Hello Happy Pitbulls

The joys of civil service

Have you been following my twitter feed?  If you have, you know I have bronchitis.  And that I spent the last week sick, sleeping, medicated, and whining a lot in general.

I went to the doctor on Tuesday and when she asked me where I worked, I told her I worked for the state.  Then she just went on and on about how lazy state workers are and how they shouldn't complain about pay cuts and furloughs and that we don't know what bad pay is because she sees people in there who really don't make money.  And that my job (I told her I did web stuff) should be outsourced to Shanghai to save the state a whole bunch of money.

So, without a voice and in pain trying to talk, I just sat and listed to her.  I'm thinking, "Okay crazy, just give me the cough syrup with the vicodin in it and send me on my way."  Which she did.  Mind you -- not my normal doctor, but it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.  Good thing for the cherry cough drops!

So with that said, I can't listen to the comments in the Sacramento Bee bashing state workers.  I just have to go in, work as hard as I can, make a fun and challenging and rewarding experience for my staff, and focus on providing the best service possible for our constituents.

So...furlough us and cut our pay, raise our taxes, do what you want to do...but stop bitching about us already.  We're doing the best we can, and we care!  We really do!

Excuse me, are you Lt. Uhura?

Finally.  It's now illegal for all of those chatty people to be driving down the freeway with their cell phones jammed into their ears, unable to check mirrors or use turn symbols.  I can't think of how many times I've been cut off by SUV-driving cell phone addicts.

Unfortunately, there's nothing that specifically addresses texting while driving, mascara application, or my personal favorite, driving with the newspaper neatly folded and propped up on the steering wheel.  Haven't those people heard of podcasts?  There is that nasty "distracted driving" prohibition, but I think there's probably a lot of laxity in how that's enforced.

So now that California is requiring hands-free devices (whether wireless bluetooth devices, wired devices or speakerphone), there's this lovely abundance of people wandering aimlessly all over the streets with bluetooth headsets stuck in their ears.  Some are engaged in conversation over the phone, some talking to people around them.  Over the past week, we see people in restaurants with their bluetooths on, I see them at work in meetings, and I even saw someone with one on today while I was delivering a presentation.  Come on people, you need to take those off when you are out and about!  It's just rude.  It's one thing in the car, but really, in meetings?  As if you're going to take a phone call in the middle of a meeting?  Puhlease.

Okay, I am climbing down off my soapbox.  I think I need more migraine drugs.

April Fools: Going out for a quick run

Seriously stop it already,
originally uploaded by unstruc.

So, that would be my version of a lame April Fool's Day hoax. Truth be told, I am completely down with the sentiment expressed here by one of the smartest people I know in the world.

So far this morning, I read that Mark S. Allen, a B-List local celebrity has been picked to succeed Ryan Seacrest and that the lead singer of Cake was killed in a traffic accident while eating cake in France.  Neither is true (at least, not that I can confirm), but those are the kinds of things that the world wide gossip wheel brings us on April 1.  I thought Google's antics were good, and I'm going to commit to pioneering on Mars and using their magically post-dated Gmail feature.  Guy Kawasaki has my favorite fool-themed post of the day. And...I am not going for a quick run.

I did, however, take a shower today.  That was a good thing.  I meant to take a picture of my incision, but I was wiped out from the effort.  I can't put my foot down flat in the shower when sitting in the shower chair, and it hurts to put pressure on it (plus I'm not supposed to), so I was having all kinds of weird muscle spasms in my right leg.  But I am clean!  That's non-stinky!

I worked on flexing my foot.  I think I got it a little further than yesterday, but not that much further.  I spent about an hour out of my boot, and it felt good.  Now I'm back under wraps and chilling with the dogs, for something new and different.

Looking forward to live twittering of American Idol which has become a fun activity shared by some of my Twitter pals from work and elsewhere.  It's the best way to collectively gawk over eye candy, or make fun of the cheesy music choices while engaged in TV over the web.  Too hard to explain.  Just gotta be there.  Are you on Twitter?  Follow me at @marlinex.

Moody doody-heads

I've had it with people who are like crazy sybil moody doody-heads.  No, I cannot guess what freaking mood you are in when you show up to work!  Don't make me guess whether you are checked in or checked out!

I need a vacation!  It's coming soon!

Just Do It: Nike wins my support

The news of Michael Vick's plea deal and suspension is the only good thing that can come of the latest news stories about the football player turned dog killer.  Except when I hear about Nike discontinuing their relationship with Vick.  The statement issued by Nike was the first I saw that put the emphasis on the cruelty perspective, rather than illegal gambling, like the NFL's statement did.

Beaverton, OR (24 August, 2007) – Nike has terminated our contract with Michael Vick following today’s release of details of his plea. As we have said in previous statements, we consider any cruelty to animals inhumane, abhorrent and unacceptable.

Now it's likely that probably all the dogs seized will have to be euthanized. Mike even tried to contact Cesar Millan to see if he could help the dogs at his Dog Psychology Center, but he received an automated reply that they aren't accepting any new cases.

Maybe they'll actually drop Michael Vick in a puddle and electrocute him too.  A fitting punishment who has no value for the life of the dogs he bred to fight.  Okay -- I'm just a tad emotional about this.  So is Zero.

True Grit Confession

I absolutely cannot stand the sound of John Wayne's voice. It's painful torture. Call me un-American if you will.  Just give me a Clint Eastwood movie and call it a day.

Bird decorations on my car

Last night I woke up completely nauseous at about 3:15 and couldn't get back to sleep to save my life. Around 4:30, I decided I might as well just get up and go to work, so I took my time getting ready for work and got out the door at 5:45. With time to spare, I decided to stop off at the touchless car wash robot since my car was covered with dead bugs from my evening commutes through the rice fields in Sacramento.

After the car wash, I am no more that 3 blocks away and I get this enormous bird shit on my windshield.  Of course, I said, "Shit!" and some other expletives not to be repeated here or otherwise. Moments later, as I got on I-5 towards Sacramento, I think the rest of the bird decided to drop in on me.  A bird - I kid you not - flew into my windshield and then up and over my car.

I hope someone will tell me that's good luck!

I miss my blog

Anyone who has stuck around with me this far knows that when the blog goes silent, something is up. The last few weeks have been super crazy, stressful, work-filled, family-drama-filled, craziness-filled days.  Need I say more?

No, but I will...

Monday was the worst day I have ever had at work.  I walked into the office and had to deal with an emergency thing that probably someone else should have had to deal with, but it ate up one and a half hours of my time I really needed to spend on something else.  Meanwhile, I sent myself a "Note to Self" for the blog, mostly because it was something I wanted to yell out loud (rather than mumble under my breath with all the other expletives): Hovering over me with excuses is no way to improve a bad situation.

And that's all that I will say about that.

Otherwise, I'm still working on delivering things for my March 1 deadline, so needless to say that's been nutty. Last week I traveled to San Bernardino (my last blog entry - a WHOLE WEEK AGO!) and that was a little like a wasted day.

So, I'm trying to be a big person and get over my sense of being overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, I started another running training thingy and I got my 2 miles down under 30 minutes tonight on the treadmill (29:11 to be exact).  My target for 1/2 Marathon 2 is to get done in about 3:15.  I'm running more than walking now, so we'll see how that goes.  The next one is May 5th (the one after that is May 20!).

So, there's lots going on, lots to write about and more to come.  But I really miss my blog!

It's Tax Time!

In my old age, I'm getting so disorganized. Actually, that's not true.  It seems like the more organized I get at work, the more chaotic my life gets at home. I'm not really sure if I'll every find balance there.

So what does this have to do with taxes? I have a system for getting ready for tax time. Somehow, it's worked every year. I have some templates that I use to organize all of my info and it's usually done in a short amount of time. This year I had papers all over the house. Receipts and tax forms and W-2s and statements and all that were a little harder to wrangle this year. And with the 1/2 marathon training, late nights at work, engagements during the evenings -- I procrastinated this year.

We're meeting with our accountant today at 1:00 and I can officially say I have everything together. Okay, so I finished last night at 9:30, but it's done. Wish us luck. 

Ron Artest is a bad egg

Today a breaking new story came out about Ron Artest from the Sacramento Kings. Read more here.

Unfortunately, this story doesn't mention the fact that Ron Artest was under fire last month for starving his dogs (allegedly). I have read all kinds of stories and excuses for why his dogs were taken away from him, how he was supposed to have a dog watcher to feed his dogs, how the great dane at the food of the littler dogs, etc. They need to make him pay for cruelty to animals the same way they jailed him for domestic violence. These guys need to be held accountable!

I just saw on the news that Artest has been "excused from playing for the Kings - indefinitely."  Why don't the Kings take a stronger stance when it comes to animal cruelty? 

At any rate, I'm not a fan.