You Probably Didn't Care to Know

Today, I spent part of the day writing and employment ad and then placing it on Monster.com. I'm short-staffed and just gave notice to another person, so I have to act quickly to get some folks on board so I can train them ASAP so they can be productive. Another part of my day was following up on un-done work for a particularly good client that I want to keep...but for which I have done too little of late. Too busy trying to put out raging forest fires in other quarters. Madness. Madness. Madness. Madness. Madness. Madness. Madness. Snap out of it!

True to form, the brilliant blue skies that were forecast for today turned menacing by mid-afternoon and then let loose another episode of raging winds and torrential rain. I was too busy to even look outside, but I heard my staff talking about it and overhead conversations about running to parking lot to retrieve umbrellas from cars. By the time I left the office, at a very early 5:35 pm, the skies had once again calmed and the sun was bright and blazing. Now, at 7:45 pm, the throaty growl of thunder is again rolling through the land and I'm expecting another bout of nature's burst of fascinating energy.

For reasons too complex to get into here, my wife and I decided to do a comparative taste-test this evening, comparing Gran Marnier with Triple Sec. Being the naive one I am, I had lived my entire life assuming the two were essentially interchangeable...both were, I thought, orange-flavored liqueurs. By the time we had both tasted the two of them, we had accumulated a bit more wisdom. Gran Marnier tasted, to me, like a hellishly sweet brandy with a slight flavor of orange and the stinging bite of brandy. Triple Sec, on the other hand, was like a hellishly sweet syrup with a distinct flavor of oranges gone bad and the smoothness of chocolate milk. Neither are suitable for human consumption by themselves. Triple Sec is suitable for drinking with good quantities of tequila and lime juice. I cannot imagine anything that would make Gran Marnier drinkable. Is it just my untrained palate?

My car's 10th birthday is approaching. The State of Texas informed me, via mail, that it's time to get new tags for the beast (who I've still not yet named, not really) soon. As I was going through some automobile paperwork in some old files, I came to learn that I have NOT driven my current automobile more miles than any previous one. I only have 152,000+ miles on it. According to the sales documentation on my last one, it had more than 158,800 when I traded it in. So, all my hooopla about keeping my cars longer and longer the older I get and, more importantly, my loud hoots about my current car having the most miles ever....it was all a fantasy. I must continue to drive the beast for many more miles before I can legitimately claim any records. Snarl, snap.

I've been able to confirm a few more of my upcoming trips...or, in some cases, to confirm that no trip is necessary. Next month, I'm in Dallas all month long. Then, a trip to Chicago in September, San Francisco in October, and that, in all likelihood, will comprise my business travel for the rest of the year. Something always comes up, but I doubt it will this time. It's unlikely I will make a trip to Bangkok in November, despite having an interest in going...I've been hammering my client aobut spending too much money and needing to put the brakes on spending, and I think I have been successful, to the extent that I won't be invited to make the trip. Who wants to fly to Bangkok for 36 hours of meetings, anyway? I may insist that my wife accompany me on a frequent-flyer funded trip someplace exotic later this year, though.

Enough of this, the thunder is getting aggressive and I'm not in the mood to have my computer cooked by a beautiful bolt of lightening.