I've had a bit of a computer meltdown this week. My PowerBook died so I got a new computer & then the Powerbook got fixed (and a lot of cat hair removed from the insides...when I called to check status, the first thing the repair man said was if my computer was the one with the cat fur. yeah, I guess they shed. A lot.)

In the meantime, I'm trying to resurrect my email addresses...yes, things were backed up (I'm pretty good about that...) but since I was having to restore everything, I figured I'd do an update on system software & everything else in the process & it's complicated. So far, I think everything is back...mostly.

So it's the 4th of July & I can hear fireworks going off all around the house. At least, I hope it's fireworks....even though the SFPD claims that this is a bad year for illegal fireworks. They claim they did such a good job of targeting the manufacturers last year that this year's supply is severely constrained.

Well, it could be that or it could be that last summer's exploding house (man making illegal fireworks in his garage blew up his house, blew himself through the wall of the garage, through the wall of the house next door and up against the opposite internal wall of the neighbor's garage.) made some people realize that manufacturing explosives is a silly thing to do.

The new job is going well. I'm much, much happier being at a company that has bright people, a plan that could work for making money...yes, Xoom is still losing money but I think Xoom has a chance for revenue growth. Etak doesn't. And, there's no commute. While the Muni bus system isn't reliable (or particularly safe...Muni has the worst safety record in the nation with about an accident a day) I can walk from my house to BART & BART is reliable.

The new job does have some oddities, however. The office is in an old Bank of America building. We have what used to be the Executive floor. The carpet is dark green (supposed to look like money?). There's marble everywhere. The building used to be fairly classy at one point. Now it's seeing the effects of deferred maintenance.

For example, the women's restroom always seems to have something leaking. One day, I turned on the water for sink #2 & the water in sinks #1 & #3 also went on. I thought that was weird so I turned off sink #2 water. Sinks #1 & #3 also went off. I turned on sink #2 again - and sinks #1 & #3 also followed. I spent a few minutes turning the water on/off...it just seemed kinda strange. That's been fixed.

There are actually three restrooms on the floor. I'm guessing the men's room is as interesting as the women's. The third restroom used to be the executive washroom. All the fixtures are gold. It's huge. It's also inoperable because it's been filled with video games.

I'm liking the people I work with. First staff meeting, I got to meet the group. There are 17 people in this immediate group. Of the 17, 5 are women. Of the 5, myself & one other woman are the only two with our natural hair color & nothing visible pierced. It's an interesting group.

These fireworks are still going off all around the house...I'm glad I'm home tonight...so I can call the fire department when something gets set on fire.

Stacey