It Was A Crazy Game of Poker

Ok first off.... points to the person who can tell me what song and the artist the title of this blog is from.

It has been a crazy busy couple of weeks. It started out last weekend when we had our 3rd annual Hidden Ponds block party. It is basically a group of neighbors who use the money in our homeowners association fund to have a party. It ends up being just a core group of neighbors who show up each year. Our neighborhood has two 'ponds'. One turned out to never hold water and the other gets the rainwater that runs off from everyone's lots and before we got all the rain in the last couple of weeks was nothing more that a slick of dried algae that was beginning to stink. Because of the pond that has water in it, we have a homeowners association to pay the taxes and have insurance on this lot. Our dues are not expensive... only 25 bucks a year. The crazy thing is there is one house that has refused to pay it and now owes almost 1200 bucks, when you add in lawyer fees and interest. That house is on the market so we will get our money when the house is sold. So we take any money that is left over, rent a tent, order a bunch of pizzas and have a party.

It is held across the street where all the backyard feed into the other 'pond'. Which is now nothing more that a nice large grassy area with a couple of big hills. We get to the party about 1:30 or so and set up our chairs. We get caught up on all the local gossip. Why Judy planted trees between her pool and Nate's. what home are for sale and what they are asking, and why have the trailers not moved yet.

We played some horseshoes (my team lost), drank some beer and played in the 2nd annual HP poker tourney. We played two rounds and I finished first in the first game and took second in the second game. One of the highlights was the giant water slide. The one side of pond has a rather large and steep hill on it. So someone has a huge sheet of plastic sheeting (it has to be about 150 feet long) and we stake it down and BAM! instant water slide. Now I am took much of a chicken to go down it as I don't want to get wet and have to change my clothes and it would be my luck that I slide down and break a arm or something crazy. It was about 1:30 am by time I gathered up my stuff and stumbled home. That is the nice thing... it was only a 2 minute walk home.

On Sunday, I was tired and hungover. Didn't do much except lay around in a big pile, surf the Internet and post my resume out on Milwaukeejobs.com. So on Tuesday, I get home from work and get this phone call from a recruiter who seen my resume. I called her on Wednesday and we set up a time to meet and chat on Thursday. Friday I get an email with an offer of a job. Holy crap!! I was so totally not prepared for things to move this quick. I have to provide her with some more details on my current job and what I support and she want to present me to a client on Monday (that's tomorrow, 8/20!!). I need to really think about this. The job she has in mind for me would be downtown and about 30 miles a day closer to home. I really want to make sure that I move into a new job that I would like. The truth is that I really like my current job but dislike my boss and how she runs things (also I hate the commute). I would only get 3 weeks of vacation a year instead of the 4 I get now but it is for a bit more money. I would also loose out on the bonuses that I get now. Which if things keep going as they are could be rather hefty next year.

Damn... I really don't know what to do. The recruiter wanted to see if I could get an interview with the client by mid week. I guess I will have to wait and see how that goes. There is the possibility that if the client is happy with my work that they would hire me on full time. Which could be good. They are a very stable utility company and WE could be happy there... hint, hint.

So, enough for now....

ZOBMONDO!!

Would you rather....

Do a mini cheer whenever someone compliments you

----OR----

have to jump up and touch the door frame every time you go through a door?

I will say the mini cheer. I was a cheerleader back in my high school days and can still remembers some of them.

Have a good week everyone!!

London Bridge is Falling Down.... OK, so Maybe It Is Just the 35W.

Holy Crap. The bridge collapses. I am not trying to make fun of the tragedy. Just thought of a amusing title...



The company I work for is now headquartered in the Twin Cities. We have probably about 15,000 employees scattered around 7 campus buildings and about 15 smaller locations. When I first heard about this I thought of how many people I know in the area and are they all ok.



My first thought was for my team mate, F. I was a bit worried on Thursday morning when he is normally in about 8:00 am and then when I did not see him logged into our instant messenger by 9:30 am I was more than a bit concerned. It was about 10:15 or so that he pinged me to let me know he was in the office. It turned out that he and his wife, who are expecting a baby at the end of the month, were on their way to the hospital for a tour of the delivery area. They drove over the bridge about 20 minutes before it collapsed. It said the hospital was just crazy and they had to postpone the rest of their tour until next week. They needed all available people ready for the disaster.



So... I asked him why he didn't just work from home. He said that he tried to log into VPN and it was down. He then tried to call our boss (he called her home phone, cell phone and blackberry (and she is also out on the west coast)) and got no answer. He did not know what to do so he spent 3 freakin' hours driving into work. It is normally about a 20-30 min drive tops. I told him that if he can't get a hold of our boss to call either myself or another co-worker here in Milwaukee and let us know. I told him that once he started driving and realized that it was going to be so bad, he should have turned around and went home. That was just crazy. The shitty thing is that my boss told him that he should leave 30 minutes early on Thursday so he can 'beat' the traffic... Boy was she generous. He works until 4:30 pm. It will probably still take him 3 hours to get home.



I am just glad that he and his family are all safe and sound.



I have not heard if anyone else from work was impacted.



I also found it ironic that on Wednesday, on our company Intranet site, there was an article on what to do in a disaster situation. We have a dedicated number to call in and get instructions and to leave a message with your status. It was used extensively a couple of years ago during hurricane season. It was used quite a bit Wednesday/Thursday as well.



My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those injured and killed.



Have a good weekend everyone!

One for the Ladies... Sorta....

Another HNT post.


It is the Chippendales 30th Reunion....



The Chippendales in 1977.















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And the Chippendales in 2007.






Sorry ladies... time has not been so good to them.

Have a good Friday.