“All things natural” is the new sexy.  Chemicals = bad.  Organic, free-range, dye-free, not tested on animals that aren’t totally ugly – you name it, “natural” is in vogue.  While there are perfectly safe chemicals we ingest or apply on ourselves, there are others that are probably best left alone.  Organic isn’t the be-all-to-end-all and there is definitely going to be an issue in the very near future where we will be presented with the dilemma where, if everyone demands organic everything, how will that be feasible given the massive economies of scale most items that reach us are required?  Keep ...

It looks like Columbus Day is still the targeted date for metro Atlanta to begin having a normal supply of gas.  Most gas stations (at least one by our home and on my way to work) are still completely wiped out and when they do get gas (usually only regular blend), the lines form immediately.  The two gas stations that I saw that had gas yesterday had lines of ¼ mile into the street.  Dekalb&l ...

Periodically I will “cellar” some stronger beers since they get better with age.  Obviously I don’t have a wine room so the basement closet is where they go.  It’s also where I store the extra homebrewed beers that I have made.  To be honest, I’ve been surprised I haven’t had a bottle explosion due to over-carbonation or some other factor.

I guess I got lucky when I filled up my tank prior to leaving for Las Vegas (September 10).  In order to avoid having to fill up the morning I had to return to work, I wound up saving almost 50 cents a gallon due to the price hike after Hurricane Ike had it’s way with the Gulf Coast.  I also was fortunate that I didn’t have to fill up, as the supply of gas started t ...

For the past two years, Ally has LOVED the greeting cards that play songs.  We’ve saved the past few years’ worth and she randomly plays with them quite often.  So it was no surprise that she wanted to get a music card for Megan’s birthday (which is today but we celebrated on Saturday).  Ally was with one of her grandmothers when they went card shopping.  Turns out grandma wasn’t paying too much attention because when Megan opened up the card in front of everyone, it had Mr Garrison from

If Vegas could be summed up in one scene, it was the one in the airport terminal while I was waiting for my flight back to Reality.  I was facing the window, looking out at the planes and mountains.  On the floor to my immediate right was a guy napping.  On the floor to my immediate left was a guy sprawled out and also sleeping away the debauchery.  One of the guys had a wife with an annoying Fran Drescher-like voice who was commiserating to her mom on her cellphone how many thousands they lost. 

I’m back from Vegas.  A bit worse for the wear, of course, but still back in one piece with my dignity still intact.  I knew it would be a good weekend when, at the first slot I put a dollar into (it was a nickel slot at the Palazzo), I wound up winning $176!  Even though I rarely gambled, the weekend just got better after that.

I purposely didn’t take a picture of what I saw when we went for our family walk the other night but a sign I saw cracked me up.  Apparently his lawn has been the target of animals who evacuate their larger-than-normal bowels on the grass.  There was a sign labelled “Please keep your HORSE off my lawn”.  What made it amusing was he took the time, in front of the sign, to place one of these Herculean-sized dog dumps on top of a paper towel in order to highlight size and color of the offending organic material.

There were employees in this row yesterday.

Today.  Tumbleweeds.

Today’s blog post has once again been postponed due to ANOTHER Reduction In Force at work.  This time it was 20% of the company.  And once again I survived.  This one hurts the most though.  Our office alone lost 33% of its workforce today and some of the people let go were ones I really enjoyed working with.