Notival

I chew Trident Cinnamon gum, generally. The past few months, however, it has been fairly scarce on the shelves. To the point where I was having to buy other flavors because it has been several weeks since I saw a package of basic Cinnamon. So, I did what I had to do, and wrote a letter to the makers of Trident: Cadbury Scheppes.

I got this back today:
"We apologize for the difficulty you are having locating Trident.

We have had problems keeping up with the unprecedented levels of demand and to solve this issue, we added production capacity. In order to increase production of our more popular flavors we have also temporarily suspended production of Crystal Frost and Cinnamon in the EZ Close-Pack. We encourage you to shop for Crystal Frost and Cinnamon flavors in the multi-pack bags. In the coming months, you should see higher levels of supply every month since we have now expanded capacity."

So there's what? A motherfucking run on Trident these days? wtf?

Right before I started working for the consulting company that employs me, they were were bought out by another company. That was six months ago. I was the 2nd new hire they did after the buy out. Apparently it was not a very smooth transition, and things are now starting to shake out from that buyout. The manager of the whole Dallas office was either moved out, or moved off on his own. My most immediate contact to the office has resigned. And a few others that had been with the company for several years have also left in the last 3-4 weeks. It's a time of transitions I guess. It doesn't have any real effect on me. I am working, and will continue to do so as long as the client company is happy with my efforts. It is just going to be interesting to see how everything continues to fall out over the next few weeks. It will settle down Im sure, but it may be another couple months. There's still quite a few left from before the buyout, and i know they aren't all happy yet.

Mowed the lawn yesterday. I had barely started on the back when I managed to hit a stump that Ive mowed over a dozen times before. Only this time, something was different, because I didnt just go over it. Maybe I just hit it at the wrong angle. Whatever it was, I hit it good, and totally fucked up the mower blade. I was going to take it to a repair show, but the turnaround time for that was about a week. So I went to Sears and bought a new blade. It seems to be working fine. I was afraid I had stripped the flywheel and really messed up the motor.

Before lunch this morning, I went to the bathroom. (exciting!) Above the urinals, they have flourescent lighting, and while I was standing there, I heard a noise that sounded a whole lot like dripping water. It sounded like it was coming straight from the lights. Ten seconds later, water started to drip through the light fixtures in the ceiling and onto the floor. Im guessing there was some significant flooding in a third floor bathroom this morning. Oddly enough, that isnt the first time Ive seen water coming out through the light fixture. Last time was at a Braum's.

Was in the office last night until just after 10 pm. Had to stay the extra five hours to implement some changes. They didnt all work. It was pretty much as expected. I also had a morning training class. Which wasn't completely worthless. It was just an overall very long day.

When I told the nurse yesterday about my plan to not come in and get blood drawn, she wasn't real receptive to the idea. I basically told her that the hours they kept did not work very well for me. Not opening until half an hour after I get to work, closing half an hour before I leave work, and then closing for the hour that Im at lunch. But she did find another place that I could go which was much closer to work, and open all day. So that is where I went for lunch. It was much easier. No muss, no fuss, no wait. I'll get the INR results tomorrow.

Probably go to the gym tonight. Time to get back into that rhythm.

Thanks be to Mo for this fine link to some rather spectacular mustaches.

When I arrived at work this morning, I had an email from my employer stating that they had booked me for a training class in Maryland. Starting Monday morning, and lasting all week. So, most of my day has been spent trying to get everything arranged so that I can attend that. I'm mostly pissed off at the airlines for doubling their prices.

But it is mostly done now. So, if anyone knows what there is to do in Rockville, MD, Im all ears...

Back from Maryland. Got back in Friday afternoon. Took a much earlier flight than for which I was originally scheduled since we finished class on Friday at about 11 am. All in all, it was a good trip. I think the singular best part may have been dinner on Thursday though. Me and three others from the class went to find a place to eat and found that there was a BDs Mongolian Grill in the area. So that is where we went. Ninsi and I used to eat at BDs all the time here in Dallas until they closed down and completely moved out of Texas. They haven't come back yet, and it still doesn't make sense to me why. BDs is way better than any other mongolian place we have tried.

We also almost got a new dog this weekend. Or rather, Ninsi almost got a new dog. But we didnt. Not yet anyway.

When I started working at my current company just over a year ago, they gave me a laptop and said they were in the process of replacing all the company laptops so I should expect mine to be replaced soon.

Soon is obviously a relative term. I got the new one today. And it is quite a serious upgrade over what I had before. It completely blows away the desktop at home. It's meant for business users, but with the 4G of memory, I think it will easily handle most of the games out today.

And really, isnt that what we want from our laptop? I dont run that many applications on it, most things are done on the web. But I do play games now and again. And this sleek, black baby will serve them up right. And the dvd burner was a nice, if unnecessary, addition.

I have two weeks left with my current employer. After that, I will be with a new consulting company. Nothing much else is changing. But it is a local company, which is nice, since the place I work for right now has completely pulled out of Dallas. That was a big reason for making the switch. They gave me a little more money. Not as much as I would have liked, but instead of dough, I get four weeks of vacation. A week of sick time. And ten holidays a year. So that is all pretty nice.

I know quite a few people at the new place already, so it should be an easy transition. Went to happy hour with them last night. The boss is a good guy, but he must not like it if you have an empty hand, because he made sure you got another beer before you were halfway through the first one. And there was a shot of tequila in there, too.

In other random news, Dethklok is coming to the House of Blues. I think I may have to go. There's no way it wont be fun.

Only about two hours left in the workweek, and I am still employed.
It's been a questionable week here. I work at an airline, so things have been shaky for a while and they have had to lay off a load of people. My group has lost a couple over the past few months, and one more had his last day today.

I get the entire workload of that guy. So, you know, that should equal a little more job security. Hopefully, anyway.
But for now, I am gainfully employed, and that is the important bit. That is really what has had me so busy lately. Ive been taking on more work and barely have had any time at all to myself. It is hard to get work done for people if they wont leave you alone long enough to actually do it. They sit in my cube for a half hour or call me into a conference room for an hour to explain what they want done, or how something should work, but hardly ever give me time enough to do it.

Ive finally started making some progress.

But it is now nearly the weekend and I'll not be thinking of work for at least the next 60 hours.
It's martini time, somewhere...