It's summer and I refuse to feel guilty for being such a lame-o blogger
Yeah, whatever, it's been almost two months since my last entry, but I refuse to feel bad. Because I was out there, man, having a life! Or something. By the way, speaking of "whatever", recently a co-worker (a quite senior one) replied to all to one of those silly "it's my last day here and I'd really like to thank all of you for being my dream co-workers, blah, blah, blah" with this: W. It was genius.
Feeling like I'm in a confessional, I will reel off what I've been up to the last two months. My father-in-law, stepdaughter and a niece and nephew arrived; father-in-law, niece and nephew stayed for a week, stepdaughter stayed for six weeks. She's a thoroughly delightful young lady and I miss her. We tried to convince her to stay here, but she's back in Texas, getting ready to start high school. If I had a pill that allowed her to skip the next four years, I'd give it to her but, alas, I don't. Plus high school probably builds character, if it doesn't kill you and/or such every ounce of individuality out of you.
Then there was Bronwen's birthday and birthday party. The Build-A-Bear workshop part of her party was fabulous (except that I didn't get to make the monkey and dress him up in the argyle sweater and corduroy pants). The Coldstone Creamery part of the party was a fiasco. I've never had such bad service in my life, and the young woman actually tried to lecture me that I should be nicer to her and her staff, after she and her staff screwed up.
Then there was my baby brother's wedding in Canada. Great wedding, happy bride and groom, Bronwen was a wonderful flower girl, I got lots of compliments on my reading, Will dropped his Blackberry in the lake (and when he fished it out and dried it out, it worked, more's the pity), Megan participated in almost every event and took over as the Polaroid Girl at the reception, Charlie decided that the only people who could hold him were Mom and Dad, just when grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, great aunts, etc. were lining up to get their hands on him. It was much hotter in Canada than I expected it to be, and I did not pack enough light clothing.
And speaking of hot, it's been hot as Hades here for the last couple of weeks. This week the US grid operators are setting all kinds of records for the amount of demand they're meeting. I keep thinking we should all stay home, to conserve energy and prevent a blackout, but I'm probably just looking for an excuse not to walk two blocks in DC in 101-degree weather. And when I get in to my new office, on our new floor, and it's so cold that people are wrapping themselves in blankets (no, really) and turning on the heat in their offices if they are lucky enough to have an office with a thermostat, I wonder what PJM would think if they knew how well our AC is working.
"My new office?", you ask. Yes, in between Megan's arrival and Bronwen's birthday, I and several of my colleagues moved down to a new floor the firm just finished building out. It's very nice in some ways (think lots of marble) and very schlocky in other ways (think poorly lit, grimly decorated bathrooms with used toilets that don't work very well). My own office is very nice, bigger than my last office and I've moved in a nice little sofa, chairs and table. I'm quite pleased with it, except that Randy just pointed out that the only thing it needs is a big plant for the one corner and so now I'm being driven mad by the fact that he's absolutely right. I've asked my mother, the shrubber, for advice on getting a nice big plant.
And, lastly, speaking of the office, let's talk about The Office. My friend Melissa has been raving about it for a while and I finally downloaded it to my new video iPod (birthday present from the hubster) a couple of days ago. MelMax is right -- it's hilarious. The chief source of the humor is that it's not so far off from the real world. Granted, I've never had a boss quite as stupid, sleazy and self-deluded as Michael or quite as power-hungry as Dwight, but they're only slight exaggerations of some people with whom I've worked.
OK, now I'm going to go crawl in bed with a beer and read the Ninth Circuit's latest excrescence on the body of law.
Feeling like I'm in a confessional, I will reel off what I've been up to the last two months. My father-in-law, stepdaughter and a niece and nephew arrived; father-in-law, niece and nephew stayed for a week, stepdaughter stayed for six weeks. She's a thoroughly delightful young lady and I miss her. We tried to convince her to stay here, but she's back in Texas, getting ready to start high school. If I had a pill that allowed her to skip the next four years, I'd give it to her but, alas, I don't. Plus high school probably builds character, if it doesn't kill you and/or such every ounce of individuality out of you.
Then there was Bronwen's birthday and birthday party. The Build-A-Bear workshop part of her party was fabulous (except that I didn't get to make the monkey and dress him up in the argyle sweater and corduroy pants). The Coldstone Creamery part of the party was a fiasco. I've never had such bad service in my life, and the young woman actually tried to lecture me that I should be nicer to her and her staff, after she and her staff screwed up.
Then there was my baby brother's wedding in Canada. Great wedding, happy bride and groom, Bronwen was a wonderful flower girl, I got lots of compliments on my reading, Will dropped his Blackberry in the lake (and when he fished it out and dried it out, it worked, more's the pity), Megan participated in almost every event and took over as the Polaroid Girl at the reception, Charlie decided that the only people who could hold him were Mom and Dad, just when grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, great aunts, etc. were lining up to get their hands on him. It was much hotter in Canada than I expected it to be, and I did not pack enough light clothing.
And speaking of hot, it's been hot as Hades here for the last couple of weeks. This week the US grid operators are setting all kinds of records for the amount of demand they're meeting. I keep thinking we should all stay home, to conserve energy and prevent a blackout, but I'm probably just looking for an excuse not to walk two blocks in DC in 101-degree weather. And when I get in to my new office, on our new floor, and it's so cold that people are wrapping themselves in blankets (no, really) and turning on the heat in their offices if they are lucky enough to have an office with a thermostat, I wonder what PJM would think if they knew how well our AC is working.
"My new office?", you ask. Yes, in between Megan's arrival and Bronwen's birthday, I and several of my colleagues moved down to a new floor the firm just finished building out. It's very nice in some ways (think lots of marble) and very schlocky in other ways (think poorly lit, grimly decorated bathrooms with used toilets that don't work very well). My own office is very nice, bigger than my last office and I've moved in a nice little sofa, chairs and table. I'm quite pleased with it, except that Randy just pointed out that the only thing it needs is a big plant for the one corner and so now I'm being driven mad by the fact that he's absolutely right. I've asked my mother, the shrubber, for advice on getting a nice big plant.
And, lastly, speaking of the office, let's talk about The Office. My friend Melissa has been raving about it for a while and I finally downloaded it to my new video iPod (birthday present from the hubster) a couple of days ago. MelMax is right -- it's hilarious. The chief source of the humor is that it's not so far off from the real world. Granted, I've never had a boss quite as stupid, sleazy and self-deluded as Michael or quite as power-hungry as Dwight, but they're only slight exaggerations of some people with whom I've worked.
OK, now I'm going to go crawl in bed with a beer and read the Ninth Circuit's latest excrescence on the body of law.