Stuff

[susandennis]

Of course, the last pieces of the RFP (the one that was really due in New York last Thursday...) came in last night so I got in extra early this morning so I could polish it off and get, at least the soft copy, off right away. The last pieces were not big but so fully of crap I could hardly get them formatted. More than once I thought 'gee, we should have a Word expert around here who can figure out these complex issues.' Then I realized that that was me.

Then onto the next challenge which was trying to fool MS Publisher into doing my brochure the way I wanted to do it. I actually created a nifty cheat on this one which is good since I need to repeat it for the other 23 that I have to do.

Wells Fargo bank keeps sending me these special delivery packets looking for my mortgage business. They are expensive little puppies. What's hilarious to me is that about a dozen years ago I had a mortgage with Wells Fargo. And I defaulted on it. Left 'em holding the bag. (Not something I'm proud of. It was on my condo in California and in my defense, I did offer them 80% of the balance in payment which they declined and it was in 1992 when California real estate was worth less than peanuts.)

Now they are spending lots of money to get my mortgage business back. And the low low price they are dangling in front of me is a full percentage point higher than my current mortgage. Their marketing department is quite impressive.

There is no Mariners baseball tonight. The team is off to the east coast for a week.

For some reason this weekend in all of the news I watched on TV and heard on the radio, I kept hearing about 'women and children' and not in a good way. This is a group of people who are, according to the news, helpless and need special consideration, brainless and need special help in thinking and doing, and pretty pitiful because they cannot do for themselves.

This is freakin' 2003 for crying out loud! What the hell??? It's ok to put women in a pity bucket again (or probably ... still)? I'm not big on pandering to children but I've reconciled giving up a subset of my freedoms to protect them blah blah blah BUT do I have to be insulted with them???

I expect this kind of insulting language out of Republicans but not out of reporters and anchors and most specifically not out of NPR.

It's hot here again. It always cools down the Tuesday after Labor Day - sometimes on Labor Day itself. At least that has been the case for the 11 years I've lived here. So by my count, we've got no more than 14 days left. I'm counting...

Comments

[tabbarama.livejournal.com]

Can you recommend software I can use to produce a book of about 70 pages that will include pictures and many tables? Last time I used PageMaker, which was cumbersome for so long a document and the Table feature was pure hell. Now I'm back to Word - which is not nearly as pretty.

[susandennis]

Sadly, I'd probably have to go with Word. I'm not the desktop publishing expert at all. In fact, the only DTP software I've used much at all is Microsoft Publisher which, frankly, just sucks.

I do a fair amount of 70+ page documents with tables and pictures in Word. Styles and Formatting are really the key. My problem is that usually what I'm handed is 100 pages built from about 100 different documents and copied and pasted into one.

But, if I'm starting clean - not pasting in any formatted text - saving a lot, it works pretty well.

[tabbarama.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[1forward2back.livejournal.com]

I count the days 'til we get warm weather.

[susandennis]

Yeah, you guys ripped off our weather this Summer. Next year, by the way, we're taking it back!

[tinman.livejournal.com]

So how cool is the weather by mid-to-late September? I'm gonna be in Redmond for a couple of weeks then and I'm trying to figure out if I'll need a jacket and if so, how heavy.

[susandennis]

Well, if this was a usual year, you would absolutely need a jacket but probably only at night - medium weight. But, probably long sleeves for day. Redmond, I'm assuming Microsoft? Campus? If so, long sleeves and/or jacket for sure. They keep most of their buildings pretty crisp. I had one office that I could have sworn was used as a meat locker at night!

[tinman.livejournal.com]

Yep, Microsoft. The last time I was there was back in June and it was warm out, so the cool offices were nice. I could see it not being quite as nice when it's also chilly outside. Can you give me an idea of high and low temps?

[susandennis]

I'm guessing here but I'm thinking it will probably be highs in the mid 60's and lows in the mid 40's but that also may be wishful thinking.

Ping me back after Labor Day - like the day after and I'll probably be able to guess better.

[tinman.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I will!