The Indians are in the playoffs. The Browns have won two straight games.

My wife, who is vacationing with her mom in Wyoming this week, saw her first moose in the wild.

Julie Bags a Moose!

The government is in the process of shutting down.

<Please insert the snide comment blaming:

• Obama
• Congress
• Republicans
• Democrats
• William Shatner>

I'm not sure of what the relationship is between all of these events, but I have my suspicions (I'm talking to you, Shatner!).

And for the second time in six years we've run into a consulting firm that just gives IT a bad name. Short story long, a new client joined up with us because they were totally dissatisfied with the service from "The Other Guys" (who we'll refer to now as TOG's). Looking at their network, no wonder. Not a large network, single server, about 8 or so workstations.

No AV on several workstations. No clear cut backup for their server. Significant performance issues on workstations and folks working remotely. And our client was paying a monthly "All you can eat" contract, meaning this stuff should have been handled routinely.

But wait, it gets better. When the client tried to cancel, TOGs suddenly noticed them. But not in a good way. Sent the client letters about cancelling their web site without warning. Insisted on being paid a $40 invoice by overnight check. Refused to share credentials for their Network Solutions account.

Phone calls weren't returned, critical people were always out of the office...I've been in their shoes. We get it. We've lost several customers (probably about 6) over the past years. But half of them have come back to us. Why? Because we left the door open. We wanted their experience to be a good one, even if it was their end experience.

Ah, well.

In the meantime the projects for year end are piling up. Server upgrades (with a lot of Hyper-V). Dumping XP for Windows 7. Office 365. The calendar's starting to get pretty full.

And of course that's ok.

Meanwhile I was at a wedding that took place outdoors last week.  Fancy stuff, including fancy mobile restroom facilities.  But I loved their Logo:

Yup..."Artful restrooms from people who care."  Before you "poo-poo" this idea (yeah, I went there - interpret as you will), take a look at what goes into one of these (is there no end?!).  Click here to see what people who care about bathrooms put into mobile bathrooms.

Or don't. 

Here's the schedule for the next few months' Lunchinars. But I would love to hear suggestions for moving into 2014!

• 16 October:       Windows 8.1
• 20 November:   When is IT obsolete?
• 18 December:   3rd Annual Geek Raffle
• 15 January:         IT Trends for 2014