How Long Can Russell Last?

Russell is still on Survivor. Amazing. I thought that once people knew what a sneak he was, they would remove him. Nope. Not yet. And David Caruso is still on CSI: Miami, so it shows that wonders never cease. I am no actor and yet I think even I could take off my sunglasses dramatically, stand sideways while I talk to everyone, and include dramatic pauses in every statement.

Yes, I am a Walker, but I do not use hand turn signals. Maybe I should. I have been known to cut in front of someone when hurrying to a meeting.
Game night tonight in Queen Creek. I did see a new game at lunch yesterday that looks interesting. Dominion. Remind me to investigate it. There is a cool game shop at Chandler Fashion Mall that has Bang! Maybe I will cruise over there Saturday and check out Dominion.

I have a HUGE presentation on Monday to the VP about our projects. I am generating the slides already, but dad gum it. This morning, I rethought my strategy and may have to redo 3-4 hours of work done yesterday to make it more usable. Maybe I'll have to be working on that on Saturday instead.

I think that I mentioned that our shower is leaking into the bedroom and kitchen. I should probably fix the valve first to see if that at least stops the problem. I bought the faucet insert a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I'll have to work on that on Saturday.

While I would rather keep thinking of things to write that I could say I should do on Saturday, but I must still finish and work on today's presentation so that I can work on Monday's presentation. Y'all have a good weekend.

No Survey Today, Even If You Want One

Fine. When even a preacher gives you guff, it is time to through in the prayer towel and hit the showers of blessing. Even so, 80F is too hot for me and 68F is too cold until you get under the sheets at night. And if there was even a pencil out of place on college roomie's desk back in the day, he would notice. I used to move his stuff around just to get a rise out of him. So if he says I might be surprised at his desk, he is correct. Is there nothing in this life you can count on anymore?

We did not watch LOST last night. Not because we did not have time. No, it was not a new episode this week. What is up? Well, the final episodes all happen with no further breaks, so here we go. ABC, this had better not all be a dream of Hurley or something. We better not see Jesse James wake up and realize LOST was just a novel he was reading while he only dreamed of cheating on Sandra. Ben Linus better not be the local preacher who was telling a story to his daughter each night at bedtime.

Speaking of things on TV, do any of you ever interpret statistics in an unexpected way or react to a single comment heard? No wait. Do not answer that. No surveys today, remember? Well, if you know me, then today's CoV comment should come as no surprise. I don't remember the actual number I heard on the radio, but this works for comedic effect.
I see by the hands on the old clock (you are correct. There is not actually a clock on the wall near me. Just the one on my desktop, but that doesn't sound as poetic.) that it is time to end our verbal sojourn for today. Fear not, little buddies, the skipper of this blog will be back tomorrow for our tour before the weather starts getting rough.

A Little Help From My Friends

Today's CoV was suggested by a coworker, but I do think it is a clever acronym. What do you think?
LOST was a repeat last night. Whassup with that? Whassup with that? The next 4 episodes are all new, though, beginning May 4. Chuck may not get cancelled. Good. Human Target may not get cancelled. Good. No Chorale concert Sunday afternoon. Good. It is Wednesday and we are almost halfway through this week. Good.

I saw a couple of responses to my query yesterday about how warm you keep your homes. One of you is crazy! I'd wind up looking like a pile of goo at 80F. It is bearable outside where you cannot control the temp. Inside? Well, let's just say it is worth the cost of the electricity to cool our place a bit more. However, we switch to summer electric rates starting May 1. Since we use the Time Of Day plan, our rates are lower off-peak and higher on-peak. So, if we run the AC between 1pm and 8pm, it costs 30% more than normal rates. I will reset the thermostat on Saturday. Then, 8pm each night, we crank it down to the nighttime 71F. Yeah, baby.

After a certain amount of time, clutter gets to even me. Normally, you cannot see my desktop for papers and folders. Today, it is bugging me. So, I hope to get around to decluttering so I can start the cycle again. Are you a clean desk aficionado or one who uses piles or more like me? I think I can guess for Gweg.

K. Gots to go. Thanks for listening. Well be back tomorrow. Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.

It's Not Monday

Man, it was a crazy day yesterday. I put in 10-1/2 hours yesterday, and still had some unfinished items when I went home. Then, we decided to have Boston Market for dinner, but they have tweaked their menu and taken away the better value items, so we left. Well, we ate first. No, we didn't, but I thought it would be a funnier sentence if I said we did. Ha ha. It was a funnier sentence, but it was a lie. It's all a lie. It's time I admitted the truth. OK, it's not really all a lie. In fact, suddenly I feel like that SNL character that keeps saying "Just kidding." No, I really don't, but I thought it would be funnier if I said I did. OK, it wasn't really funnier this time. Let's move on.

I have more Waldo-themed ideas and have included one today.
See how I tied Waldo in with the preference of programmers to keep the building lighting lower so they can see their screens. It is always so dark in my building, except when facilities comes in.

My boss has been out sick for a week now. I hope he is better and returns soon. I hope he stays away until none of the rest of us might catch whatever it is. Don't you hate it when people come back and they are still coughing or sneezing or whatever. Of course, we would never do that.

Hey, we had a discussion about the fact that some people are finally turning on their air conditioners for 2010. What?! We've been running ours for months. We keep it at 71F at night. How about y'all? What is comfortable at night for you?

Well, we'd best get to work. We also ought to do our best work. But don't let your work get the best of you. I thought that would funnier... OK, enough with the running joke. See ya.

Monday, Monday

Not so good to me. That is a bit of a take-off on a Mamas and the Papas song. I've already had to reboot three times. Attendance at the daily 8:30am meeting was way down. The boss is out sick, so questions come to me. Whine, whine.

If only they couldn't find me.
You may have noticed this is being published a couple of hours later than normal. I just did not have time to fight my machine, get the info ready for 8:30, and update this blog. So, rather than subject you to even less interesting writing than usual, I waited and am writing between the 8:30am and a 9:30am meeting that I have over in another building.

We had a game night get-together over at KLIKs on Friday night. That was fun. Kendall seemed especially crazy, and that was fun. We went to see Date Night on Saturday, and enjoyed that. Kathie was under the weather yesterday, but I think she is better today. So, that was our weekend. No wait, there was one more thing. Kathie found that our shower is leaking into the bedroom, so it ruined several LPs that were stored in a box on the floor, and messed up the carpet beside the wall.We already knew it leaked a bit into the kitchen in the other direction. Ah, the joys of a 20-year-old house. I will try caulking the corners and edges before we opt for more drastic repairs.

OK, time to walk over to the other building. I hope you had a good weekend, but now, let's jump into this week.

We Made It Through The Week

We have arrived at another Friday. For those that work through the weekend, they probably look forward to a different day. For those of us toiling Monday through Friday, today is a welcome sight. So, I do and it is.

Good Survivor last night. Two immunity idols played, neither by the person that possessed them. LOST this week? Meh. Riverworld on SyFy? I enjoyed the book, but this is a pilot for a series and so it played out a bit differently. It was OK. My old computer at home? Meh. It sure feels slow. Me? Well, I feel slow, too.

Speaking of slow, let's check out Clarity of Vision. We've had cars and gas engines for a couple of days. Let's slow things down a bit. What might happen if we all ran the same wireless mouse?
Anything up for your weekend? Kathie and I are still discussing ours. Who knows? Maybe we'll find something to do? Saturday brunch? A movie? Taco Bell? We might even do all of those. We are wild and crazy people (and are old enough to remember that SNL skit).

No one interrupted me during the creation of this post. In fact, it is eerily quiet here at the office. Did we actually have today off and no one told me? Nope. Someone just arrived in a nearby cubicle. Oh well, let's do a little work. See you next week.

Rainy Thursdays and Mondays Always Get Me Down

Well, that is not exactly how the Carpenter's song goes, but it conveys a clear message. Since today is not Monday, you can infer that today must be a rainy Thursday, and that would be accurate. The high will only be 66F. Oh yeah. I can take that, since 5 days ago, it was 96F.

Speaking of hot or not, I am not sure which one this mouse cartoon series represents. However, I am determined to see it through. Today's may be the final one, but there may be one other if I want to comment on how noisy the office is with these mouse solutions in place.
LOST - I thought this was an OK and not great episode. Glee - This was a really fun episode, even though I knew few of the Madonna songs. Alison said we would probably enjoy the upcoming Lady GaGa episode even less, then. It is much more fun when you are familiar with the songs.

Do y'all ever check tvbythenumbers.com. It gives ratings and renewal statistics for TV shows. According to them, Chuck is unlikely to be renewed. Human Target looks to be in bad shape, too. I don't watch V, but it is also in trouble. However, Survivor is still good, although I do miss Boston Rob. Tonight's unknown is whether Russell will make it through the next vote.

You know, almost every day, work interferes with my blogging. What is up with that? A dude just came by with a Gantt chart he wanted me to look at. Hey, Buddy, maybe I haven't clocked in yet, OK? Fine. He stood there, so I looked at it and asked a few questions that made it sound like I did not mind. Actually, I didn't mind, but that is not the point. I have an obligation to put out a quality blog every day. Hey, I heard you snickering back there.

Fine. That is the end for today. Have a Totally Awesome Thursday.

Still a Day Behind

I got a lot done, but I still feel a day behind. Luckily, I have few enough meetings today to catch up on some of what did not get done on Monday. How about you? Are you where you thought you would be on this week's To Do List?

Another To Do List that I am behind on is creating CoVs. Right now, I create each days cartoon the night before. That is cutting it really close. I used to have at least one week queued up, so that if I got way busy, I would still have one for the following day. Oh well. It keeps life exciting, right?

Today continues the ridiculous one-upsmanship that an office environment seems to bring.

Yes, I went to Chorale last night. Yes, the allergies went with me, too. So, I did not make it through every song. Since we had practice, I have not yet seen LOST or Glee. Probably, we will catch up on those tonight.

I see by the clock on the wall it is time to return to the land of work. Actually, there is no clock on the wall...and maybe calling what I do work is stretching it, but there is a clock on my computer, and I do have things the company expects me to complete, so.... I will sign off now.

Your Tuesday, My Monday

Did you notice anything missing from yesterday? You know, like Clarity of Vision? Like my insightful and detailed blog? Like your only bright spot on Mondays? Well, I was out sick. I feel just OK today, but I cannot afford to miss more work, so here I am.

That also means that CoV is back today.
On Sunday, I was unable to perform my solo in the second of the two nursing home concerts that the Chorale did. I thought I could do it, but during the concert, I asked the man next to me to sing it. He did a good job, but we certainly caught the director off guard. I hope it is just allergies or that I did not infect anyone at the homes when I shook their hands. Right now, I do plan to go to Chorale practice tonight.

We went to the California Baptist choir concert on Friday. They were very good. That is the school where two of Preacher Bro's kids attend, although neither is in the choir this year. I have heard that Lauri will be in it next year, though. Hey, Caleb, I finally started reading Black and am enjoying it this time.

Well, I have two days worth of work to finish in one day. Let's see how I do.

A Warm Weekend Awwives

We reached 91F yesterday. Our first 90+ day in 2010. Bring it on, weatherman. However, we are supposed to go to the zoo tomorrow, so keep the cool around a couple of more days.

Today, there is another cartoon that one of my teammates would not appreciate. Maybe some of you will not, either. That's OK. We've got room for all opinions in the blog. I try to be an equal opportunity insulter.

Since our computer died (a G5 iMac running 2.1GHz), we have been using our old G4 iMac (533MHz). Whew! A chip one-fourth the speed of the old one really limits YouTube and stuff. And even web surfing is painfully slow. I've got to make a decision about this. Do I cough up a couple of hundred and see if I can replace the capacitors in the broken iMac which does not have the Intel chip, or move into the modern age for $1K or so? I will let you know.

It is a good thing that I took a really huge breath on Wednesday because I have not had time to breathe since then. I know each of you has had weeks like that before. Me, too. Oh well. As Glad sings, "Everything that has breath, Praise the Lord."

The Phoenix Opera is performing Figaro right now, and the radio commercial this morning said, "You have heard it in Bugs Bunny cartoons. Now hear the real thing." I don't think that is why I chose today's post title sounding like Elmer Fudd, but who knows.

OK, I am starting to think about work stuff, so I will sign off. Have a great weekend. Yes, even you, ZKW.