Random Midweek Update

M1 has a horrid sore throat, but at least it’s not strep & I think she’s almost over it. Of course, M2 is getting it now, poor baby.

Speaking of poor baby, M2 bit the next door neighbor girl. Negotiating play is a hard thing to learn at 5. Apparently the little girl next door wasn’t sharing? Or wouldn’t let M2 draw with chalk how/where she wanted to draw? There’s a repeating dynamic here that I’ve noticed where little girl next door asks if she can play with something & M2 being sweet and generous gives it to her, but then when M2 wants it back, as long as M2 displays *any* interest there’s no way she’s getting it back. This has various manifestations, but is definitely the reigning dynamic. BUT STILL. No bite-y! Bad! I heard about it this afternoon & when I asked her about it this evening M2 went wailing into her bedroom totally upset & appalled to be reminded of the event. But we talked about it. She knows she shouldn’t do that. Not only is negotiating play hard at 5, but so is impulse control when you’re kinda being baited. On the upside, she apologized appropriately and they were BBF again and played nicely the rest of the time they played outside together today. Usually M1 is around to snoopervise & help with the negotiations, but being sick, she was sitting inside probably watching from the window. Ah, learning.

Interviewed two taxonomy candidates today. Really liked the second one a lot. Had an interview last week? with someone I really liked too, but apparently there were concerns that she was very very shy in all interviews & could hardly make eye contact. In consulting, confidence is so key… if you can’t fake confidence in an interview, can you fake it with a client? We all have days where we feel less confident than we do at our best — you know? Speaking of which, I suck at interviewing. On the upside, I think now that K is involved in the interviews, I can get some good coaching & improve that skill.

Got signed up to help with ontology tool evaluations. I’ve gotten some work done, but it seems like I’ve been in a lot of meetings. On the upside, got the full dev/enterprise license (yow! Unlimited terms & vocabs!) so our IT guys can install our new taxonomy tool on the new intranet. License came through this evening about an hour & a half ago. Woo! Feel bad that L has done most of the work on the taxonomy, but I at least got & kept the ball rolling so we can even *have* the taxonomy. What that involved was recognizing the opportunity, recognizing the correct contact, pitching & selling (not that the fellow to convince needed convincing, but he was definitely curious to hear the pitch, even if he was pre-sold) knowing who I needed for the correct & best team to pitch & sell with, and in general gadflying about, nipping just enough to get things done without making a pest of myself over the course of the last two weeks. Not only did I get the taxonomy, I got faceted search that ties into the taxonomy added in too. And really, it isn’t like I don’t have anything going on right now… so, I guess in retrospect I don’t feel *too* bad that I haven’t had much time on the taxonomy itself.

Hmm. I’ve stayed up too late again. I think that’s probably a respectable enough amount to qualify as a random update for beginning of the week. Especially as I have another early shift tomorrow & a lot of meetings & plenty o’ work to do.