Kissimmee, FL

Up at 0430 to make my run. Just keep telling yourself, "This is the hardest thing you have to do today." Before you know it, it is already over. It was about 58° F and low humidity when I went this morning, but I still poured sweat.

Showered, shaved, put on a white shirt, out the door to work at 0630. Got to the office at around 0700.

Betsy returned from Hong Kong today ! She brought each one of us a card that has our name written on it in Chinese characters. She had 180 messages to get through in her Outlook before she could do anything else.

I took Michael Glasby, the college intern, out to lunch. We went to my favorite sandwich shop - Panera. Michael is attending Michigan State as an Industrial Engineering major. I guess the business and economics facet of engineering gets neglected.

It was actually hot today. Sunny and 86° F outside. Tomorrow it is supposed to hit 87, but the chance of rain goes up too.

Today I read the in the news that Terri Schiavo passed away this morning. May she finally rest in peace. People forget that there are things in this world worse than death. Other news and trivia items I clicked include:

• Single man's guide to TV dinners.
• An update on the story about the plagiarizing college girl.
• I first read about this paralyzed guy with the brain implant in the February issue of Wired magazine.
• Researchers are working on bionic eyes too... so far they are a success in rats !
• Get into shape with Russian girya/kettlebell training !
• Molly Ivins wrote a column about fuel efficiency standards and oil drilling in Tuesday's column.
• All you can't eat -- about calorie reduction and life extension.

I checked the FedEx package tracking site. My corkscrew and stovetop smoker should arrive tomorrow !

This evening there was a payroll stub in the mailbox. I balanced my checkbook and wrote checks for the April rent, my water bill, April storage unit rent, and the cable bill. Only have $45 left after that spending orgy. Next week I am going to give Bank Of America two or three hundred dollars. Debt-free in 2005 !

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities" -- Voltaire

Kissimmee, FL

Did not crawl out of bed until after 5am. For some reason these past two days I have been sooooo sleepy ! It hits me in the afternoon too. I think I'd better get my ass up and run before I start to backslide.

Today was another gorgeous, sunny, dry, 85° F day. I got out at lunchtime to get my ID card renewed at Access Control. It is always fun to go out and see the people riding the monorail and visiting the parks... when people hear that you work at Disney they think it must be fun and wonderful, when infact I usually just see the inside of the office all day.

The queues were not too busy and I was able to handle the other issues easily. The next blog entry contains the phone log from today.

In my spare time I was able to read some interesting articles:

• A surprisingly comprehensive guide to becomming a stripper. This girl gives good sensible advice too ! Time for a career change, anyone ?
• A Nevada woman is considering a lawsuit after eating a 1- 1/2 inch-long finger from a bowl of Wendy's chili ! Don't get the chili !
• Here, hide your bathroom plunger under this gaudy, attention-getting fake plant.
• The FBI and the SS suppressing free speech. Good-bye First Amendment.
• Read this interesting portrait of Alan Greenspan in GQ magazine. The article is kinda long, but it is good.
• More here about the boy who implanted an RFID chip in his hand.
• A recent study concluded that two-thirds of the world's resources are already used up. Does that mean the glass is one-third full ?
• I found this online FTP service. No need to install software client on your PC, just go to the site and enter the FTP address.

Laundry tip -- When the sheets and pillowcases come out of the dryer, fold them and tuck them into one of the newly-clean pillowcases before placing the package back in the linen closet. That makes it easy to grab exactly the items you need when a bed needs clean sheets. Sounds like a good idea.

"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them." -- Einstein

Typical Day's Phone Calls

3-30 0837
Jack Finch wanted to know if we handled carpet and carpet installation. I told him to direct the order to Purch Grp W40.

3-30 0832
Davida Heeder has transferred a phone message to me. Ana Mendick needs a PO created immediately for PR 4000486472 in FU-05. Dawn deleted this requisition yesterday, so I am giving this one to her. 8282-3254.

3-30 0928
Paul Sundermann called to say that Edward Don's best price for the 14x18 camtray is $6.24 per tray. He will follow up with a written quote this afternoon. This is 4 cents off per tray... and it saves us $88.80 on this order.

3-30 1103
Beth Sapp wants a call back at 407-566-5806.

3-30 1307
Gary Marek at Outdoor Foods regarding PO 4500525971. Don Yel at Taylor refuses to accept this PO. because it begins with 4500 vs 3001. I explained the difference to him and redispatched this order to their fax machine. With PO in hand he is going to send the repair man to MGM.

3-30 1323
Beth Sapp is sourcing from Dupont some shoulder-length rubber gloves (don't ask me!) to protect workers from splattering grease. She wanted to know the basic process for ordering these items.

3-30 1625
Janet at DW Haber & Sons regarding invoices that have not been paid. She cannot find PO numbers for these. Gee... maybe, just maybe this is why they are not paid. If A-P cannot match the invoice to a PO, they do not know which accounts to apply it to ! Why am I telling YOU this ? You know this already ! LOL !! Better question - why is she calling ME about this ?

There you go, a typical day's phone calls (incoming only). Yes, I usually leave the sarcastic commentary in it too - it cracks Betsy up ! As you can see, today was not a heavy day on the phone.

Kissimmee, FL

Lake Eola and Downtown Orlando. 3/5

Beautiful day here.. sunny and warm - 84° F outside today. Sorta like the day in this picture.

Unfortunately I was stuck inside DC-2 all day. Lots of work got done, but I didn't even leave the building all day. Forgot to get over to Access Control for my new ID card. I guess the time was better spent browsing the job boards for a new job anyway.

It is Wednesday morning in Hong Kong right now. Betsy is in the air and on her way back here. 16 hours into San Francisco or 18 hours into Chicago and then 4 more hours from Frisco to Orlando or 2 hours from Chicago to Orlando. She will be tired tomorrow. Oh well, atleast her business in Orlando was taken care of.

Spoke my old Navy buddy, Mike Leary today. He was helping an instructor install and test a CNC router, but he promised to call me back. He did. It was 1730 when the phone rang. We talked for about 30 minutes. He said that Becky Balliet is working at Newport News Shipbuilding now. I guess Mike's bud at the yard mentioned that he knew Leary and all of a sudden Becky did not want to talk about her Navy days anymore. That's because Mike knows what she was doing down in the shaft alleys during his last Med Cruise ! I laugh so hard when I talk with Mike about those people !

Mike said that Robert Augur is transferring from SIMA San Diego to USS Carl Vinson. Isn't that the same ship George is going to ? Well, anyway, I am sure George will recognize a few familiar faces when he gets there. I guess S A Hall is there too.

Blogger is messed up today. I tried to blog from work but it would not post. When I logged in from home I had a lot of trouble getting in. Their server is having trouble today - something about a 'bad kernel upgrade'. Whatever.

I had time to browser the job boards today and I clicked a few interesting stories while reading my news:

• I was always told never to plagiarize when writing my papers. Read about how this girl approached a stranger in a chat room and offered to pay someone to write her paper.
• This moron implanted an RFID chip in his hand... shades of The Beast !
• There are lies, damned lies, and then there is Fox News. Makes a great gift !
• Turn your bathroom into a full-fledged sick bay !
• Turns out oil and water DO mix... but you have to remove all of the dissolved gases from both liquids first.
• Something else interesting from the world of science -- materials scientists have gotten Aluminum atoms to link up in such a way that they act like an atom of alkaline earth element or a halogen. Lots of predicted uses for these 'super-atoms' or 'stable cluster elements'.
• Just because a company is buying their own stock back DOES NOT mean it is a bargain. They could be trying to drive the price up !
• In Being Digital, Nicholas Negrepont said TV and the PC would become more and more alike. Very prophetic statement.
• USGS list of current global seismic activity. Looks like scientists had recently predicted this latest Indian Ocean quake.

My days are spent trying to convince a vendor to stock an item we are going to purchase on a recurring basis, but do not want to stock in our own warehouse; or bail people out who were stupid and waited too long to initiate their purchase and not only do they want me to get the items manufactured and delivered in unreasonable time, but they want me to negotiate a lower price !

Maybe I will post one of my e-mail messages from work here or possibly cut and paste my telephone log in here sometime. I think it will show some of the issues I deal with everyday.

"The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing." -- Marcus Aurelius

Kissimmee, FL

It rained during the night, I heard it. Not sure when it was, but I was up reading until after 11pm and I did not get up until 5am, so it must have been between those times.

There was not a huge number of orders in the three queues I am managing right now. I was able to get all of the orders placed before 11am. Then there were a few change orders and some troubleshooting. Some of the vendors were closed today for the Easter holiday, so that complicated troubleshooting.

It was a sunny day today, but it was windy. At lunch I went over to Disney University to get my ID card renewed at Access Control. Unfortunately somebody forgot to send the memo over authorizing the card renewal so they could not do it. When I got back I sent Matt an e-mail message about it and cc Kerry MacPherson. Before the end of the day, the security lady, Georgeann, called back to say I could come get the ID done anytime. Good. It can wait until lunch time tomorrow now.

I did have the luxury of time to surf a little today. I had to make time to job search too, but here is a sample of what I clicked:

• Researchers have attached gold molecules to proteins so that their folding and unfolding can be easily observed.
• I have not bought anything from this site yet... but I should !
  
• Interesting article about our powerful imagination.
  
• From the same guy, Robert Novak, who put Valerie Plame out to dry - Condi Rice's plan to cut and run from Iraq.
• Directions for silencing a squeaky stair.
• Introducing the Burger King 'Enormous Omelet Sandwich™'. 30 calories more than a Whopper™ - 730 cal. Supersize ME !!
• News about the 8.7 Richter quake near Sumatra Island today from the USGS.

The Mad Commenter expressed the opinion that the links I pass on here are 'GREAT'. I am just glad somebody out there likes them. I thought they were interesting.

I guess I should look for another picture to post and blog. Would like to keep atleast one picture a week in the blog to keep it interesting. I will find something tomorrow.

"True friendship is a plant of slow growth." -- George Washington

Easter Sunday 2005

Slept in a little this morning. It did not rain today.

Pressed three shirts and I ran the vacuum cleaner. That was about all the housework I did today.

Made a ham steak and long-grain rice for dinner.

Guess I did not get very much done today.

Metafilter was down most of the day, but I clicked on a few things:

• Molly Ivins wrote a new column on Thursday.
• A Japanese submarine aircraft carrier was found sunk off of Hawaii.
• Why we have an Easter Bunny and colored eggs at Easter.

That is about all that I managed to get done today. For some reason Blogger adds trash to the links I have been adding. I will have to watch for it in the future.

"I am lazy. But it's the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things." -- Lech Walesa

Kissimmee, FL

It rained several times today... very hard at times. I stayed in most of the day. Cleaned the kitchen and did my laundry. I boiled a dozen eggs and then colored them nice pastel colors with food coloring, vinegar and hot water.

Went to www.chefcatalog.com this morning and ordered my stovetop smoker and teflon corkscrew. $47.00 for the smoker and $19.00 for the corkscrew. Ron said he paid $130 for his !

The old white mildewy shower curtain came down and I put up a nice fresh liner. This one is clear with metal grommets.

Messed around with the plotter today -- trying to get it to plot. Still no luck. It was raining hard and I noticed that the window behind the plotter is leaking. Water was dripping from the top of the window to the sill.

I went to the 99¢ SuperStore around noon. Did not get much because if everything is 99¢ in there they actually have some markup on those items compared to other stores. After that I went over to Target and bought bottled water.

Worked on a couple of Excel spreadsheets today. Mostly did that to practice Excel features such as using the web to update a sheet. So I found my American Century IRA funds on Yahoo! Finance and pulled the numbers in to my sheet from there. On Monday I will open this sheet up and see if it updates. It should. I told Ana she could use that feature for instance - fetch the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website to calculate inflation and determine if a contractor is raising his prices more than allowed by contract.

This afternoon I clicked:

• A cheap do-it-yourself silkscreening lesson. I am tempted to buy the paint, embroidery loom, glue, and panty hose, and try this one out !
• 10 Myths About Copyright explained. Becareful when you find material that you did not create.
• Der Spiegel ran the story " How The Germans Fell For The Feel Good Fuhrer." This will make a good book when it is released in English next year.
• Was Doogie Howser, MD. the first blogger?
• I cannot believe how many comments this Schiavo blog post generated. Welcome to Reality Show America.
• Bush signed a law while governor of Texas that lets hospitals pull the plug if the case is hopeless and the family cannot pay. Wonder how the right-to-lifers feel about that one ?
• The effects of coal power plants on the environment. Interesting Flash interface.
• Everything about foods. Makes it easier to consume fewer calories than you use.
• Management Theories, Management Models, Management Methods. Some interesting topics in there. Don't know how useful yet.
  

Was supposed to go to Ron's tonight to watch Moulin Rouge again, but he never appeared in chat this evening. I did not get my 'disco nap' so I don't think I'll be going downtown tonight.

"We like to think faith is the Viagra of the people," - British Baptist minister, Steve Chalk.

Good Friday 2005

Up for my run at 4:25. It was warm and just a little breeze out of the south. Still, I kept telling myself, "This is the hardest thing you have to do today..." again and again, and I ran my whole route without stopping. But it was so humid I was pouring down sweat when I got to the end. Then, as I was walking back to the house, it began to rain on me. Oh well, I was wet anyway.

Got to work at 7:10. Found a boxed chocolate Easter rabbit on my desk. Matt left Easter bunnies for each of us. The queues were very full. Lots of e-mail too. I printed out the change orders, and then as I was typing a sarcastic reply to Mario Cacciatore's question about toaster ovens, Outlook froze up. For some reason the mail server went down at 7:20. It was down for over an hour.

Called Bank Of America to close credit card account ending in 0617 and then I called Sears to close my Sears MasterCard account. Just one Bank Of America card account left now - the low-interest military account and I have about $2500 left to pay on that one. I can have that paid off in a year. I need send for a credit report so that I can see how many forgotten accounts I still have open and see who has been requesting credit reports.

Went to lunch with Andrea McNair. We went to the Panera bread out on Sand Lake Road. We were gone for about an hour and a half. Overcast all day. I think it is a full moon now too. She paid for my lunch... so I owe her one.

Back in the office Matt said we could quietly go at 3:00 PM. So I got my time card signed and faxed in. Peggy and I left around 3:15 I think. Lots of traffic on the way home even though we were early.

Today I clicked on these:

• The New Sleep Tracker Watch tracks your sleep pattern and wakes you at the optimum time. Ready to seize the day !
• The tortured birth of the notebook computer. Funny pictures !
• Tom DeLay claims there is a "vast left-wing conspiracy" out to ruin him. Yeah ! Nail the Hammer !!
• Dear God... now I think I have heard it all..."But at its core, the Schiavo case is not about bioethics, living wills, or medial choices. It’s about the failure to protect the institution of marriage." See why I read non-fiction only ?
• Windows program that extends the "Send To" menu choice when you right-click.
• There are so many Google hacks and ways to use Google that this site has become necessary I guess.
  

15 minutes after I got in it began to pour. Raining steady outside now. Weather service said severe storm watch until 6 PM.

Kissimmee, FL

Up at 4:25 and immediately made my run. The temperature was almost perfect... slight breeze coming from the west - could smell the bakery. Ran my route without stopping once.

I left for work early because I knew that I had that American Express interview today. I was out the door at o615, but FDOT had 192 jacked up - one lane westbound due to paint striping ! THAT added another 20 minutes to my commute. When I got there shortly after 7, there was no one else in yet. Matt had a Doctor's appointment.

The queues were mercifully light this morning.

Ana called me this morning with news from her new job. She said vendors have thanked her for quitting Disney. They are all complaining about Dawn Luttrell and how badly she treats the vendors. I told Ana, "You still have Kimberly's e-mail address, right? Hand that to them and tell them, 'I want you to tell her exactly what you just told me.'" That is the only way anything will be done. If they tell Matt, it will go no higher. If Ana tells Kimberly, Kimberly will say that she is just disgruntled. But if vendors begin to tell her, she will have to act. I told Ana, "It seems mean and vindictive, but it is the biggest favor you could do for Disney."

I left for Orlando at 2:45. Only had 1/4 tank of gas, but I felt that it would be enough. Course I kept watching that gas gauge ! I got to my appointment a few minutes early. Danette Reed took me to the meeting room where the presentation would happen. The guy doing the presentation was named Steve Merenda, the regional vice-president. Basically, he is offering a "career" vs a "job". Plus, he wants you to keep the job you have for a few months. But, he wants you to fork over $1400 and work your ass off to pass the Series 7 exam and some other certification within 60 to 90 days. They give you a $1500 bonus at that point, but still.... began to feel uneasy about it. If you are dedicated to it, you can really begin to see some money after two or three years. I think I will have to pass on this one too.

Because of the heavy traffic I stayed downtown for a while. I went to the Full Moon where Joe Hungerford was tending bar. He was surprised to see me so dressed. At 6 PM I went down the trail to the Shell station where I put $25.00 in mid-grade fuel into the truck, then made my way through the still-heavy-traffic back to Kissimmee.

I am glad that I got extended. That gives me more time to locate another job.

Today I did manage to click a few items:

• Crimes against the hive - Bee Policing. Interesting stories about insects and how they order their lives.
• An interview with Gore Vidal about the War in Iraq, elections without politics, and the late-great US Constitution.
• Free Windows software that creates PDF's from text documents, and an online service that converts PDF's into text files.
• With media attention on Terri Schiavo, this link to the US Living Will Registry was easy to find !
• Molly Ivins has a new column this week... she writes about Terri Schiavo. I think everyone is this week.

Tomorrow is Friday. I can dress business casual again since I do not have an interview scheduled tomorrow. I think I am going to take the intern, Mike, and go out to lunch. Get my work done early and just browse the job boards all afternoon.

"In individuals insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule." -- Nietzche

Kissimmee, FL

Around midnight I woke up to hear it pouring outside. Hard thunderstorm went through. I slept on until 5. It was not raining when I got up.

As I drove to work it began to rain, and it was VERY DARK... it began to lightning... and then it began to POUR. Where everyone is normally going 60 or 70 along 535, we were crawling along at 35MPH this morning. Impressive lightning snaking across the sky too !

When I got to work I knew that I was in danger. People were not stopping for me to use the cross walk. "Either I will get hit by one of these speeding cars, or lightning is going to strike this aluminum umbrella I am carrying." I was fine.

Huge amount of orders in the queues. I pushed myself and got all orders placed before I left for today's interview in Longwood at 10:30.

I gave myself an hour to get there, and I got there with about 10 minutes to spare. It was hidden in a back alley. Very scary place. When I got inside they had us fill out an application, and then the receptionist ushered us into a small room whose walls were painted "olive". They were very disorganized. You could hear one black female loudly reading out somebody's credit card numbers on the phone and telling the customer that their interest rate just went from 24% to 6.9%.

After about 20 minutes a man in a purple suit and tie came in to talk to us. I did not believe anything he said. I think he liked me, because I kept smiling, but I was a little pissed that they wasted my time. I kept catching him in lies. He was bragging about how well they were doing and how they needed 30 people so they could expand. Trust me, their office did not reflect all of the money supposedly passing through there.

On my way back, I stopped at the Panera on 436 and got lunch. Then rushed back down I-4 to Lake Buena Vista. I called Peggy to let her know I was coming. Good thing too because Matt asked about me.

Back at the office I had 4 voice mail messages waiting for me on the phone, and about 6 more orders in Betsy's queue, half of them I threw away because they had no source of supply.

Browsed the careerbuilder.com website this afternoon, then I clicked a few other links:

• Build your very own Solar Death Ray !!
• Interesting ! New technology uses human body for broadband networking !
• Some good points are made in this LEGAL commentary on the Schiavo case.
  
• Yahoo! is increasing e-mail storage space. Since you could do it with g-mail, I wonder if I could use Yahoo! as a virtual fileserver ?
• Start learning to write Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) with these lessons.
• "Come quick ! I'm being eaten by a bear !" Poor woman has not had arms since 1977.
• This cat is FAST ! 10.0 GHz, 30 Terrabytes, 0.14 pounds. It is this year's April Fool's joke, but reality in three more years.
• Now we have found out that plants can revert to the genetics of their grandparents if they have to ! This just blows 150 years of genetics dogma away ! Ana used to wonder why I never read fiction... THIS is the reason why !
• Will somebody check the signature on my credit card ?
• Jules Verne died 100 years ago today in Amiens, France.

So there is some interesting stuff to read. Infact I am going to read some of it myself now that I have to leisure time to do it.

Tomorrow I am wearing my really nice dark blue suit with a darker red tie to my second interview at American Express. I need to find out more about this job.

"Men hate those to whom they have to lie." -- Victor Hugo

Kissimmee, FL

Up at 5am, showered, and put on my mid-grade suit and a red "power tie". Was at the office at a little past 6 because I wanted to be early to cover the time I would miss during my interview at American Express today.

Got Betsy's queue and change orders done. At 8 I asked Peggy how long it would take to drive downtown and she said, "Oh, it could take 45 minutes." She suggested I leave right then. I did, but it only took about 30 minutes to get there.

I parked in the parking garage and rode the elevator up to the 17th floor. There were 4 others already waiting when I got there. I gave the receptionist my resume and she gave me a sheet to fill out. At 9 Danette called our names and took us to a little room with computers so that we could take our test.

The test is a three-part test, it is timed, and you have one hour to take the entire test. It is either pass/fail. Reading Comprehension, Math, and Work Preferences/History. I was rushing through because I was focused on the little clock ticking down in the upper right-hand corner and I was messing up the reading questions. I slowed down a little for the math section. As it turns out I was the first one done. "Well, this was a waste of time."

I got up and went back out to the receptionist to give her my paper. She had my results already printed out. Karen Dotson came for me and took me back to her office. I told her that I did not think I did very well. She said, "Well, you passed ! In fact, you did not score below 80 on any category !" Well well.. I asked her if there was anything in particular she saw on my resume that interested her. "No, we have not been able to identify any particular background that seems to do any better as a financial advisor, infact our top performer right now used to have a lawn mowing business and he is doing better than anyone else in the region." She made an appointment for me to return on Thursday afternoon for the rest of the presentation and a question/answer period with the vice-president.

I believe this job pays a combination of salary and commission. I have to find out more, but I will fill you in when I learn.

In the elevator there was some young people riding down. They asked me how I did and I told them that even though I did not think I did well, I did pass... they laughed. The oriental girl said she didn't even finish hers when she took it ! I think they are in the training program right now.

On the way back to the office I stopped at Panera and picked up my lunch. I got a Cuban Pork and Ham Panini.

In the office I passed Matt in the hall way. He turned and said, "Good luck today, Vince." I replied, "Thanks, it went VERY well !"

About 20 minutes later Matt appeared at my door and told me to go to Pass and ID to have my ID card updated. I said, "But, this card is good until April 1, Matt." hahaha... they are extending my contract to the middle of May now. Can you BELIEVE this stuff ? Atleast that takes some time pressure off of me.

I found out that Marta is in the hospital today. Yesterday she was complaining of pain in her left arm. I told her that could be an early sign of a heart attack. Well, this morning she was having chest pains on the drive in, so she was sent to the hospital and they are running tests on her.

Ana Velazquez called me today ! She is settling into her new job. She has an office cubicle. She says it is sooooo quiet in there you can hear a pin drop. She is going to get a radio for her desk. I know she is going to do well with them. I am glad for her.

Spent the afternoon untangling invoice issues with a Vulcan-Hart order for Disneyland because the vendor put us on Credit Hold and this kept the range from being delivered to one of MY customers. I told the rep, "Steve, from Jan 2004 to Jan 2005, we have done $381,000 in business with Vulcan-Hart and because we did not pay one $5000 bill, they are going to put us on a block ? This is such a small amount of money, but it is pissing so many people off !"

Well, I got their credit department to agree to lift the block if we paid the PO amount (there was a 5% discrepancy). With the block lifted, Steve was arranging to have the range brought down by air freight. It could possibly be delivered tomorrow. I hope so, this customer makes a lot of noise. Matt thanked me for working on this one.

Matt is going to call the rep tomorrow to give him hell. They should have informed us of this long before now. He wants to be sure the vendor knows about it.

Going to wear the same suit to work tomorrow because I am interviewing with another financial services company tomorrow around lunch. On Thursday I will wear my NICE dark suit back to American Express. I don't think I am going to interview for the warehouse job.

No links today. I only had a chance to surf a minimal amount. I was more interested in browsing the job boards today.

"In our play we reveal what kind of people we are." -- Ovid

Kissimmee, FL

Woke up at 4:36 this morning. Pulled shorts and t-shirt on... running shoes... and out the door. The temperature was almost perfect -- if anything it was a little warm. Made my run easily, but I seemed to sweat alot.

Back home I gobbled down my breakfast of vitamins and two hard boiled eggs and bottle of water.

In the office shortly after 7 AM. Got all of the change orders for Betsy's commodity done first. While I was working Betsy's queue Peggy brought in the printed-out W39 and W40 queues, with notes scribbled in the margins about which vendors they were to go to.

Worked hard most of the morning. Went to Chic-fil-A for lunch. While I was out, Brent from the Allied Fastener and Tool called to set up my interview. I called him back and we are going to interview on Thursday.

I spent some time browsing the job boards, but Tuesday and Wednesday are really the best days for new listings.

Because I spent so much time this afternoon troubleshooting a couple of problem orders, I did not have alot of time to web surf, but I did click on a few things:

• John DeLorean died on Saturday. He will be remembered as the man who manufactured the stainless steel cars.
• I read the narrative about the 1917 Halifax Explosion - the largest non-nuclear explosion set off by mankind.
• Found some directions for adding line numbers to Word documents. It could help if you want to comment your document seperately.

Like I said, not a lot of web surfing today.

I asked Kerry MacPherson if she had heard anything about my contract being extended. She has not. But she did hear Matt say something along the lines that I could be extended until the end of May if they had to. I told her that I am considering my contract expired on April 1 and am interviewing outside now. She agreed that I was smart to do that.

Before I left I called Betsy and talked to her for a few minutes. She has her daughter over there with her right now. She was glad to hear from me. She wrote a nice recommendation for me.

There was a strong rainstorm this afternoon. It rained and drizzled my whole slow trip home.

For dinner I had Cheesy Chicken Florentine out of a Lifechoices™ box. Drinking the last bottle of water for the day. Will try to finish chapter one of Personal Finance tonight.

"Seek not every quality in one individual." -- Confucious

First Day of Spring

Yesterday I rolled out of bed and dressed... went to the Save-Rite grocery store. Spent $109 there, then to Target for bottled water - another $13. Then filled my gas tank at Shell. Finally home to put groceries away and do two loads of laundry. Also cleaned the kitchen and bathroom floors with Pine-Sol™ cleaner.

After that big burst of energy I just vegetated the rest of the day. I layed down and finished reading Colossus, then I took a nap. Despite everything I did not make it out to the bars again. I am becomming a hermit ! LOL !

Pictured here is a Japanese-style gazebo that stands on the northeast short of Lake Eola. After I ran the vacuum and ironed shirts this morning I went there and walked three laps around the lake. Then I went to Barnes & Noble to browse. I picked up Isaac Asimov's big volume titled Understanding Physics. These stories used to be sold in three volumes, and I think I might still have them somewhere, but it was only $10 for a big hardbound copy so I got it.

Next book I am reading is called Personal Finance. It probably would not hurt to take a few notes as I work my way through it.

Lastnight Ron was crying to me in chat that I was ignoring him and making him feel like a "piece of meat". Oh yeah, reject me, tell me you still have it for another guy, and then victimize yourself again. Don't even think that I might have some feelings too !

Today was beautiful -- sunny, high of around 78° F, light breeze. Really nice. After noon the traffic picked up heavily. I got some sun on my face and scalp from my walk. This is a good thing.

That is about all to report on my boring weekend. As boring as this is, it is incredible that people still tune in and read it .

Farewell Ana Velazquez

Farewell Ana
Originally uploaded by Vince Thigpen.

This morning it was kinda cool - in the 50's. I ran at 4:30, my usual route.

Turned out to be cool all day. Forecast was 74° F, but I do not think it got out of the 60's.

Wore a my blue shirt with a blue checked tie today.

Got into work shortly after 7. Began working my change orders and then the queue. When Peggy came in at 8, she had a roll of wrapping paper with her. We wrapped up Ana's gift and put purple, pink, and yellow ribbons on it.

We found out that we could not go to Boma's for lunch because it was not open. So we decided to go to Olivia's at Old Key West instead.

This morning my cell phone began to ring on occasion. People replying to my resume and inviting me to interviews. This is good.

American Express wants me to come into a career information session on Tuesday at 9:30... lasting 2.5 hours.

Allied Parts and Fasteners needs a warehouse person - the warehouse coordinator is supposed to call Monday to schedule that interview.

Card Services Financial called and I have an appointment Wednesday at 11:30 for an interview. This is the one that was kinda iffy. But, hey, we will check it out.

Environmental Conservation Laboratories is supposed to get back to me to schedule my interview too. This much response is promising !

Around 11:15 Matt took me and we went to get Ana's poster and the department van. The van is kept across the street at DC-3. While there we let the foods team sign the poster. Then we drove over to DC-2 and picked up Peggy, Dawn and Ana at the curb.

While we were driving down to Olivia's we gave Ana her poster, then we gave her the framed picture. She would not take it out of the box - she was afraid she would begin to cry.

Kimberly met us at Olivia's and we had a very nice lunch. I had the turkey club sandwich and fries. We ordered a hot apple cobbler ala mode for dessert with 4 spoons. It was good... hot pie, cold ice cream !

On the way out to the van, I looked into the lobby of Old Key West and thought I saw Ron sitting at the Disney Vacation Club table. I told Matt I would be along in a minute and I stepped inside. I stepped right up to the table where Ron was on the phone. He winked at me. I asked him if he got what I left for him yesterday. He was surprised to see me !

Back at the office Ana was receiving visitors all afternoon. People were coming by to sign her poster, see her, bring additional cards, hug her. Mark Lufkin brought her a Winnie The Pooh lunch box !

At the end of the day she insisted that we just leave her. She did not want anyone to walk her out. I was sad. I think Monday will be even harder. I was closer to Ana than to anyone else in the office.

As I was approaching my truck in the parking lot, I noticed a heron with a 2-foot-long skinny snake in its beak ! It flew over the retention pond, and shook its head from time to time with the snake dangling. What does that mean ?

Today I clicked on a few interesting things:

• Looked at the website for tinyspell - a very small spellchecker that resides in your system toolbar and spell checks while you type in any Windows program. It beeps and flashes yellow if you misspell. Checks the clipboard too.
• V-RAMBO puts live real time video onto a soldier's wrist. Those crafty Israeli Jews !
• Put it into your mouth, bite down on it, and Hydrabrush centers on the teeth and slowly massages and brushes them !
• Extreme Tech tells the amazing story of your hard disk drive !
• Rapid prototyping machines can now print copies of their own parts ! Humans just have to assemble the parts. $500 3-D printers are on the way !

Just had cheesy chicken Florentine and a coconut-flavored rum and diet Coke for dinner. Debating whether I should go out tonite. I have to pay bills and buy groceries with this check. Next two checks have to pay the April rent and storage fees.

"Real charity does not care if it is tax deductible or not." -- Dan Bennett

Saint Patrick's Day

Went on to sleep until 5 AM because it was raining this morning. It has rained all day long here.

Dressed in my light green long-sleeved shirt for St. Patrick's Day.

On the way to the office I stopped and put a St. Pat's Day card on Ron's windshield (in a Ziploc bag), then continued to the Team Disney Building where I left one on Andrea's desk, finally showed up at DC-2 where I left another one on Ana's desk.

Managed to get the photo collage project for Ana done lastnight. I printed it out on glossy photo paper, cropped it with the x-acto knife and steel straight edge, and fit it into the frame. It looks nice. I wrapped it in the bubble wrap, put it back into the box, and brought it in. Peggy thinks it is just perfect. Flickr will not let me upload a BMP file, so I will convert it to JPG or GIF or PNG tonight, upload it, and post it with tomorrow's blog.

Ana went to lunch with Lynette, Frankie, Phyllis, and Marta. They took her to Macaroni Grill. She said it was nice.

In my spare time I am applying to job listings on line like crazy. Peggy recommended that Matt extend me atleast until they get someone to perform Ana's job, but Matt will end up doing whatever he wants to do. So, I have to be ready to go.

Today I clicked on:

• Interesting papier mache anatomy models at the Smithsonian.
• Paul Wolfowitz has been appointed to lead the World Bank. Maybe he will tell fewer lies than McNamara did.
• The Duct-Tape Czar, Tom Ridge, former head of Homeland Security, has joined the Home Depot board. Shares shyrocket in value !
• I guess diplomatic correspondence will need proofreaders. The government of Sudan was not amuzed.
• Frozen marine methane hydrates could become a future source of fuel.
• New Scientist reports that Cassini detected a tenuous water vapor atmosphere around the Saturnian moon Enceladus.
• Some interesting facts about Saint Patrick.
• Nano-scale memory for electronics that does not need electricity to maintain contents.

Overheard Matt and Dawn talking about Bill Patrizio's presentation. Matt said the company hired a consulting firm to find out why so many people were leaving the company. That was stupid. They can get this information themselves by conducting exit interviews and surveys. Hell, I'm not even an employee, but I could tell them !

For lunch I had a chicken breast, some buttered lima beans, and a buttered slice of rye bread. Mostly leftovers. Won't have to bring leftovers tomorrow because we will be eating at The Animal Kingdom's Boma's restaurant.

Not even hungry for dinner. I sliced up the rest of the Swiss cheese Ana gave me yesterday and ate that with a bottle of water. It is still raining outside. I hope it stops tonight. I would like to run in the morning and I don't want another depressing dreary day like this.

" The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." -- Dolly Parton

Kissimmee, FL

I think I woke up around 2:30 AM... tossed and turned until 4:28... that is when I rolled out of my bed, pulled my t-shirt and shorts on, put my wrist watch on, socks and shoes, and went out the front door for my run. It was VERY HUMID. The temperature was not bad, but it was sooo moist. When I got back I was very wet and I continued to sweat for a while.

At work I am processing everyone's queue while they work on projects or other things. Trying to scroll the job boards - monster.com, careerbuilder.com, and hotjobs.com for some leads. I think I applied for half a dozen jobs today, but it is hard because I am very busy right now.

I heard that Matt got three resumes today, but none of the candidates were worth his time. Hell, I am the perfect candidate for that job, but he is too stupid to realize it. He will have the team completely messed up.

At lunch Peggy and I went to the World of Disney store at Downtown Disney Marketplace. We picked up a nice, $20, stamped metal frame for Ana's farewell gift, then we went next door to the cut glass store so that she could order a glass picture frame for a wedding she is going to this weekend.

After Downtown Disney we had enough time to get out to the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Sand Lake Road. Peggy got the $100 gift card for Ana there, then we went to the Panera bread restaurant to get sandwiches to go.

I put the frame into my truck when we got back so that Ana would not see it at all.

Got pictures from George Lenardos and Marta Alfaro today. Ready to begin.

The change orders and troubleshooting seem to be getting more intense... and next week is only going to be worse as I will have to solve the orders for Ana's commodity too.

At 3 PM everyone went to Bill Patrizio's All Hands Meeting. I was not required to go, and Ana saw no point in going. So I worked the copy machine for her so that we can get some invitations to bid out in Fed Ex tomorrow. After we got that done, we walked from 3:30 to 4:10 PM. Those guys were still not done with the meeting when we came back inside !

Did not get out of the building until 5:30. But traffic was not bad coming home.

This evening I fried two chicken breasts. I ate one for dinner, the other went into a Rubbermaid™ Take Along bowl with some buttered lima beans for lunch tomorrow.

Lynette, Frankie, Marta, Phyllis, and probably a few others are taking Ana to Macaroni Grill for lunch tomorrow. I am surprised they are not going to House of Blues ! I don't have the money to go, but I am going to the farewell lunch at Boma's on Friday.

I am really going to miss Ana. She is the one who taught me to do most of the stuff at work. We had some good conversations and our joking and sense of humor just worked off of each other.

I cropped and adjusted the pictures, imported them into a Macromedia™ Flash library, then assembled the collage on the stage. Had to print a few drafts out, and ended up replacing the color cartridge before it turned out just right. Took the x-acto knife to it on the cutting board to crop the 8.5 x 11 sheet down to 8 x 10. I don't see why it should be wrapped. I put it back into the bubble wrap, slid it back into the box, and put the box back into the Disney Store bag. I just know she will like it.

Compared to the hell that my last job was, I have really had a great time with these people. Even the worst days in Sourcing and Procurement were better than the block plant. I really hate to see my time here end, but if no permanent position is opening up, I will have to move on. All good things must come to an end.

Unfortunately I do not have any links to post today. I have barely kept up with the news, let alone manage to do any browsing or web surfing.

Strong thunderstorms are going through now. I hear thunder and I hear the water dripping loudly down the downspout outside my window.

"A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes." -- Mohandas Gandhi

Ides Of March

2059 years ago today Julius Caesar was assassinated during a meeting of the Roman Senate in Pompey's Theatre. He was 55 years old. The soothsayer told him, "Beware the Ides of March." As he emerged from his liter in front of the theatre he told the soothsayer, "See, the Ides of March have come and nothing has happened to me." The fortune teller replied, "Yes, the Ides have come, but they have not yet gone."

The Ides of March was the last day of Winter for the Romans. March was named "March" because it was the month the army could begin campaigning -- to literally march.

The Roman calendar organized its months around three days, each of which served as a reference point for counting the other days:

Kalends (1st day of the month)
Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months)
Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months)
The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by counting backwards from the Kalends, Nones, or the Ides. For example, March 3 would be V Nones—5 days before the Nones, inclusive.

There, now I have bored you with some history and trivia.

Yesterday I learned that they are trying to replace Ana with a contract worker who has experience with FF&E. But, of course, they are not going to pay this person anymore than they are paying me. Just insane. So I am pretty sure that my contract will not be extended again.

Today we had a Spring Indoor Picnic at work so that we could meet our new neighbors in FAM. It was nice to meet all of those people.

Ana and I went to Gooding's before the picnic to get some crackers and she wanted me to get some grapes. We found some just inside the door marked $3.99. When we checked out the cashier wanted over $6.00 for them ! That was $3.99 per pound ! I told her, "I don't want them!"

When we walked this afternoon we borrowed the surveyor's wheel from FAM. We measured our walk around the warehouses. It comes to 4800 feet each lap - just 480 feet shy of one mile ! So we easily walk 3 miles daily.

On the drive home it began to lightning and then the sky let loose a big rainstorm. It was terribly humid so I guess it needed to do this. Considered running this evening, but the rain quickly changed my mind.

They have the poster for Ana in room 218 for signing. It has a Donald Duck on it - her favorite Disney character. This whole thing with Ana leaving is so depressing. But my time to leave will not be long.

I have scanned or e-mailed pictures home to work on the collage for Ana. I have cropped and adjusted color on the ones I have. Still waiting for some pictures from Tom Bruno and George Leonardos. Tomorrow Peggy is going to take me to buy the nice Disney frame.

I think she will really like my little gift. I know she is going to cry when we give our gifts to her Friday.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." -- Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Kissimmee, FL

Did not go out at all this weekend. Guess I must be getting too old. Ron told me that he did not want to hang out because he still likes someone else and he needs to get over it. Oh well. His decision. So I promptly changed my chat name and profile. He still has my phone number if he seriously wants to talk to me.

Downloaded and watched Latter Days and Moulin Rouge via Bittorrent. Both are kinda tragic. Moulin Rouge seems like a contemporary version of La Traviata.

This morning I made scrambled eggs for breakfast. Pressed a shirt. Showered and went out. Took the truck to the car wash and vacuumed the cab out, then washed it. Next destination: downtown.

The picture here is Lake Eola. This was taken March 10. You can see how low the water is below the signature fountain. It is a beautiful sunny day. Typical of these days are lots of people in the park and lots of dogs being walked. I made two laps around the lake. Each lap is 9/10th's of a mile.

Very pretty... I am sure I got some sun today. Azealeas in full bloom.

Thought about going to the pool and reading magazines, but I am sure I will sunburn if I do that. Besides, with all of these kids, I cannot think of that pool as being clean.

Will probably read magazines right here on the floor and fry the porkchops I thawed lastnight. Possibly return to Orlando this evening to visit my friends at Full Moon.

I need to find out from Peggy if the fancy frame is going to be portrait or landscape. Definitely affects the collage I am putting together for Ana. I will mail a couple more pictures home from work, and I have to hurry with that project. Friday is her last day.

"Things are more like they are now than they ever were before." -- Dwight D Eisenhower, US President

Kissimmee, FL

What a L O N G day ! It was very cold this morning and I did not run. To make up for it Ana and I walked about 4 miles this afternoon.

The day was just soooo busy... Betsy's change orders, Betsy's queue, Betsy's customer service issues, Ana's queue, Peggy's queue... more customer service....

Ana is packing stuff up and taking a little out to her car everyday. Kinda depressing for us, but she is very excited about the change.

We went around the building one at 2:30... then we went down Vista Drive to Port Orleans and walked all the way through Port Orleans... almost to Epcot... you could see Spaceship Earth from the Port Orleans parking lot when we turned around to go back. Walked for an hour and ten minutes.

During our walk Ana was very frank about her reasons for leaving and telling me everything about the politics in the office.

Good breeze out there today... beautiful clear skies and sunny - 72F out there. I was afraid I was going to burn my scalp. Ana had a Chinese parasol, but the wind just tore it up !

Today, in my few minutes of spare time I clicked this:

• First we had GE (genetically engineered) cotton, then other crops, now poplar trees and other hardwoods ? Cross-pollenization is a real concern here too.
• An article in Discover about our pervasive preferred poison - Mercury.
• Gordon Moore, the man who stated "Moore's Law" about the fact that computer power doubles every 18 months says that nanoelectronic devices will have many difficulties.
• The Voyager space probes will live on until about 2020, but NASA is cutting funding to the scientists who monitor them now.
• I have not done this yet, but here are some directions for perverting Google's free G-mail into a 1.2 GB online personal file server !
• Orlando city mayor Buddy Dyer was forced to resign and arrested for using a vote broker and committing voter fraud during the recent bitter election. Why does a rigged election not surprise me when it is local ? When it happens to national elections it is hard to get excited about the small fry.
• Molly Ivins has a new column this week. In this one Sen. Byer equates GW Bush with Adolph Hitler. Pretty incidiary stuff for the Repugs !

For dinner I pan fried a salmon steak in peanut oil and made a sauce with olive oil, lemon juice, capers, minced garlic, lemon pepper, and sour cream. I really liked it that the sauce was lemony on that fish.

Since it is Bike Week, I am tempted to go out tonite. Ron is not in a good mood and does not want to meet tonite... so maybe I should go out. Laundry and some groceries tomorrow. Paid the IRS the $387 I owed... and I have some left over for bills !!

"Standing up to despotism and tyranny has always been considered illegal by those in power, and dangerous to those who would expose them."-- Sibel Edmonds

Kissimmee, FL

Lastnight I watched The Fog of War. I was very skeptical about Robert McNamara. I guess alot of people involved in Vietnam would be too. Maybe he really does want peace. This morning he was in the news - MSNBC had a short story about him criticizing our handling of nuclear non-proliferation.

After that I took a quick shower and drove out to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Ron was working in the lobby and was closing. It was already 1oPM when I started. Cold and rainy. Weather was sooo disgusting. Never been to DAKL before... was not even sure how to get there... and here I am doing it in the dark. I found it fine. It is a very large hotel with an African safari theme. Huge cathedral-like lobby. Ron was on the far side of the room. He did not think I was going to show up !

He took some time to show me some novel things in the lobby and we stepped out onto a balcony. Even though it was dark I saw a couple of long-horned auroch's sitting over in the grass. The animals can come right up to the guest rooms here ! Sometimes you will see zebras and giraffes !

It is so funny to see the hotel. Very convincing grass "roof" with simulated tree-trunk beams. I know it is all concrete behind it, but they did a very good job decorating it.

I was back home by 11 PM and I even had sometime to read a few pages of my book before falling asleep. I knew that because of the weather I was not running in the morning.

This morning I got up and showered, shaved, and dressed in my nicest dark blue worsted wool suit. White shirt. Red tie. Got to the office at 6 AM. I told Matt I needed a long lunch, but that I was going to make up the time. He was perfectly fine with it. Many people commented on how sharp I looked. I like that suit.

At noon Ana and I got into her car and went to Orlando to the Home Depot Expo Design Center. Man, they have sooooo much stuff in there. I know that I am going to spend a lot of time in there making some agonizing decisions ! Even though alot of the stuff was witheringly expensive, I loved it !

Next we had to get some lunch. We went over to Millenia Mall and did take out at PF Changs Chinese restaurant. While the food was being prepared, we stepped over to the Nieman-Marcus store. Dear God... talk about EXPEN$IVE ! Shirts on the rack.... should have cost $19... I spent $36 for at Sears.... hahahaha... at Nieman-Marcus, they cost $190 !! The only good thing about it is that I was atleast dressed to be in there !! Ana was looking at the watches in the display case... the money they wanted for some of those was obscene.

Took out meal back to WDW... I am just glad that traffic was moving on I-4. While we were gone Matt asked Peggy where Ana was... Peggy told him. Who cares ? What is he going to do ? Fire her ? LOL !!

This afternoon Peggy came to me to ask me about Ana's farewell gift. Her idea was a Barnes & Noble gift card for $100 and something Disney like a special frame with a picture of the team. She regretted that they did not have a picture with Matt and me in it... and I wondered if we could be "doctored" into the picture with Photoshop. The I suggested a collage. Peggy really liked that idea... so she is going to scan some photos of all of us and mail them to me... I will create the collage and print it onto 8x10 shiny photo paper.

I mentioned to Peggy that Ana said something about perhaps having her farewell luncheon at Boma's in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Ana did not think that Peggy would like it, but she was surprisingly receptive to the idea !

She passed the ideas about the farewell gift and farewell luncheon to Matt and Dawn and they love the ideas as well... so it looks like that is what we will do next Friday.

We found out that her favorite Disney character is Donald Duck. So, for the farewell poster that everyone signs, they are going to customize it with Donald and they are going to have it framed.

Ana does not want a farewell party because she is certain that she would cry. So they are going to let everyone come around to her office on her last day to wish her well. Whatever makes it most comfortable for her.

I did manage to find time to click on a few things, but ran out of time to blog them at work today. Today I clicked on:

• A new coating for ships and boats inspired by shark skin. The coating prevents fouling, enabling higher speeds and greater economy.
• The protein that allows sperm cells to fuse with eggs cells has been identified. Possible fertility treatments and contraceptives without hormones.
• Programming that allows the Mars rovers to navigate autonomously. With more computing power, these machines could operate unsupervised.
• This online tool will give you the colors on a webpage and their hexadecimal codes - excluding the images.
• My beloved Ikea is accused of sex-bias because the directions for assembling their flat-pack furniture only depict men doing the assembly. Maybe Muslims prefer it that way ?
• CNN reports the Orlando, FL is aiming for more luxury tourists.
  
• Very interesting interactive human body site. Good learning tool... just drag and drop those organs !!
• We know that natural leaders are also very good liars. Why are we outraged when they do what comes naturally ?

Also followed a few MS Excel tutorials from yesterday's post. When I got a chance, I showed a few of the tricks to Ana. Real time savers, or big WOW factor.

"Those who do not remember the future are doomed to repeat it." -- unknown

Lake Buena Vista, FL

The forecast said that it was supposed to be very cold last night. So when I got up at 0430, I pulled my shorts and tee on and went outside to "test" the air. It was not cold, it was almost perfect for running. Off I went. Did not pass a soul (except for a yellow cat watching the messed up lawn sprinkler at the church).

Saw my old friend, Geoff Guth, in chat this morning while I was cooling off.

It began to rain as drove to work. Had to walk in with my umbrella. Soon it was raining very hard ! It has rained all day today and it is getting cold outside. Funny, this was the forecast for yesterday.

Matt asked me to help Ana catch her queue up since Ana is leaving. Asked me to help Peggy with her queue since Peggy has to work on cost savings submission. Both of those queues together - 7 orders to process. It was the 16 orders in Betsy's queue, troubleshooting orders for Betsy, and miscellaneous other shit that kept me so busy today.

Had chili (made with ground pork) and a salad for lunch today.

Despite being so busy, I found time to click on a few things:

• Wired magazine reports that scientists are trying to use stem cells from pig embryos for human replacement organs. Hey, it's worked in mice so far !
• Forbes magazine lists the Top 10 Corporate Hate Websites. Talk about getting a lemon !
• An op/ed pieced about the Guckert/Gannon debacle berating the mainstream media for not reporting the story and letting the administration roll right over them.
• A Frequently Asked Questions (faq) list of productivity hints for MS Excel.

Not a lot of links today, but did not have as much time as usual.

I am going to attempt to get a haircut again this evening. Tomorrow I will wear my nice cark blue suit and red tie, tell Matt that I need a long lunch, let him assume I have a job interview, and go to Expo Design Center with Ana.

Left work 15 minutes early to beat the rush. Because of the shitty weather, the traffic just crawled anyway. Took me an hour to get to the barber shop. At the barber shop I waited another hour to be served while the TV was blaring Telemundo and WAPA - Puerto Rican stations.

Now my hair is cut short, Lifechoice™ chicken parmasan is in the microwave, and I am about to watch The Fog of War. Ana rented it and wants me to watch Robert McNamara's 90-minute documentary so that she can hear my opinion of it. Just a damned good thing she has weekly rental !

"Suppression of a political opinion leads to it's violent expression" -- unknown

Lake Buena Vista, FL

This morning it was warm and humid - you could smell the rain.

Started to sprinkle on my way to work. It rained very hard for awhile this morning. This afternoon it is sunny, but very windy. Tonight it is supposed to get cold again - 40's.

For lunch I had some crab cakes and some of the salad I made last night. Tonight I still have a bowl of salad at home, and I have thawed ground pork and a salmon steak in the refrigerator. I think I am going to cook the ground pork, pour the instant chili-in-a-can into it, and a can of black beans.

Today I had some time to click on these items:

• This machine and mixes for making Easter Peeps and Chicks at home. How much fun is that ? I bet you could make shamrocks for St Patricks Day and flags for Independence Day and sell the darned things !
• A media library for $240 (hard drive not included). This holds up to 2TB of video or sound files and has ports for the television or stereo.
• 101 Zen Stories. Very short stories. Some of them are thought-provoking !
• Now it is possible to score a Perfect 2400 on the New and Improved SAT with mandatory essay section.
• Ever wonder why airline flightpaths go clear up to the north pole when flying long overseas flights? Well, the Great Circle Mapper will show you why. Interesting !
• If you have an ancestor who survived the plague, you may have the CCR5 delta 32 gene mutation that also protects against HIV. Sorta like the how scicle-cell anemia protects against malaria.
• The strange story of the homosexual necrophiliac duck.

That's it. Nothing earth-shattering or particularly useful today.

Lake Buena Vista, FL

Interesting day so far. Got up at 0434 to run. Partly cloudy and mild - 50's. Made my run but my legs and back hurt from it.

Two hard boiled eggs and a nutrition bar for breakfast, 1 quart sparkling water.

At work by 0715. When I parked the truck I noticed four otters playing in the retention pond by the parking lot. I sat on my bumper and watched them for awhile. The two ducks were standing up on the bank watching them too. I bet they could not wait for them to leave.

There were a ton of e-mail messages to read, delete, take action on, etc. Then started the queue, which was not too bad. Peggy is taking the day off. Ana was in around 0800 and I noticed Dawn here a little later.

Ana asked Matt, "Do ya got a minute?" and off to his office they went. I overheard him exclaim, "Well, congratulations !" very loudly. I guessed correctly that Ana dropped her bombshell. Couple of hours later I got a meeting invitation for a send off lunch for Ana from Matt. That is supposed to be 18 March. Kimberly will be attending too !

So, Ana was very popular today. Many people came around to wish her well or ask about her new job with Fairfield Resorts. Her new job will be something similar to what she does now, plus the project coordinator jobs like FAM does here. I think it makes a substantial salary increase for her - 30% increase I heard.

Despite all of the excitement, we made our daily afternoon walk. This time we went across the street, walked around DC-3, down past the pond, down the powerline right-of-way... saw some chickens in a cage in the woods. Those chickens are for testing for West Nile and other arboviruses. It really is a warm and beautiful day - almost 80°F.

Now Peggy and Dawn have to pick up Ana's projects, and I will end up with her day-to-day orders and issues. Ana continues to encourage me to apply for a job with Fairfield. She is sure that I could work as a project coordinator. Can't let big words intimidate me, but dang, I have never managed projects before.

Today I clicked on a few interesting items:

• For webpage design, an online color schemer.
• This one is worth bookmarking. It compares items from the sales circular of Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Kmart, Office Depot, Office Max, Radio Shack, Sears, Staples, Target, Walmart, and other local retailers.
• Optical recognition of a cat profile to control a pet door.
• I just discovered that Google can provide your local weather forecast. Type in "weather your city, state" hit enter. eg. weather newport news, va
• Some thought problems where you can match wits with some of IBM's best brains. I hear they have done away with ties at Big Blue too.
• Sorta like an eBay for loans. This could be useful... bookmark it with your finance pointers.
• Instead of using redirects to find out what links are being clicked on, this service will count them for you and leave your links pristine.
• Get your Free Credit Report from the big three credit reporting agencies.
• I know this seems sooooo insignificant, but this online tool creates a favorites icon - "favicon" for your website.
• Website devoted to tracking the persons and organizations on the political right.

Tonight I have to make my salad and decide what I am having for lunch tomorrow. Maybe some of those crab cakes in the freezer. Maybe I will put some meat out to thaw for tomorrow's dinner too.

"Rage, rage, against the lying of the Right." -- unknown

Kissimmee, FL

The weather did warm up some. It was really pretty yesterday.

Friday night I went to Ron's and we drank two bottles of wine and watched Moulin Rouge, starring Ewan McGregor, John Lequisano, and Nicole Kidman. It is a musical, but the music is all updated. It was pretty good. We both got pretty drunk ! I left around 3 AM.

Yesterday was nice. I got up around 7:30, started my laundry, wrote checks for bills, ironed shirts, ran the vacuum,scrubbed the shower, went to Shell and bought a tank of gasoline, went to Target and bought 20 bottles of water, some St. Patrick's Day cards, some and Co-enzyme Q10. Spent the rest of the day hanging out here at home. Did not wash or vacuum the truck like I had intended, but hey, I got a lot done.

Still reading Colossus. I am at Chapter 3 now. It is a hefty book. The reading is not exactly light either.

It was a little cool this morning when I got up. I ran this morning and the first half mile took care of any feeling of being too cool.

As I was cooling off I took my vitamins and ate a bowl of oatmeal. Next - shower and off to Save Rite before the Puerto Ricans flood the place and make it impossible.

Now I am boiling eggs to be peeled and put into a Ziploc bag for breakfast this week. Probably read the news and then return to reading my book. Possibly go to Orlando this evening for a few hours.

If I can find somebody to do it with, I would like to go to the Home Expo Design Center in Orlando. Ana thinks we could do it on our lunch... yeah, if we take one of those notorious two-hour lunches.

"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things." -- George W. Bush

Lake Buena Vista, FL

Still a little cool this morning... cool and dry.

When I got in at 7:20, I was the only one here. Dawn Luttrell came in a little later. Then Peggy called. Peggy had an accident in traffic on I-4 this morning. Some girl was making an improper lane change and side-swiped Peggy's car. Peggy was not hurt, but she was upset because she only has two more payments before the Honda is paid for ! The other driver was charged with having an improper driver's license, that's all. She does not speak English and there were no witnesses. Guess it is good that Peggy has insurance.

Matt brought in a small rum-soaked cake for Dawn's birthday today. She turns 38. This is the last birthday that we are going to talk about, according to her.

At lunch I went to Cheese Cake Factory in DisneyQuest with Andrea. On my way over to Team Disney to get her I saw the Fuji Film Blimp flying over the property. We discussed the interview process and how they are coming along with filling their vacancies over lunch.

I have the Food Service Equipment commodity caught up, just waiting on some quotations to come in. Some vendors drag their feet so badly you would think they did not want to do business with us !

Ana and I took our walk around the outside of the warehouses. It is about 68°F outside today and very sunny. We got so carried away talking that we made four laps ! Tomorrow is supposed to be even prettier.

Some of the things I clicked on this morning include:

• Ron Jeremy, the porn star, is joining the ranks of presidents, prime ministers, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and other dignitaries by addressing the Oxford debate society.
• A really small star has been found orbiting a normal-sized star near the center of our galaxy. This star is only a little larger than Jupiter, but shines with normal brightness. If Jupiter were more dense it would probably shine !
• The genes responsible for the connection between low calorie intake and long life have been identified. Do they have to name them Longevity Genes ?
• Christian Science Monitor reports on "plant intelligence". Honestly I think they are giving weeds and trees a little too much credit.
• A new weapon is being developed and tested right here in Orlando at UCF. This weapon causes maximum pain with no physical damage. Probably be used for torture.
• For the first time in history, a language now has more people speaking it as a second language than native speakers. Thank God, I was born in an English-speaking country !
• Don't piss off chimpanzees - they'll chew your face off and tear your balls off !
  

Ana thinks that I am going to be extended again. Infact she is very sure of it. She keeps hinting that she might not be around much longer and said that she might be dropping a bombshell soon. I dunno... maybe she is expecting a job offer.

Sometimes when I write this, part of it is written at work, then I drive home, see things on the drive home or get news when I get home, go back in and edit to add more stuff. Usually I cannot find a witty quote to close with, so I usually get those at home.

"A squid, as you know, of course, has ten testacles." -- The Galloping Gourmet

Lake Buena Vista, FL

Very cold again this morning - 48° . Did not run. So I slept for another hour. Showered, shaved, and out of the house. Was in such a big hurry I forgot my wallet ! Discovered this when I stopped at 7-Eleven. Oh well. Dawn Luttrell let me into the building.

Easily got Betsy's queue done. Then began seeking the ASTM F 404-99a - safety standards for infant high chairs for her. Also had to get a few quotations for my customers.

Showed Ana the US Navy Ribbon Order-Of-Precedence Script and page I wrote a few years ago. She was very impressed with it. That script took me three weeks to write ! (Check out the date on those pages!)

For lunch I ate a bowl of chili I brought from home. Marta was in the break room eating vegetables and she let me have a couple of stalks of celery to go with my chili.

It is raining outside and kinda cold. I guess the forecast is for 2 inches of rain for us.

Frankie Johnson had lunch with Andrea today. She gave Frankie my copy of Ray to bring back to me. I guess Ed is catching on because I did not get a single call from the Tech Team today.

Helping Linda Burleson, an accountant, and Charlie Moore at Polynesian return freezers to Traulsen and order the correct equipment. But because we have exhausted the CER FY05 budget, it has to be done in a certain way so that we can find the money to do it. So many little mistakes. Linda is frustrated by it.

Some things I read today:

• Steve Fossett made it ! The Virgin Global Flyer made the round-the-world trip non-stop !
• Moronic local kid jumps off of a parking garage. Parents trying to sue.
• If you write about zombies, you could go to jail !
• Interesting variation on Google - Montage-A-Google. Creates a photo-montage of your search results.
• If you are interviewing for a job. You should be asking the interviewer questions too.
• An update on a company developing electronic paper. I think this technology could change the way we use computers and the Internet.
• A description of the hardware used in the NSA Echelon global eavesdropping system.
  

On the way home a yellow jacket like the one in the picture I posted, ended up on my windshield. As I cycled the wipers he was brushed away.

Tonight I am eating a frozen dinner because Andrea and I are going to Cheese Cake Factory (inside the DisneyQuest at Downtown Disney) for lunch tomorrow. We will bring along anyone else who wants to go with us.

Is anyone reading this stuff ? Leave some comments for me !

"Radio has no future." -- Lord Kelvin, 1897

Lake Buena Vista, FL

Very cold this morning - 40°F. I pulled on two t-shirts and some lounge pants and my shoes and went out. It was too cold to run, I walked two blocks and then came right now. Very clear and very cold.

Packed a salad and steak for lunch. Took an apple with me for a snack, and 3 liter bottles of flavored sparkling water to drink all day. I dug out Big Cotton because Ana wants to take a look at it.

Matt is back at work today.

Peggy got a birthday card for Dawn Luttrell because her birthday is Friday. We are debating whether we will have a cake or not. None for me, please.

Ed Donahue, the temp working on the Technology Team called me like 6 times yesterday. I hope he gets his TECH MAIN project figured out.

A few things I clicked on this morning:

• Happy Birthday Yahoo! Today is Yahoo!'s 10th birthday and they are buying ice cream for you !
• A comprehensive history of the necktie. Plus directions for tying common knots.
• Our Christian values are threatened by a high school girl in a tux.
• Interesting article about falling interest rates despite the fact the Fed raised the prime rate. Implications for housing, credit, and inflation too.
• Hopefully "Mission Control" in Salina, KS will find some tailwinds to get this guy home on his solo around-the-world flight.
• Another distributed computing project like SETI@home. But this one is devoted to discovering extrasolar plants. Added benefit: if you discover one, you get to name it !

In a few minutes Ana and I are going to make our daily walk around the warehouse. Ana is convinced that one trip around is about a mile... I think it is closer to 1/4 mile. I will wear my pedometer and try to average our distance to find out how many feet per step so that I can estimate the distance we walk. The walking helps wake us up.

"What is behind us and what lies before us is a mighty small thing compared to what is inside of us." -- Emerson

In Like A Lamb, Out Like A Lion

Today is the first day of March. The saying goes, "If March comes in like a lamb, it will go out like a lion." Well today qualifies as a lamb-like day. Sunny, warm, breezy, fluffy clouds scooting across the sky. The month of March was named this because this was the first month after the winter when the Roman armies could take to the roads and start the annual campaign - march. March 15 was the day the Roman's recognized as the last day of winter - the Ides of March.

This March contains St. Patrick's Day and Good Friday and Easter.

Matt was out of the office today. He has jury duty. I wonder if he got tapped for the Michael Jackson case ? LOL !

Betsy's stuff is just about caught back up now. It is not as hectic as before.

In my rush to get out of the house this morning, I did not pack a lunch. Since I only have $4 in my pocket, my dining choices were limited. I drove back home and heated up crab cakes and had cottage cheese with them. Tonight I am going to fry chicken steaks and make a salad. Then I can bring leftovers tomorrow.

Patrick Scherer asked me if I lost a button. He found a button at his office door... sure enough it came off of the cuff of my jacket. I guess I need to go ahead and re-sew all of those buttons on more securely.

Ana and I made our walk today. Because she did not have good shoes on for walking, we only made two laps.

A few things I saw today:

• Alice Williamson is bitterly upset about the Union army occupying her Tennessee town in her 1865 diary. Read this early blog.
• The US Mint is releasing Buffalo Nickels through the end of this year.
• In addition to China and India, Japan announced that it has intentions of putting men on the moon by 2025.
• This company makes products with interesting designs. I especially liked the glass toaster.

No, not too many links today... my usual haunts - Wired.com, CNN.com, MSNBC.com and the opinion columnists just did not have much interesting material today.

It is supposed to be very cold tonight - around 40°F. Tomorrow will probably be cooler too.

"The most horrible thing in the world is to be without love, with being without toilet paper a close second."