NYE is Nigh

It is not often that I have a post title ready before I start my post. And even more rare that I have multiple titles I want to use. Today's title was going to either be the one you see above or "It's New Year's Eve Eve." I chose the one you see because I saw New Year's Eve abbreviated as NYE in several articles on the interweb and I pronounced it "nigh." Yeah, you've been reading the blog for this long and you did not already know I was weird? So, anyway, Happy New Year's Eve Eve.

Let's go ahead and take a look at my final comic strip of 2010. Yeah, you've been reading the blog for this long and you still expect a funny comic? Dream on.

It is only supposed to reach 49F today in PHX. And it should go down to 29F tonight. What is going on here? It's craziness, I tell you. I had to wear a sweater. Well, I mean a sweater in addition to the rest of my clothes, not only a sweater.

I spent yesterday reworking some Excel dashboards for project tracking. I should finish that today and be ready for working a full five days next week. I could get used to these shortened work weeks. Couldn't you?

Did I mention that I still have a shot at that computer I saw on Craiglist? The dude wrote back with some instructions and I completed my first step, so now I am waiting on him again. He is in the UK (although his computer is in Central PHX), so I know there will be some timing logistics since he is 8 or so hours ahead of us. It is a 2.8GHz 8-core Mac Pro desktop with 6GB memory and a 1TB drive. That should get me through June 2011 or so, right? Whoo Hoo. Merry Christmas to me.

What else? Game night at KLIK for NYE (see first paragraph for NYE definition). Then, probably more games the next day at the folks. I did get four or five new games for Christmas, including Mille Bornes, Mad Gab, Nab It, Dutch Blitz, Phase 10 and one we just played Sunday but whose name escapes me. Oh yeah, Rage. Whew. I was getting mad because I could not remember the name.

Anything else for 2010? I have only heard one other person in the office today. This could be a lonely day at the office.

A hymn from the old Baptist Hymnal came to mind as a way to end our year...or maybe as a way to start the new one. I wish His blessings on each of you for 2011.
The Lord bless you and keep you,
The Lord lift His countenance upon you,
And give you peace, and give you peace,
The Lord make His face to shine upon you,
And be gracious unto you, be gracious,
The Lord be gracious, gracious unto you.
Amen.

Last Wed of 2010

We have made it to the final Wednesday of the year. Soon, we'll all have to remember to write 2011 on checks. Oh wait. Does anybody still write checks? Actually, we still do. I think Ali does not. I am not sure about KLIK.

And the end of the year also signals the need to begin gathering tax data for our annual return. And be sure and spend the rest of your tax-free health spending accounts. Go get glasses or something. You probably have a cold right now, so you could go to the Dr. one more time and cover the co-pay with that account.

I never did remember to look up the All You Need is Elves parody of the Beatles song All You Need is Love. Did you? Did I even ask you to? Probably not, and I don't want to take the time to look back through previous posts.

The GRANDS spent the night last night. They were very well behaved, but Kendall was already up this morning when I left home at 6am. Usually, it is Isabella that is the early bird.

I know that I mentioned before that we did not travel this Christmas. That does not stop me from taking pot shots at the TSA, though.

Yesterday's calendar entry included this line from an actual resume: As indicted, I have over five years of analyzing investments. This one, too: Through my career experiences, I have become inept in communication skills.

A couple of weeks ago, an older couple sang the offertory song (if I think they are an older couple, they must be really old, huh?). Anyway, I mention that because their voices were obviously trained, but not quite as confident as they probably were in younger days. Still, they sang to the Glory of God. It reminded me that, even though my voice is not what it was (primarily due to the acid reflux, I think), I can still join in a choir and praise the Lord. For that, I am thankful.

I still have not heard back from the dude selling the computer. Hey, dude, what's up?

OK, I am down to (probably) one more post in 2010. That means (certainly) one more CoV. I don't know what it will be, but I can predict it will (Clever? Not necessarily. Funny? Almost certainly not. Hilarious? It would be the first like that. Let's just say) available.

Thanks for being patient and reading this far. Let's visit tomorrow to say goodbye to 2010, OK?

Dropping By The Office

During this crazy holiday season, you have to really watch your company calendar to see when you need to be at work and when they give you a holiday. So, yesterday was a holiday, but today, it is business as usual...well, when usual means 80% of your customers are on vacation and most of your managers are, too. So, today, here I am.

Since I was off yesterday, we went to see TRON:Legacy in 3D. I definitely enjoyed it. Kathie and Ali both said they did, too. It was only in 3D while they were in the digital world and 2D for scenes based in our world. The effects were understated, though, so you might want to save the money. And they did a good job with the digitized younger Jeff Bridges, although it was still obvious that it was not real. Earlier in the week, we also saw The Social Network and it was excellent. Now, I want to see True Grit next.

Being back at work means I will publish a Clarity of Vision. This was inspired by the white elephant gift exchange we held at out department party.

You may have read about Kendall's classic comment in the car a couple of weeks ago. Everyone was out of the car except Kendall and Connor, but she did not know Connor was still in the car. She saw everyone outside and said, "Oh, great. They left me in the car alone again." So, on Christmas morning, we were over at their house for brunch. Kendall took me into the pantry to play with some of her toys. While we were sitting in there, she started pulling some books off the bookshelf for me to read to her and she dropped some. She said "Well, that's that." I asked what she meant, but she was already looking for additional books and I got no explanation.

I am trying to buy a computer off of craigslist, but the owner has not responded to my query. I hope it is still available. I did delay during the days around Christmas, so I may be too late.

I hear three others in the office so far. I would not have expected that many this early. Maybe today will be more like a normal workday than I would have guessed.

I tried to eat carefully during the holidays to prepare for my next blood test, but there are just so many sweets and carbs around. I did lose five pounds, but suspect my blood chemistry is little changed. We'll see in a couple of weeks.

The calendar entry for Christmas day:
Hark the Herald Angels Sin (in a Christmas mass directory, Orland Park, IL)

OK, it is time to do a little work. Plus, I need to check out what days we are off for New Years. I hope you get some days off, too. In any case, I'll be here tomorrow even if you won't.

Special...Today Only

That's right. I am in the office today only for this week. I took off Monday-Wednesday and traveled to Disneyland with the family. It could take us a while to dry off. You may have heard that California has been drenched and flooded and generally washed away. We maybe had 5-6 hours during the trip with no rain. And it was worse when there was a strong wind. Luckily, we bought ponchos to help. My hood started tearing off, so I wore a poncho on top of my other poncho. Most of us bought some kind of hat or beanie to wear. One plus: we easily got onto every ride since the park was a little less crowded.

Are you ready for Christmas? You'd better be, because it is coming sooner than you might think. I think I am. After this grueling work week, I am ready for a few days off.

Well, I babysat Molly while KLIK went to The Dis. By Monday, she and Morris were getting along fine. The cat never really warmed up to her, though. And wow, she is certainly a crazy puppy (and I mean that literally). Flitting from one thing to another. Biting this. Licking that. Running after nothing in particular.

Let's get the single CoV posted for this week.Hey, I never said it would be worth it. You're the one that read it.

My cold, or whatever it was, is mostly gone. There is still the occasional cough, but I feel better. How about you? If you are going to get sick, wait until you go back to work. Don't waste it on your days off.

I am hoping to get to leave a little early this afternoon, but we'll see what the bosses say. Are you working today? If so, and I get to leave early, you have my permission to leave. If you are not working...LUCKY! Anyway, what I was going to say was, since I am hoping to leave early, I'd best do some work. So, I will grab my eggnog and dive into whatever it is I do each day.

Have a great Christmas and I'll talk to you again before New Year's Day. And if you are expecting a gift from me...it's in the mail.

Another Pre-Vacation Friday

I will be taking a few vacation days early next week, so don't expect any updates. Sure I deserve it. I worked, like, three hours on Tuesday. Maybe it was, like, two hours on Tuesday and one hour on Wednesday. The point is, I deserve a break today. Suddenly, I am craving McDonald's. I wonder why?

Does Congress and the President have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish before the end of the year? There was some discussion on that on the radio yesterday, and it led me to this.
We had our first annual pot luck for our department yesterday. A good time was had by all. No, I don't really know that, but I don't get too many opportunities to use that phrase.

As you can tell, I have no idea what I am going to write when I sit down to the blog each morning. Just like, I often do not know what I will put into Clarity of Vision until the morning I create it. Sometimes, I have some ideas in mind, but I don't know where that will take me until I am making the comic. For instance, one of the things in my idea log is "nicknames." That's all I wrote down. So, some day, an extension of that idea may occur to me and I will just start writing. And other times, I might start a CoV, but not come up with clever finish, so I will just put that one on hold. I did that with a "white elephant" comic strip I started yesterday, but don't have a nice ending twist for it yet.

Earlier this week, I was drinking some hot spiced tea that Mom made. It helped soothe my tickly throat. It is gone now. I do have some of her hot chocolate mix at home, but Kathie has been drinking it occasionally, so I will leave it at home.

Molly came by for a visit last night. I think it will be an interesting time when she stays with me over the weekend. I guess I will have to let Morris establish his dominance before both can calm down.

Anything else? Nope, the idea well just ran dry. Rather than bore both of us by writing drivel (assuming it is not always drivel, right?), I will call it a day. Actually, I will just call it a morning since the day is still in front of me. You can call it whatever you want. Let's visit again mid-week next week, OK?

Chef Walker?

That's right. Kathie was out at a school event last night and I needed to bring a green bean casserole to work today. So, I made it. It has a total of, what, five ingredients? Cooking instructions of maybe six steps. Still, I messed up a bit. I added the onion thingies on the top before I cooked it, and that was not what the instructions said. So, I scraped them off and then got back on track. We'll see today how well I did.

I wanted to use the Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief in a CoV today, but I didn't really end up following them exactly either.
So, we have a department pot luck today, and that is what I needed the casserole for. Our team had to bring rice or green bean dishes. Originally, we were slated for soft drinks, which I knew I could handle.

My EKG and heart ultrasound went fine yesterday. Now, I wait for the doc to review them. I still have to get the MRI (or whatever they use for the heart picture) and the stress test (Jan 3, I think) and a follow-up blood test. By the time I get all this done, if I do have any heart issues, they will have already happened. This could take longer than the dude in the cartoon above.

I hope our cat doesn't beat up the puppy this weekend. The cat is a bully, even to Morris. However, the cat is so fat now that probably the pup could run away just by walking.

Oh, with all the pot luck prep, I almost forgot that I still have my 8:30am call, so I reckon I should get ready for that. I'm going to leave you now and I trust you will not be picking at the food early, OK? There will be plenty, so be patient. Be patient. Don't be in such a hurry. Remember. Remember, that God is patient, too. Hmm. I cannot remember the rest of that song. Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow.

Santa, I Want to Be Over This Nagging Cough...

Did I mention that I have had a cough for the last few weeks? Yeah, it is still hanging around, but is certainly better since I got some meds. However, I hope I am completely well by Sunday so I can sing in the final Chorale concert of the year. And I want to be well in time for Christmas brunches and presents.

Speaking of Christmas wishes, here's a work-related one.
We had a pot-luck last night at Chorale practice. I was very careful so I would not jeopardize my (hopefully) lowering cholesterol. Actually, I ate beforehand so I could avoid the temptation. There are also pot-lucks at work Thursday and Friday. I will need to make an appearance at the Thursday one since it is only our team (40 or so of us). New update: I got an email this morning asking if I can bring a green bean casserole. I am now sure I will go to the pot-luck. And our department has a pizza party today, although I'll be getting an EKG during it. Oh well, I don't need it.

I was dangerously close to bidding on a computer in Ebay last night. I was a souped-up Mac Pro that sold in late 2008 for $4000 and was going for around $1500. Luckily, I am not a high-enough rated buyer in Ebay to bid on this item. I did capture the seller's ID to watch in the future.

Did you like the comic yesterday based on a conversation with Kendall? She certainly caught me off-guard with the comment about "It's not a witch princess." Don't kids say the darndest things?

We watched the (probably) final The Good Guys last night. Too bad. I really thought it was a great show. Why doesn't Nielsen contact us to be part of their team? Maybe because everything we watch is delayed using the DVR? Maybe because we no longer represent the coveted 18-49 age range? I saw that American Idol was the top-rated show for the last 6 seasons, beating any show from previous years as far as viewers. The Cosby Chow and All In The Family each won 5 seasons.

Thanks to my co-TV-watching-announcers for the recent investigation into Charlie Brown Christmas specials. Check out the blog comments for specifics.

Today's calendar (Stupidest Things Ever Said) entry is "And that's a can of worms out of the bottle." Commentator on Radio 5 Live (UK). Last Sunday was "Other than being castrated, things have gone quite well for Funny Cide." ESPN Sports analyst Kenny Mayne, on the horse Funny Cide.

We are finally heading towards winter temperatures. We drop 10 degrees tomorrow and will only be about 64F. And there is a chance of rain.

It looks like y'all are getting restless to move on today. That's OK. No hard feelings. I'll see you again tomorrow, right?

Me and My Princess

Let's jump straight into today's comic strip. It is from a conversation I had with Kendall on Sunday. If you know her, you can easily imagine our talk. If you don't know her, it will still be a funny story which could apply to any adult-child discussion.
Are y'all watching Sing-off on NBC? We enjoyed several of the songs last night and were a little disappointed at who was kicked off. Not as surprised as when the Whiffenpoofs were eliminated, but we did like the group. If you enjoy a capella at all, watch it. I think it is on again Wednesday.

Christmas party at Chorale tonight. I don't know how much singing will be involved.

Tomorrow during lunchtime, I have a 30-min EKG test run. Sounds like a great time, right? I don't know if an ultrasound is included then or at a different test. I think that will be OK because I am sure I am not pregnant. No, the tests are part of a wellness check, not a diagnosed problem.

Molly is coming over for a visit later this week. We'll see if the little doggies get along. Get it? Get along, little doggies. No, you are probably too young. That's an old saying from movie Westerns. Maybe even from the Old West, although I don't actually remember them saying that when I was a young whippersnapper.

I loaded up the old iPod with more Christmas music, including the Jethro Tull Christmas album. It also have Chicago doing some Christmas songs, Manhattan Transfer, Glad, the Charlie Brown Christmas music, Mannheim Steamroller, Boyz II Men, First Call, and Take 6. That should last me until 10am or so. OK, maybe a bit longer.

Time for a bit of liquid refreshment. Today's morning beverage of choice is spiced tea courtesy of Mommy. I think it will have a bit less sugar than her delicious hot chocolate mix, and I'm trying to be gooder in my eating and drinking...at least until I finish these cardiac and cholesterol tests.

The lyrics of a First Call Christmas song are:
Oh, I'm glad we'll be together
On this evening in December.
We'll watch the falling snow
And hold each other close.

However, I will close with my own paraphrase. We'll get together again tomorrow. Bring your own beverage.
Oh, I'm glad we were together
On this morning in December.
We watched the rising sun
And held each other at arm's length because we just don't know each other that well.

Way Late or Waylaid?

I am somehow running way late this morning. I was waylaid with a requirements problem by another team member who arrived before me this morning. I was #3 into the building today instead of my usual #2. He just left my desk, so I will get today's post completed and get with him for our next steps.

Our Chorale Christmas concert went very well last night. I was able to sing about 20%20-25% of it. So, it seems the antibiotics prescribed last Thursday are doing their job. I should be ready for the final concert next Sunday. Kathie attended and said we sounded good, even on the a capella number.

Hmm. I am trying to control my cholesterol and this week, we have a pizza party and two potlucks at work, and a Chorale party Tuesday night. I have an electro-cardiogram on Wednesday and need to schedule some other heart monitor before 1/3/11.

Even with all of that going on, though, I still have a Clarity of Vision to share.

One of the take-aways from yesterday's sermon was wondering about those families who lost their sons when Herod had all the baby boys killed. Yes, the focus of the story is about the birth of the Savior of all mankind, but in the short-term, which of us would like to lose a child? I hope that, somehow, God gave them extra comfort and helped them keep their righteousness and trust Him during their grieving.

I am now on day 6 of my daily Christmas tie period. I am fairly certain I have at least 10 so I can make it two weeks. No, I do not have a Christmas sweater, and at 80F today, I would not want to wear one anyway.

Do you remember the little girl in the Peanuts cartoons that always carried around her cat? It was always draped over her arm as if it had no bones? Well, I think that is how Molly will end up. Bella loves to carry her around, and she seems content to allow it. That is one cute little puppy. Then, when we return home, Morris has to smell us to see who we visited.

I reckon I will mosey over to Mr. Dude's desk and see where we are on our problem. Thanks for listening. Y'all are good therapy. I'll be laying on the couch waiting on you in the morning.

Kendall's Third Birthday

Today is Kendall's third birthday. You may have guessed that already since I that is the title of today's post. I think there is a party this weekend. Yes, those two sentences are related. I meant I think there is a birthday party for Kendall during the weekend. Here is a photo of both girls earlier this year at Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert, AZ. As you can see, Bella is trying to signal the waiter and Kendall is praying that Bella can get the waiter's attention. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Kendall!

I went to the doc yesterday about this nagging cough. Did I mention that I had a cough? So, he put me on an antibiotic and gave me some cough medicine. So, I took (probably more than) one dose last night and was able to stay in my bed to sleep. Do I feel better? Not yet, but I have hopes that I will recover sufficiently to at least sit with the Chorale on Sunday, if not sing.

A neighbor caught me outside yesterday and said he had not spoken to me in years since I belittled his dog the day before he died. I truly have no clue what he was talking about. Then, he said we had probably been spreading lies about them. Wow, to say I was surprised is an understatement. I recognized that some serious damage control was required. I let him know that we valued them as good neighbors (they were already in their house when we moved in over 25 years ago). I kept him talking with me for another 20 minutes and everything seemed OK when we parted. I will definitely talk more with him next time I see him instead of just waving. I am glad he made the effort to speak with me so I could try to repair the relationship. It just shows that you never know what goes on in other people's lives, nor the impact you can make with even a harmless statement.

Anyway, being on medicine that could cause drowsiness led to today's CoV. I wondered what people might notice if I did not go around and talk to them each day.

Did I mention I have a nagging cough?

At 10am, a dude is supposed to come by and see if we can get the Mac side of my machine configured so I can boot into Mac instead of Windows 7. The rest of our team that has Macs is already doing that, so I know it is feasible.

We are supposed to be up to around 83F by Sunday. Ahh, AZ winter. We can always tell the seasons by how much sunscreen we have to apply. Right now, it is just a little, so it is obviously near Christmas.

I am still trying to back off on carbs and sugars before I get my cholesterol tested again. I am not cutting them out, just being conscious of my choices. I will start walking briskly with the dog again once this nagging cough goes away. Did I mention I had a cough?

Oops. I was just pulled into work email without finishing my blog update. I try to keep the time separate so I can get y'all updated and freed up before I turn all work-focused on you. Now that I have broken that barrier, I will close out this week's blogs and turn some attention to job stuff. Have a great weekend and let's all come back refreshed and ready to git 'er done.

Second Attempt

I wrote a different CoV for today, but a colleague decided it was too edgy, so it was back to the drawing board. OK, fine, I don't actually draw the comic strip, so maybe I went back to the keyboard. Anyway, here is where I ended up. Who decided why we use "good hour" to mean that something takes quite a while?
Since I wrote two different comics today, I am a bit behind schedule. Today is not the day for that since I have the usual 8:30am meeting. So, let's get our visit underway.

Kathie made me sleep on the couch last night. Too much information? Fine. Actually, she did not make me. I chose to do it. Still TMI? Did I mention I have this nagging cough? It becomes worse at night, and I could not sleep, and I was keeping Kathie awake, and I did not want to bother her, and I can rest in a more upright position on the couch, and I cannot think of anymore "and I" phrases right now so I will end this sentence. Anyway, I stayed in there all night because I was either sleeping a bit or awake coughing, so I did not find an opportunity to return to bed. I will call the Doc right after the conference call.

We went to see Bella in a kid's choir at church last night. They were great. And some of them actually sang some of the words. We are lucky to live close to them.

Did I mention that I have this cough...?

I have been wearing my Christmas ties each day, providing coworkers with endless opportunities to tease me about job interviews, sucking up to management, etc. True, I would tease them, too, so it is only fair. Anyway, I only have a couple of weeks a year when I can wear them, so I take advantage of it.

Speaking of cough (I mentioned that, right?), I am not at all sure I will be able to sing Sunday night. I guess I had better drop the conductor a note asking if he wants me to join them and act like I am singing or just sit out so my cough does not intrude.

I suppose I should cough up some slides for the meeting (clever way to mention my cough and the meeting in the same sentence, huh?). So, that is code for "see you tomorrow if this stinking cough hasn't killed me yet." As you can imagine, my tummy muscles are tired from coughing all night. Come on, Doc. Open. Open.

Buh-dee-yah. Buh-dee-yah. That's All, Folks.

Did I Cough or Sing at Chorale Last Night?

Actually, it was more coughing than singing. I tried to jump in on a few strategic phrases, but even then, my voice is not strong. I hope and pray I am weller by Sunday. Yeah, I said weller, as in more well. We practiced with the orchestra last night and it sounded pretty good in the church auditorium.

Have you heard people answer a question with "No, yeah..." or "Yeah, no...?" I certainly have, and decided to use it for today's CoV.
I picked up a book on reducing cholesterol and, if I read between the lines, it says "Stop eating everything you enjoy, eat more veggies, and walk faster." This is not going to be fun, especially when I am at Disneyland.

Only two meetings today, but they are scheduled to last four hours. That's like half my day.

Bella is in a production at church tonight, so we will go check that out. No, I am not sure what it is. Yes, I am sure it will be fun. I think they are feeding us beforehand, too. I bet it is all the things I should not eat.

Man, this cough is a drag. You can probably hear me wherever you live.

Let me think if there is anything else you need to know in order to have a good day? Nice weather here. How about your place? Christmas shopping is done. How about you? The master bath shower is leaking again. How about yours? Is your refrigerator running? Well, you'd better catch it. It just ran out the door. Ha ha. I am sure that joke is older than me. That's right. They had jokes back then.

I need to go get some hot tea. I am not much of a coffee drinker. That will soothe my throat for a while. Don't wait for me, though. Go get your own tea. I'll stop back by tomorrow...hopefully coughing less.

I Have a Nagging ...

Of course, you completed the title with cough, right? Good, because that is exactly what I meant. It just will not go away. And it plays havoc with trying to sing.

Speaking of medical things, I had my consult with a cardiologist yesterday. They checked my blood pressure three different ways because they said the left arm is a stronger pressure, then the right is a bit lower, and laying down is another different pressure. Then we did a resting EKG. Now, I need to schedule a photo shoot of my heart ("OK, now turn to the left. Nice. OK, lower your ventricle a bit so we don't get glare. Perfect. Why don't we unbutton that aorta a bit. Yeah. Are you feeling it? Smile."), some kind of 30-min EKG, a treadmill stress test, and another blood test. If I am doing all of this with no known problems, I definitely do not look forward to all the things they might do if I did.

Did you see the comments on yesterday's post? This is my response to a challenge from Preacher Bro.

Whew! I just had a coughing fit. I don't think I would call it a conniption since it was involuntary, but it did disable me for a minute. Somehow, I remember discussing conniption fits yesterday. There's a phrase you don't hear that often in AZ.

I stopped by Goodwill last night and found a couple of books about lowering cholesterol. I'd really like to do this without medication, if possible. And we took the dog for a walk, even though I have this nagging cough. Did I mention my cough and its nagginess?

Sometimes, I wonder why my mind wanders the way it does. Just now, it wandered from cough, which made me think of singing, which made me think of The Sing-Off last night on TV. Did you watch it? I have liked The Whiffenpoofs from Yale for years. They advanced to the next round. However, there was a jazz-sounding group that I think is really good. It is on again on Wednesday if you want to watch it. It is only five shows, so it does not require a long-term commitment. And they will be in Las Vegas March 4-7.

As seems to happen so often, fun time has run out and work time intrudes. I will leave you with this thought:

No, I've got nothing. Check back tomorrow and see if I found a clever rejoinder. Excuse me, please, because my cough is nagging. Did I mention my cough...?

Monday Moaning

Sure, it's a Monday morning, but I am moaning. What is going on with this cold or whatever we have? I think we are just passing the virus back and forth. I now have that pesky cough again. And Christmas concert season is about the worst time to get it. I made it through our concert last night, but I am not sure I contributed much.

I am coughing again right now. You go ahead and see my latest comments about the TSA.
It's off to the cardiologist later this morning. Today is merely the consultation when he decides which test(s) he wants to run. No, nothing frightening, just to set a baseline. However, my high cholesterol and triglycerides numbers made them decide to check me out. What a drag.

I don't wear shirt and tie much anymore. Right now, I am wearing them so I can showcase my collection of Christmas ties. Today is red with green Christmas trees. It doesn't really go with my blue polo, though. Oh come on. Of course I am not wearing a polo with a tie. You crazy.

We went to see KLIK's dog yesterday. Cute little puppy. She is a terrier mix. That reminds me of the terrier song from the movie Best in Show. I should find it and send it to them. They named her Molly because Bella was willing to give up an American Girls doll named Molly to get the dog for Christmas.

You know what? I am not finding a lot of words to write this morning, so let's knock off a little early. I hope to be back on my game by tomorrow. Thanks for spending a few minutes with me.

Christmas Lights Tonight

We are going out to see Christmas lights with KLIK tonight. There are at least a couple of neighborhoods that have every house participating, and everyone parks and walks the streets. No, to see the lights. How dare you let your mind go there. Anyway, it should be lots of fun.

The Chorale has the first of three Christmas concerts on Sunday. No orchestra, but it should be fun. One of them is a capella, so we'll see how that goes. I think it is the first one we have sung during the 7-8 years I have been with the group.

KLIK are getting a dog! I am dumbfounded. I never thought they would want one of their own. I wonder if they will play less with Morris now?

Sure KLIK is an acronym of the first letters of their names. Speaking of acronyms, it seems there are new ones everyday here at work.
I am struggling with computer problems this morning. I use NEO Pro on top of Outlook for better sorting, searching, and filing. However, its catalog isn't playing nice this morning. Computers are wonderful productivity enhancers...until they aren't. Well, that is on hold while I finish today's blog post.

We snuck back over to Dad's last night and took the laptop back. OK, maybe it wasn't as clandestine as that sounds. We went over for dinner and he gave it back to us when we left. Still, the first way sound more interesting.

Only one meeting scheduled for today. Hopefully, I'll get my email add-on working again in time to prepare for it. So, I'm going into debug mode. Y'all can go into "go" mode and we'll get back together next week in "come" mode. Ha ha. Get it. Commode? I am easily my biggest fan. Hey, get out of here. I'm signing off now.

Getting Back to PHX Temperatures

Today's high moves back to 75F. That feels more like a PHX holiday season. Our normal high for today is 69F, so this is a touch warmer than usual. Still, it does mean no jacket was required this morning.

Sometimes, these things happen. I shut down my machine last night before 5pm to go home. Nope, someone called and needed help. So, I rebooted and started helping, but two people came by while I was on the phone and I helped them. Then, I finished with the call. So, I started the shutdown process and someone else called needing assistance. OK, I rebooted once more and took care of their issue. My better half called while I was on this call wondering when I was coming home. Finally, I shut down my machine and hurried out before anyone else could come along.

Is that like the script for a sitcom? Maybe, but here is a possible game show premise.
Three meetings on schedule today. And a coworker wants to meet later to discuss testing and test plans. Sure, let's just try to get all this completed before I start shutting down my machine today, OK?

Dad needed his laptop last night, so we are currently computerless. It was not so long ago that that would not have been an issue. Now, we kind of wander around aimlessly. We did, however, watch Survivor. Did you see last night's episode yet? I was a bit surprised. Then we watched Lie To Me. Does Tim Roth always cock his head in all his roles? He never seems to hold his head straight in this show.

I had a weird dream last night. We held a family reunion, but somehow, Walkers from every state attended, and there was even a couple from Scotland. I don't know where it was being help, but there was a KFC beside the parking lot of the church. So, it could not have been held in the North Louisiana hometown. And it was arranged by an uncle who is now deceased. Over 2000 people were there. I remember it was great because I had a whole new audience for some old jokes. Then, the alarm went off and I don't know where the dream was going.

Right now, though, I have a dream that I will stay employed. So, let's split up and get twice as much done. We'll get together again soon. I promise.

Living the Dream

Did you hear that University of Phoenix laid off 700 people on Monday? Luckily, nothing impacted our group. True, we are part of the parent company, but in today's economy, you never know what's around the next bend. So, I am still here, living the dream.

I can tell I am living the dream because I still have a cubicle. Gweeeg, today's CoV has nothing to do with you...that I know of.
Only one meeting today. That's nice. So, I can do some catch-up on emails. And I need to start generating some project metrics for November.

We have Chorale concerts each of the next three Sundays. I hope my voice is fully recovered by then. The last two are with the orchestra, so I look forward to that. Of course, it is even easier to strain your voice when you feel as if you must out-sing the orchestra.

Are you recovered from Thanksgiving yet? All the food? All the time off from work? I think I am.

For some reason, my creativity is still asleep today, so I will end this rather than embarrass both of us. Thanks for coming by. I am sure we'll see each other again soon.

Wow, It Is Cold Here

Whew! I had to wear long sleeves and a jacket today. Sure, I could have worn a shirt, too, but the long sleeves keep my arms warm. OK, fine. I do have on a shirt. Anyway, it was right at freezing when I left the house this morning. That is just wrong for PHX. It should top out at 60F later today.

Have you been reading about this mess with US classified documents and wikileaks.com? Yeah, I do have an opinion. No, college roomie, the names used in the comic strip are fictional. Only the situations are real.
Will I be able to sing at Chorale practice tonight? I wonder that, too. We shall see. And we have a concert Sunday. Where? I wonder that, too. We shall see.

I overslept today and had to drive through normal rush hour traffic. How do they do it? Sure, I do face it on my return afternoon commute, but today, it will be both morning and evening.

Have y'all ever heard of quibids.com? It looks interesting. They have one-cent and two-cent auctions. That's right. The bidding can only progress to the next penny or two at a time. And you have to buy the right to bid at sixty cents each. So a MacBook Pro sold for around $69 yesterday. That means there were over 6,900 bids, at sixty cents each, so the company made over $4100 for a $1600 computer. That is a genius business model, right?

Since I am running late, I already need to prepare for the 8:30am meeting. I'll try to get up when the alarm goes off tomorrow, OK? Since I am late today, you can sleep in a bit, too. I'll meet you here tomorrow with coffee for both of us.

A New Week Dawns

Well, it is not quite dawn here yet, but I have reason to suspect is will occur at some point. Whew, it is cold here in the PHX area. We will not even reach 60F today or tomorrow. I had to wear a jacket.

I had to wear one on Saturday night when we made our annual trek to ZooLights at the Phoenix Zoo. I think this was one of the best in many years. They are using the new, bright LED lights on the trees. The dancing lights section has a new addition of two rectangular light sections to add to the synchronized tree lights. And the weather was pleasantly nippy (well, I don't think the zoo arranged that). You should go if you can. Buy the discounted tickets from Fry's before you go.

We have begun to work on getting our house decorated for Christmas. Kathie is farther along than I am. I do have the tree sections laying in the living room, but not yet connected. She has stored away the Thanksgiving stuff and laid out a number of decorations in the den and kitchen. Have any of you finished your decorating yet?

This cold I have is quite stubborn. I will not go away, especially a nagging cough that always gets worse at bedtime. Don't you hate that? I imagine your spouse hates it even more.

Did you travel over the weekend? We stayed put, but I know some of you were at least on the road, and some may have flown. Luckily for you, the threatened slowdown to protest the new security measures did not pan out. Still, even the threat of avoiding the backscatter machines was enough to drive today's CoV.

The East Valley Chorale has its first Christmas concert this coming Sunday. No orchestra for this one, but these are always a little more exciting than regular concerts during the year. No, I do not know where it is. I hope my voice is ready. In fact, I hope I can at least sing during practice tomorrow night.

We are scouring our photos for a good Christmas card. Nothing yet, but stay tuned. I almost said you should wait with bated breath, but that always stinks.

Look, we can deny it all we want, but our employers expect some output for the pay they provide. So, let's give them a good day's effort and chat more in the morning. Stay warm and drop by again. See you.

It's "All Turkey All the Time" Tomorrow

There are so many things I am thankful for. And yet, I seem to get caught up with all the problems (or at least perceived problems) that I face. I have a God who loves me. Yes, me personally. A loving wife, great kids (all three of them including my daughter-in-love), beautiful healthy granddaughters, a job (no mean feat in this economy), a church I enjoy attending, the Chorale (so I can still be involved in a choir). There are just too many things to list here. It reminds me of a song a college roommate and his sister used to sing (a Henry Mancini song sung by The Carpenters):

Sometimes, not often enough, we reflect upon the good things
And those thoughts always center around those we love.
And I think of all the people who mean so much to me
And for so many years have made me so very happy.
And I count the times I have forgotten to say
Thank You
And just how much I love them.

For the sublime to the ridiculous, let's see today's CoV.I almost trashed this one in favor of the one I will publish Monday about the TSA. However, I really wanted a turkey idea for pre-Thanksgiving.

I have heard they will be letting us leave early today. OK, not as early as ZKW will be getting off (see his comment yesterday). And wasn't traffic wonderful this morning?

Dad's computer monitor died yesterday. Between he and I, we are killing off electronic equipment almost as fast as complaints are coming in about enhanced pat-downs.

Have y'all finished Christmas shopping? Have you even started? I don't know what the family will be doing about Black Friday, but I plan to sleep through the 4am sales on Friday.

By the way, today's Clarity of Vision is number 400. Wow. Let me think, if 18 of them were funny, what is that percentage? Well, it doesn't matter. I guess I'll shoot for 500 now. Let me think again, if most of you only read one per month, what percentage is that? Again, it doesn't matter. I've read almost all of them.

Listen, if I am leaving early, I'd best complete today's tasks. And you need to finish your To Do list, also. Take tomorrow off from work. Friday, too, if you think you can. I won't be back until Monday, so no need to stop by my desk. OK, phone call. See you next week.

Turkey Day Minus Two

We are fast approaching the annual overeating and Cowboys watching and family visiting day. All of that, and we still call it Thanksgiving? As I write this, my mind looks back across Thanksgiving memories and family gatherings in North Louisiana. That is exactly the types of memories we tried to build in our kids, and I know that is what Kyle and Lyndsay are doing for their kids. We will all gather this year over at the folks house and do all of the above.

Now, my mind is looking over all the fond memories of work. Nope. That thought was over even before I finished typing the sentence. Not quite as fun. Still, just two more days of work this week.

Since we are staying here in AZ, we do not have to brave the craziness of airports and backscattering and intimate searches. Some do, though. If you do, I hope it goes well for you (and by well, I mean uneventful).

Have any of y'all seen the new Harry Potter? It raked in quite a bit of cash over the weekend (although apparently not record-breaking). Maybe we'll catch a movie this weekend. I'll check with my better half to see what I might want to see.

Did you start watching The Good Guys on Fox after I mentioned it last week or whenever it was. You only have a couple of weeks left, so record it and check it out. I already anticipate missing it.

I am absolutely gobsmacked. (Can I say that in a family-friendly blog?) Denise updated this week. She did! Go check it out. And thanks to the others who also keep WEBNET active.

I was thinking about how to end today's post and I thought about writing "A mind is a terrible thing to waste," but I feared some of you might say disparaging things about my mind already being a waste. Instead, I will say...

Thanks for stopping by today. Since I am working on Wednesday, there will be a new CoV. So, you can take that as an exciting anticipation or a dire warning about trolling through the interweb mindlessly. See you tomorrow.

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

We have reached the season of focusing on giving thanks for those things that really matter. For us, we started last night with a Thanksgiving service at church. Isabella sang as part of a children's choir. Kendall was very good, also, throughout the service. We also held an "open mike" giving thanks opportunity. Now, on to Thanksgiving Day itself. This year, it will only be those of us that live here in the Valley of the Sun. I think we are catching ZooLights on Saturday night. I hope it is nice and cool.

I missed a Chorale concert yesterday due to this cold. I still don't have my voice back. Hey, did I hear someone giving thanks for that?

Some of you are probably giving thanks for Clarity of Vision. Right? Anybody? Bueller? Well, I am publishing it anyway.
We had a good time on Friday at St. Mary's Food Bank. The turkey give-away wasn't until Saturday, but there were still hundreds coming through. Many of them thought the give-away was Friday, so they were upset they did not get their turkey. I worked in the soda packing area at first, and then in the vegetable loading area. We did have a good time and it was more team-building than I would have guessed.

Well, it is only a three day week, so I'd best get started so I can still provide five days worth of value. We get Thursday and Friday off this week. Yeah! I'm giving thanks for that.

I guess I will give you something for which you will give thanks. That is all I am writing for today. I've already jumped over and answered two emails while I was writing this post. What a multitasker, huh? You can also give thanks that we can meet again tomorrow.

Snuck In Using Firefox

Well, somehow, I cannot login to blogger.com using Internet Exploder, but Firefox let me in with nary a whimper. Nary, I say. So, I am now running late, but fell I owe you a complete post since we missed yesterday's. I did post one this morning to show you yesterday's Clarity of Vision, so scroll on down and check it out after you finish this one. No, you can go look at it now, if you want, and then come back for this post.

Our org is taking off the afternoon to go work at St. Mary's Food Bank in downtown PHX. The company gives everyone one day off per year for charitable work. I guess this counts as half of mine, huh? I don't know what we will be doing, but I did hear on the radio that they are having a turkey drive today, so maybe we'll be eating turkey. No, I meant accepting turkeys from charitable neighbors.

I have had a cold all week (no fever, so it is not flu), and I am better, but still not much of a voice. Hey, I heard someone say I never had much of a voice. That was not nice. Anyway, I hope it is back for the Chorale concert on Sunday.

I had my annual post-op checkup earlier this week and I guess I am still healthy. Well, as healthy as an old dude like me can be.

Someone at work suggested I try a cartoon on how many different work request ticketing systems we have here. Well, here is the result of that suggestion.
Bella called last night and quoted a Bible verse to us. Wow! That was pretty cool. And of course, Kendall had to talk to her Pops. We had a nice little talk, too.

I am not sure what we have planned for the weekend. How about you? Anything special? I heard there were still colors up near Sedona, but I don't know if I want to make that drive.

I don not have any meetings today, maybe because we are out of the office starting just after 12pm. So, don't try to call me at work this afternoon. I will be charitizing downtown. We should be through before Monday, so look for me then, especially since it looks like Firefox will allow me to chat with you a while. Have a good weekend, my friends.

Could Not Get on Blogger Yesterday

Sorry. I could not get on blogger.com yesterday, so I missed posting to y'all. Here is yesterday's Clarity of Vision. Everything else I might have said to you is lost since my brain cannot remember stuff that long. And everything I am going to say today isn't here yet because this is yesterday's post. It is all very logical in my mind. Sorry for your confusion.

You Gotta Have Faith

I had my annual followup with the doctor who operated on my and, Praise the Lord, I am still cancer free. However, they were concerned with another number and asked that I come back in two weeks. So, I went back yesterday and a retest cleared up this concern. So, I do not need to go back until next October. That is great news.

That is not all of the faith messages I have for you today. OK, maybe it is, but I do have one more thing that uses the word "faith."

Another of my calendar entries:
Customer: YOU MADE MY BURGER WRONG! YOU PUT TOMATO ON IT! I AM VERY ALLERGIC TO TOMATO!
Wendy's counter clerk: I am sorry, sir. I'll make another burger for you and give you your money back. What would you like on your burger?
Customer: Just mustard and ketchup.

And the final one for today:
Justin Timberlake: I don't like singers who sing so you can hear them sing.

Today, I have another doctor's appointment. I will have this stinking cold looked at, and have cholesterol and whatever else checked while I am there. One time, I went in and had blood drawn for a test, and the nurse (actually, the Doc's wife) forgot to send mine in. I need to remind her about that today. These tests also mean that I cannot eat anything until after my appointment. Whaa! I'm hungry.

We are going to help at St. Mary's food bank on Friday, so I hope I am feeling stronger by then. After that, we are going to Mi Patio for happy hour. Free food and non-alcoholic drinks. Hey, I've got to pay for my own booze? What a cheap company.

Speaking of companies paying for things, did your cost of insurance go up for next year? Mine is almost doubling the cost per paycheck. And that is for me only. Kathie is covered through her work.

Listen, just ignore all these used tissues piling up in my cubicle. My trash can is full. Hey, nobody is forcing you to stay here, you know. Just go away and come back tomorrow then. Fine. I'm rubber and you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.

Now You See It, Now You Don't

OK, maybe the theme of yesterday blog exploits was the reverse of that. Now you don't see it, now you do. When I published yesterday's post, I neglected to reset the date and it posted under a date for last week. When my better half asked why there was no post, I researched and found the problem. It is fixed now.

No one has ever accused me of having a dizzying intellect. However, that phrase was used in Princess Bride, which leads to today's Clarity of Vision.
Are you having trouble hearing me today? Well, I've got a cold or something so my voice is rather weak. I go to the Doc tomorrow to get it checked out. In fact, I had my first hot beverage of the season yesterday to assuage the discomfort. At least I think I did. No, I mean I did have the drink, but I don't know what assuage means, so maybe it is out of context.

We are going to work in the St. Mary's Food Bank Friday afternoon as a team builder. I like that idea. It is a good investment of our time and brings us together outside of the normal work environment.

With all this coughing (no, it's only me), I need to disinfect my workstation when I finish this post. Plus, I've still got to get ready for the 8:30am call. So, I will leave you with this memorable phrase from Rudy Giuliani. "I took a city that was known for pornography and licked it to a large extent." See you tomorrow.

The Promised Black and White Photo is Here

You know what? I had this photo ready to use on Friday, but I forgot to start from the draft that had the picture until too late. So, here is a shot at Fairyland in Bryce Canyon, UT.Nice hoodoos, huh? That is what the formations are called.

You are probably wondering who do my drawings for me because they are so lifelike? Amazingly enough, they are stock figures within Microsoft Visio. They are not hand drawn! Will wonders never cease? Let's go ahead and take a look at today's comic strip. Almost photo-realistic, isn't it?

We had a great visit with the girls Friday night. Everyone, even me, on our best behavior. Then, on Saturday, we went together to see Megamind and everyone really enjoyed it. Finally, over to Nello's Pizza for dinner. Whew! Sunday was a day of rest.

I think I am trying to catch a cold. It should not be the flu since I had a flu shot. No, it's not because I do not have a fever. Just drainage and a cough. You want to hear more symptoms? I've got them, baby! I've got them.

The holiday season is fast approaching. Have we started with Christmas presents yet? Actually, I don't know. I haven't, but that doesn't mean we haven't. And the temps are cooling off, so it seems winter is near. Our highest temperature of this week is forecast to be only 79F.

Has anyone heard of Yammer? It is a Facebook-like app that the company is rolling out inside of our firewall. Why? I am not sure, since we can already use MS Communicator if we need to reach a particular person. I do see that someone posted that we can see our paychecks online in the new HR app. so this tool does let us have a larger group discussion on things and make org-wide announcements (assuming you are logged into Yammer.

Are you ready to get to work? Yeah, me neither.

Only 2-3 more episodes of The Good Guys. Are y'all watching? I really like it and will be sad when they air the final episode on Dec. 10. Kendall's birthday. Not that it being her birthday affects the TV program at all, nor is that the cause of my sadness. Oh, never mind.

Ready for work yet?

I only have two meetings today. That's good. I am not the leader in either of them. That's also good.

Friday's desktop calendar:
Newlywed Game host Bob Eubanks: How long will your husband say his inseam is?
Woman: Seven inches.

Earlier calendar entry:
Attorney: You said you went to Galveston in 1920, yet your first job you told me about was in 1946. What did you do between 1920 and 1946?
Witness: Well, I didn't go to work as soon as I got there.

Another:
UK Headline: Crematorium Plans Put on Back Burner.

And our final calendar entry for today:
Family Feud Host: Now for the win. Name something associated with Niagara Falls.
Contestant: I hope this is right. Utah. The state of Utah.

No more excuses, guys. We need to get to work. Grab your lunch bags and let's go. We can lollygag again tomorrow.

Getting Closer to Thanksgiving

I am not sure what families will be in town for Thanksgiving. I suspect maybe only those of us that live here. OK, I meant of my family, not in general. And don't call me a turkey for that mis-statement.

I think it was the funny cheerleader, Brittany, in the TV show Glee that made the statement you will see in panel three of today's CoV. If it was not, it could have been. In one episode, she said "Sometimes, I forget my middle name." In another, "I don't brush my teeth. I rinse my mouth out with soda after I eat. I was pretty sure Dr. Pepper was a dentist." She is hilarious. OK, here's today's comic.

The GRANDS are spending the night. I am not sure of our exact plans, but I think they involve cake for dinner, cookies for dessert, and gummy bears for breakfast. Now I am not sure what the girls will have. Wow. I crack myself up.

I finished my Workplace Harassment course yesterday. I told the rest of the team to try and take the assessment quiz at the end before they wait on all the videos. I don't know if that is possible, but someone thought they had heard that from someone else. They should try it, though. Most of the questions were pretty obvious. You know, like "If someone said they felt harassed and ask you to keep it secret, can you? 1) Sure, it was not really that serious anyway. 2) No, tell them our policy requires that you tell HR and let them handle it and determine the seriousity. 3) Promise you will keep it secret but then tell HR anyway. 4) Do not tell HR, and if you tell your peers, make sure they will keep it a secret." No, I don't remember the exact question and options, but it was something like that.

Yesterday, my work email folder got full and I had to spend an hour or so going through it so I could send and receive messages again. Don't you hate that? I meant about the folder being full, not me being able to send and receive messages. Although I suppose you may hate both of those things.

For VD yesterday (Veteran's Day. What did you think?), the company provided donuts. Unfortunately, they gave us plenty, so I ended up the day having eaten three. Uggh. I still feel overloaded on sugar. So, I only had two for breakfast. No, none today, but three in one day is too much.

It was day two of light(er) traffic. Yeah, I could get used to this.

I need to start my workday now. I see a couple of incomplete actions from Wednesday that I want to knock out this morning. So, let's each grab our to-do lists and get some of the items done. Come back as soon as you finish your list and let's compare notes. Or we could wait until Monday to meet again. Yeah, let's do that.

Happy Veteran's Day

Some of you may be seeing this later than normal because you are sleeping in today. Well, not all of us get this day off. I know there are parades in PHX and the local suburbs, but I won't make any of them. Still, thanks to all of you who have served and helped protect the rights of our country and her people.

Having said that, I will now proceed to use the veteran concept to attempt some humor in today's Clarity of Vision.

Kathie working at McDonalds? Yep. They have an annual fund raiser at the nearby Golden Arches and the teachers all work for an hour or so. A portion of the profits is then given back to the school. I am thinking she will probably stay as a teacher rather than go full-time there.

We have a new Guide function on our Cox cable system. So far, I don't like most of it. They are trying to catch TiVo on functionality, but they took away some features that I was used to. For example, I tape a certain segment of the Sunday news show here (just the medical updates segment). So, I only set it for 8:10-8:30. We can no longer tape only part of a show. With Cox, it's all or nothing. Is it all or nothing with you? Oops. Sorry. My mind went all Oklahoma musical on me.

One nice thing about Federal holidays is that traffic flows very well. I was running late, but made up some time on the freeway. Whoo hoo.

Still, I am past the time when I normally complete my post. So, I will end it now. Y'all have a good holiday and let's meet again tomorrow, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I choose bright-eyed, so y'all better be bushy-tailed.

Warning! Office Space-Themed CoV

Have you seen the movie Office Space? Did you think it was funny? If not, then today's Clarity of Vision may not be for you. Well, there may be a couple of clever spots, but the movie's running jokes about the TPS report and staplers will be lost on you. Let's go ahead and get it out of the way.
OK, cartoon aside, what else happened? The girls are spending the night Friday night while their parents go to Cirque du Soleil. That should be fun. I know Kathie has a couple of new books for them, and maybe Mickey D's, and take MoMo for a walk. We will have a good time.

We had a good Chorale practice last night. It is all Christmas music all the time through the end of the year. We have a couple of really nice arrangements and the rest is pretty good. This is always a fun time of year for the group. Our big Chorale and orchestra concert is Sunday, Dec 19.

Since I had practice last night, I did not get a chance to play with photos. And I forgot to bring one for today's post, so I got nothing to attach except the comic above.

Today starts the annual enrollment period for our company benefits. I am sure the prices have gone up, but I have not checked yet. They are touting that we can pick and choose levels of benefits in 28 ways. I'll be the judge of that.

We do not get Veteran's Day off. How about you? I think the teachers in the family are off at least for that one day (tomorrow, right?). However, since we are not off, they do get 3 balloons and a bag of candy at their desks and a thank you notice on the company website. Hey, nothing says thanks for your sacrifice like balloons and candy.

No, I still have not scheduled the tech dude to finish setting up my Macbook so I can run everything from the Mac side instead of Windows 7. Maybe I'll try to get that done by the end of the year. Maybe.

I am taking the annually required Sexual Harassment online training right now. They want to make sure we all understand it fully, so they disallowed skipping forward in any of the videos. So it will take a minimum of three hours to complete. Anyway, while I was watching it yesterday, they mentioned that we should not leer suggestively. I wondered...what does a leer look like, anyway? I tried one on a cube neighbor and she said it looked more like I had a stomach ache. We looked it up in the dictionary, but did not get a clear definition of how the face should look.

I guess I need to go finish that class, check on my benefits enrollment options, and get the weekly metrics compiled. Doesn't that sound busy? I think so. You go act busy, too, so we will all have jobs tomorrow. See you then.

Is It Winter or What?

Wow. A high of only 72F today? I am seeing many long sleeves and jackets today. Well, sure. It is only 60F or so this morning. That does remind me, though, of when K&K lived in Canada and came down and swam one Thanksgiving. Us desert dwellers stayed inside with the heater on.

Many Sundays, several of us gather with the folks for lunch. With several teachers in the group, talk inevitably turns toward teaching stories. However, we don't always hear some of the juicier stuff. I am sure each of them knows way too much about their student's family lives.

Sorry. I know I said I would have a photo in today's post. Well, I just now thought about it and don't have it staged for sharing. That just means you will have to come back at least one more day.

Is there anybody out there? I do see Craig has some feelings about a couple of recent topics and Lindsay chimed in about some Fall Break photos, but nothing recently from the rest of you. BTW, Craig, we did not make it to The Social Network yet, but I always like Justin (T not B) on SNL.

Only a single meeting today and it is first thing in the morning. Maybe I can just take the rest of the day off? No, probably not. I need to schedule that group training session before next Wed, so I'll get that set up. While I am doing that, you are free to wander around the room looking at the effluvia of other people's lives. Big word, huh? We can all meet back at my desk before tomorrow's blog, OK?

...But No Pictures

I had an idea for a cartoon while in the shower this morning. However, this is only tangentially related to the concept I started with. Today's CoV is loosely based on the strict DUI laws in AZ. I think a 10-day sentence is pretty much required, even on the first offense. So, how could I help someone survive?

As you noticed in the title of today's post, I do not have a photo to share because I had to delete them from my work machine and network. I did play a little with some of them trying to build a book. One shot from Bryce Canyon just screamed out for black and white. As you can guess, all that screaming scared the dog, but I did convert it and it came out kinda cool. I'll try to remember to load it tonight to show you tomorrow.

Oh, you want to talk football? The Cowboys? No comment. The Cardinals? No comment. ASU? No comment. U of A? No comment. That's enough football talk.

We had a really good East Valley Chorale concert last night. Good acoustics in the church. An enthusiastic audience. Most of the chorale in attendance. It was fun.

We went to see the Little Mermaid with the GRANDS on Saturday. They seemed to really enjoy it and the performance was clever and well p[aced for kid's attention spans. Then over to Joe's real BBQ for lunch. Mmm mmm.

Carey had a friend in from Canada this past week. We met her yesterday at lunch. She seemed very nice. I am afraid our family may have overwhelmed her. They were going ice skating after we left. What? Ice skating in PHX when you are from Canada?

Someone left a couple of Jolly Rancher stix on my desk. It would have been better if they had not opened them and licked them first. No, they are still sealed. I did not touch them in case I need to check for fingerprints. Hmm. I watch too much CSI, right?

Four meetings today. Sounds average. One of them is about our new benefits package. It is our annual sign-up time. I don't imagine the changes are in our favor, though.

Today's calendar entry:
Question on insurance form: Could either driver have done anything to avoid the accident? Insurance claimant's answer: traveled by bus?

OK, I am feeling like I should go check on the emails from the weekend. Do not try to read them over my shoulder. I should be finished in 24 hours or so, so I'll meet you here then.

The Weekend Has Arrived

Well, actually, the final workday of the week has arrived. Do you think the weekend starts at the end of the workday or not until you wake up on Saturday? For me, it starts following the afternoon commute. Since that is just a few hours away, and you may not even read this until the end of your day, I say "The weekend has arrived!"

Today's CoV comes from my ideas file. I listened for a fresh, perhaps topical, idea last night and this morning, but nothing came. Yesterday's came to me during the night while letting the dog out. I was not so creative this morning. Still, I am a word guy, so I chose this idea because I heard someone misuse the word weary. Do you have any commonly misused words on which I could buid a cartoon?

The boss is off today. Does that mean I get to play all day? No, unfortunately, it kind of means the opposite. I do not have to attend meetings for him, but he does refer work calls to me, and I need to get stuff ready for him on Monday.

We are hoping to see The Social Network this weekend. And maybe we can make it to our Saturday morning brunch. And I need to work on a photo book so I can take advantage of a 20% off coupon. Hey, talk to the hand. I'm busy.

I need to finish a couple of things so I can start my weekend. Don't you have something you need to be doing, also? OK, let's both go and we'll get together again next week. Have a good weekend.

Anxious, But Not Worried

I had my annual prostate cancer checkup yesterday. My numbers were zero, so that is good. However, they are concerned over something about my bladder, so I go back in two weeks. So, y'all can pray for a good final result.

Right now, I am not worried about Clarity of Vision, either. I have been coming up with new ideas to keep it going. Of course, that does not mean any of you will find it funny. Hey, you're the ones reading this.

Four meetings today. Kinda back to normal, huh? 88F temperature today. Kinda back to normal for that, too. One thing that was not normal was trying a new place for dinner last night. We went to Elephant Bar. We got a good coupon in the mail and I decided we needed to treat ourselves. It was pretty good, a nice change, and about the same price as Chili's.

I found out that another member of our team is leaving next week. What is going on here? Can't we all just get along?

On my Stupidest Things Ever Said desk calendar, yesterday's was funny.
Dialog in an American film: It's a tough call.
Subtitle as it appeared in Europe: It's hard to make a phone call.

That makes me wonder, because when we lived in Mexico, I would watch the Spanish subtitles for English-speaking shows to help reinforce my Spanish. Who knows what kinds of things like that may have occurred?

Well, we don't want a layoff to occur, do we? So, let's all get to work for the day. We'll have time for chat again tomorrow.

One of My Favorite Movies, Fer Sure

We will start with today's Clarity of Vision cartoon because that is what the title of the post refers to. The craziness of the two Airplane! movies and the clever use of non-sequiturs has always captivated me.

Hopefully, all the political advertisements will be off the air now that the election is over. I do know that not all races or proposals are determined yet, but please, kill the negative attack ads.

It turns out Dad did not need his computer for church choir this week, so I still have it. Whoo hoo. So Kathie was able to check out my blog last night. Hmm. I don't think she laughed. I'll have to ask about that.

I do not have any work meetings on my calendar today. well, none scheduled as of right now. Who knows what the day holds?

OK, so here's my dilemma. We have not been able to get our project tracking system modified. That means there are a couple of metrics we cannot provide the VP. However, there are two fields that we do not use at all in the tool. I could ask the PMs to enter the scheduled Go-Live date in the Risks Summary field and the actual system Go-Live date in the Other Business Objective field. Messy? Of course, but it would give me the data to track how well we meet those dates. Then, when we actually add those two date fields into the tool, we can move them from the temporary fields to the dedicated ones. What do y'all think? Is it better to not have them available? We had 11 projects close in October and were not able to capture that data in the tool.

Did you notice that I snuck a work problem into a personal blog? I'm a sneaky dude like that. It does mean, though, that I am already thinking work today. I suppose I will make it official and finish this post so I can dedicate my time to work issues. You weren't really paying attention anyway. See you tomorrow.

Voting For Your Beliefs? Or Theirs?

I spoke to the security guard on the way in this morning. He said that he no longer votes because "it doesn't make a difference anyway." He is a believer, so I asked how he reconciles his attitude about voting with the chance to get same-thinking people into offices. He suggested that God appoints the governments anyway. Well, we did vote, although we sent ours via mail last week. I reviewed one of those questionnaires that faith-based groups send candidates to help with some of the races. No, I did not vote for all of those judges. I don't know enough to differentiate one from the other.

Of course, I felt compelled to offer a vote-themed CoV today.

I found an email from the company this morning saying no personal pictures or music is allowed on company resources and please remove them. I suppose that allowing everyone to save some would add up to a lot of storage usage and maybe some CPU cycles, but I display my photos as my computer screen saver. I guess I'll just display the company-branded screen saver. What a drag. I'd better show you one of the shots before I remove them. Here is Delores City Park that we stopped at during our return to the Valley a couple of weeks ago.

Two meetings today. I am only going to attend one, though. I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so I am ducking out before the second occurs. What kind of choice is that? Staying in the office but attending a meeting or getting to leave early but having to go to the doc's? It feels a question in the Would You Rather? game.

We only have one cupcake left. That's good because I don't need to eat so many cupcakes, but it's bad because there is only one left.

If the company were a voter, I hope they would keep me in office. I want to keep it that way, so I am going to do some work now. You can stay or go vote before the polls close. Stop by again tomorrow if you can.