It's almost over...

What have I been doing lately, that I haven't been updating the weblog or anything? Well, let's see.

I spent most of November heads-down working on the pilot of an web application, trying to get it to the point where I could demo it to the people who are going to be using it. The people who sloped off for some emergency when it came time to demo it. Oh, well. Lots of work still to be done on the app when I get back to working on it.

Except, of course, for the day about a week before Thanksgiving that our office lost power for several hours. That day I spent running power cables up and down stairwells so that we could use generators in the basement garage to keep critical company systems on the third floor running. For the second time this year. Readers may be asking, "Why don't you have a more robust backup power system in place? Didn't the last power outage convince the company of the need for an automatic fail-over generator?" Of course it did. Installation was scheduled to start the very next week.

The last week of November, I drove down to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with the parents. I've never been big on turkey, though I've learned to like it when it's served, so when Thanksgiving day is just myself and my folks, we tend to go the non-traditional route. (My mother will never, never let me live down the year I put her to the trouble of cooking a full traditional turkey feast, and then refused to eat it; after all, I'd just wanted to see it made. That was what, twenty-five years ago? I'm sure she can get another twenty-five out of it.) As far as I'm concerned, stuffed flounder is a more-than-adequate replacement for a stuffed turkey. I could say more about the road trip itself, the local junk foods I probably looked forward to as much as the formal meal, the side trips to New Orleans, etc.; maybe I will if I find the time. Hah!

Then, once I got back to STL, it was right back to work. A pretty heavy week of Disaster Recovery prep, followed by Disaster Recovery Hell Week. After all kinds of scheduling problems, we finally had our first Disaster Recovery drill, as we (the IT department) attempted to reconstruct our data center from backups in an off-site facility. Just as we'd have to do if, for example, a radioactive meteorite crashes into Chesterfield, MO and releases a swarm of genetically-engineered alien battle insects intent on wiping out humanity. Truss plates must go on.

DRHW was, of course, both disastrous and hellish. A couple of systems worked right out of the box; most of them just went way through the looking glass on restore. Reinstalling Internet Information Services about five times before it works properly is not an experience I would wish on anyone in the industry who doesn't work for Microsoft.

So now, I've got a relatively quiet week. Relatively meaning I still have an apartment to clean before my folks come up for Christmas, as well as half my Christmas shopping left to do. I might even survive through Christmas. Maybe.