Frightening Friday

I titled today's post referring to the fact that Sunday is Halloween. As I am writing this, though, I just got an email from my boss' boss that my boss was in a car accident last night. He is apparently OK, but is staying home to go to the doctor today.

KLIK is coming over for dinner tonight and to deliver some cupcakes. Mmm. Cupcakes. No, I do not know which flavor(s). Why? Grown particular? Speaking of movie quotes, today's CoV continues that theme.

I need to remember to take home my laptop so we can get online this weekend. I also need to continue working on my photo book. I am not sure about that last part since I don't think I can install any software on it. I still may have to borrow back Dad's machine.

Speaking of Dad, here is a picture of us (well, except me because I ran ahead to snap this shot) walking through the woods during our recent trip.

I think we have nothing planned for Halloween night. That means we will stay home, turn off the porch light, and not answer the door for a few hours. I am tempted to say we are doing it to protest a pagan holiday, or so we will not contribute to dentist visits for the neighborhood kids. However, we just did not want to buy candy and just in case any of Kathie's students come around. Sure, we did it for all the years our kids lived at home. I have been a California raisin, a Chippendale dancer, Waldo, and other fun stuff.

It's Friday. That makes almost anything today bearable. How about you? Does Friday seem easier knowing the weekend is just a few hours ahead? I think I will start celebrating now. You can come with me or stick around, but I won't be back today. See you next week.

A Post That Makes You go "Waaah"

Part of putting up a new post each day is trying not to repeat titles. Today's title points toward the Clarity of Vision cartoon. Yes, I am still on the celebrity PM theme and today is a throwback to the early days of television.
Well, we made it through one day with no computer. True, the wife has not been able to see my hilarious CoV from yesterday yet, but it will still be there when we borrow Dad's computer again. And we were out getting our ears lowered anyway.

Speaking of Lyndsay (yeah, I know we were not, but I could not think of an effective transition), Happy Belated Birthday. We celebrated her birthday last Saturday, but it was actually yesterday. We did call her last night, but I wanted to share it with my loyal readers.

Only two meetings on the docket today. And I don't even know what a docket is or why there is anything on it. Anyway, that's good.

We are supposed to be up around 89F or 90F today. Hopefully, this is a last hurrah for temperatures in the 90s. It was a pleasant 57F on my drive in this morning.

I bet it is colder than that here.This is a shot from the road into Yankee Boy Basin.

I hear someone that I need to talk with in the background, so I am stepping away from my work location. You can step away, too, if you want. We have tomorrow to catch up on happenings. See you then.

Pre-Pre-Friday

What? Am I looking towards Friday too soon? Can there ever be a 'too soon' when it comes to Friday? Plus, reaching Friday means we are closer to Tuesday, which means we are almost past all these political advertisements on TV.

Ah. The weather is quite pleasant right now. It was a brisk 58F when I came in this morning. I had to back off a bit on the A/C in the car during my commute. And it is only supposed to reach 83F this afternoon. True, it will be 90F again by Friday, but that's not today, as I mentioned above. Sure, I am stuck indoors all day working, but knowing it is cool outside helps.

Hey, someone took my computer last night. OK, they asked for it and I gave it to them. And sure, it was not really my computer, it was Dad's. And fine, it was Dad that needed it. He gave me some sob story and I believed him.

I do still have my work computer, and I transferred some of our photos from the Fall Break trip onto it. Here are a couple from near Ouray, CO.


I also have an image not related to our trip. Today's CoV continues a thread I started last week about famous names working in the project management area.

I have got to finish the training documentation today for our PM tool. So please, don't bother me while I'm working. I will step away and leave y'all to visit. We can plan to visit together again tomorrow. OK?

Extra Day Off

Sure, I took an extra day off this weekend. Unfortunately, I was sick and not out having fun. We did have fun earlier in the weekend at Lyndsay's birthday party and game night. We played Take the Train, Yahtzee cards, and Catchphrase. I forgot my camera, but used Lyndsay's to capture the memories. Plus, even though it was her b-day, she cooked. Whoo hoo.

Anywho, I was sick yesterday, so there was no blog post nor Clarity of Vision. Since I am back, you get both.
Hey, I did not say they were good ones.

How about The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Only two meetings show up on the old calendar today. That's good. The Cardinals and the Cowboys lost this weekend. That's bad. The Cowboys lost their quarterback indefinitely. That's ugly.

Enough about movies. No, wait. Before I leave this, I will say we have not been to the movies in a while. We need to do that sometime before Thanksgiving. Have y'all been going? What did you like? What did you hate?

I did not get any pictures ready for this post. Sorry. Hopefully, I can get a couple posted tomorrow. So, stay for a while and look back through past photos. I need to get going after missing Monday. See you tomorrow.

Long Week After Vacation

Isn't the first week back after vacation longer than a normal week? It seems so for me. I thought Friday would never get here. It did, though, and I survived. So, a normal weekend to reset my workweek expectations and next week should be a regular one. I am, however, ready for Thanksgiving break.

This morning, I was thinking about letting Clarity of Vision end. I have not thought of new ideas since before vacation and have been using ideas from my backlog. Finally, I came up with an idea for a series based on movie characters being a Project Manager. Here is the first installment.
That is only one week's worth of cartoons. I either need to get really creative or it could be time to end CoV (at least as far as a cartoon each work day).

Speaking of movies, Craig mentioned a Blazing Saddles Quote-along. I think I would do better at an Airplane Quote-along. What could you quote?

How about a photo from Capitol Reef National Park in Utah?
I liked the look of the single struggling tree against the permanence of the rock cliffs. And speaking of rock cliffs, here is one called The Castle.

Speaking of photos, Craig mentioned Glen Canyon Dam. No, we did not go there since it was a little out of the way to the north from our itinerary and we had no time to waste. Places to go, people to see. You know how it is.

People have already come by and bothered me this morning. What is up with that? Don't they know I have a responsibility to my faithful blog followers to get this out there early in the day so you can get your fill and then move on with your lives? Are you full yet? I hope so, because the verbiage well has run dry. Let it replenish over the weekend and we will meet again Monday.

Making the Most of a Rainy Thursday

Well, I came up with a unique title for today's post, but I am not sure what I mean. How will I make the most of a day like this? Go outside and act out Singing in the Rain? Going to the mall and walking around for exercise? Buy a bunch of cheap umbrellas and sell them at the exit door this afternoon when people leave? Stay indoors and read? Speaking of that, let's go ahead and read today's CoV since it is related to the last statement.
Only two meetings today and both are here in my building. Yeah, baby. That's the way to make the most of a rainy day. I hope to completely finish development of the project tracking tool training slides today.

Dad gum it. I forgot the leftover pizza for lunch and brought PB&J again. Oh well. I guess I have lunch for tomorrow now. Do most of you bring a lunch to save money or do you buy most days?

Can you believe Mrs. Cleaver and Mr. Cunningham both passed away this week? At least they will stay with us in reruns. Even as I write this, the Leave It to Beaver theme song is rattling around in my head. And now, ha ha, I've stuck it in yours, too. That will teach you to spend time reading this blog.

You know, some production company ought to gather all the old pilot episodes for failed TV shows and sell them via DVD. Wouldn't some of that stuff be funny to see? Or even include shows that made it. What about the pilot for My Mother The Car? What was in that pilot that made the network say "Yes. We want that show on our network." What about Cop Rock? Dark Shadows? Queen for a Day? Bowling for Dollars?

OK, that past is past. We have to live in the present, and work here, too. So, I'm going to work. Turn off the TV when you leave.

I Relish This Blog

I do enjoy creating both my Clarity of Vision and my daily posts in this blog. Today, I'd like to point you to the other blog I maintain for a full write-up on how I work through a CoV from concept to completed cartoon. The link is on the left, but the CoV is right here.
We are going to get some rain here today and I tried to think of a CoV idea about rain or weather that would play for four panels, but nothing came to mind. My first thought was "it's not a real storm unless parts of the city lose power." I also considered "storms dumped a total of 7 inches of rain in the city...over the past 12 months." See? I could not get anything that felt CoV-able.

As I reviewed my CoV idea log, I see several that I don't even know what I meant. For example, "nicknames." Or "which is better? English or paper." I also have some that are still stewing such as "gazebook - social network site for narcissists" or 'social network site for fortune tellers - fatesbook." I like their concepts, but am not sure how to build my strip around them. thoughts?

I know that we let at least 3 people go from our team last night. Tough times are still here, huh? I also heard about 2 others in a different building, but I don't know why they are no longer here.

Today is CoV #377 and post #792. That is a lot of posting for as little as I have to say. And it is over 1 year's worth of CoV cartoons. A couple of them were funny. Admit it. You laughed at those 2, didn't you?

Only 3 meetings today. This first is at 8am. Luckily, it is not my meeting, so I can attend via telecom and just listen. It is training for the new HP Service management system for tracking trouble tickets. Sounds fun, right?

Kathie went to a sing-along Sound of Music last night with a friend from school. She said they had a good time. You know what I'd like to see? A talk-along Airplane.

OK, I need to answer some emails before I attend my exciting training. You can stay, but please do not read over my shoulder.

One Step Closer

I did transfer my fall trip photos to my work computer last night. However, I need to get them transferred over to the PC side of my machine from the Mac side where they were loaded. OK, here is a shot of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. And here is another. On the way there, we saw these guys.

One thing I did not see much of during the trip was ideas for CoV. I came back with two, and today's was not one of them. I was considering ideas for what to do today and got stuck on the word FALL.

I am almost caught up on work email. Just a few more things I need to do and everything will be copacetic. Ooo. That's a good word, huh?

We did a little pumpkin carving over at KLIK's place last night. Bella chose me to work on her skull design. Whew! That took a while to make the little cuts her pattern called for. In the end, though, it was not too bad. I took some photos, but have not uploaded them yet.

Hey, we played a couple of new card games during the Fall trip. Remind me to tell you about them. I think one is called Sorry Revenge.

Hey, I do have responsibilities here at work. It is not all fun and games. So, I must prepare the Powerpoint slide deck for the 8:30am call. That means I need to do some extracts from the database and some formatting changes. I think I will go ahead and get started. If you are comfortable, feel free to stay as long as you like. Thanks for coming by.

He Was Gone?

Probably, most of you did not even notice this blog was not updated last week. No, we headed up to cooler country during Fall Break. ZKW, I did not announce it because of the bad people who scan blogs and Facebook looking to see when people are out of town. Yes, Alison did stay at our house, but why take a chance?

Anyway, we are back. We hit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in AZ, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Capitol Reef, and Goblin Valley in UT, and Ouray, CO. We saw a lot of rocks. We had a great time with my folks. Photos are coming soon. I did not really take that many. I think the most I took in a day was 250.

I did not think too much about Clarity of Vision. I jotted down a couple of ideas. This was one of them, thanks to Dad.

As you can imagine, the job went on without me. Now, the challenge is catching up with it. I did check email last Thursday night and deleted a bunch of non-relevant messages. Still, I have 81 that I need to actually read. So, I will do that starting now. Well, now is relative to when I stop updating this blog. You can go read your emails, too. Starting...now.

Better Late Than Never

I wrote this post earlier when I could not login to blogger. Some mornings, that happens. Maybe our web filters take a nap or something?

New cinnamony smelling cupcakes today. They were yummy. I waited until closer to lunch. I even shared one.

I did not get to the alley cleanup last night. I have to finish it tonight. However, the tree trimmers did come by yesterday afternoon, so maybe they will finish the job on the palm trees today.

I was driving home last night when a word I heard on the radio struck me as funny. Here is what I thought about.

Kathie and Ali have Fall Break next week. Maybe we should get all jobs to offer that? Would life seem nicer that way?

BTW, Kyle’s car was not as busted as he thought. The problem turned out to be a corroded cable in his electrical system. Whoo hoo

A Hard Day's Night

Yesterday was a long day for both my wife and I. So, I was looking forward to an evening at home relaxing. Alas, that was not to be. I arrived on time to meet the cable repair dude. It turns out both DVRs were fried. So, we lost all our taped shows. OK, new boxes were installed. Then, Kyle's car battery died. Sure, not that unusual in AZ. I took him a new one (bought at the same place I bought mine earlier this week) and put it in his car. Nope, that did not fix it. So, we got it towed to a repair shop and I carried him home. Then, my wife showed me a notice from the city to clean up yard waste in the alley. OK, out to the alley at 9pm to pick up stuff the tree trimmers had just dumped back there. Why didn't they use the bins? I worked until 9:45 and then left the rest for this afternoon.

One very nice surprise was the story they told me about what Bella said. Here. You can read it yourself.

I have so much I need to deliver before Fall Break. So, today will be short, if not sweet. I'll try to increase my verbosity tomorrow, OK? You just get your listenosity ready. See you then.

What Storm?

I have to start today's post with a mention of the storm last night. It might have been mild for any of you that live in storm-prone areas, but Phoenix is not used to them. First, we all got scared because water fell from the sky. What could that portend? It was bad enough that they closed the airport for a while. So there.

It finished off our lemon tree, breaking off the entire upper structure. Poor little thing. The noise of thunder and hail was almost more than our dog could stand. Here's what happened.

We had our annual all Christmas music practice at Chorale last night. We have a number of people who join the group just for the season and then leave in January. Oh well, the more, the merrier. Many were surprised that Dad was at practice after the heart attack last week. They obviously don't know Dad, huh?

Did I mention we had a big storm last night?

A nice byproduct of the change in weather is the change in temperatures. Our winter temps have to be the reason people decided to live here. It made me ready to return to Colorado. OK, we did not get down to those temperatures, but I am sure we were below 80F. Where's my jacket?

People are standing beside my cube talking about the storm. One guy said conditions less than one mile away from home were right for a tornado. I'm glad it did not happen. It should only occur during the day when I can catch a photo of it.

I fell back asleep after the alarm this morning. so I am running a little late. I don't want to rain on your parade, but I will sign off now. I'll leave the TV on the Weather Channel for you until you come back in the morning.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Well, the rain itself is good. We need it a lot. It does make traveling between buildings a little yucky, and it forced me to dig for an umbrella, and it broke off 1/3 of our lemon tree. So, if it could just rain when I am not inconvenienced and with not too much wind, and clear out before rush hour, that would be perfect.

Implementing a new application rarely goes perfect, either. As I mentioned yesterday, we are getting a new HR system based on Peoplesoft. So, what is the worst that could happen when we bring up a powerful application?
Well, maybe that is not the worst that could happen, but who knows?

It does not look good for Chuck on TV. It is consistently the lowest rated Friday show. Too bad. I like it.

We got a flu shot last week. With Kathie teaching first grade, and me being a life-long cold catcher, it just makes sense. Did you get one? You should. Isn't $25 a good investment to not be sick with the flu? Anyway, I started this paragraph because I am sneezing and have a little sore throat. Unfortunately, while I should not get the flu, I can still get a cold.

Only three meetings today. I should be able to catch up on my To Do list. I do have to travel between buildings, so I may get a little wet.

Well, enough treading water. I need to start swimming. Y'all need to either stay in the kiddie pool or start swimming yourselves. We will meet again tomorrow.

Charged Up

No, I am not especially charged up. It is early on a Monday and that is rarely fun. However, my new car battery is charged up. I went to start my car last night and... nothing. When I pulled the battery, I found that it was leaking acid. So, I picked up a new one, poured in some baking soda to neutralize the acid, and was ready to go today.

We had a good time with the girls Saturday night. It sprinkled a bit in our neighborhood and the girls wanted to go out and run in the rain. Fine with us. Next came bath time. Then we settled in to watch a Veggie Tales video and they fell asleep by 9pm. They both slept all night. That meant that we did, too.

What do you think of when you are told that a website will do it all? Well, that is what is being touted for the new HR website at work. Of course, when I ask an open ended question like that, you know I am usually leading up to that day's Clarity of Vision. This is no exception.
Only 3 meetings scheduled for today. Whoo hoo.

Did I tell y'all that my replacement computer died? Yup. Remember that my iMac G5 died a few months ago. Now, the old G4 I was using bit the dust. Actually, it chewed up the dust and spit it out. The power supply flashed and the room smelled like electrical fire. So, I hurried over and unplugged everything. So now, I borrowed Dad's Mac laptop and am working to kill it.

We are getting behind on TV watching. Too many CSIs and comedies, I guess. We need to rank our shows and choose which ones we can miss. If we can wait another couple of weeks, maybe more will be cancelled and the networks can help us decide which we record. Lone Star is gone, Outlaw looks to be short-lived. Chuck is in trouble. I thought Undercovers looked clever, but had no room to record it. Now, it may not matter. Community is down. CSI:NY is down. The Good Guys is in serious trouble. Oh well.

I do not want my ratings at work to go down, so I am going to do a little work. Put away the remote control when you leave. Thanks.

Girl's Night

Yup. It'll be a girl's night when the granddaughters spend Saturday night with us. Well, I'll be there, too. Still, at three to one, they outnumber me. It should be fun.

Have y'all every used craigslist.com for anything? I know Kyle has, but we have not. Anyway, it seems one of the guys from CoV tried to use it.
You are not going to believe how many meetings I have scheduled today. None. That's right. Now I did say scheduled since it is always possible that I get pulled into at least one, but for now, I can actually do some work.

We are starting a cool down here in the Valley of the Sun. Only 105F today. And below 100F by Monday. At last, we enter the time of year when I think the first settlers decided to stay in the area. Surely, they did not come in July and think, "Wow. I like these scorching temperatures. I think I'll live here." And yes, I did call you Shirley.

Which makes me think of the movie Airplane. I need to watch that again. But not this weekend. I will be watching Ni Hao Kai Lan and Mickey Mouse and Spongebob Squarepants. And then the girls will come over. Ha ha. I crack myself up.

I checked in with Dad yesterday afternoon and he is at home and feeling pretty good. That is great news, isn't it? I mean, sure, most of us feel pretty good when we get to go home. Then again, most of us did not have a heart attack earlier in the week.

I recently picked up a 2TB external hard disk and have been copying files from my other multiple external drives. Once I get everything cleaned up, I am hoping I can find a way to get back to working on photos. Remember that I am working on my old 533MHz box and do not have the install disks for iPhoto, so I am stuck with iPhoto 2 (I think we are on 10 now). This version will not read my more recent iPhoto library, so I am thinking to load all my originals into a folder and try to work on them from there. We will see. Maybe then, I can also post a few here.

On Fall Break, I plan to catch some shots at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. That sounds fun. I have never been there before. Have you?

Speaking of pictures, can you picture me working? You had better because I am starting now. Have a great weekend. Picture yourself returning here for more time wasting and camaraderie on Monday (good word, right? No, not Monday. Camaraderie).