Wanna know SOME of the reasons I'm grumpy?

1. Idiots, morons, and simpletons from my client call and e-mail me way too damned many times every day.
2. The f*cking "mainframe" computer my application runs on is slower than a four-year-old Pentium 3 laptop. It's got eight processors, but they each run at 500 MHz. (A modern laptop runs four times faster.)
3. My employer announced last week they're laying off almost two-thirds of our Charlotte staff over the next nine months. They're shifting the work overseas to people who don't have a clue and don't give a damn.
4. I'm employed through April 2010 (the "long term plan") but I'm certain they'll change their tiny little narrow minds on a whim sometime before then.
5. They really don't care whether they retain our client or not. When the idiots overseas screw things up, they'll blame it on us in the US for not having analyzed, documented, and/or managed it correctly.
6. I have very few moments of quiet at home. If it's not the dogs always barking, it's the never-ending squawk of the worst possible television you can imagine.

I'm open for suggestions, if anyone is still reading this...

My mind is rarely quiet

It's a rare moment when my mind is at rest. E-mail, voice mail, and phone interruptions all day make it difficult to think clearly at work. Television and dogs barking make it difficult to think at home. Some nights it takes hours to fall asleep. Last weekend I woke up at 3 am with the answer to a problem at work and it took another hour to fall back asleep. I'm staying up late tonight so I can sleep late tomorrow morning. They've scheduled a 6 pm conference call so I'll go in late and stay late for the call. At least it will be sort of quiet from 5 to 6 while I'm waiting.

Good thing I got started on the desk

Because the weather has been wet, cold, sleet, snow, and wind ever since. It's waiting for the first coat of varnish, and it's just too damned cold to apply it, even though it's going to get rough-sanded and covered with another coat later. At least it's up on sawhorses under the garage, so it's not getting hit with any of the weather, and it's dry and clean. The two coats of stain are doing a fairly good job of protecting it at this point, but it will definitely be soaked in / penetrated by the time I get around to varnishing it.

Remember that chair I refinished?

Saturday afternoon I started working on the desk. The top and both sides were sanded and wiped with stain Saturday afternoon. There was a high spot in the veneer on top and I sanded through it. :( I think the worst things about refinishing furniture are: a) the dust from sanding, b) my swollen fingers after holding the sander for hours, c) spending three hours working on it, and d) still having six to nine hours more before it's ready for varnish. The advantage of working on this desk as opposed to the chair is that it's all flat surfaces. Unfortunately, it's much larger and there are a lot more of those flat surfaces to refinish. At least the sandpaper was only seven bucks, and I still have stain and varnish left over from refinishing the chair. Paying someone else to do the work would have been ridiculously expensive, and I doubt they'd have worked out some of the rougher spots.

Ah, the rare joy of peace and quiet

Why? Because the wife left the house to pet-sit for someone else's dogs. That means our three won't be whining, barking, or fighting for attention. Sophie, Lola, and Bip are Yorkshire Terriers (sometimes known as Yorkshire Terrors) and are the sweetest babies in the world, except when mommy's home. Then the slightest noise elsewhere in the house sets them off to barking ridiculously. And mommy doesn't think that's a problem (but I certainly do.) The dogs know I don't tolerate that kind of behavior, so they're almost perfect when mommy's gone.

So, I've got thirty to forty-five minutes of peace. And that's a wonderful (and rare) thing.

Merry New Year

Let's be optimistic for just one day. 8^)

I definitely want this year to be better than the last, for SOOOOOOOO many different reasons:
politics - bleh.
stocks - yuck!
work - !@#$%&)*[+@!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Merry Ramahannukwanzamas

My holiday wishes for you:

I wish you all the peace of mind I've rarely ever enjoyed.

I hope your family appreciates and loves you for who you are.

I pray you never endure the unending legions of stupidity and ignorance in your lives that I encounter on a daily basis.

Be happy . . . you deserve it.