Fun With Earthquakes - Okay, obligatory earthquake mention first. I work about 25-30 miles from the epicenter (as the bird flies), and felt a good set of shimmies, one big jolt, and a bunch of shakes after that. It was only long enough for me to start wondering if it was going to be worse, when it tapered off and stopped. I only hit "save" on my document, considered whether I needed to grab my purse and my portable hard-drive, and then it was over. No big deal.

My next response (I didn't even bother to get out of my chair) was just to pull up the USGS Earthquake map, and hit F5/Refresh over and over again until the earthquake finally registered on the map. You can see the map itself or the single earthquake event record. At the writing of this journal entry, there have been 52 reported aftershocks: 34 shocks registering only 0.9-1.9, 16 from 2.0-2.9, and only 2 aftershocks over 3, a single 3.6 and a 3.8. The first time the larger quake registered, they estimated it at 5.6, then they reported 5.8 for a while, then it was downgraded to only 5.4.

So not that big of a deal. Nothing fell over, nothing broke, etc. But the guys who inspect the JPL lab sent us some great photos. The Lab is nestled into the "hills" or "mountains" above Pasadena. Necessarily, there are fences in place to protect against falling rock. And hey, it worked. Here's what they sent us (labels and resizing by me):


So there you go. Big enough to roll a rock. Not big enough to get me out of my office. Oh, and big enough to swamp the cell phone lines for the next hour, as we all were obliged to call family and say, "Yes, we're fine."

Things Done - So the idea that I could just "sew four buttons" was an understatement: I was hand-cutting and hand-stitching the buttonholes to match and then adding the buttons to the garment. It took just about two hours to complete the four button holes and four buttons, but they are done! Woot! Bill's blue pants are done, and now they just need to be laundered once, because they still smell like campfire smoke from Potrero. I worked on them several times while hundling close to a fire in the cold and damp.

Also Done: I found the tape I was recording episodes of Last Comic Standing, for Jeff. While I stitched button holes Sunday night, I watched the next 2-hour episode, and recorded it on the tape. Then I gave Jeff a call, he was home, and so I ran over to his place to deliver the tape. Done. *grin* It also gave me a chance to pick up the desktop computer that Theresa gave me (loaned me?), and borrow our extra house key for later when someone else will be house-sitting our apartment for a weekend. Two more errands done. *whew*

Monday morning I managed to get up early and go to work early, so that I could potentially go home early Monday evening. The plan was to finish cutting out more white linen shirts (and under dresses) for Pennsic.

Best Laid Early Plans - What did I get done Monday? I finished updating the theatre calendar, the sponsors for the whole new season, all the shows for the season, and four more photo album links. Ah, the joys of a website maintenance task, where I'm not the content provider. Sadly, no chance of me leaving "early." The theatre website took a majority of my day, on top of my work-work.

And speaking of work, I was documenting a system where the code and my access was changing all week. So one minute I could take great screenshots, the next I would be getting nothing but errors. So, I sent a "final draft" of the user guide to my co-workers at 10:30 pm last night, drove home (exhausted), and went promptly to sleep. It was one of those evenings where I couldn't even be sure where I parked when I got up in the morning.

I even managed to get up mostly on time, got to work bright and early, and found the people to fix my access to the system. So right up until the earthquake, I was finally getting appropriate screenshots into the manual, and almost managed to deliver the guide by noon (my deadline so that my team lead could take the printout to her 1 pm meeting)... and then the earthquake hit at 11:42, making my next half hour a little bit derailed. But all in all, I'm fairly proud of the manual, and one of my coffee buddies humored me as we flipped through the color printout, coo'ing over how cute my pictures and callouts and arrows are. I know. Completely geeky. But fun.

I've determined that on average, I can leave at the PM equivalent of the hour I first wake up. To leave at 4 pm, I have to wake up at 4 am. It takes an hour for me to get up, shower, dress, get out the door, buy gas or breakfast or lunch (or pack breakfast and/or lunch)... and finally be on the freeway. One hour (give or take) to drive to work. Nine hour work day, one hour for lunch. 1+1+1+9 = 12 hours. So. There you go. If I wake up at 7 am, I won't be leaving work until 7 pm. If you see me leaving work at 3 pm, you know I woke up at 3 am. *yawn*

Tonight's plans: Cut out white linen for Pennsic clothing. Bill is already excited that his blue pants are done.

Today's Photo Portion - Another project done: Here's the pictures from my First Scroll (ever) Project. Enjoy!



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Finished Objects, Mon & Tue: 15 website tasks for the theatre (all pending items done, entire folder caught up). Composed a new chorus for a new marching song. Finished a chapter in "No Idle Hands." 9 household/office tasks done. Finished Bill's pants, for Pennsic. Finished User Manual at work. Finished 1 album of photos.

Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Patti, for being so efficient and easy to work with