I actually won't be that far from Birmingham next week. Well, okay, a heck of a lot closer than I am now, but probably not close enough to actually warrant saying I "won't be that far from" it. I have a meeting for $new_project in Huntsville. Of course I have to change planes in Atlanta. Travel agency originally had me trying to make a connection with only 30 minutes between arrival and departure. Um, no. I asked to be moved to an earlier flight for the leg to Atlanta, figuring I'd grab lunch at the airport. Grr, they moved my flight from Atlanta to Huntsville also, though at least now I have an hour. Should be doable, though I would have liked to have had a more leisurely time at the airport. I'd ask to move the connecting flight back to where it was but I'm not sure they wouldn't totally goon it, so I'll leave it as it is.

This means, I may have to break my own #1 rule. This meeting came up at the last minute and I'm incredibly jammed up at work so I haven't time to figure out and box up what I would need to FedEx ahead, so I either have to *gasp* check a bag through, or buy small amounts of liquid supplies when I get there. It's not a non-stop so I'm doubly wary of checking a bag. I haven't EVER checked a bag up to now, and I'm 38. I'm seriously considering just buying toothpaste, contact solution and shaving cream there and not checking a bag since that's all the liquid-like substances I'll need.

$big_project has a very important telcon Tuesday, that I have to dial in to. $customer has demanded that my involvement in $new_project not impact my involvement in $big_project (not sure I agree that they get to make that demand, but whatever). Since there is no way to get to Huntsville from SoCal Tuesday night, I'm flying Monday and spending all of Tuesday in my hotel room "attending" the telcon. I have a laptop that $big_project paid for that I can use for viewing the endless powerpoint slides, but technically I'm not supposed to use it for any other project, including $new_project.

I've had tough time this week getting used to "directing traffic" rather than just doing everything myself. My roles on both projects are transforming to where if I can pass something off to someone else, I need to. Less engineering (sigh), more administrivia. I'm pretty much responsible for directing the engineering work on $new_project, though I've worked up a couple quick engineering estimates of $product performance to get us started. The actual report on $product performance will be done by another engineer, with my guidance. With reduced time to devote, I'm trying to pass off the tasks that I can on $big_project, but I'm still responsible for them at the end of the day. Fortunately, I do take personal ownership of both projects, I'm not about to say "oh well, $cow-orker did this, not my ass on the line". Reviews are in April. I sure hope it's very good, because it's going to be very difficult to explain to Mrs. FT exactly why I've busted my ass so much if it's crap.

Haven't definitely decided when to buy a new one yet, though less likely to get Vista. Our IT says XP or Vista doesn't matter for VPNing in, though clearly they don't think much of Vista. I guess I don't either much at this point but I do keep hardware a long time. Also it bugs me (for no good reason I admit) to buy a computer with a 64-bit processor and run a 32-bit O.S. on it. I guess I could wait for Vista SP1 and see how "good" it is. I also I agree with my best pal Bob Abooey that MS isn't going to stop support for XP soon, though I have heard it won't be sold to system retailers after sometime this summer.

Speaking of which, any recommendations on brand? We're happy with my wife's Dell and that's what we have (almost exclusively) at work. I've heard Lenovo is held in high regard as well, and I've been happy with my Sony for the past 6 years. This will be my "main" computer, I'll buy a docking station with it and plug it into my monitor at home.

I love TFT's social worker. She asked TFT's bio-parents straight out "are you going to contest the adoption?" Nope. Or, at least that's what they said. I have some hope that they won't, after all, it would require some effort on their part.

I could have sworn that on the Miami Vice episode featuring the song, the lyric was "Hazards of the occupation, it's the smuggler's blues". But the lyrics on line turn up no such line. Am I mis-remembering or did they change the song for the show?