It's been quiet here.

Back at home, my parents neighbor died. She baby sat me when I was growing up. When I was a teen, I baby sat her kids. I'll probably fly there for the funeral.

Merry Xmas everyone.

It's been a good holiday. RO got to see his son again-- first time in 13 years. He is very happy. I'm sure it's much for him to process as well.

We spent much of the day at RO's sister. Ate too much. Drank too much. Played party games. Argued about party game rules. But, we had much fun in the process.

LS & DR spent the day with us. They had no holiday plans.

The old people in my life are getting old. DR is 82. My neighbor M, is also in her mid eighties. Both of them are starting to forget things. Is unfortunate to see women who two years ago were so bright and active slowly slip into dementia.

I'm trying to figure out what my real job is at my day job. My offical title is 'lead' I have half a dozen people working for me.


Todate I've got by by being a good role-model and coaching them around that.


Now, some of my employees are *very* smart, and *very* hard working. I can't be a good role model for them. With a little more experience they will easily surpase my skills. Then where do I fit in?

Clem and Bates held there holiday party in a train car, a restored dome care from the '40s. Good food, good people. And, since Clem and Bates were hosting, there was too much alcohol.

Last night we had dinner with our neighbors, Clem & Bates. As usual, the food was wonderful and we drank too much.

Predinner martini's I always refuse to have more than one, yet Bates makes it happen.

"Oh no thank you. I don't want another martini."

"But I have have half a martini left in the shaker. Please take it!"

"Oh... all right."

Yeah, I'm weak that way.

Dinner is served with several bottles of wine. Then after dinner...

"No more wine for me thanks."

"OK! Let's switch to port."

Even if I am full, bloated, past of the point of nausea, if you put a jigger of port in front of me, I will drink it.

Earin is talking to us again. Earin was our roommate a few years ago. She got behind on her rent and then moved out before paying up.

Earin works near the store and stopped in. When she saw me she sat down next to me and said she wanted to make amends and pay me back-- in the new year.

I am writing this post from my cell phone. My day job bought me a fancy new phone and I am getting addicted to it. But, I am not using it productively. I am checking Facebook every 10 minutes and work email non stop.



Thanksgiving was nice. We had dinner with family.



Today is black Friday . Sales at the store are stong. I won't get my hopes up though.

Happy birthday babe!

This week has been busy. RO and Boone are working late every thing trying to reopen the store in the temp location.

At my day job we rolled out a new project tracking system. The result, of course, was much complaining.

Sometimes I wonder what kind of manager I am. I don't know what my style is. I work on what I believe is important, and I try to ensure that my team has good stuff to work on. But after that...who knows.

Even though I've only been lifting weights a few times a week for a little under a month, I'm starting to see a difference. I can bench press 20lbs more than when I started. I can complete more full bicep curls in a set without struggling.

Regular exercise also helps me focus at work. I'm less twitchy and more capable of sitting still. It also helps with sleep at night, again because I'm less twitchy.

It also helps me worry less about my health.

Tommy, have you got back to the gym yet?

RO and I spend Saturday afternoon in Everett, a navy and port city just north of Seattle. We went to see the Everett Fall Home & Gift show. The show was very small. We were in and out in under half an hour.

So we had lunch at a great pizza parlor and then walked along the water front. The winter rain is setting into Seattle, so I like to go for a short walk everytime there is a break.

Mark has had a chest cold for the past week. It's not getting better. At the same time, he's not so sick that he stays in bed.

I've started lifting weights, stretching and exercising. I find that if I regularly do so, then I sleep well.

For RO, sleep is a constant battle. If he takes sleeping pills he still wakes up for a few hours in the middle of the night. If he doesn't take sleeping pills then he tosses and turns all night. He'll finally fall asleep from exhaustion at around six in the morning.

For a long time I've tried to help RO sleep better. But, to little or no success.

10th Anniversary

The blog is ten years old. Happy birthday blog.

Let's see. What was I doing ten years ago? Hmmm. whining about my love life. Life has changed so much since then.

For me it is kind of fun to spot check entries from years past. I'm sure it's dreadfully boring for everyone else.

October 2005, RO and I were just opening up the store. Man-o-man. We thought we'd be hugely successful way back then.

I had a weak performance review at work. I'm not happy with it. But it's pointless to fight it-- that would be proof I'm looking towards the past and not planning for the future.

A weak performance review may not be the right way to describe it. I'm used to having strong reviews. Yet every time I was promoted, the competition around me grew stronger.

There is some truth to the Peter Principal. Sooner or later you reach the point where your peers are as smart and as hard working as you. Sooner or later you realise that not every one will make it to Vice President.

They've made it clear to me that my performance review is not a "Job in Jeopardy" review, but their assessment of my ability relative to my peers. Somehow, that is not that comforting.

Why do we procrastinate?

Sometimes I think it's self fulfilling. We hear from others how they put off work, or exercise and we subtly adopt those attitudes. Then we talk the same way, and that re-enforces those attitudes in others.

That may be an oversimplification.

I lifted weights today-- for the first time in a very long time. It felt good. And it's not like I put off anything fun to find the time to work out. I know there is lots of time in my life for me to exercise more. I end up watching TV instead. Bad TV. I don't enjoy most of the TV that I watch.

See how little sense my exercise procrastination makes?

It's the fall here in Seattle. Many big spiders are building webs close to warm buildings, trying to eat as much as they can before they lay there eggs and die.

In the back yard two squirrels are building a nest together. I didn't realize that squirrels could be social; in the summer they only fight. But there they were, both pulling leaves and twigs off an alder, and carrying it back to the nest.

One squirrel was very efficient, making a large leap from the nest to the alder, ripping off a large twig of leaves, and then leaping back to the nest. The other squirrel took a longer, more circuitous route to the alder, and brought back fewer leaves.

It's been a busy week. My day job is very full. RO is working hard on re-opening the store.

Last night Clem & Bates had us over for dinner. As always, we drank too much. After decades of work, Bates finally has a schedule where he has weekends off. Good for him.

We discussed yard work. We both have large back yards on steep hills. Keeping such a yard under control is hard work. The hills are too steep to mow. RO and I try to use a brush cutter once a month to keep the bushes under control. Clem and Bates have a more shaded back yard so blackberries and other bushes don't grow as aggressively. They only need to de-bush once or twice a year.

My parents are going though hard times. They are OK, but friends and relatives are not.


They old neighbor commited suicide. He's been fighting cancer for a long time and had a morphene pack to help with the pain. He was using so much morphene that it was no longer effective.

Rather than go in for hospice care, he decided to shoot himself in the head.

My cousin's daugther, who was in a car accident six weeks ago, is still in a coma. Her father is now paralyzed from the waste down.

RO and I have the whole weekend off. This is the first time we've had two days in a row off in a very long time-- not even Christmas since the day after Christmas the store is open.

The weather is wonderful today. It's been bright and sunny. You can tell it's the fall though. Even at lunch the sun was low in the sky. We took a long walk along Lake Washington. I thin I got more sun than I did all summer.

The store is closed. Today is the last day we have to move out. The inventory and most of the valuables are out. There is still a lot of stuff, racking, shelving, boxes, that needs to move.