Just what I needed

My day was frustrating. Nothing to work on and I finally gave up the ghost and went home at 3PM. No work - no pay.

Then we went to East Atlanta and met Sandy at the cantina to satisfy my margarita carving. Nick was working and came out of the kitchen to visit for a moment. I had a good margarita with a full, oaky underlying flavor and complimenary quesadilla from Nick. Then we headed to the Gravity Pub to check out Bingo night with Chaz. We stayed for three rounds before leaving.
We came home, where Monster urinated for an age that rivaled Austin Powers.

Good company and tequila and music and escape from the norm were just what I needed to calm my anxiety and raise my spirits. Thank you.

Where did my job go?

Got to work yesterday and found out Boss #1 has taken another week-long vacation. I am left alone in the front with The Irritant. Needless to say, there was no work to do yesterday except for a few previously unfinished projects drizzling in bits and pieces from last week. This morning I got to my office and there is NOTHING in it to work on. I finished yesterday archiving and filing so that's one less thing I can do to entertain myself with today. I also changed out all the chemistry in the plate maker yesterday, so that job is done as well.

UURRRGGHHH!

What is the price of boredom and entropy?

Inman Park Festival

This weekend is the Inman Park neighborhood festival and parade.

Happy Birthday to Monster

It's his birthday today. He's still sick with whatever microbe has gotten into him. I will do whatever I can for him when I get home from work.

Yesterday, after work, Ann and I went to eat sushi together at the restaurant that seems to be appropriately named "Sushi Bar" up the street. Not bad. Not as cheap or with quite the atmosphere of Ru San's but very conveniently located to home. I'll be back, hopefully with Ann again.

might be plague.

Monster got back from working in Florida on Monday with a scratchy throat, which we both attributed to traveling with smoking co-workers and in dry airplanes, but by yesterday he was much worse and running a fever of 101. Looks like a flu of some sort. Or could be bubonic or pneumonic plague.

So far, I'm feeling okay. No signs that he's shared too much with me yet.

Patio Living

We've been working in the yard most of the weekend, catching up on a winter spent letting everything go outside. There are twenty leaf bags we've filled up on the curb now. Monster has made a level garden planter/box for us to grow tomatos, eggplants, peppers and herbs in. I've beaten back as much of the english ivy in the back yard jungle as I could over the weekend to make room for the garden and to begin to reclaim the back yard for outdoor living.

Now it's time to relax in the butterfly chairs on the patio in back with a few refreshments and enjoy our place.

Next project: The dining room. But not this week.

Better than I thought today would be.

Boss #1 finally came back from his family vacation today. the dya was filled with setting jobs and clients right again and getting everything back on track. Lots of accusations and questions followed by polite apologies and at least one cheap shot on my part accusing the pressmen of sexism when they wouldn't listen to me. Truth is, they didn't feel confident about anything until they heard it from their Commander In Chief. There was an undeniable break in the tension in the air with Boss #1 back and The Irritant not as noticable.

There was a march of some sort today in Chamblee, a part of town with a lot of Asian and Hispanic immigrants. Police were at every intersection as hundreads of people walked by, many holding United States flags, one or two sporting Mexican flags, walking up Buford highway. I only wish this march had been in Buckhead or Marietta, where a lot of immigrants are employed, but for all I know there were similar marches around the area.

Dinner of pizza with red wine tonight with Monster.

Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List three important birthdays and three interesting deaths. Post this in your journal.

events:

1604 - Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes that an exceptionally bright star had suddenly appeared in the constellation Ophiuchus, which turned out to be the last supernova to have been observed in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

2005 - Peter Mayhew, better known in his film role as Chewbacca becomes an official U.S. citizen.

2005 - The Chicago White Sox clinch their first American League pennant since 1959, and their first World Series appearance, also since 1959.

birthdays:

1253 - Ivo of Kermartin, French saint (d. 1303)

1915 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)

1972 - Eminem, American rapper

deaths:

532 - Pope Boniface II

1849 - Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French musician and composer (b. 1810)

1967 - Henry Pu Yi, last Emperor of China (b. 1906)

TGIF

This has been the longest week of the year at work.

I have had to start backing up certain job-related emails by forwarding the correspondence to my personal email account just to have a permanent record of what had transpired this week.

We had at least one day when I had no access to my email at work.

I have listened to The Irritant talking customer into smaller orders - like this is somehow what he's supposed to do - make less money for the company and get some clients to choose other providers altogether.

Everyone tells me to ask The Irritant for info when I have questions (like missing information) on a job or client and 90% of the time, not only does he not have a clue, but refuses to speak to clients or check into things I do not have access to.

I hate this place... mostly because of one employee.

This is the first day of Boss#1's family vacation week and chaos has already started. One of our vendors called in looking for faxed instructions for a job they recieved last week and the job jacket, which should be in the irritant's office by now, is missing. The Irritant tells me he is unable to make a new fax-sheet for the order without the job jacket. I have already done a thorough search of both my office and the common area. I suspect it will magically resurface soon, as these things usually do. I can not tread in The Irritant's territory. Making purchase orders and such paperwork is under his specific job duties.

The Fog

The fog this morning looks like the house is sitting inside a cloud. Another reminder, perhaps, that we live so close to the Chattahoochee river and the water treatment plant.

chairman of the bored

Suffering from a horrible boredom tonight. Nothing to work on or play with. Nowhere to go.

bleeehhhhh...

Spring gardening

Spent most of yesterday and the day before doing yard work. Monster has now removed two nearly dead trees from the front yard and planted one new river birch to replace the half-dead dogwood he cut down and excavated. The other tree, an ancient holly, was replaced with a transplanted hydrangea from a few feet away. I sprinkled violet seeds around the fresh loose soil, so with a little luck and regular watering, maybe flowers will come up in a few weeks and make a nice ground cover. The yard is slowly being cleared of debri, dead and overgrown hedges, and flowers bulbs that I like but the guys don't want.

I've been busy in the back yard working on aggressive management of the english ivy that's everywhere. Mostly, I'm just removing it from the area nearest the patio (trying to reduce the clouds of mosquitos this summer) and cutting it off the trees. There are some very nice wild flowers and forgotten shrubs and ferns growing in back that I hope to leave as is, transplant, or prune back eventually to a healthier shape.

Monster actually made it out tonight with me to the Thursday dinner. It was an especially good group tonight at Diem with the Gothfather, JB, W, and G&B. Everyone was in an exceptionally good mood and the humor was (mostly) especially clever.