Beware the pigs of October

The lab at which I work is in the middle of nowhere. We used to get visits from all sorts of wild creatures. In October, we would get visits from wild pigs. They would come down late at night and dig for food, and the next day, the lawn looked like someone had taken a shovel and dug it up.

If you stayed really late, you'd get to meet them. The one time that I saw them, it was 1 AM, and I ran to my car (the worst thing that you can do). However, the pigs ran in the other direction.

We got to see them because we were always shipping in October and working late. We came up with a "beware the pigs of October" phrase that covered any sort of trouble that can happen when you are shipping a project, not just the pigs.

Then the company built a fence around the parameter of the lab, including a sliding gate at the driveway. No more pigs.

Well, now they're at my condo complex. I haven't seen them, but the lawn in a garden area right outside my condo is ripped up. I better keep my eyes open because my hours make it more likely that I'll run into them than most people.

The local paper wrote a story about the problem that we're having with the pigs:
( Wild pigs go to town: Herd making itself at home at S.J. complex )

Vacation

Today, we had an outing to celebrate the different product releases that we've shipped. We went to the The Tech Museum of Innovation. We saw an interesting IMAX film about building the space station. I had to skip a second IMAX movie because the first one made me queasy. (I am, unfortunately, very prone to motion sickness.) We had lunch and then I took off because I've been to the museum before.

And now I'm on vacation through the end of next week. I'm just planning to rest and do some projects around here, but still, it'll be very nice.