Among Friends

I got into work late this morning. As usual, I went through the emails that had built up in my inbox. One was from an individual in my customer's oranization. He wanted me to set up a time for a refresh. Huh? I called him up and asked him what this was about.

The guy told me that the laptop from my customer that I use for all my work is out of warrenty. They have a new one for me. He needed to meet so he could copy over my data to the new laptop. I told him I would be right over. Can't pass up an opportunity for a new laptop.

I drove to my customer's site. I timed it so that I would arrive at lunch time. They don't let you in the parking lot unless it is early in the morning, or around lunch when parking spaces free up. On the way in, I saw a could old guys that work for the customer. They waved and I smiled at them.

Next I grabbed a quick bite to eat in the customer cafeteria. The food is good for cafeteria food. In line I saw one of the subject experts in the customer organization. She said she had not seen me in a while. Yep. I have been laying low.

Finally as I was scarfing down my food, I was spotted by a woman who worked with me at my last company. She decided to leave and join the customer. She said she still had her old laptop, and was hoping to get a new one like me. With all these people I met during the hour or so visit, I wonder if there are a lot of other people who I should be saying hi to at the customer site.

Had a Bad Day

This was a tough week. I was sick but had to work. There was a very complex large problem that I needed to solve. I spent 12 hours working on Tuesday. Other people on my team had severe trouble with their work, so they needed help from me. I was hoping that today would be a quiet Friday.

By the time I woke up, I had a lot of phone messages. I could not listen to them because my home phone and cell phone were ringing. Those team members that needed help before were stuck. Their fix did not work and the customer was pissed.

I wanted to go into work and help out the team. My boss told me we did not have time for that. I had to log in from home and figure out what was up. Eventually I discovered what was wrong. By then I had missed breakfast and lunch. Epic work fail. This was not even my work. The peeps on my team had fallen down and could not get up.

The Bloggers Come Out

After much encouragement, Little Kat has started posting to his blog again. Go ahead. Give the lil guy a comment or two. Take his poll. I did.

Momoko was the true worker today. She got up early and was at work before anybody else in the house woke up.

I went to visit my customer today. We gave a pitch on the new changes in the software we will do. The meeting went well.

After work I drove down to my college. I picked up my books for the Fall semester. There goes another $200. Luckily my company is picking up the tab. Another student in the bookstore had sticker shock and asked me what to do. I advised him to go on Amazon dot com.

The Customer Building

At work, our customer is having some problems with our software. This is nothing new. However the customer informed us that these problems are critical. They can’t wait to get them fixed. My boss told them I would take care of this. I asked the customer to work closely with me so that I will not waste any time. One member in our customer organization is retiring this month. We were all going to be in the same building for the retirement party. I planned to meet somebody from the customer organization there to work with me on their problem.

Here is the chief reason I don’t like working at the customer organization. There is just not enough parking. If you do not get there early, you do not get to park. The traffic is crazy during rush hour around here. The day of the retirement party was no different. I got onto the highway, and found it to be more like a parking lot. Luckily I left really early in the day. I did end up getting a space in the parking lot.

When I got to the front door, I had to get somebody to escort me. I called one of the employees of my company who always works on site there. He was not there. But he promised he would call somebody else to sign me in. Nobody came. Luckily one of my actual customers came in and saw me detained at the front door. She signed for me. That got me in.

I had scheduled a meeting with the customer who was to help me around lunch time. So I had to get an early bite to eat. The problem is that because I am a visitor, I need an escort at all times. Everybody is busy. Nobody wants to escort me around. So I had to take a chance and sneak down to the cafeteria. I took along a folder that served two purposes: (1) It helped cover up the escort required badge around my neck, and (2) it contained a list of everybody’s phone number in case I was detected and escorted off the premises.

Happy Sales Guy

Today my lunch buddy at work decided to skip going out. So I had to eat lunch by myself. This was not a bad thing. As you may recall, the family went to the mall this weekend. We looked at exercise equipment. Mamma Kat decided on the model of NordicTrack she wanted. I decided to sleep on it before buying.

And was I glad I did pause a bit. The next day, the store had the one Mamma wanted at another $100 off the price. So for lunch I went back to the mall. The food court in the mall was very crowded. Therefore I went straight to the store and skipped lunch.

I asked a couple salespeople if they could help me with a NordicTrack. They both pointed to the guy we talked to this weekend. He was busy with other customers. But my presence made him end his sales talk quickly. I asked him when could I get this NordicTrack delivered and installed. He said this Saturday. And with that I bought the thing.

The sales cat was very happy. He said this was the first time he sold any of this model. I bet that is because it is the most expensive one in the lineup. The extra sale helped make it more affordable. I think the sales cat gets a good commission for selling the top model. He told me sales are slow due to the bad economy. That's why they can deliver it so quickly. As long as the delivery goes well, I think this will be a purchase that is good for all us cats. We will keep you posted.