Good weather has finally hit Seattle. RO and I regularly enjoy wine on the deck while the sun sets.

Politics and Management II.

At work, one of the guys at my level knows he hasn't had a great year. I like this guy and don't want bad things happen to him, so I was hoping to put a good word from him into my boss.

When I started doing so, my boss quickly asked, "Who is more valuable to us, him or you?" I hate that question. It hints that unless I answer carefully, I'll be the one at the bottom of the list.

An earth quake happened near my home town in Ontario, Canada. It was a 5.0, small by west coast standards, but big for an area that rarely has them, nor is prepared for them.

No one I know is hurt. I've seen some photos of damaged buildings. Mostly it seems to be an opportunity to call friends and ask "Did you feel the earthquake!"

Two of our friends celebrated their birthday's last week, so that had a large birthday dinner on Saturday. It was a great experience. Expensive, but worth it.

Afterwards RO & I went to the local bars. RO ran into a man, visiting from Arkansas whose last name was Mathews. It just so happend that RO was wearing a sweat shirt with "Mathews Inc." on it. So, RO swapped his sweat shirt for the guys shirt.

Work has been very stressfull lately. It seams that everything important is due at once.

Yesterday and today, we are 'calibrating' our employees-- evaluating all the employees for bonus, raises & promotion. It's very contentious-- one of the managers stormed out of the meeting when the debate around a particular employee didn't go the way he wanted.

I suspect today will be just as combative. Rumor has it that one of the managers has been trying to hide a failure. I work closely with the manager involved so I have to investigate, have an opinion and ultimatly take sides. If I'm not carefull, the manager in question could make it difficult for my employees to get bonus or promotions, so I have to enter this debate with backup.

Rain, rain...

The weather in Seattle has been unseasonably wet. I know Seattle has a reputation for rain, but May received almost double the average May rain. June is on the same path. June usually gets 1.5 inches of rain. So far June 2010 has had 1.57 inches.

Tuesday evening, Clem & Bates were over for dinner. As usual we had a wonderful time even though we drank too much.

We all agreed that at somepoint we have to live where it's Sunny.

Tommy, how sunny is LA?

All is busy here. I know nothing about the arraignments for RO's sister's funeral. I don't think RO knows either. RO said that when other family members have died, they were just buried with no proper funeral. Maybe that's just the way his family operates.

It's the opposite of how my family operates. Everyone who died had a wake, a funeral and a post funeral reception. Death is very social. There is some grieving, but mostly it's a somber get-together.

RO's sister died about half an hour ago. RO said she was in a lot of pain and that it's for the best that she's gone. When RO said that I could tell he was on the verge of crying.