Friday Shuffle, Shuffle Me Into The Weekend, Puh-lease!

It's a coupla crazy weeks. And yes, I miss blogging. I think what I miss more is visiting (and reading) the posts of my blogging friends! So in all of this craziness that I have going on right now, I couldn't even find time to hang with Fred. So this shuffle is sans-Fred. Instead, I am using the massive compilation that I have access to via one of the servers at my work. There are over 7 thousand tracks on that bad boy. Everybody contributes. It's kinda cool because you never know what you're gonna get. To that end, I will call this source of tunes "Life".

Take 'er away, Life!

1. "Miss Bonfield", by the Fab Five. Who are the guys, you ask? Only the best Soka band there is!
2. "Say", by the Corrs. I think Hilda added this one to the mix. Not too shabby, I s'pose.
3. "Rimsky", by Arturo Sandoval
4. "Force Ten", by Rush
5. "What's the Matter Here?", by 10,000 Maniacs
6. "It Doesn't Have To Be (Like That)", by Erasure
7. "Major Tom", by David Bowie...and everyone wants to know whose shirts you wear!
8. "Family Business", by the Fugees - Okay, I know some of you are impressed.
9. "The Journey", by Boston - Okay, I know that those same people are no doubt horrified.
10. "Are You Having Any Fun", by Tony Bennett - Wow.

This shuffle has been all over the place. Which is why I guess it reminds me of a family summer road trip, and just like a family trip some of the stops were relished and others - not so much. Well, here is to awesome road trips to all! Have a great weekend!

Friday Shuffle - The Work My Arse Off Edition

Isn't "Arse" a great word? It sounds so much better than the American version of the word, don't ya think? Well, even if you don't - I do...and this is my blog so guess what? It's staying no matter what you say!!!!

Sorry, it's 5:30 in the morning and I am leaving shortly to go to work for the next 14 or so hours. Won't I be super-fun to work with? Well at least I got my shuffle in. Okay Fred, I need a really really good shuffle please.

1. "Can't Stand Losing You", by the Police.
2. "Jackamo Road", by John Mellencamp.
3. "Somebody Help Me", by the Iguanas. I love this group and this is a great song with great lyrics: Somebody help me, I can't do it on my own.
4. "Brown Sugar", by The Rolling Stones. Okay, I'm afraid I might jinx this but Fred is doling out some seriously good kick-ass tunes!
5. "You Are Everything", by Michael McDonald. Well, there ya go. Jinxed.
6. "Where Are You Boy", by Patty Loveless (from the Tin Cup soundtrack) - okay, who else other than Sari and me know (and love) this move, and soundtrack?
7. "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", [sung by] by Michael McDonald. Just as good as the Marvin Gaye version.
8. "That's Where I'll Be", by Little Big Town.
9. "Solbsury Hill", by Peter Gabriel
10. "In My Life", by the Beattles.

Not too shabby, Fred. 9 out of 10 songs. Okay, I'm off. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend everyone.

What Are You Worth?

I've been at work for 11 hours today and have 2 or 3 more to go. We are working on critical issues that have continued to resurface on this project over the last 5 months, since we implemented it. We spend time on implementing solutions over several weeks only to be in the same spot a month or two later. We work nights and weekends. It makes me ask, "What am I worth"?

I know that I am worth one-fifth of forty dollars in pizza because that's what we ate for dinner and the big boss, who isn't here, offered to pay for dinner. I hope I don't lose the crinkled register receipt that is currently in my shirt pocket, otherwise, my worth will be diminished even more. I don't mind working late sometimes but it just makes me wonder....what's it all for? What is my worth? Have you asked yourself that question lately? What is a stay-at-home-mom's worth? How is it measured? In dirty diapers or toothless smiles?

I know my measure as a husband and as a father, but how is my worth measured as a business analyst? Do you wonder about these things? Should I? Or should I just get back to work so that I can go home sooner than later?

So, What Did You Do This Evening?

Two days before our fifteenth wedding anniversary and I spent it with Mrs. Phez in the bathroom - she was painting my toenails. You know, in preparation for that thing I am doing at my department's quarterly meeting tomorrow.

I am going to wait to have my fingernails painted until just before I perform. I wouldn't want anyone starring at me unnecessarily.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, and God I hope you weren't, I learned this evening that my dress size is 16 and my shoe size in women's shoes is 11W.

Little Known Facts About Hillary

Probably more entertaining than the facts I am about to share with you is the reason that I came across them. I work in a I.T. department of about 400 people and we have quarterly departmental meetings. While flow charts and schematic drawings might pique the interest of the few, it certainly doesn't do it for most of us - so, for a few years now, we've had a group within the dept. responsible for a bit of entertainment to break the monotony of the 4 hour meeting.

It wasn't supposed to be our turn this time around, but no one would do it so with two days to plan, we found out today that our VP agreed that we'd fill in. We are doing a spoof on a Presidential Debate but we are making the questions and answers relative to our work environment. You'll never guess who they talked into portraying Hillary! I'll give you a clue...one of the times we did this before, we did a spoof on American Idol and I was Troyjaya. Well, Troyjaya and Hillary will look a lot like.

So, in researching for my part, here are some interesting facts (okay, maybe not all of them are facts - some are allegations) about our next President - maybe.

1. In 1969, after Hillary Diane Rodham graduated with departmental honors in political science, she worked her way across Alaska, washing dishes in Mount McKinley National Park and sliming salmon in a fish processing cannery in Valdez (which fired her and shut down overnight when she complained about unhealthy conditions).




2. It took Bill Clinton 4 years to make Hilary become his wife. They started dating in 1971. Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton were married on October 11, 1975, in a Methodist ceremony in their living room





3. Bill Clinton returned to the Governor's office in1982. Only then Hillary Diane Rodham began to use the name Hillary Clinton, or sometimes "Mrs. Bill Clinton", in order to have greater appeal to voters.







4. From 1986 to 1992 Hillary Clinton was enjoying six-year tenure as a director of Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest company. Fellow board members and company executives say Mrs. Clinton used her position to champion personal causes, like the need for more women in management and a comprehensive environmental program.




5. Hillary Clinton became involved in a scandal about having a lesbian affair with her personal aide Huma Abedin.

A new book by Edward Klein, ‘The Truth About Hillary’ is said to make some claims about Hillary Clinton having lesbian relationships.





I have to go now and practice making funny faces in front of the mirror. Wish me luck!

Another Day at the Office

Okay, so maybe not all that typical of a day...but at least I was having a better time than the day before.

The Keeping My Cool Friday Shuffle

Yesterday I got pretty upset at work. It's not one of my proudest moments and while I don't think my job will be in jeopardy because of it, it's something I don't want to repeat anytime soon. Lord, get me off of this project! So, here to mellow me out, let me introduce Fred: Um, Fred? You're on...

1. "Take a Chance on Me", by ABBA

2. "Oh! Darling", by the Beattles

3. "Coastal Confessions", by Mr. Mellow himself, Jimmy Buffett

4. "Cat's in the Cradle", by Harry Chapin My pre-fatherhood thoughts on this song were incredulous - how could a dad do that?! My current thoughts are panic ridden - oh crap, am I doing that?!

5. "For Lovin' Me", by Peter, Paul, & Mary. I never really listened to the lyrics before...not nice, you guys.

6. "On a Day Like Today", by Bryan Adams

7. "I've Got To Use My Imagination", by Gladys & the Pips.

8. "Same in Any Language", by Ruckus

9. "Help Me Mary", by Liz Phair - hmmmm, okay, Fred, this song is not helping.

10. "How Can You Live in the NorthEast", by Paul Simon


Happy Leap Year Everyone & Have a Great Weekend!

Oh My

I have been trying to increase my circle of blogger friends. One technique is that I click on stuff that I put in my profile to see who else shares that interest. Then I go over and if I like what I see, I say "hi". Riveting, huh? So, I worked through the list of interests, and then started adding some I hadn't thought of. Harmless enough, right? I was in a warm-and-fuzzy mood the other day, so I added thinks like kindness, sharing, etc. When I clicked on sharing, it brought up a profile and I then clicked on their blog - oh-my-Gawd! Folks, I don't blush easily...but I must've looked like a summer tomato. I found a blog where someone has an interest in "sharing", in the the...shall we say...Biblical sense. And the blog was complete with pictures. Now for those of you that are still reading this post and haven't gone off to recreate my discovery, let me tell you, the real joyous part of this endeavour was...I was doing it at work. Luckily no one else was in the room when my 17 inch monitor showed helpful photos of this person's hobby. Yikes.

The Should We Stay or Should We Go Friday Shuffle

This is a question that we'll be asking at work today in reference to whether or not our project team has to work the weekend (again) in order to support a recent deployment. So, hoping for the best, take 'er away Fred.

1. "Sweet Potato Pie", by Ray Charles with James Taylor. Way to hit it out of the park with your first pick, Fred!
2. "My Father's Gun", by Elton John off of the soundtrack for Elizabethtown. Great song. Good movie. Awesome soundtrack.
3. "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing", by Mantovani. Woops.
4. "Trynna Find a New Way", by Nelly Furtado
5. "Ticket to Ride", by the Beatles. Anybody know what they're singin' about?
6. "Dead Man's Hill", by the Indigo Girls
7. "Thank You", by Led Zepellin. A very sweet & poetic love song.
8. "He Went to Paris", by Jimmy Buffett. Fred knows 98 Buffett tunes and went with this one. Is this a sign?
9. "Money Changes Everything", by Cyndi Lauper
10. "Sense of Purpose", by The Pretenders (Okay these guys, the Indigo Girlos, & 10,000 Maniacs - they all seem interchangeable to me...is that wrong?)

Hmmm, and the Clash did not grace our shuffle. Oh well.

In closing, let me share with you an interchange I just had with son # 1. He was changing out of his night time diaper into underwear and he said to me, "When you don't have clothes, you're naked. And when you do, you're not." Thank you, Captain Obvious! Still cute though, huh?

Imagine That!

I was just having lunch with a coworker and we were discussing childhood aspirations that start out with, "When I grow up, I want to be a ...". He asked me what I wanted to be when I was a kid and it was a tough question.

I can recall wanting (for a while) to be a cross-country truck driver. I think that we can thank BJ and the Bear for that insightful career choice. I mentioned to my coworker that I was attracted to the travelling and, even back then, was a big fan of truck stop menu fare. He then asked if I made all important decisions based on food....well, I am overweight - duh. Although...point taken.

I then remembered that I had sent for, and received oddly enough, an application packet for the CIA. But I never did anything with it.

I was at odds trying to think of an actual career choice or dream job that I had wanted growing up. All I could tell him was that I dreamed of being in meetings where folks wore suites, shook hands, and say at big oval conference tables. I also imagined having a job where writing would be a large part of it. My coworker looked at me like I should've had a V8. My current job and where I have been for 14 years, is as a business analyst. My role is to help with the creation of projects that will help the company reach it's goals, in where I have to be meetings constantly and I have to write documentation that captures the project requirements. Well, spank me and call me Sally...I'll be a monkey's uncle chauffeur driving an 18 wheeler.

Mini-Meme: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Get a Clue

I work with one of those people. You know....the ones who love to hear themselves talk...the ones who feel they work (or produce - there is a difference) more than they do...the ones who annoy the h-e-double hockey sticks out of everyone else...the ones that are new to the job so they feel that they have to prove something as is noted by the fact that when on a business call, they speak very loud but whilst on a personal call, they speak in hush tones (sorry for the run-on sentence Hilda & Toni). And while I don't see the person when I look in the mirror, I do accept as much culpability as if I did.

You see...I helped the guy get hired. He was working for our company but in a different department and had submitted a resume with HR for an opening in our dept. He hadn't heard anything - go figure. I met him in the lunch room and I thought the guy was affable - at first. So, I dropped a copy of his resume on the big boss' desk. HE-GOT-HIRED. Our immediate manager is quite savvy and I'm not just saying that because she might be reading this...and I imagine it's only time before the planets realign and things happen as they shall.

Friday Shuffle: The Feces is Hitting the Proverbial Fan Once More

Yep, at the office I am once again up to my eyeballs in...work. You miss it, don't you Toni? If my trail of postings is any indication, you can gather that I got busy on Tuesday and will remain busy until.....well, let's just be thankful for the moments at home in between family time and sleep. So, squeezing in 2 quick posts, once a few minutes ago, which was technically yesterday, and another now in the wee hours of Friday morning (12:01 AM)...here is the Friday Shuffle.

Take 'er away. Fre-ZZZzzzZZZzzz

1. "Over The Hills And Far Away" by Led Zeppelin. I yearn for retirement which is far away and requires me to be over the hill. Guess I'll wait.
2. "Stereo" by John Legend. This guy is the hibbidy jibbidy.
3. "Suffer The Children" by Tears for Fears (off of their "The Very Best Of Tears For Fears" album). Huh? Honestly, did this album need to be more than 2 tracks long?
4. "Turn The Page" by Bob Seger. I remember jamming to this song in Elementary school - well, as much jamming as one could expect from a little white kid with no rhythm.
5. "Gone", by Ben Folds. Why isn't this guy (and his group) better known?
6. "I Don't Believe", by Paul Simon. I don't believe he put out such a wanker of a song.
7. "Leave a Little Room For God", by Neil Diamond. Indeed! Whether you call him (or her) God, Allah, Yahweh, Jehovah, or Fred...just do it.
8. "Fins", by Jimmy Buffet. This is what could happen to you if you don't head the words of the previous selection!
9. "The Man Comes Around", by Johnny Cash. Look out for the man!
10. "She Bop", by Cyndi Lauper; which I shall retitle as "He Bop" as I bop right off to bed!

Nite, Nite!

The Weekend Recap

Okay, so it's only 7:47 am Sunday morning, therefore technically the weekend isn't over yet, but it seemed as good as any title for a posting. I went to work yesterday and the project was not going smoothly. So "not going smoothly", in fact that at 3:00 pm, semior management was on a conference call with us and decided to roll back our implementation. What does this mean. Well, it means that there was a whole bunch of finger pointing as to which area caused the multiple failures, and yes, some fingers were pointed in my direction. It also means that thousands of man hours are for not as we will now have to analyze the failures and remap a solution. The silver lining? I don't have to go into work today.

What else is going on?
Well, something most of you don't know about me is that I am a member of Weight Watchers. I had been in WW before (prior to our first son's birth) and I lost 45 pounds in 6 months. Note: The photo on my blog is from then, which was when I was at my lowest weight in a decade. I then forgot everything I had learned from the "program", that's what us WWs call it, and I had gained everything back in 3 years plus another 10 pounds.

I rejoined October 26 and, as of the Monday before Christmas, I lost 26 pounds. I have since put on 4 pounds and have not been on program, but will start anew tomorrow morning - my meetings are on Mondays. I will let you all know how I am doing.

Bad News Shuffle

I learned today that I have to work this weekend. I work in a typical Monday to Friday, 9-to-5, office and working weekends are not the norm so it's kinda a bummer when I have to. One my current projects has required that I work 3 weekends in the last four months - yuck! So with a bit of bad news to share with you all, here is a Friday night shuffle to hopefully pick up our spirits, well at least mine anyways.

Take 'er away, Fred!

1. "Look Around" by Blues Traveler - nice song, not sure what it's about...but nice none-the-less
2. "Feelin' Groovy" by the best musical duo ever known to mankind, aka Simon & Garfunkel
3. "Tracks Of My Tears" by Michael McDonald. I prefer the better known version of this by whatchyamuhcallit, Hilda? [That would be Smokey Robinson and The Miracles - Hilda]
4. "Long Ride Home" from the soundtrack for "Elizabethentown", by Patty Griffin. A fantastic soundtrack! Not a bad movie, either. But, akin to "Brother Where Art Thou", I think the music beats out the movie.
5. "Lakewater Hair" by Minnie Driver, yeah, she sings too!
6. "Promise" by Violent Femmes. Wow, memories of my mispent youth just came flooding back! 7. "3x5" by John Mayer, I prefer "Your Body Is a Wonderland", or "My Stupid Mouth", but then again, I'm not selecting these songs, Fred is; hence, why it's called The Friday Shuffle.
8. "Thank You", by John Mellencamp. Two Johns in a row...there is a joke in there somewhere.
9. "Desire" by U2.
10. "Storms" by Fleetwood Mac. One of their sleepier songs; a nice way to close the shuffle on a Friday night when I should retire to bed early, you know, that whole have-to-work thing tomorrow.

With minutes to spare

It's time to leave work and go get my son, soon to be referred to as son number one, from daycare. But having not blogged since Tuesday, my obligatory responsibilities to blog are pulling at me, or is that Hilda?

With work being crazy, still; the wife being lovelier than ever; number one son being awesomer than ever (and yes, we're making up words here) I am feeling very blessed. So with happy thoughts extended out to you, please enjoy this Friday Shuffle.

1. "Bamboleo" by Gypsy Kings
Okay so I don't have the physical energy to get into this song right now, but in my head I am tripping the light fantastic. Or am I just tripping over the lights fantastically?

2. "The Way You Look Tonight" by Tony Bennett
This song would get me so smacked....and what, I looked like dog poo last night?

3. "What Would You Say" by Dave Mathews Band
Way to rock it out, harmonica and all.

4. "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zeppelin
This song was one of my favorites in high school and for no particular reason and the memories are flooding back.

5. "Obladi Oblada" by the Beattles
Can we say whipped?

6. "She's In Love With The Boy", by Trisha Yearwood
Eh.

7. "Looking Out My Door", by CCR
Acid anyone?

8. "Cry! Cry! Cry", by Johnny Cash
Sing it Johnny!

9. "Elvis Presley Blues", by Gillian Welch

10. "It Don't Mean A Thing", by Ella Fitzgerald
Finishing my week by finishing my shuffle with a classic. Now, daz whut I'm talkin' 'bout.