I know I've been posting like crazy today, but one more quick note.

What was Microsoft thinking when they redesigned their Office suite for 2007? Fortunately, I still have the previous version on my work computer, but co-workers are starting to get Office 2007 as they have their computers replaced or upgraded. Because I'm usually pretty good with computers, people often come to me for quick help questions... and it's absurd how many times I've been asked where something in Word moved to in the 2007 version.

I think this excerpt from an article by Jonathan Blum at CNNMoney.com sums it up:

Microsoft's hard work paid off in many ways: Word 2007 is lovely to look at and use. But Word's 450 million global users can expect major, unwelcome surprises from the new code. Everything you've learned about Word over the years is now wrong. The familiar menu names - File, Edit, View, Insert, Format and the rest - are gone, replaced by cryptic new headers: Home, Insert, Page Layout, and Reference.

And clicking on a header no longer triggers a flurry of pull-down menus. Sure, Microsoft's bloated menus were a design catastrophe, but at least you knew where things were. No more. Now you get a long horizontal bar called "The Ribbon" that holds - no, hides - most Word commands. Although Mac OS X users will find the ribbon familiar, they will have no leg up in battle to learn the new Word: most commands are slightly, but devilishly, different.

-- Microsoft's four-letter #&!? Word by Jonathan Blum

Also, the 2007 versions of Office apps use default file formats that earlier versions can't open. As a result, I have had professors who beg students, "whatever that DOCX file thing is, don't use it -- I can't open it," and work with researchers who have been sharing files by e-mail for years but suddenly can't open each other's work.

Oh, and another thing. We create MS Access databases here that staff at other centers use to collect research data. Access 2007 can open them, but the user has to go through a convoluted process of adding our databases to their "trust center" before any of the code we've included can be run. I suppose that makes it harder to sneak malicious code past the user, but it also makes it VERY difficult for people who aren't good with this stuff to make our code work.

BLARGH!

Okay, I realize that lots of people do this all the time... but it was the first regular weekday that I rode my bike to get to work in the morning, and it's kind of a big deal for me!

I had very nice ride, too... I had signed up for Bike Friday, figuring that even though they go to a different part of town than I work in, it's early enough that I can just continue to work afterward. I was up late last night, and didn't sleep terribly well, so this morning I decided to skip out on the organized ride... again (my apologies the Mayor and to Dan Hoagland who worked very hard to coordinate the event).

The route I took seemed to be a pretty reasonable compromise between direct and low-traffic:



I know my way around, but brought the GPS so I could keep track of my speed and distance:



I definitely need to find an alternative to my backpack. I could have gotten away with stepping right off the bike and into meetings if not for the fact that the straps made my shoulders sweat through my shirt. The rest of me was pretty much ready to start my day, though. I just washed up in the restroom and changed shirts... but on hotter or rainy days, I'll need additional freshening up. Fortunately, we have a shower at the office, and my gym is just across the street, so there's plenty of opportunity to do so.

Overall, it was a successful commute, and took about as much time as driving would, given that I cut out a lot of driving around the block to get to my parking spot. I can't wait to do it more often!

After nearly 18 months of (a) trying to get it approved by the IRB, (b) trying to get the subcontract worked out with the sponsor, and (c) trying to find a date that worked for me, my boss, the participant, and the various other departments in the hospital that needed to be involved....

We finally had our first study visit for a (not-so) new research study!

The science behind this study is really interesting, but the protocol is chock-full of steps that we don't normally do. The whole study is poorly documented -- one document will contradict another, passages in the manual of operations are ambiguous, the contacts at the sponsoring university are hard to track down, etc.

Also, there is SO much paperwork. I have never seen so much paperwork for one study. Things that could easily be recorded on one form are split among 5 or 6 different forms. Instead of a "History and Physical Exam" form, there are two separate forms, each with lots of empty space. Instead of a comprehensive CT Scan form, there is a separate document for EACH pass through the scanner.

There also seems to be some sort of hex on this study. Supplies that were sent to me went missing... twice. The pharmacy wouldn't take the charge code that finance had set up for us, so had to beg them to accept an interdepartmental ledger entry to get them the funds for our supplies. There's a lab test that we need to run that multiple people at the lab told me they can't do (but they've done before).

The whole darn thing has really been a huge pain in my butt. However, today's visit went mostly smoothly, and now we can finally say that we've enrolled someone in this study (we're the last center to do so).

Also, like I mentioned before, the idea behind the study is really an interesting one, so I'm glad to be a part of it... I think that's what's keeping me from going completely batty.

A few weeks back, I posted an entry about the attitude I got straightening out a problem T pass at work. Each month, work deducts from my payroll and loads a LinkPass onto my Charlie Card. In July, I randomly received a new card, and got a completely heinous attitude when I went to find out why. Eventually, I found out that when I went on leave, they deactivated the old card (or at least tried to), and when they reinstated me, they put the monthly passes on a new card instead of reactivating the old one. I was told that the old card should no longer work, and that I should use the new one.

I did as instructed... until this week, when the new card quit working. This morning I went back to the commuter services office and found out that on July 15th (the day I was last there), someone deactivated both of the cards. The payroll deduction stayed active, but the automatic reloading of the monthly pass was turned off.

Fortunately, the person I dealt with today was wonderfully friendly and helpful, gave me a new card on the spot, made sure it was valid for this month, made sure it was linked to my payroll account and set to auto-renew, and told me to call her right away if I have any trouble.

Why do some people have to be SO difficult?

I have a monthly T pass that I get through work. Rather than send me a new pass each month, our Commuter Services arranges with the MBTA to have the pass credited to my CharlieCard each month.

I got a phone call today from the department receptionist letting me know that a new CharlieCard had arrived with my name on it. My current card has been working just fine, so I was a bit surprised. When I picked the card up, I asked the receptionist who I could call about it. He told me where to find Commuter Services, but said that since they're so difficult to deal with, I'd probably be better off just carrying both cards until one quit working.

I (a) was worried that I'd be charged for the duplicate pass, and (b) didn't like the idea of carrying an additional card in my wallet, so I figured I'd brave the attitude. I walked up to the customer service window, and here's how the conversation went:

Me: I get a T pass through work, and a duplicate card came to my office for me. I'm not sure why.

CS: What do you mean it came for you? We don't send out new cards each month, you keep the one you have.

Me: I understand that. I came back from a leave of absence recently, so I wonder if the new card has something to do with that.

CS: No, when you go on leave, we deactivate the card. When you come back, we reactivate it. There's no new card!

Me: So, what do I do with this new card I received?

CS: How should I know? It didn't come from us. Did you buy it at a T station? That was pretty stupid if you already have one from us.

Me: No, our receptionist gave it to me. I think it might have come to our building via inter-office mail.

CS: Well, now I KNOW that you're lying to me. WE DON'T SEND T PASSES VIA INTER-OFFICE MAIL, and I don't like people lying to me, so you'd better get out of my window.

Me: Well, maybe it came by some other means, I really don't know, and I am not lying to you.

CS: Oh, just give me the card, I'll look it up and tell you who it belongs to.

At this point, she took the card, loooked it up, and found out that it was linked to my payroll account. They stopped paying the monthly fee on my old one months ago when I went on leave, but apparently, the MBTA takes a long while to actually stop loading the monthly passes onto the card.

Apparently, they do generate a new card after someone comes back from leave. Also, I found out that someone from our building goes and picks up the handful of new passes for new employees each month. Since I didn't know that, and assumed inter-office mail, the woman at CS knew I was lying to her.

I don't know what to be more upset about. The completely inappropriate attitude at Commuter Services, or the fact that a transport system that's millions in debt and supposedly committed to better fare collection takes more than 4 months to deactivate a monthly pass that is no longer being paid for.

It's 2pm, and I'm dragging along here at work today... so I decided to hit up the vending machine in the basement and induce a sugar rush with some Skittles. I put in my coins and selected my Skittles (E3). The display read "WINNER," and the machine dispensed my candy without touching my available credit. Since I didn't want anything else, I hit the coin return button and got all of my change back!

How random is that? I didn't realize the vending machine was a contest, but apparently, I won!

I know, I've already whined about work once today... but this is absurd. I've been e-mailing with a nurse at another medical center about one of our studies.

For this study, an appointment with the participant includes a breathing test. Because the test equipment is very sensitive, it's commonly understood that it needs to be calibrated (or at least have its calibration checked) daily. We included this in the manual of procedures for the study, but really, it shouldn't even need to be there. This is one of the fundamentals of breathing tests.

Anyway, I got a message from the above mentioned nurse today about some other things, and at the end, she added:

Since we have to travel to other sites more often than not, we can't calibrate the spirometer each day. We'll try to do it when we're in [at our site] but that might not be more than once a week. OK with you?

I promptly replied with this:

Verifying the calibration needs to be done at least once per day that you do a study visit - this is one of the ATS [American Thoracic Society] basic recommendations for pulmonary function testing that we really can't stray from. If you don't do the calibration check, we can't use the data.
-Eric

You'd think that would have settled it, but I got this reply:

It will be extremely cumbersome to carry a [calibration] syringe along with all other equipment. We'll have to think about it.

I just drafted this reply:

I understand that it's cumbersome to carry the syringe. [My co-worker] and I often do study visits in other buildings here at [our medical center], as well as travel to participants' homes for study visits. Wherever we go (be it via foot, car, or plane) we always have to bring the syringe with us and do a calibration check. It's not convenient, but it's crucial that the calibration be done every day, otherwise we won't be able to use the data you collect.

Here are the references from the ATS guidelines:

• "Calibration checks must be undertaken daily, or more frequently, if specified by the manufacturer."
  
• "If equipment is changed or relocated (e.g. industrial surveys), calibration checks and quality-control procedures must be repeated before further testing begins."
  
• "At a minimum, the requirements are as follows: 1) a log of calibration results is maintained..."

(ATS/ERS Task Force: Standardisation of lung function testing. In: Brusasco V, Crapo R, Viegi G. , editors. Eur Respir J. Vol. 26. 2005. pp. 319–338.)
-Eric

I really hope this is settled. The fact that it's in the manual of procedures should have been explanation enough. It's our study, we wrote the protocol, we determine what gets done when to achieve the results we'd like to get. That's how it works!

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My boss and several of his colleagues hosted an education day for lung disease patients today. I went to talk to the attendees about some of the research studies that we have going on that they might want to participate in. It was a pretty easy day, and I got to sit in on some interesting talks. It's great to work for a physician that so many patients, research participants, and members of the advocacy community really love. He's a great doctor, and a great boss.

It's Brian's birthday today, so a whole bunch of us are headed to Comics Come Home tonight... should be a great show.

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So, Fall 2006 was hardly a good semester for me, but I'll say one nice thing about it... it's OVER!

My final exam tonight (Proteomics) turned out to be long, tedious, and difficult... but that made it just like the midterm, and what we were all expecting. Also, unlike the exam last week, several topics covered on the practice exam actually appeared on the actual exam... in fact, several questions were the same. Of course, he didn't give us an answer key for the practice exam for that very reason... and even with our notes, textbooks, etc. many of us didn't have complete answers for the practice questions... but either way, he knows that his exams are long and difficult, and grades (and curves) accordingly. I'm not terribly worried.

Now, if there's any way I passed the exam last week, I might really be okay with this semester.

So, tonight I stay up all night, for several reasons:

• I have a meeting a 7:30 tomorrow morning. I don't make it to 7:30 am meetings unless I've been up all night. Yes, for those of you keeping track, I'm back to that total lack of ability to wake up in the morning... but that might change soon (keep reading!)
  
• I am leaving for a weeklong business trip tomorrow (to Ireland! HOW COOL, RITE?!!!111oneone) and haven't started packing.
  
• In addition to not having started packing, I need to do laundry (w00t 24 hour laundromats!) for the trip.
  
• I have a 6 hour overnight trans-atlantic flight at 7:10pm tomorrow night. There's NO way I will be able to sleep at that early hour unless I stay up all night tonight. If I'm exhausted from being awake for so long, I'll sleep most the entire trip. Hooray for earplugs, inflatable neck pillows, and being short enough to fit reasonably comfortably in a coach seat. Let's hope I don't drool on my boss.

The one nice thing about traveling to Ireland and back is that if I adjust to Ireland time, when I get back home, I'll be 5 hours early for everything. Seeing as how I already like to fall asleep at about 4am and wake up at about 11am, that should put me on some quasi-normal schedule, right? Eh? Maybe? Pipe dream much?

Also, whoever last used this computer (I'm at the computer lab at school) visited b0st0n. It was still up on the screen. I swear, this spring I'm finally going to pull off my "everyone wears their LJ username today" event... I'm sure I pass other LJers on the street every day!

I've had my troubles with shipping in the past... I probably even blogged about my most frustrating experience with UPS a few years back*. Lately, however, FedEx has been pretty good to me. Using their online shipping tool is easy, packages get where they're supposed to go, and on time. Very recently, however, I've had two headaches that are shaking my confidence.

First, a package that I sent 2 weeks ago to a major hospital in Denver. Since the hospital is the only thing at this address (and in fact, the only building on the whole block), you can imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail telling me that the package couldn't be delivered because the recipient could not be located. I called FedEx, and they read the delivery address to me. It turns out, the address was correct, but I had abbreviated the name of the hospital (National Jewish Medical and Research Center became "NJMRC"). The rep I spoke with on the phone obnoxiously told me that their driver can not be expected to figure out "obscure abbreviations" but now that they had the full name of the hospital, they could re-attempt the next day.

Second, two packages that I sent yesterday for overnight delivery (today) to a hospital in Florida. I created the shipping labels together on the FedEx web site - the only difference between the two was the box weight/dimensions. This morning, I got 2 e-mails, about 5 minutes apart. The first reported that Box #1 was delivered, and signed for by [Name] at "Receptionist/Front Desk." The second message reported a delivery exception on Box #2 - "Customer not available or business closed." I called FedEx, who confirmed for me that the two boxes were put on the same truck this morning... and that the shipping addresses were identical. Their only explanation was that maybe the driver got confused.

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*That incident was when I was working for Nokia. I was expecting 3 packages that I needed for an out of town meeting... they were sent to me via priority overnight so I could pick them up before leaving. At about 10 am the online tracking system said "Delivered" but there was no sign of the packages. I ended up leaving town without the packages, and spending 2 days arguing with UPS on the phone. Over and over I would hear: "Good news sir, I just checked the computer and it says that your packages were delivered yesterday morning!" At one point, a rep told me that I should check with the neighbors to see if maybe the package was delivered to them. When I screamed back that I was out of town, and that maybe THEY should go do that, he hung up on me! Eventually, the manager of the Cingular store down the street brought my packages over. He said that when the driver delivered them, he tried to refuse delivery since the address and name didn't match his store, but the driver insisted that because the boxes were marked "NOKIA" they must be for the Cingular store. After spending 2 days on the phone with UPS trying to get the packages picked up, he finally just brought them over himself!

So I just flew from Boston to San Francisco (en route to Eureka/Arcada Airport)... and since I have some frequent flyer miles in my United account that I'll probably never use for a free flight, I decided to use some to upgrade myself to First Class... it was my first flight EVER in first, and I have to say, it was awesome. Not worth the price difference to PAY for the more expensive ticket... but I think if I had to choose between using 15,000 miles to upgrade a ticket to first and using 25,000 miles to get a free round trip... I'd take the upgrade. Usually I can find cheap fares where I want to go, and those reward tickets have so many limitations on them that I usually can't use them anyway.

Anyway - so this first class experience... it felt so CIVILIZED compared to coach. First off, the seat was much wider with a LOT more legroom... granted, I'm short and (sorta) thin, so I CAN fit into a coach seat easily... but for 6 hours and 24 minutes, it sure is nice to be able to move around and stretch out without getting out of my seat. Also, the recline is MUCH lower on the seats in first... so I really was able to sleep without feeling like I was sitting painfully upright.

Okay... so that was the furniture... but what really felt great was the service... in coach, there are usually some 80 passengers and 3 flight attendants. In first, there were 20 passengers and 2 flight attendants... I had my first glass of orange juice about 60 seconds after I sat down, and had time to finish it before they closed the cabin doors. They draped a cloth napkin over my tray table before serving me a real breakfast on real dishes with real silverware (except for the knife, which was plastic)... everything was walked to our seats on trays, no sign of that trolley that blocks the aisle in coach.

While I enjoyed my egg frittata (with potatoes, and fresh fruit on the side), a flight attendant came around and offered me an assortment of breads (danish, croissant, bagel, etc), and more juice or water (served in real glasses, of course). After breakfast, I reclined my seat back for a good nap, then woke up to the smell of warm chocolate chip cookies... which were served with a glass of milk, of course!

In between the napping and eating, I managed to watch a movie (X-Men 3) and get about half of this week's reading done for my Nationalism class. At least I made the most of my 6+ hours in the air.

I have to say, the whole experience was a bit surreal, especially since 100% of my air travel up to this point has been in coach. I'll have to try to do this again sometime... I have elite status on American Airlines... plus I get frequent flyer miles every time I use my credit card... so I should be able to upgrade without paying every once in a while. Unfortunately, coach will never be the same again now that I've seen the other side of that damn curtain!

Anyway, it's almost time to board the flight to Eureka... definitely the furthest north in California I'll have ever been. Once I get in, I drive to Willow Creek, then to Redding where I'll stay tonight. Tomorrow I drive down to Sacramento... Sunday I fly back to Boston... and get in just in time to get home and change for Kol Nidre (I hope!)

Not a whole lot going on this week... although the past few weeks have been crazy busy. Funny how the more things I have going on, the more I want to record them here, but the less time I have to do so, so the less likely they are to be recorded. (uh... that was dizzying)

Anyway, I was in NJ the weekend of Aug 25-27 for Jeff & Blair's wedding. The whole weekend started off on Thursday night when I finally got to see Fiona... I had owed her dinner for somethin like a year! Hopefully I'll get a chance to see her in London sometime this fall... that is, if I ever get this work trip to Dublin scheduled, and if I can take a few extra days to isle hop. Anyway, after dinner, I finally got to meet JuJu's beau (after hearing about him for months), although it was unfortunate that JuJu wasn't around to hang out too. Finally, we met up with Dinah and I got a chance to wish her a happy birthday. Woo hoo!

Anyway, so Friday was the "quality time with the parents" day - which went pretty smoothly. I think 5 hours is about the right amount of time to spend with my parents before things devolve into violent chaos. Speaking of chaos, they took me to this new Mexican restaurant they like... the food was great, but there were about 14,500 young children in the place, all screaming. Also, my mom got a new car - I'm jealous:

(Stock photo from Lincoln - not actually my mother's car.)

Okay, so Friday night I drove over to the hotel where they were having the wedding, and checked in. Instead of the regular room I had booked, I was pleasantly surprised to find that all members of the wedding party had been upgraded to rooms in the hospitality suite. My room actually had its own conference room:

Not to mention the spacious bedroom or swanky bathroom:

Speaking of swanky, check out this tux that Jeff picked out for us groomsmen to wear:


So the wedding was a lot of fun... and a great experience to be a part of. Jeff and I realized that we've known each other for some 18 years... crazy, huh?

So anyway, I got back to Boston after the weekend in NJ... spent Monday at work, then left for Denver first thing Tuesday morning (Aug 29). The first 3 days of the trip were all business - I spent them at National Jewish Medical & Research Center getting them up and running on two of our research studies. I also got a chance to go down to Colorado Springs and see some old friends from when I spent a few months living there. Oh, Tejon Street and your silly bar scene, how I've missed you. But seriously, one of my favorite places, 32 Bleu, was gone, and Tequila's is now Vue... at least Phantom Canyon and Twin Peak are still there. I didn't have too much time to reminisce before the drama started. At the last minute, someone's boyfriend decided to join us on our bar-hopping... but totally disappeared several hours later in Rum Bay (Springs' own "8 bars in one" joint). We spent almost 2 hours looking for him... but eventually dropped his tipsy and crying girlfriend off at home without him. The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful...

I got home just in time to spend Sunday and Monday of Labor Day Weekend unpacking, catching up on laundry, and re-packing for my next trip.

Tuesday (Sep 5) I left for Florida... where I spent 2 days at the University of Florida in Gainesville getting them up and running on one of our studies... then driving to Melbourne and Ft. Lauderdale for study visits before coming home on Thursday afternoon (480 miles on the rental car in less than 3 days on the ground!).

I got back late Thursday night, with just enough time to get to bed so that I could wake up on Friday morning (Sep 8) for the CERFP exercise we had last weekend. The exercise went well, but when it's 88°F, and the sun is shining, it gets pretty damn hot in these suits:
(Stock photo from National Guard Bureau- not actually us.)

So that was last weekend... and then there was this week. Not really a lot going on this week... I'm hoping to finish reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest this weekend so that I can watch the movie (sitting in my apartment waiting for me a-la-Netflix). Once classes start next week, I won't have much time for leisure reading...

Hrm... it's 2:15 pm on Friday. I feel like calling it a week. Tonight I head down to the Cape for drill weekend (with a stop in Brockton on the way to see Lindsay)... tomorrow will be crazy, but Sunday is family day so I'll probably get out early (and apparently the uniform of the day will be civvies!)

So I came into the office today to get some specific tasks done... I knew that since it's a holiday, not many people would be here, and I can get through this stuff uninterrupted.

The first thing I discover when I get to the office is that most of the lights are off - there's no light switch to be found, and the small handful of people here have resorted to desk lamps for light... apparently, there's no way to turn the rest of the overhead lights on when it's a holiday.

My next surprise is that my computer is in a coma. It's not off (the power button is blinking)... and it's definitely not on (the power supply fan and keyboard lights are both off and there's nothing on the screen)... it might be in some state similar to sleep, but after many attempts at tapping and holding down the power button, I can not wake it up. I disconnect the A/C power, wait about 30 seconds, plug it back in, and find that nothing has changed - the power button is still blinking, and the computer will not power on. I try disconnecting the A/C again, and realize that even without it connected, the power button continues to blink. I can't find any of the computer guys (it's a holiday, after all) so I call Dell. The voice response system REFUSES to hear me no matter how clearly I try pronouncing the service tag, so I wait on hold for 20 minutes before a guy with a very thick accent comes on and tells me that based on my service tag, he has discovered two things: a) that he is not in the right department to help me, and b) that we've paid for GOLD service, meaning that I should have been put in the express queue. He starts to talk about transferring me, but mid-sentence, he disconnected my call. I called back, and this time got creative with the voice response system, and after 10 minutes was speaking with another service tech. After getting someone else involved to tell the tech what color the power button was blinking (I'm a bit colorblind, so a blinking LED that might be green, yellow, or orange had me totally helpless), he had me pop the hood and (I kid you not) inspect capacitors to see if any of them are "bulging or leaking." After several cycles of disconnecting and reconnecting things, we got the computer to boot, and he gave me a case number to reference should it happen again.

Now that my computer's running, I get to the Windows XP login screen, which informs me that my account has been locked out. Fortunately, while on the phone with Dell, I saw one of the computer guys come in - so I go find him to unlock my account. He has no idea why my account was locked out, but anyway, I'm able to log in.

Now that I can log in, I get started doing some data cleaning - after all, there are some 600 subjects in some 300 families in our database that need to be properly linked up before we can run the genetic analyses. The way I've been doing this is to run one of the analysis tools and generate a list of errors. From those errors, I can go back and see what subjects need to have parents linked, etc. Well, instead of the list of errors, I a box pops up telling me that the analysis tool could not run, and that I should contact a member of the bioinformatics team (who isn't here today, of course). After several more attempts, I give up, and decide to move on.

The other project I needed to do today also involved data... this time from a different computer. I basically have to do some data entry. Each data set gets entered twice, by two different people... so that any discrepancies can be verified. My co-worker has already done the first round of data entry for all 6 subjects that we need to enter. I have done the second round for 2 of them, and now need to finish the other 4. I get all the way through the data entry for one subject, and when I hit "Save" I get this lovely message: The object does not support this property or method. This is the same damn thing I have done dozens of times before... as recently as 2 days ago... and it has never given me a problem - but all of a sudden today, the object doesn't support the method. WTF?!

So now, I am going to take the next hour or so to clean up some other loose ends, but I will leave today having not done a SINGLE bit of the work that I had planned to do (and finish) today. Hooray productivity!

I got a job!

More details to come tomorrow... but if everything goes smoothly with HR, I'll be doing field clinical work for a research lab at one of the hospitals here in town. GO ME!

Edit: I called my boss to let him know that my resignation would most likely arrive tomorrow.... I knew that he's headed out of town straight from work and wasn't sure if I'd catch him on the phone... wow, it felt so good to quit!

This just gets more and more ridiculous each day. I had my interview this morning... and spent the afternoon doing some store visits... it's actually more fun to do them now that I have some products coming up... sure they're not going to be out for another 2 months... but it's something to start talking about at least.

Anyway, I get home at about 6, to find an e-mail in my inbox... sent at 5:52pm... telling my team about our next team meeting. In Scottsdale, Arizona. July 11th and 12th. That's just over 2 weeks away. And of course, in order to be in Scottsdale for a bright start on Monday morning the 11th, they expect us to fly into Phoenix on Sunday the 10th. Oh, and there aren't many many (if any at all) direct flights to Phoenix from Boston... so chances are, they were expecting me to spend most of Sunday afternoon in transit.

I've already called and left a message for my boss saying that I have a prior commitment that weekend (which I do)... and that I just scheduled myself to be at a fairly significant meeting that Tuesday morning (which I did)... we'll see what happens when he gets back to me. I spoke to one other colleague who told me that he returns home from his honeymoon that Sunday night... so he's not available to travel on Sunday either.

This shit is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S! (sorry, I couldn't help it)