An Extra Layer

A little while ago I went into the bathroom and right in front of the toilet was a package of Angel Soft toilet paper. As I moved it, something caught my eye on the back of the package. I looked a little closer and it said “with an EXTRA LAYER* to get the job done.”

“Hmmm,” I thought to myself, “Angel Soft now has three layers? They are really stepping things up.” Then I looked a little closer and the * part said “*versus one-ply products.”

Well, no kidding. If I’m not mistaken, they’ve always had two-ply toilet paper—at least as long as I’ve known them. Like, I make it a practice to not buy one-ply. And they just now thought to promote the extra layer?

I always find it interesting to note when a product suddenly has one of the splashy promotional type stars on their label that says something like “Now with 3.4 oz.” and you look at the old product sitting right next to it on the shelf that hasn’t all sold yet and, sure enough, it too has 3.4 oz. I’m sure that it increases sales though or companies wouldn’t periodically do it.

She's Here

A little over two years ago, our family tree grew a twig when Alvin got married. Now that twig has gained a precious little bud in the form of Selena Hope.

Yesterday was a trying day filled with “WHY HASN’T HE CALLED YET?!?” and “I wonder if everything is okay…” I nervously ate half a bag of sour gummy worms as the afternoon wore on. I sent text messages to my sisters to inquire if anyone had forgotten to call me with the news. Kris figured she must have been forgotten too.

Sometime around 4:00, I jumped as my cell phone suddenly started ringing. I snatched it up, anticipating seeing Alvin’s name or at least a foreign number like a hospital number on the caller ID. I was somewhat disgusted to see the name of one of my accounting clients on the small screen—not that I was disgusted by him calling me but I would rather have been discussing baby names than how to account for the sale of a piece of equipment.

Several hours after I arrived home from work, I finally received the call that I’d been longing for all day. I’ve thought about it, and I think that I’ll make a fantabulous aunt. I can’t wait to get my hands on her!

Nearing Temporary Freedom

On Monday night, I finished and submitted the last of my eleven Excel cases for this semester—two weeks ahead of schedule. I’m very happy about it.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have a PowerPoint presentation due by 11 PM tomorrow night. I really don’t have much to say about Accounting Information Systems. I’d really rather say nothing about AIS. I am very grateful that I don’t have to do the actual presentation, only the PowerPoint for a presentation. This post would be a direct result of procrastination related to my PowerPoint project.

If I can just eke this presentation out, I’ll be basically home free for the rest of the summer. I will have four more quizzes—a 20-question, open book, 20-minute time limit quiz due twice a week for the next two weeks and a 150-question, open book, 2-hour time limit final due at the end of those two weeks. The rest of the project deadlines in the class have been met. Su-weet!!

My favorite part of the class has been the Excel cases. I love Excel. One of the last cases taught us how to create a macro and then create a button to perform the macro. Macros have always intimidated me. Obviously I didn’t even know what a macro is. I do now, and it makes me feel so smart to know how to use such a simple thing. It was rather silly that I never figured it out before. I’ve been brainstorming how I could use it in some of my Excel files at work.

I really have learned a lot about Excel in the past two years, both in and out of school. I know that I still don’t have the ability to use it to its full potential. Nowhere near even. Maybe someday I can take a class that focuses only on Excel.

The Reset Button

Yesterday was…well, not so swell.

I dragged myself out of bed yesterday morning with grand intentions of working on schoolwork for a few hours before going to work. I was a bit dismayed to find that my Internet connection was out of commission. I went through all of the usual routines of unplugging and then replugging key components of the system in hopes of resetting the offending obstruction. All attempts of reestablishing a connection were sadly unfruitful.

In a normal class, I would be disgusted at the lack of Internet while doing homework, but in my current class, the Internet is essential, for it is a web-based class. I had to attend a two-hour orientation but should not have to show up for class for the rest of this semester, unless I choose to go to a workshop for extra help. So any hopes of working on any of my class projects were dashed to bits by my error-messaging browser window.

I attended to a few chores around the house, thankful that I had completed my quiz Thursday night just before midnight. It was due at 4 pm on Friday and if I couldn’t get the Internet back up and running before I left for work, I would be sunk. After running an errand in town, I headed off to work.

Fast forward through a less than stellar day at work in which I: was kept 30 minutes past quitting time by indecisive customers; searched my trashcan, desk drawers, and surrounding area several times for $150 in cash that I misplaced and found only when I gave up to go home and try again Monday; went the long way around to reenter the office to retrieve my forgotten phone and PDA only to discover that I never locked the front door in the first place; hit the gas instead of the brake to put my car in gear, which resulted in just sitting instead of going forward as I wanted to. I was grateful to be headed home.

I finally made it home, safe and sound. I checked with Kris, and she said that we still didn’t have Internet. Unacceptable. I pulled plugs once more in hopes of resetting with dismal results. The wireless receiver had one of the necessary indicator lights out. With all other options exhausted, I turned the receiver around and used a pen to hit the reset button. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was a bad mistake.

I finally called Martin. Imagine my joy at finding out that he is in Louisville and won’t be home until Saturday night. He gave me a few suggestions and hung up. I called mom to see how things were running at her end, and she confirmed that she was in the same situation. After some investigation, she discovered that the breaker with the communicating router must have flipped, but even after remedying that situation and getting her up and running with Internet, we still didn’t have any.

I called Martin again and after some discussion, I told him that I had hit the reset button earlier—that was when I learned of my big mistake. By hitting the reset button, I had set it back to factory default settings, and it was no longer communicating with the network. He couldn’t remember what the default settings are and said that I could try getting his receiver and seeing if it would work.

We decided to see if we could stumble upon a solution first. Kris dug some papers out from when Martin had originally set things up that were printed to help us out in just this situation, but because we couldn’t figure out what the default setting was, it was of no help. Martin’s receiver wouldn’t work either. I finally went over to Mom’s to see if I could do some research there to find out what the default settings were.

After some search, I finally found the default setting. I called Kris with the information, and she tried it. It wouldn’t work. Aargh!! I searched some more and finally printed some stuff out and came back home. Kris’s room was dark. She had apparently given up and gone to bed. I decided to try the default setting once more and include “http://” with my attempt. Imagine my surprise when I actually got some results.

I tried to copy the settings from the papers we had dug out earlier. After some trial and error, I finally got everything to match up with the papers. Still no Internet. I went back to the kitchen to check out the receiver and the missing LAN light from earlier in the evening was working. YES!! That meant there was communication going on; I just had to figure out how to get it to benefit me!

I went back through the unplugging sequence and returned to my computer. I raised my arms in silent victory (so as not to wake the Sleeping Beauties in the next room and on the floor above) as I watched the beautiful Yahoo face in my status bar go from an ashen gray to a yellow smiling face.

It may have been 1:00 in the morning, but I’d at least partially redeemed myself. No, I’m not taking calls to start building networks. I still don’t know how all the router/receiver/bridge stuff works, but I’ve got Internet folks! Just make note—don’t hit the reset button unless you are certain of the consequences.