An Unrequited Life

Okay, I haven't posted in ages, but I finally felt motivated to post.  I'm out in the Seattle area visiting my mom and brother. The Seattle area has been walloped by snow and unusually cold weather, which the locals are not used to. Seattle has a total of 27 plows.  That's quite a contrast to the fleet of over 200 snow plows in Chicago, and that doesn't count the garbage trucks they can hook plows to in an emergency.  Yeah, we get way more snow in Chicago, and the mayors know if you want to stay in office, you keep the roads clear.

And in the case of my block, I'm pretty sure someone with clout lives on my block, because the first time it snowed last week, our alley got plowed. Now, the City of Chicago does plow side streets, but not alleys.  So somebody definitely has some pull when the alley gets cleared.

Unfortunately, the northwest Washingtonians aren't used to this kind of weather.  So while the main arteries are plowed, the side streets are either still snow-covered or for the heavier trafficked side streets, covered in a layer of ice compressed by all the cars.  Pretty much all the parking lots haven't been plowed either so they're all covered in snow that has been compressed into ice. It definitely makes it hard to drive and walk.

I've got a couple of advantages here:  I'm used to snow and ice, plus I ice skate.  I'm used to gliding around on two thin metal blades on my feet. Granted the ice outside is uneven but the same principles with skates and flat-footed in some parking lot is the same. Use your knees and ankles!  I've seen so many people, including my mother, walking flat-footed with knees and ankles locked. That will guarantee that you'll lose your balance.  You have to remain supple and relaxed. Stiffening your body will only make it harder for your body to react and regain balance. 

That's not to say that I haven't slipped and fallen. I actually landed flat on my back on my first day at Discover, because I was running late and was running up an ice-coveredd pathway.  And I'm sure I'll slip again sometime, but it's funny how people's natural reactions to ice actually makes it more dangerous for them.

So remember, when you're walking on ice, use your knees and ankles. They're shock-absorbers and help you balance.  Don't lock up!

It was a beautiful day today. Clear skies, warm, a little breezy and full of sun.  I spent the day sitting in my cube next to the window.  I could see a swath of blue sky above my cube wall.  And I wondered what I was doing inside on a wonderful calm day like this.  And the answer is simple. Like so many billions of people out there, in order to maintain employment, I must sit in my little box for a set number of hours per day and days per week. While I can make arrangements to not come in, when I don't make arrangements, I'm expected to show up and do work.  Except this week is exceedingly quiet.   A lot of people are out of the office and work is happening, but slowly.  

There were moments where I engaged my brain and did my work, but the remainder of the time, I had to fill.  Sure, there are things that I need to do, but there's no rush on those tasks, and I wasn't in the mood to apply the brain power necessary to work on them.  And I'm not the only one in my corner experiencing the human in a box syndrome.   Some want to work, but there is no work for them to do, because they're waiting on others. So they wait, and wait and wait.  And sit in their box.

Wouldn't it be better if these people could do other things that are productive in their lives?  Why is it, because of this contract with employers, that we have to sit and be unproductive just to fullfill a requirement?  I suppose some employers would say that we should have the initiative to be productive.  But there are so many factors that can make it difficult to be productive even when you try to search it out.  

In reality, so much of time in the office isn't productive. Even when people are busy, projects are due and things are moving.  We spend our times running in circles, navigating the labyrinth of egos and absurdities of modern life and hive mentality.  So where is the meaning?

Well, yes, I'll go for gold eventually, but this isn't the Olympics I'm talking about. It's ice dance, and I just completed my pre-silver dances. Definite woo hoo! moment. And it got easier along the way.  I passed the Keats Foxtrot on my first try, and I even got a tenth over by a national judge.  She likes me :)  Being relaxed is so key in testing. When I competed the foxtrot in June, I also tried to be relaxed and realistic about it. I didn't know what the results were going to be, but I focused on skating as well and performing as well as I could.

Yesterday, I skated one pattern of the dance in warm up and then I just hung out by the door and try to be relaxed.  It felt good, and I didn't want to deal with the mob of girls who were also on warm up.  Since I didn't have to skate it solo, I wasn't going to skate it solo and psych myself out.  

And in the three patterns of the dance, I just tried to be mindful and skate in the moment, and just try to relax.  Tightening up really makes it hard when you do something wrong.  Your body doesn't have the flexibility to adjust.  Not that I wanted to be too loose, because you need control in ice dance.  

Fortunately, it turned out well, and I could reward myself with frozen custard from Culver's.  Yummy.  

And now onto the silver dances.  Silvers will definitely be a turning point.  At this point, the standard track testers have to skate the dance solo as well as in pair.  For adults, the passing mark is lower and the solo isn't required.  We'll need to decide which way to go. I'd like to stick to standard, knowing full well it will take longer to pass the dances that way than going adult track.  But I think I can do it, and I'd really like a standard gold and not adult gold. It makes a difference.

But there's definitely been a breakthrough of some sort in my skating. Don't know if it was the time off in Italy, the new skates (boots and blades) or what, but even my coach Chris noticed that I just seem much more on top of my skating. I still have my problems, but even Vladimir said that I feel more solid--he's more comfortable partnering--though he still smacks me in the butt when I stick my butt out--a definite no no in ice dance if you want to stay upright and on time.

BTW, Vladimir can get away with smacking me in the butt, because we know each other well enough and are comfortable enough to not misinterpret things. I know why he's doing it, and it's not like it's mean or malicious or salacious either. Anyone else who tried that with me would get smacked back, but in the face (as I'm sure some of you well know, knowing me).

So next up will be the Rocker Foxtrot, and I'll probably start practicing the tango as well.  The American waltz will be another challenge. I'm not a waltzer, but I'm sure I'll muddle through.

Actually, death seems to be the theme for the past couple of weeks. It all started when my friend Greg called me up to announce, "I'm still alive!"  Most people announce this in a metaphorical sense--as in it's been a while and I want to announce I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  With Greg, it was literal.  He was still alive and it was a big deal, because he had had heart bypass surgery.  This after he'd been on a regimen of diet and exercise since last fall after he went to the hospital and they told him his indigestion was a mild heart attack. 

Ironically, after he went on this regimen of eating healthy and exercising, his bad cholesterol went up and his good cholesterol went down.  Plus, a 3-month check up after the start showed that he went from 30% occlusion in his arteries to 70% occlusion.  While they could place stents in someplace, one clogged area was at a juncture in his heart where they couldn't put a stent, hence the bypass surgery.

While Greg is no young'un, he certainly isn't that old. His mom did die of a heart attack, but she was in her 80s.  But I think he's had siblings who've had heart trouble so I told him to blame genetics, and to stay in touch, so I don't have to scan the obits for his name.

Then in the middle of last week, my friend Cathy forwarded an e-mail from her mom. Her mom was memorializing Chinook, who was her mom's horse.  And Chinook happened to be the horse I used to ride when I would go horseback riding with Cathy when we were in junior high and high school. That horse was OLD.  Fortunately, he had a long life, dying at 30, taken care of by animal lovers who gave him plenty of care.  He was a sweet horse with a goofy personality and a beautiful Arabian face.

This was also preceded by an e-mail response from my friend Rod who mentioned that a cousin of his in Chicago had recently passed away and he had considered flying to Chicago for it, but decided not to. When he was out here for funeral earlier in the year, this cousin had offered to let him stay with her when he came out. Instead he stayed with me, since he was hoping to hang with some people who were under 65. His cousin was 65 when she passed away.

And then yesterday evening, I received a text message from my friend George saying that his mom had passed away last night. She was 82 and had a relapse of cancer.  I sent my first real text message today to George, since I figure he'd more likely get that than an e-mail.  The visitation is in DC and the burial in NY, so I'm not sure what I'll do.  I could donate to the American Cancer Society as requested, but I'd like to do something more personal.  I never met her, but George had some good stories about interactions with his mom.  His mom was pretty old school, so when it came to talking about the birds and the bees, she wasn't comfortable about it. So when it came to sex, she once blurted out to George, "Don't forget the condos!"  No, that was not a typo.  In her nervousness, she ended up talking about real estate instead of safe sex :-)  George got a chuckle from that one.

Is it weird or ironic or fated that I've been musing about old Monty Python skits and scenes and one of the scenes that popped into my head was the scene from The Meaning of Life when Death comes to a dinner party and takes them all away because of the bad salmon mousse. But only after dressing down the loud Americans and the pompous Brits in the scene.  And heaven includes topless showgirls dancing and singing about how it's Chrismas all the time.  All this Python musings was prompted by an article I read which prompted me to do a YouTube search for the "Upperclass Twit of the Year" skit which I saw many years ago on PBS.  Loved that scene. It concludes with the Twits trying to kill themselves--the first to do so was the winner of that year's award.

So, this past week has been about death, both silly and serious.

Also known as going to Costco.

On my way home yesterday, I decided to make a pit stop at Costco where everything comes in quantities of large, jumbo and massive. I have a membership, but haven't visited a store this year yet. I've been hearing all the reports of how these warehouse clubs have been doing so well since the economy has gone in the pits and prices have gone up on pretty much everything.

I normally skip Costco, because I'm single and live in a 2 bedroom condo where my storage space has already been maxed out. I swear I still have some items from Costco (non perishables) from two years ago (and I still haven't exhausted my supply of ziplocs from last year). In any case, I know you can get massive quantities of kleenex, and with my allergies, I figure it'd be a practical purchase. Of course I picked up a few other things:

• Giant bag of rice crackers with mixed nuts
  
• Cheerios
  
• Mega-gallons of cooking oil (good for when I use my deep fat fryer)
  
• A couple of bottles of wine
  
• And a few other odds and ends

Things I was tempted to buy, but didn't:

• 3 lbs of cherries
  
• 3 lbs of French green beans
  
• 25 lbs of aged basmati rice

Things I definitely was not interested in buying:

• Bulk quantities of low sodium SPAM
  
• Vat of baked beans
  
• Gallons of ketchup
  
• Key lime pie the size of a large pizza
  
• A giant tub of sour cream
  
• Or a $6,000 3-piece gas outdoor grilling island

But I think I fulfilled my duty of being a consumer, since I spent over $100 on that purchase.

So yesterday, I was in a pretty good mood, because I didn't have to get up early to go skating before work.  Showing up to work at my regular time is like sleeping in on a Tuesday morning.  

Since it's the start of the the month, I was running and sorting through the last June comments from our Web site.  In comes the food nazi.  She's an admin of our department who has taken it upon herself to organize food events.  The woman has a filing cabinet full of food, plus candy at her desk at all times.  And we're not just talking about  a selection of candy, but she has things like boxes of cereal and all kinds of snack items that goes beyond stocking up for the nuclear winter.

She loves to cook and organize these food days at work, which comprises of eating from breakfast to lunch to afternoon snacks.  And she's always chasing people down to get them to cook something or bring something. The thing is, there is no refrigerator to store stuff (fridges aren't allowed at work), and there's only small microwaves to heat things.  So this woman will haul her crockpot, chafing dishes, electric skillet and all kinds of stuff to work.  To me it's just a little much. She's even offered to provide recipes for people who don't cook. What she doesn't get is that some of us do cook, we just find it a little difficult during the week and to figure out what to cook that's easily transportable.  Frankly, my food doesn't do well reheated in a microwave, and I sure the hell am not hauling my rice cooker/steamer into work.  I'm not a catering service.

Anyway, we had a food day scheduled for today, so she was making the rounds yesterday.  She plopped into my cube, tosses a sheet with the list of foods that people are bringing and gets "busy" marking something up on her sheet. Basically, she wants me to give money, since I didn't sign up to bring something.  Back at AHIMA, I brought food, but we had a fridge, so I could store my cold noodles.  Here, I'd have to buy a cooler for that.  

So I tossed $5 dollars at her and she finally left.  Well, I had to run off to a long presentation, and I noticed that I was getting achy and cold.  Yeah, I must have picked up a bug, so I decided to go home, because the whole achy body thing was not fun.  Driving home wasn't fun, since it takes at least an hour.  Even during non-peak hours.

I get home and pull up to our lot and THERE'S SOMEONE IN MY PARKING SPOT.  Our parking lot is gated and you can only get in if you have one of the remotes--which is one per unit.  So someone let a non-resident's SUV in and it was parked in my spot.  I found a spot on the street, but I was really pissed.  I got in and sent off an e-mail to the condo owners, basically pointing out that it was the second time in a month that someone has parked in my spot, and that the next time it happens, I'm calling a towing service.

A few minutes later, a couple of unit owners say they think the parker is a guy working on the garden unit that flooded.  I knocked and the door and this guys opens the door. I ask him if he's parked in back.  He says yes and asks if he should move his car. I said yes, and pointed out that he's parked in my space. He starts making excuses saying there were no parking spots on the street when he got there, then he says he's parked there before.  And stops when he realizes I'm giving him the evil eye.

I had sent out an e-mail missive earlier in the month when a car was parked in my space. I had noted that I didn't mind someone using my space when I was not using it, but I requested the courtesy of being informed beforehand.  Obviously that hadn't happened.  Of course the woman that owned the unit doesn't actually live in the building, she could care less.  You'd think if she had any consideration, she would have thought to tell him to 1) don't park in back, and 2) if you do park in back to park in her space.  Since she gave him her remote or her tenant did, you'd think they would have informed him where he could park.  

I tell him that the owner of the unit he's working on has her own spot and he should park there. He asks me if it's big enough for his car.  Another death stare....at that point he offers to park in the street.  We leave it at that.  After he gathers the tenant's yappy dog (who ran out when he answered the door), he went to move his car.  Sure enough, he was parked in his unit owner's spot in his SUV which fit fine.  

What an idiot.  "Will my car fit in the space?"  I mean the guy is a contractor, so he deals with space all the time, yet he can't figure out if his SUV will fit in a normal size parking spot.  And it seems pretty obvious to me, he's been using my space for a while and took it for granted he could use it and he didn't bother yesterday to look for street parking.  I'm sure he doesn't get the big deal.

The big deal is it's my parking spot. I paid for it.  Like everyone else in the building, I should be able to come and go as I like and not have to worry about parking. Since I wasn't feeling well yesterday, and I had to survive an hour drive, I was in no mood to look for parking on the street no matter how easy it was.  And normally, after people start leaving for work, parking is easy to find on our street, so there was no excuse for him to park in my spot except that he's a lazy.

Needless to say, he knows better now, and if I do find a car in my spot again, I know a towing service that will be more than happy to haul the vehicle away--and then charge them for it.

P.S. Regarding the food nazi, well I didn't go to work today, because I still wasn't feeling well, so I wasted $5 feeding other people. I guess I should feel good about sharing with my fellow coworkers, but frankly not when I'm strong-armed into by the food nazi.  You can't impose or force fun or joy and she doesn't seem to get it.

I've been attending an usability conference in San Franciso for the past couple of days.  While the focus is on web and software application usability with some peripheral discussion hardware/tool usability/ergonomics, I think someone should have a talk with the hotel's room service chef about the sandwich I ordered tonight.

A couple of notes first.

My hotel is walking distance to Chinatown and I did sprint down there during lunch break to grab some Chinese baked goods for lunch. However, I was rather perturbed that my second foray was not so successful.  I wasn't looking for some big fancy meal, so I didn't want to go to a restaurant that you need to order multiple courses to get a balanced Chinese meal (meat, veggie, etc). There are lots of little restaurants that have rice plates, noodles, etc., so I figure I'd hit one of those.

A lot of places that serve dim sum not surprisingly are closed at dinner time. Not a big deal, there are still options. However, I wasn't able to find a place that appealed to me. Now, that's rather stunning.  Maybe it was analysis/paralysis.  Maybe it was low blood sugar levels by the time I was down looking for dinner.  And I know part of it was the unusual heat of the day that was lasting into the evening was suppressing my appetite.  It must have been in the mid-80s even at 7:30 pm.  Plus, San Fran isn't exactly known for being a flat city like Chicago.  And my hotel happens to be on top of Nob Hill--great view, upscale area, but a bear of a hill it is.  Plus, I cast a rather jaundiced eye on positive reviews of places by mainstream media or discussion board dominated by non-Chinese.   So one of the rules of thumb of good eating when you don't know where to eat is to find the crowded places and also check the crowd.  Is it busy and full of Chinese people?  Yes, then you're in business. If it's dead during dining hours?  Stay away.

However, my mom and I were burned in the LA suburbs by that crowd axiom.  See we were in Chinese central in the LA burbs and we hit a place that was quite busy.  Unfortunately, it was quite mediocre by our standards, so we were quite mystified on why it was so crowded.  Maybe I was a little gun shy about that and the fact that I know the true "go to" area for good Chinese food doesn't actually reside in Chinatown anymore but in the Richmond neighborhood.  An aside--Chinese people seem to be enamored with areas with "rich" in the name.  There's a Vancouver suburb named Richmond as well and sure enough, there are more signs in Chinese there (even at non-Chinese stores) than in English.

I did find a place at the edge of Chinatown that was packed with Chinese people, and there were even people waiting for tables, and it seemed like a place that was the right price.  However, it was definitely Cantonese and I just didn't see any appeal to the menu items (or photos) they had up outside the front door.  There was another seafood place that had steady business and populated by many Chinese and whites.  Yet, I looked at their long menu and nothing appealed to me.

So I left Chinatown with an empty stomach and came back to my hotel room and begrudgingly ordered room service. I had ordered room service the first night and the dishes were okay, but not great.  The lobster bisque was a  bit too salty.  The crab cake was mushy, though the salad was good (hard to mess up though).  This time around, I figure I'd order a sandwich and throw in some onion rings (beer battered, of course).

The onion rings were eaten first and quite tasty. I'd order those again.  The sandwich turned out to be a double-decker. I'm not a huge fan of double-decker sandwiches--too much bread and too much height.  And here's where the usability or maybe edibility issues came in.  Since it was a double-decker with a fried egg, cucumber, lettuce, bacon, tomato, and chicken, there was a lot of stuff in addition to the bread.  They cut it into fourths and held the towering pieces together with long toothpicks.  Nice presentation with some mixed green salad in the middle of the plate. However, the pieces were slender enough that you really couldn't eat the quarter with the toothpick in without risking perforating your mouth with a toothpick.  It's not something I want to negotiate while taking a bite.  However, when I took the toothpick out, it was rather precarious trying to keep all the layers together.  On top of that, the sandwich was too thick for me to bite and it didn't compress well. Plus, if you applied pressure wrong, the sandwich would kind of explode outwards.  

Add to this that the bread was toasted, which helped height and sandwich integrity since it didn't turn to mush with all the veggies or break apart, but it also meant that the crust was pretty much hard as rock when I got it.  I seriously had problems biting through the crust. I basically had to leave a plateful of uneaten and frankly inedible crust on the plate.

Now, the sandwich itself was pretty tasty though how you add pepper to something like this is a bit challenging.  I do have to say I could have done without the fried egg.  I'm not sure what the appeal is. Of course I like my fried eggs runny and that's even less user-friendly on a sandwich.  There's a place in Chicago that is known for their burgers and their signature burger includes a fried egg. Again, I fail to see the appeal, but that's just me.

So after spending something like 6-7 hours listening to a guy talk about widget interfaces (how to make usable buttons among other things), I really wasn't in a mental state to negotiate a sandwich.  By the way, utilility of something as simple as a button, forms, lists, tables, drop downs, etc. are really important to make interfaces easy to use.  However, it is incredibly boring to have to talk about these thing in fine details including things like the states of your button (up, hover, down, inactive) and how to make buttons look like buttons.  Important, yet I wish I could have downloaded all this information via Matrix-style plug-in rather than sitting inside on a gorgeous if hot day in San Francisco.  Oh, and it's a two-day course, so I have another day of this...yes, I'll be in a course for 8 hours on a Saturday in SF.  The instructor promises that tomorrow will be different and more interesting.  We shall see.  I may have to up my caffeine load tomorrow.

At least I'll be hanging out with a college friend tomorrow night.  At least I hope I am.  I don't think I can handle another full day trying to negotiate eating in San Francisco.

Now that I've finally been able to take a nap, I actually have enough energy to report about the fun happenings of yesterday.  Unlike my usual routine, I actually got up at 8 am yesterday (a Saturday when I normally attempt to stay unconscious until noon).  Since I'm trial judging ice dance, I got up and drove up to Highland Park to practice judging dance tests.  It's part of the process to become an actual ice dance test judge. I'm suppose to be doing this in freestyle as well, but considering that I haven't done any freestyle and can barely identify which jump is which, that one is starting up much slower.

In any case, I learned that I should have worn my winter boots inside the rink, since I was there for about 2 1/2 hours standing by the boards.  It's one thing when you're skating yourself, it's another thing when you just stand there and write. All the actual judges were in parkas and winter coats and a number of them had their fleece-lined boots on.  I'll have to do that next time even though it was something like 89 degrees outside.

However, I wasn't posting to report on the trial judging, which I'm sure many of you would find incredibly boring.  All I can say is that I need to write more comments--which was hard to do considering how many and how quickly they ran the tests.  The tip for the head judge was the skip every other test so I have time to write comments, and also to start writing as they are skating instead of waiting for them to finish. I prefer to not write until they finish, so I don't miss anything. 

So back to what the topic of this post is.  I took off a little after 1 pm to a very warm, sunny and balmy day.  I took the Edens back down despite the construction and made decent time. Trouble started when I got off at Peterson.  As I was approaching the traffic light at Pulaski and Peterson, I noticed the one minivan in front of me that was already at the red light was backing up.  It didn't look like it was in the intersection, but it was a bit unnerving that as I'm braking, the car is backing up.  Well, no big deal, the woman didn't back into me. However, when the light turned green nothing happened. In fact the woman was brushing her curly permed hair.  So I had to beep at her twice, before she took off.  And then I noticed the swerving. Two cars in front of her headed for the right turn lane at a street a few blocks later and she followed them before she swerved back into the lane in front of me.  She seemed to have a tendency to wander into the right parking lane, even when there were cars parked there.

Needless to say, I kept my distance from her. I considered passing her, but the cars in the left lane were going slower--they probably were hesitant to pass her.  So we finally get to California St. The light turns yellow, she zips through and I stop at the light.  I'm checking my gauges (okay, I like to see what my mpg when I'm stopped...which is just another setting on my hybrid). I look up and the green minivan that was jerky and swerving in front of me  before is diagonally stopped in both lanes a half block up from where we are.  Apparently she hit a parked car in the middle of a block.  

To get around her, I had to merge into the left lane, but when I drove by, it was obviously she it the parked car with some speed, because she's taken out the back left corner of that car.  A woman has walked into the street on the passenger side to check on her and people at a bus stop a half block down are watching and some are walking over to assist.

Considering her erratic driving, I can only assume she was drinking and driving, or on some kind of substance.  Considering she was brushing her hair absently at the red light when I first got to her, it doesn't appear she was falling asleep.  And the parked car was parked with no one in it, so it wasn't like it pulled in front of her--someone did that to me later that day, but I was awake enough to swerve around (no one was in the left lane fortunately).

I've encountered my fair share of drunk and erratic drivers, but that's a first in seeing one actually smash into something.  Good thing I didn't go through the yellow.  I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be part of that wreck.  Not surprisingly, in a city like Chicago, it won't even get a mention in the paper...you have to shoot someone to do that or be part of a major multi-car accident like the one on the Edens spur on Friday afternoon.  That's life in the city.

However, I have been:

1) lazy
2) on vacation for 10 days and running around getting ready for vacation in Italy (it was fantastic!)
3) super busy at work on projects that won't die and I can't really talk about them if I want to keep my job
4) skating and passing my European Waltz (whee! one pre-silver left to go!)
5) spending too much time on Facebook, which includes hitting the ignore button a lot (okay, so I like the greenie plant thing, but some of the other stuff is too much!)
6) going to Chicagourmet events, which includes eating and drinking and dealing with weird people (not including the weird people I come with)
7) catching up with a few old friends
8) watching the first half of the lacrosse championships on live streaming video until I couldn't put up with Quint Kessenich's commentary--he may have been a Hopkins alum and great goalie but man is he a tool, plus Hopkins was losing...oh the horror...to Syracuse
9) reading five thousand e-mails regarding various problems with the condo building--mainly plumbing--now that I am "board member at large"
and finally
10) figuring out when I can sneak out of work early to go sailing...

More on some of these things later.

While Chicagoans have had some strange encounters with wildlife, including the coyote who decided to cool his paws in a downtown Quizno's cooler, we've had more disturbing encounters the past few weeks. Earlier this week, the Chicago police shot a cougar in a residential neighborhood in Chicago.  Reports are that it was a young male cougar, 122 pounds, and capable of leaping 6 foot fences with ease.  Nowthat is not a cat that I would be bringing into my home or leaving out cans of Fancy Feast.  As the experts have rightly said, these large cats are used to taking down deer for dinner, so people are just another type of meal-to-go for them.  

And now, there are more sightings on the Northshore (the suburbs along Lake Michigan north of the city). It looks like the Northshore sightings were not from the same cougar that was shot in the city.  Considering there aren't many dating/mating opportunities (though plenty of food on the hoof or Pradas if you like) in the city, it's not surprising that the suburbs has a cougar or two.  After all there are wooded areas to hide and hunt, and plenty of deer running about--even running around on the Discover campus.  

However, I don't think anyone wants to face up to a cougar in the parking lot.  Fortunately, the papers have been publishing advice and tips on what to do if you do run into a large cat that's designed to eat other large animals.  Hopefully, there won't be too many opportunities for that. Though I suppose a lot of folks won't be upset if we lose a lawyer or two or some pompous executive from one of those Northshore neighborhoods...

So our interactive agency sent out an SOS on a project they were working on with another department.  It was severely off its rails and they were under the gun to make IT deadlines.  Originally, I was called in to consult about usability testing for the web pages they were working on, but it became clear that wasn't needed, and it was other help.  I ended up being the E-Biz contact because the person who is their main liaison is tied up in an unrelated major project.

So I was sent in to conduct a project intervention and drive the project forward even though I was suppose to let a person in the other department "drive."   Well, it hasn't been going so well. Everytime things get settled something else flairs up and it's been the endless drama.  I finally put my foot down and set up a meeting to try to resolve everything.

Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, the person who is suppose to be managing this project declined at the last minute.  And the rest of us met, and it ended up to be an incredibly easy meeting that got wrapped up in 15 minutes.  The one rep from the other team even said he wished all meetings were so easy. He hasn't been deeply involved and was only empowered earlier that day to be the decision maker for his team, because his boss, the one calling the shots, had to leave before the meeting.

So what happened?  I know that the project manager is not happy with me. She set up a meeting next week to "get on the same page" and to share her observations about me on this project. Frankly, I'm not interested, and this project and this person has been really getting under my skin that at 9:15 pm, I'm still thinking about it.

And what I realized is that what needs to happen is not a project intervention but a relationship intervention. Things have gotten so poisonous that nothing is working, and everything that seems to be back on the rails keep derailing.

And I'm trying to figure out if it's the project manager who is poisoning it all. She certainly has been the driver of poison lately--she doesn't understand things but insists she does, she insists on having her way when pretty much everyone else is opposed to it and it doesn't make sense, and she blames everyone else when something goes wrong.  It's never her fault.  

It's interesting that going into this project, our agency was trying to frame her in a sympathetic way of being someone thrown into something which she wasn't qualified to do and wasn't given any support. And that's certainly true. Her old manager now works in my department and he seems clueless on how things could have "changed" when he was partly responsible for this debacle.

It's funny, because earlier this week, I met with my boss and we talked a little about my personal development plans, which needs to be entered into the work performance management tool.  One of the things I talked about was expanding my management skills. I mentioned that I had taken this great conflict management class and while I don't need another class in that, additional training in management would be cool.

And here I am using those conflict management training tools and realizing that the problem is not the project, is not the people, is not the unrealistic timeline.  It's the relationship.  For whatever reason, way before E-Business was called in to be the cavalry on this project, the relationship went south.  And nothing has been right since.  No one  is listening to anyone else.  No one trusts anyone else.  And without trust, there is no communication or understanding.  The IT rep is frustrated that she's not heard. The agency is frustrated that they're not being heard. The project manager, well, that's the one thing that I don't get. I don't know if she's just doing a lot of CYA and poisoning the water to save her job or make herself look good, or if she's following the example that others have set but have since left the playing field.  The one thing I know is that I can't trust her.  But distrust only engenders more distrust. How to break the cycle?

Making this right will take some finesse.   One plus is that there are some new players in the game and others who have been in the game all along do seem to be trying to play the game fair.  There's a new director on that team that we've worked with before, and he's the one who called us in and everyone trusts him. Which is why he gets dragged in. And my director too. This shouldn't be a project that requires directors to be making decisions and calling shots.

So how to dig down to the bottom and get everyone into relationship counseling?  Well, that will be for next week.  When I'm in the middle of the run up on launching a big project that I have actually been managing.  We've had our hysterical moments and bumps in that project, but I think everyone likes and respects each other. And we realize everyone is doing their best.  That's the way it should be. We can talk about going out for drinks afterwards to share war stories and a laugh, because we actually don't detest the sight of each other.  Amazing.

The alert has been flown and this week I'm on survivor mode. We're coming down to the wire on a project that's launching in less than two weeks, plus I'm playing clean up on another project that launched earlier this month and has been quite the car wreck of bad user experience (and not just on the web site).  Plus, there are a half dozen other things I have to keep moving, so it isn't going to be pretty. I got to work before 8 am--which is even earlier than when I show up on Tuesday mornings when I skate in the morning--to prep for a presentation at 8:30 am. No, it's not an ideal time for a presentation, but it was the only slot open, so I at least asked our admin to order coffee and breakfast food.  However, anything technical that could go wrong did go wrong, but I managed to execute a backup plan and show something online even if it wasn't what I wanted.

I've had enough experience providing demos and live web training at my last job at AHIMA to know how to improvise and work with what you got. Nothing beats completely losing internet connection at a convention center when some idiot exhibitor hooked up his virus-infected laptop to the network and took the whole thing down. Imagine trying to give a hands-on training, when there hands can't do anything and neither can I.

So anyway, after having an early morning, I was at work until 6:30 pm trying to get some testing done on the site that's going up shortly and also keep up with everything else. And since our launch in less than two weeks away and we're still fixing things, the hysteria is running high.

I originally had considered doing some trial judging on the weekend. At this point, I'm foregoing that in favor of recovering from the coming week.  

P.S. Staying late at work wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that I have at least a 45 minute drive to and from work--and that's with zero traffic.  Even when I leave late, there's been times when the roads are still jammed. Plus we're expected to get more snow later in the week.  Like I said, I'm battening down the hatches, and figuring I'll be ordering out a lot this week, because all I'll have time to do is go home, eat something and then collapse.

Yesterday, I literally lost my car for a few minutes in the parking lot at work.  Spring rolled into Chicago dumping 7 to 12 inches of snow in the area.  While they predicted snow falling shortly after midnight on Thursday night, it didn't start snowing until around 7 am on Friday morning. There was just a light dusting as I drove into work. Fortunately, the traffic was light and I got in at my usual time even though I left a few minutes late.

Despite the light snow, I ran errands at lunchtime. The roads were wet but no accumulation yet.  The one sucky thing was the winds were pretty strong and whipping the snow around.  I got back around 12:30 pm.  At 2 pm, they announced over the PA that we should all go home.  I know that the snow had been coming down more heavily since I got back from lunch, but I really wasn't paying attention.  Other things needed attending to.  I didn't leave until 2:30 pm. There was a line of cars heading out shortly after the announcement, so I waited and also finished up some stuff.

Well, by the time I got to my car, there was 3 inches of snow of wet snow on all the cars left in the lot. With the wind, the snow was falling more horizontally than vertically and sticking to vertical surfaces as well. So when I got to the lot, the cold whipping snow and the snow covering every surface made it hard to find my car.  

I knew the general area where I had parked my car, but forgot which side of the aisle I parked on. Plus, there are plenty of dark colored cars about the same size and shape as mine that area.  I finally had to trudge up to a car and wipe off the license plate (yes, they were all covered). Fortunately, the first one turned out to be my car.  Trying the clear off the car wasn't too bad, except my outside side mirrors were useless. As soon as I wiped them off, they got covered in snow again.  I managed to clear my left side mirror while driving, but the right side was hopeless.

It took me two hours to get home, including a quick side trip along the way to return some shoes.  Traffic was moving so slowly I was having problems staying awake. I noticed myself sinking in my seat and tilting my head up to  managed to see through my mirrors. I did get home in one piece and managed to munch on snacks and go through dozens and dozens of e-mails that had accumulated since Thursday. Then I took a five hour nap. And I was still tired when I woke up.

The snow is still on the ground today, and I doubt it'll be gone and warmed up in time for spring Easter dresses and bonnets. Since I'm not an Easter person, it's not an issue...though I wonder if I can get some folks together for "Easter" dim sum.

Monday

• Stop at Nordstrom after work and spend too much money on two pairs of shoes. Drive home, try them on again and decide to return one pair. Go online and order more shoes from discount sites.
• Oh yeah, there was that work thing where I went to stupid meetings with stupid people.

Tuesday

• Skate at 7 am in the morning.
• Meetings, meetings, meetings.
• Leave at 4 pm to go to opera. Wear one pair of new shoes. They look great!  Enjoy Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky sung in Russian. Thank god for supertitles.

Wednesday

• Leave work at 4 pm. Stop at Walgreens, because I forgot the sympathy card I bought over the weekend. Write note in car.
• Go to visitation of friend's father's funeral at Lakeview Funeral Home. Thank god they have a parking lot, because it's at Belmont and Ashland. Talk to Wayne for a few minutes.
• Rush home. Throw on frock, shoes (bought for Dec wedding), and make up.  Ready just in time to be picked up to go to Chicagourmet dinner event at Women's Athletic Club
  • Get assigned to help lead tours even though I've never been in there. Take people up to 7th floor ballroom. Also got to check out second floor reception area, fancy bathroom, and cozy library with lots of first editions.
  • Eat five course dinner including seared scallop on a bed of salsify, topped with microgreens (exquisite); Jerusalem artichoke soup garnished with sourdough crouton and fried escargot (velvety); frisee salad with bacon and fried quail eggs (love the quail eggs); fantastic strawberry and basil sorbet; grilled bison and purple sweet potatoes (the meat was perfectly cooked); and caramel pinenut tart with cream cheese ice cream (too much tart but just enough ice cream). Plus wine with every course.
  • Get phone call from Rod at event. Ask to call him back.
  • Dinner companions include Dale & Suzanne, and Didier Durand, chef owner of local French bistro, and his wife, and skating friend Cris (not to be confused with skating coach Chris). Cris is an ice skating judge. She invites me to trial judge on Sunday evening test session. I agree. Also agree to go to dinner with Suzanne & Dale at Didier's on Friday. 
• Call Rod back when I get home and talk for an hour (or two?). He's coming into town for a great uncle's funeral.  Agree to let him stay with me for the weekend.

Thursday

• Drag self to work. Try to stay awake.  Have meetings that run until 5:30 pm.
• Run errands after work. Go to DSW Shoe Warehouse. Find zero shoes worth considering.
• Get ice dance lesson with Chris and Vladimir.

Friday

• Have no meetings in morning, but back-to-back meetings until 4:30 pm in the afternoon.
• Get one pair of shoes that I had ordered online. Too tight. Need to send them back :(
• No need to change, just get picked up by Suzanne, Dale, & Jack. Have dinner at Cyrano's Bistrot, including foie gras which is banned in Chicago. Foie gras course includes terrine of fois gras served with a raspberry-like syrup on small toast squares plus a seared slice of foie gras with grilled pears, shiitake mushroom, and a salad with shredded green onions. Quite good.  We all ordered goose, because he was preparing it specially for us.  The goose was pretty good considering that I don't like goose (he really did a good job of controlling the gamey-ness). So full we can't eat dessert. We order dessert anyway. And I managed to eat most of it--apple tart.  Felt like Mr. Creosote afterwards.
• Get a call from Rod at 10 pm as we're heading home. He's heading towards my place. Perfect timing. I get there before he does, so I have a little time to prep for him.  The place is a mess.
• Stay up until 12:45 am talking.

Saturday

• Get up around 10:45 am. Shower. Sort through piles of magazines. Rod gets up and we hang out talking in the living room. He needs to be at funeral home (Lakeview Funeral Home again, a popular spot for Japanese Americans) at 2 pm.
• We head for Tweet for brunch. It's after 12 noon. There's still a wait list, so we go to Furama and have dim sum instead.
• Stop at Asian grocery store on way back, so Rod can pick up souvenir for friend. Drive down to funeral home and drop him off at 2 pm on the dot.
• Go home, do laundry, take nap, eat bacon sandwich for dinner. Surf the web.
• Rod gets back around 9-ish. We talk a bit and he suggests we go out for a drink or dessert. We head out to Moody's Pub for a beer. I order the onion rings. They are extraordinarily mediocre. The Berghoff dark is much better. He invites me to go to the shooting range when I visit Seattle next Xmas. I agree. Neither one of us are gun nuts.  He figures I'm the most likely female he knows who would want to shoot a gun. He's right.  Around midnight, Rod gets a call from another friend who he is meeting. I go out to say hi to the friend, whom I've met before.
• Go home, surf the web. Go to sleep.

Sunday

• Get woken up by Rod sometime in the 5:30 am range so he can say goodbye (I gave him permission to wake me the night before). Go back to sleep.
• Wake up, eat something, go back to sleep.
• Go skating in the afternoon, because there's a test session Sunday night.
• Go out to eat with Chris, the coach, and Mike, the ex-dance partner, afterwards.
• Go to Windy City test session. Find out I'm signed up to test at the session, even though I had sent in forms to test next month. Oops.  Vladimir is already there to take someone through a dance test, so he clears it up with the test chair. Nothing is prepared for trial judging and I have no prep but the 3 judges there pull things together and I get to trial judge the dance tests.  My pass/retry ratings pretty much match up with the actual judges. They provide advice and guidance and sign off my test forms. Cris provides more instructions of what I need to do about paperwork and trial judge. She's my monitor.
• Go home, try to download forms, but USFSA site is being spazzy.
• Go to bed, glad that the coming week is not as busy as last week.

The phone rang while I was attending to frying bacon.  Minding how quickly bacon can burn, I ran to the other room to answer--so I didn't have to worry about the caller having to listen to the sizzling in the background.  What I didn't expect was a voice that I would expect to be saying, "Dude, where's my car?!" asking me to take a survey about my car.  He definitely sounded like some spaced-out burner more than a telephone surveyer.  I quickly declined and ran back to my bacon--which didn't burn and made a very nice bacon sandwich. So are these survey and telemarketers so desperate they'll take anyone these days?  Or are trends changing and I should expect more calls, asking me "dude, what hospital in your area do you know?" or "dude, like would you like to like extend your warranty?"

Well, like everyone else that came before them, I'll just continue to hang up on them.

BTW, the only things in a bacon sandwich are bacon and toasted bread. When I told my friend, Rod, this weekend about having a bacon sandwich, he asked me to describe it, and seemed confused that it didn't contain anything else but bacon.  "No egg?" "No cheese?" Nope. It's a bacon sandwich not a bacon and cheese sandwich or bacon and egg sandwich. Why compromise the bacon with other goods?

Maybe it's the long snowy winter that doesn't seem to end.  Maybe I need a vacation. Or maybe I just need more sleep, but suddenly I feel the need for intellectual discourse.  And I'm seeing no local source for this anytime soon.  Every so often, I miss the crazy conversations I would have with my college friends.  Having attended a geek school, it was pretty much a given that the people I hung around were smart. And not just book smart, because Hopkins taught you how to question and to think.

The people around me are nice.  They're not unintelligent...but so many of them have such a narrow scope of focus on their personal microcosm that there's no use to try to talk about things beyond their self-absorbed universe.  Last night I went to dinner with some people to celebrate a birthday.  Okay, it was a 40th birthday and it felt more like a funeral--though I think funerals are probably more fun.  And I have to admit I wasn't helping spirits out since I was tired and annoyed. So I made few efforts to try to direct the conversation. Besides, others seemed happy to turn it in their own direction. The unfortunate consequence for me was the soporific effect of the whole evening.  I was mind numbingly bored.  

I was so bored, I woke up bored this morning and I've been having a heck of a time shaking it off. Somebody please help....

I kid you not.

I spent this evening watching the Junior World Championship ice dance free dance competition, which means I spent a lot of time hearing the same stupid music over and over again. There are millions--and I do mean millions--of songs out there and it seems the ice dance community has to pick the same 6 songs to skate to. Even if the piece is nice, it gets old watching different teams doing blah routines to the music.  Sure, not everything out there is danceable, but there's a heck of a lot more out there than Sarah Brightman's Harem (3 times in night).

So it was with great relief that some of the teams and their coaches picked unusual music.  And I'd have to say, the Hubbells (brother and sister out of Ann Arbor, MI) picked something quite unique.  It had the requisite classical element--cellos--and then it had the drama--crunchy guitars reminiscent of Metallica (not very ice dancey). So I had to look up the group (they list the music they skate to on a couple of web sites).  And it turns out the music is by Apocalyptica, which turns out to be 4 Finnish classically trained cellists with a love of heavy metal.  Let's just hope that if they smash their instruments, it won't happen to be an antique cello.

Unfortunately, someone else--a Russian team no less--decided they needed to skate their free dance to bad 80s pop music.  Man, if you're going to skate to something old, at least skate to something that isn't cheesy like Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart."  Even the video was cheesy when it first came out.  But apparently, the Russians aren't picking up on cheesiness.  Then again, my coach doesn't either. Sure I lived through that era and listened to that stuff, but when my coach plays "Eye of the Tiger" during our warm up now, I have a hard time not rolling my eyes and bursting into laughter.  He thinks the music is inspiring.  I think it's insipid. Though they did use it to great comedic effect in an episode of the TV show, "Everybody Hates Chris."  The young Chris Rock gets beaten up by his new schools bullies to the that tune--shot in slow mo for maximum effect. 

It also doesn't help that he picked the music, because it's more modern.  Yeah, that's because he's used to listening to ice dance music tracks that were created apparently sometime around 1920 and then updated in 1950.  Other ice dance club members have sprinkled in some more "modern" tunes as well--of course you have to keep in mind that the guys doing the updating don't have any of their original hair and they think the Statler Brothers is hip. Ugh.  Yes, ice dance music is contemporary to dead people. And then they wonder why they can't attract young people to ice dancing.  Well, for one thing, they're not dead yet. And even worse, they won't be caught dead skating to the stuff.  

Granted, some tunes are classics, like the Blue Danube, but then some of the tracks sound like they came straight out of the roller rink or circus or a maybe a rollerskating circus hockey game. The truth is there isn't much hip contemporary organ music, so they just keep playing the same circus/roller rink crap.

Hmm, I wonder if they'd have a heart attack if I slipped some of my mix CDs in ;-)  Probaby make some wigs spin ;-)

While most people I know don't consider Chicago a vacation destination starting in November, those of us living here know that the worst comes in February.  While it may get cold and a bit snowy at the end of the year, it's February where it gets bleak.  The weather seems worse than in past months and even if it isn't, it feels likely winter is never ending.

In my recent conversations with friends and colleagues, it's pretty obvious that the whole area of northern Illinois is needing a week vacation in the south--be it Florida, Arizona, or even Mexico.  It doesn't help that it hasn't snowed this much in the area for something like 30 years. I actually like the snow, though the sub-zero cold with wind chill isn't fun. 

Even so, I'm looking forward to warmer weather--if for no other reason than to see my gas mileage increase and my home gas bill go down.  However, winter has a way of dragging itself out in this area--giving you bouts of mild weather to be followed by chilling winds and snow.  I definitely won't be packing the winter clothes for another two months.

And now, back to hibernation....

I had to put my cat to sleep yesterday. It wasn't something unexpected. We knew it was coming, but it didn't make it any easier. I'd been bringing him into the vet pretty much every week since I got back from vacation, and it's just been one thing after another.  His will to live was quite strong, but his body was just failing.

He lost 14 ounces in a week. His eating was spotty and the last night, this past Friday, I basically had to shove a spoonful of turkey baby food under his chin to get him to eat.  He did eat--nearly an entire jar, but he was so weak, skinny and walking around wobbly that I knew I had to get him in.

I dropped him off yesterday morning at the vet at 8:30 am.  A half an hour later, Dr. Currigan was calling me up saying that she thinks his kidneys were getting worse, but they were going to take and run some blood tests.  I had to run downtown for an appointment. Around the time my appointment was finishing up, they had left me a message on my cell. My cell hadn't rang so I didn't check it until 12 noon after I'd been wandering around downtown for a while window shopping.

I guess I knew the jig was up, because they were calling so frequently.  Still, it was hard to hear that my choices were humane euthanasia or putting him on emergency treatment which may not do any good.  An hour and a half later I was in an exam room at the vet with my emaciated cat who was desperately trying to get off the exam table.  

Normally, he just tries to hide under the towel, but he was very active in trying to get off the table and hide somewhere.  I think he knew what was happening, and he was scared and didn't want to go.  I tried to pet and reassure him, but I don't think I was very convincing.

When the vet finally came in, Dr. Lederer, she explained that was going to give him a sedative that would knock him out and then she would give him the overdose of another sedative that would stop his heart. I think that's the same concept of lethal injection. 

It takes about 5 minutes for the first sedative to work and while it was working he was still trying to get off the table.  We had to keep holding him from trying to get off, but towards the end when it was taking in effect, he turned to me and put a paw on my chest.  I'm not sure if he wanted me to hold him or what. He finally leaned his body into me and rested his head in the crook of my arm.  And then he was out.

We laid  him out and the vet gave him the two injections to stop his heart. That didn't take that long. She let me stay with his body after she had confirmed his heart had stopped, but she warned me that he might twitch or release his bowels and it was just reflex.  And shortly after she left, he let out a sharp little gasp.  It was too much, so I left.

I will miss him.

Yes, I've started my cat on the baby food diet plan.  And he's liking it.  A few days before I returned from LA, the cat started getting quite finicky about his Fancy Feast.  Cris, who was taking care of him while I was gone, was doing her best to try different flavors and even mixing combinations and with only mixed results.  He apparently didn't even show interest in "people" tuna. I was able to get him to eat some people tuna after my return, but his eating has been inconsistent.

I guess I can't complain since I thought he might not even make it through December, because he was so anemic until we got him on the epogen.  However, to add to his indignities, I got a call while in LA from the vet informing me that he had ringworm. When I had last brought him in, he had a little bald spot on his paw and I wasn't sure what was causing it. Sure enough, it was a type of ringworm--which isn't a worm at all, but a fungus infection (the same fungus that causes athlete's foot and jock itch). Joy.  Fortunately, most healthy adults are not susceptible to ringworm.  This is a good thing, since Cris was taking care of him and so was I but neither one of us showed any symptoms or signs of getting it ourselves.

I got Cris a box of chocolates in thanks for her care of Jasper and dealing with all his ailments, but that would hardly be enough if he gave her ringworm. Ugh.

In any case, my attempts to try different flavors wasn't working consistently, so the vet suggested baby food. Yesterday afternoon, I picked up a selection of Beechnut and Gerber meat baby foods.  So far, I've fed him the beef and turkey flavors from Beechnut and he seems taken by both.

So here's the question: why does baby food work?  After all, wet cat food has meat in it too and there are greater varieties with cat food. Is it because it's got less fillers and is a higher (for people consumption) quality? This is not the first time I've heard of feeding sick cats baby food (no onions or garlic in the meat purees, because they're toxic to cats), but what's the allure for the cat? Is it because the baby food is pureed and has more liquid, so it's easy to lap up?  Or is it a combination?  My inquiring mind wants to know, so if you know the answer, please share!

Interestingly enough, the Beechnut is just meat and broth while the Gerber has cornstarch in it as well. You'd think Gerber would have less fillers.  I'll see if he has a different reaction to the two.  I also wonder if the baby food companies acknowledge that a small part of their consumer segment are cat owners?  Obviously not enough to market to us and word of mouth works well enough for that group.

Another random cat food thought. My boss sent out a photo of his young toddler son with the waffle iron my boss had received in a white elephant gift exchange at work. It was to demonstrate the joy that it brought to a young Deerfield boy. What really added interest to the photo was the orange and white tabby cat sitting in the stool next to my boss' son looking like he was properly waiting for his waffle as well.  It was quite a photo. My boss mentioned, however, that the cat has never had people food, because cats are not made to consume people food--even if it's meat, because cats are used to eating the whole animal--brains, eye balls, skin, and even bones at times--so the meat is like junk food to them.  They don't live as long if you feed them people food, he said.

That of course sparked a discussion of how humans can survive in the wilds and apparently one of the tips is to eat the brains of whatever you catch.  Hmmm. I've watched documentaries on grizzly bears where they only eat the brains of salmons during the high salmon run season, because it's the "good" stuff.  Getting stranded in the wilds just moved even further down my list of things to do (both for my not wanting to have my brains eaten by a bear or having to eat something else's brain)...not that it was ever something I considered--after all I think staying at a Motel 6 as pretty rough.

So in any case, the cat is still alive--he's lost some weight, but he's eating. We had a scare last week where I found dried blood here and there in the room, but the vet wasn't able to figure out where it was coming from or what was causing it--and the tests showed nothing. Fortunately, I haven't seen any blood the past few days, so hopefully it was isolated.

Right now, he's sleeping in his heated cat bed. I've started giving him a higher dose of his narcotic painkiller since he was missing his litterbox the last couple of days and that's usually related to his back pain. So he's probably a little looped. Later on, I'll have to put lotrimin on his ringworm spots.  I have to admit, saying "my cat has ringworm" has a better spin to it than saying "my cat has jock itch."

And since I got up early so I could skate with Vladimir before work, I think I'll be curling up in my bed shortly myself.

One last random weird thought. My condo association president sent an e-mail asking that who ever is home tomorrow in the afternoon to let in the city contractor who is going to install an automatic water meter in our building.  I half wanted to send out an e-mail saying that unfortunately, Jasper won't be able to hit the buzzer since he's getting up in years and can't easily jump that high. Plus, I prefer to screen anyone who buzzes, and it'd take a lot of training for my cat to understand enough English to figure out who he could buzz in.  Can you imagine, though, if the UPS guy buzzes and the voice that answers on the other end goes, "Meow?" I actually wonder if they would notice. Now that would be a funny YouTube video.