Office Time

It was announce the other day that three actors from the show The Office will be making appearances at our local minor league baseball team this summer. Kevin! Creed! David Wallace! Last year Stanley was here and we went out to see him. Well, stand in line, pay some money, say a quick hi, and … Continue reading Office Time

Elf

Tonight was Elf night. The night we watch the movie Elf as part of our annual Christmas movie watching festival. As tradition dictates, chili was served for our yearly visit with Buddy the Elf. Why chili? Well, many years ago our daughter had her friend Olivia over to spend the night on a December Saturday. … Continue reading Elf

Falling Apart

Ouch. My tooth has been bothering me lately. I may have a cavity. Or I may just have a sinus thing going on. Sometimes it hurts in my tooth, sometimes in the one above it. Other times it doesn’t bother me at all. Sometimes it gets all – yikes – when something cold hits my … Continue reading Falling Apart

Marathon Day

It’s back! One of the best days of the year! The day where there are multiple NCAA basketball games on constantly from noon to midnight. All day long of close games, buzzer beaters and upsets. Or we can hope. Of course, it’s a lot more fun when you have a horse in the race, but … Continue reading Marathon Day

Tis the Season for….

  • CPE Classes: Being a CPA, I have to complete 40 hours of continuing professional education per year. Throughout the year I take a bunch of hour long free cpe webinars to get a lot of my hours, but every year I get to kick off the holiday season with a two day local conference full of exhilarating accounting talk. I’ve been going since my first job out of college a million years ago. It’s fun getting out of the office for a few days and seeing old colleagues, but it gets real boring real fast. It’s always the Thursday and Friday before Thanksgiving and it’s always decorated up for Christmas. Like Christmas Town decorated. For a number of years we were leaving right after this conference for a Thanksgiving week at Disney World. That made the conference exciting because I was done with work and leaving for fun right after. Unfortunately, it has made the years we weren’t going to Disney World pretty depressing, because all I had to look forward to was discussions on lease accounting, fraud, and effective excel shortcuts. This is one of those years.
  • Potluck Lunches: Why, why, why, why? Why do we have to make work even worse by making things more complicated and less fun? A day is always picked 2 or 3 days before the holiday to force us to stay in for lunch and have to eat everybody’s crappy food. Then we still have to come in to work for those few days after and act like we haven’t already celebrated. If we have to do this thing, why can’t it be on our last day of work? Celebrate, leave, holiday. Nothing about this is fun. The list of what to bring, the politics of the nazis who organize it, the money spent, the dragging in of your food item, and the realization that after all that effort – your dish was barely touched…
  • Being Reminded that the Homeless Only Need Food and Shelter During the Holiday Season: I mean, that’s what all the charities and media stories tell us, right? It’s almost Thanksgiving, so bring that food item to the food bank collection boxes at your local event! The homeless have plenty to eat the rest of the year, but come Thanksgiving and Christmas….
  • Holiday Decorations: And the complaining that they are not religious enough, thus we must do the kind, understanding, and charitable thing and – Boycott, Boycott, Boycott! Just as Jesus would’ve done.
  • Concerts!: My daughter plays the violin and piano, so for the next month we will be treated with no fewer than 4 holiday season concerts and recitals. Holiday music, dressing up, new outfits, rehearsals, churches, racing to venues after work and school, coordinating family and friends, crying kids in the audience. But also a lot of really great performances…
  • Illogical Behavior: Now, it is illogical to bring a live tree into your house, wear really ugly sweaters, cover your house in lights, spend tons of money, listen to songs over and over again that you don’t really like, go outside in the cold and sing, and hang out with a bunch of relatives? Right? Right? No?
  • Drinking: See above.

Continue reading “Tis the Season for….”

Travel Plans

Well, it’s finally here. Summer! A great time to get out of the craziness of everyday life of work and politics and insane people – of bills and yard work and traffic – of the news and the slow move to civil war and the coming complete destruction of everything. And what better way to … Continue reading Travel Plans