Orlando, FL

Last night was another cool dry night. I left the balcony doors cracked open so that the house would be cool.

This morning I had to clean myself up a little bit because Greg Olsen was coming over from Tampa to talk to Fay and me about Debbie. I trimmed my beard down to 1/4" long and I shortened my hair. I shaved my throat and cheeks and trimmed up.

I had a parade of people coming to the front door this morning... first JD from Advanced Coating Technologies showed up to look at the floor, then Bruce showed up to install the cabinets, and then I saw Debbie's car and I called down the hall to Fay, "Smartey's here!"

When Greg walked in at 10 AM I was in the middle of a phone call. Soon he called all of us to Fay's office to have a meeting. Debbie was in there too and I was not sure how this was going to work out. Greg leaned back and said that FER was like a sports team and that we needed to work together as a team, yadda yadda, and that we needed to treat each other like we wanted to be treated and that we need to becareful how we write and speak to other people and consider how they might read what we have written. He was speaking in generalities during the whole first part of this meeting.

I noticed that the body language Fay and I were showing was open and engaged. Debbie was sitting back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest - defensive.

Eventually Greg asked Debbie to leave the room so that he could speak with Fay and Vince. I thanked Greg for the way he was facilitating the meeting - there was no finger-pointing and it was very positive and constructive and he thanked me for that. Then I said, "But I feel that there are a lot of things going on that FER partners are not aware of or are only partially aware of..." It was impossible to do this without naming names.

We told him that we felt that Debbie, despite what she loudly claims, only visits one or two dealers per day, ends her work day at 2 PM, is not a team player, is not bringing in the needed orders, and does not support the office when her help is needed.

Greg wanted to know how I knew she only calls on one or two dealers per day and ends her day at 2 PM. I said, "Greg, she tells us this!! She comes in here to complain and she tells us where she is going, and then she goes home and shortly after that we are receiving email from her at home." Fay agreed saying "She's her own worst enemy by coming in here and telling us all of the petty stuff about who irritates her and who lusts after her and frankly, we just don't need it!"

After about an hour Greg took Debbie off premises to have lunch and have a discussion with her. We did not see either one of them after that, but Debbie did phone in later. She told Fay that she has changed her weekend plans so that she can participate in the work needed to restore the Test Kitchen. I think Greg must have impressed on her how serious this is.

Next Gabe Puerto phoned Fay and asked her if Greg gave us his sermon. Fay said that he had. Gabe said, that we needed to keep everything quiet and stable for right now (because of the recent Manitowoc takeover) and that we would do what we needed to do this spring.

Later, even Dan Wood called in and told Fay, "I heard you guys had an emotional meeting this morning. Yeah? Well, just hang in there." Fay was astonished. If Dan Wood is talking about this, obviously everybody in the company knows about it.

Fay believes, by reading between the lines of what everyone said, that the partners know all about Debbie's shenanigans, but they are trying to protect FER. Manitowoc just took over Enodis and the partners do not want to give them any excuse to switch rep groups. They need to portray stability and strength for the time being.

The meeting was emotionally exhausting.

Bruce got the wall-mounted cabinets up today and he promised us he would have the base cabinets done by lunch time tomorrow.

The painters will come on Monday and then we have a mad rush to move everything back into the Test Kitchen on Tuesday so that Craig can host Merrychef Service Training in there on Wednesday. We are going to transfer phones to Hollywood on Tuesday and Nick Baranet an Neil Gosselin are going to come in to help us move the equipment.

I am glad this week is almost over. I am also glad that the Test Kitchen project is almost finished. Fay is going to begin taking vacation days on Friday's and Monday's. We will see if Debbie comes in to help with the phones and quoting.

Orlando, FL

It was very chilly when I took Buddy out this morning for his walk. It was probably in the 50's, but there was a good chilly breeze too. The weatherman has warned us that it will be dropping into the 40's tonight. I have my balcony doors cracked open right now and I have turned the AC off.

At work I called Amber Halleran at Garland/US Range to speak about a wayward purchase order and she said, "You're gonna laugh when I tell you this... it snowed 6 inches last night! Nobody believed the weatherman and the plows didn't even run! They haven't even salted the roads! It's still snowing!" The factory ended up closing early after 12 inches of snow had fallen!

Yup, I think it's gonna be a very cold winter.

More controversy at work today surrounding Debbie. Fay informs me that the reason Gabe and Tom have backed out of talking to Debbie is because they think that Craig has been working to turn Vince and Fay against her! OMG! This is too funny!

Greg Olsen is coming to Orlando on Thursday to inspect the new Test Kitchen floor and to speak to both of us about Debbie. I welcome the opportunity to talk to him about this because it is almost the most ridiculous situation I have ever seen at work.

I took my recently re-discovered AutoCAD R 14 and Visual Basic 4.0 install CDs to work and successfully installed these programs on my work computer. Then I spent a little time drawing a title block for A-size sheets to hold my FER drawings. Even if I am only able to do minimal AutoCAD work, it's still a plus for me.

This evening I glued and clamped down the vertical and horizontal dividers on one frame and I glued in the inside mitred frame pieces on the other frame. Tomorrow I can start measuring and cutting beveled mitred surrounds for the first frame! I need to test-fit the glass plates into the rabbet cut into the surrounds and if they do not receive the glass, doctor them a little with the dado blade on the table saw and the chisel.

Also, I took the wire wheel in my drill and brushed the Zurn trench grates from the Test Kitchen and cleaned and roughed up all of the old paint. Then I wiped them off good with a rag, layed out newspaper, and applied the first coat of Java Chocolate Brown spray paint to them.

The directions say, "Wait at least 4 hours or more than 36 hours between coats", so since I am not going back out there to spray paint at 11:00 PM, I will apply another coat at 5:00 AM on Thursday. Because it is dry to the touch in an hour, I can take them to the office and install them in the floor before Greg Olsen comes to see the floor. That chocolaty brown is going to match the stained concrete floor very nicely.

How Globes Are Made

I love documentaries like this! Manufacturing esoterica!

Orlando, FL

The weekends are just too short. Especially when you have a lot of work and tasks to get done.

This morning it was much cooler - I think it was in the 50's this morning. As best as I can tell Buddy really likes it! The weatherman said that tomorrow night it will get down to 45F! That will be nice and cool. I will turn the AC off and open the doors for that kind of coolness!

Today was a continuously busy day. Fay has decided that we need to buy stock cabinets from Lowe's now. Ugghh. I am just about over this whole Test Kitchen project. It's gone on now for about five weeks!

Debbie came in today briefly -- she needed to get something to take to the Sysco Show. Fay told me that she was disappointed because Gabe and Tom have now bowed out of telling Debbie to shape up and to give her another 90-day trial period. Incredible. She MUST have some kind of threat hanging over their heads. Fay said, "Greg Olsen needs to come to Orlando and hear it from ME!" I bet she'd give him an earful too.

Debbie also complained to Greg that I sent her a threatening/condescending email on Friday. Hahahaha! Greg then asked Craig and Craig asked Fay. Debbie got all defensive because I said we were going to restore the Test Kitchen on Saturday as a "team". I think she protests too much and I also believe that the message I needed to get across to the four partners made it.

Orders are very very weak. We finished the day with $25k.

I brought the Zurn trench grates home with me from the TK. I am going to clean them up with the wire wheel on the drill and then spray paint them Java Brown to match up with the chocolaty brown TK floor.

Fay wants to go to Home Depot tomorrow to buy plywood or MDF to make the backs for our wire rack partitions. She also found some fabric on sale at Jo-Ann Fabric that she is going to make new seat cushion covers with.

Craig was inviting Fay and me to go out to dinner with him this evening. The catch is that he is having dinner with Steve Dunn from Lincoln Food Products. We both vigorously declined that invitation!

I will work on my wood projects more tomorrow, and then I will start to clean up those floor grates. Hopefully this week will pass quickly.

WTF Broccoli

Check out this new product from Cascadian Farms! (Click on the picture to zoom in on the large size image). The picture printed on the wrapper has a little surprise if you look closely!

It looks very friendly and tasty! Plus it's Organic!!

Macho Man

Orlando, FL

I knew I was going to be in there by myself this morning with Fay at the cardiologist and Debbie at the dentist.

As I was pulling into the Quorum Center parking lot off of Vineland Road my cellphone began ringing in my bag! I reached over and started to dig around in the bag for it while managing a left turn with my left hand. It was Samantha from Triad Technical Placements asking about my resume and what kind of job I am looking for. She sent a questionnaire to my Yahoo! account and I filled it out and replied with my resume and references. We will see if she finds anything for me.

Fortunately there were only two phone calls during the morning. I was still quite busy - mostly with Darden issues. Debbie came in aroung 10:30 AM. She went to her office and made phone calls. I could hear her dramatically coughing from the carpet and paint fumes. She complained about the bathroom light not working properly.

I got up and went to the TK to check on the floor guys and Debbie felt compelled to follow. JD was explaining how the floor was going to look and he was describing an acid stain -- NOT the flec-flake treatment that Debbie wanted. I quickly changed the subject and soon Debbie had me in the TK unbolting the trench grates from the floor drain and pulling them up. As I came out she said, "Oh look at you, you've got dust all over you! You just HAD to wear all black today, didn't you?!" I replied, "Well, Debbie, I really wasn't planning on going into the TK today."

As soon as that was done she goes, "Is Fay on her way in now? Oh yeah? Well good, because I am going home now. I have to get MY lunch and feed my dogs!" Nevermind that I hadn't had my lunch yet either. It's always got to be about her I guess.

On her way out the door she said, "I won't be available for anything all day tomorrow - I will be helping Heidi do Merrychef demos for Hyatt Place hotels." Besides Heidi being her friend, why do we need to pay two people to do these demos?

Fay immediately noticed that Debbie was already gone when she arrived at 1:30 PM. I told her everything that had happened in the morning. She said that she would be sure that Craig knew about it.

I went home, walked Buddy, and had tomato soup for lunch.

My afternoon was very busy. There were four messages for me when I returned. I had to beg forgiveness from our Garland regional for a mistake Fay made, and it seems like a hundred additional issues. At the end of the day Fay asked me to requote (using the Ikea Home Planner) the TK cabinets - she is just sure we can get them for less by assembling them ourselves.

Online I found a 2008 version of the Ikea Home Planner and redid the cabinets with July 1, 2008 prices. I used the cheapest doors and fronts, but the total still came to $2000.

This evening I started a beef stew for dinner tomorrow. Then I got my laundry started. After walking Buddy I mopped the kitchen and bath floors. Those are drying right now. After I put the kitchen and bath rugs back down I am going to run the vacuum and box up some books for storage.

Yay! Tomorrow is Friday! I am glad. This has been yet another long week!

Absolut Cut

Orlando, FL

Because of my hard work yesterday the Test Kitchen was ready for the floor refinishing this morning. Unfortunately the floor guys did not even get to the office until after lunch!

They had the TK door sealed up and were sanding the paint and concrete down when I returned. They were making huge amounts of dust. They were having an especially hard time on the area where the carpet used to be -- all of that carpet adhesive keeps gumming up their abrasive tools!

Besides starting late today, they are already behind schedule. Fay is talking about offering to let them come in on Saturday to work. That means one of us has to be there to babysit them. I am getting tired of having to work in there on the weekends. Plus, because they are behind, it pushes the cabinets and painting back too. Craig has a Merrychef training session planned for Nov. 5 in our TK and now it looks like it will be a mad rush to get everything back in place for it. I knew this would happen.

Horizons Staffing phoned me on Monday and said they were submitting my Monster.com resume for a Combined Cycle Operator position with Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC). They were supposed to let me know by this afternoon if I was selected to test and interview tomorrow. I did not hear from them.

That may be just as well because Fay has a cardiologist appointment in the morning and she asked Debbie to come in and help, but Debbie can't because she has a dental appointment. I don't think they fully recognize how reliable I have been.

Craig brought Kevin Clark, president of Delfield, in today. They had meetings at Darden and with Jerry Steil. After seeing Kevin to the airport, Craig had to get back to Darden.

Darden is relying on us to keep up with a lot of strange things and practically do their work for them. Craig simply says "we gotta do it", but if he doesn't start drawing some limits somewhere, he's going to find himself "doing it" by himself! I am going to continue to look for something else to do. The good thing is that it is much easier to find a new job when you already have one!

This evening I walked Buddy, ate a dinner of broccoli soup and pork rinds, loaded up and ran the dish washer, and worked on my wood project in the garage. The inner frames are now glued up on one frame and the other frame is standing by for gluing tomorrow night.

Tonight's picture is the pool on the roof of the DynaTech Center downtown. I found this and a couple more interesting pictures of this new building on Flickr.com yesterday.

Orlando, FL

Another strange day at work.

I went in this morning dressed in shorts and an old t-shirt to do "dirty work". I warned Fay that I was going to be dressed very casually for this.

The big challenge today was to get the Test Kitchen emptied out so that floor stripping and finishing can begin tomorrow. The first thing I did was turn the conference table over on its side and began to take the screws out so that the legs and stretchers could be detached and the entire table moved to B-15 for storage. Half of the screw heads (Phillips) were stripped out and it was slow going on this.

I moved the table and about three more truck beds full of stuff over to the storage suite. Later in the day we moved the VersaDrawer, the microwave, coffee pot, and other miscellaneous supplies into the hallway. I took down the wall phone and basically took everything out of that room except for three boxes that contained Craig's stuff and his wall maps.

The big excitement today was the "Meeting Of The Minds" at Greg Olsen's house in Clearwater. The four partners met to discuss the budget for the Test Kitchen remodel and it was decided that we would get all of the electrical work and two out of the three cabinets we had requested. The other big topic they had to discuss was Debbie.

Fay was talking to Neil Gosselin and she discovered that Craig has been using him as a sounding board too. Neil said that company-wide now it is no secret how everyone feels about Debbie's performance.

Debbie showed up at the office while this meeting was going on. She was not dressed for dirty work and she still had her zebra-striped nails. She was all upset about a missing screw on her old car and afraid the license plate was going to fall off. After about 45 minutes she was gone again.

Fay asked me this afternoon what I thought they would decide to do about her. I said that I would bet that they would do "nothing" about Debbie. At the end of the day Craig phoned in and spoke to Fay. I was right.

Gabe and Tom are going to write a note to Debbie requesting that she meet them at the Orlando International Airport sometime next week. During this meeting they are going to give her a stern warning and give her another 90-day probation period. Really unbelieveable.

This evening I stopped at Publix on the way home and got some stew meat and vegetables to make dinner with Friday night here with Bob.

I was able to spend some time in the garage this evening working on my wood projects. I was able to sand all of the inner frames and horizontal and vertical dividers down good. Next I rubbed liming wax into the wood (except for sides to be glued) and left them to dry. I will buff those out tomorrow and begin gluing everything down and clamping to the back panel.

Probably on Thursday night I can begin cutting the beveled surrounds for each picture and start gluing those down too. Before I put the glass inside I am going to rub the entire project down with clear beeswax. They are going to be nice frames.

Economy

Weekend

On Friday evening I rushed home and gathered Buddy's bowls, toys, and bedding into a plastic bag and I tossed shorts, shirt, and overnight bag into my duffle bag and we drove to Bob's house for the weekend.

When I got to his garage I phoned up to him to ask him to come down to the 4th floor with his car keys. I brought one of the cast-off computer monitors from work to give him. He's going to take it to work and exchange it for a new one. Then he can take his own monitor home.

We went upstairs and put our stuff down and then we back out for a walk. Buddy enjoys his walks! The exercise from them is good for us too!

For dinner Bob had prepared Cornish game hens in the oven. He also made a gravy from the bird drippings. He had a nice leafy cleansing salad too. I brought a (cheap) bottle of red wine from my fridge and we had that with the meal. The wine was too acidic and it was all we could do not to make faces as we sipped it.

After we got the dishes put away we watched The Dog Whisperer.

Bob had to work on his personal interview paper for his class.

Later we went to the bedroom and first I had to put the clean sheets on the bed and make it. Then I pulled all the drawers out of Bob's dresser and took the mirror down off the back of it while Bob re-organized the closet. We carried the dresser into his walk-in closet and put the drawers back into it. That made alot more room in his bedroom! Now there are two full walls of glass - to the south and to the east.

It was after midnight when we finally got to sleep!


On Saturday morning we got up and took Buddy for a walk around Lake Eola. There was a group setting up tents and exhibits for some noble cause in the park. We took Buddy back to the house, got our showers, told Buddy to be good, and we went out.

During our walk we noticed the Waverly Service Entrance sign had been up-rooted and tossed into the bushes, also, the concrete paver that sits by the back door (people step on it to reach the RFID sensor) was missing. We found the paver down the sidewalk smashed. Bob thinks that a young man who was moving out yesterday did it because he was being foreclosed.

We went to IHOP for our breakfast and then we drove to my house for the vacuum cleaner. With the vacuum in the truck we went to FER and I swept the new carpet, continued to organize my office, I had to organize the file room, and I had a big stack of orders to get filed. Bob was a big help with the filing. He was able to file the orders away with only a little direction.

Craig came in while we were there and he started putting stuff back into his office too. He told me it would be okay to put the typewriter into Debbie's office, but he said that if she turned into "Bitch-O-Matic" about it, we might have to put it up somewhere else. Such a mystery why she hasn't been fired before now.

Before he went back out, Craig gave us $30 for lunch! We continued to work in the office for about four hours. Then we went to Chik-Fil-A for lunch. After lunch we went back to my house and put the vacuum cleaner up.


Bob needed to get a haircut so we drove down the 408 to Bumby and went up to the shopping center on Colonial where he gets his hair done. While he was in there I went to the Barnes & Noble Bookstore to browse.

Soon Bob walked into the store and it was time for us to go. I got a couple of magazines.

We went back to the house. It was almost 7 PM now! The first thing we had to do was take Buddy downstairs to the street for a walk.

Buddy went to bed first. He likes to lay in Bob's bedroom next to the floor-to-ceiling window and look out. Sometimes we've caught him looking out in the middle of the night. He curled up on his bedding and was sleeping by 9 PM.

I was next. I guess I was in bed before 10 PM. I vaguely remember Bob climbing into bed, but I think that must have been around 11 PM!

On Sunday morning we got up around 8 AM and took Buddy for a walk. Then we came back, ground and brewed coffee and had scrambled eggs with Canadian sausage for breakfast.

We had to go to Daytona Beach today to visit Bob's parents. We were kinda late getting started and we didn't even get on the road until noon! We went to Bob's office to drop off the CRT monitor, and we looked at a file room project that Bob has to take on soon. Then we got gasoline at 7-Eleven for the trip.

The price of gas has fallen! It once cost us $60 to fill his X-terra tank, and it now cost $40 to fill it.

We drove to Daytona listening to the Trends magazine CD that Craig loaned me.

At DB we went to Tom and Louise's house first. The yard had not been mowed in awhile, so the first thing we did was mow the grass. I used the push mower and Bob drove the riding mower. We noticed that the new mailbox had suffered some kind of collision - either a baseball bat or a door mirror. I was able to fix it by bending with pliers do that the door would close up again.

By the time we finished, ate lunch, got cigarettes at Walgreens, and drove the nursing home it was after 4 PM. Of course we heard the "where have you guys been?" speech. We went out and let Louise smoke while they asked us the important things they wanted to know.

Around 5:30 we all went back in because it was time for their dinner.

Bobby and I left and returned to Walgreens to pick up West Virginia trip pictures we left for developing. Then we started back to Orlando. On the way back I phoned Dad and talked to him. He was outside raking leaves and I had to talk to Janice for awhile before I got him.

When we got up to Bob's house we opened the door and there was no dog in sight. That lazy dog was sleeping and had probably slept all day! We got him harnessed up and took him down for his walk. We got a cheese and pepperoni pizza for dinner at Metro Pizza on Central Boulevard and took it back to the house for dinner with left over salad and cans of Coke Zero.

While Bob got the dishes into the dish washer I ran the vacuum cleaner. Then Bob continued to work on his interview paper. I proofed it, changed a few words, corrected some mis-spelling, and pretty much left it the way it was.

It was around 9:30 when we got to bed. I had to return to work this morning and Bob's schedule has changed so that he has to be at the office at 6:00 AM. So, we have to get up pretty early.

Orlando, FL

Today I left for work early. I got to the office at 7:30 AM. When I got there I found a truck parked in front of our office with a trailer behind it holding a big roll of carpet!

There was a man and a woman in the truck who came to install the carpet. When they came inside and saw all of the furniture still in the rooms they were angry. They called the construction company superintendent to complain. I called Fay to warn her about it.

Bruce called the hispanic boys back in - the ones who did all of the demolition. Turns out they were going to have to lay the carpet and put the vinyl wall border up.

As soon as I saw the carpet being laid out I knew that the choices we made for paint, wall border, and carpet were good choices. The tile in the bathroom almost perfectly matches the color we chose for the walls!

The demolition boys moved all of the furniture back into the offices and the painter returned to touch up the walls and apply varnish to the doors. The office really stunk after that!

Debbie sent email in to say that she is going to Jacksonville tomorrow morning around 10 AM with a bunch of her friends to go to a funeral. So she would not be able to put her stuff back into her office until Monday. Fay wrote that we are planning on moving stuff back to the Test Kitchen from B-15 on 10-31 or 11-1. Debbie wrote that neither date is good for her because she has two Halloween parties to attend, in costume, on Halloween!

Well, that got Craig sufficiently pissed to dash off a note about being disappointed with her.

This evening I stayed after Fay left and talked to Craig about my "attitude problem". He said that he had lunch with Betsy today and they discussed me. Betsy said, "I told you he's a great worker, but I don't think he's used to dealing with people the way customer service has to." She went on to say that dealing with people is really an art and just has to be learned. "Keep working with him, Craig."

Craig said that I am the best person he has ever had in that position in the office and that we would continue to work on my inter-personal problems.

We are thinking about dressing Buddy up for Halloween. I found this picture, one of many in an email about dogs in costume, and I thought this dog resembled Buddy! I don't know if he'd keep a costume on very long!

This evening, after walking Buddy, I went to the garage to continue working on my wood projects. I have the inner frames mitre cut and fit and I have the horizontal and vertical dividers cut and fit. I still need to cut the mitred, beveled surrounds, sand it all down, lime the inside parts, apply clear beeswax to the outside, install the glass, turn buttons, and other hardware. It won't take much longer.

I think the foxes have returned to the vacant field on Metrocenter Blvd. When I am walking Buddy in the mornings I am seeing shiny eyes watching us and running across the field. I don't know if it is one canine or two, but I have seen at least one.

Thank God tomorrow is Friday! After the cleaning crew comes through the office and cleans windows and floors, we will move all of our stuff back into the office. Evelyn comes in at 10 AM to hook the computers, fax, copier, etc all back up. In the afternoon we will switch the phones and fax back from Hollywood and be ready to go back to normal on Monday.

Test Kitchen floor refinishing begins next Wednesday!

Orlando, FL

The work day started with a talking-to from Craig about me and my supposedly bad attitude again. He said Ovations Food Services President told him to get me fixed or find someone else at FER for him to deal with - this I can only suppose comes from email messages to two of his employees where they did not get the answer they wanted to hear.




He also said that he had complaints from Strategic Equipment and Beltram about me. What gets me is that that I copy him or I copy Greg on all messages to their dealers. If I was too hard, or too - anything, doncha think they should have at least mentioned it to me?





He said that the four partners are going to be discussing some of our problems, one is Debbie, one is me, and then there are money problems. He said, "We are going to be letting someone go, and when we won't be replacing anyone for a long time."





He also said, as he always does, "Vince, if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know! I don't want to see you go." Uh, yeah, right.





I decided to update my resume on Monster.com, Hotjobs.com, and CareerBuilder.com today in light of my morning talk. By lunchtime I had seven messages in my email with people inviting me to interview. But these jobs were not careers that I consider very stable -- financial planner (right! in THIS economy!), work-at-home medical transcriptionist, sales representative, etc.





After he left I told Fay, "I can solve this whole problem if he can answer just one question: Will FER be better off without me?" She said that she hoped I wouldn't be leaving. This, I suspect, is because she would have to train another person to do my job, and God knows I was hard enough to train!





Still, it is frustrating when they tell you that they are getting dealer complaints, but they can't tell me what I am doing wrong.





The office is almost completely repainted today. We have a new vanity and sink in the restroom, and the carpet people come tomorrow to lay the new carpet and begin moving the furniture back into the offices.





Before I left this morning I switched the clamps around and glued the opposite corner mitres up in the picture frame project. After I finish dinner and start the dish washer I am going out there to cut inside border frames for that first picture frame and cut the mitres for the outside frame on the second picture frame.



This evening my old friend, Brian Kaday, phoned to say that he was thinking about me. He just renewed his gym membership after not going for almost a year. I told him that I let mine expire. He said he'd miss me. I said, "Yeah, right. You will only miss being able to take attendance." Because when I was going to the gym, if I missed a day, he would call me to remind me of it. Like I needed that!

Anyway, it's been a long and tiring day. It seemed like it was Thursday all day, but of course it wasn't Thursday, yet. That's tomorrow!

Orlando, FL

We got a good start on our office remodeling project yesterday. The demolition phase began when five Mexicans showed up and began ripping the carpet up, chipping the bathroom tile, and tearing out the vinyl wall border. They had the office stripped out in 4 hours!

The picture posted here is a view down the hallway with the carpet ripped out -- just sticky, tacky carpet adhesive on the concrete floor.

Working from the test kitchen was a little awkward. We do not have our references and files easily available and we do not have very much space to spread out and work.

Martha Lozano asked me to phone her in Hollywood. I called her and she said that someone named Bob called from Darden Restaurants. I am like, "Yeah, they have 1700 restaurants, I don't know everyone over there!" She said, "No, he said he's important! He said, 'we spend $6.5 Million with your company every year and you don't know who I am?!!" She replied that she knew who he was, but that their office did not handle the Darden Restaurants account, "Now, how can I help you?" I laughed, I said, "Yeah, we've heard the speach, 'we're the largest casual dining chain the world and we deserver to be treated as such!!" He was phoning to bitch about a steakhouse whose refrigeration order was lost by his freight forwarding agency - not our fault at all.

I told Craig that Bob Chuhak was a little hard on Martha. Craig said, "Good, maybe they will see down there what we put up with everyday up here!" I laughed and said, "Yeah, I bet they will be surprised that EVERY ONE OF THEIR PURCHASE ORDERS REQUIRE NINE PAGES OF PAPER to print out on the fax!"

Today Craig was in Tampa today. We continued to work in the kitchen. We received a few orders by email and I think I processed $35K in new orders today! Not bad for an office that doesn't have phones or fax!

The painter showed up today. His help was sick and did not show up, and he claimed that he did not feel well too. He got all of the corners cut in and he painted the hallway and half of the file room. His helper will be in tomorrow and I expect that all of the painting will be done tomorrow.

The hollow core door from my office to the hallway was ripped out this morning too. A steel door frame and solid, 20-minute fire door were installed before the painting began. Craig wanted a solid door that could be locked for security. That big door should slow someone down!

Fay sent me over to BJ's Warehouse with $70 to buy two cases of bottled water, a case of Coke Zero, a case of Diet Caffeine-Free Coke, some apples, some pears, and some snack cheese. When I returned it was time for her to go to her doctor appointment.

While she was gone Debbie came in. She was wearing a red shirt, black slacks, four-inch heels with red leather woven uppers with open toes, and she had this strange (and huge) red leather purse. She came in to get reading glasses, but she could not reach her box of stuff. I told her that we would be done Friday and would move stuff back to the front offices then. She said, "Well, as I have already told everyone, I am going to be cutting my Friday short to go to Daytona Beach for Biketoberfest, that is, if I don't have to go to Jacksonville for a funeral instead." I said, "That's fine, your stuff will still be back here on Monday then." She's such a huffy little bitch!

It rained briefly this afternoon. When I got home I took Buddy for his walk. Then I worked in the garage on my wood project.

This evening I cut the dado grooves another 1/16th inch deeper, and I cut the mitred frame sides down to exactly 17 inches and 13 inches. I glued two 90-degree joints together and left them clamped up overnight. Tomorrow I will close the frame up by gluing the opposite corners. The first frame is going to have learning mistakes in it. The second one is going to look very nice!

Mom called this evening and talked with me for an hour and fifteen minutes. She said that Bob and me are welcome to stay in her office during Thanksgiving. She is planning on having sixteen people for Thanksgiving Dinner. Then two days later she is going to have the whole neighborhood over for a Pig Pickin' barbecue.

To help her out with some of the food costs, I am going to get a couple of trays of eggs at BJ's Warehouse when I get groceries this payday.

Weekend

On Friday evening I came home to find Bob already there. He stopped at Publix and got a mojo-flavored rotisserie chicken. I made a large salad and that is what we had for dinner.

Bob is still sick with his cold/bronchitis and he is taking some powerful codeine-laced cough syrup for it. Hopefully he will be over this nasty cold soon.

Saturday morning I made oatmeal and turkey sausage links for breakfast. I also had to run the vacuum cleaner to get all of the dog hair up. Bob read hospital management interviews from the Internet as part of his home work and I worked on my picture frame project in the garage.

I cut the outer frame to length, but could not get the mitres to close. I tried deepening the dadoes, but still could not close them up. I think I will have to deepen the dado grooves more and cut the lengths to exactly 17" and 13" as the plan called for. As I was deepening the dado, one side piece got turned over on the saw and a nasty gouge was cut into it... yuck. The good thing is that I was not hurt.

After I took a shower we layed down for a nap. I think we napped about three hours. Then it was time to take the dog out for his walk and think about making dinner. We finished the chicken off and ate more of the salad with it.

In the evening I took Bob in my truck to show him how much better the clutch was working. We drove down to Ikea to browse. The store was very busy! While browsing the living room section we found a coffee table and end table that match the cabinet I got for Bob's foyer. We are thinking that we will come back for those pieces and put the Rooms-To-Go tables that Bob currently has (and that give me the heebeejeebees) into his parents house.

I told Bobby, "Please try to act surprised when you see those under the Christmas tree."

We stopped at Planet Smoothie on the way home and Bob ordered a medium PB&J smoothie and I had a large low-carb smoothie with raspberries and blueberries. Mine tasted like vitamins and was not very good. Won't make that mistake again.

On Sunday morning I made scrambled eggs and microwaved bacon for breakfast. I microwaved more bacon to a crisp to use for our lunch.

For lunch I made baked hamburgers with cheese, sliced onion, sliced tomatoes, and cottage cheese. It was tasty enough. Bob tipped his plate over and spilled his food all over himself. Buddy helped clean up!

We drove down to Bob's house to watch the 2008 Coming Out With Pride festival and parade at Lake Eola. We walked the lake and got a fetching rainbow colored scarf for Buddy. He was suffering in the heat so we headed back to the house. I got fruit salad and some lemons in the Publix and then went up to the house.

I made lemon smoothies in Bob's "new" Blendtec blender. They were very lemony!

We all sat down on the sofa and soon Bobby and Buddy were both asleep. I think I even dozed off for a few minutes.

Soon it was three o'clock and we went down to the street to watch the parade. It lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. Of course it was very flamboyant! It was complete with drag queens, leather daddies, go-go boys, and all other walks of life. There were floats (and you should have seen them!) and majorettes, and beauty queens. I forgot to take my camera with me!

After it was over we went back upstairs to wait for the traffic to die down. Then we drove back out to the suburbs to my house. We pulled Bob's Xterra up to the garage and we (mostly me, but Bob helped) rotated the tires on it, then we drained the oil, changed the oil filter, and added fresh oil. That was all done in less than an hour.

We went to Crispers for dinner. I had a vegetable salad with a jalapeno ranch dressing and Bob had a sandwich. We were tired.

Back home I called and talked with Mom for about 45 minutes and then we read in bed for a while and then got some sleep! The weekends go so quickly!

More Drama

I took this little movie last night as I was making my way to the garage to work on my wood project. There was quite a storm going on to the north of us! Later some of it got to us and we had a lot of lightning and some thunder!

Today was another busy day for us at the office. We are approaching $400k for the week. During lunch I went home, ate soup, and walked Buddy. When I returned to the office Fay said she wasn't feeling very good. She said she felt cold and that her joints were sore.

As I walked past her office to go to the Test Kitchen for something I looked in and saw her with her head down on the desk. I said, "Fay, go eat something!". She got up and made some soup in the kitchen, but she still did not feel good.

Craig returned from another meeting with Dianna from Delfield and Chuck with Enodis all meeting over at Darden. Fay came down the hall and said that she did not feel good, that her heart was racing and she was too dizzy to drive. She said that she needed some help. We called 9-1-1.

I told the dispatcher that I had a co-worker who was having a medical crisis, that she was a white female, about 60 years old, having a very rapid pulse (above 140 bpm). She was conscious and alert. She was breathing normally and her skin did not feel cold or clammy. I did not know what medications she had taken.

They sent the rescue squad to the office. A big fire truck and a big red meat wagon. Soon eight guys were crowded into her office taking her blood pressure, asking her questions and fussing over her. While this was going on her husband called from the Fort Lauderdale airport! Fay said to tell him she would call him back -- he was about to get on a non-refundable airplane trip to Connecticutt to see his sister and she did not want him to miss the flight or worry about her.

Soon a stretcher was wheeled and they put her on it, strapped her down, rolled her out to a Rural-Metro ambulance and took her to Sand Lake Hospital. Joking, Craig said, "Hey Fay, we have some new equipment over there, why don't you do the demo while you're there?!" Hehehe!

I snapped a picture of her being taken away... I am sure she will not be happy to see this picture!

It began to rain before I left the office. It was storming pretty hard for awhile. Right now it looks like it has stopped and I think I can take Buddy out for his full walk.

Financial Planning

Celia Rivenbark

This funny southern newpaper columnist used to write for the Wilmington Morning Star and I used to occasionally read her funny column when I was growing up.

She's written a few funny books based on material from her columns and I am thinking about getting a couple of them even though they are marketed toward small town southern women. Sorta like a latter-day southern Erma Bombeck!

• Bless Your Heart, Tramp!
• Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like A Skank!
• We're Just Like You Only Prettier
• Belle Weather

You can read more about Celia on her home page.

Orlando, FL

Time Magazine famously "top ticks" persons and events that have just about peaked in popularity or influence. Let's hope that Time has top ticked their latest subject too.

I am glad that I had that clutch changed on the truck. Overnight, it's like I am driving a new truck! Engaging the clutch is still a little tricky for me -- the friction point is way down near the floor, but OMG! the acceleration! It can take off now better than it has been able to do in about a year!

It was another busy day at FER. We have passed "Hump Day" and the Orlando office has passed $344k in sales! Fay and I are staying quite busy with service issues, quoting, and regular order maintenance. Also, the new office carpet has arrived, so construction will begin on the offices on Monday!

At the end of the day Craig phoned in and asked me to look up Vine's Grille & Wine Bar on Sand Lake Road on Google.com. He asked me to get the address and email to Dianna Nielsen (Delfield) and Chuck Freer (Enodis) that Bob Chuhak (Darden) wanted to meet them at 6:45 there for drinks.

Around 5:30 PM I was still at my desk when Craig called on my cellphone. He said I was welcome to come to that dinner too if I wanted. I explained that I was not shaved, not dressed for it, and that my dog had not seen me all day long!

This evening I worked more on my wood project. I did not get as much done as I had hoped, but I got the back panels sanded down and the little panels that go into the backs - they hold the pictures inside the frame. These are sanded to 320 grit, and tomorrow night I will use the liming wax on all surfaces that will not be glued up.

When I came inside I stepped into the shower to wash the fine powdery dust off, but first I took the clippers and cut my hair down #1 comb short.

It is lightly raining outside with occasional flashes of lightning and peels of thunder.

Orlando, FL

I jumped right up off of the bed at 4:58 AM as I remembered that I had to take the truck in to Toyota Of Orlando for the clutch replacement this morning!

After a 20-minute walk with Buddy and a breakfast of yogurt, I showered and dressed for the day. My service appointment was at 7:00 AM. I got the truck there at 7:10 AM and there was already a line of cars out of the service bay! I by-passed them all and just parked the truck along the side of the building and walked inside.

I was amused to see that most of the cars, once driven to the bay, a Toyota person would get inside and drive it right out the other side and park it in a lot behind the building!

The service manager that I made the appointment with is named Brian. I found him and he had me taken care of in about 10 minutes! Before I left I saw a service technician with the ignition key heading to get my truck and take it to one of the 27 lifts they have in the Service Department!

The one thing that disappointed me was that each time I spoke with Brian on the phone about getting the clutch done, he promised me a free-of-charge rental car to drive. They did not have a car for me, but they had their courtesy driver take me to work... after... after we drove to Rollins College, then to Mills and Colonial, then to the Bank Of America Building, then to the Sherriff's Department, and finally to the Quorrum Center. The last guy in the van was a school teacher and I know he was late.

I got to work a couple of minutes late and hungry. Yes, hungry, because I did not get a breakfast on my way in thinking I would have a rental and could stop at 7-Eleven. I got an apple and ate the cheese snacks in my bag.

To get back to Toyota I called Bob who was taking the day off today to see the doctor about his nasty cold/bronchitis. He said he would pick me up at 5:00 PM and take me back to Toyota.

We stayed busy again today at work. I had a few minutes to waste surfing the Internets, but mainly kept busy with my service call follow-ups, quotes, and processing orders.

During lunch I walked over to the Millenia Cafe to get a salad. It was in the high 80's during lunch.

In the afternoon it clouded up very gloomy and dark. It rained periodically during the day and I would think to myself, "Quick! Go roll your windows up!" But then I would remember that my truck was at Toyota Of Orlando!

Craig returned from NACS this afternoon, but he got back to Orlando so late he did not have a chance to come to the office. Once Fay heard that he would not make it in she said, "Well, I am going take off early today - my husband is leaving town tonight!" Yeah. Whatever.

Bob dependably showed up at the front of the office at 5:00 PM on the dot! He was still running a low fever, but he said that he felt better. The doctor prescribed some nice cold medicine with codeine in it for him. He said that he even finished his paper about the Sabanes-Oxley legislation and was going to go to his class this evening after dropping me off!

Checking my car back out of Toyota was a breeze. It took less than 10 minutes. It sure didn't take long for the cashier to ring up $857.00. The car runner brought the truck around and I was free to go.

The new clutch is going to take a little getting used to. The friction point is now much closer to the floor than it used to be. Also, the clutch pedal feels kinda soft - very little resistance. I guess you get so used to driving it with a crappy clutch you don't know what to do when it is good again! I stalled the truck twice before I was able to cautiously drive away.

Before I could return home I had to stop at Exxon-Mobil and get a tank of fuel. Then I took the long way around the block to test out the clutch some more. I think I am completely satisfied with it now.

By the time Buddy got his walk finished it was 7:20 PM. I went to the garage to work on my project. Tonight I sanded down the brown/red padauk outer frames and then applied liming wax to all of the beveled aspen surrounds that go inside the frame. I have to keep making some kind of progress each night if I have any hope of finishing these before Christmas!

Give Me Liberty

"Your friend the baker was right," said my colleague. "The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your ‘little men,’ your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies,’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?"

Weekend Update

On Saturday morning I got up around 6:30 and took Buddy down to the street for his walk around Lake Eola. We walked all the way around the outside of the park - about 1.2 miles.

When I returned I started a pot of coffee and then made Ziploc Bag Omelets with eggs, cheese from the fridge, and leftover peppers and onions from the roasted veggies Bob made the night before.

I got a shower and took Buddy into the shower with me (he was stinky). When his shower was over he smelled nice and fresh - he smelled like liquid Dial soap! Then I cleaned up and got out. I pulled on shorts and t-shirt to go out grocery shopping. Bob and I drove to BJ's Warehouse to get bottled water, a couple cases of Coke Zero, a four-pound pack of hamburger (I broke it into one-pound piles and re-wrapped it when we got home), doggie treats, sharp cheddar cheese snacks, a case of yogurt, a big jug of shredded Parmesan cheese, and a bag of onions. That total came to $152.00.

Next we went to Super Target to finish our groceries. My bill at Super Target came to $110.00. All-in-all, it was less than I expected it would be. We got 25 pounds of Iams lamb meal flavored dog food. Now Buddy will have food for about 6 weeks.

Bob and I hung around in my apartment for a few hours. For lunch we had baked chicken wings and celery with blue cheese dressing. We set up the Worksharp tool and watched the instructional video that came with it. It seems that you can get your tools "scary sharp" with this device!

Around 4 PM we headed back to Bob's house - my poor clutch burning the whole way there as it struggled to keep the truck speed at 65 MPH. Once back at Bob's I had to carry his cold food, case of water, and case of Coke Zero up to the house. We fried up some stew beef with more of the leftover peppers and onions and ate it with the leftover salad from Friday night. Then, after taking Buddy for his evening walk, we settled down to watch something on Discovery Channel and read.

On Sunday morning I took Buddy for his morning walk, and then came back to make scrambled eggs for breakfast with Canadian bacon.

We dressed to go to Daytona Beach and take Bob's parents out to Olive Garden to celebrate their 54th wedding anniversary. I brought my olive color slacks and a lime green knit sports shirt to wear for the special occasion.

We stopped at Wood Craft in Fern Park and I got a can of liming wax and 3.5 board-feet of mahogany. I wanted to get one or two of the beautiful quarter-sawn white oak boards they had in the lumber room, but each one was about 12 board-feet. At more than $8.00 per board-foot, I just could not afford it. I had a 10% off coupon because it was my birthday.

At Oaktree Healthcare we found Tom and Louise groomed, dressed, and ready to go out. They both had their hair cut the day before and Louise had her hair dyed bright red!

The hardest part of taking them out is getting Tom in and out of Bob's sport utility vehicle. The next hardest part of taking them out is to hear them grumble and complain about how bad things are in the home. They had soup and ravioli. Bob had soup and salad and I had soup and salad. I slipped off of my diet by having a slice of pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. Bob had a slice of it, and Tom and Louise shared one slice.

It was around 5:00 PM when we got back to Orlando. For dinner I had leftover salad and Bob had Campbell's V-8 Butternut Squash Soup - the same soup I've seen Fay with lately.

I ran the vacuum cleaner to pick up most of Buddy's shed hair, and got ready to return to work.

This morning I got up around 5:30 and packed up Buddy's bed and his bowls. Around 6:00 AM we carried everything down to my truck and we drove back out to Metrowest. I saw that I had voice mail on my phone - Dad called for my birthday. After walking Buddy, and eating some oatmeal for breakfast, I showered and dressed for work.

Today was a continuously busy day. I processed over $180k in new orders (some were left over from last week) and I wrote three new quotations - all this before lunch!

I set up my clutch replacement appointment with Toyota Of Orlando. Tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM I take the truck to the Service Department and leave it. They will provide a loaner car for me to take to and from work. I hate to spend $850 on the clutch, but keeping the (paid-for) truck running is cheaper than a new car payment.

During the afternoon it clouded up really dark. Dark like night. It only sprinkled, but it looked like the bottom could drop out at any minute! I stopped at Publix on my way home and got soup, cottage cheese, and some chicken.

The first thing I did at home (after changing clothes and eating) was load the dish washer and load the laundry into the washer. Then we took Buddy for his evening walk. When we came back the clothes went into the dryer.

Around 7:00 PM I went to the garage to work on my project and explore my new "toy" that I got for my birthday! I cleaned the glass wheels on the Worksharp with acetone and then applied self-adhesive abrasive paper to them. I had to trim them off with my x-acto knife, and then I was ready to sharpen some chisels and plane blades. I need to get a machinists protractor so that I can accurately measure bevel angles for sharpening.

The next thing I did was tear a sheet of 320 grit sand paper into quarters and I attached a quarter sheet to the palm sander. I sanded all of the blond aspen pieces that go into the center of my picture frames. The aspen is nice and soft and it sanded really easily!

I broke open the can of liming wax and with a paper towel applied some of it to one end of one of the beveled surrounds. The liming wax basically "white washes" the wood a pale white color - exactly the effect I wanted. I think I will apply a coat of clear beeswax on top of the liming wax to seal it and make it shine.

Around 8:30 PM I came inside, showered all of the dust off of myself, and sat down to write this blog entry. Bob should be calling in a few minutes.

Fortieth Birthday

When we went out for the morning walk it was much cooler - it looks like this cooler weather has come just in time for Buddy's hot spot feet.

As soon as Fay walked in she wished me a Happy Birthday. Then she sent an email message out to everyone in FER to announce my birthday. Carolina in our Hollywood office sent me an electronic Hallmark birthday card. Amber Halleran at Garland sent me a Happy Birthday message.

For lunch Fay took me to The Olive Garden where we used up the $10 Gift Card that I got a couple of months ago when the waitress forgot to enclose our dessert in our To Go order. Fay had soup and salad and I had the Baked Ziti Al Forno. After TOG we went to Linen's N Things to look for plain white or glass plates and metal flatware for the test kitchen -- this store is closing and there are big discounts. Next we went to Home Depot to look at and price cabinets for the new test kitchen. We were gone for about two and half hours.

When I got home Bob was already there. We went into the apartment and when I opened the bedroom door I was surprised to see a big gift wrapped box on my bed! Bob was surprised when I asked him, "But, where is the card?" Hehehe!! I saw the box in his spare bedroom closet yesterday when I was in his house putting his present together!

My birthday present was the WorkSharp wood working tool sharpener system!! Something I wanted to keep my handtool sharp, but I was afraid would be too expensive to buy soon. This sharpening system will be much easier and less messy to use than the water stones I have been using up to now.

We took Buddy out for his walk and then returned home to change our clothes because Bob made dinner reservations at Jiko Restaurant at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. This African-themed restaurant has an interesting menu. We decided to share two appetizers. I had some boi-me-tots-something something, and Bob got a breadbasket called Taste Of Africa that came with three dipping sauces.

Our next choices were soup or salad. I chose a tomatoe-cucumber-red onion salad with a balsamic vinegar-watermelon dressing. Bob ordered a Roasted Corn Soup. For the entree I ordered Spiced Crusted Pork Tenderloin. Bob had Wood-Fired Lamb Loin. We had a glass of red wine with our entree and sparkling water. We were stuffed.

The waitress, Kim, brought the dessert menu, but I told her that if I ate anything else I would vomit. At the word "vomit" people at the neighboring table all turned! Before she brought the check she came to the table with a creme brulee with a candle in it for my birthday!

It was late when we left. I think we got in after 11 PM. Bob stayed the night at my house and then went on home and to work the next morning. It was a nice birthday dinner!

Bob's Birthday

My day began with a walk for Buddy at 6:00 AM. When we got back to the house I realized that we were just about out of dog chow for Buddy. So, I poured dog treats into his bowl and broke them into halves, then I broke up two Pupperoni sticks and put them in, next I tore up a slice of Canadian bacon and added it, and last I broke a slice of American cheese into little pieces and put it into the bowl. Buddy inhaled all of that in about 15 seconds.

At work I had to get the daily orders processed first. Then I had to get the order confirmations from yesterday done. Around 9:30 I got my bag and told Fay that I would be back in two hours. She asked, "Does Craig know where you are going?" I retorted, "No, and it should not matter to him since he knows I was in here until 6:30 PM last night!"

On September 12, I took lunch at Ikea, and I picked up a glass credenza/display case that Bob and I liked. We agreed that it would look good in his foyer. I also spotted black metal mirror that seemed to match it. I have been hiding these in my garage under a blanket since that time, waiting for Bob's birthday.

Yesterday, during lunch I went to Publix and ordered Bob's birthday cake - a two-layer 8-inch devils food cake with butter cream icing.

I drove downtown at 9:30, stopped at Publix and got three bunches of yellow and white mums, and the cake. Then I drove up into the garage at The Waverly and began carrying all of the stuff inside. The cabinet was disassembled and came in two very heavy boxes - I brought my hand cart to move these to the elevator and into his house. I also brought a dinner jacket, slacks, socks and dress shoes to stage in his house for dinner.

In his house it was 80 degrees because his thermostat has been programmed to let the temps rise while he is at work. It was like working in an oven! I put the cake into the refrigerator, then cut the flowers and put them into the vase that was delivered with his Valentine's flowers. Then I started to work on his birthday present.

Because of the heat I was sweating like crazy! I got my towel from the bathroom and I kept mopping my head, but occasionally I dripped onto the metal frame or onto the glass.

Just as I finished the main part of the box and was going to put the doors on, I realized that the horizontal parts that looked just alike, were infact a little different! I had to take it back apart, switch the middle and top rings around, and put it back together. Fortunately that only set me back 15 minutes.

As I worked I heard noises on the bedroom window. I went and opened the blinds to find the window washers hard and work cleaning the windows.

Later I heard a jackhammer working upstairs. Evidently the lady in 710 is having her tiled foyer taken up. The noise almost gave me a headache!

Finally, I had the cabinet put together (or atleast as good as I was going to get it), and I hung the matching mirror up on the wall behind it with a matching black screw. I prayed the jack hammering upstairs would not loosen the screw and drop the mirror onto the glass cabinet below it, disposed of my trash, put the vase of mums onto the cabinet, and got out of there.

It actually took me 2 hours and 45 minutes.

The afternoon at work was spent processing more orders, revising the master quotation for the New Darden Campus Kitchens, and showing Debbie our plans for the Test Kitchen and getting her input for displaying the Redco and Wearever items.

Debbie was not happy. There was so much tension in the Test Kitchen between Debbie and Fay. I think Debbie understands that all of the ideas have to be compromised to make this work, but I still think she is pissed. Fuck her. She is never in the office. There is no way she is going to rearrange everything and tell us to work around it. She kept bringing up her "Networking Parties" too. I wanted to tell her flat out to get that idea out of her head, but Fay said that Craig will have to tell her that.

After Debbie left we began taking stuff down off of the walls and boxing it up. I also boxed up alot of stuff from the file room and took it to the Test Kitchen. Fay said the construction people are coming on Monday to move our furniture to the kitchen, and rip up the carpet. They will paint on Tuesday, lay the new carpet on Wednesday, and move our furniture back on Thursday. The Test Kitchen Floor Staining comes on the following Wednesday.

Fay left at 4 PM for a medical appointment. Craig spent the afternoon at Darden. He is going to Canada tomorrow to attend training with a consultant.

I left work at 5:10 PM. I drove Vineland Road to L B McLeod to John Young Parkway to I-4. I-4 to Amelia Street, east to Orange Avenue. As I was sitting in rush hour traffic on Orange Avenue, Bob came up from behind as he was returning home from his meeting in Apopka. He followed me the rest of the way back to his house.

We went up to his house because I had to change clothes to get ready for our dinner. As he put the key into the door I told him to hurry up because we only had about 25 more minutes left. As he pushed the door open he exclaimed, "Oh my God!" I had left the foyer light on and he immediately saw the new cabinet and mirror!

I changed into a jacket, slacks, and dress shoes and we went back out. Fortunately the restaurant I made reservations at was nearby. We drove west on Pine Street to Rosalind, north on Rosalind to Livingston, and west on Livingston to the tall Bank Of America building. As we drove in, Bob thought we were going to Harvey's Bistro , which is on the ground floor of this building, for our dinner.

We took the parking garage elevator down to the lobby and found the Manuel's On The 28th receptionist. The dining room was not quite ready for us, so we went into Harvey's Bistro and had a couple of beers. Soon it was time to go up.

We rode the elevator car to the 25th floor, then we exited, turned right and found another car that services 26 - 28 floors. We rode up to the 28th floor and the hostess greeted us as we stepped out. We were shown to a booth facing north over the city.

For this dinner we chose to order from the Prix Fixe Menu. We had Smoked Confit Of Duck as our appetizer, Golden Lobster Bisque for the soup, and for the entree I had Rosemary Grilled Beef Tenderloin, the birthday boy had Herb Seared Black Grouper. We enjoyed sorbet and vanilla ice cream for dessert. We also chose to enjoy the recommended wine pairings with each course of the meal.

As we progressed through the meal the sun set and then the city lights twinkled on. The views from the floor-to-ceiling windows really are spectacular and the food, while small portions, was very tasty and artfully presented. My bill, including tip, came to $200. Still, you could spend that much money at The Capital Grille or Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, and not be able to enjoy the remarkable views that we had.

We went back to Bob's house and enjoyed a slice of his birthday cake and then I had to get back home to feed Buddy and take him on his long-delayed evening walk.

Tomorrow is my 40th birthday. I know Mom is not happy about that. She says it makes her feel old to think that I am already 40 years old!

I will stop at Continental Glass and get the glass pieces for my picture frame projects. Fay said something about us going to lunch to celebrate my birthday. If that happens, I will get a free lunch!

Bob said that he is going to pick me up after work because he made 7:00 PM dinner reservations. He wants me and Buddy to pack up and spend a long weekend at his house. I reminded him that I still needed to work on Friday. I need to buy some groceries on Saturday. Also, on Sunday we are taking Tom and Louise to Olive Garden to celebrate their 54th anniversary. Fun!

Today was a long day.