $500 the second time, then $900. There may also be court action of $999 and/or one year in jail and/or administrative penalty.   

 

I can do a little help, maybe a quarter of that side of the building, as long as it isn't deep.  But to have a secure plan would be a good idea. The letter was on your door. What are your thoughts?

Obviously, my thoughts were "I'm in Costa Fucking Rico, someone there needs to fucking shovel".

Anyway, I figured I'd have to shovel after snow shoeing so I might as well get a jump on it. I went out to shovel and my crazy neighbor pulled up right as I started and helped me and then offered to drink a glass of wine and maybe watch a movie with me. I was like "no way dude, I have to get up at 6:30" but of course we ended up having a glass of wine (the movie watching didn't go so well as I was in the middle of a german movie that was kind of hard to explain and he was like "I thought you only watched movies about surfers and sharks").

Really he just wanted to talk about how his new business is going and to get some advice on a problem he was having with his ex.

He finally left around 11. Ech. 

We ended up going to Matt Winters because the roads were shit. Major Jake did great but I am definitely switching his tires to Michelins. I also was really proud of Jake because Jess was bragging about how well he does in the snow and what a great car he is. I am a little embarrassed to admit this but I teared up a little when she was talking about how fun he is to drive. 

Funny side note: I was at Jess' salon getting a pedicure and looked out the window and thought "oh, that car looks like Jake but it can't be him because he has different license plates." It was him. I had forgotten that he got new plates when Jess registered him. I know this is insane but I felt really happy to have seen him.

We had a great hike at Matt Winters though Edge and I had problems with our snow shoes (mine was user error). Also, I found out after the hike that Edge had taken Dayquil before the hike (but he did great). Some pics:

Jess, Edge, Ericka, and me (the shrimp)

Jules in Major Jake - first dog to ride in my car!

Edge, Ericka, Jules, and me

Jules in the snow

 

my brother comes for a visit

My brother was in town this past week for a mining conference. We got to hang out a lot, which is why I didn't write much (that and work has been insane).

I don't think I embarrassed him except for when I showed some of his colleagues pictures of him as a 5 year old playing with a computer (back then that was a novel thing). Also, maybe I shouldn't have told the story about [redacted at my brother's request].

It was pretty cool attending the mining events in the evening. People kept coming up to me, introducing themselves "hey, I just wanted to meet Steve's sister". I wonder if they have suspected all this time that he was an extraterrestrial or a robot and wanted some verification that he did have a family. One of Steve's good friends kept introducing me as "Steve's sister, the bean pole".

I met the wife of the guy who's the head of the center where my brother works (I didn't know who she was at the time) and managed to pull off the introduction perfectly. I complimented her scarf and the way she had it tied (turns out she loves to talk about scarves) and then mentioned that Steve partially decided to go to Virginia Tech because I did. She said "thank you SO MUCH for bringing us Steve, we LOVE HIM TO DEATH!!!!"

It turns out lots of Steve's colleagues love him, especially the women (in a sisterly way, that is to say). And here I would say a shout out to all the female professors in the mining engineering department. They were all beautiful, stylish, and fun to hang out with. Two of them invited me to come visit them in Blacksburg and to stay at their houses. I also invited them to Colorado, we'll see if they come. I would mention as a side note they insert "fuck" into sentences as much as I do. If you hear a bunch of people in Blacksburg saying "are you fucking fist fucking me?", a new phrase I taught them, I'm going to take credit.

Not to brag about my brother, but I met many (over 100) of his colleagues at the conference events and...

The most common questions asked about my brother:

• "Was he always like this?" - not being sure what that meant I would just say "yes"
• "Did he at least sleep when he was a baby?" (he is infamous for sending emails 24 x 7 which he explains by saying "I have people in other times zones that I'm working with")
• "Did he always take things apart?" - answer: yes, but now when he takes things apart he can get them put back together, and they work better

Most common statement I heard: "Steve knows everything."

Please stop saying that, even if it's true.

And, my brother has groupies. People were following him all over the place in the hopes that he might be their advisor / mentor / join their committee / review their paper. It was funny.

My brother won an award at the conference but was too modest to even mention it.

I'm trying to get him and his wife to come visit me in the summer so we can do some outdoor adventures...also, maybe his wife will make me some cookies. I found out from one of the grad students that they get the "rejected" cookies that she doesn't think look nice enough to sell. I was like how do I get on that list????

the best library

A new artist building is finally opening a few blocks from my house. And...

They have a free lending library!!!!!

It's probably one of the coolest libraries ever

tomorrow I'm going to add a book and maybe take a book if there's something cool in there