It's funny to me...

Hopefully I can make you all laugh with at least one of these things. I will start with my new Blog picture. I was getting on the elevator to head downstairs (That's right I used elevator and stairs together) and I noticed a stack of pallets sitting on the floor. One of them had H1 burned into the side of it. When i got downstairs I asked Coworker R if the camera was in the lab (it comes and goes) and he said it was. So when I returned to the lab I noticed they were still there. I grabbed the camera and rushed back to get a picture. And I'm glad I did because 20 minutes later there were 10 more pallets stacked in front of the H1 pallet. I would have missed my shot. When I came back in the lab, I pulled out the memory card to upload the picture to my computer. While this was going on, two other guys came in the other lab door and one of them said "Whoa, this is strange, I put it right there." Yep, they were standing where I had just picked up the camera from. So then I had to explain the whole "H1" thing.

Yesterday I was chatting with my boss. He has two main interests outside of work. Birds and Golf. He loves to bird watch. His ring tone on his cell phone is a bird chirping. I mean this guy loves birds. So I informed him that my parents had three birds. (Yes I was kissing ass, so what?) I asked him if he owned any birds and he responded "I don't believe in caging animals. I just like to watch them in their natural environment." In an attempt to pull my foot out of my mouth I quickly responded "So, what do you know about this golf thing?" It made him chuckle. I think it was obvious I was trying to back paddle.

W1 took the day off to hang out with Ian on his last day of freedom before the rest of his family arrived. What do you think they did today? Went to the go cart track? No. Dave and Busters? No. Anything else a teenager on summer vacation would enjoy? You tell me. She took him to a museum. That's right, ruin summer vacation with an educational trip to the museum. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think she's going to give him a pop quiz on the Periodic Table when they get back. Okay, I'm only kidding. I'm sure they had fun. I know they were headed into the Imax when I last spoke with her.

Final laugh. Coworker S has a boss we will call Coworker J. There is an autistic guy who works here and basically rides the elevators all day. I see him around all the time and I'm pretty sure he works in the mail room. Apparently he has worked here for many many years. Coworker J said about 10 years ago he got in the elevator with the autistic guy and jokingly asked him if he was going to the 9th floor. The guy started yelling at him, screaming about how there were only 8 floors!!! Fast forward to last Monday. Coworker J gets in the elevator on the 1st floor and presses 8. The autistic guy also got in the elevator behind him and presses 5, 6, and 7. The door opens on 5 and he walks off, leaving Coworker J to sit in the elevator stopping on every floor. After 10 years he finally got him back. You see, patience always pays off.

Oh come on! Coworker S2?

Flashback to almost 3 years ago. "Tha bitch" hit and we moved to H-town. Shortly afterwards I got a job. Not the greatest but it was a job. The boss I had was pretty cool. He was laid back, and didn't really "ride your ass" very much. After about a year the project I was working on was farmed out overseas and I moved to my last position. The boss I had got laid off, along with most of the group.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I walked outside at work and ran into my old boss. His name also starts with an S so he has now been dubbed Coworker S2. Shortly after I told him where I was working he informed me he was hired in another group to "clean up a huge mess" that the group had become. He asked me for a favor that was a little time consuming, but I wanted to help him out. Well that just opened the flood gates. He was a "buddy" on my chat program when he was my boss and he was still there. Since then he hounds me every other day for these favors. And they just get bigger and bigger. Not always in time, but just major stuff. I leave my computer on at work with the chat program connected and I'll come in and have messages waiting from him. Stuff like "Yo, let me know when y'all get in". If I don't respond immediately after I log in (you can see I'm online instead of "away" when I move my mouse) he'll hit me up again. Let me get some coffee and check my email man. I mean really.

It only got worse. I came in one morning and was "chatting" back and forth with him about another "favor" he wanted when my boss came in. My boss sat down and was asking about what I was working on etc... when out of the corner of my eye I saw another chat window pop up. I couldn't very well stop my meeting with my boss to check a chat message so I let it go. But Coworker S2 didn't. When I didn't respond within 30 seconds he called my cell phone. I grabbed it through my pocket and silenced it. About 30 seconds later it rang again. The THIRD time my phone rang rapid fire my boss asked if I needed to answer it. NOT COOL! Mind you, at this point I had only been at the new job for 2 weeks. The next time I saw him I informed him I was in a meeting with my boss, and that was no es bueno! He apologized but didn't stop asking for favors.

Today he was again starting with the favors and I vented to Coworker R about how he wanted more stuff, and would "blow up my phone" if i didn't answer his messages. Coworker S overheard me bitching and asked who I was talking about. I told him who the guy was and our affiliation and left it at that. Later I went outside for a smoke, and apparently didn't answer his message quick enough because my phone rang again 3 times rapid fire. By now I was pretty close to being done with the favors so I didn't answer. When I walked back into the lab Coworker S2 was in there. Coworker S immediately points to him and says "Is this the guy you were talking about?" The look on my face had to be priceless. I played it off as best I could, but I have to say Coworker S actually did me a favor. That comment had to let S2 know his favors were getting old. At the end of the day S2 was still in our lab. I told the other Coworker (who is leaving at the end of the month, getting married, and moving to NOLA actually) that I was going home for the day. All was good until a little after 8:00 tonight. When my phone rang again. IT WAS S2. He called me after he knew I had gone home. Most likely to get a head start on tomorrows favor requests. But that was the last straw. And his last favor. When I see him tomorrow I am going to let him now he has worn out his welcome. Remember kids, no good deed goes unpunished.

As for Coworker S, he is digging his own grave. He was demoted to fill the position of the coworker who is leaving (in like 7 days) and has not made any attempt at learning her extremely hard job. And it has not gone unnoticed. I think he's gonna be in a crappy mood after the ass chewing he's gonna get tomorrow. Our boss was extremely unimpressed when he came by at 5:30 and found the current worker busting her ass while Coworker S had left for the day. Once again avoiding any form of training. I don't think he realizes she is the only person who knows how to do that job and when she's gone none of us can answer any questions. And it's a lot harder to teach yourself a job without anyone to ask when you have questions. I wonder if we're gonna see his picture on failblog, because he is definitely about to fail.

I love being the one who helps karma kick you in the nuts.

The weekend before last we went to Galveston. (Sorry, no pictures, I'm at work.) The waves were decent, breaking around waist / chest level. We spent a few hours down there, then coworker-R came down there and met us on his bike. A few hours later we were headed back up I-45 when, as usual, traffic came to a stop. After inching through traffic for a mile or two I realized 3 of the 4 lanes were blocked off and all traffic had to pass in the left lane. So I put on the blinker and tried to get over. This guy was being a jerk (face) and did not want to let me in. Finally after a minute or two I put the front of the car in his lane and nosed my way in. His response was to pull up real close like he was going to hit W1's car. Now after all the crap we went through getting it fixed last time, I don't think God himself would be able to save this guy from the ass whipping he would have received had he touched her car. It was at this moment that I remembered the jerk (face) who cut my sister off. And that was all it took. After forcing my way in front of him, and his reaction of being, well, just a total dick head. I went ahead and let a minimum of 9 people in our lane. I was waving people in from 2 lanes over. "Naw man, go ahead, come on in." He was fuming back there. But once again, karma is a bitch.

Last week went by really slow. Not a lot went on, but somehow I was super busy, yet the week dragged on. Saturday we got up and picked up Nephew Ian at the airport. And I have to tell ya J, he is definitely your son. The Guac was outstanding, but my favorite quote was in the grocery store. When he was getting the ingredients I informed him we had salsa at the house. His response, "Eh, store bought'll do". I started cracking up in the store.

Last week was not bad at work though. Coworker-S took two days off to go to job interviews, and he was off the entire week before that. So for the most part work has been peaceful. I've been riding the bike every day so I'll probably drive the truck tomorrow. Just because I haven't started it in a week. Don't want all the belts and such to dry rot. Since Ian has arrives we went and played pool at Slick Willies, and we spent a few hours at Dave and Busters. We are enjoying his visit and hopefully he is too.

And the final complaint, my stupid keyboard quit working at home. I went to type something yesterday (A new blog post, yeah, that's it, I'm not being lazy my keyboard just didn't work.) and nothing showed up on the screen. I tried the typical reboot, try a different USB port, etc... Nothing worked. Oh well, life goes on. It's not like it's hard to get a new one. It just sucks because it glows blue and just looks cool. But I guess no matter how cool you may look, if you can't get the job done you need to go. Hmmm, now if certain employees took that hint...

It's almost over.

The longest week ever. But at least Coworker S has been on vacation all week. It has been a much more pleasant environment. And the sad part is, I've had other people mention it to me this week.

Last weekend we went to NOLA to visit for the 4th. And our arterial motive. To pick up my pig. I missed her so much, and I can't rave enough about how much better the bike rides since Chuck "fixed her up". We went for a long ride to Ponchatoula and had lunch and delicious daquaris at a place called "Paul's Cafe".

Driving in Friday took a lot longer than usual, but it was such a fun weekend it was well worth it. We left at 11:00 AM and got in around 8:30 PM. Vidor TX got us good. There was crap all over both sides of I-10 from an 18 wheeler getting in a wreck. And that wasn't the only wreck on that trip. The minivan was after we got into Louisiana.

We made it home Sunday night and I was a little tired and not thinking. So as I was backing the bike up to unload it out of the truck it leaned away from me and fell over. At least it was in the bed of the truck and didn't just fall out onto the ground. One of the things Big J did before selling me the bike was get it painted Lexus IS300 Gray. And W1 being the wonderful wife she is called the local Lexus dealer and went over after work to pick up the perfectly matched touch up paint. I love ya baby!

Once we got back to our newly gated community the fun began. They told W1 that I was not on the lease and could not have a remote to get in the gate until Monday (July 7th). No big deal since they weren't working yet. Until yesterday. When I got home the gate was closed and W1 had to walk out there to let me in. She called when I was up the street and met me there. Once again, I love ya baby! So today she called them to see about purchasing a 2nd remote. She was informed that they had run out, and all the people whose names were on the leases didn't have one yet. But that didn't stop them from locking these people out of their houses. So now the earliest I'm looking at getting one is next Wednesday. Lucky me.

Speaking of the stupid gate, where did these people grow up that have never been through an automatic gate before? We went to pick up dinner last night and it was the first time the gate was active. We pulled up to the exit behind some lady in an SUV. She pulls about 10 feet back from the gate and starts to press her remote. She had her windows up and seemed oblivious to any of her surroundings. She was pressing it repeatedly since we saw the entrance gate open and could hear the box beep over and over every time she pressed the buttons. Finally after baout a minute she starts to inch closer to the gate, still nothing. A little more and her wheels were about a foot from the sensor in the ground. (Yeah, the big box in the concrete that appeared after they closed each side for a day or two and tore up the street. Yep, the one that looks exactly like 90% of the stop lights in Houston.) At this point she gives up and throws it in reverse. W1 immediately hanks and when she looks back to give us a dirty look, she sees both of us frantically motioning for her to pull forward. She finally does and magically the gate opens. She then sped off without even having the courtesy to thank us for showing her how this new fangled technology works. Some people, I swear!