Orlando, FL

It was not quite as hectic in the office as it was yesterday. I am glad. Yesterday had too much pressure!

Craig passed out our pay stubs. There were no bonuses this month - only our base pay. Craig said that commissions for this month and next month are going to be very slim. Plus the partners had to set aside money for Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association Show expenses next month.

Commissions in Oct and Nov should be good. Last week our offices brought in about $550k. This week FER-Orlando did $491k and Hollywood did $389k - that's a very good week!

Evelyn came to the office this afternoon and worked with Craig setting up a new email account with him. Then she went back to Fay's office to help her work on a spreadsheet. As she was getting ready to leave I played a Natalie Merchant video and asked Fay if she saw the resemblance to Evelyn. She did. Evelyn said that other people have said that she looks like Natalie.

When I got home this evening I balanced my checkbook and tried to pay my bills as best as I could. I just put $100 each on BOA, USAA, and Lowe's. I gave Bobby money for rent and utilities, and I paid for my storage. There isn't a whole lot left.

We need to buy groceries tomorrow, and I want to get doggie toothpaste for Buddy and get more of that steroid spray that is keeping his feet from breaking out.

After our dinner of chicken stir-fry and salad we wrestled Buddy down and brushed his teeth, like we do every Friday.

It is raining outside this evening.

Orlando, FL

Today was extremely busy -- all day long. I am sweaty, oily, and exhausted. Things got a little intense this morning too -- I heard Fay scream down the hall!

At least all of the work is paying off... orders are flowing in, and when I left the office this evening we had $456k in new orders for the week!

Yesterday was another hectic day. In the evening when I drove home I mounted my camera onto my passenger-side sunvisor in the truck with rubber bands, put the camera in movie mode, and made a movie of the trip home. I think that making the movies on the tripod is better because the camera seemed to shake more on the visor. Also, this movie was very noisy because the windows were down for this trip.

The last movie like this was on January 9, when I made a movie of the trip to work.

Fay and I went to BJ's Warehouse and got bottled water and cases of soda. We stopped at Wendy's on the way back and bought our lunch with the petty cash.

Last night it stormed hard. Lots of heavy dark clouds and unsettled air. When it finally was dark outside the lightning just lit up the sky!

It is cloudy and gloomy out this evening too. We are getting some light rain.

Drive Home

Orlando, FL

Today was another busy day for us. Craig spent the day at InSinkErator in Racine, Wisconsin, we are not sure what Debbie did, and Fay went to lunch with Mike Zupo at Darden Restaurants.

I stayed in during lunch and found a bag of "shrimp bites" in the chest freezer in the test kitchen (made with crab meat). I poured these into a sheet pan, fired up the combi, and made those for lunch.

While working in the TK I heard the cricket chirp from the front door opening. I said to myself, "I know I locked that front door behind the UPS delivery!" No, it was Debbie letting herself in. She got some stuff out of her office, dropped a box in Fay's office, and then came back to the TK. She got some Kolpak literature, inspected the job we did of recovering the chairs, and proceeded to complain for about 20 minutes.

The poor little lamb. She is so lost on the equipment. But, it's really her fault. She's been to Frymaster four (4) times now, but she still needs help. If she would stop flirting and giggling and start paying attention to the factory training she would do a lot better on demos.

August is going to be a kind of expensive dog month. Buddy needs more heartworm medicine, more steroid spray for his feet, and flea and tick repellent. On the plus side, he doesn't really need more food right now!

The Orange County SPCA had to put down 40 dogs yesterday because distemper was spreading among the adoptable animals. Reading that story made me sad.

You would think that the SPCA would make sure the animals had their shots before introducing them to the rest of the population. I guess it's like everything else, end of the day, get him in for the night, not enough money to do give them right now, etc. and that was all it took. One infected animal introduced to a vulnerable population, and it takes off.

Orlando, FL

We didn't waste any time when the alarm went off this morning. We both got up and started our day. I went to the kitchen, poured a cup of dog food into Buddy's bowl, and then began making oatmeal for our breakfast and packing a boxed lunch for Bob.

Once we had breakfast out of the way and Bobby was on his way to work, I harnessed Buddy and took him for his morning walk.

Work today was steady, not overwhelming. Craig was in the office for awhile today, but he will be going to Racine, Wisconsin tomorrow and Wednesday to visit InSinkErator. Tomorrow Fay will be going to lunch with Mike Zupo at Darden, so I will be alone for awhile tomorrow.

This evening I stopped at Publix on the way home to get a pack of frozen strawberries and a white cake mix for a dessert experiment. I saw the recipe for My My's Strawberry Layer Cake With Strawberry Frosting on an Internet site and decided to give it a try. The picture on this evening's post is the result of my cake baking adventure.

Doesn't that pink color burn your retinas?

We had a garden salad for dinner with fruit salad on the side.

I saw a couple of unlikely u-turns today. First a city bus making a u-turn in Conroy Road because he missed his turn. It must have been his first day on the route. In the afternoon I saw a big Estes tractor trailer making a u-turn on JYP. You can't just whip those right around!

Bob is sitting at his computer taking a distance learning course with a camera and microphone on his computer. His classmates are in states all over the country. Periodically the camera shifts to a view of his classmates and Bob laughs at what they look like or what they are doing.

Weekend

On Saturday morning we had Shredded Wheat cereal for breakfast with some leftover cherry Danish. After taking Buddy for his morning walk we went back to bed and napped.

After my nap I got into my arm chair and read for a couple of hours. Bob decided to make Cajun Pork Chops for dinner and he went to Publix to get a few needed ingredients. We had tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Bob made dinner while I read infront of the TV. Iron Chef was playing on the Food Network and they were making dishes with halibut.

After we had our dinner of cajun porkchops on rice with broccoli and cheese, we took Buddy out for his evening walk.

This morning I fried mild Italian sausage in a skillet, then added cheese and eggs. We ate this, took our vitamins, and then I walked Buddy. After this we got into the car and drove to Daytona to mow the lawn at Tom & Louise's house. Bob mowed the front yard on the riding mower and I mowed the backyard with the push mower.

After mowing Bob got the electric grass whip out and started to take down all of the tall weed along the fence and next to the house. As he worked I smelled something burning, but didn't think anything of it. As he got 3/4 of the way done in the back the motor began to go slower and slower. Finally the motor burned up completely on the grass whip.

There is a gasoline-powered grass whip in the garage, but it is a 2-cycle and we needed oil for it.

We showered and cleaned up - we were sweaty because it heated up quickly this morning. Then we drove over to Lowe's to get the 2-cycle oil, and a few other small things. We also browsed the bathroom vanities and steel outside doors - other items we may have to purchase for the Mihaley house in the coming months.

After Lowe's we went to Dustin's BBQ for lunch. Bob had a catfish sandwich and I had a sliced beef plate. Next we went to Publix and bought cigarettes for Louise. We walked to the GNC in the same shopping center and bought more multi-vitamins for ourselves. Then we drove to Walgreens.

At Walgreens we got candy bars for Tom and Louise. We also bought some Day Quil cold medicine, some moth balls for the Mihaley house closets, and a silver paint pen to mark Tom and Louise's clothing so that it returns to them from the laundry.

We went to visit the parents in Oaktree. Tom is doing much better. He is eating more now and he's regained some of his weight. All Louise wanted to do was smoke her cigarette.

While Louise smoked a red cardinal swooped down to the patio and grabbed a caterpilar off of the concrete and flew away with it!

Next, we took her to visit Tom, but she was complaining that her back hurt her.

I walked her back to her room on the psychiatric wing, and as we were going down the hall, Mrs. Mildred Jones looked up at us from her wheelchair and asked, "How do I know Jesus loves me?" I told her, "Because the Bible tells me so!" I don't think she liked that answer because her face looked very troubled. But, that's why she lives on the psycho wing, I guess.

We were upset to discover that the new shoes we bought Tom have already disappeared. He didn't even get to wear them once!! Bob is going to phone the administrator tomorrow and if the shoes have not been found, he is going to insist that home replace them.

There was a big storm coming as we drove back to Orlando. It rained hard for awhile, and then it rained more steadily for about three hours this evening. Poor Buddy had to do with just a two-block walk this evening. Atleast he got to pee.

I started a load of whites and once those were in the dryer I started a load of darks.

Our dinner was a Freschetta pizza from Publix with a big leafy salad. Bob is going to take some salad for his lunch tomorrow too.

After dinner we cleaned the floors and I cleaned the glass tables. Now we are getting ready for another week of work. I will be paid next weekend, and we will go buy our groceries. After that I need to buy some lumber to get the ModdiMurphy Bed project started.

Right now I am about eight pages from the end of The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson. That book is 358 pages.

Orlando, FL

We stayed fairly contantly busy today. It was half past twelve when Fay came down the hall and asked me what we were going to do for lunch. She said she didn't have time to leave the office to eat.

She had petty cash burning a hole in her purse, so we ordered sandwiches from the Millenia Cafe and I walked over to pick them up.

FER-Orlando finished the week with $350k in orders and Hollywood brought in $199k. So, over all, this was a good week - we more than made our expenses!

As I was driving into the garage, Bob was backing out and getting ready to head to his Toastmasters Treasurer Training class. That will probably keep him for a couple of hours.

Right now we are waiting for outside temps to fall a little. Then I am going to take Buddy for his evening walk and pick up the mail.

Orlando, FL

Bob was only supposed to work for four hours this morning, but like so many things, it didn't work out the way everyone planned. When I sent him email at 2:00 PM, he was still at work.

My day was light-moderate. Overall it was a good day. I packed a lunch and took it with me this morning so that I did not have to go out in the heat at lunch. Going into the heat seems to make my sinuses hurt.

It was a hot and muggy day today. It did not rain during the day, but it clouded up a few times.

By the time I got home this evening, Bob had already left for his Thursday evening class. I made a lamb chop for dinner. While making dinner it began to thunder. A strong storm came up!

I got Buddy harnessed up, but by the time we got down to the street it was raining hard. He took a short walk around the building to the front and peed several times along the way. Then we came inside, got the mail, and came back upstairs.

Orlando, FL

We over-slept this morning and did not get up until 5:55 AM!! We jumped up because Bob had to go to Toastmasters this morning. I packed his lunch and pressed a shirt for him while he got his shower and shave.

Work today was easy and steady. There was a lot of controversy about the demo that Debbie was supposed to do at Florida Hospital yesterday. Bill Murray, the Edward Don salesman, was not happy about what she did (and did not do). Later in the day she called him up and left a very "snippy" voice message for him.

I was able to make myself look like a hero by calling the service agency and having the biggest part of the crisis taken care of.

After lunch I logged into SparkFun.com and ordered some components - rotary encoders with knobs, electronic barometric pressure sensors, magnetic reed switches, and some push buttons etc. These items will probably be delivered sometime next week.

When I got home around 6:00 PM, Bob had the table set and was pulling hamburgers out of the oven. We had asparagus with our hamburgers.

Now Buddy has had his walk, I've read this week's edition of the Orlando Weekly, and I am about to go lay down on the bed and read more of Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money.

Entry No. 1442

Today was spent processing purchase orders and writing equipment quotations and madly trying to keep up with the flood of email.

During lunch I went to Subway and got a foot long BMT on Italian Herbs & Cheese bread. Then I went to Exxon-Mobil to get a $28 tank of gasoline.

In the afternoon a strange phone call came in from Rick Sostre, executive producer of TV's Kings Of The Kitchen, an Iron Chef lookalike, and he was looking for a test kitchen to use for his television program where eight restaurants will compete. He needs two side-by-side kitchens to use once a week for 8 to 10 hours, up to eight weeks during filming. I took his info down and told him Craig Hodges would get back to him.

Now I am home and I have bacon-wrapped scallops in the oven and a bag of broccoli and cheese in the microwave heating up for dinner. I have 10,000 Maniacs in the DVD player playing in the living room.

Next - a good long walk for Buddy.

Orlando, FL

When I went got to the office I went to the TK and pushed all of the chairs up under the table and decided that I would wait to see how long it took Fay to discover that they had been recovered.

She came in at 8:05 (typical) and went back to her room. A few minutes later Craig called and he talked to her. Then around 8:20 I heard her exclaim, "Oh my goodness! You recovered the chairs!!" I asked her, "Did you see that, or did Craig tell you?" She said he sent her and email message. Indeed, he took pictures of the chairs and sent them to everyone in the company.

For the rest of the morning I was getting thanks, compliments, and invitations to reupholster sofas in my spare time. Ugggh.

The day went by quickly enough. During lunch I went to BJ's Warehouse to get two more boxes of blueberries for Bob. When I came back I had a painful headache from my sinuses.

This evening Bob and I went to the Waverly Home Owners Association Board Of Directors' Meeting. We had this meeting in the 5th Floor Conference Room. There was assorted business to discuss -- ways to reduce our budget, ways to persue deadbeats on their HOA dues, introducing our new management company, Continental, etc.

The meeting went on for two and a half hours. We discovered a few surprising things by attending and listening -- we are three months behind paying some of our vendors! The Budd Group, who performs housekeeping; and Weiser Security, who staff the front desk, have not been paid in three months! Budd and Weiser - I thought that was funny! The HOA attorney hasn't been paid in months either - maybe that's why they have been unsuccessful in catching the deatbeats?

They discuss how badly short the budget is, yet they continue to fund insane things like the computers on the second floor, outdoor radio on the pool and patio downstairs. They spent $800 on plants just last month!! Just insane. And then they have the nerve to suggest that a Special Assessment be passed on to all homeowners to cover the budget shortfall. They are just like Obama - out of touch.

We left at 9:00 PM even though the meeting was not over because the dog had not been outside all day and he badly needed his walk.

Weekend

On Saturday morning I made a hearty breakfast of French toast and Canadian bacon.

We spent most of our free time this week in the FER Test Kitchen re-covering some stacking metal chairs. The first one took the longest time - we had to disassemble it, pull the staples all out, remove the covering, rip the seams out of the covers, and make a pattern from the old covers. Then we cut new pieces from the new fabric, pinned them together, sewed them up, pulled them over the cushions, stapled them into place, and put them back into the frame.

There were alot of lessons to learn on that first chair, like how to ease the stitches into the curves and corners as I fed it through the sewing machine, or the fact that the 9/16" and thick staples worked best going into endgrain, but buckled up when driving into side grain. We used a smaller, light-duty stapler for the end grain of the seat bottoms. Then we ran out of staples and we had a goose-chase going from Home Depot-to-Office Depot-to-Sears for staples. Some of the puckering and wrinkles could be smoothed away, some of them could not.

We brought back our lunch from the Wendy's Drive-Thru. Bob had the Asian Salad and I had two Go Wraps with a Small Chili.

The second, third, and fourth chairs went much faster than the first. I think we got better as we did more chairs.

Craig was in on Saturday for awhile. We brought Buddy with us and the dog was very happy to see him!

At the end of Saturday we had two chairs completed. The picture at the top is a before-and-after picture. The 15-year-old Shelby-Williams chairs had a blue polyester covering on them with piping around the edge of the seat cushions and an indent in the tops to make room for hands when being handled. We were covering them in a brown cotton material with light tan ferns on it. This will match the brown, beige, and red color scheme in the kitchen better.

FER has Shelby-Williams chairs because these are the chairs supplied to Red Lobster restaurants and Craig was the factory rep to Darden for awhile.

In the evening we ordered a pizza from Papa Johns via the Internet and enjoyed pizza and beer for dinner. We watched a History Channel documentary about the Kennedy's and the supposed "curse" on the family. There was also a documentary about the Kennedy Assassination Conspiracy. We got to bed around 11:30 PM.

This morning we had Cheerios for breakfast and then returned to the office to finish covering chairs. We had four yards of the material, and it turns out that it was just enough to cover four chairs with a little scrap leftover.

Before we started I had imagined that the sewing machine was going to give me all kinds of trouble, but after I spun a bobbin full of "Nutmeg Brown" thread, threaded the machine and needle, adjusted the tension, and ran a couple of practice seams, it didn't give very much trouble at all! This is excellent. The sewing machine I have was bought in a yard sale in the 70's and

was like manufactured in the 50's or 60's - Singer portable sewing machine that has forward and reverse straight stitches only. The only adjustment is the stitch length. Dependable.

No, it seems that the most trouble came from the staplers!

By 1:00 PM we had the four chairs finished. I sprayed them all down good with ScotchGard

fabric protectant and slid them up to the table to dry. We will see tomorrow how long it takes Fay to notice that the chairs were done.

We gathered all of the stuff up and returned my equipment to the storage unit on Kirkman Road, then we drove down the 408 to Bumby and ate lunch at Pei Wei Asian Diner on East Colonial Drive. I had the Orange Peel Chicken on brown rice and Bob had Spicy Chicken salad. We had fortune cookies too.

My cookie said, "You are about to embark on a most delightful journey." Bob's cookie said, "Do not let great ambitions overshadow small success."

We came home and had a nice quiet afternoon in the house. It was too hot to do anything outside. After walking the dog in the evening we enjoyed some Ben & Jerry's ice cream, then we cleaned the house.

This weekend was too short. The weeks seem to fly by now - a sure sign that I am getting old!

Orlando, FL

Today was a good day. I felt great. We were busy all day long. Outside it was very hot - like 95°F and humid.

Bob went to Daytona Beach today to take his Dad out for a haircut. It turned out that he didn't get him out all, but when his father heard that they wanted to call hospice, he decided to eat more of his lunch and try harder to get up and walk!

This evening we went to Steak and Salad, a Mom and Pop restaurant on Mills Avenue. I had a 6 oz ribeye and Bob had a 4 oz salmon steak. We both had salads and mixed vegetables with our entre.

Buddy got a good long walk this evening and we are going to brush his teeth before we all go to bed.

Mom called to tell us that Jordan and Tyler are in Ohio visiting with Dad, and when Jordan checked his telephone messages he found out that six of his friends were in a car accident and five of them were killed. The boys will return to Virginia on Monday, and I guess George has even managed to scam out of another underway because of this one.

Legendary television news anchor, Walter Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America", died at 7:42 PM this evening. He was 92.

Space-X Success!

I knew Space Exploration Industries would ultimately be successful in placing payload in orbit! I knew they would be! This is one space company that is well-funded and is going to be in this for the duration.

Orlando, FL

There was a raging thunderstorm going on outside when I went to bed at 8:30 PM. I drank half a bottle of Nyquil and I was struggling to hold my eyelids open. Everytime there was a loud nearby blast of thunder I opened my eyes and lifted my head from the pillow, but soon sleep drug me back under, pulling my head back down into the pillow.


I must have been dead to the world for atleast six hours. I tossed a few times during the night, but when I got up this morning, I felt 90% better!!



For a change I work a freshly pressed shirt and tie to work. Fay noticed. Craig noticed. Let them think I am interviewing during my long lunch hour. I was going to interview with Three Stars, Inc. before I learned that it was a scam company after a little bit of Internet investigation. So, instead, with Fay expecting me to take a long lunch, I came downtown and met Bob at Metro Espresso Pizza for lunch.



The afternoon was longer than the morning, but since I was feeling better, it wasn't more than I could take. The work day ended at 6:10 PM.

Just 11 days after a monorail operator died in a collision, Disney has another transportation accident. Today two busses collided and hurt 12 people. You know, it must be tough for Disney to always live in the spotlight.

When I got home Bob was already in his evening class, but he turned the crockpot back on "Low" before he left, so I had warmed up leftover turkey breast and carrots for dinner. Then I took Buddy to the street for his walk.



Yeah!!! Tomorrow is Friday and another difficult week is over!

Orlando, FL

For the past two days I have had a powerful sinus infection/summer cold. I feel like 100-year-old man!! Today seemed to take forever, and even closing the bathroom door behind me hurt from the joints aching!

I bought a bottle of Nyquil this evening and hopefully I will be able to banish this pain.

Bobby stayed home yesterday and today because he is trying to use up all of the comp time his boss owes him. Yesterday he looked around for cremation information to have at hand if something happens to his parents. Today he went out and got a haircut.

We had beef tenderloin and carrots in the crock pot for dinner with fruit salad.

Now I am going to take another sip of the Nyquil, read more of my book, and dose right off.

Orlando, FL

It wasn't easy to get up with the alarm at 5:00 AM.

I fried ground turkey for breakfast and then poured scrambled eggs over it to fry. That was a very tasty breakfast! While the breakfast was frying I packed a sandwich and other foods for lunch for Bob.

Bob left for work at 5:53 AM. Buddy and I went out to walk shortly after that.

My workday was very long. I wrote four small quotes today and handled all of the orders. Fay took part in a telephone conference with Kolpak (Darden issues) and handled Kolpak stuff only. Must be nice. Now I get to do her job and process the purchase orders. I am starting to get tired of this.

Shortly after lunch it rained. It poured for a few minutes.

I didn't leave the office until after 6:00 PM. Fay was still there when I left. You have to go home sometime.

A pound of hamburger was left in the sink this morning to thaw out. I chopped an onion and then put the hamburger into fry. I made chili for dinner.

Bobby got home kind of late and his lunch pail was still full! Somebody took them out to lunch. He said that he has to take 65 hours off to use up all of his comp time before his supervisor leaves. So he will be off over the next few days.

Wish I could take some days off.

Weekend

Friday brought a long week that could not end soon enough, to a close. FER-Orlando did $172k and Hollywood brought in $101k. Not a very good week for sales.

On my way to work I stopped at 7-Eleven to get Coke Zero. The man running the check-out, Roger Van Sluis, 31, the franchise owner asked me what I was doing on Church Street the other night. Surprised, I said, "We went to Kres Steakhouse... and we won't be going back!" He said he was in Ceviche eating some special. He said he thought it was good and I grunted back to him, "Yeah, if you like bait!"

In the afternoon it thunderstormed very strongly. Bob turned of the computers because of all of the lightning.

When I got home Bob was frying the pork chops that I left in the sink to thaw. He was making Cajun Pork Chops - one of our new favorites. We accidentally burned the bottoms of the ones on the bottom because we were not paying attention. Bob swore he would not eat any of the charred ones because his uncle got stomach cancer after eating charred and burned foods all his life.

Bob prepared an interesting tomato, artichoke, olive, garlic salad to go with the pork chops too. We opened a bottle of Bonterra Merlot and enjoyed a nice meal.

Once we had the dishes in the sink we harnessed Buddy up and took him for his evening walk. We checked the mail on the way back upstairs and then we got him settled down for his weekly toothbrushing. Bob held his jaws open while I quickly brushed with poultry flavored toothpaste. The plaque seems to have lightened up, but it's not coming off. I think we are going to have to scrape it off.

Saturday morning was started with a dog walk and then we had cereal for breakfast. After this we ran the dishwasher and did some laundry.

We went out around 11:00 AM to Jo-Ann Fabric to get some material to cover the chairs in the FER-Orlando Test Kitchen. We got a nice nutmeg colored fabric with little light buff colored ferns on it. I bought four yards of this material and we selected thread that matches perfectly. Next weekend we are going to the office and we are going to try to cover ten of the steel-framed chairs.

We got a quick lunch at the Chik-Fil-A drive-thru then we went to the Winter Park Village where we watched the movie, Moon. We really enjoyed this movie and it does not turn out the way that you would think (no plot spoiler here).

After folding the laundry, I plopped my butt down into my chair in the corner of the bedroom and continued to read The Jungle. I made a lot of progress. Bob sat on the bed reading his books.

I watched a storm slowly approach out the big floor-to-ceiling windows from the west. Soon it was raining. When seven o'clock came, the dog was anixious to go outside and squeeze out some business, but it was pouring!

We harnessed him up and I took him down to the garage. I walked him down and he stopped periodically to lift his leg on the columns. At the second floor we went inside and got the mail, then we continued all the way to the bottom. Here we got into the elevator and came back up.

I got to within twenty pages of finishing the book before I crawled into bed.

This morning we got up around 7:00. I walked the dog, we ate breakfast, we gathered the potato chips, clothes, shoes, and watch we bought for Tom and Louise last week, and headed out to Daytona Beach.

We went to the house first and we mowed the yard. Man, it was getting hot quickly! We did not feel like running the grass whip or anything else. Bob backed Tom's car out of the garage and let it run. We checked and topped off all of the fluids. Bobby called his friend, Smiley, to let him know he was ready to sell Tom's car. We had to go pick up Smiley and bring him back. He agreed to give us $200 for the car, but it will need alot of work.

After this we went to Walgreens to get cigarettes and candy bars for the 'rents, and then headed to Oaktree.

Tom did not look good - he is very pale and very thin. The orderly said that he's been refusing his meals. He woke up briefly while we were there and Bob put his wrist watch on him. Before he was done Tom was dozing again.

We visited with Louise for awhile and she smoked. Then we had her try on the pants we bought for her. She really likes the capri-style pants. The pair that fit her waist the best came off of the clearance rack at Wal*Mart. But, these were too long - a real tripping hazard for her. We brought them back with us and I cut 8 inches off of them and hemmed them.

This evening we had chicken breast and leftover tomato/artichoke salad. After this we walked the dog. The sky looked very threatening while we were outside, but it did not rain.

Back home we did our weekly housecleaning routine. I vacuumed and cleaned the glass tables, while Bobby unloaded the dishwasher and then ran the Swiffer mop in the kitchen.

I hope this coming week is better than the last one.

Orlando, FL

Ugghh... this week can't end soon enough.

Debbie had to get a math lesson yesterday (via email) about how to calculate percentages. "Here is how you do this... 100% - ((Their price / Our price) * 100% ) = Percent Difference", she said, "You know math isn't my strong suit, so I am going to ask you and Fay since you sit in there doing it day-in and day-out..."

Problem is, if she were doing her job, she would be doing elementary school math like this day-in and day-out as well.

I got one of those "Vince we are going to have to talk about your bad attitude" email messages from Craig yesterday evening. Reading that just made me want to vomit and threw me into a gloomy funk last night and all day today.

Never worry that I was in there from 7:30 AM until after 6:00 PM. Never mind that I only got 10 minutes for lunch.

Funny thing is, he was in the office from today 2:45 PM until I left at 6:00 PM and he never started to discuss my attitude or anything like that. He hates confrontation.

I wish I had started taking the AutoCAD audit at Valencia so that I could be ready for my next job. As it is now, I couldn't start until Winter Semester. I should take my lunch hour and go over there and talk about it with a counselor.

The big emergency these past few days have been getting the Delfield items finished for Capital Grille #8039 (Wall Street) and getting them shipped. Evidently the angry man called the president of Delfield and let him have it! They put on a third shift and worked all night on that stuff to get it ready, then they started to load one of the trucks this morning. Ahhh... so many things began to go wrong...

The first truck didn't leave Mt Pleasant until 2:45 PM, then we got a phone call letting us know that the second truck was stuck in traffic and would be late getting to Delfield, but no matter what, Delfield was to keep personnel on hand to load that truck and get it out tonight. I know full well that truck didn't make it to Mt Pleasant until after 5:00 PM, if that soon. The union shop rules forbid Shipping Dept from working later than 6:30 PM. It will be interesting to hear how this all turned out in the morning.

Around 3:30 PM it was discovered (by Fastrans, Darden's freight agency) that four pieces of equipment were waiting in Covington, TN to be picked up and carried to the jobsite in New York. Man. I am glad Craig was in the office when that was discovered! He talked to the angry man about this himself. As sensitive as those guys are, this would not have been something I could have handled without pissing all of them off.

Fay quietly said, "Well, there is only so much we can control from this office. Besides, you would have to have one person devoted to only that project if we were expected to keep track of everything on that project. We have over 100 other dealers we have to work with!"

Huge amounts of stress over this. Even the big whig executives over at Darden are closely watching this project. I am glad Delfield isn't doing custom stainless on the next two projects.

Of course that is not the end of it... in the coming days there will be bitching and fighting over the invoices and freight damage, etc etc.

Bobby is in Maitland this evening taking his once-a-week class. I have taken Buddy for his walk, and as we were getting the mail on the second floor of the lobby we passed through a big social gathering full of chatty people and refreshments. The dog went crazy sniffing.

I think I am going to bed early and read more of The Jungle.

Orlando, FL

For some reason, I woke up thinking today was Wednesday. Only after I got to the office and saw that yesterday's work was done on Monday did I realize what day it really was.

Work today was very very hectic. Fay is starting to stress out from all of the extra workload the Kolpak walk-ins are bringing to our office. We might need Debbie to come in and work inside part-time.

During lunch I went to BJ's Warehouse to get more blueberries for Bob. Then I went to Off Broadway Shoes to get some new sandals. After that I went to Subway and got a sandwich to take back to the office. I took Fay a 6-inch turkey sub too. Now she owes me one.

This evening, after putting the blueberries into the fridge, putting my new sandals in the bedroom, walking Buddy, checking the mail, and after Bob came home, we went to Kres Chophouse for dinner.

To avoid paying for valet parking we drove to the end of the block to the city parking lot under I-4 and paid the machine to park there. An old man walks up behind us and asks us if we have it all under control. I told him that I was needed to read the screen and Bob was there to put money in the machine. He laughed heartily and said, "Ahahaha! That's a good one! You got me there!" He then directed us to put the big part of the ticket the machine dropped out on to the dashboard of the car and keep the little part.

Then he began to ask us for his "tip" - the man we assumed was the parking lot attendent was actually a homeless vagrant!

Kres was another one of those fancy expensive places that we can now say we ate in, and won't be eating in again.

Orlando, FL

Today was a very busy day back at work. The phones and email kept us very busy all day. Craig has been showing a bad attitude for quite some time now, and today he almost told a dealer to go "F" herself! I know who he's talking about and I wish had told her!

In my email this morning was a pleasant surprise. Evidently Dave Pierre was looking up old friends while bored on watch last Friday and he sent an email message. Said he was in Orlando just last week! He's been reading this blog, so I guess that brings the number of weblog readers to six now.

It rained briefly during lunch today. This only served to make it even more punishingly humid. Ugghhh.

I read that Robert McNamara, former US Defense Secretary, died this morning. He was 94. I don't think very many are going to miss him.

When I got home around 6:00 PM I took Buddy out for his walk first thing. We were going to go out to eat, but it was already 7:15 when we got up off of the sofa. I had a nectarine and some cheese, Bobby had a stuffed pepper that he microwaved from the freezer.

This weekend I started reading Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel about the Chicago meatpacking industry and poverty called The Jungle. I seem to be reading more fiction lately.

July 4th Fireworks

July 4th Weekend

Since I had Friday off and I just got paid, we went out to get our groceries first thing. We went to BJ's Warehouse and got over $260 and then we went across the street to SuperTarget and loaded up another $150.

We took all of this stuff home and put it all away.

Next we went to Lightstyle to order a 300 watt replacement ceiling-mounted transformer for the track lighting in the dining room. When the man said that this transformer cost $349, I said that we needed to find another way to do it -- the whole kit only cost $189!

We went to TJ Maxx to find pants for Bob's mother, Louise. We found some nice Capri pants for her. Then we went to the Target there in SoDo and got a new watch for Bob's father, Tom.

For dinner, Bob put a zucchini meatloaf together while I took Buddy out for his evening walk.

On Saturday, July 4, we took Buddy for his morning walk, and then went to IHOP for a pancake breakfast. We decided to make sausages on the grill and cook pork and beans in the little Crockette slow cooker.

As it got dark we took Buddy for his evening walk, then we brought him home, gave him liver treats with Benedryl hidden in them, moved his bedding into the master bathroom, turned the radio on, and left him in there with the light on. We knew the loud fireworks would upset him.

The neighbors upstairs (Unit 710) seem to be renting their unit out, or they have people house-sitting for them. The couple had another family visiting and the children were dropping lit fireworks from their balcony. Some of them were ending up on OUR balcony. I was not happy about this. We called the front desk and they sent a man up to investigate. All we heard was the lady telling the boys, "Now you guys be careful! Fireworks are dangerous!" That's not supervising your kids, lady.

Eventually they went down to the fifth floor and climbed onto the garage roof through one of the gym windows. The boys continued to set fireworks off. All of the boxes and burned out charges were left littering the roof.

A large crowd always gathers on the roof to watch the annual fireworks display -- half of the units in the building face away from the show. We climbed over the railing ourselves and out on to the ledge to walk down the side of the building for an even better view.

The show started around 9:15 and lasted about 25 minutes. It was very good. Because of the building across the street we seemed to have lots of booming echoes!

After the show we went in and got Buddy out of the bathroom. We opened up the blinds in the bedroom to admire the distant fireworks in Kissimmee and Narcoosee. We could see the huge traffic jam down on the street below as some of the 100,000 plus tried to leave downtown and go home.

When we got up this morning we learned that a 21-year-old Disney employee was killed when two monorail trains crashed during the morning. The monorail has been running since 1971 and this was the first crash with a fatality.

We also heard that a man jumped up backward on to the railing of his 17th floor balcony at The Sanctuary Condominium, but he fell backward and feel 12 stories to the fifth floor ledge. He also died.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs with sliced up leftover sausage.

I trimmed Buddy's dewclaws this morning. I accidentally cut his left one a bit too far back because he bled. Bob noticed that he was licking at his feet - thinking he was licking because they itched he told him to stop it. The dog got up and came into the other bedroom where I was. I noticed he was leaving spots of blood on the carpet, so I got the liquid styptic and got the bleeding to stop.

During the afternoon we went to Sweet Tomatoes for a salad lunch. Then we went to Wal*Mart to get shoes for Bob's dad. On the way home we stopped at the Winter Park Borders Bookstore. Bob did not get anything (his reading list is already too long), but I got a Niall Ferguson book about the rise of money and currency. He's a good author and his books are well-researched.

We took Buddy out for his evening walk. While walking the dog I phoned Mom and talked with her. She said that they are making a trip down here this fall and they are going to bring my old electronic organ and my old secretary desk. I will have to rearrange the storage unit to hold them.

She also said there was a possibility that they might end up moving to Alabama to follow Bill's job with Westvaco-Mead. He would keep his seniority by moving with the company. They would have to sell their house or rent it out if they did this.

For dinner we had sausage sandwiches. Right after dinner we ran the vacuum, Swiffered the kitchen and bathrooms, and cleaned the glass tables.

Now we have to get ready for another week of work. Ugghhh.

The Road

I finished The Road last night. This Pulitzer Prize winner was on Oprah's book list and the screen adaptation is currently in post-production. It is scheduled for release on October 9, 2009. The book was so riveting I breezed through the 271 pages in two days. The book was so depressing I want to throw myself off of a bridge!

Orlando, FL

I did not write yesterday because it was the longest day at work ever. I had a splitting headache from sinuses and tight neck muscles. Add a very busy day on the phones, Fay Lewis second-guessing me frequently, and it added up to a horrendous day.

Fay went out to Hair Cuttery during her lunch. Craig phoned in and asked for her and I replied honestly that she wasn't there. He said, "Well, where is she?" I told him, "She went to get her hair done so she'll look nice for her visit at Darden with you tomorrow." He was incredulous, "What!!!!? You're kidding me!" No, no Craig, I don't make this shit up.

In the evening we took Buddy for his walk. On the way back home we stopped at Publix and I got a half gallon of 1% milk, a frozen chicken lasagna, some veggie crisp chips, and some ground chicken meat. I made the lasagna for dinner, and in the microwave that took 28 minutes.

After dinner I took a hot shower and went to bed early, well, almost early, it was already 8:30 PM by that time.

Today was a little better. I took a bunch of decongestant and pain reliever this morning before heading out. The day got off to a slow start, but overall it was much better.

Fay is the main contact for Kolpak issues and boy, did she get a double-dose today! New-construction Olive Gardens #1810 and #1811 both had problems. Fay handled it all pretty well, but there was ALOT of email traffic about #1811 in particular.

Craig came to pick her up at 12:00 PM and they got Hans Haasis of OmniTeam and went to visit Bob Chuhak and Mike Zupo. Fay said that she was embarassed for Hans Haasis because Bob really let him have it about his company.

They returned around 3:15 PM. Fay was surprised to see me writing on Page 2 of my phone log, so she knew things had been busy while she was out. She found out when she sat down, just HOW busy it was -- she had 45 email messages waiting for her!

The week ended up okay for us. FER-Orlando brought in $248k, and FER-Hollywood brought in $90k. This week ended the second quarter, and so far this calendar year, we've sent $11M in orders up to the factories. We are down a little compared to last year.

When I got home this evening Bob was already at his Thursday evening class. I ate some of the leftover lasagna and read more of Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. I am 10 pages from the end and I am going to finish it tonight. Tomorrow I am starting The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This one is fiction and I don't usually read fiction, but it's a Pulitzer Prize winner, so maybe I will enjoy it.

Kiwi Air Safety