Went shopping with my friend Jimmy Ko and his wife Pheth (or was she the girlfriend at that time??) in Lynnwood. It's amazing how cheap Jimmy is! He wouldn't let Pheth spend more than $30.00 for a dress to attend a wedding. I laughed at him and said there is no way she could find a nice dress for that little money. He said she shops too much and that he's fine with the same shirt every day at work (he may have also said the same suit but I'm hoping not). Afterwards we stopped for lunch at the Keg.

Was supposed to hold the rehearsal for the usability study but everything went wrong. I was supposed to have a room signed out to use, was supposed to have computer equipment, software, etc. and instead I've got nothing and nobody would talk to me. I can't believe how rude everyone was being. Finally, I had enough and broke down crying and went outside for a walk to cool off. Before I ran out, Theo asked me how everything was going and when he saw the look on my face, he came running out after me. He asked me why I was so upset and when I explained, he looked rather sheepish and then admitted that they had been told to not talk to me or help me in anyway. Hmmphh. He apologised and said that he would make sure everyone would help me. He kept his word, and pretty soon everything was starting to fit together and I was able to run the rehearsal.

9:00 am was the first usability study with Alan Chattaway (??) as the subject.

Theo Roe took Carole L. and me to lunch at a place called Dixie's BBQ. The line was long and the place was loud and a tad seedy but that seemed half the fun. It's in an old automotive garage but they serve the best and hottest BBQ. The owner, an old black man, walks around saying "I seen the man" and offers people to try his special really hot sauce. Apparently it's very hot and is part of the entertainment to watch people give it a try. They have a peanut machine where you can go get a cup full of peanuts which is supposed to take the burn away. It was great!

2:00 the next subject for the study was John Asmun.

10:00 Mike Harvey (Arco) and Wes Cain (AT) teamed up for the next usability session. At 2:00, Steve Montgomery was scheduled.

9:00 Sherry Kandle for usability

Finally, time to compile and analyze the data. But where to do it? I no longer have the conference room available to me so I walked around and found the shipping area with the garage doors. Since this is just temporary space for this office (their building is being fixed since the roof fell in after a bad snow storm), they aren't using this for a loading dock so I was told that I could use the garage doors to stick my post-it notes to. During these studies, I have the developers take notes of their observations, one observation per post-it note. In the end I have piles of these yellow post-its. Normally I have the developers stick the notes over the walls (or, in this case, the garage doors), but I knew I'd be pushing my luck here so I did it all myself. It took me several hours to stick them in common groupings, especially since the doors were a bit dirty and the post-its kept falling down. I knew that people were watching me with amusement but wasn't sure what they thought. A few brave souls came up to ask me about it and were excited to learn about this methodology. What I didn't know until later was that D.M. was watching and was impressed enough to later send out an edict to his entire group (Seattle and Houston) that, from now on, usability was a mandatory part of the process. Cool.

Later, I went to dinner with Carole L. at The Foghorn in Kirkland.

Grabbed my flight from Seattle back to Boston.

Andrea's wedding at 3:00 in Watertown and then the reception at Lantana's in Randolph. The ouzo dance was pretty funny to watch--if I remember correctly, the bride and groom get surrounded by family members and the bride and groom have to match swigs of ouzo to each family member.

Went to the Museum of Fine Arts New Members Open House from 2-4. There was a Dragon Exhibit (11/23/02: I have no recollection of this exhibit so I'm not sure what it could have been).

Back to Dr. Carl to have my braces tightened. I'm starting to get used to this now.

92 degrees today which means that it's perfect weather for the Backyard in Newton. K.V. and I went there.

About 90 degrees today.

Took 1/2 day vacation to get my car worked on. I had some sort of recall so I got that taken care, had an oil change, and had them fix the alarm.

Had K.A., B.A., and K.V. over to my house for drinks on the deck.

Trethewy Bros. plumber over to fix something. Then went to Worcester to Leo's Ristorante with S.B. and K.V. Oh My God! I had the best meal. It was angel hair pasta with a red sauce which also had gorgonzola cheese and cream.

Father's Day.

Jim D'Attilio, the electrician came over to fix the kitchen outlets. Apparently, the guy who did my kitchen doesn't have a clue about electrical things and these weren't even grounded.

Dinner over at K.V.s

Dinner at Davio's on Newbury St. with K.V. Bob M. was working the bar so we hung out with him.

My dad's and brother's birthday today.

My nephew, Reid's birthday today.

Took a vacation day to have the car alarm worked on again.

Took another vacation day. Went to dinner at Cool Blues in Chelsea with K.V. Pretty cool place right on the water. Sat out on the deck.

Raked the lawn and pulled more weeds.