Captain Water Cooler

For lunch I always go to the kitchen to fill-up my cup with water to get me through my lunch break. For the past week, the water cooler has conveniently been empty by the start of the lunch hour, which means that for the past week I’ve had to replace the cooler for the office just so that I can get my cup of water. I’ve still retained a lingering cough from my trip, so recently having water during lunch has become more of a necessity. Now, I don’t mind replacing the cooler every now and then and will probably do it every other week or so on a regular basis because I like to drink water (especially during the summer). However, things are getting a little carried away here.

After the first two days in a row in replacing the cooler, I thought I would delay my lunch hour by several minutes in hopes that another individual would face the same predicament that I had and would do the act for me. These unselfish gestures seem to be few and far between when it comes to the water cooler, and so I breakdown into giving in to the water cooler replacement job. I can’t explain why it’s successfully fallen on my designated lunch hour to be completely drained for such a long time and I’m one cough away from fighting the whole thing out.

Well today I got my cup of water 45 minutes earlier than normal so as to beat the system, and even though the level was precariously low, I managed to get my water without having to completely drain the system or having to replace it. I was glad to get rid of that burden from my lunch schedule. After lunch I had a meeting up in one of the conference rooms in another building and as we were waiting for the room to clear up from another meeting I thought I’d get a cup of water for the upcoming meeting. Much to my chagrin the water cooler over there was completely empty of liquid. Despite thinking that I had beat the system it turns out that the system outsmarted me. I just can’t win around here. I guess as the local reliability guy it’s my job to ensure the water is always replaced now. It’s sort of like my at work superpower; a very lame at work superpower at best.

One-Year Anniversary

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my current employment. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been a working stiff for a year now. That means a year’s worth of waking up at 5am, long commutes, and many, many meetings. Of course, it also has translated into 5 weeks of vacation time spent in 6 different countries, so I can’t really complain.

I guess this isn’t how I pictured myself after a year of work – there’s still so much to learn and I’ve got many opportunity’s for growth. If nothing else, I’ve at least adapted to the working world in terms of learning its "universal reliability processes" as well as its "optimistic" jargon. A year has gone by very fast and I’m currently amazed that 2006 is about half over already.

So here’s to one year of employment under my belt and to another fine year ahead!

Chambet

On Saturday night, the topic of root beer floats came up in conversation amongst our group of friends. I don’t know why it came up (I was probably in a parallel conversation of sorts) nor do I know how it led to champagne, but before I realize it someone has put two and two together suggesting champagne floats. I made a joke how you could have them in flutes to get “flute floats” and somehow expected it to stop there – in the realm of Jokeland. Little did I realize the determination behind our group in the pursuits of scientific experimentation and the next thing I know people are scrambling to find champagne and ice cream. Aside from the novelty of the idea, the thought of actually having a champagne ice-cream beverage didn’t conjure up the most pleasant images in my mind, but I wasn’t about to stand in the way of such scientific fervor. Fortunately, instead of ice cream we found three cartons of sorbet. And thus the now infamous “Chambet” dessert-beverage was born. Interestingly enough, the sorbet flavors actually complimented the champagne flavors rather nicely (especially the tropical fruit). It felt almost elegant having a “Chambet” and it might become a repeat attraction at future parties. Just try to order one at a bar and see what kind of reaction you get.

Death In An Empty Pool

Why is it that in most of my dreams involve people chasing me or trying to kill me? Last night some guy tried to get rid of his girlfriend and several of her friends (myself included?) by planting an explosive on an elevator. While leaving the building the entire group was anxious, so when we all couldn’t fit in the elevator together I opted to take the stairs down, much to the chagrin of the others. Gripped in fear, they all followed me down the stairs instead. When we got to the first floor, I heard an audible beeping sound that could only be an explosive setting off. We took cover and I watched in almost slow motion as the stairwell/hallway erupted in shrapnel and flames. I could see the orange of the fire but could not feel any of its heat. My alarm woke me shortly thereafter, which can be somewhat of a disturbing sound after already hearing one electronic beep. I can’t explain it, but I feel like most of my dreams recently involve a lot of chasing and near-death experiences. Let’s just hope there’s no foreshadowing there.

As for strange occurrences in the real world, I came home last night from seeing “Over The Hedge” to see a rubber hose carrying water from our backyard to the gutter. Our pool is being drained in order to clean-up the water or some other explanation my father tried to tell me last night. Oddly enough, there’s something somewhat morose about seeing your pool drift down the street through the gutters of the neighborhood. With each cascading water drop tumbling through the storm drains you can almost see and hear the memories you’ve had in the pool being literally flushed down the drain. Of course, waking up to an empty pool is somewhat unusual as well; however not as sad or eerie. An empty pool always reminds me of the “That 70’s Show” episode of the party in the deep end of a drained pool and how that could possibly be fun (or at least amusing). As long as people don’t completely lose themselves and go all “golden god!” on me. Or I dream of my demise in the empty pool.

Picture Box Tour of Europe

A week is not enough to recover from my European voyage and one post is not enough to describe it all. The current photo tour of Italy-Austria-Germany-Prague runs about 2 hours long and the abbreviated tour goes for about 30 minutes. But to simplify it all I have now uploaded the pictures onto my photos page for all to see. Of course, all the stories behind some of the photos are lost and there are some things a photo can't capture, but looking through these will at least get you some idea of what we experienced while over there. Just so that you're not completely on your own I thought I should give just the short-short tour of the trip with the assistence of some key photographs:

In our short stay in Rome we did get to see the Pope in his little Pope-Cart.

In Florence I recreated one of my more infamous poses with some of the local art.

Next up was a short stop in Venice with the famed canals and gondoliers.

We left Italy and headed towards the Austrian Alps where we spent a couple days in Salzburg, home of Mozart and the Von Trapps. "The hills are alive...."

In Germany we stopped in the medieval town of Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber where our nightwatchman tour guide told us about the town's history as well as to go to Hell (the pub he's pointing at).

I thought I'd sneak in a photo of the choir we were following across Europe. Here they are performing at a church in Leipzig during the German leg of our tour.

After hitting the German hot spots of Hof, Eisenach(?), and Wittenburg we set off for the Czech Republic to visit Prague, where we would end our tour. I was pretty sick once we got here so I didn't get to see much of the city, but what I did see I enjoyed.

By the end of the tour we had covered a lot of ground, yet through it all, we made sure that we always had plenty to drink.

This concludes the short "picture-box tour" of Europe, but there is so much more that cannot be captured here. If nothing else check out the rest of the pictures for further detail and I am still willing to give guided tours with stories to those who request. Only 2 Euro charge!

The 200-Club

I've noticed that this is my 200th post for this website, which seems like a rather remarkable accomplishment from someone who is as lazy and procrastinatory as myself. All I can say to that is many happy returns and here's to another 200 (or so).

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I am back from my "summer vacation" as it were. I had loads of fun during my two-week stay throughout Europe where I ate some good food, drank some good wine/beer, heard some good music and encountered many misadventures along the way. I took about 400 pictures by myself while over there and the current slideshow tour is going at about 2 hours right now. But hopefully sometime this week I will have a condensed version of the trip up and will have all my pictures loaded online for all to see. Of course the best way to find out about the trip is to come ask me yourself!