Apparently, I've got Crabs

So I had a pretty shitty week of work trying to put together my Controls piece for PDR this week. In our team status meeting on Tuesday the Lead Investigator for this project informed me that our customer was hoping for a performance simulation. No problem, we said, we've got one. No, LI said, we need one for the system. Sonofabitch.

Because this PDR and its content is ITAR-controlled, I'll explain his request this way. Say you are doing a simulation of a car. The main component of the car, from a performance standpoint, is the engine. Yet there are many other components that affect the performance, including the transmission (manual, automatic, # of gears, torque rating), the suspension (all independent? live axle? coilover or leaf?), the selection of drive wheels (front, rear, full-time AWD, ?) etc.
So, basically, I had a rough simulation of the engine (hp, torque, and powerband estimates with reasonable confidence) and he just asked me (at noon Tuesday) to estimate performance of the vehicle at Pikes Peak. Oh, yeah, and have those slides by 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Oh, right, and after the meeting on Tuesday, I asked the LI whether the controls architecture really made sense, because it seemed to me that the "turbo" (still using the automobile analogy) wasn't really doing anything; it was pressurizing air, but just blowing it out the back instead of forcing it through the engine. He agreed, and I got to spend the next two days inventing a "new" turbo, which I would then get to simulate.

So, at about 9 pm Thursday, when it was fourth and long (7 slides including title and 2 backups) I decided to forego the normal set of "fluff" PDR slides -- you know, the ones with words? Thursday night I got about 3 hours sleep after reviewing my slides over a dinner of peanut butter and jelly.

Friday rolls around, I get to work around 6:30 a.m. with 7 very marked-up slides. I edited and edited and finally cut it at 7:50 a.m. -- about 5 minutes after the LI created the "Final" version of the presentation. DOH!

So, around 9:30 my turn rolls around; pretty early in the day, really. I've never had a PDR slot scheduled before lunch before, and it's different. People are still paying attention.

The audience consists of the seven team members, two in-house critical reviewers, and two to three (they kind of came and went) reviewers via Webex/telecon from St. Louis. I tossed up my slides which should not have been in the least bit controversial; alas, I had not rehearsed the "talking" part of the presentation enough (just one run through while pacing in my living room), and I stumbled a bit. Apparently, the St. Louis guys smelled blood in the water. Every piece of the controls architecture was picked to pieces, and, even though no problems were found, and in fact this new architecture was lauded as very clever, the guys left the discussion by saying "Yeah, ok, I guess that'll work."

So the nice thing was that I got to come home early Friday, around 2:30. Chan and I had a nice evening, celebrating Mike and her mom's 5th anniversary at the Olive Garden. Then we went over to their place and played cards until after midnight... at which point, as you might imagine, I was a bit tired.

Which brings us to this morning. I was awakened by the dogs (read: Luna) at about 6:30 a.m. as she demanded her breakfast. I got up, let them out, let them in, and fed them -- and fell asleep on the Love Sac for two hours. At some point I got up and gave the dogs their after-breakfast treats and went back to bed. Around 11:30a.m. Chantel announced that she was going to go hike the 10k Trail, and that she'd see me later. Uh-uh, it don't work like that.

So two hours later we're hiking (after eating breakfast burritos on the way up), and I'm grumpy but I don't really know why. I guess she picked up on it:

"You're crabbier than imitation crab-cake at a crab farm, you crabby crabberson."

I'm really not sure what that means, but it made me laugh. I'm glad I've got her around; when I'm feeling especially poop-headed, she knows just what to say to make me go "I'm sorry, WHAT?" I love my wife.