Monday, June 13, 2005

Breakfast at home with Patrick: pancakes. Sausage for me (none for Patrick). 8:08 AM bus was just a few minutes late today. Chatted online with Galen about the forthcoming camping trip. It's a strike day today for clerical and admin assistant workers, so some of our staff are not here. Today is also the first Monday following the end of the quarter, so it's very quiet in the office. Joel and I cleaned up the student lounge some. I put rubber bumpers on the cabinet doors because I noticed a few weeks ago they were really noisy when closing. Went to the campus computer store to pick up an iPod Shuffle 512 MB for a drawing we're holding to gather feedback on our new supplemental application. Joel and I got lunch from Carmelina's and sat on Parnassus watching the strikers doing their thang. While we were eating, a man with a guitar approached us and asked us to choose one track from a list of titles on a handwritten CD jacket. He stood a little too close for comfort, so thankfully Joel asked him to step back and he did. The man played his guitar and sang his song. He had a black chihuahua on a leash attached to his body somewhere. While he sang, he closed his eyes and was in his own world. Joel threw a tortilla chip on the ground for the dog, and it lunged for it but was restrained by the limit of the leash. The man didn't seem to notice, and Joel and I laughed. After the man finished, he pulled out a small notebook listing the names of people who bought his CD and where they were from. Joel said he was #13—that he had already bought the man's CD, that it was previously in heavy rotation but he has to find it again. The man left to play for some other people. Archived some documents by scanning, saving to TIFF, then converting to PDF. Rubber bumpered more cabinets in the office and the student lounge. Reinstalled sound drivers for Ena—she had reported some sound problems with her computer last week. Replaced a mouse for Joel—his mouse has been crunky lately. While in his office we listened to the Michael Jackson verdict—not guilty on all counts—WOW! Reconfigured laptop backups. Submitted a problem report to Dell for Ena's computer—the cdrom drive connector comes loose repeatedly. Some CD-ROM work with DemoShield in the library today. Dinner at home with Patrick: lavender pork chops; steamed carrots; new potatoes with garlic, parsley, lemon, olive oil. Watched Rick Steves Cinque Terre.