The Sixth Planet

I think the computers are out to get me. Last night I was working on a sequel to my kink fic "Willow Finds the Key" when my daughter woke up. So I got her from the bed and did the good dad thing and stayed with her till she went back to sleep. Of course when she woke up crying I set the laptop down on the ground and left it on so I could come back to the story later. And then Bill Gates punched me in the crotch. Internet Explorer decided to automatically download an update that needed to restart the computer...and guess what? It did. Of course in the process of getting the daughter back to sleep I fell asleep too. So when I woke up and went to continue writing my story was gone. It did recover a paragraph or so of the 1500 or so words I had written.

The second part of my computer nightmare is that when I got to work today I opened our inventory spreadsheet. And I found that the guy who did the inventory screwed up the whole thing. There are five columns that have item names, item codes, price, category etc. They kind of sorted the first 2 only. So now the almost 1000 items have the wrong price, category and discount associated with them. Arrggh! I hate wasted man hours! Especially they get paid out of my pocket.

Things Learned
• Internet Explorer is the devil. I don't even use it and it still found a way to F me over
• Always save...always
• Stupid people shouldn't be allowed to touch spredsheets
• If you show somebody how to do something 5 times and they still mess up...it's time to find somebody else to do their job.

(The world didn't end so it's wasn't the Day from Hell, Sr.)

I think I've been "Murphy's Lawed" as Strongbad would put it. Today has to be probably one of the worst days I've had. Let's go down the list of minor disasters.

To set things up let me explain a little something. I have an 18 month old daughter. My wife and I both work full time or more. We have a schedule worked out where she is off on Wednesday. For me Wednesday is one of the busiest and most important days of the week. Any comic book fan can tell you why. :) (hint: it's new comic day) And that's when every shipment for the week comes in. So we need 3 people working to make everything work and get all the work done.

So this week my wife tells me on Tuesday night about 11pm that she has to open the next day. I start to get pissed since 11pm isn't a good time to call a baby-sitter. Before I actually get mad she says that she will be back by 11:30 am and that it's just to help with a bunch of delayed pizza orders at her Papa John's. OK sure...I am supposed to be at work by 11am but I can delay till 11:30 without too much trouble. So 11:30 Wednesday morning arrives and I'm still sitting home with my daughter. About 12:30pm I get a call saying that it got really busy and she wasn't able to leave but that she should be here by 1pm. OK...I can deal with that. I have 2 guys handling things at work for me. As long as I get there by 1pm I can do what I need to and things will still go fairly smooth. So about 1:30 I'm still sitting at home.

Meanwhile, Drew calls me up and says he has to leave because his son had an accident and was burned so he needed to find out what was happening. Completely understandable as I would do the same thing in a heartbeat if it was my kid. So that leaves us short 2 people because I'm stuck at home with my daughter and Drew is on his way to the hospital. (just in case you're wondering Drew's son was burned but it wasn't bad enough to scar. Just bad enough to leave blisters. All in all he is fine...as fine as you can be with 1st degree burns at least.)

OK..we have 1 guy (Kevin) trying to do the job of 3 people. So I decide that I need to go up and get to helping. Of course I have to take my daughter with me and most of my time is spent making sure she isn't hitting random computer buttons or peeling price tags off of merchandise. So in reality I only count as 1/2 a person at best.

I did think ahead and call my closer (Phish) who was scheduled to work 6:30 to midnight and ask if he could come in any earlier. He tells me sure and says he will be in by 5pm. So he arrives and is ready to work. He is finishing up his Mongolian Barbecue and proceeds to eat a toothpick that was mixed in with his noodles. And let me say that getting a toothpick jabbed into your mouth and gums while you chew does not look pleasant. Then apparently a friend of his comes up and talks to him. And more apparently it's bad news as in the kind of news that has you in such emotional turmoil that you are in no state to work. So Kevin and I tell Phish that if he's not up to working we can cover it since he's obviously not in the best of shape. So he goes home leaving us back where we started with just Kevin and I. Except now we are working till close which is midnight.

And let me tell you...apparently gamers and comic fans are like sharks that smell blood in the water. Everybody it seemed showed up and needed something. And this after we have been delayed due to all thus stuff going on.

The whole day sucked for anybody associated with Atlantis Games & Comics. It was just one of those days you mark down and remember so you can recall what it's like when everything goes wrong all at once.

But thankfully it's over now and it can only go uphill from here. Well, except for the part where when I finally get home my daughter had just woke up from a bad dream and was screaming. Luckily my wife used her magic Mom power and had her back asleep in 15 minutes. *whew*