Popcorn

Have I mentioned this week how much I love being able to eat popcorn for lunch?  After 11 years, it is really nice to have it whenever I want.  Of course, one of the bosses just walked through the department and asked, "Who's eating popcorn?"  So maybe I just ruined it for everyone else...

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The Whistler

Since I have to live through the whistling stylings of my cubicle neighbor ... so do you.  The first day I noticed that we had a whistler nearby, he musical choice was "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."  Today, he's updated his choice by a few centuries with "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer.  I can't wait to hear what tomorrow brings. 

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Georgia's leading the way...

"According to analysts at the EIA, retail gasoline prices could go as low as $2.15 a gallon in coming weeks, but will not hit the $2 mark on a nationwide basis, unless crude oil prices fall below $53 a barrel. U.S. crude oil futures were trading above $61 a barrel Tuesday morning."

I think I'll see under $2 a gallon next week.  I've been watching the prices fall for two weeks now.  About 10 days ago, prices were in the $2.20s.  On a daily basis, I have watched them drop about 2 - 3 cents per day.  This morning, one station was advertising $2.06 (9/10)!  While we may not hit a national average of under $2, we seem to always be below the national average. 

I'll keep you updated.

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Check my Flickr account

New photos up on Flickr!  A few of the kids.  One or two of random stuff in LA.  No people shots in LA yet.

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I shoulda worn jeans

All three of "the guys" had a pinch (read: wad) between their teeth and gums.

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Day 10

The three men who run this new company are collectively called "the guys."  The man who hired me has a meeting scheduled with them this morning to demo some new software.  He has not yet decided if he is going to include me in that meeting.  Friday is "jeans" day here.  But since there is a chance that I will meet "the guys," I did not wear jeans.  From what I've heard about them, I could have.  But I'm just too old-school.  I mean, I know better than to wear a skirt, but I'm not wearing jeans, either.

On a different note, some old readers will remember me refering to a woman who used to work at my old office as "the devil."  No?  Well, I thought of her that way even if I never blogged about her as such.  I just got confirmation that she did actually hate me.  Her right-hand woman (who didn't care for her very much, but played her game anyway) knew that she hated me.  So when the right-hand woman wanted to get back at "the devil," she would say something nice about me.  Part of me is annoyed that anyone would actually hate me.  But most of me thinks of it as proof that I am absolutely nothing like "the devil."  And it's not just me who thought of her that way...her "peers" gathered in her office the day she was laid off to sing "ding dong, the witch is dead." 

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Let's Go to the Movies!

There are several new movies coming out that I really want to see.  Here's a listing:

• All the King's Men - Sean Penn, Jude Law and Anthony Hopkins.  How can it be bad?
  
• Flyboys - James Franco as a WWI pilot.  I'm so there.
• School for Scoundrels - Billy Bob Thornton teaches Napolean Dynamite how to "be a man."
• The Guardian - Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner bring us "Top Gun" set in the Coast Guard.
• Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles - I think I've already missed the theatrical release of this movie.  It's by my favorite Chinese director - Zhang Yimou.  He did a lot of great character dramas in the 90s, then made a couple of martial arts flicks.  This film marked his return to character driven drama.  I guess I have to wait for it to come to DVD.
• Goal! - The fabulous soccer movie that went straight to DVD because Americans are stupid.  I will hopefully see this movie this weekend.

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3 men 'run' this company. 2 of them are left handed. Interesting.

Catching Up and Moving On

Belly Dancing and a Movie was fun. The belly dancer wasn't fabulous, but I didn't really expect her to be. The movie was basically funny, but it's a difficult subject for me. We watched "Just Friends" which is about a fat guy getting rejected by the girl of his dreams who is also his "best friend." 10 years later, he's moved, gotten a great job, slimmed down, become really athletic, is very good looking and ends up back in his small town. I hope I'm not giving away too much of the plot, but they end up together. Let me tell you, it feels great to sit there and have it confirmed that you don't deserve love because you're fat. Yeah, yeah, he turned into a jerk after he was in shape and had to become the nice guy again. But if he'd shown up as the same nice fat guy, he wouldn't have been loved any more than he had been in high school. Anyway...

The Polyglot fell in love with the Turkish place. He is determined to go there for lunch every Saturday...as we did the very day after BDAM. The owner and wait staff love him (but who doesn't?).

I took He Tells Jokes to see a movie Saturday afternoon because The Doctor was sick and he needed to get out of the house. Then I rented a the new "Pride and Prejudice" and watched it with her.

I was beat on Sunday and never left the house. I'm a bad girl.

...on with the future.

My newest favoritest show starts tonight! I should have blogged about it earlier. "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. " It's by the same writer who did "Sports Night." It stars Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet, among others. It's supposed to be the a look behind the scenes at an SNL-like show. I can't wait for it to air tonight at 10 on NBC. This guy, Aaron Sorkin, is seriously the most talented writer ever to hit the airwaves. He also wrote "The West Wing," "The American President" and "A Few Good Men. " So he's got some cred.

Work is going well. I was a tad bit nervous today because the guy who hired me asked me to help me with a part of the program that I have never used before. And even though I should have studied up on it because I knew he was going to ask for help today, I didn't. As it turned out, I was able to figure it out within a short amount of time. No problem. My experience in other areas of the program really helped me get through it.

Very exciting news! Premiere League Football has started. I decided a while ago to root for Arsenal. It was basically between them and Chelsea, but since Chelsea have been so dominant over the last couple of years, I felt like I was just jumping on the bandwagon by supporting them.

So I went with the third or fourth place Arsenal. Mainly due to Thierry Henry, Jens Lehmann and the rumors that they were going to sign Franck Ribery (which didn't happen). Anyway, the season has started and Arsenal went up against a team that has long been a powerhouse in the EPL - Manchester United (players include Wayne Rooney and Cristiano "watch me dive" Ronaldo). Guess what?!?!?

Arsenal BEAT Man U 1-0!! I know, I know. 1-0 doesn't sound very exciting. Honestly, I didn't see the match. But I'm stoked that my team came through in such a big game. It makes me even more desparate to find a way to watch the EPL over here in non-soccer-friendly America.

I leave you now with some of Aaron Sorkin's greatest quotes:

"My name is Andrew Shepherd and I *am* the President." - The American President

...yeah, the rest of these are gonna be from Sports Night...

"If you're dumb, surround yourself with smart people. And if you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you." - Isaac Jaffe, Sports Night

Dana: You have good ideas a lot. I find myself saying, 'Natalie's got a good idea.'
Natalie: But you also find yourself saying 'Natalie, if you screw that up again I'll set you on fire.'
Dana:That's true too, and yet it's the good idea thing that I'm focusing on right now.

Jeremy: Look at me. I'm not lying to you. I have a straight.
Natalie: How do you know I don't have a big house?
Jeremy: A FULL house. Dan already folded the six you needed, and I have the other one. You don't have a house of any sort, you don't have a pup tent. You've got trip sevens, and I have a straight. I want you to trust me right now. I want you to say to yourself, yeah, I've dated a string of jerks in my life, they were stupid, they were mean to me, but maybe this one's different. Maybe I should take a chance and not adopt the break-up-with-him-before-he-breaks-my-heart strategy. I want you to remember that when I started liking you, I didn't stop liking tennis. And I want you to know that I don' t think there's a woman in the world that you need to be threatened by, no matter how glamorous you think she is. But mostly, I want you to trust me, just once, when I tell you you have three sevens, and I have a straight.

Issac: Dana, the things that I say in my office, stay in my office.
Dana: Natalie's my second-in-command, she's the only one I told.
Natalie: Jeremy's my boyfriend, he's the only one I told.
Jeremy: I told many many people.

Dan: You're nineteen feet tall. Why are you wearing heels?
Sally: Are you feeling diminuitive?
Dan: No, but now I have to look up that word.

...and I'll finish with one of my Danny's rants about ... soccer - cause he was so funny.

Dan: I know we promised you soccer highlights, so let me just tell you that Columbus beat Miami one-nothing, Dallas beat San Jose one-nothing, Chicago beat Colorado one-nothing, and New England beat Kansas City two-one in an offensive slugfest. A modest proposal: make the nets bigger.

Belly Dancing and a Movie!

Tonight is the first installment of BDAM.  I'm not sure how it will turn out.  I really like this restaurant.  But it won't be as laid back as the Thai place.  I think they are busier on Friday nights.  I had to make a reservation.  I have 9 definite responses so I made reservations for 11.  I really hope that no more than 2 extras show up.  Not only is it not really comfortable for that many people at my house, I don't want to tick off the Turkish men.

So, the moral of the story is...if you replied as one of the maybes and have decided that you can come, please call me so I can update our reservation.  Thanks.

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One More Thing To Get Used To

My old company didn't hire family members, unless you were related to the owner of the company.  This place does.  So I've got to keep in mind that if someone is difficult to deal with, I can't just ask the next person, "What's up with them?  Are they always that hard to get along with?"  That next person may be the husband, wife, sibling or in-law of the cranky person.  Interesting.  I think I'm going to have to keep a chart of who's related to whom.

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Orlando Update

I arrived in Orlando Tuesday morning. My B-i-L picked me up. I felt bad because it was so early, but he didn't seem to mind. I immediately went with my sister to drop off her kids at school. I got out at the Pink Princess' school. I got to see her room with all the "fun stations" in it.

The babies took a little bit of time to warm up to me. The boy is such a Mama's boy. He freaks if she goes out a door and leaves him behind. I wonder when he'll grow out of that. The girl doesn't like to be loved on too much. But I just love being with all of them.

I don't ever do much when I go see them, their household must keep on running. There's housework, school and homework. We went to the meeting and out in service. After service we ate lunch at a cool little cafe. I enjoyed meeting the two sisters we worked with.

then we went over to the beach twice to see the shuttle launch, but you already knew about that. I took photos (which have been dropped off). The only two photos I have for you are one of the cloud trail the shuttle left in the sky and one of a cow. I have this thing about taking photos of cows. I think they're adorable. I was blown away that on the way to the beach in Florida, all we pass are cattle ranches - not exactly what I'm used to.




My flight home was supposed to leave at 6:50. The generator failed after we backed away from the gate - everything went black. We didn't leave until after 9:00. I got home around midnight. Spaceba bolshoye to The Polyglot and I Dunno for picking me up at MARTA.

It's All New

Good Things:

• No silly rules.  My old employer had all these rules - no open toed shoes, no popping popcorn in the building, once a month you had to make a donation to some charity in order to wear jeans, etc, etc.  All those things are gone at this place.  They wear jeans every Friday, without paying for it.  I saw a woman yesterday wearing dress shorts.  That would have been a big No-No at the last place, but apparently not here.
• Room temperature is actually room temperature!  You heard me complain about my office being 67 degrees.  I think it is 76 degrees in this office.  I am comfortable.  Don't get me wrong, I could stand for it to be a little warmer, but I'm not shivering.  I sent an email off to the guy who sat in the office next to me at the other place telling him that I was wearing a short sleeve shirt and no socks.  He responded that he was wearing two shirts and two pair of socks.  That's ridiculous.  Oh, and they laid off the building manager ... so no hope of that getting resolved any time soon, either.  (Update: By the end of the day, I've decided that I won't wear sandals again.  My feet were cold by the end of the day.)
  
• The office isn't falling apart.  I never thought about it, but the other building was just not a nice place to work in terms of physical attributes.  I mean, duh, it was in College Park so the area was depressing.  But inside the building, the bathrooms had little things broken that hadn't been fixed for years.  (And no, it was not the fault of the building manager - he was fairly new.)  The finishes inside the building were cheap - ugly counters and walls, etc, etc.  This place is pretty nice.  It's a lot newer and it's leased (rather than owned), so it's in good condition.  The bathroom is in tact and well appointed.  All the offices have decent furniture.  Frankly, it's a little inspiring.
• New challenges.  Well, OK, so far this work isn't terribly challenging.  But hopefully that will come.  I do have at least one puzzle to work out with one of their servers.  I don't know if I can fix it, but I'm going to try when I get a chance.
• Being viewed as an expert.  To be perfectly honest, my old boss was standing in my way.  I know a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff, but he always seemed to know more.  If someone wanted an opinion, they went to him.  Not many people knew that he would often then come to me.  But even then, he used me as a sounding board when he had two options that he really couldn't decide between - he'd let me make the final decision.  I'm getting questions from people in three or four disparate departments.  It's cool to be able to help them out.
• Being able to run errands around the office, including filling up today for $2.34!! I dropped off my film at a Wolf on the way home.  Next up, find a dry cleaner.
  

Not So Good Things:

• Living in cubicle land again.  It took me 9 years to get an office at the last place.  I had to fight for it tooth and nail and then I even had to design it myself.  I am now back among the cubicle dwellers.  This isn't too bad, but there is someone sitting near me who likes to whistle.  I didn't have to deal with that when I had an office.  There's also the status thing, but I'm not thinking about that.  I really am just glad to be working.  If they decide that I'm valuable enough to get an office, then bully for me.  If not, I'm still taking home a paycheck.
• Being new.  After 11 years at the old place, I could answer pretty much any question about the business or history of the company.  And if I didn't know the answer, I knew who did.  It's very strange being a blank slate.  Of course, I'm figuring it out.  And it was interesting today to realize that people are talking about me behind the scenes.  One guy asked why I wasn't a permanent hire because "they need me."  I told him that was a good banner to carry, he should repeat that message to as many people as possible.  :-)
• Never knowing how long it will take to get to work. Traffic lights suck.
  

Interesting Things:

• New personalities.  There is at least one person I've dealt with a little bit who is fairly difficult to get along with.  I won't say more, but ... wow ... very difficult.
• No meetings.  It's been so long since I've not had lots of meetings on my schedule.  So far, I've got some training set up for next week.  But that's it.

That's enough for now.

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Note to Self

The hot water that comes out the side of the coffee maker in the new office is REALLY STINKING HOT.  Holy crap.  I think I burned my esophagus!

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LA Update

Thursday night, Sporty Nice picked me up at LAX and we went to dinner on Rodeo Drive. Nice place - I'd never been there.

Friday Sporty Nice was working so we spent the whole day with her charges. And I do mean the whole day. She'd missed some work earlier in the week, so she was "on" until 7:30. When she finally got off work, we went to dinner in Malibu at Gladstones 4 Fish. I picked the place not realizing that she doesn't like seafood. And let me tell you, they have almost nothing on their menu that isn't seafood. But it was a cool atmosphere and she seemed to enjoy it enough to want to bring the boys back there. I thought I'd been there before, but I guess I'd only driven by. It's on PCH at the end of Sunset Blvd.

Saturday, we didn't really have plans. As I notified you at the time, we'd decided to go to the Getty Museum in the afternoon. For the morning, we decided to head over to Marina Del Rey to take a little one hour boat tour of the area. But once we were there, we changed our minds and decided to go over to Catalina Island. The ferry ride was fantabulous. I love being on a boat! Catalina Island was really interesting. Sporty Nice mentioned that she felt like she'd traveled out of the country. And I don't blame her, there was a cruise ship anchored off the island and people were taking excursions to it. So, yeah, it was like we had traveled out of the country.

The first thing we saw when we landed was a sign from the island churches welcoming us. Yep, you guessed it, there was a placard for the island Kingdom Hall with a phone number. So we called it. They were having a Spanish language meeting that afternoon, but we weren't exactly dressed for it. (We also aren't The Polyglot.) We grabbed a quick bite to eat and looked in a few shops. The shops were filled with typical tourist crap - nothing very original. Then we hopped on the "Sky Road" tour. There's a road that goes from the main town of Avalon up to the airport.

Sky Road is one lane, but serves two way traffic. It runs along the side of a mountain, very curvy and very dangerous. The bus driver took the curves way too fast. The people at the front of the bus screamed like we were on a roller coaster. Thankfully, the bus driver was not actually in the bus, he was pulling our passenger car from his big rig type cab and couldn't hear us at all. He would pull over for what he called "Kodak moments." But he never stopped long enough and I always seemed to be on the wrong side of the bus. I got some photos, but haven't developed my film yet. (I should probably get around to that.)

We stopped at the airport for 20 minutes. I thought that was a little odd. Maybe the engine needed a rest after pulling that contraption up the mountain. I don't know. Then we started back down. On the way down, we finally saw what I'd come to see - the buffalo, a whole herd. A movie company brought buffalo over to the island back in the 60's or 70's at the order of Zane Gray. He wanted his book filmed into a movie in the location where he wrote it. That meant making Catalina look like the American West. Whatever. I got to see buffalo. More undeveloped film.

We were so exhausted (and fried) by the end of the day that we just caught dinner close to her house. It was low key and uneventful. I was BEAT!

Sunday we bailed on the convention - we'd each been and she didn't know enough people for us to think we'd run into anyone we knew. We decided to catch the Getty on that day. We got there not too long after it opened and boy was I glad. It was stinking hot that day. We looked at all the pretty pictures. It got more and more crowded as the day progressed. By the time we left, there was a decent line of people waiting to get in. SO glad we missed that!

Big news is that I stood in front of Van Gogh's Irises. I shot photos of many of hte photos with my cell phone. If you want a good wallpaper for your phone, you gotta shoot it yourself. See...


We chilled out that afternoon then went to dinner at Trader Vic's, a place I've always wanted to go. I had a lovely champagne drink infused with vodka. We then drove around Bel-Air and gawked at the houses. You know, just your average night out.

I delayed my flight until that evening so that I could go directly to Orlando to see Super Mom. We ran some errands and then stopped at the house of a family from her new congregation. The husband's brother and his wife were there showing photos from their trip to an international convention. It was very nice. We swapped stories of traveling internationally. I drank some wine from Hungary. I look forward to getting to know this family better the next I visit. They were lovely people.

And that was my trip to LA...which blended into my trip to Orlando.

Tabbed Browsing

I started using Firefox a few months ago.  Before I used it, I thought the people who evangelized about "tabbed browsing" were freaks.  How much better could it be?  I am here to tell you that it is mind-blowingly better.  I can't explain why it's better or why I like it so much more than conventional browsing.  But I do.  It's like crack.  I'm addicted to tabbed browsing.  I simply can't get enough.

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16 Miles the Long Way

Monday morning, I got a little lost coming in to the new office.  I left my house at 7:00.  I passed the main road that I was supposed to turn on about 18 minutes into my journey.  The trip is only about 8 minutes longer after that turn.  Traffic was horrendous going the other direction so I decided not to turn around.  I kept going to another road and almost doubled my trip.  Then I realized that I was not where I thought I was the whole time.  I thought I was on a numbered route, but that road turned much earlier than the road I'd missed.  So technically, there was an even shorter way to get there - even if I had made my turn.  I got to the office around 7:43.
 
So I came home the "real" way.  I left at 5:30.  I didn't get home until 6:30.  The "real" way is a one lane road under heavy construction.  I decided not to do that again.
 
Tuesday morning, I left my house at 7:30.  I went the "real" way.  I got stuck in three school zones.  I didn't get to the office until 8:30.  I decided not to go that way at that time again.
 
Tuesday evening, I left at 4:40.  I went home the mistaken way I'd come on Monday (well, the shorter version of it).  I got home at 5:30.
 
This morning I left my house at 6:57 (in the rain).  I modified the first day route by taking what I thought was a shortcut.  Nope.  That shortcut road was one lane and I got stuck behind someone doing 30 mph and hugging the right shoulder.  I got to the office at 7:35.  Not bad, but I think I can do better.  I am really hoping that the rain caused some delays.  I don't want to leave my house at 6:30.  But if I do, at least that's 30 minutes later than at the last job. 
 
But here's some exciting stuff...  This place really does only want you to put in 8 hour days!  My last job had this weird policy that you had to work 8.5 hours Monday - Thursday and then 8 hours on Friday.  The shortest lunch you could take was 30 minutes.  So if I got to the office at 6:30 and took a 30 minute lunch, I could leave at 3:30.  Here, they will let you work through lunch.  I can come in at 7:30, work through lunch and leave at 3:30.  That's an hour "earned" out of my day (and night)!
 
Welp, back to work.

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Am I Allergic to Work?

This is only my second day at my new gig and I've got a headache.  I have been eating poorly over the past two weeks and am now trying to be good.  Maybe that's it.  But I think it's awfully odd that I didn't have any headaches while I was not working...

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Remembering

I remember 9/11/2001. I was in Charlotte, rolling out the document management system with the Director of AP (he was probably only a Manager at the time) for their AP staff. It was my first time to Charlotte. We flew in on Sunday, 9/9 and we were scheduled to fly out on Tuesday, 9/11.

I was sitting at someone's desk working on their computer when I heard a voice say, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." I thought that was odd, but didn't react to it. Then I heard another voice say, "I can't get CNN's website to come up. Have you done something?" That sounded a little more odd. I tried to pull up CNN.com for myself - no response. That's when I knew something was going on. If CNN's site was overwhelmed, it was big.

I went into a conference room where other people had gathered to watch tv. I just missed the plane hitting the second tower. I saw both towers fall. I looked at my traveling companion and said, "I don't think we're flying home today." Everything was chaos. We eventually went to lunch. I did not want to be there. In Charlotte. With people I barely knew. At TGI Friday's.

We were able to secure a rental car. My coworker drove the whole way back. We listened to AM news stations for the entire trip. I dropped him off at his house and then took the rental car with me to my house. There were people from our office in Raleigh that took over the rental car and drove it back to North Carolina the next day. The CEO's assistant dropped me off at the airport to retrieve my car.

A little over two months later, on 11/9/2001 (love the irony), my company laid off 10% of our employees. We lost two people from our department, but I was safe.

Almost one month before the 5 year anniversary of that date, I was not so fortunate. I was laid off on 8/18/2006.

Exactly five years later on 9/11/2006, I started a consulting position with a new company. A company I had never heard of until about a year ago. A company that is only 16 miles from my current home. A company that needs exactly the skillset that I possess. A company that may (or may not, but I'm hoping for the may) eventually hire me to do part-time work.

Health Tip of the Day

Here's a nifty little tip I read online today...

Recent research shows that the tops of soda cans are more contaminated with germs and bacteria and than public toilets.

As soda cans are stored in warehouses for long periods before arriving at your home, they come in contact with many potentially dangerous substances. One of the most toxic substances includes rat urine, which, when ingested can develop a bacterial disease called Leptospirosis, a bacterial disease that can cause kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, respiratory distress, and sometimes death.

Soda can tops are not typically cleaned between the warehouse and your home. Be sure that when you bring home your next case of soda, you thoroughly wash with warm soap and water the tops of all soda cans before putting them in to your mouth or pouring your soda into a glass.

Drink Up!!

Let the Stealer Steal Some More

Stolen from Affie who stole it from P. June...

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name): Wimpy Calypso. (...if family pets count. If I have to pick the first pet I actually named it would be...) Tiddly Calypso.

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy): Gladys Crunch. (I could do WAY better than that. I've always liked my first name with the last name Montgomery. But then again, my own name would make a pretty cool movie star name all by itself.)

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your middle name): Man. (How disturbing that my flygirl name is Man!)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Green Dolphin.

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born): Nope, you don't get that much info about me. It's not interesting anyway.

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 2 letters of mom's maiden name and first 3 letters of the town you grew up in.): Again, too much info and not interesting.

7. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, favorite drink): The Green Mudslide. (Doesn't sound very awe-inspiring.)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first name of both your grandfathers): James Claude. (But neither one went by their legal names, so it really should be...) Shorty Frampton. (A much better NASCAR name!)

9. FUTURISTIC NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne and the name of your favorite shoes): Anais New Balance. (New Balance is the only shoe brand that I seek out. I like their walking shoes.)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother/father's middle name and the next name you hear on the tv/radio/talk): Jane Brennan. (I'm not planning on listening to the radio or tv before posting this. But on my trip, I just finished reading the first book in the Tempe Brennan series, on which the TV show Bones is based. I have Bones set to tape on my VCR. I'm hoping that I caught it on Wednesday before my tape ran out.)

I definitely won't fly to Orlando again! It is so much easier to drive.

No launch yesterday. At beach today to try again. Camera battery running low. News crew here interviewing another family.

Going to see the shuttle launch today, if it is still set to launch. Very exciting!

Not much going on in the domestic world. I start the contracting job next Monday. Dbl pay thru Dec. Then who knows what?

Sat-Catalina. Sun-Getty Museum. Mon-Met her new friends. Lots of fun. Not coming home. Going to see Super Mom.

I think I rode over to Catalina Island with a rock star. I took his photo, but don't know if you can see him. Check my Fli

Forget the museum. We're going to Catalina Island!

Hello from Cali!

I'm here in California with Sporty Nice. As you can see, my plane didn't blow up.

So far we've spent the day with the boys that she nannies for. (Can I use nanny as a verb? I'm gonna.) It's been domestic, but interesting. I've always wondered what it would be like to work as a domestic for a wealthy person...and now I know. There's good things and there's bad things - same with any job. I've met everyone in the household and everyone seems very normal and nice.

Tonight we're going to Malibu to eat at Gladstones 4 Fish. It's famous and touristy. But I can't resist. It has great views of the ocean.

I'm not sure what we're doing during the day tomorrow, but in the afternoon/evening, we're going to the Getty Center Museum. The views from the center are supposed to be fabulous.

Then Sunday, I think we're going to the convention. Hopefully, I'll get to meet some of the people in Sporty Nice's new congregation.