November Update

A few things to catch up on! I haven’t written anything for quite a while….I have really been enjoying the last of the nice weather and have been training for Rugby again, even though I decided to quitJ I had an awesome Thanksgiving Holiday and my brother and his wife and son joined my sister and my mom at my place for this year. We had a great time and did some drinking, sailing, and golfing and more drinking….

My jeep took four weeks to repair in the auto body shop! That really annoyed me and I will be more careful in future…..I am looking around for a 2008 model but haven’t decided what I want yet. My current Jeep is an 06 Grand Cherokee.

Work has been crazy! Napoleon was interrogated for 7 hours straight by our security operations team. He was on camera the entire time. So we were all hoping he would be fired for violating the code of conduct for accessing information he was not supposed to have and for disclosing it to other employees 9me included). He also threatened, verbally abused his employees etc. However it seems that he is such a psycho he has talked his way through almost everything and set the investigation on my boss, our other colleague and me! Apparently he told the investigators that I have a sexually explicit conversation with an employee…..My employee was telling me some old stories about my boss and her love of bondage and S&M……I think it will be tough to prove. We still think he may be fired, but now we are not as sure. We should know in the next two weeks.

So as a result I have decided to work overseas as an American expatriate earning US dollars. My top choice is South Africa (I miss South Africa) where I can earn a great deal of money, get a company home and car and live tax free. My next choice is South America – so I am targeting June for this move. I am interviewing now for some positions in South Africa. I think I will do this for the next 5-10 years and then maybe consult, buy a business or work part time in paradise!

School – well I am falling behind and will take next semester off. I am half way through my course work on my PhD. However I am not sure I really want a PhD……So I will decide during next term what I want to do. My employer pays for it and as long as I am there I will continue.

Politics – I have not been very engaged as I am waiting to see who the Republican nominee will be. This year Iowa seems unimportant due to the Super Tuesday where everything will be decided early this election cycle. Of course I am behind Rudy Guiliani and think he will be a good president and will bridge the gap in America. If Hilary is elected I will tell everyone I am working overseas because of herJ

Car Accident in Canada

Lots going on at work right now! Napoleon has had an investigation launched against our boss for “retaliation” and she has called ethics because of the inappropriate names he has called people on the project. Needless to say something is going to happen shortly. Last week I actually stayed home for two days and watched all the shows on my DVR! It was relaxing.

I spent last Thursday and Friday in California with my son and it was great. Then we flew to Seattle and drove to Calgary (my mom has a condo up there) because someone broke into my mom’s condo and she wasn’t there. So after a 600 mile drive, I pulled into a gas station and hit a concrete pole just at the right angle. Big Foot’s wife came out and told me not to go anywhere as she called the cops. They gave me a sticker “allowing” me to drive the Jeep back home. While in Calgary I went to a Flames game and had a great time.

On Monday I got the vehicle into a body shop and on Friday the claims adjuster still hadn’t been there. My agent gave me his number and I called him 20 times. Once they order the parts it will take two weeks and they still don’t have approval to start work……

I am being considered for two new positions at work, both with a lot more responsibility but I am desperate to get out of my current org. I should hear soon. I think I am going to start planning my next career, a much more relaxing one!

Napoleon

What an interesting week at work! My colleague (Napoleon who is bipolar and crazy as hell) told me a few months a go that he “always gets even”. As senior executives in a large corporation you would think we would all be working all day. No, we are fighting and getting even. Anyway I did not believe he would be able to do it and disregarded his rants. Well three months later the consultant has been fired, the Project lead has been fired (both fought against Napoleon) and my boss came into my office in tears on Friday. She told me Napoleon went to her boss and reported her for lying, falsifying contracts and impeding the Program. Now there is an investigation. Napoleon told me that he would ruin her for taking him to HR 6 months ago. She took him to HR for the way he treated employees and for threatening them (he is very short with all kinds of issues including depression, colon problems, heart problems and he is CRAZY). There were 7-10 signed statements against him. He now seems to have gotten to my boss. She doesn’t always treat people well and she is rude, but does not deserve to loose her job. So even though I interviewed for a promotion in Commercial Aviation Services, I will help her behind the scenes. I told her to immediately rally her support network in the company, and I would do the same. When the investigation kicks off everyone in the organization plans to target Napoleon and my boss should be ok but reputation may be damaged. I am good at the politics but I would rather not spend all day working political issues. One of my friends told me he can’t believe this is one of America’s premiere corporations!

Right now I am on break for school, the next semester starts Oct. 8. I am enjoying the time off. My grades came in and I received A’s in my courses, which was a nice surprise! Makes me feel smarter than I really amJ

The weather has been great and I am now looking for a new home. I think I have found one I like, it is a brand new 4 bedroom 2.5 ba 2 car garage home in a planned and gated community. I hope the HOA is easier to work with….I will decide by Monday or Tuesday. There are five houses for sale on every street.

3 Courses Done, I am Moving! Paypal and Facebook Problems

On Friday night I finished three courses in my PhD program! I did some sloppy work this last term but for the fall term I will put in more effort. I had planned to leave my company this year but now I would like to finish as much of my doctoral degree as possible as the company pays for it.

The couple I bought my house from are splitting up and the husband asked me to buy the house back! This was on Saturday and I said yes. I was worried that I bought a high end home at the peak of the market….So I will have to move out by November. I think I will lease something until I decide if I am moving back to CA. My company has a house avail for lease and I may take that one – although it is 4000Sq ft – which is 700 more sq ft than my house and it is a hassle to care for. Won’t hurt for a short time. I won’t miss my neighbors and my HOA. The neighbors are all fighting about small issues related to the community (it is a gated community) and they are nosy, and even though I have a gardener, I still get notes complaining that my bushes are not square or round per the by laws! Fuck them.

My meeting with HR went well, I am interviewing for a position within Seattle in another division on Thursday and for a position in CA next week as well. My boss is angry and I expect snatch face to retaliate in some way. Hopefully documenting everything with HR will help. She has a poor track record……..

Something went on with my PayPal account and now it is suspended. There has been fraudulent use of my account and in order to get it unsuspended I need to fax my DL and utility bill to PayPal. There is no way I am going to do that, so I will have to live without PayPal. I have used it for 5 years……Then I got an email from Facebook telling me I had some inappropriate content on my page! I didn’t get a chance to check my page as I was finishing my courses for school and now that is suspended too! Plus one guy who send a friend request then used mi pics on his page! i asked him to take them down, but now I don't have a page....I guess someone must have posted something on my funwall. So I have a few Internet problems this week.

40 Bulbs! Meeting with HR

I have changed 40 bulbs and spent way way more than I would have in electricity but I am still hopeful it helps the environment. One of my coworkers said it only helped if our electricity is powered by coal. Well in Seattle our electricity comes from hydro power.......I will have to look into this more. if anyone is smarter on the subject let me know.

Today cun* bag called from Montana and complained no one was doing any work. That is my boss in case you are not familiar. She is on vacation. After 10 years with the company I set a meeting with HR and told them to please get me the fuck out of her department. Then Napoleon decides to do the same.....He could have given me a few weeks to get into another area. I actually applied for an Engineering Director position which will suck but be an improvement of skunt on husband number 4.

Perfect dy 80 degrees and sunny so we wnet to happy hour at 3 PM! Awesome.....

Back at Work and I changed out 24 light bulbs!

Well being back at work today was torture even though my boss is on vacation in Montana. She must be really bored because she spent the day issuing “orders” ……I am secretly hoping she gets kicked by a horse or run over by a cow.

I started working out again after a month off! I’m relieved because I was worried it would take a while to get back into a decent routine. My first term ends on Friday (my PhD in Public Safety Leadership) and I enrolled in three courses for next term (Oct. 1). The courses look pretty interesting.

This weekend I replaced 24 bulbs in my house with incandescent bulbs (Omar on The Other O podcast was my inspiration). I spent far more on the bulbs then the annual savings but hopefully it will really help the environment. I have over 80 different bulbs left but they are hardly on. Next weekend I will change out another 8-12. I have also been recycling and conserving energy. I don’t buy many goods locally because I do most of my shopping on the Internet and I have my favorite products from all over the country. I may have to work on that. Plus I’m not willing to give up my SUV but I am looking around at the 2008 models and may purchase a flexi-fuel or diesel SUV. I bought my SUV in 2006 and love it. However I have cut back on my driving and walk to the local stores (sometimes) and don’t take long drives on the weekend. So I am slowly getting into the environmentally friendly behaviors.

This fall I won’t be playing rugby (we play spring and fall) and hopefully Bryan will give up basketball and hockey! We are so engaged in different activities that we hardly see each other. So we will try cutting back on some activities and see how that goes.

Most Unproductive Month Ever…

Most Unproductive Month Ever…

August was my most unproductive month ever……during the month of August I had almost three weeks of vacation and did nothing but eat, drink ( lots of booze), watch TV and lay around pools. Actually I have only been to the gym twice this month and after too much vacation I really don’t feel like going. Somehow I fell out of a routine that took me years to develop and I have been really disciplined. Tomorrow I have to go back to work and I am really dreading it. School has also suffered this month as I have put in the bare minimum and I’m one day late in one of my courses on a major assignment I haven’t started. So I’ll slap something together today. The summer semester ends September 14^th. Next semester I may only take one class.

While I was on vacation my boss called me multiple times and sent me countless emails. Have I mentioned she is a c*#t? She doesn’t want to talk to anyone who works for me because they are not senior enough (even though they are senior managers). So when she has something urgent she phones or emails and then I have to call them. This is her norm. I left a guy in charge who has 26 years with the company and who is a senior manager and she didn’t talk to him once…..Last week she sent me an email telling me to put a new contract in place with a supplier she wanted to hire ‘by cob” What part of vacation doesn’t the snatch get. When she goes on vacation she doesn’t tell us where she is and leaves me in charge. She is on her 4^th marriage, no wonder. I spend at least an hour a day on our intranet looking for a new position. Napoleon also called me during my vacation to complain about what a c**t she is. He takes her head on and tells her the world is about to end twice a day and then she panics. Sometimes I enjoy watching it but between her, napoleon, and the dumb bitch who “has a thought” I have had my fill. My boss set up a meeting with me from 12-4 tomorrow to “catch up”

During my vacation I went to Newport Beach, Vancouver, Houston and Alaska. Bryan joined me in Houston and Alaska. That is about the only time we spent together this month because he has been volunteering on a political campaign. My parents had a home outside Houston that they bought in the late 70’s (they lived in CA though) and my mom has just put on the market, so I went to take care of some of the paperwork. She will make a killing on the house which is on a golf course and 5000 square feet, I think they bought it for 175K in 1977 and are selling for almost 2 mill! We had a pretty good time and there is a nice indoor pool and hot tub. Bryan and I were kicked off the golf course because Bryan drove the golf cart over the green and was going way too fast. We were golfing with my cousin and his wife and Bryan and my cousin were trashed…..So that was our one and only golf outing. I will point out that golf isn’t my favorite activities. Then in Alaska, we were sitting in out hotel bar in Anchorage and a toothless Indian or maybe an Eskimo squaw (Native American not 7-Eleven – hehehe) came in and sat on my lap and offered to blow me for a beer. What a deal! We considered a threesome but there wasn’t enough alcohol in the bar. Alaska was beautiful but some of the people…lets just say the beautiful people have bypassed Alaska.

The Larry Craig situation is really sad. There was no crime committed and the last time I checked giving signals to indicate you want to engage in lewd activities is not illegal. Just the lewd activities.. Obviously the bathroom is not that much of a hot spot if it is where 62 year old men go to suck dick. First of all a public bathroom is nasty - want a little hepatitis C with that blow job? Secondly it seems like a hang out for senior citizen sex – no thanks. It is sad to see an entire career destroyed in a couple days. Craig could have had the case thrown out if he had an attorney and the discussion with the prosecutor would have been a short 5 minute deal to dismiss. Cops must have something better to do than picking on closeted old men!