all in the timing

So... if you or anyone you know is looking to join my gym... this weekend is a really good one to do it.

The entire sales staff was fired today.

I'm running the scene for the next few days. Boss lady returns Tuesday.

The house I grew up in is back on the market again!

My parents sold the house to a couple of flippers, who came in and basically gutted the place and sold it a year or so later. There's a couple of photos on the website that show some of the changes, and some of it is completely unrecognizable to me. There's a photo of what I guess is the master bathroom which has two sinks, but hell if I know how they did it -- there was absolutely no room for that in the house I know! I like what they did with the kitchen and the new porch attached to the back is quite lovely, but my father's gorgeous gardens are gone. A wall has been built between the dining room and the sitting room, which makes both rooms far too small. I'm dying to know what they did with the basement, which was for most of my adolescence my domain, but there are no pictures. I may have to sneak down one of these weekends if there's an open house.

The Home I Don't Know Anymore

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A special call out to my sister, who got harvested of her gall bladder this weekend. Get better quick!

got a few minutes?

In 2003, Matt Harding decided he wasn't enjoying what he was doing anymore, so he quit his job and started traveling the world. He took his digital camera with him and grabbed random strangers on the street to video tape him in the various locales he visited. But after a while, he felt like just video of him standing there waving at the camera wasn't very interesting, so he made up a little dance instead. When he got home, he edited it into a video, and what resulted is the first true YouTube phenomenon. After the first video, Matt was offered corporate sponsorship from Stride Gum, of all people, to make a second. The second remains one of the most watched videos in YouTube history, logging over nine million views. The third was released this morning, and in the course of less than 24 hours (as of this writing) it has already logged 302,000 views.

It is perhaps one of the simplest, most brilliant and inspiring things you may ever see, and it inexplicably makes me cry every time I see it.

Where The Hell Is Matt?!?

The original:



Part II:



The newest in the series:

more and more

It just gets more and more interesting at work these days. Two people get the ax this coming week and not a minute too soon (actually, about eight months too late in both cases). There's been a lot of speculation that our region wasn't safe from closure (which turned out to be completely true -- there was more than one conversation about selling us [and only us] off to the highest bidder), which has just been laid to rest, and we're secure. And just recently, I found out I've been shortlisted for a MAJOR promotion. My boss is saying that after three years of stellar work, the higher ups are finally beginning to notice me and taking what I have to say with TWO grains of salt instead of one.

Healthwise, I was worried coming off my vacation time last week that I was coming down with strep once again -- I got that familiar tinge in my throat. It never developed any further, though, so I'll chalk it up to readjusting to the Southern pollen. I'm feeling quite good these days.

Oh, and my vacation! Glorious. I got to see some really terrific theatre, pal around with my dearest friends, and just get my mind off of everything that's spinning around up there for a few days.

June and July are going to be intense and exciting times which may make me more distant than usual (if possible!) but it's all going to be really good, positive things coming my way. Wish me luck!

CRASH!

I got one of those discomforting phone calls last night from my roommate last night as I was finishing up at work.

"COME HOME, NOW!" was his opening line.

A truck, presumably stolen, had cut through the parking lot of the building next to ours, blasted through the fence and crashed into our building. Our neighbor in #3 (we're #4) was asleep when the truck slammed into his bedroom wall. The driver fled on foot. Our neighbor is fine, though he and his upstairs neighbor obviously had to be evacuated from the building. There's some major damage to the brickwork, though amazingly, the truck itself sustained very little damage. We need to get a buildings inspector out to verify the stability of the rest of the building.

Everyone's fine, though. Could have been much, much worse.

Photos of the damage HERE

Roomie got photos before they towed away the truck, I'll try to get those up later on tonight.

Poor Hillary. She was the Dems best hope for winning the election this year. I like Obama but he's going to be like a calf to the slaughter and my guess is the Democrats will be having a severe case of buyers remorse in about four months.

I like John McCain well enough too, but this campaign is really going to be a race to see who can shove their foot in their mouth most often and quickly. Between Barry O's empty rhetoric and McCain's statement that we went to war for oil, it's a pouncing pundit's dream race. There's gonna be a lot to seize upon this summer.

In the meantime, though:

checking in...

In case you were worried, yes, I'm still alive and around. I've been quite busy, actually. It's nice to have other things to think about. I'm beginning to inch out of this hermit crab phase I've been in and starting to feel a bit more human again.

I had another doctor's appointment on Monday, and things are pretty much where they should be right now. Had a pneumonia vaccination, too, so that won't happen again any time soon.

I've been fighting with my bank over an unauthorized charge for the past week, and today, I finally won. The charge was a computer mistake on the merchant's part. The day after, while the transaction was still pending, I had the merchant on the phone with the bank, verifying that this was an improper charge and to remove it completely and refund any outstanding service charges. The bank did, only to take it and several more service charges from my account again two days later. The merchant issued an immediate refund, and after transferring to three different supervisors on the phone this morning, the bank finally acknowledged that it was negligence on their part for not blocking the service charges and refunded the charges. Good thing, too; I need to go shoe shopping today.

I'm planning a three day weekend next week and maybe a few vacation days next month. I've been going full steam lately and I'm beginning to burn out.