NOT SO WEGMAN

Over the holiday, Hannah and her family came to visit for a few days. It was really nice having them here (and even nicer that I didn't have to travel). The three of them stayed at my sister's house where Hannah took full advantage of the fenced-in back yard. Hannah of course is my parent's dog, and for reasons that I don't fully understand, I'm extremely allergic to her. I've always had animal allergies, but I was still able to have cats and dogs as pets growing up. Even now when I visit friends with pets, I may sneeze and wheeze a little bit, but I'm usually able to tuff it out. There's something about Hannah that's different. She and I just can't seem to be in the same room together. When she's around, I almost immediately go into an asthmatic fit. Fortunately, the weather here in Maryland has been very mild, and so I figured out that if I spent about 20 minutes in the house, and then 20 minutes outside, I'd be OK. Of course, when I went outside, Hannah wanted to join me, and so we spent a fair amount of time taking photos, chasing the stick and listening to the neighbor's dogs bark. Still, it was quality family time, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

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IT'S LIKE ART

So I'm still upstairs at my temporary seat on the 9th floor, and I've had to work four of the last five weekends. I've noticed that there's a funny thing that happens (or doesn't happen) in the office on Saturday and Sunday - the trash doesn't get emptied. Now of course I'm perfectly capable of running the trash down the hall and dumping it, but because I've been so busy, it just seems pretty low on my priority list. Last weekend, three of us were in the room nearly every waking hour of the weekend, and the trash really started piling up. At one point we considered dumping it, until we realized that we were creating some form of art. So, we let it go, and the pile grew and grew. It finally got dumped on Monday night, and we were still in the room when the cleaning person came in, looked at the trash and just shook her head. I'm quite certain that she hates us.

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IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN

Yep, as I drive home, I see that oh-so-subtle reminder that it's the holiday season once again - it's "The House That Christmas Shat Upon." I said it last year, and I'll say it again - this display would make Clark W. Griswold blush.

The crowds haven't really gathered yet, but they soon will. In another week, there will literally be busloads of people wandering around, posing for photos, staring at the lights, and wondering "What the hell?"

I can't wait to see if the neighbors retaliate. Last year one of them put up a giant inflatable Grinch in their front yard which I though was absolutely brilliant.

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KEEPING COOL

It has been a crazy few weeks. At work I'm the lead designer on a major project that has required 100% of my focus. The hours have been very long. Last week alone, I logged over 94 hours. Saturday was the deadline for us to sing off on the material and we had to have it to the printer by Sunday morning. We had to work around the clock, but after a 26 hour work day, we got it all done, and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. For this project, it was important for us to be close to the authors, and so we temporarily set up desks in a conference room on the 9th floor. We decorated the area with a bunch of fun lights and my old inflatable moose head. But this room gets really hot after hours and on weekends, and so the company rolled in a "portable" air conditioner that used to cool the server room. This thing looked like a robot from the 1950s, but it got the job done. Best of all, it does tricks! Here you can see how a beach ball hovers in mid air over the cold air blower. Who'd believe it? There is truly never a dull moment there.

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