The first thing I asked to Amanda this morning at 6:30 was if she slept well.  She said she had and asked why and I told her that I had only just gotten into bed.

I started off the night after Amanda went to bed by watching an episode of the BBC’s Robin Hood.  It wasn’t too late yet so I decided to go ahead and watch an episode of Deadwood.  It was a little late, but I thought I could make it through one more episode of Deadwood.  I made it about halfway through then woke up and realized I’d missed half of it.  I felt like I could still make it a bit further, so I started watching the second half again.  I dozed off once more a few minutes later.  I woke up, rewound it again, fell asleep again and the next time I woke up I decided to just turn off the TV.

Bruce was under the blanket down by my feet, which I used as my excuse to not get up and go upstairs.  Honestly I was just too tired and comfortable.

I got up a little before 6:30 and heard Harvey coming down the stairs so I let him and Bruce out then went upstairs and slept for another couple hours.

My boss, Scott, was a little annoyed at me this morning.  This will take some explaining to get a proper understanding.

We have a newsletter system, and in its current state Scott or I have to set it up and send it manually.  We have a client or two who have access to something that simulates sending this newsletter: they fill out all the info and set the time for it to launch.  Once we’ve had time to fix it up right, it will actually schedule the newsletter to go, but right now it sends an e-mail and a text message to me and Scott.

A client set up a newsletter at 11:00 last night to be sent out at 6:00 this morning.  My normal hours of business operation are 9am to 5pm.  Scott’s away on vacation and doesn’t really have access to the things he needs to make that happen, and of course I normally check e-mail at all hours of the night until I go to sleep and would have known to set up the newsletter, but as it was I just happened to not check my e-mail last night and my phone was back in the office so I didn’t hear the text message come in as I was in the living room watching, at that time, Robin Hood.

(Yes, I know it’s not that great of a show.)

So, I woke up, got up I should say, around 8:30 this morning.  I did the normal stuff and got in front of the computer a couple minutes before 9:00.  The client in question called a minute or two before 9:00 and I figured it was close enough so I answered the phone and she began to tell me about how she hadn’t received the newsletter yet.  I told her I’d take care of it and, looking at the info on my iPhone for the first time, saw that I had some missed calls from Scott so I called him real quick.  (I got the newsletter out at 9:07 by the way.)

I can understand a bit of his perturbance; he was away with limited access to the internet and I should capably be able to take care of just about anything that needs taking care of- certainly a newsletter.  He had left a text message last night and called a few times this morning and had this image in his head of me just not answering the phone because it wasn’t in my usual work hours.  I explained to him that the phone was simply in the office and the order for the newsletter had come in at 11:00 and was supposed to go out at 6:00 and that I had only gotten up half an hour ago.  I wish I’d thought to point out that I always answered the phone when he calls outside of normal business hours.

Thinking back on it I feel a little insulted that he would think I’d shirk a duty like that, or that I’d petulantly sit there and ignore the ringing phone.  On the other hand, I know how frustrating it is when you’ve got a client who wants something that you don’t have the ability to do done pronto and the person you need to talk to about getting it done isn’t available.

Let me be clear, I’m not complaining about Scott.  He’s still the best boss I’ve ever had and this is the best job I’ve ever had.  I’m just mentioning all this because it happened and it sort of set the tone for most of the rest of my day.

Anyhoo, we got everything straightened out.  Then a few more people called with things they needed done ASAP, some of which I wasn’t capable of doing.  My day was just stressful and it seemed like things to do just kept coming and coming.  I even had a client decide they didn’t like the design they had approved for their website and say they thought they should get more for the money they were paying.  I had to point out that they had approved the design before and that the price they were paying was less than half that of most of the competition in the area.  I did come up with a new mockup for them though.

That was about the last thing I did for the day.  I was told our friends Nick and Amy Warkentien that I’d pick them up from the airport at 5:00 today, and we were just about out of dog food so I wanted to stop by PetSmart while I was out to get that.  So I did that then I picked them up and took them home.  I told them that if they were up for doing anything to let me and Amanda know as we were just planning to hang out at the house, but if I were them I know I’d want to relax from the trip a little before having to go to work tomorrow.  They said they’d be up for dinner so Amanda picked up some bread, salad, spaghetti and wine and they came over at 6:30.

We just hung out and talked for a while, then we looked at cats on YouTube, then some other funny videos, then Mitch Hedberg videos.  They took off around 9:00 or so then Amanda and I went over some budget things and the like.  While she was back here in the office she saw an envelope from her friend, Amy Farmer.  It contained details about their ten year reunion and apparently I had opened it but forgotten to give it to her.  Amanda had just been telling Amy the other day that she hadn’t gotten that yet.  I felt like a bit of an ass.  I mean, I can’t imagine why I’d have brought it back here and opened it (I’m not that kind of husband) and it had been sitting here for two months.  I’d even jotted down some work notes on the envelope.

Anyway, it is what it is.  Amanda went to bed and I played a game of Catan with Michael that he easily won.

Zach Dotsey