Worst Day Yet

I spent the whole day at work setting up a development mirror for the company website. It's a great website, but it was done before I was hired and it doesn't use what would be my first (or even second or third) choice of technology. It is ASP based. It was a bitch getting the right versions of everything installed to get a perfect mirror that worked(<sarcasm type="bitter">because Microsoft is so good about backward compatability and cross-platform support</sarcasm>). Even more challenging was dealing with the different drive letters and directory structures between the development and production server (which had to be done because I discovered the hard way the ADO links pretty much have to be hard-coded because they end up being relative to the OS install directory not the web data directory, which are on different drives on the production server *ugh*). Ever set up virtual drives and symbolic links on an NT5 Windows 2000 box? Did you even know that Win2K can do symbolic links? It can. It's just that the we-presume-you-are-an-idiot people at Microsoft don't include the command to do so with the operating system - but you can *buy* it with the Resource Kit (or download a freeware utility written by someone pissed off enough to subvert the Evil Empire like I did). And that virtual drive? Yeah there is a command for setting that up, but you can't put it in the autoexec.nt file because it is a 32-bit command and you can only run 16-bit commands at start-up so it has to be scheduled via the GUI. OK. blah, blah, blah.... and it didn't help much that Microsoft's support site wasn't working (all the KB articles were coming up blank. Why? Because fucking Mircosoft themselves can't get their own shit to work) ...the dev server I set up for Lotus Domino is running a different, newer, major release under a different operating system than either or our two production servers and it doesn't matter - 100% rock-solid backwards compatability and cross-platform support. IBM kicks Microsoft's ass.

Any way, got it all working and finally got on to what I set it all up for. So at least it ended up with a minor accomplishment, but only after spending most of the day cursing.

After work I went for a walk around the new apartment to check out the parking situation. Not good. There are scant few permit spots and all the nearby parkades are $135+/mo. Either I will be storing my car fairly far afield or just ditching it. I suppose I should ditch it (I'll give it to my sister, I know she could use it). I'm just not keen on not having a car at all. It just feels so... so... unmanly. But considering I'd use it maybe once every couple of months and it would cost me over $200/mo just to have it sitting around (counting insurance) I can take cabs and rent cars for less in the long run.

Anyway. After walking for an hour I decided to head "home". I was feeling pretty crappy walking from the bus as another night of lurking in the basement loomed before me. But I hit an even deeper low upon emerging from the woods to see Iv's mother's car parked out font. The woman is, in an of herself, a good reason to call off the engagement. I have no idea where Iv is. I haven't had dinner yet, or for that matter anything to eat today. I didn't even have my usual bag of popcorn at work because I was too busy setting up the development mirror. At this point it has been about 26 hours since I've eaten anything but I'd rather starve than go upstairs and cook anything with that harpie around - she has a history of saying entirely inappropriate things and starting fights in front of the kids. The last thing I want to do is get them caught in the cross-fire. I'd sneak out the basement door and go get something from 1409, but the door is blocked up because of the safety requirements for the daycare.

Fuck. Life is grand. I knew I should have eaten before I came home.

ADDENDUM: OK, my bad. I forgot Iv was starting a night class tonight. She mentioned the possibility that her mother would be here (which is probably why there was a part of me that knew I should have stayed away). My dinner was in the fridge waiting to be nuked.