The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup! The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup! Ok, maybe not the Stanley Cup, maybe not even a spot in the playoffs, but they won a game. After going 0-17-0-1 it was a long time coming. It was kind of nice that we got to stick it to Wayne Gretzky's club, which is always nice.
Topics around the office today include the suspension of, what I consider to be, a morning annoyance on the Pittsburgh airwaves. I look for music in the morning and this guy didn't have it, therefore, I don't listen to him. And now thanks to Clear Channel communication, I don't even have to worry about accidentally listening to him. And, while this borders on censorship (a nice hot topic for me) I'm still willing to let it slide since it indirectly benefits me.
I also saw this article about another celebrity that I don't personally care for. And, it has nothing to do with her impending marriage. She lost me completely when she blindsided Tom Selleck on her show. Tom is one of the nice guys of Hollywood (at least in my opinion--he traveled over 3,000 miles to a funeral) and didn't deserve what he got. Now, I could go on and on with the list of celebrities that piss me off, but why bother. They aren't worth the time or the effort. Although, if there is any justice, every copy of the newly ruined version of this old favorite will spontaneously combust and then sweep up it's own ashes, and combust again.
Not much else is going on. I started checking out some job sites today and there are a couple that might actually hold my interest. I'll have to keep you posted. For now, that's about all. This is me, having never worn a skirt, signing off.

Yesterday was pretty good. We got to the ultrasound and they prepped Terri and started showing images. The technician took a bunch of measurements and then started on the pictures that they wanted to capture. They wanted a nice 3D picture of his face, but he was sleeping with his chin tucked down and to the side. So the technician decided she was going to jiggle him awake. She started bouncing the wand up and down on Terri's stomach. Watching the television monitor I could see him being jostled around. Finally, he decided that was enough. He shook his head, pulled back his leg and kicked Terri right in the ribs. It was so funny watching him. He's going to be just like his dad. Grouchy in the mornings and God help the person that has to wake him up. We got a cool 3D picture of part of his face.
The woman here at work became a grandmother for the first time yesterday when her son and his girlfriend had a little boy and her daughter is due the week before Terri. So, in the matter of 3 months she'll be a grandmother twice over. She's very happy. I hope our parents are that excited when the little one shows up.
I have finished 4 versions of my resume so if anyone hears of a good position, let me know so I can zip off the appropriate version.
The stupidity of some people just baffles me and let's leave it at that.

Ever notice the fact that when you actually have the will power to get something done, there's always that one little piece that someone else holds that prevents you from finishing what you started. Case in point, my resume. I'm almost completely done, but I'm waiting on someone in the tech department to give me the actual name of the financial accounting software we use in-house. It's all just sitting there waiting on that last bit of information before I can start zinging it out to other people.
Friday night on the drive down to Maryland, the Pens dropped another one to Florida and then Sunday they lost yet again to Ottawa. On the plus side, everything went well to Maryland, in Maryland, and from Maryland. The U-haul that we had apparently snapped what little shocks it had left somewhere around the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. So, everytime we had a slight wind, a car passing, or a curve to go through the truck rocked like a boat. Ray and I thought we were going to get seasick at one point. It reminded me of my old Cavalier that I had in high school. It had no shocks and would continue to bounce a mile or so after a big pothole.
Robin is mostly moved in. We had so much help in Pa. that it took less than an hour to unload the entire truck. After that we started assembling things like we were a squad of professional movers. So, by the time we left her apartment, she had the big stuff pretty much situated and in place. Now she has a week or so to get settled before she starts her new job over with Mark, Ray, and Diane.
Management class this evening. Hopefully he'll be in a good mood and let us go early tonight. I could use some time at home to get stuff straightened out after spending most of the weekend in Maryland and the rest hanging out with Mitch and Tom. We played Texas Hold 'Em and I cleaned house. When you're playing poker with Tom, make sure to look at your cards everytime you bet or think about betting. He'll take it as a sign you're holding nothing and bet big. Twice during the game yesterday I came up with straights. It felt kind of nice considering my usual luck with Poker. Then Tom and I got stomped at Euchre by Terri and Mitch. Oh well, time to go. Tomorrow is an off-day because of the doctor so you may see an update you may not.

I came to the realization today that if I don't blog about the abusive atmosphere at work, I have very little to talk about these days. Terri has another ultrasound next week, but other than that, there's no new news on the baby front (we do still have the name thing, but Matt is very stubborn)
I'm just pushing time once again til the end of the day. This is a bad habit and one that I don't want to keep up. Once I get the resume polished, I can at least slack by job searching, but I don't want to find a good job and have no resume to send, although if I find a good job, I'll be pressured into finishing the resume, which means that I can slack by job searching, but I don't want to find a good job...well you see where it's going.
I'll miss actually watching the Pens game tonight unless we can find some sort of sports bar or something mid-way through the trip. I'll get the scores on my phone, but tonight is the critical game 17. They've lost 16 in a row and 17 will tie them for the all-time NHL losses in a row record or however you want to state that. Maybe they'll win because I'm not watching. Who knows? Chiodo played fairly well against the Islanders, but with no defense in front of him, he was left hanging a couple of times. Although with the way things are going no one deserves any excuses. Maybe Edzo should run the Brooks drill until a few of these guys starting puking. I'd be willing to see anything tried at this point.

Alright, made actual progress on my resume today. I'll have to finish it up tonight when I get back from my parent's house. That way I'll be able to head to Maryland with a semi-clean slate. Which means that in addition to finishing my resume tonight I'll have to pack for Maryland. I'll only be there overnight. We (Tom, Ray, and I) are helping Robin move back to Pittsburgh. She worked with us at Lycos and now she's going to work with Diane, Mark, and Ray over at the company they work for.
Other than that, not much is going on today. Since Matt won't release his information, I'm still not releasing mine. Although I will say that I felt him kick the other day. That was a weird experience. He's been kicking Terri for quite a while now, but this was the first time that I could feel him from the outside. Kind of made the whole thing just a little more real.

There were a bunch of articles that I was going to link up today, but I'm too lazy and it's getting too late in the day. It was another typical day at work. I need to clear time in my schedule to finish up my resume. I need to get the hell out of here long before the baby comes and the "long" part of that sentence grows shorter every day. I don't exactly want to leave orientation to drive to the hospital for labor pains. This week it's kind of desolate around here after 4:00. The supervisor's been leaving early and the older workers who get here at ungodly hours are gone by 4:00. And two of the other regulars aren't here today which means that once again, I'm just pushing time til 5:00 and getting myself out of here.
I wish there was some sort of reset button for parts of my life. If I'm playing a video game, there's usually an option to restart the board or level or whole game. What if life had that? I could restart my college career and give a damn this time. I could restart my actual career and find a stable industry with a good paying job and coworkers. Perhaps I could even go as far as to restart my bicycle riding career and opt not to fly down the big red-dog road and lose part of two of my teeth. But then if I did that there might be a ripple effect and who knows where I'd end up. With the exception of the fact that my job neither appreciates me nor pays me enough to exist, my life is fairly good. I've got a pretty wife who loves me, a family who teases me incessantly, (wait, how is that good?), wonderful friends who incessantly tease me (are you starting to see a pattern?), and I've had some kick-ass co-workers over my much whined about career path. And let's not forget my son who is set to make his appearance in exactly 3 months from today. Ok, nothing is exact and he'll show up when he damn well wants to, but you get the picture. Oh well, time to shut down the computer and get the hell out of dodge or chevy.

Well, yesterday's test went well. I didn't get a hundred, but 97.5 is pretty close. I was disappointed. I wanted excellence. It's hard to be as arrogant as I am without excellence. And, if the rest of the tests in this class go like this one did, my old trick of skimming the material and half-listening in class will do just fine. And, I'll share it with you here because no one else will believe me, but this is an actual question from my test yesterday.
Management By Objectives (MBO)
a.) was popularized by the writings of England
b.) is an operational objective for ROI
c.) requires mutual goal setting by employees and their supervisor
d.) is Phase 3 of the gnomes' plan for success
e.) is a premium channel offered by TCI
I told the professor that if he had used Phase 2 instead of Phase 3 that's the answer I would have chosen. Everyone knows Phase 3 is Profit. Now, not all the questions were that easy, but that one just threw me. I've never had a professor use South Park in class before. He claims that it's the best show on television, but has yet to share his reason.
Anyway, enough about the test. I was just surprised about the ease of it all.
Not much else is going on around here. I need to take my tax forms down to my parents so they can drop them off at the accountants and he can tell me what mistake we made in favor of the government this year. And, I guess it might be nice if we actually tell our parents what name we chose for the little one. Though I could just tell them that Matt ruined it for everyone. I need to know if I have my goalie, dammit!

This weekend turned out ok, I guess. Friday night we headed out to play pool with Mitch and Tom. Tom and I beat Mitch and Terri just about every game.
Saturday was the sacchrine sweet holiday of Valentine's Day. I think Terri and I said Happy Valentine's Day in the morning and that was the extent of it for the rest of the day. We didn't even exchange cards. My Uncle Donny and Aunt Lu came down to visit their son (my cousin) who lives near Oakland. They had been reading through some old stuff on the city and decided that they wanted to eat at Primanti Brothers in the Strip District. I had forgotten how crowded the Strip District was on a Saturday afternoon. The sandwiches were good though. Sunday started the "Nextel" Cup Season. That will take some getting used to. The big one this year involved last year's winner Michael Waltrip. And, since DEI dominates the restrictor plate races that left Junior to step up and claim his first Daytona 500 win. It took his dad 20 years to win the Daytona 500. Junior did it in 5. He also made a really nice move around Tony Stewart to take the lead with about 30 laps or so to go.
Now, to clarify Friday's statements...I don't immediately assume that the kid with the 3 feet of boxers is an idiot (well, ok, in my head I do). The person that set this whole rant into motion was actually in the outer office. I never saw him. I only heard him. He might have had on a 3 piece suit complete with gold cufflinks and a leather briefcase. Or, he might have been the guy with the red mohawk. However, instead of stating his problem calmly and quietly, his voice kept escalating. Then he started tossing around the phrase, "You are disrespecting me. I have never been so disrespected in my life." He came here with some sort of a problem and when the solution presented to him was not satisfactory, he resorted to screaming and yelling about his lack of respect. My point was that I could never see someone like King or even Ford screaming that phrase. If boxer boy walked into the office with the same problem, calmly explained what he needed the solution to be and then not finding the solution to his liking simply said, "I'll be taking this up with your superiors." He would have earned a lot more of my respect. The guy that was actually in the office headed for the elevators saying that the supervisor here was, "a fuckin' shriveled old hag." Now, that's a lack of respect.
So, that counters what I actually meant. Although I do make snap judgements based on clothing, etc. I don't let that interfere with the interaction between our office and the customer. And Buntz, I feel your pain. When I did the tour of duty through fast-food, etc. I was treated like crap. I was actually taunted because I wouldn't work during the week because of college. However, I look at this office to be a little more grown up. Just slightly.
And, to jump on Matt's comment, I think the parents that felt they had it rough need to explain to their children why they felt that way. Terri's little cousins each have their own TV's and Playstation 2's and VCR's, etc. in their bedroom. They are just slightly this side of spoiled, but most of the time you wouldn't know it because her Aunt does a decent job of parenting. I would like my children to have a better (no that's not the right word) easier time than I did, but I don't want to hand them everything and a platinum credit card. Just my two dollars I guess.
Tonight's my first test in several years. I actually cracked the books for this one, albeit just slightly. I didn't think my old trick of skimming the material and half-listening in class would cut it this time. Though, it used to work pretty damn well. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Today has been the longest day on record in a while. I can't even do constructive slacking. I'm clock watching which is something that I usually don't do. I'm so damn bored, I don't even have anything substantial to blog about. The Valentine's day party in the office went well, I guess. There was a ton of food and people ate from 8:30 in the morning til, well, they're still eating now. I watched them demolish almost an entire sheet cake. There isn't even enough left to cover a plate to take home.
There was also a nice argument out at the front desk area. There was a younger kid screaming about how he was disrespected. I'm trying to figure out where I missed the boat on this one. The generation below me (God, that makes me feel old) seems to feel this sense of entitlement. And, I can't for the life of me, figure out where they got that idea. I was taught that respect was something you earned through your words and actions. Martin Luther King, Jr. commanded respect because of his principles and ideals. The young kid on the street with his jeans down somewhere around his knees and boxers up to his nipples (which are pierced of course) just doesn't hold the same standard to me. And yet, King never demanded respect the way that kids do. He had earned his respect and was very humble about it.
And, even those that aren't as humble about their station in life still have a backing for their arrogance. Harrison Ford could probably walk in somewhere and pull the "Do you know who I am?" ploy that would generate his respect and get away with it. Again, same kid on the street corner, probably doesn't even know his own full name can't get away with it, but he thinks he can. Ford is probably a bad example, because once again, he's pretty unassuming about the whole fame thing. If anyone else out there has any clue about where I went wrong on this one, feel free to let me know.

Since Terri and I had decided on a name yesterday, I was going to announce it here today, but Matt ruined that for everyone.

Today is more of the same. The office is having a Valentine's Day party tomorrow. Everyone is supposed to bring in some sort of Valentine's colored food. Being the office cake maker, I'm supposed to come up with a red-velvet cake with red, white, and pink icing. Sounds like a fun Thursday night. I'd prefer to just sit and watch the Pens game with a woodchuck in one hand and my management textbook in the other. Why the textbook, you ask? I have a test on Monday evening. I haven't had a test in a long time. Makes me wonder if I remember how to take them. I still have about 2 1/2 chapters to cover for the test. I guess reading the material beforehand is probably a good idea.
The job is still the job. They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I wish I could find the fence to discover this for myself.
Oh well, I'm not going to get bogged (or blogged...hehehe) down in that discussion again. I've decided I'm going to be more positive about my life. Ok, not really, but I can try. I don't remember which comedian said it, but hopefully this is true. "If all the good and bad times in my life balance, I'm gonna have one hell of an adult life."
Not to say that my childhood was bad, on the contrary it was rather good. It's been my professional life that has wreaked havoc over everything else. I always seem to work at a mediocre job with really nice people. Mabye I need mediocre people to go with a really nice job.
Looking back over the past few weeks, I've noticed that I tend to stick to the same three topics...baby, hockey, and work and not necessarily in that order. I think that means I need to get out and do a little more with my life. Except that that requires money and money requires a better job (see the sinkhole forming?). Today is finally almost over. You know it's been a long week when you're having difficulty slacking off. I did watch the leaderboards for the 125's at Daytona today. Junior won the first one and Eliott Sadler won the second one. The rest of the people stacked up pretty much where you'd imagine. Although newcomer Brian Vickers (who did fairly well at the end of last year) finished very poorly in the second 125. Hopefully his owner will have some provisional points to get him into the race. I guess that means since Nascar is starting back up I'll have a new topic. Whoopee! My life is a thrill-a-minute. Ok, enough bitterness for today.

At least the ads at the top of the page are getting better. Today anyway.

It's almost painful how much the day drags on when you not only dislike your job, but have reason to leave it. It's also a little difficult to job hunt while in your current position. Makes me wish I was still in my old office, but then again if I was still in my old office, I might not have reason to job hunt. What a nice vicious cycle. I guess that means I'll have to find some more non-existent time at home. I wonder if I could go insane by reason of insanity? The Pens dropped another one to the Bruins last night. I don't understand it. They stayed with them almost the entire game. Ryan Malone had 2 goals and probably could have gotten a hat-trick if they would have pushed a little more.
I don't know. It seems as though I rarely have any good news to post here. In about three months my son will make a grand entrance into the world. Seems like good news on the surface, but we have no furniture, no name, no daycare (or money to pay for daycare), and a very non-child conducive house. Everyone keeps saying it will all work out. Maybe if I lay odds and take action on that statement I will have enough money to make it all work.
Oh well, enough with the negativity. Tomorrow is a better day, right? It would have to be otherwise that's going to make today look awful tempting to return to.
I'm midway through the second of 5 parenting books that I've acquired through various means during the course of this pregnancy. One has been very good, this one is so-so. I hope the others pick up or I'll be really bummed by the time the kid makes his way into the world. Oh well, there I go being negative again. I guess it's time to sign off.

Well, I am officially on the hunt for a new location now. And, by location, I mean job. I took this University gig with the understanding that it was going somewhere, hopefully profitable. Two years later (and about three months from baby) I have yet to see any promise. They've been dangling a promotion in front of me for about 8 months now and I can't see them closing the deal anytime soon. And, even if they did I'm not sure the trust is still there for me to work in this environment. I like to be comfortable where I work. I like knowing that I can count on the people around me and I'm sure they like knowing that they can count on me. I don't really have that here anymore. I used to think the internet world was a little backstabbing. They have nothing on University life. The politics games around here fly thicker, faster, and heavier than a WMD discussion at the Iowa caucus. So, if you know of anything in the Pittsburgh area let me know. About the only thing I can't do is write code. And, I'm going by the Jerry Maguire philosophy..."Show me the money." It's kind of like a family motto at this point. I'm reworking my resume as we speak (or as you read) and I'll be sending them out til I find something better or at the very least more profitable. So, if you know of anything please drop me a line.

Miracle was one of the few movies for me recently that lived up to the hype for me. I'll admit that knowing so much about the team, Herb Brooks, and the games took a little of the suspense out of it, but that's about all that disappointed. I could have done with more "Brookisms" The only one that they used in the movie was "The legs feed the wolf, boys." There's not a whole lot of plot to give away. I think most everyone knows how it turns out. It was kind of hard to see the dedication to Herb at the end of the movie. He was one of those celebrity deaths that hit me very hard, almost like Herb was a distant member of my own family. Granted, I'm not from Minnesota and never met Herb personally. I think the closest I came to Herb was sitting several levels away in the arena when he coached the Pittsburgh Penguins. But, he still meant a lot to the game of hockey and more specifically, the American game of hockey. Watching the movie on Sunday made me realize that all the more. America sunk all their trust into Herb Brooks and those kids and they paid them back in spades. Kurt Russell came pretty damn close to making me believe that he was Herb Brooks. I'm glad he cared enough for the movie and the game of hockey to take it so seriously. Kurt is one of those celebrities that you see at the All-Star games and this year was no exception. He was there hyping the movie, but he was also there as a fan.
Which brings me to the other topic of the weekend. The All-Star break. Ryan Malone and Brooks Orpik did pretty well in the Young Stars game. Ryan had a nice goal even though the East didn't pull it out amongst the Young Stars. The skills competition was pretty typical and even though I can't stand Philadelphia, I had no choice but to be impressed when Jeremy Roenick went 4 for 4 on the shooting accuracy drill. The East dominated the skills competition and then won the game surprising me. Usually the West is faster and more skilled or so it always seems. It was sad to have the Penguins shut out of the All-Star game, but they'll be dominate in a few years with the young talent that they've accumulated.

Why is motivation such a driving force in what makes the world go 'round? Why isn't motivation just some hidden source that I can tap into like the inner strength that David Banner tried to find? I could even deal with the freak motivation accident where when I get angry I organize everything in sight. And why, when I actually find motivation, does it leave me at the same time every day...week...etc.?
Did I mention that I have no motivation to finish out the work day? I am geared up to see Miracle this weekend. I don't think I'm going to be a geek and rush out and see it tonight (although if I was a super-geek I would have tracked down the sneak preview last weekend). However, it is about hockey and the underdog and Herb Brooks and you gotta love that. So, Terri and I, and whomever else wishes to attend will pack into some theater, probably on Saturday to witness the Miracle once again.
Part of me wishes that my parent's had watched that particular Olympic game back in February of 1980. I would have been a little over 5 and I have other memories from right around there. I remember people talking about the 4th Superbowl win by the Steelers and the World Series win by the Pirates (both being the last time they won the big trophy). Alas, my parents were not sports fans, so I'm guessing that we were probably watching something like the Love Boat or Fantasy Island instead. Such is life. Perhaps one day my son will look back and wonder why I didn't give a damn about football or basketball or baseball or boxing or...well you get the picture.
Terri's been pressuring for a name and she brings it up right in the middle of ESPN Classic's coverage of the 1980 Miracle team. For some reason Herb, Eruzione, and Brooks didn't get the nod. Guess I'll have to keep trying.

Ok, so I didn't bother with the other set of steps last night. I didn't do much of anything last night. I sat around, watched Magnum, PI., Jeopardy, Friends, My Wife and Kids, and Little Big League. Then I took NyQuil and went to bed. Eventful night, huh? Geek night is tonight and I'm headed down with Tom to see if there are greener pastures somewhere else. I'd hate to change jobs this close to baby time, but if I see something good, I'll take it.
Not much else is going on around here. Craig, Joe, and I'm guessing Tom have all done the states I visited map. I would do one, but it would pale in comparison to theirs. I haven't even been in half of the States and Joe only has 5 more to go. Though, I can't believe for all the places he's been he's never hit Florida. That still amazes me. I guess because I've been there 4 times. Ok, here it is. I told you it was sad.


create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide
I've hit a lot of east coast stuff, but never seem to hit west of the Mississippi much. Maybe we'll take baby on a whirlwind US tour to fill out the remaining states.

Well let's see. I survived my first two class sessions. One good, the other not so much. The Principles of Management class seems like a decent class, though most of the stuff is going to be review for me I think. The Financial Accounting "Professor" stumbles over his words and makes it clear that he's only there because they are paying him to be there. Wonder how he acts in his day job. I'm fairly certain I can ace both classes. I can drop my lowest test score in the Management class. I haven't been in a classroom where I could drop my lowest score in at least 11 years.
I would mention the Penguins, but it hurts too much. They seem to be playing a little better, they just can't seem to close. I'm gearing up to go see Miracle this weekend. Maybe that will make me feel better about hockey in general. And, there's always the All-Star game and skills competition. Although since none of the Penguins will be there, I have no one to root for. I certainly wouldn't want to cheer on a Flyer or a Ranger.
We've now set dates for Terri's baby shower, Alison's baby shower, Robin's move to Pittsburgh, and Lamaze class. Just when I thought I was going to get to relax. Such is life I guess. And, we still have no name, no crib, etc. I don't even want to think about the amount of work left to do in the house. And, the past couple days, I haven't felt very good which is due to a combination of man vs. nature as I worked to clear off the steps and sidewalks for the party. Adam and Tom did help towards the end. I still need to deal with the other steps leading up from the house. Maybe I'll look into tackling that tonight. And then again, maybe I won't.

Not much to say today. The superbowl party went well. Although all the guys that wanted to order the lingerie bowl actually missed out on the real entertainment. Such is life I guess. What I take from this experience comes directly from the commentator of the Lingerie Bowl. "With all the injuries, these girls are gonna have to play both ways." DEK will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but that sentence was said with total sincerity.
There were about 12 or so people there and we got a phone call from the California constituent. Other than that, things were pretty normal. I watched little to none of the game, saw some of what they called the better commercials and ate a lot of food.
Adam has departed for Philly and things are moving slowly at work today. I'm already tired beyond belief and I have 4 hours of class tonight. I hope I can make it to the weekend intact so that I can sleep.