Feeling better...

One of my chronic shortcomings is not collecting enough during the course of the year to pay property tax for this one property we own in Houston, so I end up frantically trying to scrape up the money on relatively short notice to pay the bill before things get really weird with penalties on July 1.

I called the Harris County tax assessor's office and spoke with a very helpful woman who uncovered a payee that I'd overlooked (the thing that makes payment so challenging is having to pay so many different people, all of whom use similar forms and account numbers). In any event, I'm now in a position to pay off all the bills, which I will do today or tomorrow.

* * *I could not leave well enough alone last night, so I forced myself to finish the page I'd started and then another one for good measure. In total, I did around 1,000 words, and felt the words flowing easier as I called it a night.

Galina signed us up for a financial seminar tonight at 6 pm, but I don't think I'm going to go. I'd rather go to the S&R session at the fire house, which starts at 7 pm.) I don't make financial decisions on the basis of seminars, anyway...)

Lots of stuff to do... gotta go do it.

Cheers...

Second LJ birthday...

Do these things sneak up on you, or what?

Granted, it's not all that big a deal, but I sort of pleasantly surprised myself a few minutes ago by realizing that - yes, indeed - today marks the start of year three here on LJ, after 1232 posts and 715 comments.

* * *Lee is having the devil's own time installing Neverwinter Nights on Drew's machine. And soon, it won't be worth her while, as Drew et al. will be returning soon, which will limit her access to the machine. For such an expensive program, it sure does make the user hop through all sorts of hoops (e.g., disable CD burning software) before it will deign to run, or at least that's how it seems to me.

* * *I didn't get as much done translation-wise as I'd expected today. I spent some time I'd normally have been translating to reviewing a glossary file my client sent to me. I'm not sure how helpful it will be in the end, but the translation itself seems fairly straightforward, like driving a car cross-country. There's nothing much you can do to get to your destination faster without incurring penalties; you simply have to slog through the text and translate it.

* * *The SAR meeting at the fire house pretty much ended by the time I got there. Next time, I shall heed the invitation to attend the pre-training "management" meeting, which started at 6 pm. Apparently, so many people came for the 6 pm meeting that they moved directly to the training and finished it all by 7.

I volunteered to convert a Works file to HTML and almost bit off more than I could chew. I could've sworn that Word 2000 lets you import Works files, but I'm mistaken apparently. In the end, I got onto Drew's machine and opened the file using the Works installed on his system. It turns out it's a Works database file, which I exported as a comma-separated text file, imported into HomeSite, and massaged into an HTML file with no problem and about 5 minutes elapsed after saving the .csv file. That's another experience to add to my "tool chest" of educational forays, I suppose.

* * *Dinner tonight was non-existent, just as was last night's dinner. It would appear we have become all too dependent on Drew's cooking (not actually the case, but it would appear to be the case). I've been trying to rehydrate myself for the past couple of days and seem to not go anywhere without a bottle of water in my hand.

* * *The haze outside seems to have become permanent and now, when I emerge from my basement office, I can smell the smoke in the air. At tonight's meeting, I did learn that the strategy being used by the folks in charge of fighting the Missionary Ridge fire is to keep it from moving south (toward Durango and Bayfield) or east (toward us) and allow it to move north and exhaust itself against the Continental Divide. The same participant reported that the fire officially crossed the county line last night, although that boundary is quite some distance off.

* * *When I came home from the store, I shortly realized that I'd left my tax information at the store. I hope I can find it quickly tomorrow morning. I'd hate to have to repeat this morning's efforts to reconstruct the information I'd assembled.

Enough rambling. I'm going to see if I can't finish translating the section I'm working on, and then get some good rest.

Cheers...

Before we go upstairs...

I pressed on and finished 17 of the 74 pages in this assignment (where I got 63 pages is anyone's guess... probably a suggestion by the client early on in the project... the next-to-last page is numbered "63"). A couple of the pages were pretty lightweight, so I may not do so well over the next couple of days, but the numbers say I'm almost 25% of the way through. Yay!

As a curious aside, it turns out I probably know one of the interpreters who worked the Moscow end of the meeting that generated the document I'm translating (his name is reasonably unique, and he'd have to be the fellow I'm thinking of to be able to work such a technically demanding meeting).

(Of course, that starts me to thinking... :^)

Cheers...

My contribution to the overall deterioration of Russian...

...not that anyone will notice, given the kind of attack on the language I've seen from quarters better equipped than me to do these kinds of things.

But the other day, I had the occasion to use the quasiepithet "блин" (which, regrettably, I am getting all too good at saying) with regard to a chronic customer who is a monumental pain in the butt and a complete idiot to boot. As I was saying it, the English word "turkey" crossed my mind, and before I knew it, I'd said something that I'm sure I have never heard before (and probably a good thing, too). And yet, though 'tis only the result of a flight of fancy and a poor thing, it is mine own:

блиндюк [from "блин" + "индюк"] Contemptible idiot (with scatological overtones).

(Galina laughed when I introduced the word to her; regardless, to stay on the safe side, don't say this at home, kids!)

And now I can go to sleep in peace.

Cheers...