Leave the Gun. Take the Cannoli.

Just crap

2004-06-24T10:53:00.000-05:00

It's just been a pretty uneventful day today. The weather is blah, work politics continue to suck, and basically I just can't get motivated. I am looking forward to tonight & this weekend, so that is my hope.

I am still obsessing with my photoblog A Photo Journey ...maybe a little too much. I am finding that I work on ideas, etc. for photos most of my day rather than getting work done...maybe I should be more productive!

Officially an MCSA

2004-06-23T08:29:00.000-05:00

Well I took my 4th Microsoft test last for my MCSA - exam 70-216 and I passed! JUST passed, but passed nonetheless! Whew, that was a relief. I am hoping it will help me in my career, but hope is sometimes too ambitious.

On another note, the week is shaping up to be a great one. My wife got invited to a concert at the Hard Rock here in Atlanta on Thursday night with her old boss, and I am really looking forward to a Thursday night hangout...Friday we are having dinner with some good friends at our house & will definitely keep the grape growers in business. Saturday night we are going to the Indigo Girls concert at Chastain with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra...just looks like tons of fun this week!

A great weekend & a new obsession

2004-06-22T14:02:00.000-05:00

This weekend was really great. Last time I wrote I was contemplating a method on surprising my wife with the weekend getaway I had planned. She thought we were heading up to her sister's house for the weekend, so she already had clothes packed for 2 nights. Well I ended up just packing an extra night's clothes, some sneakers (for hiking), etc. etc...and it worked out GREAT! I had a letter all written out with SURPRISE inside that explained the weekend getaway in the glove box - so about 30 minutes before we were at her sister's I asked her to look in the glove box because her sister sent me directions for a detour...she found the letter and was really just in shock, because I had never been able to pull one over on her before! Points for me!

The weekend really was a lot of fun - very beautiful in the NC mountains. We went to the Biltmore on Sunday which was just incredible. Here's a pic:

And my latest obsession has become my photoblog A Photo Journey. I have literally been dreaming of different photo opportunities...I think I may need some professional help!

I couldn't resist...

2004-06-17T21:50:00.000-05:00

He's our baby!

You will all want to marry me after reading this...

2004-06-17T08:47:00.000-05:00

My 3rd wedding anniversary is in a couple weeks & I had a great idea of surprising my wife with a weekend away. I have tried in the past to do the whole surprise/romantic/get lots of sex thing, but it has always been spoiled or I just couldn't keep my stupid mouth shut. Well this time will be different - at least for the moment.

I found this great lodge up in North Carolina on Lake Lure that I thought would just be a fantastic weekend getaway. So I have it all booked for this weekend, and here is my plan on surprising her. The catch was getting my wife to get in the car and head north on I-85 towards NC without her being suspicious....so I called my wife's sister who lives in the Greenville area and asked her to invite us up for the weekend (also works out great because she will watch our dog for us) - is it me, or was that just brilliant? So tomorrow, which on the Western Calendar is Friday, we will head out of Atlanta towards Greenville to meet the sister. That's when it will hit my wife that we are really going away for a romantic evening. Now the question I have is, and yes I am short on time, how do I make sure she has enough clothing, etc.? In my wife's mind we are planning on coming back from Greenville on Saturday night, but in reality we aren't coming back until Sunday night. Now I know that most will say don't bring any clothes at all, just spend all weekend in the sack. But, my dilemma is that we have never been to the Biltmore & the lodge is including tickets there. So...do I do the ultra-romantic thing & after we drop the dog off stop at a mall/store/whatever and tell her to buy another outfit? Or do I pack army fatigues for her and ask her to wear those to the Biltmore?

SUGGESTIONS?!

Very interesting facts about calorie burning...

2004-06-16T11:34:00.000-05:00

Driving into doom...

2004-06-16T10:56:00.000-05:00

Ever feel like you're not sure what you're driving into?

My Jerry Springer Saturday night...

2004-06-15T11:12:00.000-05:00

I alluded to an interesting evening I had on Saturday night in yesterday's post...Since it was very entertaining I'd like to take a moment and hit on some of the wonderful highlights.

The evening began in Woodstock, Ga where there was an oldies concert going on. A co-worker, which we'll call Sasquatch, invited a bunch of us from work to her daughter's (which we'll call the daughter little Sasquatch) grand opening gala at her salon. Well my wife & I had that wonderful wedding during the day, so we figured, 'hey we'll just go see Sasquatch & lil sasquatch and wish them well with the new endeavor and then go grab some dessert somewhere or something.' Well we arrived at lil Sasquatch's salon at about 8:00 after driving around the Woodstock for about 45 mins trying to find a place to park. I immediately knew I was in for some real entertainment when we were offered mimosa's, wine, beer, etc...(note: any other group of people & the mimosa's, wine, beer, etc. would not even be mentioned) as we walked in the door. Sasquatch had been drinking a bit and wanted to introduce us to lil Sasquatch. WOW - lil Sasquatch had REALLY been drinking. Now, I've had my share of drunken experiences, but poor lil Sasquatch was fleece blankets to the wind. So my wife & I had a few drinks (I didn't realize how many beers I really had until they were all gone), and things were going pretty normal until we met Sasquatch's son...talk about entertainment. I really believe that Sasquatch's family is on the top ten most dysfunctional families in the US.

Sasquatch's son, which we will playfully name TooMuchWeed, was a very fun character. He is a wee under age, but that was ok - he was ONLY drinking beer. I'm not sure but I could swear he had some other influences in his system. So I hung out with TooMuchWeed for a while & laughed, was told all about Sasquatch and how life really works, and all was good.

And then it happened... we were then introduced to someone we will call IwantToSleepWithYourHusband. Now this woman was putting lil Sasquatch to shame when it comes to drinking. I honestly don't know how she was still standing. So IWantToSleepWithYourHusband comes around and starts seriously flirting with Sasquatch's husband - hands were violatingly close to members of Sasquatch's husband's reproductive system. Well, naturally, Sasquatch did not like this woman treading on her territory & they got into it...have you seen Kill Bill yet? Sasquatch became The Bride. Words I didn't know existed in the English language were flying out of Sasquatch like a 747 leaving Hartsfield. Sasquatch was moving as if there were suspension lines allowing her to move in such a way that the whole room was spinning, yet Sasquatch was in perfect focus. She was grabbing salon products and wielding them as if they were large swords...poor IWantToSleepWithYourHusband had NO CHANCE. It was over before it began...and I LAUGHED. I LAUGHED VERY HARD. In fact, I am still laughing...

What a NIGHT!

Mediocre movie, the Wedding I hated shopping for & more...

2004-06-14T07:38:00.000-05:00

I went to see The Day after Tomorrow on Friday night with my wife & in retrospect we probably would've been better off seeing Garfield. Ok maybe that's TOO far...I didn't really have any high expectations going into the movie other than seeing some great special effects & possibly feeling good when I left the theatre. Well the special effects were amazing. I have to hand it to the special effects team with the movie - the storm scenes were spectacular.

But my overall issue with the movie is that I felt like I'd been there done that - Independence Day, Deep Impact, Armagaeddon - all basically the same premise of impending disaster, a hero tries to save the day, we all feel good at the end. But in this movie, the biggest issue I have is the political preaching that is extremely obvious. At the end you hear the vice president giving his little speech on global warming & loving the earth that we take for granted. Ok, maybe there is some truth to the fact that we neglect the earth, but come on - I went for entertainment purposes, not to be politicized. I knew going into the movie that there was political controversary, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Overall, I'd give it a 6 out of 10 - if you are going to see it, definitely see it on the big screen because of the special effects. Probably wouldn't be the same on a 19" TV!

On Saturday we went to the wedding that I had the pleasure of shopping for on Thursday...I must say, it was a beautiful wedding. It was outside in a very beautifully landscaped backyard, and surprisingly enough the weather was not miserable for a June day in Georgia. The bride is an old friend of ours from highschool that we actually ran into when we moved to Georgia. It's incredible that we all hooked up because we went to a highschool in NY and were in a graduating class of 25! What are the odds of 3 of us (me, my wife & the new bride) ending up living within a few miles from us? But anyway, we had a good time then after the wedding went up to Woodstock, Ga for an oldies concert they were having in the town square. We didn't really go for the concert, but went to hang out with a co-worker of mine, who's daughter just opened up a new salon. So, that was fun - my co-worker's family could take about 10 days of blogging just to get into the interesting stories I have from 3 hours with them...

I'm sure I'll go into some of the fun later!

Haha, I found this response to spam on the web...

2004-06-11T07:18:00.000-05:00

Funny...

I hate shopping for weddings...

2004-06-11T07:04:00.000-05:00

So my wife and I have been invited to a wedding that is taking place tomorrow here in Atlanta. Weddings are usually a lot of fun - see old friends, drink, have fun, etc., but I really dread shopping for the gifts. To be honest, I really haven't had to do much of the shopping in the past for weddings because we'd either give cash or my wife would get the gifts. But for this wedding I volunteered to help thinking it'd be some much needed quality time...

Man I was wrong! We showed up at the store the bride was registered at about 8 pm. We printed her registry out, and I perused the list - I pretty much had the idea we'd be in and out by 8:15 with the required gift, go grab some dessert somewhere and be home by 9:15 or so for some relaxation (been a busy week). Well we decided on a gift by about 8:07 pm - went to the bath section to get the brushed steel matching items - and of course they were all sold out. So we decided on a candle chandelier thingy the bride wanted - went and behold, sold out again. So then we went and found some glasses the bride wanted. We found them, but really needed some other stuff b/c that's just cheap. So we looked for a mirror on the registry - yep, not there again...By now I am getting pretty frustrated. I just wanted to buy the relaxing soothing CD's they had on display and play them over and over in my car while I waited for my wife to finish shopping...

Finally at about 9:30 (which I think the store technically closed at 9) we had the glasses, some candle holders & candles & a card...now if I had gone shopping alone, she would've gotten a waste basket, glasses, and maybe a card, but you better believe I would've been home by 8:14 drinking a beer!

Ahh, such is life...

Work, dog sitting, and pretty much nothing else...

2004-06-10T13:29:00.000-05:00

So my wife & I are dog-sitting for 2 other dogs this week. We have a 3 year old English Bulldog named Otis who we has pretty much become our son.
He generally gets along GREAT with other dogs, but Otis tends to be on the jealous side...With these 2 new dogs at the house he is being incredibly jealous - anytime the dogs come near us, Otis has to get in front of them and force his way into being pet first. It is kinda sickening how spoiled we have made Otis!

So that's whats new at the homefront. Work has been pretty uneventful. Continue to have this general feeling of a lack of desire. Maybe I just need a good vacation to get motivated again. With all the politics that are going on right now, it just makes it difficult to stay on track & feel like you're accomplishing anything. But I know that my job is not the only one riddled with politics, controversy, etc. Anyone else feel like if you were 'The Boss' you could do it better??

G-8 Summit thoughts...

2004-06-09T13:38:00.000-05:00

So the G-8 Summit leaders are meeting not too far away from me in Sea Island, Ga. Blame it on timing, but Reagan's passing has definitely dominated the news & the economic summit is kind of lost in the fray. I heard something today on FoxNews related to G-8 that I thought was very interesting & equally disturbing. The US & other nations are pushing for financial support from other G-8 & UN countries to help rebuild Iraq. If I'm not mistaken, isn't Iraq & this part of the world an EXTREMELY oil rich nation?? Does Iraq really need the financial backing from the rest of the world to rebuild their nation?

I understand the reasoning for the temporary 'occupation' - you can't just go in & leave and expect democracy. But, what I cannot understand is the call for financial help. I strongly believe that Iraq has enough financial resources on it's own to build a strong (ok maybe not strong), but a democracy...

Any thoughts??

How do you generate traffic to a blog?

2004-06-08T16:28:00.000-05:00

Ok, so now I am blogging. Other than just sending my blog to friends to read, how can I generate traffic from anonymous people?

Ok, so now I am blogging...

2004-06-08T08:40:00.000-05:00

I have recently been intrigued by the whole 'blogging' concept. I have been in the IT field for a few years now, developed websites, etc., and I am amazed at how blogging has taken off. The concept is fantastic!

Anyway, corporate politics pretty much sucks as bad as it can. I have recently been involved in pretty much railroading another employee which may result in her losing her job. A quick snapshot of what happened:

Few weeks back I was told to order a product by a director level employee. So, I ordered the product. Turns out we really shouldn't have purchased this item, but hey it was only like $1000 or so, not HUGE money to our company. Well, I was asked to pretty much give a deposition on what transpired & how it came to be ordered. Unfortunately, I feel like by telling the truth & my side of the story, it only makes the director look really bad. She didn't really have the funds to be purchasing & it wasn't approved by her supervisor...What really pisses me off though is that this is all boiling down to good ol corporate politics. The item we purchased isn't in itself a big deal. But take that with some other stuff & now the company has a case against this woman.

Can anyone shed some light on corporate politics? Does it ever get better? And if not, how the heck does one deal with it??