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Today was a pretty good day. I did get on the road at 11 am this morning, arriving in Macomb at 12:30. I grabbed some lunch with and her boyfriend, that was pretty fun. My meeting with my supervisor was constructive. They provided me the information about the system, which appears to be pretty straightforward. I get to do a few new things in there, which will make it fun for me.

My director broached the subject of the contract, and she told me to tell them what I’m charging for this type of work now. I told them $25-$35/hour, and she said that Springfield had just turned down an offer for that range, so I told her to send them a contract proposal of $20/hour for 60 hours. She is doing so, and with her recommendation she’s relatively confident that they will come back without complaint on the matter. Judging the new areas of this software, it should take about 40-50 hours to complete, and I factored in the unknown for 10 hours. I’ve got a pretty good plan jumping around in my head, so I hope everything falls together and I hit my mark. I will know if the contract is approved early next week, then it’ll be off to work. 🙂

After my meeting, I went downstairs to find a $60 parking ticket on my windshield. I was parked in the Illinois State Police Special Projects space, where I was told to park. I took the ticket back up to my director and she made a call on my behalf to get the ticket reversed, which rocked.

After that, I decided to go visit my old offices, it was nice to see the old gang again. I didn’t get to see my old supervisor Karmon because she was in meetings all afternoon. I’ll have to get her next time. 🙂 I also stopped by to check on the progress of the job application that I put in over there, they said it was going to be “a very long process, and they are still reviewing applications.” Translated, that means the administration hasn’t gotten off their ass and looked at things yet.

From there, I headed back to the residence hall to see my old friends. I really missed seeing Mike, Dan, and Zando, and had a great time hanging out with them again. Mike and I made a run to Wal-Mart, and then had a McDonalds for old times sake. I decided to stop by the Macomb Dojo to see what Sensei Kuras had gotten himself into and it turns out they’ve got a Tai Chi workshop planned for this weekend, along with a visit from Hanshi Anderson. I think a certain ni-dan from our home dojo may be returning to the mothership from the sound of things. At long last, Ed finally remembered to give me my Shodan certification from their organization. I’m happy to finally have it, but our organization’s certificate is much cooler.

A quick fuel-up and I was back on the road home. All in all, a good trip to Macomb.