"Why must you turn my office into a house of lies?"

Today I found out a co-worker had been nominated for our equivalent of "employee of the year". I have determined that the only way to ever be nominated myself is not to have a strong drive to get things done or a willingness to quietly toil and risk suffocation under a ridiculous workload. Nope. The answer is to be passive-agressive, clueless, and willing to attend as many pointless meetings where nothing gets accomplished as possible. So there you have it. My route up the corporate ladder of success is now quite clear.

A male acquaintance (a friend of my husband) stopped by to see me earlier, and got to witness me talking on the phone with a coworker while pantomiming throttling them. After I hung up he told me that I'm cute when I'm angry. Considering how much time my emotional range is downshifted into quasi-homicidal rage you'd think I'd be the most irresistable chick on the whole damn planet. It was kind of sweet, though, and put a smile on my face for a little while today.

M - thanks for the visit yesterday. Just like old times! I really do miss that stuff.

I have plans to have drinks with my departing coworker and someone from upstairs after work. This should be...interesting. I can't imagine what kind of gossip I'll be exposed to, but I'm sure I won't be disappointed.
Update: There ended up being five of us. These women are freaking crazy! We spent two hours at the bar of the local tapas restaurant, passing around platefuls of amazing food, drinking (some more than others), alternately amusing and offending the other patrons at the bar as well as the bartenders, and generally seeing a side of each other we'd never seen before. Good times. Good times...

*Cue dramatic music*

MOBISODES!!

I don't know the meaning of the word!

According to my Hoops & Yoyo calendar, today is officially "Fun at work day". I'm sure for the people working at Hallmark on the Hoops and Yoyo brand this is true. For the most of the rest of us daily-grinding grunts...probably not so much. For those of you who enjoy your jobs and actually have fun at work on occassion...do me a favor and keep it to yourself. Thanks! (I'm pegging an 8.5 on the Bitter Meter today)

This morning I got an e-mail saying that one of our company cars had been stolen from one of our parking lots, and that it had been located, but my department is responsible for paying for the repairs (broken steering column, busted ignition, some tire damage). I'm waiting on a call to get the name of the individual in my department who was the one to check out the vehicle and did not follow the vehicle return policy (did not park in the secure area as instructed and did not use the security device), which resulted in it apparently being an easy target for joyriders. Failure to follow clearly communicated policies should have consequences, right? And people in other departments are talking about it, which I hope embarasses the person who allowed this to happen to no end.

I have a small mountain of work I've assigned myself today, as well as distributing W-2's to my department's full and part-timer's. The bosses have decided to hire a temp for the front desk, which frustrates me because we can't give temps access to anything - as "contract workers" they don't get assigned employee IDs, so they're not actually employees. So we're basically getting a warm body, at a signifigant markup. I hate paying the temp agency that percentage (seems like such a waste), and I hate having to start over from scratch about policy, procedure, day-to-day operations, how to answer the phone, where the bathrooms are, why not to eat in the cafeteria, blah blah blah. And a temp is only a short-term solution, anyway.

I spent the weekend putting my house back in semi-living condition - putting stuff up on the walls (finally!) and fixing the broken couch so that we didn't have to buy a new one. There's still a ton to do, though. But it's getting there. Sloooowly.

Nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it around

Yesterday I woke up with a migraine. Or, I guess it was a migraine since it didn't respond to any of my usual over the counter treatments. So I spent the first half of the day in bed. But since it was payroll day, there was no avoiding the fact that I had to go in. I had eleven freaking missed calls in four hours! What is wrong with these people that they can't think for themselves?? I went to bed several hours early last night, and woke up again today with the same headache. I almost got into a shouting match with the co-worker who acts like my boss and was forced to stop mid-sentence and walk away before I really lost my patience and said or did something regretable. I can't help it that I was doing the same project that the boss gave his assistant, but I really should have been doing it because I had the data that was required to complete the project. Why this causes my other co-worker so much frustration (and why it's any of her damn business) is a mystery to me. She seems to want to be the boss, and gets her nose out of joint when I question her right to designate work to me. Especially considering my workload and how I have to prioritze assignments these days. She can't wrap her brain around the fact that she does not come first. Because of the project that came up this morning and a couple of tasks I need to complete before the weekend, I have to go into work after getting some dental work done tomorrow morning. I'm not terribly thrilled about this, since I had originally planned on having the whole day off. I've been feeling the raw edges of serious burnout creeping up on me all week, and I need a break to just diffuse.

I'm watching Jamie and Adam getting drunk on Mythbusters. Thirteen drinks in three hours between them...and now for the field unsobriety test! An adult beverage sounds pretty awesome right now, actually. Maybe a White Russian. I guess I'll have to pick up the ingredients this weekend and make it happen.

That's not water you're standing in.

A water main broke over on the peninsula and several buildings are currently without water. I drank a large mug of coffee this morning before I was aware of the situation, and now every time I have to use the restroom (which has been about every half hour, like clock work) I have to walk to the next building over.

Coming back after extended weekends is the worst. We spent most of the long weekend tearing two rooms apart and rearranging them. We're almost finished. I don't care for it (the whole thing wasn't my idea), but I'll live with it.
I was really late to work this morning, and it took forever to really wake up and feel like I could function. I stayed up late last night while my husband set our computer back up on the new desk we just got. I've been having trouble sleeping (again) as well. I've been reading World War Z, which, while is a very good book (if you're into that kind of thing), does absolutely nothing for my irrational fear of an actual zombie apocalypse. Go ahead and laugh. I'm like the kid who is already afraid of the dark but stays up late reading ghost stories under the covers with a flashlight, jumping at every little noise and fleeting shadow. Last night in the pitch dark my son woke up, silently came into my room and then very loudly announced (while standing right next to my side of the bed) that he had to go to the bathroom. I swear - he woke me and my husband from a sound sleep and I almost peed my pants. It really freaks me out when he does that. And he's been pretending to be a "brains eating zombie" since Halloween, which is both amusing and slightly creepy to me at the same time. I think he does it just to unnerve me now.

I got a call this afternoon from one of the supervisors asking me if it is okay that an employee turns in a timesheet tomorrow. There was a long silence before I responded that it had been years since timesheets came to me at all, and he really needed to direct that to his payroll contact in his department, which seemed to confuse him utterly. Later, I helped someone who has worked here almost three times as long as me and makes a good bit more figure something out this afternoon - apparently I'm the only one in the building who knows how to do this particular process, and people are being directed to me by other departments. Instead of being remotely gratifying, this induces in me feelings of almost nuclear level irritation and mild disgust. None of the manangers want to follow the basic paperwork processes, since half of them have lost their support staff. They act like it's beneath them to fill out a simple form, or they don't understand the point of it. Hey, it's not like we're being audited...oh, wait. We are! Well, criticism of records is for peons like me to worry about. That's why I'm here. My sole purpose on Earth. Without it, I am nothing. I'd wither to dust and be blown away by the wind.

Oh, plus we had another resignation today. I can't imagine why...

The good news is that I think I'll take the whole day off on Friday when I get my permanent crown put in. And right now I'm listening to the Kooks CD that M gave me (yes - I could tell from the first song, even though it wasn't labeled).

By Thursday it'll be the end of existence as we know it!

So the boss's assistant gave her resignation today. She got another - better - job. She was a apparently very upset about leaving, though.

After I heard the bad news, I went right up to see the manager I'd had lunch with earlier today. We discussed my options, and my future with the institution. I know that given the magnitude of the budget cuts that have now been legislated, I'm pretty much stalled at this level and at this salary for at least two years, regardless of how much more I might be required to take on as our staff diminishes. She said I'm good at my job, and she doesn't want to see me go, but that if I found a better opportunity at some point no one would blame me for taking it.

I will not jinx things by stating that things could not possibly get worse.

"DO panic, motherf*ckers!"

Today the news came down that the budget cuts we've been waiting to hear official word about will be greater than anticipated. It's going to be painful. More painful for some than for others. I've been giving the boss scenarios and projections to determine just how our areas will be affected, potentially. We're preparing worst case scenarios...I guess partly so that if we're given better news it will be a relief and we'll feel like we dodged a bullet. This issue is going to be consuming my universe for a while. Consider this begging your pardon in advance if I'm distracted and don't post here much...

I got my car back early today. It's so nice to have functioning gages again and not have to drive by feel. I still want a new car, though.

While I was waiting to pick up the car from the dealer, there was a ruckus across the street. Apparently someone car jacked someone at gunpoint in the parking lot (of one of the shopping plazas I frequent...in broad daylight), and took off. When the owner of the stolen car called the police they activated the On*Star system to track it. A chase ensued, and the thief wrecked the car a few blocks away and the wreckage promptly caught fire.

I'm going to lunch with one of the managers tomorrow. I called to schedule a meeting with her to talk through a few questions I have about some projects I'm about to embark on, and she offered to take me to lunch. I really do like and respect some of the people I work with (I know it doesn't always seem like it, if you're just going by what gets posted here), but she's at the top of the list. She's almost mentoring me, and I really appreciate it a lot. It's what I'd been missing after my original boss left to go to another department, and it makes more of a difference than I'd realized.

For a couple of days there was a banner hanging outside of my building. They took it down some time between last night and this morning, so I'm glad I thought to take a picture for posterity:


I wonder why they took it down...?

Of course, my sentences were full of typos and I just had to make a load of corrections so as to not look like an idiot.

Bastard coated bastards with bastard filling

This morning we dropped off my car at the local Chevrolet dealership to finally get my dash panel replaced. We were told that it would take no longer than a day. Later this morning my husband was told I wouldn't get my car back until Friday. So, apparently Chevrolet exists in a temporal wormhole where the span of twenty-four hours takes you directly to Friday. And it's not like my husband didn't have several conversations with the tech last week where he was assured that the panel was available and would not have to be ordered. But lo and behold...it is not in stock and has to be ordered. Then they proceeded to give the hard sell and tried to suggest fixing the brakes and flushing various things (for an additional cost of several hundred dollars), when we specified very clearly at the time we dropped off the car was that all we were requesting and authorizing was a replacement instrument panel and oil change only. So not only do the people at the Chevrolet have a terrible sense of time, but lousy hearing and short memories as well. I had better get it back no later than Friday afternoon. I hate the idea of not having my car for a whole week...I can't wait until I have the money to get a new car and be done with all this freaking hassle.

It's all in the reflexes.

The main reason for this post is to gloat. And to record for posterity (or at least until this blog gets deleted) that I managed the near impossible today. I actually finished every single item on my "to-do" list at work. I'll just politely wait for the applause and epic fanfare to die down before continuing...

I got so much done today I amazed even myself. And the last couple of days were actually - surprisingly - not bad. Yesterday I sent a budget update to the boss, and he came out of his office and thanked me. Seriously. I'm just as shocked as you are, trust me. I was really caught off guard, so I couldn't quite revel in the moment like I should have. But it's nice to reflect on, anyway. Of course, those good vibes are tempered by my work load (it's increasing exponentially...like something else I can think of...), and the mass of rumors swirling around in the last couple of weeks. And they are comprised of the following: Budget cuts. Meaning additional cuts. We already had a percentage excised so far this year. Now the rumor has been circulating that there will be another round - anywhere from the same percentage to over double. No one knows for sure (those who may know aren't telling quite yet), and I refuse to have a knee-jerk reaction to what amounts to scuttlebutt. There was a story in the paper today on the effects of the potential cuts on the "system", but it didn't really clarify what my branch will face. It was infuriating having to suddenly be reading about it in the paper - sometimes I feel like management likes keeping us peons in the dark on purpose. Whatever for, and how it accomplishes anything except making us bitter and resentful, I'll never know. The other rumor that's been getting a lot of mileage is that there is an audit coming...

Serious, indeed, Ming-Ming!

I do my best, but even I have to readily admit that some of my records are a mess and the organization of some of the files leaves something to be desired. However, in my defense, it is awfully difficult managing millions of dollars in expense and income budgets, various projects, and providing coverage - uncompensated and mostly undocumented - for three other positions that will be vacant for the forseeable future. All the while unflappably maintaining the role of Answer Girl, solver of everyone's else's petty problems, holder of hands, wiper of chins. I'm only one person, damn it! And if you knew some of my co-workers you'd understand why some of the administrative pieces have to suffer. It's impossible to get all of the departments to be doing the same thing, and providing the same documentation. No matter how many times I've said "If it affects your bottom line, I need a copy for my file", I always get either a blank stare or the passive-agressive act from someone. Take, for example, my experience yesterday with the boss's former assistant Barbie. It just reinforced the countless reasons why I am ever so thankful that she is no longer the cohabitator of my office space. She dropped by, unannounced, and proceeded to effectively grill me on the how's and why's of the aspects of one of the budgets she uses (uses, mind you - not manages or oversees, in any capacity), rolling her eyes and huffing in condescension about the difficulty and beurocracy of working within the system. As if she even has to think about it, let alone be immersed in it, day in and day out. Her exasperated tone as I patiently explained the answers to all of her inane questions actually started to amuse me. I think the whole pretext of the visit was that she wants to act like she understands how things are actually done, even though she doesn't really want to be bothered to have to understand it (or do it) at all. The girl is all about ambition - without enough professional experience or the subtlety and social skills to know when to temper her willingness to be a bitch to get where and what she wants - and is as transparent as plate glass.

But enough about all that. Lets talk about fun stuff now: Science! Oh yeah!

We all know that the dinosaurs died out because of an asteroid strike. It's something that our American public school educations begin indoctrinating into us at a very early age. Cretaceous period. Iridium layer. Massive global cooling. Rise of the mammals. Yadda yadda.

But a couple of new theories have begun making the rounds, and I, for one, am kind of partial to at least one of them. The authors of What Bugged the Dinosaurs (I know - ignore the ridiculousness of the title and bear with me here), propose that the evolution of insect species (including internal and external parasites) brought new diseases that dinosaurs had not developed immunities to, making populations weaker and more succeptable to the affects of other global events. You can read about the ongoing debate in paleontology circles regarding the true cause of the demise of the dinosaurs in a really interesting Time magazine article from a couple of months ago.

A co-worker gave me a page out of a magazine with some still shots of scenes from the upcoming season of Lost and I finally watched the sneak peek for the *sadly truncated* 4th season. omg. OMG. OMfreakingG!! This is going to be awesome. Islanders are going to die! Jack will have his crappy flash-forward beard! Kate gets to be conflicted in her feelings for both Jack and Sawyer! How did I even manage to survive while this show was off the air?! When will I just calm down and type less excitedly!!?

Now. That's when. Sorry. I'm a little hyper today.

So here's the theater release promo:

And, the extended one, wherein we see Hurley sitting in a circle of graves:

Who wants their teeth done by the Marquis de Sade?

What makes someone decide to pursue dentistry as a vocation? I pondered this question while the above song went through my head about a dozen times during my three hours in the dentist's chair this morning. Take a tip fro me kids: take care of your teeth! Root canals are never a good time. I kept my eyes closed most of the time, so I can't really tell you specifics of what was done (for the adventurous/disturbed I suppose there's plenty of graphic information about this procedure to be found on the internet) - I just know there was a lot of Novocain, even more drilling and prodding, and some very nasty tastes involved. I now have a temporary crown in place for two weeks. It's proving kind of difficult to eat, since every time I try to chew even very soft foods (and on the opposite side of my mouth), I manage to make contact on the crown with my upper molars. This causes a dull thudding ache to spread from my molar with the crown up my jaw. The crown is slightly bigger than my other molars, so it doesn't quite fit right. I'm hoping that when some of the swelling goes down it won't be quite as sensitive.

I had planned to take the whole day off, but since it was payroll week I went in at a point in the afternoon once the numbness had gone away and I could talk without sounding like I'd had a stroke. My co-workers knew why I was out, but when I popped in to let the boss know I was there to approve payroll so that we could all get paychecks, he acted like he hadn't even realized I had not been in all day. Sometimes I think that I could just not show up at all and he wouldn't even know unless someone pointed it out to him. Some day, if I wish upon a star maybe, I'll get a boss who acknowledges my existance. If I'm really lucky I'll get one who cares...maybe even one who gives feedback and tells me whether I'm actually doing a half-way decent job. Boy, that would be dreamy.

Just...Blah:

Open the coffers

So somehow we ran out of checks at home. I guess we just weren't paying attention. We owe money to the after and before care program at my son's school, and they don't take cash, so today we had to go and get a money order from the bank since our new checks are on order but won't arrive until the end of the week. Originally my husband wanted to get the money order through the drive-through, but apprently you can do that. (Since we're inexpereinced in the ways of money order...uh, ordering...we didn't know how that would go over) So we went inside. First, the teller never asked for ID or account number to make sure we even had an account with the bank. Second, she gave us a blank money order. Seriously - the amount section was blank. Could we have used that money order for whatever amount we chose? I wonder if that's possible, or if the money order would actually be worthless? Of course, being the honest people that we are (and also people who like to get what the heck they paid for), we pointed out her error and it was corrected. Third, we were never charged for actually getting the money order. As I said, it's not something we normally do, but we were under the impression that the money order might come with a charge - unless we actually were customers of that bank with a valid account. Since that was not verified by the teller we'll never know.

My car needs a new instrument cluster. My tachometer broke weeks ago and has been reflecting negative RPMs. Now my speedometer is acting up. It's been idling at about 20 MPH, so it has been displaying speeds 20 MPH over my actual speed. This morning I looked down and saw that I was going 90 on the interstate and it took me a second to realize I was actually going with the flow of traffic at 70. This afternoon at lunch the needle got stuck at 50 and wouldn't move no matter what speed we were doing. I'd like to get this fixed before it starts affecting my gas gage. We're waiting for a call back from the dealer to tell us how much a replacement would be. This would be the second instrument panel replacement I've done to this car since I've had it, and the car is only five years old. That's a manufacturing defect if I've ever heard one. I want to trade it in and get a new car, but we can't trade it in with a defective instrument panel and once we replace the panel we've won't have enough for a down payment on a new car.

Tomorrow I am having a root canal. I didn't ask for Thursday off, but today someone told me I'd probably wish I'd taken the extra day. NOW they tell me! The root canal is what's putting such a dent in our savings that we can't put a downpayment on a new car, and my husband has not been very happy about the cost. But I told him he could either have a wife with a new car and a life threatening infection or a healthy wife with an older car. His choice. Plus, we still haven't gotten a new couch. So far, 2008 is shaping up to be a very bad year for us financially. We're hoping that tax return season will bring us some better news, but I'm not holding my breath. We've been hemorrhaging money, and I haven't found anything to staunch the flow.

Quoted for truth!

3PM Don't Let That Cut into Your 20% Napping Time

Marketing director: Eighty percent of what we do is called 'wasting time.'

Massachusetts Avenue NE
Washington, DC

via Overheard in the Office, Jan 7, 2008

It’s part of my skill set

Why is everything so difficult with some people? I come in today, and the first thing that happens is I am inundated with stupid questions and requests - nay, demands - for information that I just don't have at my disposal and do not fall within the sphere of my responsibility. I'm tired of having to lead people to solutions (or explain the lack thereof) when they're supposedly above me on the corporate ladder. I want my peers to also start thinking for themselves and finding solutions to their problems instead of trying to make them my problems (since I really do have enough of my own, thanks). I am constantly behind because I'm answering questions that I really shouldn't need to be answering, covering the gaps in our steadily diminishing staffing, and generally being the "team player" that the former boss insisted I needed to become. It wears a sister down, let me tell you. Not to mention that I've somehow become the secret confessor to the disgruntled masses -- people from other departments are coming to me to voice their grievances and help them look for other jobs. It's bizarre and not as satisfying as one might think. I'm having one of those "Why am I here?" days, for sure. Last week one of my co-workers (who I think of as demi-boss) was having a bad week and, while bemoaning the fact that she's not a drinker but she could really use a drink, asked me how I manange to not go crazy with all of the demands and expectation. I looked at her in all seriousness and said "I don't manage it.".

(I don't take anti-depressants...there would be no need for this blog if I did)

At least M should be here later to share a coffee with me and gossip. Hopefully the bosses will be back by then so that I can step out.

In other non-news, someone has been having an awful lot of peeks at my limited-access MySpace page. That usually means that my husband's slightly obsessed ex-girlfriend from about twelve years ago is about to send me another message, which will as usual go unanswered. This is why my account is set to private and why none of my accounts on any social networking site or this blog link to one another, and why the blog is kept, for the most part, fairly anonymous. Better to be safe than sorry.

Barnacles!

Yesterday there was a story posted on the website for one of the local news channels about the whale that stranded on a local beach and had to be euthanized. Originally, when posted, the first sentence read: New information has been released regarding the sperm whale that came into the mouth of Tampa Bay over the weekend. Do you suppose that was intentional? The story has since been...altered...for less innuendo. I believe I actually saw that whale in the bay last weekend while crossing the big southbound bridge on the way to visit my parents. I remember something large, gray and not quite boat-like going under the span but not emerging on the other side. I barely even registered it at the time, except to think that it wasn't a boat and way too large to be an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. The whale was apparently old and in poor health, which is why it was euthanized after it had beached. These are the kinds of things that make the news here. Well, that and temperatures dipping to a sub-arctic 32 degrees. It's warming up now, so there is great rejoicing and thawing of extremities.

I had a massive squee moment earlier today after reading that Good Omens might make it to the big screen - FINALLY! According to the insane genius Terry Gilliam: "I'm the only one who can make it, because that's what Neil (Gaiman) and Terry (Pratchett) have said. I'm the only one." And yes - I know this project has been off and on countless times. But I have hope! As a bonus, the article also mentions Gilliam's Don Quixote-themed project (The Man Who Killed Don Quixote) that would ideally star Johnny Depp, which I think would pique the interest of a certain Depp fangirl I happen to know. Plus, Neil Gaiman's children's story Coraline has been adapted into an animated film that is set to be released at some point this year (and features the voices of Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French from Absolutely Fabulous!). According to the IMDB page for the film, Gaiman supposedly has stated publicly that the soundtrack would be performed by They Might Be Giants. There is not enough server space on Blogger to handle the amount of exclamation points I wanted to place after that last sentence, so for the sake of the integrity of the whole internet I will just have to contain my excitement.

On a related note, I went to the bookstore this morning with my pockets bursting with the promise of unspent holiday giftcards. I came away with a Koontz paperback in the Odd Thomas series that will get me through the weekend (because it's like junkfood for the brain, see?), another collection of Gaiman's short stories, and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco, which was discounted to less than six dollars and then had 25% off of that, so was a bargain that could not be passed up. All that and I still have one giftcard. I was pretty late for work - get me in a bookstore of any kind and I lose all track of time - but everyone's still on holiday break time (the ones who were there, anyway), so it didn't seem to matter much. Little much does these days, I get the feeling...

Man, the things one finds on the internet:



For whatever reason, I crave calamari right now. I don't know if I'll still feel this way tomorrow, but I think I may have to think about that for lunch. After all, you know how I feel about cephalolpods...

Icicle, icicle

Welcome to...

I mean...

My feet are cold. This is just unnatural. Must. Get. Cocoa!

Apathy isn't just a skill, it's a defense mechanism.

It was Introvert Day today. Or, as I like to call it..."Wednesday". I spent it, appropriately, by napping and not answering the phone, which are the things I normally do when I don't have to go to work and I have no reason to go outside and interact with others. I also made slow-cooker chili that turned out awesome. Now we're watching episodes of Dirty Jobs that we'd recorded during the New Year's Day marathon. I'm trying to enjoy this as much as possible since I go back to work tomorrow. This, along with the fact that what remains of our Christmas tree is now sitting by the curb, signifies the end of the holidays. Of course it gets cold now. It's not even that cold, really, although they may get snow in the panhandle. I'm off to make some cocoa, in any case.

Updates...It's currently Thursday. The boss will be out until next week. The receptionist will be out indefinitely due to a family emergency. So the co-worker that is sharing the space with me for the next two days has been venting to me about all of these problems that came up while I was out and she was the only one here. Today she is a little...well, there's a word for it, but I'll be nice and say she's under stress because things are going so wrong for her departments. Meanwhile, I'm not stressing simply because one would have to give a care to stress over some of these things. And not giving a care is the new black. Seriously. It goes with everything!

I am a little aggravated because no one is here to operate the complicated coffee making apperatus that practically requires an engineering degree, the cafeteria is closed, and the dispensers in the break room are out of order. So I'm caffeine free against my will. It's lunch time, so I think I'll brave the chill and walk over to the B&N to get a hot beverage in a little while.

M - here's a reason to go back to ORL this year: Universal overhauled the Earthquake ride into something a little different - and it features a projection of Christopher Walken. According to the Sentinel article I read today "...the audience watches a projection of Walken -- portraying a fictional movie director named Frank Kincaid -- run onto the stage, talk to them, walk in front of, and behind, real furniture on the stage, and interact with a live actor there. Slated for a Jan. 17 grand opening, the attraction has been open sporadically for previews during the past couple of weeks, drawing consistent, widespread wonder from employees and visitors alike..."

Doesn't that sound like seven different levels of awesome!?

New beginnings, more of the same

So it's a new year. Again. And here I am, sans resolutions and feeling overall kind of meh about the passing of another year of my life, and rather directionless. This is normal, but unfulfilling. I guess "define life goals" could be a resolution, but it'll take more than a year to accomplish. I hope the new year brings decisiveness and success to everyone else, at any rate.

The weather is changing again - there's a cold front blustering through that'll make it nice and chilly for a few days. But then it's right back to "normal" for us in the sunbelt.

I'm watching the NHL's "Winter Classic" - the outdoor game in Buffalo between the Sabres and Penguins. It is one of the most awesome hockey spectacles I've ever witnessed, and a great game so far. Of course I'm a long time fan of the Pens, being from the area originally (loyalty any Pittsburgh team is second only to my current "hometown" teams), so I'm a little biased, but isn't Sidney Crosby an amazing player - youngest captain in NHL history at 19 and the kid can handle a stick like he's been pro forever. I'm going to have to start watching league games again...this is some exciting stuff! I guess I should check the stats to see where my team is standing. Also, the All-Star Game is coming up at the end of the month, so don't forget to VOTE!