FAFSA wants YOU to be on time, but it is BEHIND the times!!

I just had this conversation with a customer service agent at the “FAFSA on the Web Customer Service Live Help”:

New party ('Carol ') has joined the session:
Welcome to FAFSA on the Web Customer Service Live Help!
system: agent will be with you shortly ...

New party ('Edgar Marquez') has joined the session:
Edgar Marquez: Thank you for contacting the Federal Student Aid Information Center.  How may I help you today?

Carol: Hi!  I'm encountering a "browser not supported" on both Firefox and IE. This is a new PC with Win 7, bought last week...

Edgar Marquez: that is the problem Windows 7 is not compatible with our system, you have to use XP or Vista.

Carol: Seriously??  I don't have XP or Vista... as, I assume, many students don't.

Carol : When will Win 7 be supported?

Edgar Marquez: that I don't know, in your case you will need to find another computer with XP or Vista, you can go to a public library or your college.

Edgar Marquez: Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Carol: No thanks.

Edgar Marquez: Thank you for contacting the Federal Student Aid Information Center. Please contact us again if you have further questions. Our hours are Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to midnight (eastern), Saturday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Party ('Edgar Marquez') has left the session.
Party ('Carol ') has left the session.
Live Help was finished

Guess I’ll go dig up one of those old PCs I just put in the garage to sell at our next yard sale. 

Wow – I am just floored.

Awwww… Twin love!

(Or, considering they were in Canada when this picture was taken last weekend, twin inebriation?!)

The Toyota recall: a personal pit-in-my-stomach story

Tom’s father, Pete -- “Papa” to our kids -- was killed in a single-car accident in November, 2001. 

Pete (“Papa”), his grandson and namesake, Peter, and his son, Tom (1987)

The car was a Toyota Avalon, a 2000 or 2001 model, driven on a clear day and on an open road by Tom’s mother as they headed from San Marcos, California to their desert house in Scottsdale, Arizona.  No one knows exactly what happened, but we do know that Pete and Rose were driving in the left lane when something (what?) caused Rose to lose control and the car flipped multiple times before coming to a stop at the side of the road.  Pete, who had been napping in the passenger seat (and was, of course, wearing a seat belt)died on the scene of head injuries.  Rose was airlifted to San Diego, where she remained in the hospital for a few days. 

For the past nine years, Rose has talked about a “racing engine,” remembering that even after the car came to a stop, the engine remained revving.  I’d assumed that she was confused and that the traumatic circumstances (she was told at the scene by a paramedic that her husband was dead) had impacted her memory. 

But now? 

In light of the Toyota recall, I’m not sure Rose was remembering things wrong at all.  Could it be that, on this open road in clear weather, the accelerator did stick?  Could it be that her memory is correct and that this accident that killed our beloved father and Papa could have been avoided?

Papa and Elisabeth, 1985

Every time I think about it, I feel socked in the gut and helpless.  I am an action-oriented project manager, but this petrifies and paralyzes me – and I can only imagine how it makes Tom and his mother and siblings feel!

 Nana and Papa with Aleks and Kat, 1990

Tom and his parents, 2000

Papa was a quiet and gentle soul, someone who loved deeply and appreciated life fully.  We miss him tremendously -- even now, nine years after his death.  We can never bring him back, but perhaps some closure can be brought to his still guilt-ridden and still  distraught widow who continues to blame herself for Papa’s death.

Papa surrounded by his loving family, 1999

Happy Valentine’s Day! And now let’s play “What’s in the box?”!

I just wrapped Tom’s Valentine’s Day present.

Can you guess what’s in the box?

Did you guess this?

Or this?

Or maybe this?

(Isn’t this little tongue adorable?)

Well, you’d be wrong.

I got Tom something he seems to really want, something he’s talked about for a while, something that he thinks would be really cool to have. 

(Yawn.)

I got him one of these:

I think I’ll ask for  fluffy from-scratch pancakes for my Valentine’s Day breakfast!

Celebrating my absinthe

So my co-workers threw me two farewell celebrations yesterday – a formal management-sponsored lunch and then a completely informal co-worker-sponsored evening party where Morgan, this blog’s biggest fan (c’mon Morgan, you know you secretly love my blog!) treated me to the ceremonial tradition of absinthe:

Tamei, Morgan’s lovely wife, is a culinary genius! I can’t tell you what any of this is called, but I can tell you that it was fabulous!

(And thanks to Morgan and Tamei’s constant raving about their KitchenMaid mixer, I have a feeling we might be seeing one of those grace our kitchen counter in a matter of, oh… days.)

Rebekah and I didn’t have this much fun sharing an office at work. Than again, we also didn’t have bottomless glasses of wine at work.

Rebekah’s grin is the result of a much-needed glass of wine because she’s way overworked these days. My grin, on the other hand, is the result of having been overworked for two years and now having no work at all!

I’m actually gonna miss these guys!

Laid back? Yeah, Patricia actually is laid back – is spite of an insane workload.

I’ll miss Elmer. That guy is always happy and always laughing, no matter how insane work gets. There’s a lesson there, ya know! We can all learn from him…

So now it’s on to new adventures with a new team.

But first, a week off to rejuvenate and clear my head… as well as to clean a few rooms and maybe even install some carpet. (Netflix numbness? I have a feeling NOT!)

I know I said I’d disconnect, but that was before I found THIS:

Even though I won’t begin my new job for another week, my new boss encouraged to pick out a laptop and “make it mine” now so I can jump right in on my first day at work. Geek that I am, I was shopping for a new machine within an hour of bequeathing mine to the new project manager who has been hired in my place.

So far I’m loving this "espresso" Vaio! It’s fast and sleek and very friendly. I especially like the button just above the keyboard that allows me to just turn off the display. No “start/sleep,” just press and it’s done. There’s also a “web”button that allows super-fast access to a browser. And thank goodness, there are no pesky ports on the front of the machine that get in the way of my docking station. It’s the little things like that endear me to a laptop.

My only complaint so far is a very faint pulsing noise in the fan, but I have a feeling that will become one of those things that becomes un-noticeable over time. Either that or it will drive me completely bonkers and I’ll end up returning the thing!

See you on the other side!

So I’m turning in this laptop to my current employer tomorrow morning and I won’t have a new laptop through my new employer until next week sometime at the earliest.  While we do have an old laptop around here somewhere, I am going to use this opportunity to attempt to disconnect, at least to some degree, during my week off.

Yeah, I know…

You know me well enough to know that there’s no way in hell I’ll be able to fully disconnect and that the ol’ beat up laptop will start looking pretty good to me around – oh, Sunday morning.

And you’re probably right.

As soon as I install Live Writer on that thing, you know I’ll be back!

But still… see you on the other side. The sane side.  The real side.  The living and breathing side.

I can hardly wait!

Aaaahhhhhhhh!

(It feels so right.)