A field trip today, leaving the office about 11:30 a.m., returning about 3:00 p.m. Off to Tysons Corner VA, to TMA Resources Inc. hq, for a demo of an upgrade to our TIMSS software.

I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to handle working in the morning and then getting out to the burbs. I didn’t want to park in the garage in the building for fifteen bucks. I suppose it would have been reimburse-able. But I don’t know. I just wouldn’t have been comfortable with that. But I didn’t want to have to schlepp all the way back home after only a couple of hours to get the car.

I talked to Sasha, who was going as well, and who also lives in the city. She doesn’t drive, especially. So she was catching a ride with Jen, who drives in every day anyway. So I asked Jen if I could tag along too, and she said okay.

We have a funny moment when we get down to the garage, and we’re just standing there. I imagine we’re waiting for the right person to come along for Jen to grab to go get her car. But Jen explains that she doesn’t even have to talk to anyone. They just see her and they know her and they go get her car. This same moment had happened recently with her brother, who finally after standing and chatting a few minutes had snapped and demanded when Jen was going to get someone to bring up her car.

Jen’s car arrives and it’s a pretty cool Celica convertible. We ride with the top up, however. We discuss the scene in Bridget Jones’s Diary where Renée Zellweger’s hair is a big afro mess after a ride in a convertible. Jen had spoken before about having had some water leaking in and filling up the car during all the rain we’ve had recently, but evidently that’s all been repaired as I can detect no remnants of such. Jen’s got London Calling in the CD player, so we listen to that on the way. Jen and Sasha talk about Project Runway, about which I really haven’t got a clue. Also, Kathy Griffin’s soon-to-be ex-husband.

There’s lunch waiting for us at TMAR when we arrive, about ten minutes late. We weren’t sure if they were going to feed us or not. Along with Sameer, there’s Tony, April, and Parag. And Matt has arrived separately. So we’ve got a good-sized meeting.

The demo is mostly presentation, of good stuff surely, but no hands-on. I don’t get a chance to see if some bugs have been fixed. I’ve brought along a list with me to do this, but there’s no time. We go overtime as it is with the agenda that we’ve got.

I ride back to town with Matt, and he tells me the sad story of how much he dislikes his Passat. Seems there was an unfortunate software issue, that’s recently been fixed, but the couple of years of problems has generated such ill-will that he’ll never make peace with the car.