An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

I didn't have a lot of time for breakfast this morning so I made myself a turkey sandwich because it was easy to eat in the car. I left it on the dining room table while I went back to my room to get something. When I got back to it, George had moved the top piece of bread half way off of it and was licking the turkey. Fortunately, she didn't actually eat any of it because I'm not sure how well her little kitty system would do with processed meat. She's never going to be well behaved. Sigh.

I washed my new bedding tonight - the sheets, pillow cases, shams and the bedskirt. The comforter is too big for my stackable dryer. I'm not sure why I bothered except to clean them up as they came out of the dryer completely wrinkled. I thought, oh well, I'm not washing and drying everything again in smaller batches so I assembled it all despite George's help. It was only after I was completely done did it occur to me that I could have ironed everything. No, I'm not taking it all off and ironing it either. It was an easily dismissed thought.

Our department has been celebrating Fat Tuesday since before I joined the company 10 years ago. We wear beads, listen to music, play games and eat King Cake. There's always a baby in each cake and whomever gets one is responsible for buying a cake the next year. We've had people leave the company and still come back or send money to cover their cake obligation. However, this year no one could recall or would confess who got the babies in 2008. My buddy Dave and I finally decided to just buy them for the party. The King Cakes are the real deal. We've been ordering them from New Orleans and having them shipped overnight. They are always really tasty. Last year, the company we'd been using decided to charge us $90 for overnight shipping. $90!?!?!? For cakes that only cost $35 each? We said no way to that and ordered the cakes from a local bakery. Mistake - they were terrible. More like a yeast bread and dry as can be. This year, I found another bakery, Gambino...

A couple of months ago, our department defended the Corporate Challenge Cup in a bowling match. That made three wins in a row for us and I have to admit we were cocky. Our nemesis department is Print Manufacturing and they were jonesing to come back at us. However, they suggested an intriguing idea instead of the usual head to head competition. Open up the competition to all of the departments in the company with a No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament. Hmmm , poker? It took us about two seconds to agree. One of our Finance guys actually won $41K in a tournament that is sometimes shown on TV. He became our tournament director, I coordinated the teams and bought the food and the Manufacturing guy booked the place. The plan was to have 4 people from each department form a team. We ended up with 6 teams so 24 players. To prevent people just dumping off chips to a team member, we gave out points to only the top 12 finishers. That meant people had to try to stay in as long as poss...

The Rocket Scientist and I went to dinner at Red Robin tonight then made a short shopping trip to Target. Poor guy. I subjected him to my buying new bedding process. It involved going up and down all of the aisles multiple times before I picked a comforter then nearly endless attempts to match sheets to it. I was about to bail on the comforter because I couldn't find just the right sheets. That's when we finally realized the comforter set included sheets. Oops. They match, too! In case you're interested, it's a white background with big Polka Dots in brown, aqua, teal and lime green. Cute! We left the store and headed to our respective cars and TRS said, "See you on Facebook ." I laughed but then I thought it was a somewhat sorry comment on our lives. There was no thought of getting a nightcap or continuing to hang at my place. Just an acceptance that our relationship was moving to an online status. Hmmmm ...not sure exactly what that says.

Your Word is "Fearless" You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it! You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing. Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities. And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary. What's Your Word? Got this from Pammy .

Yes, it's another Facebook story... So, they have this sidebar called "People You May Know" on Facebook and often there's a reason like "You and person X both went to Coronado High School". Sometimes, I recognize the name and sometimes not. It's especially hard if women don't list their married names to know if you knew the person even though there is a picture. Tonight, I saw someone that had that message and clicked on her name to see if I really knew her. I don't but she graduated two years ahead of me and we do have a mutual FB friend. The killer? She listed FIRST under her hobbies "My Grand kids ." Wha ...? That just ain't right. I am so NOT old enough to have Grand kids as a hobby and no one that I could possibly know from High School should be the same!

I know we've been joking about George ordering things from the Internet , selling nuclear secrets, plotting to have me killed, etc. It all seemed pretty preposterous...until tonight. I've been collecting ticket money for the May Buffett show (note to potential burglars - it's checks and will be hidden away and the gods know you couldn't find anything in my house if you tried because I can't and I live here) and it's all in an envelope. I was working on the computer tonight when she jumped on the table, stuck her head under the envelope to knock it on the floor then started dragging it away. WTF ? Has she opened an overseas bank account in the club's name? Just what nefarious scheme has she conjured? I'm just waiting for her to go to her room for a potty break and then I'm going to hide the envelope from her, too. Better to be safe than sorry.

Cathi, Brent and Terry Let me tell you about a great place for food and drink in Rocky Point. It's called The Thirsty Parrot and it's on the Malecon (near the statue). Terry and Cathi are two of the owners and they couldn't be nicer people. We'd been in there a few months back and the warm greetings we got this time made it feel like coming home. The décor also makes it feel like home. Lots of beach stuff and tons of pictures of patrons, musicians and family on the walls. They even have a signed Jimmy Buffett poster. This past weekend, they hosted Brent Burns for two shows. I'll have more on those shows later so back to The Thirsty Parrot. They had pretty cheap drinks, great food (the Crispy Shrimp is particularly good) and were so happy to have us there. A fact they mentioned several times. They're talking about having Brent back again but want to make sure it doesn't conflict with any of our club events. Very nice. I should also mention they donated some ...

I left town on Friday afternoon and didn't get back until Tuesday. While I didn't make Steven stay with George, I did ask him to drop by, feed and water her, and play with her a bit. I'm not sure how much time he spent at my house but it was long enough to eat some food and drink my soda. I know because there was an empty soda can in the living room and a dirty plate in the sink (not in the empty dishwasher because that would clearly be asking too much). George was so happy to see me when I got home. She told me all about, well, something because she had a lot of mewing to do. She also glued herself to my side. When I went to the bathroom, she rushed in there first so I couldn't lock her out. While I was sitting on the couch, she was sitting next to me with her head on my leg. There were several interruptions in my newspaper catch-up as she forced herself on to my lap for some lovings every 10 minutes. When I went to bed, she curled up next to me and stayed ther...

The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't--and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger by Daniel Gardner My review rating: 4 of 5 stars It took me ages to get through this book but it wasn't because of the material. My life has just been crazy and I found myself too tired to read before going to sleep. Or at least read with enough comprehension of the subject matter. Perhaps it was a "preaching to the choir" effect but I dug this book a great deal. Gardner explains how our Gut instinct affects our intuition and sometimes overrides our Head logical thought process. Because we're so conditioned to respond to Gut, Head doesn't get a chance to say "Hey, this isn't quite right" and we react to irrational fears while ignoring real dangers. An example is how many people stopped flying after 9/11 and took road trips. Gut told them flying was dangerous. Head didn't get a chance to say the odds of dying in a plane crash are significantly lower...

I know I haven't been posting a lot lately. It's because I've been in hell. Actually, two levels of hell that are connected by one common theme: People can't read and/or follow directions. Hell number one: Google Apps Hell We currently use Novell Groupwise for our email at work. The good thing about Groupwise is that it's uncommon so nobody writes a virus for it. The bad thing is that it's pretty outdated and they aren't investing a lot in adding new features to it. One of our guys submitted a proposal that we switch to Google Apps ( gmail but with our own domain name). We decided to make it a go and I volunteered to be the Project Manager because my other PMs are tied up in some big projects. I sort of regret that decision now. Here's what people can't read and/or follow: 1. I sent an email to the Supervisors: Here are the training times for the new system. You must send me a list of your employees and the session they will be attending. Of cour...

You Are An Exclamation Point You are a bundle of... well, something. You're often a bundle of joy, passion, or drama. You're loud, brash, and outgoing. If you think it, you say it. Definitely not the quiet type, you really don't keep a lot to yourself. You're lively and inspiring. People love to be around your energy. (But they do secretly worry that you'll spill their secrets without even realizing it.) You excel in: Public speaking You get along best with: the Dash What Punctuation Mark Are You? Got this from KT Cat .

So, I've been yapping at anyone that will listen that I think a lot of our economic issues are being made worse because of fear. Yes, there are lots of folks losing their jobs and getting hours cut back (I know many) but there are also people out there still making good money with no threat to their jobs hanging over their heads. Those are the people who should be spending. After all, there are deals to be had all over the place. Why not cash in on that? But, then I realized that I'm one of those people still making good money and in no danger of losing my job yet I've cut back on spending. And, I'm a notorious spender. So, if I'm not heeding my own advice, I guess I can't be surprised that no one else is. My biggest non-social activity expenditure was a trip to PetSmart . It was a $60 trip by the time I was done. George was sorely in need of her kitty litter box getting changed. She even left me a little present outside of it as a reminder. Since it...

The following was found posted very low on a refrigerator door. Dear Dogs and Cats: The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest. The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Racing me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run. I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing bu...