Excel hell

I really hate Excel sometimes. It does a lot of good things, but it seems that it tries to do too much, and it's quirks are not cute.

For example, graph templates. Generally once I get the pretty columns/dots/whatever in the shape/color I want, I save the format in a template. For extra goodness, I'll resize it to the size relative to the page that I want, and get the fonts in the size I want.

Last week, I tried to make some graphs in a previously saved template. Once the source data was identified, the graph was so small, it was difficult to resize it so that it was visible.

Bitched to our resident Excel guru, and he said to make a workbook template.

Nice idea, but my data and in which format I present it is always changing based on what the boss wants that day.

"Why does the graph template make everything all screwed up?" I whine. BTW: because of the small graph size, it decided that the appropiate font size is 5 point (important later).

This week, I make the same data using the same template. A bit smaller than the ideal size, but it's big enough to make it easy to work with. A big sigh of relief.

Need to add significant stars. Click on the text box, and it's fixiated on 5 point font.

Easy to remedy, but it's enough quirks to make you want to scream. I hope in retraining everything in 12 point font will keep it that way.

We won't even discuss why I need to remake a few graphs that were already generated. I'll just drink some more gluten-free beer....

my phone hates my house

Tried every time I had a free second today to wake up the Treo to see if it would. Every time it did. Eventually got distracted in Excel hell, and left the phone for a while.

Tried to wake it up after errand running and such. Died.

99% of the time it does this at home. Is that because I have more time at home than work, or does it just hate being home?

Hopefully I'll get a little more respect in customer service hell tomorrow when I tell them it's the software that came with the damn CD.

Stupid me

Okay, love the phone. Hate the crashing. Finally decided to do something about it. I took it to the store where I bought it, but all they could tell me is to call this 1-800 number.

So I called it. After being on hold for 20 minutes (So that's why the stores are so empty - they're all on the phone). And that person couldn't help me with the Treo. Put me on hold to speak to a Treo support person

*grrr*

Then she helps me do some trouble shooting. Turns out it's the Adobe Reader program for Palm OS. I assured her it's the most recent version since I downloaded it when I got the phone. She said they should have made a version specific for the Treo 650, and I should delete the version on my phone.

*sigh*

Did some quick searching. Couldn't find a version specific, but someone had said that they put it on the installation disk for the Treo 650. Sure enough, I dug up my CD for my Treo. Same version that I had put on the computer. Reinstalled it.

Forgot that it crashed the Adobe Professional on my Mac. Instead of re-installing it, I found a fix on a forum. That fixed the Adobe Professional and it works now.

If my Treo still crashes, I'll have to call the support and say that I used the version that came with the installation CD.

I'm back

Wish I could say that I had been abducted by aliens, but it was less exciting than that.

Wednesday I was putting away the stuff the lab received as part of our "spend happy" mode to clean out a grant. A few hours later, my lower back was stiff and painful. I was limping to my car.

Took a muscle relaxant before bed. Woke up Thursday feeling pretty good. I got in the shower, and did my routine. When I bent down to shut the water off, my lower back tightened up pretty badly. I had to use creative moves to get myself out of the shower. Called in sick at work, and set off to help my poor back.

For the first couple days, I couldn't even roll over without severe pain.

By Sunday, I could walk without looking like a bent marionette. Did a ton of laundry, and that didn't make things worse *yeah*

So back in the grind of things. But I was expecting to see that Friday's butt load of supplies still in the boxes. But the guys seemed to have pulled through and found homes for everything. I'm ready to die in shock.