I know, I know. I'm hopeless at blogging. Ironically I have been doing some posting, just not that much here. But don't be sad- you're always be my first.

Christmas was good aside from a miserable cold that hit Christmas Eve and would not let go. Wonderful to see the family and just hang out and relax. My brother and his wife have big plans to be pregnant again by next December (and keep telling everyone about it!) so that may be the last time we're all together for awhile.

Went to NYC for New Years. Had a great time with with my friends and got to see a lot while we were there. Times Square was... cold. I actually think I got frostbite because my feet have not properly recovered.

Jenny is SO grown up! She's standing now and oh so chatty and sweet (now that she's cut a few teeth). She'll be 9 months next week: crazy.

We discovered about a week and a half ago that the beloved family dog, Maggie, has a tumor. It's pressing against her lungs and heart and she has only a short time left. Her breathing is getting tougher and she has a hard time eating, though she's still in good spirits.

Maggie is a wonderful dog. She's undoubtedly one of the best behaved dogs I've ever seen and so sweet! She has a great temperament but she was also trained by my father, who did a great job working with her. She's his dog more than the rest of us and this has hit him hard. It's been very difficult to watch it all but I know Maggie's had a good life. I'll miss her; we all will.

So that's the "highlights" for now. I'll try not to let it go so long next time, or at least post my other stuff up here as well. Hope everyone is doing well, had a great holiday. Happy (quite belated) 2009!

The Cookie Affair

Every year I participate in a cookie exchange with some ladies from work. My mom does so much cooking that I like to try to help out by bringing home 6 or 7 dozen cookies to keep the troops occupied satiated with sugar.

In case you're not familiar with the concept of a cookie exchange, I have to make 6 dozen cookies and I trade them with a dozen cookies 6 other people have made. Of course I also like to make a dozen to take home for myself because I (unbiasedly) believe mine are usually the best anyway. With 7 dozen cookies to make, I like to try to find something simple (with 7 dozen cookies even easy recipes become a challenge) and this year after considering several options, I decided to go with a recipe my friend Garrison sent: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. Garrison assured me they were super-easy and, to his credit, informed me that the standard recipe went a long way- he got almost 5 dozen cookies out of the recipe for 2-3 dozen.

So I woke up this morning, pulled up the recipe and wrote up my shopping list (trip #1). I figured I'd make 6 dozen and the overage Garrison warned me about would cover the dozen for my family. Naturally, I did not bother to look in my cabinet before I left. I "knew" I had sugar and Vanilla extract but I needed everything else. An hour later I came home a realized I had just bought my third container of unsweetened cocoa (the second one had never been opened) and had less than a cup of sugar. So I hoofed it back to Harris Teeter (trip #2), returned my cocoa and grabbed a bag of sugar.

Back at the house I was ready to go. I melted my margarine and mixed my cocoa etc. It was going well and smelling good but when I got to the point where I had to add the oatmeal I quickly learned the entire container I had bought was only 5 cups of the 9 cups I needed. I actually went through the thought processes of "do I *really* needed another 4 cups?", and "who do I know that wants to run out and get me oatmeal?" but in the end I knew what I had to do. So, with the stove on very low I ran back to Harris Teeter (trip #3) and bought another container of oatmeal. At this point the manager and the cashier both knew me and asked me how the cookies were going. I admitted to my inability to do math as I dashed out the door.

Got home, again, and I dumped the rest of the oatmeal in and stirred. Cookies done = yeah! Next step: lay-out the cookies. They're no-bake but they have to cool and harden so they need to be laid out on wax paper (btw, I bought that too and already had a roll at home...). So I started putting cookies out, and kept going and going and going. Ran out of counter space and put several trays in the fridge. Garrison was not exaggerating. The recipe was for 72 cookies and I have about 120.

Happy Holidays, everyone! Enjoy the season and may you all have too many cookies!

The General World of Jen

I love the holidays. There's a purpose behind them: once a year we have to slow down and look around. Whether or not you like what you see it's a chance for reflection and, hopefully, gratitude.

I visited with my cousin and her daughter (cute baby at left) to exchange presents this afternoon. I won't see them for at least three weeks and it's bumming me out. But no present in the world can beat falling asleep with a baby on my chest while watching 'A Muppet Christmas Carol'. That's what life is all about right there.

Sadly I can't focus on the holidays quite yet. Heading home and seeing family is still a week off, and a very busy one at that. There's Christmas parties and cards and more gifts to buy and for some reason I have tons of meetings this week. Don't people know it's the holidays?!

And in others news I'm keeping busy with a new project: contributing to movie-recipes.com! No, you've never heard of it. It's a site that a friend of mine does. Rather than review movies it tells you what the movie is made of. Hopefully it will give you an idea of whether or not it's worthwhile based on the movies it's similar to. You can check out my inaugural post here.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Monty Python)

My crazy cousin has a great blog where she spends lots of time talking about her sweet little baby (http://jellybeanmama.blogspot.com/). Her post yesterday ("It Could Always Be Worse") resonated because I, and I suspect many of you, have been feeling the chill of recession and tension of questionable job security lately.

So here is my contribution to positive thinking. The 5 things I am grateful for today:

1. Friends who have you over for a fantastic (and free) home-cooked meal. Comes with great conversation.
2. A home that has a mortgage I can afford.
3. Having a skill and a job (with awesome perks like health insurance and coworkers I like) where I am able to help people do the stuff they want to do.
4. That the interweb will let me buy all my presents and will send them to me so I can avoid the mall and save a little money.
5. My family and the technology that let's me stay in touch with them (Welcome to Facebook, Lisa!)
   

Thanksgiving: The Horror

Yes, all right, it's been a month since I've posted. I am going to add a "Post to blog" task on my "Remember the Milk" list and monitor it via my iPhone. I know, it's hard to believe I don't have time to post since I obviously don't have a life.

So I am one of those people that, when asked by friends and neighbors "how was your Thanksgiving?", feel compelled to really answer. A simple "fine" is not in my vocabulary. And when I stopped to recall this Thanksgiving, it was really quite chilling.

First there was the conversation at Thanksgiving dinner. Somehow I ended up sitting between my dad and my uncle and their conversation was nothing short of macabre. Seriously, all of the following came up:

• Who they know that's dying and of what
• My uncle's friend, the coroner, and a review of "what not to do when contemplating suicide" (including a review of blood splatter clean-up)
• Hunting/ cleaning animals (and I don't mean a bath)
  
• And to round it up, great moments from the movie "Deliverance"

Then on the Friday, I did something I have never, ever done before: I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving. To be clear, I don't like to step in a store after Thanksgiving. Anything that hasn't been bought before t-day gets bought online. But my aunt and cousin (and cute baby!) were there and there were some good deals (seriously, a crock pot for $10?!) so off we went. On the bright side, I didn't trampled by ravenous shoppers, though I did hurt my back holding that crock pot while waiting in line for 35 minutes.

Finally, the real horror: my mom burned the turkey. I can't say enough about how out of character this is (and Lisa, if you mention this to her I will cut you!) and it's not like this made the turkey bad. It's still turkey. It was just... different. And it was done early, so I wasn't that hungry yet. But I still ate too much. It just threw off my whole Thanksgiving experience. For the record, I am aware that I am a big whiny baby.

So please respond and share your turkey stories. Hope everyone had a great holiday! And I'm going to download the iPhone app that let's you post to your blog so keep an eye out for more posts!

Fall Frolicking

Well, I still feel bad about having dropped my class but there's no doubt in my mind that was the solution for me. Things have been much easier without a class to worry about, although I do still owe my professor a project from the Spring. But I am good at procrastinating and having flexibility does wonders for my mood-- so much less stress! Really makes me not want to go back to grad school, too...

The last few nights I've just been home, doing laundry and watching TV. Sure, I still work from home, check email, update Drupal etc., but it's easier now that I don't get home at 8:00pm twice a week.

Tonight I got to baby-sit my niece, Jenny, which would have been nearly impossible when taking classes. I'm not sure she had a great time but we'll give it another shot post-teething and on a night when she's in a better mood.
Tomorrow night I'm considering getting a cheap ticket to the NCSU v. Florida St. football game, blowing off work early and tailgating with friends.
Friday night is improv. Saturday, a wedding (Congrats Amy and Garrison!). Next week: meteor shower, haunted trail, pumpkin carving and Halloween Party. I love fall.

In other news, I got a Mac! Well, work got a Mac and they let me use it; I could never have afforded it myself. I am a visual person so, well... it didn't take long to impress me. I'm not saying I'm a Mac person yet (I don't want to be that) but I would say I'm a little more evenly divided on the issue. And someone asked me the other day if it was hard to go back and forth (PC desktop at work, Mac laptop) and I realized I hadn't even thought about it.

Finally, I may not be a Mac user but I do want an iPhone. That thing is hot. H-O-T. I spent last Friday night sitting on my couch, watching a 30-minute iPhone informational video. I'm dating the iPhone. Sad.

That's it for me. Enjoy the leaves and the crisp fall breezes. Go Canes!

I'm cheating on you, baby

Since I was feelin' like there wasn't much going on [LIE] I thought I'd come up with something else to do: how about a year-long course on how to be a leader? What can I say, work doesn't pay for training much [EVER] so I thought I should take advantage.

Now as part of my sharing and leading and learning and growing I have a new blog, for which the co-workers who kindly agreed to judge me during this process can keep up-to-date with my "progress". I'll be honest, I'm having a hard time keeping the sarcasm in check on there. Not because I don't think this is worthwhile, just because apparently that's how I communicate. And yes, I know it's a problem.

This actually comes during a time of introspection and personal reflection. The "Year of Jen" has turned into the "Year of Improving Jen" which is fine as long as I get somewhere with it. The last class for the program was the Myers-Briggs test and that was very eye-opening for me. Apparently I'm an introvert. So many things make more sense when I understand that. I thought it was weird that I feel shy so often when I'm also quite outgoing. Aside from people I know, most others make me really uncomfortable [STILL SINGLE].

Speaking of being single, guess what I have this weekend? Family reunion! Once every 5 years I, conspicuously-alone, get to go visit my great big mostly-married, baby-breedin' extended family. Don't me wrong, I love them and I can't wait to see them. But if my dear cousin points out that I'm the oldest one at the party alone (again) I will not be responsible for my actions. At least I'm not the lard-ass I was 5 years ago (see photo at right and then print and burn).

Anyway, to get back on topic, I'm supposed to post on my other blog at least once every other week. So... yeah. You may need to go there for your Jen fix for awhile. But I still love you.

Oh and the [BLOCK] thing. Just ignore it. [HABIT].

10 Things I Learned on Vacation

1. Wisconsin is huge.
2. Contrary to popular belief, one can go two whole weeks without a phone, email, web browsing, TV, etc. It's true.
   
3. Cheezees (aka: Cheesy Poofs, Cheetos, etc.) are the perfect vacation food (unless you're 4 and get queasy while riding up a twisty mountain road...)
4. I do not sleep well in the car.
5. The water in Canada is cold, but it really does feel good when you get in. Honest!
6. Chicago has traffic jams. At 2:30. AM. On Sunday morning.
7. Apparently I can spend 17 days with my family and not want to kill them.
   
8. Mosquito's suck. A LOT.
9. Strawberry muffins are fabulous (at least those from the bakery in Nestor Fall, Ontario- there's only one-- you can't miss it really).
10. Dog hair sticks to everything.

Had a great time. Also glad to be back, or at least glad to NOT be in a car.

A Baby Story

Ok, quick reminder: I was asked, and agreed, to be the "coach" for my cousin when she had her baby. Her circumstances are her own but the long and short of it is she decided to have a baby by herself, so I was to be the person at her bedside, helping her through labor and delivery.

The actual call was fairly simple, far less traumatic than some of the "test" calls which involved me panicking and swerving into traffic. She ended up being induced so I knew to pack up and head down to the local Baby Shop (aka. Rex) first thing in the morning. We checked in, along with her lovely mother , at 8:30am or so and then settled in.

The pitocin (induces labor) drip was started around 10am and then we sat there for about six hours. She progressed well, but slowly and her doctor actually pressured her for a good while to go ahead and have a C-section and "get it over with" (I could do a whole blog on this SOB doctor who never heard of a birth plan and just wanted to do the C-section and be done, grrrr). We opted to continue and sure enough a short while later things really got moving.

From about 6pm until 10pm she went through terrible back labor and we tried everything to get her through it but after a while she decided to have an epidural. Unfortunately it took some time for that to arrive so there was a good 5 hours of really tough, yell-y, unpleasant labor. On the plus side the epidural was very popular; apparently she'll be giving them for Christmas this year.

So we're up to about 11:30pm. After that mom tried to sleep and the nurses kept up a steady steam of pitocin and oxygen (the nurses were great, BTW. Not like the doctor at all). The trouble is that the contractions and pitocin affected the baby's heartbeat; the oxygen helped normalize it. But after a few large dips in the baby's heartbeat the doctors and nurse and mom, grandma and I all decided that it would be for the best to do a C-section. She was wheeled down to the OR about 3am and the little baby was born at 3:31am on May 21st (I know, she's a month old already!).

I went with her to be cleaned up. She was a couple days late and already had already inhaled merconium, and quite a lot of it at that. The nurses had to suction out her nose and mouth. But she was beautiful and healthy and sweet and precious and all those things. And she still is! I should know, I baby-sat last night. And no, she's not sleeping through the night. She's still cute though.

So there you have it. The story of how my quasi-niece was born. I have a fair number of pictures below of the day (and night) of deliver. Enjoy!

As for the "will-I-ever-have-children-now" question... I think it's still yes. But I won't deny this made me think about what I haven in-store. Interestingly I think my sleep-over with cute baby last night did more to put a damper on my having kids then labor and delivery did. I still want to have them- for sure. I just don't think I'm ready. Which is good because I am still single which should slow me down.

Also, I'm about to go on vacation so for once I have an excuse for never posting. I'm off to Canada for two-weeks, which I was going to write about but don't have time to now. Hopefully I'll have happy stories when I get back, although the trip involves about 60 hours of driving all together so that's not really a happy thought. Happy summer, all!

Mom and I before the tough times started.













New baby!













Baby faux-hawk.













Mom and baby.

Really Bag Blogger

I think 4 or 5 people have told me that I accidentally entitled my last post "Bag Blogger", which was exciting since I had no idea that many people were reading! Hi people! I am a really bad blogger.

In my defense, things have been very busy and I have been thinking about blogging. I actually have 3 or 4 things in mind to write about, starting with the story of baby. But I want to give that story it's full weight so I'll save it for next time. And by "next time" I don't mean 3 months from now.

I don't really have any great updates; work is still busy, I'm still stressed. On the plus side I'm 21 days away from my vacation: 2-weeks in a beautiful Bob Ross-wilderness of Canada. I've also been working on my nice back yard with help from my cute little brother, who probably wouldn't like to be called "cute" or "little". More soon.

Baby News (no, not mine)

I've mentioned in passing that my cousin, Yorii (not her real name-- I know, a shock) is pregnant. She reached a certain age and, still single, decided she would take matters into her own hands. One donor and some hilarious and heart-breaking antics later, she's seven months along.

In her exceptional wisdom she has decided that it is I that she wants as a coach, supporter and cheerleader in this process. So my duties will include helping her through labor, driving to the hospital (that is going to S-U-C-K), fighting for her wishes in the delivery room, keeping the ice water (no ice chips!) coming, cutting the umbilical cord (squishy!) and many other tasks that vary between exciting, scary, deeply emotional and gross.

This weekend was the childbirth class. Two days, eight hours each and loaded with lots of interesting information. Also a lot of very disgusting videos. Right now I feel quite prepared, which is surely quite misleading. I'm much more concerned about my preparation in two months time and my stamina for the whole process. I'm also a little concerned that seeing a woman have a baby will sear my memory and I'll never want to have a child of my own. I'll be sure to report on that post-partum.

I learned tons of cool words and anatomical details in class. Again, I'll spare you the really horrible stuff and give you an innocuous example. The top of the uterus, which contracts and bunches up as the woman goes through labor (in order for the cervix, at the bottom, to open) is called the fundus. The spell-checker has no clue what that is. To me it sounds like a party-platter. Woohoo!

More people have read your shirt than my blog

I've had several blog-related discussions in the past week. A couple of people informed me that they're reading my blog or have asked for the URL so they can (Hey HyperWife! Safe trip home, Mr. Darcy!). I don't know if blogs are back "in" or what, but I think that brings my readership to five!

I also had a discussion with a friend, let's call him Viddy, about how lame and silly and self-absorbed blogs are. The truth is, I agree with him and I'm constantly trying not to be excessively lame (I'm trying now- read my older posts at your own peril) or self-absorbed (recent "year-of-me" posts not withstanding).

But if you're here it's probably because you know me and you're (at least mildly) interested in keeping up with what I have to share. I apologize now and forever more for lame and self-absorbed posts (yeah, yeah- this is one) and I'll try to be more interesting.

Recent News: works sucks, I'm trying to learn to say "no" to people (don't see '27 Dresses' in the theater), I'm currently starving on Weight Watchers, thinking about taking up painting as a hobby and would like to kill some reindeer (long story, not really planning to hunt animals).

In fond rememberance of 2007

I have to say that for the most part, 2007 was a great year for me.

I won $5000 and used that to buy my first house. I bought a "new" car. I've had the pleasure of getting to know my nephew (who is P-R-E-C-I-O-U-S). I finished up three more classes towards my masters and while my job got more stressful, I also got a better position and more money. As years go, I can't complain.
But of course I'm going to. A good friend miscarried. I paid too much for my house which, post housing-bubble, is painfully clear. I've had not one but two power problems (this is ongoing; I'll update soon). The only travel I did was to NY (for a long weekend) and Charlotte. I remain single and I'm increasingly doubtful that will ever change.

I really want to be positive and I really do know how much I have to be grateful for. In fact, I can't help but feel apprehensive that things are too good, and something bad is coming.
I also have this terrible habit where I always wonder if I'll still be single "this time next year". And I always am! So this year I'm just going to focus on me. Me making my house what I want it to be. Me getting myself in shape. Me going places I want to go with people I want to go with. I'll do my best to enjoy life as I have it, by myself. And if someone wants to join me, I'll consider it when the time comes.

PS-- I just made that decision, this second as I was writing it. But I think it's a good goal and as good a resolution as any. It sounds a little... selfish, so I'll have to look out for that. Wish me luck!

Happy 2008!

I had a wonderful day!

I had a wonderful day!

I woke up still feeling sick but got progressively better as the day went on. I had a nice, leisurely lunch with a good friend. I got lots done at work, far more than I expected. I went to a hockey which we won in OT after an incredible come-from-behind two goals in the final two minutes. And I got to play with my adorable one-year-old nephew (his birthday was Saturday!) and chat with old friends, new friends and lots of family. Oh, and I found out I got an 'A' in my class this semester (phew!).

This is what life is all about. It's so nice to be able to appreciate the good days. I so often whine about the bad days on here that it's rewarding for me, and probably refreshing for you, to remember all the good and beautiful things that I am so lucky to have in my life.

I'll update you on Progress Energy another day. :)

Busy, busy, crazy busy

God, I haven't written in SO long. Bad blogger!

Quick update:

• work is stressful and busy
• my class is stressful and keeping me busy
• barely made it to Thanksgiving but did get some much needed R&R over that weekend

Coming events:

• UNC CAUSE conference for work
• Christmas parties - including my own
• Christmas shopping and cards (WAY behind on that stuff)

Roommate is making me nuts. There are reindeer ALL OVER. I don't think I can make it through another year living with her. I hate clutter and there is just too much stuff in this house. Unfortunately, I also hate confrontations so I haven't yet worked out how to talk to her about any of this.

Sadly I am even to busy to make this post engaging or fun. This is all you get! I'll try to do better next time.

Episode III - The Evil Empire

All right- to finish this off, let me start by providing you with a list of known items that were damaged or destroyed. To date. Because I'm still finding things.

1. TV
2. DVR/ cable box
3. stereo
4. microwave
5. computer
6. VCR
7. refrigerator (still runs but can't stay cold anymore)

The Progress Energy Claims guy who has been assigned to me has told me that they will pay only for what the items would have been worth when destroyed. So essentially, what would I get for my two-year-old TV on Craigslist (pre-smoking and sparking). Unfortunately, I still have to pay full price for the items I have to replace. Like the $64.99 (plus tax) I paid to replace my microwave this morning. Grrrrr.

The other things I'm trying to get Progress Energy to cover are the food in the fridge that went bad (they already told me to pretty much give that up) and the $300 I paid Richard, the electrician to come and tell me what was wrong.

Now here's the kicker-- apparently I should NOT have called an electrician. Progress Energy argues that I should have just called them and they would have been able to figure out was wrong and fix it, hence, no electrician costs. As I pointed out to the claims guy, my power was working when this happened. My power never went out, until I turned off the house breaker. None of my neighbors lost power. Why would I think it was a problem with the power company? So heads up people- Call Progress Energy first. They can't go in the house to find the problem, so I think ultimatly they would have told me to call an electrician anyway. I guess you just need their blessing first...

Hopefully this story is basically over and the only addendum will be regarding the speedy and happy cutting of a fair check. If anyone is interested in betting on that I'll give you good odds; I need to pull in a little extra cash this month...

By the way. Great big shout out to some people who helped me through this. Couldn't have survived without you.

• Mom- came into town. BIG help. So wonderful to see her and at such a critical time.
• Roommate- very patient while the house blew up around her (and ultimately destroyed her computer.
• Brother (3)- was here when the mess started and helped clear up the wreckage.
• Boss- so understanding and offered to help several times.

Pop, pop, fizz, fizz

You know, when it rains, it pours. I've had so much fun over the past few days and have oh, so many stories to share with you! I'll have to split everything into multiple posts but I know both of you will be on the edge of your seats.

Monday afternoon I came home from work early to do some cleaning (Mom was coming into town that night). I turned on the washer and tried to start the dryer but it wouldn't quite start and then the laundry room light flickered and dimmed. I was just starting to get annoyed and a little teeny tiny bit worried when I heard the yells and a few pops coming from the family room. My roommate and brother were entranced by sparks and smoke coming from my TV. Then the washing machine starting making an un-godly noise so I opened the lid to make it stop spinning. Meanwhile the TV popped a few more times so I unplugged the surge protector (yeah, I had a surge protector) and roommate and brother managed to lug it near an open window away from the wooden tinder box typically referred to as an entertainment unit.

While throwing open windows and trying to work out what happened I heard a terrible noise from upstairs-- loud and very fast clicking. That turned out to be the chain of my fan as it whipped back and forth and hit the fan blades which were going mach-2. The fan was actually smoking and shaking like it was about to fall out of the ceiling. Cool, right? So I went (went = simple verb representing "ran in blind panic") back downstairs and turned off the power to the whole house.

Curious about what happened next?!? You should be! Stay tuned for a new episode featuring Richard, the electrician, Eric, the Progress Energy guy and the always-popular statement: "you're lucky your house didn't burn down"!

Headline News in Sucksville

So I'm really pretty positive no one is reading this or will ever read this. But the point has been to keep people I don't talk to that often well informed. So here are the latest news stories in Life o' Marit:

• Brother shaved head, not actually a cancer victim
• Intense work frustration leads to job search
• Heat wave ruins joys of fall
  
• Work stress, apathy leads to academic decline
• Cholesterol Test Wednesday; Panic ensues
  
• Frustration and depression summit this week
  
• 'Caveman' worst comedy since invention of wheel

Have a great week ya'll!

The Tale of the Keys

Once upon a time, in fact on the very night before our heroine was to move to a new house, she lost her keys. Now this was significant problem since it had both her keys to her current place and to her new place. Her keys to her current mailbox and the new one. It also had her parent's house keys, her brother storage facility key and her key drive with lots of important files. Oddly enough the thing she missed the most was her Harris Teeter VIC card. (What? They'll issue you a new one but then it doesn't know what kind of coupons to give you.)

Then one day, six months later, she was switching purses because as we all know you can't wear brown shoes with a black purse. The purse had tons of junk in it and she was tossing stuff in the trash but the purse was still heavy. She finally dug inside, into the side zippered pocket and, WHA-LA, her keys!

This story has no moral, just the happy ending. The ending probably isn't so amusing to her brother who drove her around for 2 hours looking for the keys, or for her friends who detoured past restaurants and even patches of grass so she could look for the keys weeks later. I'm just happy knowing my keys weren't out there for some weirdo to pick up. I mean 'her'- her keys. I never lose my keys.

marit's week in review

I'm a little behind so here's the week recap.

Weekend: 'rents had the annual Oktoberfest. Tasty beer, tasty food. Neighbors brought over a 1961 bottle of Crown Royale which, other than making my dad a bit sad to stop drinking beer, made my parents very drunk and happy.

Conference in the ATL: here's my consumer report-- Sheraton Buckhead was not good. Power went out at the hotel (only the hotel, thank god the bar down the street was unaffected) for 8 hours. Whether because of that or something else the lobby and basement (where the conference sessions were being held) was without AC for the second day of the conference. No internet access (hotel and host companies fault) so I purchased the access for my room, but even when there was no power for 8 hours they didn't discount or pro-rate the bill. Really disappointing, especially for a Sheraton.

And work: I've never heard of, let alone seen, so many people lose faith in a place so fast. I've heard of turnover where the staff all got fired. This staff all wants to quit. Myself included. I actually like my job most of the time. And I love my boss. But I can't watch my department let good people go-- all but force them to go with bad decisions and a lack of support. I don't want to be left in that mess, so I'll be updating the 'ole resume this weekend. I'm angry though. Really, really mad about it all.