This post covers a little ground as I have not posted for a bit. The featured image has nothing to do with the post–just a good picture I had from our trip to Netherlands last year with the gang.
Work remains my bitter enemy at the moment. Which is no way to live.
Saturday before Halloween – I hit the Waffle House at 5:00am. Wow. A foursome of haggard looking female super heroes and witches wandered in looking dazed and shell shocked. None looked capable of withstanding a harsh word, let alone fight off a villain. Their once sexy costumes were droopy and their mascara was smudged and migrating across their faces. Must have been a hell of a party.
I didn’t have a proper dinner last night so when I woke up at 4:00, Waffle House seemed right. I like WH although I am always a bit depressed by the employees. They are without exception among the poorest and least educated in our society. Generally very pleasant and nice and service is good, but you get the feeling they are already working at the top end of their careers. Which makes me a little sad for some reason. Maybe some will get lucky and get hired on at Bob Evans or Frisch’s.
I started making mushroom soup last night but was not able to finish it before heading out to meet friends, so it is on the stove now. I will let it cook down for another 30 minutes and then head out to meet Lisa for brunch and then to Ed-n-Rita’s for dinner. I am going to leave the hound with mom and dad for a week.
Larry came around Monday night and made a killer Cioppino which we had for dinner.
Constant changes at work and starting to see a bit of deterioration in the harmony among the players, including myself. One of my bosses called me Friday at 6pm pissed off about something that was not even correct–he was just confused. Then our 30 minutes early Saturday morning call turned into two hours. People are tired and even more tired of the failures and false starts after all the hard work. We are not yet gelled as a program but I do think we are slowly getting better and stronger. The lack of leadership from Deloitte has had a disastrous effect this year, but it is forcing us to step in and take over the program leadership role. So that is what we are doing—even while we are still paying them for non-performance.
I got up to Cleveland Friday for FNM with Lisa, followed by dinner and some drinks after. It was rainy and chilly but we had a good night. I overnight-ed at the Park Hyatt and back home yesterday.
Now the little dog is home. Larry brought her on his way to the airport and I exchanged a dog for a nice breakfast sandwich of hard-poached egg on brioche bun with pork chorizo and sharp Irish cheddar. And he was off. I worked on the canoe a bit, but am out of the 1/2″ MDF I am using for the forms. So will stop and grab another sheet later today.
I took Dela for a nice long walk. She is maturing. One of my favorite memories of the little dog is years ago, in Pocatello, we were hiking at one of the big parks and there was a while field of geese. Hundreds of them, just standing and laying in the field. Dela was not to allow it. She took off and chased the whole flock off–I can still see the scene. The little dog running and birds taking off 20 or so so ahead of her in a huge wave, until all the birds were on flight. Today, we walked by 20 or so geese not more than 20 yards away from her; she stopped and looked for a minute and then continued on with her walk.
Now time to sit in front of the fire and read a bit and then another long walk with the dog before dinner. This week will surely also be a busy one.
A few random pictures from the week.I managed to get out and work on the canoe a little last weekend and one night last week. And stopped at Fado’s for whiskey and a beer on Thursday night. Just seemed right.
Little Aneeka is graduated from her kindergarten and shown here showing off her new school uniform for her new school. She is doing well and always cute and happy.
The Martini Tales 