Co-workers

I need to stop complaining about co-workers while I’m at work. It can only lead to heartache. Instead of complaining in person, I will complain on-line! Problem solved.

I have one co-worker who is completely inept at anything related to her computer, cell phone, printer, etc. It’s almost endearing that someone could work in an office environment for over two decades and be this clueless. Like I said it’s almost endearing. Mostly it’s just tiresome. I don’t know why but I try to take care of the little things so she doesn’t call our IT guy or our operations manager. I’m scoring some major brownie points with our operations manager right now. I see my actions as a service to the office. I think it will prevent employee-icide. I doubt my actions will prevent my rapid descent into hell upon death but I would like to think that it will.

I’m going to stop now because this qualifies as the lamest post EVER.

On Top of Things

"After careful review by our government, I believe the transaction ought to go forward," President Bush

Seems that the WH is really on top of things. What made John Snow think that this deal could be approved without taking the final decision to the president as is required if the plans may affect national security? We’re talking about the United Arab Emirates; a country we know has connections to terrorists. I suppose it’s the same rational we have for continuing our friendly relations with Saudi Arabia. I feel much safer now. What I really enjoy is the “we can’t send the wrong message to other nations that we don’t want their investments” rationale. Are we worried that we might appear to be discriminating?

Friday Afternoon

This is one of those blog entries about nothing. My morning started well, a compliment from one of the claims guys I work with in London (he said I’m nice!) and then took a turn for the worse when I was yelled at by a gentleman (I use that term loosely) whose wife was involved in a car accident in December. It’s one of the highlights of any work day – being yelled at by someone you are trying to help. I managed to calm him down. This afternoon has been good too; trying to avoid a major blowup on an account that renews on Monday. I just asked the claims underwriter in NYC for a huge favor. Now, I have to wait by the phone to find out if I can rest easy over the weekend.

Heading off to Bend, OR this weekend for some skate skiing. Should be fun except that I am a horrible skate skier. Horrible. I can’t ski classic all that well either. But, it’s a good workout and Mt. Bachelor is pretty. I’m such a sports nut that we’ll be watching the 3 point contest at the All-Star Game tomorrow and the All-Star Game on Sunday. Go Sugar! (Ray Allen). This will probably help me get through my Nick Collison withdrawal. I think Jan Ullrich has some competition now. ;-)

I’m glad to see that Dick Cheney has taken responsibility for shooting a man. Nice to see him step up. Sheesh. That man is a menace. I don’t want to talk about the new torture photos from Abu Ghraib. The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. On that note, I’m going to sign off for the weekend...

Valentine's Day

Let's be honest, Valentine's Day is a horrible "holiday." Forced romance. Lovely. My darling husband suggested the perfect evening for us though - watch the Sonics and then watch the Olympics. It truly is the best kind of night for me. The only missing was working out before dinner. :-)

Arts and Sports

They can co-exist. Really. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening at Seattle Center attending the matinee performance of the Pacific Northwest Ballet and a game between the Supersonics and the Denver Nuggets. It was the perfect day.

Seems that everyone is down on the Sonics right now because the ownership group led by Howard Schultz is asking for some serious cash to improve on Key Arena (and get some money for the arts as well). It’s hard to see how Howard can’t fund the whole thing himself as he probably takes home serious bank for his day job at Starbucks. But still, this is what owners do – and I’m hopeful that the city, county and state and the Sonics ownership will come to an agreement on how best to fund any renovations/upgrades/rebuilds. I’m still a bit miffed at Councilman Licata’s statement that there will be no impact if the Sonics leave. I do think some serious attention needs to be paid to Seattle Center and not just Key Arena. It could be an amazing place to see some theater, see the ballet, go to the EMP, catch a Sonics/Storm game, hang out, eat, mill around, enjoy the weather, etc. Right now, I think people tend to forget what’s there and the traffic presents difficulties as well. So an overhaul of the entire area would seem to be a good idea. I know I don’t want to go to Bellevue to see a game and I surely don’t want the team to leave town.

Cheney Shoots Man

God, I have waited so long for something like this. How much more fabulous can it get? Our esteemed VP shot a member of his hunting party over the weekend. Salon reports that the White House is offering some strange explanations. When don’t they have a strange explanation for things? Seems like every time Scott McClellan has a press conference his answers don’t add up nor do they actually answer the questions being posed.

I cannot believe we are stuck with these people until 2008. 2008!!!!

One another note, I saw a great sign today at Monorail Espresso. It said something like this: Seahawks fans if you thought the Hawks were robbed, now you know what it feels like to be a Democrat (or Dino Rossi).

Girl Time Part 1

A couple of weeks ago I spent a few days with my 2 oldest and closest friends on Bainbridge Island. It was great. We slept in, we ate, we did some shopping (I found the cutest pair of shoes for $13. There are times when it’s good to have small feet.) Did you know that playing Boggle for hours can be incredibly fatiguing? Especially when you are getting killed by a real life version of Peggy Hill. Seriously, I got my ass whooped by Peggy and by my other friend Terrance (not her real name). It’s o.k. though, I figured I could take them in a 10k so I wouldn’t sweat the Boggle game. It was ridiculously amusing – I want to go out and buy Boggle right now. Which makes no sense since the sun is actually shining right now so playing a board game would be a waste of some unseasonably beautiful weather.

The best part about spending time with friends who have known you since childhood is that you don’t need to speak in complete sentences. It’s fabulous. I save so much energy.

Girl Time Part 2

I went on another girl weekend but this time it was to Colorado. A group of us went to visit a friend. The fact that we actually made the trip was a feat. One was coming down from the Yukon (well, not really but Edmonton is pretty close). Three from Seattle + one from Olympia (she couldn’t make the trip at the last minute). My lasting memory from our time together was the non-stop laughter. Very loud laughter. It was awesome. It took us hours to do anything which is funny since the 5 of us tend to be on the run most of the time. Besides the obligatory shopping at the outlet malls we did manage to get a great snowshoe trek/hike/trudge in. I thought my head and lungs were going to explode but it was definitely worth the effort.

Sadly, the weekend came to an end too quickly. We got stuck in a traffic jam trying to get out of the mountains – as a result, E missed her flight back to Edmonton. She was kind enough to drop M and me off at the airport and return the rental car. (She’s so nice) M and I arrived at the ticket counter too late to check our bags so we had to make a dash for the plane with 2 bags each. The line at security wasn’t too long but M got hung up showing her id and boarding pass, meanwhile security asked me what I had in my bag. Confused, I tried to recall what I had packed that would prompt such a question. Me: Uh....2 pairs of running shoes. A pair of snowshoes. Security: Snowshoes? We’re going to have to open your bag. Me: (internal) You have to open my bag to look at the snowshoes? You live in Denver, how can you be confused with snowshoes? Me: (external) M, I think we’re gonna miss our flight.

After making it through security with making a single smart ass comment to the security guards we run to the train and miss it. So we wait. We get on the train and our terminal is the last stop naturally. Out the door, up the escalator, run down the terminal corridor to our gate. M ran, I couldn’t handle more than a slow job. It was the “go on without me” sort of jog. It was pathetic.

I did miss the Super Bowl. It doesn’t seem like a big deal but I haven’t missed seeing a Super Bowl since I was 10. Which, if you know how old I am, means I haven’t missed one in a very long time. In retrospect, I’m glad I missed it. I would have spent the game yelling at the t.v. Instead of sour memories of the Super Bowl, I have really great memories of spending time with friends. Ah, isn’t that sweet?

2006 State of the Union

...I’ll be honest, I didn’t watch the whole thing. I got too angry when he started talking about judges not “legislating from the bench” that I went off on a tirade and missed the remainder of the speech. I did read about his defense of the warrantless spying program. Let’s just say I’m not impressed.

And I'm shocked to find out that we are addicted to oil! Junk food, sure, but oil? Really? Has anyone told him that it's 2006?

Is anyone surprised to find out that we are making good progress in Iraq? I was. I need to start subscribing to the newspapers he reads.