Summer Plans

Finally a relaxing week! My boss left for Chicago for the week and then goes on vacation for a week. I am also going on vacation next week. So I am in charge of the office this week and I have cut our staff meeting from 4 hours to 30 minutes, and we are having happy hour Thursday and we are all working from home on Friday. Oh I forgot we are having our Wednesday technical review at Starbucks!

Summer is my favorite season and I plan on enjoying every minute of this summer, Next week I will be in Newport sailing and relaxing. I also plan on spending a few days down in Mexico. Then at the end of July I am going to Canada for a week , and in August I am going to Alaska for a week. So my summer plans are made. All of this would change if I decide to go to Germany, but I am inclined to wait a few years before I go International again. I still haven’t seen the final offer.

Looooong Week

What a long week this been………The weather was perfect and work was hell. On Monday I spent my entire day in a meeting with 5 counterparts and a VP to discuss the details around an upcoming workshop with our business partners (again). Then Tuesday and Wednesday we held the workshop, it was too long and on the first day our business partners slipped out by 2 PM. We spent the next three hours talking about how to improve the next day. There is only one person talking and it is my boss, so no matter what advice we give, my boss continues on. Wednesday was even worse.

Thursday I had a 5 hour meeting to talk about the new building we were going to move to. We agreed on the details and by the end of the meeting the president of our division sent an email to us that said “you are staying where you are, make it work”. The problem with that is that we have doubled in size and hired 6 new people on top of that…..There is not enough space and we can’t fit in any conference room. That meeting was followed by a meeting to look at the data points related to a bad contract we have with a consulting firm. An Ethics adviser had investigated (because Napoleon reported my boss to ethics for the contract because he dislikes the lead consultant) and we were told to change it. This woman in my org who talks about everything being “elegant” and is soft spoken (but very opinionated) asked if we could get together all day Friday to put together a decision support package to help us decide if we should renegotiate the contract! I found myself using my “inside voice” out loud, I told her I couldn’t bare to spend the day with her and that I am tired of screwing around working something all day that is obvious. She told me she needed some reflection time…..So that was my week.

A couple good things happened this week; I went sailing twice after work because it was so nice! I also chose the PhD program I wanted to start and completed enrollment, I start on the 9^th of July. I decided not to let my new found spare time gained from completing my Masters become filled with television or beer drinking. So I am pretty excited about that. Rugby has also finished for a couple months. We don’t start practicing again until September. Bryan wants me to get out on the road for Rudy 2008......Not sure I have the political motivation this time around.

Weekend and Napoleon

What a great weekend I had. We went sailing all day Saturday and had a few friends over for drinks on Saturday. My neighborhood is a gated type of community and as it is new there are about 80 single family homes and the streets are a bit narrow making them “Fire Lanes”. Parking in not allowed on the street, and it is a pain when trying to have people over. Two cars can park in the driveway and one in front of the driveway. The home owner’s association is very strict….Oh well it was great.

Thanks to Michael in Stuttgart and Nik in Paris, I have all kinds of great info on Germany and Berlin. Including sailing clubs! So I feel a bit better about the offer. I will continue to think about it.

Tomorrow is day one of a two day workshop with my coworkers and business partners and I am dreading it because our office drama queen (straight) “Napoleon” is giving a brief and needed to take today off to rest his voice. He also can’t start work before 9 AM and the workshop starts at 7:00 AM. So we are not sure if he will be there on time. He just bought a 5000 square foot home and has been complaining he will need to spend 800K to 1 M on new furniture……”Napoleon” has some complexes as I have mentioned before, but on Friday he told me he could never cram into a 3000 sq. ft home (mine) when I invited him over for drinks on Saturday (to be nice). We have been interviewing for new positions and he told me he didn’t like “Asians” so he rated our only Asian candidate who was excellent, a 1/5. We are having the candidate back next week and didn’t invite Napoleon…….He is a piece of work. I’m not going to his house warming party in July at his new home. Germany looks good at least 3 days a week……

Germany

My boss asked me about taking a position in Berlin again today! I told them I would need to know a lot more before I could consider it. They asked me what my concerns were and I told them money, housing, dog, and car for a start. I also mentioned that I can’t live without my cable TV…..They told me the dog would be relocated at the same time and there would be no quarantine and paperwork would be handled, they would provide me with a home and my choice of company car at no cost to me. All food and other costs would be covered too. They also said they would provide satellite TV….Now it is sounding a bit better. But- I don’t speak German! No problem they tell me, everyone I deal with will speak English. I have a few weeks to decide and they are willing to offer a 65K premium to live in Germany but want me to commit to three years….Not sure…. have to look into Germany a bit more.

Random Update/Company Picnic

With my Masters complete I am finding that I have a lot more spare time! So I am looking into other programs at Seattle University. On another note I was asked to consider taking a position with my company in Berlin! Not sure if I would do it or not. Sounds great but I’ll have to see what they offer me. Plus I have to be able to take my dog and would need to look into that. I was thinking more along the lines of Brazil or Argentina, as I think I would love it there (have to take the dog though). Oh and Bryan could go tooJ

Things at work are still the same, avoiding my stalker, dealing with Napoleon and my nosy OA is just getting nosier. One of the women on my team tried to set up a team picnic for next Saturday. She sent out an anonymous survey asking everyone what they thought. Well we must not like each other much because no one wanted to attend. Personally I hate company picnics and the salmonella potato salad and all the other “pot luck” shit people bring. Oh and that three bean salad someone always brings. They just don’t do it for me. Today she asked me if I would support a Happy Hour. I reluctantly said yes…….I just can’t take the company outings HELP…….

I enjoyed the Sopranos Series Finale, even though most didn't, I'm glad I didn't have to see Tony get whacked. Big Love is back and I watched that last night. That new Pirates Reality show starts soon too......

Private Beaches

We have had awesome weather in Seattle for weeks now. It has been between 75 and 80 degrees and sunny. Today my brother and I took my dog to Salt River National Park as it was 84 degrees and hot. We walked well down the beach and the dog played in Puget Sound. As we were walking back up the beach some asshole walks out on his deck with a bull horn and yells “Attention on the beach, you have left the State Park and are trespassing on my private beach. Immediately leave my private beach or face further consequences. I have an issue with private beaches and I have lived on a private beach while growing up. We never enforced it as we felt it was a resource for everyone to enjoy. No one should be allowed to own the beach. My brother flipped the guy the bird and we walked back towards the State Park. What an ass…..