Amaryllis - my joy icon	Wednesday, April 21, 2004 5:39:52 PM
One of my favorite authors of all time is Madeleine L'Engle. She wrote a book called Penguins and Golden Calves about seeing icons and idols in your daily life. Possibly not her best work, but a very enjoyable book, nonetheless. The icon for my life right now is an amaryllis. Beth and Nat of Cambria fame gave it to me for my last birthday. It was flowering then, but then the flowers faded away and it left a plant that did nothing but grow three-foot leaves. So, right before I left Cambria, Nat chopped all of the stalks off and dumped out the potting soil. This left a bulb sitting in a blue-and-white china pot, wrapped in a paper towel. I took the bulb home with me when I left Cambria. I felt all used up then, kind of like this sad-looking bulb, lying on its side in a paper towel. It also was not rooted or in its element and I was really feeling scared about my new job. I had plans to sit it in a closet for a while and then repot and try to grow it again. However, I dumped it in my dining room with all of the other books and accoutrements from my life at Cambria. About a week after I started my new job, I was walking through my dining room, past the tall built-in china cabinets where I had carelessly left the china pot. However, this time I noticed that there was 8 inches of green plant sticking out of the pot. How could it grow without dirt? It was supposed to wait until I had the container gardening class at the local community organization! (Which incidentally, I missed last night.) I wasn't prepared for it to grow at all, so the next day, I stopped in at a store and got a massive bag of potting soil. Totally overkill, but I followed the directions on the back and managed to stick it up properly. It was the silliest looking thing since I planted the bulb straight up and the stem was now a 90 degree angle straight out to the side. However, Mike assured me that it would straighten itself up. Since there was no other expert witness around, I had to believe him because he was a bio major and he might have studied something about that. Over the last couple of weeks, it has been a joy watching it straighten out, get taller, and bloom. If you have ever seen an amaryllis, it is not a demure flower. Instead, it is four massive trumpets of glorious, vibrant orange. Michelle said they are mostly red, but mine is joyfully different. This past week, the flower started to lean a bit with the weight of the flowers. On Monday night, I added more dirt to the pot. As I was packing it down, I was reminded of two things. The first was the verse in Luke 6 that says "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap." (Not that I am saying that I am a great gift-giver and that I deserve this or anything, it was just what had popped into my head.) The second was the Madeleine L'Engle book. I decided that evening as I drifted off to sleep that this was my icon of joy. The darkness of Cambria has passed away and I am enjoying my new job a great deal, thus feeling particularly joyful. In fact, pressed down, shaken together and running over with joy and thanksgiving for this new situation. The next evening, the amaryllis was tipped over and lying on its side. I guess the bulb never really held fast after growing on its side before. Michelle came over for our weekly tea & conversation and fixed it with a wire hanger. Hopefully, that will stick. So, I guess the metaphor now needs a caveat about needing a friend to help share in your joy or stick you up straight, but I can't keep the metaphor going. :)
Band of Brothers	Wednesday, April 21, 2004 5:07:07 PM
When I read Pax's blog about Band of Brothers, I went to go send him an email linking to my blog post about how deeply I was affected by seeing the mini-series. However, I can't find the post. Did I forget to write about it? I talked about it for months afterwards and recommended it to anyone I talked to, probably even Pax. So, either I forgot or overwrote my database. *argh* I will take this opportunity to say that seeing this mini-series had a major impact on my life. I did cry through the whole thing. (I won't say whether Mike did or didn't.) It is unbelievable what those brave kids did to protect us. I'm already tearing up again, so I will stop now. I can't believe that I lost that post. The other thing that I want to say (and will email Pax about) is that I also do not have HBO and do not have Netflix or a hope of getting things anytime soon on Mike's Netflix. However, I do have a library with an extensive DVD collection, among them Band of Brothers, that Pax has access to. Yay!
Weekly craziness	Friday, April 16, 2004 11:41:52 AM
This week has been really weird. Monday morning, a lady in a white and gold Lexus SUV almost ran me off the road because she was too busy talking on her cell phone and yelling at her kids in the backseat. This caused me to drive up on the curb of the street, but everything seemed OK because it was a low curb. Tuesday night, I had to go shopping (which I loathe) for work clothes, but it turned out to be a great day because I have dropped another size with my diet. Yay! Wednesday night, I was washing my sheets and towels in the apartment laundry room. 2 loads of sheets and 1 load of towels. When I went to get them out of the dryers, someone had stolen 1 set of sheets. !!! Who wants someone's used (albeit clean) sheets? The worst part is that the sheets that they stole were a splurge present to myself about 2-3 years ago and were really expensive ones. The kind that spark good sleep because they are the softest, most awesome ones ever that spoil you from ever buying something different. The theif(s) left the regular sheets there. *grr* I was so bummed. Especially since the NJ Devils lost to the Philadelphia Flyers and I knew I'd hear about it at work the next day. But, I went to Macy's website and they have the sheets on sale for 1/2 off. Thursday night, I was driving home from work when I drove under a bridge and heard a loud explosion. I seriously thought it was a gun. Then, I hear a flapping noise that I assumed was from someone else's car, so I kept driving home. Luckily, at a stop light, someone yelled, "Hey lady, your tire is flat!" (You have to picture it in a strong Philly accent.) So, I pulled into a Dunkin' Donuts and waited for AAA to come and rescue me. I told the mechanic that my tire had exploded. He looked at me a bit patronizingly and then saw the tire and said "Holy shit! You weren't kidding!" I can put two fists through the hole. I guess the Lexus SUV did me in after all. So, Friday has come and hopefully this will be the end to my adventurous week. Today's awesome thing is that I got paid!!! I'm so excited. I don't have a surprise paycut or a note requesting me to not deposit it for a while. Yay again!
Tales of my new job	Wednesday, April 14, 2004 7:58:12 PM
For those interested followers in my job situation that were not cc:ed on the emails, I will catch you up on everything... My last two weeks at Cambria were tiring to say the least - 16 hour days and I managed to catch some sort of flu-like virus just in time for this hectic pace. But, I made it (big sigh of relief)and started on my 4 days off. The days off were spent recuperating a bit, sleeping a bit, shopping a bit, and cleaning a lot. I did give myself one glorious day to do absolutely nothing. I slept in, had a 90 minute massage that was the most heavenly thing ever, and dressed up and went to dinner and a play in Center City with Mike. And thus ended my vacation for a year. :) The last two and a half weeks have been fun, but an adjustment. My commute and the set-in-stone hours have taken some getting used to and will still take some more getting used to, but it is getting better. It is 45 minutes to work and over an hour coming home, but on nice days it is a fun drive. All of the jockeying on Route 1 almost makes me feel like I'm in New Jersey again. :) My co-workers are very nice and chatty and laid back. And my new manager that started on Monday seems really nice too. Toll Brothers is expanding like crazy, so we are all sandwiched together in a small space, but that just makes it lots easier to talk to everyone. The project that I am working on is a fairly easy conversion from a VB program to ASP. I also get to do all of the design, so I am having a lot of fun with the work. So far, so good.
Work Day Music	Wednesday, April 14, 2004 4:30:06 PM
In the spirit of posting all sorts of musings that have been sitting in my administration area and not getting out to you, I figure I will post a couple of them and catch up to Mike & Pax. I have this fabulous combo CD player/radio sitting on my desk that I used all of the time at Cambria. However, where they keep the techs at Toll Brothers is not conducive to getting radio stations and somehow all of the CDs that I play sound really staticy. (This doesn't look right, but neither does static-y or staticey or any other combination. At any rate, there is a lot of static on the playback.) Update: Although I didn't bother to look it up, Mike did and "staticky" (an option I did try, but thought looked too much like sticky) is the correct version of this word. So, I have gotten a chance to listen again to music.msn.com. This is something that I listened to ALL of the time for a while, then they took out the "sounds-like" stations (for example, I created an Ani DiFranco sounds-like station), then I stopped listening to it, then they put the "sounds-like" stations back on for the pay service, so I paid for it and then stopped listening to it for some reason. I'm really not sure why. Maybe I was spending way too much money on CDs of new singers/groups/bands that I discovered through the radio stations. Now, I spend a good deal of my working day listening to MSN Music. Why had I stopped? I really wish that I could play this over my car's radio instead of having the lack of options that the radio stations play. (Yes, I could get a satellite radio service and then have a lot better options, but I haven't quite come to grips with the concept of paying a subscription fee for radio yet. I'm sure it will get me in the end.)
Mike Moonlighting?	Wednesday, April 14, 2004 4:07:44 PM
I've been listening to a lot of NPR lately since I have had so much time in the car. One of the most fun things is that at the end of several shows, you will hear them run through their list of producers and such and one of the people mentioned is Michael Cullen. It always makes me smile as I think of Mike trotting around the globe with Don Gonyea (the White House correspondent) in the role of a 20+ year veteran technician. Not that Mike couldn't do it, but I'm glad that he is in Philly with me instead of off taping press conferences and such. Here is an article featuring Michael Cullen (since I'm mentioning him and invading his privacy anyway).
Straight Story	Wednesday, April 14, 2004 4:04:43 PM
This morning, I was listening to the TV in the background and the new Sensor Excel for Men commercial came on. This is the new razor with not one, not two, but three blades on it. Here's the question - if barbers do a great job with just one blade (as mentioned in one of Mike's latest posts), why should three blades be better than two? :)
The Wrath of Khan	Wednesday, April 14, 2004 1:11:19 PM
Since I can't instant message at work, I don't have my usual break diversion that I had at Cambria. So, I recently decided (after coming to the conclusion that there is no way in the world that I will have any chatting capabilities at work) to spend my couple of breaks trying desperately to keep up with Pax's blog among others. John (as I call him when I'm around Andre) has recently been writing on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This is one movie that I haven't seen ever. Yes, it is probably the best Star Trek movie of all times and I have spent a large part of my life watching Star Trek episodes (both the "classic" and the Next Generation ones), but I had a traumatic experience with the movie as a child. Scene: Grandparent's house in Linden, NJ circa 1983. I was bored out of my mind (not sure why since I had sisters and cousins to play with) and decided to go into the living room where the men were all watching TV. I managed to step into the room and sit down a second before someone had something put into their ear amidst great shrieking. I decided that whatever my cousins, sisters, aunts or grandmother were up to was lots more interesting than this nightmarish scene. (And yes, I did have nightmares about it.) However, I am sure that I have since seen worse scenes in movies after growing up, so I am starting to think that this is something that I should watch and get rid of that old scary memory. Most likely this will have the same reaction that I did to the Snow White ride at Disney World. For those interested... Scene: Disney World, summer of 1978. I didn't meet the age requirement to go on this "scary" ride and needed an adult with me. However, my mom wouldn't leave Becky and Emily (ages 4 and 2 respectively), even in the face of my desperate begging, to take me on the ride, so I had riding on this ride on my list of life goals. As a 10th grader, I finally went to Disney World, rode the ride, and decided that it was neither scary nor particularly good.
wrong quiz	Monday, April 05, 2004 6:20:11 PM
Yesterday, when I couldn't take my usual Sunday afternoon nap, I caught up on the blogs of various friends. Special kudos for Pax. I wasn't sure if he would be able to keep up on his thrice-weekly columns, but he is going strong. Good onya! (Not mentioned on this slang reference. Interesting...) At any rate, I had loads of time while Mike snoozed away on the couch before going to our usual Sunday night dinner with some friends, so I took the select smart quiz referenced by Jose on his blog. Sadly, I think that the quiz is skewed a bit, since my results were as follows: Your Results: 1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%) 2. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (70%) 3. Green Party Candidate (67%) 4. Socialist Candidate (62%) 5. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat 6. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat 7. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat 8. Bush, President George W. - Republican (37%) 9. Libertarian Candidate (30%) 10. Constitution Party Candidate (16%) I do think that it is a nice touch to have the Socialist and Constitution parties on the quiz. However, the #1 issue that I put on the quiz with the highest importance was a pro-life position on the abortion, so I thought it was interesting that they rated them this way. Since I had loads of time to burn up, I spent a good deal of time looking at the candidates' web sites and figuring out how much I agreed with them and disagreed with them. Unfortunately, I don't think that their ratings really matched up properly. Oh well. I agree with them that my ideal theoretical candidate is not out there.
Got a job :)	Friday, March 19, 2004 11:08:53 AM
Mike edited my site and decided that I was revealing too many details about my job that strangers could see. Since I had already edited it and thought it was appropriate, I decided to take that post down until I could look it over again. Suffice it to say, I got a job at Toll Brothers (www.TollBrothers.com) that I think will be really great. (Cambria is being very gracious and lovely about my departure, which has made my life a lot easier. All in all, I am very hopeful about my career direction.
Tea Bag Query	Thursday, March 18, 2004 8:33:14 PM
I have unfortunately been very sick for this entire week since I have to keep up the pace of really long days as I clean things up at Cambria. Luckily, I haven't been able to sleep very much with all of the coughing, so I'm not losing anything there. :) As I have been drinking an enormous amount of tea, I have noticed something about Celestial Seasonings tea bags. Any one that drinks a lot of herbal tea and with this brand may have a similar question. Celestial Seasonings sells their tea bags in a box with two tea bags linked together. The two linked tea bags are stacked up with a bunch of other linked tea bags in one box. My question is why? Why link the tea bags so you have to tear them apart? Besides being a huge time waste (I know - it takes 2 seconds, but I am working really long days and would rather sleep in that time), it also endangers the tea bags (you might rip them). I am not impressed with this decision. A mystery that may never be solved... Update: Or maybe not. Mike emailed me this helpful answer right after he read my post: On the teabags, the answer is pretty simple: it's just a way to fill a wide container that takes up more space on the shelf. Swiss Miss hot cocoa does the same thing. If you know that the packets (or teabags, or whatever) can only reasonably be up to a certain width, but you want to have twice that much width on the shelf, you naturally stack them 2-by-2 in the box. But if you take 10 loose packets, and stack them in 2 neat rows of 5, close the box, turn it over a few times (as would happen in shipment and unpacking), and reopen, you'll see a stack of 8 or so on one side, and 2 packets flopping around on the other side. The box will feel lopsided, and a person opening it will get the impression that the box is half-empty. The customer won't think "My, that's an excessively big box!" (which it is); he'll think "Looks like they didn't give me a full box!" Even if the one end is swelling with the thickness of the extra packets that fell over to that end, people won't notice the extra-dense part, they'll notice the *empty* part. And they'll buy some other brand next time. Somewhere in the back of their mind they'll remember that the Swiss Miss box seemed full last time, but this Carnation box seems half-empty (Carnation doesn't link the packets, so they do fall to one end), so they'll opt for Swiss Miss this time. So, nobody wants double-stacked packets all falling to one end. Swiss Miss and Celestial Seasonings fix the problem by joining packets, which has the side-effect of annoying the customer. Lipton fixes the problem differently, by putting a cardboard strip between the two stacks so they can't fall across. That works in a box with two long stacks like Lipton has, but it won't work so well in two short stacks, because the tiny piece of cardboard to fit between them would easily slip out of place and then you'd be back to the original sliding-stacks problem. And they don't want to *glue* a cardboard divider in between, because that just makes the whole box-making process complicated, and you would wonder why they don't just sell you two smaller boxes. Really, it all comes down to 2 things: (1) catching your eye on the shelf (big box) and (2) not disappointing you when you open the box (neat stacks, no visibly empty space). If they piss you off in the process, they're shooting themselves in the foot, but they're betting that they'll save more customers with #1 & #2, so frankly they don't care about your plight. Just try to convince the marketing guys that you'd buy the tea if it just came in a plain burlap sack full of loose packets, as long as you didn't have to tear them yourself. They'll still put it in a big shiny box and do whatever they have to do to make the box look more full than it is. :)
Great News - Edited Version	Thursday, March 18, 2004 7:55:33 PM
I have been meaning to write this for forever, but I have been super busy. Why? Because I was busy applying, being pre-screened, interviewing, wrestling with a decision, and accepting a new job!!! And that doesn't even mention the resigning and spending 16 hour days cleaning up my old job!!! Rather than list all of the things that happened, I think that I will post excerpts from a couple of emails that I sent my fabulous "prayer team" as the time line of the events. My last day at Cambria is Monday, March 22nd and my first day at Toll Brothers is Monday, March 29th. -------------------- February 20th -------------------- On Tuesday, I happened to see this great job (although a bit of a hike to Huntington Valley, PA) on Monster.com. It is for an Intranet Web Applications Developer for the leading builder of luxury homes, Toll Brothers (http://www.tollbrothers.com/). I applied that day and just got off the phone with a recruiter who sounded really interested in me. (We talked for about 20 minutes.) The job sounds like exactly what I want. Lots of variety, working independently on different business applications. It is the same thing that I do now, but for internal customers. They said they want to bring me in for an interview sometime next week, so please be praying about it. I'm sure that I will have lots of competition for the position since there are so many unemployed programmers right now and this might even turn out to be something that is not the best thing in the world, but right now, it is a glimmer of hope. -------------------- February 20th - an hour later -------------------- Guess what? The recruiter just called again to clarify some more information before setting up the interview. I hope that I gave him enough reasons to interview me at least. -------------------- February 24th -------------------- I am soooo celebrating right now. I've been really down since Monday when I didn't hear from the recruiter that day. I thought that maybe I messed something up in the pre-screening calls and they wouldn't call me in. It was especially bumming since I drove the commute with Mike and found it is do-able and everything that the recruiter told me about the company and job made me really excited to hear more. But, yeah! Jerod the recruiter called and said that they are really interested in setting something up with me, but couldn't get everyone's schedules together until after I get back from vacation. WOO HOO!!! Then, before I finished typing this message, he called back and set up the actual interview for 10am on Wednesday, March 3rd. I've been jumping up and down like a crazy person for the past few minutes. :) -------------------- March 3rd -------------------- I had my interview at Toll Brothers this morning and I think that everything went really well. Four people interviewed me and I hope that I came off as the perfect person for the position in each one. I feel perfect for it, at any rate. :) I am very excited about the prospect of working there. It would be a new direction for the company in terms of moving many of their stand-alone applications to web-based enterprise solutions. I would be working for internal clients on similar projects to what I do now, but slightly longer-term. The people I met were great and my skill set is really strong for what I would be doing. I also talked to Jerod (the recruiter) about the salary and the benefits. They all seem really great, except it would be 2 weeks of vacation for the first 5 years of employment and then 3 weeks after that. The bummer of American businesses and their lack of time off... I already knew about that from doing my web research, but he said that they were not able to change that part of the job. But, he also said that my current salary would most likely fit into their range for this position. *fingers crossed* Let's hope that it all works out. -------------------- March 3rd - a short time later -------------------- New update! :) I just got off the phone with Jerod the recruiter. He wanted to touch base with me and see how I felt about the position. I told him that I was very interested in it. He said "great!" and that he would then talk to everyone to see how they felt about me. Hopefully, this is a really good sign. They wanted to know how soon I could start. *toes crossed too* -------------------- March 5th -------------------- Jerod from Toll Brothers just called and I have a job offer with the offer letter to follow today!!! *doing a very happy dance* It is for less than I am making at Cambria on paper, but with the yearly raises (gosh, haven't heard that term in years!) I will probably be getting back to my old salary in the next year or so. Also, there are lots of real benefits (including a discount on their $600,000+ homes *LOL*), but only 2 weeks of vacation. However, after a bit of research by my lovely new friend Jerod, I can take some unpaid leave if I really need more time off for a special occasion. Now, I am totally 100% thrilled with the new job and will give them my formal 'yes' and Cambria a formal resignation as soon as I get the offer letter. -------------------- March 9th -------------------- I thought I would update you a little on the resignation process. I resigned yesterday and received a very gracious reply from Dick. Along with my resignation letter, I sent a To Do List of tasks to move over to other co-workers as well as a "this is what you owe me" letter. Not only was he fine with everything, he said that he wanted to keep things happy in case I decide to come back. Things are going really swell here...
Nonsense	Friday, February 20, 2004 12:38:53 PM
And in a bizarre twist of events, it looks like I've posted on my blog 9 times since Mike last posted anything on his. How is it possible? This will be a bit of a ramble since I really have nothing of vast importance to say. That, of course, brings up the discussion of whether or not I ever have anything of importance to say, but we shall save that for another day. Let's see, today I learned from my MSN Today popup window that Brittany and Christina may just make up. No one is confirming this, but it is out there. In much more of an interesting discussion, President Bush possibly may have had a nose job. *LOL* This all came up because of some controversy that John Kerry may have used Botox. *grumble* What our reporters talk about... Who really cares? If someone wants to make themselves look better and decides to go that route, more power to them. I don't know that I would ever have plastic surgery since I hate discomfort and blood, but I am not ruling it out altogether. (See below license picture discussion for my vanity level.) Also in the "news", Outkast may be encouraging people to ruin their Polaroids since you are NOT supposed to shake it at all. Well, enough of the fluff that shows up with my MSN Messanger account. In fluffy personal news, I got an amazing haircut on Friday the 13th from Lee at Philadelphia's East End Salon. During the 3 hours that he took to cut my hair, Lee swore to me that Mike would be running his fingers through it all of the time. Granted, he didn't do that the first night with all of the straightening stuff Lee put in it, but Mike does keep raving about it all of the time. Nice job, Lee! My niece Lia turned 1 year old on February 15th. She is such a cutie. And is very advanced for her age, except for height/weight (just now moving into the 6-9 months clothes). Joey Cusumano (I think a week older than her) was at her party and he is twice her size, but prefers to crawl. Whereas Lia prefers to only walk. The other major news is my Indian cooking class, but that part is so long, I am putting it in another entry below this one.
Indian cooking	Friday, February 20, 2004 12:25:31 PM
Michelle and I are taking a 4-week Indian cooking class through Main Line School Night (an incredibly extensive community education organization). It is taught by the chef and owner of our very favorite Indian restaurant, Khajuraho India. I have been looking so forward to this night because their food is amazing. Mike, after being induced to try Indian food on our London trip and then, when he was hooked, introduced to Khajuraho's award-winning Chicken Tikka Masala, would eat there multiple times every week if he could. And sometimes he does. :) Their food is simply awesome. So, Michelle and I go there this past Wednesday for our first class. In the description of the class, there is nothing about the award-winning Chicken Tikka Masals or their terrific rice. Everyone in our circle of friends keeps giving us requests for what they want us to learn. We kept telling them that we will learn what he is going to tell us and stop bothering us about the chicken and rice. I just wanted to learn how to figure out what spices are what and where to get them. The chef tells us that we will learn appetizers in the first class, main course in the second class, and desserts in the third class. Then, the last class is at the restaurant. Everyone in the class helps make things, so Michelle is chopping up the jalape?o peppers (because Americans can't eat Indian peppers - too spicy) and I am making the potato balls (my hands are still stained yellow) with a teenager names Alex. While we were making the potato balls, Alex asks the chef (who is deep frying them at the stove beside us) if we will be making Tandoori Chicken for the main course. He says, "No, we don't have a Tandoor oven in class. Instead, we will make Chicken Tikka Masala". Michelle is literally dancing behind me and clapping. I am in shock. We are going to learn how to make his award-winning recipe??? OH MY GOD!!! Michelle asks if we will learn how to make the rice that goes with it. Yes, we will. Goodnight! Our friends' wishes are coming true!!! The one issue with our "usual" meals from there is that we will not be able to make the Naan. Insert collective class groan. But not because he doesn't want us to make it, but because Naan is made on the side of the clay ovens and we don't have clay ovens in the class. Makes sense, but now my dream kitchen, in addition to Mike's wood fire pizza oven, will have to include a clay oven for making the naan. I promise to tell you what we cooked after the last class. He is giving us the recipes at the restaurant, so I can't even tell you what the potato balls or the pancakes were. I will also have to post on the really funny people that we are taking this class with. Michelle and I laughed the whole way home because of them. Maybe I will write a special blog entry with Michelle as the co-author to give you our feel on the class. At any rate, I am totally enjoying this class and can't wait to try everything out at home. I brought leftovers of our appetizers back for Mike and he kept thanking me and kissing me, so I think that it was a huge success if I needed to impress Mike anymore than I already do. :)
The world according to Google	Thursday, February 05, 2004 1:08:28 PM
Although everyone knows Google is important, this article reiterates why they are so important to people trying to buy/sell on the internet. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2004-02-04-google-cover_x.htm When you search Google for "Kathy Fisher" or "Kathleen Fisher" or "Kathleen M Fisher", I actually have top 5 or 10 placement. Higher if you add things like programmer or songs to my name in the search. That's pretty cool when you consider that there are a zillion Kathy Fishers in the world. Just a little something that brightens my day.