Work Updates 6/30/10

Work has been stressful. The leadership team scheduled too much software for production. The developer are rushing and making mistakes which increases test time.

The woman I threw under the bus a few weeks ago has managed to alienate most of the department. She’s not answering emails and usually can’t be reached on Friday. She works from home but only lives five minutes from the office. She’s cutting her own throat.

My office mate has been in a fowl mood for at least a week. Yesterday she said she wants to quit but needs the money. Here’s a tip – stop taking vacations and buying clothes.

All of the expensive consultants are gone. None seem to be missed. They left behind an assortment of coffee cups, water bottles and office supplies. I’m guessing they expect us to clean up after them.

That’s all for now.

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As Requested

Here’s one of my pictures from the Wednesday night photo shoot. Jackie’s images are under copy write protection so I can’t post them here. The soon to be opened Four Seasons Hotel is on the left and the new Spire Condominium is on the right. The Convention Center roof is in the foreground. The picture was taken from the roof of the new justice center.

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Updates 6/23/2010

K comes home on Friday. He’ll be home for at least a week this time.

I’ll be assisting Jackie on a twilight photo shoot of the new justice center downtown tonight.

Thursday evening Sheila is hosting a cocktail party for Maureen, our neighbor who is in the Peace Corp with her husband. I’m not sure why Maureen is in town. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.

Tom found a publisher for his book about a famous American opera composer. It will take four to six months of editing before the book goes to press. The first book signing party will probably be in D.C.

Cindi gets her head shaved on Friday. She’s raising money for one of her charitable causes. K and I gave her $100.

Gary is throwing a small birthday cookout for his partner, Dan, on Saturday. They moved to house in the mountains west of Sedalia. It will be a schlep from our house.

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The Party’s Over

Pride Fest was a lot of fun. The parade was almost two hours long. Civic Center Park was packed after the parade. I like going to Pride Fest because it’s for my people. When I was young I never felt like I fit in. Then I figured out I was gay and started going to gay clubs. I finally found my people. Then I realized that many other people hated by people. When I go to Pride Fest I get to be with my people and have some fun.

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Art, Guns And A BMW

I couldn’t wait for the work day to be over yesterday. I was testing two of the most hellacious software packages and they were driving me nuts. To top it off one set of code was written by a new developer and other was written by Chatty Cathy. I found major issues with each package and sent both back for redevelopment. Then I had to listen to Chatty Cathy defend his work. It just about sent me over the ledge.

I finally closed the laptop at three and then had to wait for UPS to deliver a shipment of drugs that needed a signature. UPS arrived around a little before five and then I was off to the gym. The gym was packed with gay guys trying to pump it up for Pride Fest this weekend. After the gym I came home, cooked dinner and lounged around for a while. A little after eight I drove over to Spark to see Kate McGuinness’ new show. She had some fantastic work. I bought three small pieces. Her prices have gone up. I’m happy to see her become even more successful because she’s an extremely talented artist. I was home before ten and in bed by eleven.

Mike called me around eleven this morning to see if I wanted to go to lunch. He was over at crazy Barb’s house going over BMW colors because she wants a new car. Crazy Barb is trading in her 2009 3 series with 1,100 miles on it and I’m considering buying it. Mike tells me to come over to look at the car. I go over to crazy Barb’s where I find Mike sitting on the living room sofa loading a .38 special. We sit down and talk guns. Barb is sitting across from me. She pulls a loaded .357 magnum out from under the chair cushion she is sitting on and hands it to me. At this point I feel like I’m in a strange dream. Next she goes into to bedroom and brings out her favorite hand gun. She hands it to me and takes back the .357. I don’t remember what type of gun it was but it was loaded too. Mike’s tries to convince Barb to go to lunch with us but she declines. She hands me the keys to her BMW. Mike and I take the car to Smashburger for lunch so I can test drive the car. The car drives like a dream. While driving around the pool service calls Mike so we head back to his house to meet the pool boy and I walked home.

So after a rather bizarre midday I now have to settle down and take care of the mundane tasks like cleaning house, going to the gym and working in the yard work. I think the excitement is over for the day.

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Updates 6-18-10

The photo shoot was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and the light was incredible. Jackie got some great shots of Union Station and the Four Seasons Hotel. We made tentative plans to go out every Thursday evening to shoot photos for her next book. I can’t wait.

I wanted to choke the living hell out of my mother this week but I restrained myself. She was complaining about the angst of having to wait until July for her appointment. How fucked up is that? She’s bitching about waiting three weeks for the appointment yet she sat on her ass for three weeks because she couldn’t pull it together to call and make the appointment. My brother made the appointment for her. I don’t feel sorry for her at all. She needs to get a grip and start dealing with the mess her life has become. Do I sound a little angry?

I have to call my dad on Sunday because it’s Father’s Day. My father is a racist so I sent him a card with Obama on the front. I dread the conversation. My father only answers the phone on his birthday and father’s day because he thinks it’s the woman’s job to answer the phone.

I have a mother who constantly plays the victim card and blames everyone else for her problems, a father who is a racist and a stubborn son of a bitch and a sister who needs professional psychiatric help. Thankfully, my brother isn’t fucked up. Aren’t you glad you don’t have my family?

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Passing On Prime Rib and Pussy

Mike called around five last night to invite me to join him, his partner and two male/female couples for prime rib and pussy at Shotgun Willie’s, a local strip club. As tempting as the offer was I declined because I was meeting Jackie at a lecture and book signing at the Tattered Cover in Lodo. Curt Fentress, a local but internationally known architect, was presenting his new book which includes several of Jackie’s photos. The lecture was interesting but the room packed and the air conditioning was not up to par. We didn’t buy the book because Jackie is getting three free copies and is giving one to me. We left the event around 8:30 and walked back to our cars in the REI parking garage. Jackie pointed out how wonderful the light was because the sun was so far north. Jackie regretted not having a camera. We made tentative plans to go back tonight to photograph the downtown skyline but it all depends on the weather and light. Jackie also invited me to join her on a three day twilight photo shoot of the new jail next week. She’s shooting the jail for a major architectural publication. It should be a lot of fun.

I haven’t been on a photo shoot with Jackie for a long time. We have an interesting relationship. We can go months and months without talking or seeing one another. When we do get together it’s like we saw each other yesterday. We can pick up right where we left off. She so interesting and I’ve always been inspired and intrigued by her creativity. I can’t wait to shoot the downtown skyline with her.

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$50 Million Shot To Hell

Today is the third day of the new test cycle and we’re already behind schedule. The developers spent so much time fixing problems with the last load that they didn’t start production on the July load on time. Consequently, I have nothing to test this morning. Even though the test servers were down for several hours yesterday morning I already tested what has been delivered. I’ll need to walk down to the developers to see if they have anything ready for delivery.

Last week I was talking to a peer who works on a diffeent project. She told me the company spent $50 million on a new sales tool that was to be rolled out in June. The project had been postponed and was finally scrapped last week. It was shocking to hear. The company has continued to layoff people since it acquired a portion of a bankrupt Canadian telecom company and yet it wasted $50 million on this project. As shocking as this is it’s not unusual in the corporate world. Then my peer told me that either her project or my project is being killed. She said the company has spent many millions of dollars on her project but they are not seeing the expected results and the users are unhappy with the new tool. They company will either enhance the tool I test and kill her project or try to fix her project and kill my system. Either way there probably will not be a change in headcount. The resources will move from one project to the other. I have noticed that a number of consultants on her project have disappeared over the last few weeks. That could be a good sign for me.

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The Russians Are Coming

While at the gym this afternoon the Russian Rugby team arrived for a workout. I learned two things about the Russian rugby players; they love the mullet and they are not fond of deodorant. I sometimes enjoy the smell of a sweaty man but an entire room full of sweaty stinky Russians was too much. Most of the regular gym members fled the free weight workout area after they arrived.

Denver PrideFest celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. The celebration will be held on June 19 and 20 in Civic Center Park. Organizers are expecting more than 275,000 people. I’m meeting Sue, Gary and Dan on Colfax to watch the parade on Sunday. It will be bittersweet as Hannah was with us last year and was the belle of the ball. She’ll be missed.

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The 19¢ Shirt

It’s Sunday morning and it’s only 49° in Denver. It rained on Friday, most of yesterday, last night and it’s raining this morning. A lot of people are complaining about the wet weather but I love it. It hardly ever rains this much in Denver.

So what’s a guy do to do when he can’t work in the yard and doesn’t want to clean house? Guy goes to the mall and the gym. I went to Cherry Creek on Friday afternoon after hitting the gym for a back and biceps workout. I needed to exchange a pair of pants at Banana Republic and ended up buy three shirts on sale at Macy’s and a trench coat on sale at J. Crew. Saturday I went to Colordao Mills to check out the sale at the Saks outlet store. K got a 30% off coupon in the mail that was begging me to use it. Saks didn’t have much to my liking. They a bunch of Burberry raincoats marked down to $595 from $1,100 but I didn’t bite. I did buy three pairs of underwear at Saks. I scored big at Banana Republic. I bought a $69 shirt for 19¢. The shirt was on the sale rack priced at $16.97 but was 40% off the sale price. That bought the price down to $10.19 with tax. I used a $10 gift card that I got for buying a pair of pants on Tuesday at the Cherry Creek Banana Republic. I only had to pay 19¢ for the shirt. I also bought two wrinkle free shirts at Eddie Bauer that were marked down to $19.99. My final stop was Neiman Marcus. I bought a linen shirt to wear to Pride Fest next weekend. It wasn’t the best bargain of the day but it was marked down $55. After a morning of shopping I had lunch, went to Helena for a haircut, did a cardio workout at the gym, went grocery shopping, cooked dinner, made peanut butter cookies and watched Julie and Julia on demand. No wonder I’m dragging today.

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