Vacation idea

If anyone is handing out free vacations, I would very much like to stay at this place. Normally I'd just plan a trip if there's a place I want to go, but in this case I happened to see the prices. So, a benefactor is going to be necessary if I'm ever to visit.

Beyond the ridiculously high rates, it looks like a very cool place. I love the idea of being in the middle of the wilderness, completely removed from modern society, yet still having all the comforts of that society. Apparently the only way in/out is by boat or float plane. Sounds like a great way to run away and hide for a little while, and I could sure use some of that!

Hello, old age

So, after almost 40 years I'm in glasses for the first time in my life. Luckily I need them only for reading or working on the computer, but it's still a milestone. It would be nice to think that I could have gone on for a few more years without needing any artificial devices to keep me going, but it wasn't to be. It's not like the grey hair doesn't already betray my age but I don't need help broadcasting it. So, here then is the first pic of me in glasses.

Ugly or cool (or both)?

Yes, I'm a boat geek so I follow new launches, new designs, etc. This yacht hit the water in Germany a few days ago and is now on sea trials. It's definitely unique and someone took some chances with the styling. The size is impressive (almost 400' long) but size isn't everything and I'm still trying to decide if I like the thing or not.

Mary Ann caught with dope

I always knew Mary Ann was the real party girl in the group.

Catching up

I can't believe it's been almost six weeks since I posted anything here. It's more than time for an update. I also owe several people e-mails and phone calls...I'm already behind this year and it's only early March. My mother even sent me a message the other day reminding me that it had been a while and was wondering if I was still around!

So what's been going on to keep me so busy...? A whole lot and very little really. We had our friend Brian from Alaska visit us for a long weekend, and it was a very nice weekend. We didn't do a whole lot but still enjoyed ourselves. We went to the market, and then hung out at home much of the rest of the time. Of, and we ate out a lot (when do we not do that?). It was really good getting to see him and having him here.

Starting just after Brian left,Jayson has been dealing with more depression issues that, this time at least, stemmed from a bad bout of insomnia. It got him into a bad cycle where he wasn't sleeping and then being exhausted in the day, which let the depression take hold. It's better but the insomnia continues. This started in early February and got pretty bad by the last week of February. For anyone who's never lived with a depressed person, it's a lot of work. Not only is there the person to take care of but all the normal daily chores which are usually divided between people. It's not only double the work, but about 2.5 times the work. So, that's what kept me busy most of February. I think he's on an upswing so that's a good thing.

We also have had someone staying with us the last few weeks, and that's actually been a help. Our friend Anthony needed a place for a while but he's been a big help and he's staying around longer. It's been nice to have some of the pressure at home taken off.

Things at work are beginning to settle down for me. I hired someone to replace my Japan-bound former employee. He's working out OK but it's still a process getting him up to speed. It's happening at a reasonable pace so I'm okay with that. It didn't help during February that I was covering my job and his (before he was hired) and dealing with stuff at home, but enough bitching about all of that. It's all getting better.

I had a big "Oh shit, I'm getting old" moment on Saturday. For the first time in my life I'm getting glasses. They'll only be for reading and working at the PC but I'm getting them nonetheless. I managed to make it almost 40 years without needing anything so I won't complain too much. It will be weird having to wear glasses but like everyone else, I'll adjust. As my friend Wes said, "Pick the frames that compliment your face." That was a great example of stating the obvious (hugs Wes) but I hope the ones I got will look good on me. Of course, I can't help but wonder what body part will next need assistance as I continue to age...

We've been doing a lot of planning for our vacation this year. We're renting a 29' trailer and hauling it to Yellowstone in May, just before Memorial Day. We figured that we have my truck to pull the thing with and we've never been, so we thought it would be fun. It'll be interesting to see how well we do with a 20' long truck pulling a 29' long trailer but we'll figure it out. If we can find out way through the Italian cities we've driven through without having multiple wrecks, we'll do fine pulling this trailer.

The new sail for the boat is on the way (those who've read past posting will know what I'm talking about). I ended up getting a good deal on it so I'm pleased. Saving 50% on something like that is a great thing. Now, we're better used the damn boat this summer! I'm going to make sure we do.

We also passed the two year anniversary of owning our house on Feb. 14. I can't believe we've owned this house for two years; it seems like no time that we've lived here. Maybe that's why the carpets look dirty when I think they shouldn't. We still haven't even managed to paint any of the bedrooms or bathrooms. Maybe this year...

That's it for now. I need to update this much more often with more specific info instead of waiting until times like now when I do just a long rambling general update. I think I'll work on that. Work won't be too exciting this week I think, but I do get to meet Melinda Gates tomorrow. She's touring our facility and checking out some of the lab work since her and Bill's foundation gives up several million dollars a year. Should be interesting.

At least I'm not the only one

Okay, so the subjects of the study are little kids, but it confirms that how I feel about these things is not unusual. I'm not scared of them, but I think they're just creepy and not right. I will definitely go out of my way to avoid one however.

I disagree with the author's idea that popular culture makes them creepy since I've not personally seen the movies that are referenced. I don't think pop culture made them creepy; I think their natural creepiness led to their roles in pop culture.

But at least this article proves that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Brain Dump

It's been a long while since I posted anything here. I just haven't had much to say, and I really haven't felt like coming up with anything to write. No, there's not been anything wrong, I've just not in the mood. It's already been an interesting year, and it's not quite the end of January.

The big news for me is actually at work. My perpetually late/absent employee announced last week that she and her husband are moving to Japan, next week. She's always been prone to tall tales (although I'm convinced she really believes them) and this is no exception. The story is something about her husband, who doesn't actually meet the qualifications of the jobs his company needs to fill, was somehow their first pick our of several hundred people who applied for various transfers and he could go anywhere in the world. So, they chose Italy (stick with me here...) and were all excited about it. That was Thursday morning and there were stories of how they would be leaving immediately, his company was paying to move all their stuff, giving him a huge raise, and paying ALL their living expenses for the next year. Sounded fishy to me already. So how did they end up in Japan? By Thursday afternoon the story had changed to be that his company, which employees easily more than 100,000 people, needed his apparently one-of-a-kind skills desperately not in Italy, but in Japan. So, they decided to move to Japan, with barely two weeks notice. The company is still paying for everything and for them to live after they get there. It all sounds like bullshit to me. Her story has too many holes to be completely true and maybe she just wants a different job but she's too chicken-shit to say so.

So, long story short (too late huh?), it causes me major changes at work. I've already got two official titles and am really doing one and a half jobs. Until we hire someone to replace her I'll be adding all of her work to mine, so I'll be doing two and a half jobs until we fill that position. I'm not looking forward to it, at all. The upside to all this is that she's been unreliable with her schedule and now that little problem is moving to Japan. She uses any excuse to be late or out completely and more than once in the last year has gone beyond the sick and vacation time she has available. She does a good job when she's there, so she's sort of got many others bamboozled which has made it hard to discipline her. Each time I talk to her and get her back on track, she takes advantage again and the powers-that-be let it slip and cover her time off. It's hard for me to be an effective manager when the people above me undermine me. With her departure, she solves the problem for me. In spite of being so busy for the next month or two I'm welcoming the change, and welcoming being able to get started with someone new in that job.

Otherwise, work has just been work. It's been getting slowly busier since the beginning of the year, but that's not a bad thing in itself. It certainly makes the day go faster.

Home has also been busy, but we've been having fun. We've just been on the go a lot, which is typical. The hubby has developed a minor case of Bell's Palsy and it's not painful, but it's just odd. It scared me at first since I wasn't sure what it was. Luckily the doc confirmed that it's harmless and will eventually go away.

We took a friend to the boat show over the weekend. It was his first time to go to a boat show and I enjoyed getting to play expert and edumacate him about boats. Plus, it was fun getting to dig around boats I don't own or have to clean. The only problem was when our friend started pushing buttons and levers on one of the bigger boats we went on and almost dropped the anchor. It was a heavy anchor, and there was a smaller, but VERY expensive boat sitting directly under the anchor. He thought that the "windlass" (look it up if you're not sure what it is) had something to do with the windshield and kept pushing the button when he didn't see the windshield doing anything. He figured something wasn't right when the loud beeping noise started, and the salesman on the boat came running up to the top deck. I let our friend know that, as a rule of thumb, it's a bad idea to start pushing buttons on a boat when you know nothing about boats. The idea of "What does this button do?" can get very expensive on someone else's boat.

I did one really good thing happen at the show. I had ordered a sail for our boat way back in May. After I ordered it, the guy kinda vanished, so I started looking at other options. I found his booth at the boat show and chatted with him and told him that I had found other options. He didn't have any use for the custom-made sail, so he is selling it to me at cost. Having a 5 minute conversation saved me $800. I like those kinds of conversations.

Sadly there's not much more I can think to blather on about. Life's not to exciting at the moment, but I've learned not to wish for excitement; the universe tends to give me a lot more than I want. I've not been doing much more than laying low...I've not even been keeping up with the news sites and blogs that I normally read. I think I need to hibernate for a month and start fresh in March.

My candidate

I know I've said that I've already lost interest in the 2008 elections and am not tuning in at this point. However, once in a while a candidate comes along that just speaks to who I am and makes me feel good about the future. I've found that candidate this year:

Back to the salt mines

So I get to go back to work tomorrow, after two full weeks off. It wasn't supposed to be that long off work, but an unexpected illness extended the time. I should be upset about being sick, but in a weird way it's been an okay way to start a new year. I truly got to ease into the new year with rest and sleep and just general taking it easy. It feels like I got a chance to shut down completely from 2007 and now restart tomorrow to go back to work. I've got a long list of stuff to do right away already but I don't mind. Having the extra time off gave me enough time to feel like I got completely away from work; I think I'm ready to deal with it again.

Not lots to report on here this weekend. I spent a good part of it doing laundry that I was really behind on. I even got the clothes out of the luggage from NYC and got them washed. It only took three weeks to do it too! We took down the lights outside down before we got completely sick of them. We still have the few x-mas decorations inside but those will go away soon I'm sure. They've already faded into the background and are nothing more than "white noise" at this state. I also sat down and got all the bills paid and up to date, which was something I had been avoiding for a while.

I've not been spending much time reading news and politics. I'm already sick of the 2008 election cycle and it's only the first week of January. By November the noise level will have become just one loud screech so I might as well just tune in at the last minute. I'm not confident that anything will change, regardless of who is elected. The Dems in Congress have had plenty of chance to make changes over the last year and they've failed miserably. We supposedly have two parties in this country, but in the end it's really just two branches of the same party. One branch plays the conservative bad-cop role while the other branch plays the liberal good-cop role. In the end, they both seem to want the same thing, mostly to get re-elected. It's just a sad self-serving plutocracy that perpetuates itself by accomplishing as little as possible. Anyone who upsets the status quo in government is a risk and is quickly run out.

Well, I think that's all I've got at the moment. Wish me luck back at work tomorrow.

It's about damn time

I finally got the camera out of the luggage and off-loaded the pictures. I know I know...it shouldn't have taken three weeks to do it, but oh well. If you'd rather view them in a grid as opposed to the slideshow, you can use the link under the Photos section to the right. Hope they were worth the wait!