On being an expert

The kids' bunkbeds are here! They are now sitting in very very heavy and large boxes in our living room. It's a good thing I have a minivan, because we would have had to rent a truck otherwise. We aren't going to assemble the beds until we get done painting the bedroom, which of course we haven't started yet. I would have started sanding last night, but roomie is dragging his heels, because he doesn't want to tear the room apart while Alex is over. I find this ridiculous, since there is almost never a day when the room is not in use. If he wants to wait for it to be unoccupied, he will have to wait for us all to move out, which isn't going to happen. Silly roomie. Thing is, we promised our landlord we would do it this week. Friday is the rehearsal, Saturday is the wedding. Tonight he wants to play golf, of all things. Our time is quickly slipping away.

Today I have a terribly boring meeting to attend. Sometimes, I have found, when you have unique technical information, people start referring to you as an "expert". When you become an expert, people start inviting/requiring you to attend meetings which you otherwise have no interest in at all, but they want you in the room as a "technical resource".

I maintain that the Encyclopedia Brittanica and a couple of Microsoft manuals would probably enjoy the meeting a lot more than I will. Thing is, the folks at this meeting never *ask* me anything: these are all technical people, and if they have a problem, they are too proud to admit it, and certainly too proud to ask the "expert" about it in front of their peers. So, I will be attending a three-hour thumb-twiddling session, and answering lots of email questions afterward. Fun.

Last night I drove out to Eaton Rapids to drop Kirstin's bike off, and took a look at the house I am considering. It's an old house, probably pre-1930. It is painted white, and has maroon trim paint on it. The front porch is nice, and has a porch swing on it, which I like a lot. The yard has big trees, and looks like it should be nice and shady, though I saw it at night, so I couldn't tell. It looks kind of big, but the square-footage on paper says it isn't. The garage in the back seems as though it was once a carriage house... so it might not be tall enough for my minivan. Al in all, though, I'm intrigued and would like to see the insides.