Mom has been to the hospital. Last Wednesday she found that her pulse would race to 150 beats per minute if she did any thing but lay down. She stayed in the local hospital for a few days. She is out and ok now. In a few days she is going to a heart specialist. They are considering a pacemaker for her. 

We were burgled.

I want to say we were robbed, but the police officer corrected me twice. Robbing happens inperson. Burgling happens when you are away from home.

Tuesday evening I came home from work. RO was relaxing. I started cooking. After maybe an hour, I went to our bedroom. Drawers were emptied out all over the bed and floor.

It really confused me. I went back to RO and asked him if he was looking for something in the bedroom.

He said "No."

I said. "This is important. Please come to the bedroom."

At that point it started to dawn on me that someone broke into our house. When RO saw the bedroom he realized the same thing. We called 911 and took a look around the house. Yo's room was also turned over. But the living room and office were untouched.

As near as we can tell, the theif took an Xbox 360, a watch and some cash. The weird part is that the thief left many valuables behind-- alcohol, art, jewelry, clothes, tools, a camera, laptops.

When the police officer came, he carefully took pictures and tried to get fingerprints. He mentioned that there were 3 other breakins in our neighborhood that day. They all had the same MO-- electronics and cash were taken, nothing else. The officer suspects it's a local school kid.

I'm not sure how I feel. It could have been much worse, it took an hour to clean up and I will miss the Xbox, but that's it. RO didn't take it well. He got very drunk and hasn't slept well since then.

I am going to get an alarm.

Yo. How he lives is interesting.

Sometimes he rents booths at trade shows and street fairs to sell dips, jerky and pet combs. He also sells them on eBay.

Sometimes he does head hunting for hospitals and clinics. Suppose a hospital needs a temporary RN for a few days or weeks. Yo will find one.

Sometimes he does teeth whitening. Spas will hire him to come in for a day to do on-site teeth whitening. Apparently it only takes a hundred bucks of equipment and no training to do UV teeth whitening. Any one can do it. But if you put the equipment on a nice cart, and dress up in a white lab coat, then spa customers will pay big bucks for it.

Two more things about the roomie.

He and his girl friend like to drink. Now, I've started drinking much more. For the past few nights, the four of us have polished off two bottles of wine a night.

He also sleeps around a lot. He has a friend who is a woman who also sleeps around. I hesitate to call her a girl friend. But they are friends, they also have sex together, but they aren't in a relationship. They both date other people on the side and then tell each other about it.

If Yo knows the girl is on a date he likes to text her nasty messages and send her pics of his dick.

The new roomie-- Yo.

What do I have to say about Yo? He's a friend of RO. He once owned a store near ours, which is how we met him. Yo's store closed. Now he works part time for our store.

After that, I really don't know much about Yo. He appears to be struggling... getting back on his feat after closing his store. That worries me. We've had a succession of roomates who have been struggling to get back on their feet. It always ends bad.

We have a new roommate. He has a very friendly dog, though the dog has spooked our cat. After the dog moved in, the cat stayed on our bed for two days before she finally resumed eating, drinking and using the litter box.

Bib was over for dinner last night. He's doing well, though he still runs himself down too much. He is staying home far too much because he's constantly worried about what people think.

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.