Yesterday and Friday, everyone in the office was exclaiming how miserable I must be, stuck without air conditioning on the first floor, while everyone else (everyone except the warehouse staff, of course) was basking in A/C land upstairs.

I shrugged - temperature is relative, I said, and so long as I’m not upstairs too often, I don’t much notice the lack.

Today, the A/C for the whole building died. The third floor office has been getting hotter all day, as the heat rises. They’re running fans and cursing fate, nature, and the bosses with equal vigor. I’m still pretty darn comfortable down here.

The only person who gets to call me “sweetie” is my mom. You do not meet that requirement, and can therefore drop dead.

…grumble grumble….

No new pics for the next few days… bogged down with a website job. Upside, it’s a paying gig. Downside, it’s boring and tedious… so I want to get it *done*.

I don’t take as many web jobs as I used to, but I just finished up a nice one: http://marklittman.com/

Now, off to bed.

Whenever someone tells me the will call me “right back” with their billing info, it translates to “no matter how long I hang by my desk waiting, they will actually call the moment I leave to do something else.” But that’s what voicemail is for, after all.

OTOH, I have doves/pigeons cooing outside my window, which is nice.

My job = a big box
Everything I’m supposed to do in a given day = balls of clay the get put into the box.

Problem 1: we can’t fit all the balls of clay into the box
Solution 1a: Make some of the balls of clay smaller
Solution 1b: Change the shape of other clay balls so that they fit more compactly

Problem 2: solutions 1 and 2 have been applied, and we still have leftover clay balls
Solution 2: Decide which clay balls have the lowest priority, and take them out of the box.

Problem 3: Supervisor dissagrees on what should be considered “lowest priority”
Solution 3a: Sneak the balls back into/out of the box. (passive-aggressive, but effective)
Solution 3b: Get into a fight with supervisor over job priorities. (semi-effective)
Solution 3c: Strangle supervisor (effectiveness unknown)

Me: Typing up a proof for customer….
Label stock - White Gloss
Ink Color - Brown (PMS 469)

Customer: So, will the label be brown?

Me: ::tears hair::

Dear customer #1:
When I say I need to know the name of your company, I am not asking for a detailed description of your logo or your packaging needs. I am asking for your company name specifically because that is how I file every piece of art that gets uploaded to us. Until I get that one piece of information, I will not be able to pull up and review the logo you are so lovingly describing to me.

Dear Customer #2:
The words “I’m not very computer literate” will not allow me to magically intuit your packaging needs, thus freeing you from the burden of going though our website and making your own decisions as to what you need to purchase from us.

grumpily yours,
Me.

Had a great barbeque with Bonnie, Mark, et al yesterday. Got home sorta late and so tired my eyes were crossing. On the way home, got stuck in the post concert traffic from the Slayer/Manson gig at PNC. Middle aged and tipsy Slayer fans are a wee obnoxious, but harmless.

This morning, on the other hand, I woke up feeling monday morning crappy, and haul my ass into work. But the internet is down. Then we find that the whole network has taken a dump. Then I find that I have to rebuild my PC damm near from scratch. As of 5:00, I was 3/4 of the way finished with that.

Screw leaving the house. I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed.

Getting stuck working the NY Gift show at the Javits center twice a year is slightly hellish (crappy customers, long hours, and no time to wander though the very nice handmade section), but working the yearly food show is indeed a treat. Nothing makes people happier than good alcohol and gourmet food. Happy people = happy customers who do not make my life suck.

Also, there’s the samples. Lunch hour means wandering from booth to booth blissing out on samples of gourmet cheese, lemon stuffed olives, mohito flavored agave based gelato, and *chocolate*. Specifically, cosmic chocolate. And then there were our next door neighbors, who were selling something called Cricket Cola. It’s got cane sugar, kola nut, green tea, and cola. It tastes phenomenal - as if your coke got a class upgrade to the Waldorf Astoria, and the balls of a pro soccer player. - if you haven’t seen this yet, I think you might like it.

This doesn’t even cover whole energy drinks section downstairs, notable because there are a lot of international vendors from countries that haven’t banned ephedra. Last year Bill came home with the most interesting assortment of… well I guess you could call it candy. (They were chocolate coated at least.)

It totally makes the sore feet at the end of the day worth it.