The Cat's Nuts

Whooo hooo. Sometimes...I even impress myself.

So I finally got the phone call today, letting me know that I got the promotion that I was looking for, so as of today, I am a "Senior Consultant"...don't I feel pretentious and nerdy, but that's okay.

Apparently, I was the highest rated Consultant in our business unit for the year, so that's pretty cool.

On another note, I am FINALLY getting off my project that I've been working on for the past 9-10 months, so it'll be so nice to start something new. In addition, there is going to be training in the coming months that I'll be able to participate in, so that'll be damn good too. Ugh...just a good day overall.

Can't wait to be done on this project. Anyway. Just wanted to update with that news.

Posted by Michael at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I found this article on Slashdot.com about this teenager that had a liver transplant and her immune system was replaced with that of the donor...so she doesn't need anti rejection drugs anymore...

Strange stuff...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/24/2145289.htm

Posted by Michael at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, my co-worker called me over to his cube (yes, I work in a cube) and said "Have a got a nugget of information for you..."

He showed me an email where my boss and the project owner were talking about moving me off the project and replacing me with someone that is a Senior Consultant. My boss wrote in the email that since I was getting a promotion, then putting a Senior Consultant into the roll was not a big deal.

So...that means I'll be getting a promotion. And a raise :) Now it's just more waiting to find out when they'll actually TELL me that I've got it. Ugh. Hate waiting.

For the past two days, I've been out running, and I was very pleased with my progress on the second day. It's amazing how your body gets right back into it after taking time off....that was until this morning. I woke up and my legs were sore. I was fine with that. I expected that, and I was fully prepared to endure that pain. I got up, got myself a cup of coffee and stepped outside onto my patio to enjoy the cool morning air. I grabbed one of my ankles, and pulled it back, stretching out my quad...then the other....and then pain...shooting in my low back. A few months ago, I hurt my back at Jiu Jitsu, and it's not been the same since. I, in my infinite wisdom, decided not to bother with physical therepy....and in retrospect, that was probably a bad move. I still have the persription, so I think that I may take them up on that. So now I am sitting here, at my desk, sqirming around, very uncomfortable, trying to stretch my back and make it feel better. Miserable. This is EXACTLY what I was afraid of when I tried to cancel my jiu jitsu membership.

The other day I went over there to cancel it...long story short, I wasn't able to. I thought to myself that perhaps I would go back and start working out there again....ya...after this morning....not a chance. There's no way I'm going to put my body through that kind of pain again. Fuck that.

Anyway, it's about time that I focus on getting some stuff done around here and stop fiddling around on the interweb.

Posted by Michael at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am not a very patient person. I'm just not. I recognize this, and it's something that I work on. For the past two weeks, I have been waiting to hear back about raises and promotions. I know we'll find out, but I didn't want to bug anyone....well, the waiting has paid off...we were just told last night that all decisions have been made and we're going to find out by the 31st at the latest. Awesome It's about freaking time.

Last night, I decided that it was time to start working out again. My back hasn't been giving me any issues in the past month, so I said fuck it and around 7:00, changed into running clothes and set out for a run in the 30 degree weather. Number 1....it's been a long long time since I've been running. #2....It's damn cold out there....#3...it's been a long time since I've gone running. Overall, the run went well and I didn't have any shin splints or anything like that. The ol' legs were sore when I got back, but I stretched out that night and they were fine this morning. I am actually not really sore at all... I mean, I feel it, but it's good. Going to go again this evening....or at least I plan to.

I've had to once again deploy the "strongly worded letter" tactic in dealing with a company, and frankly, I'm pretty damn sick of it. I was told by DirecTV that there was no contract and no early termination fee. I asked because I hate that crap. Well, I tried to cancel and they slapped a $270 "fee" onto me...for what, I have no idea...so the "strongly worded letter" is going out in the mail today. Ugh. Just another thing that I have to keep tabs on.

Melissa's father is turning 70 this coming Monday, so I am going BACK down to Florida this weekend. One of Lara's "friends" has a 100ft. yacht that we are renting out for the day. Loaded with crew, fishing gear, jet skis, the works....can't wait. There's still a chance that the boat won't make it back to shore (they are in the Caribbean right now) before Sunday, but we'll see. Hopefully it'll all fall into place.

I don't recall if I had mentioned that I was thinking about trading my 540i for a 330i with a guy in Ohio, but that kind of fell through. Just didn't want the risk of dealing with that. I know my car, have had work done on it recently, and it's running really well, so I have really no reason to get rid of it or even think of doing anything with it. I JUST GOT IT....but the appeal of a smaller car with a torquey engine is there, and a stick shift is something that I think I will grow to miss. We'll see... The car looks great and it's only going to get better as I put a little more into it.

Yesterday, I FINALLY heard word on my getting off this project. Apparently, my co-worker and I are working "At-Risk" which means that the client doesn't have a contract with our consulting group, so if they decide not to pay....the consultancy just has to suck it up. Granted, I don't think that'll happen, but still. It's a fairly big deal and very risky if the budget doesn't come through. Anyway, back to me....Once the budget does go through for 2008, they'll move me out. Hopefully that'll be in the next two weeks or so, but I'm not holding my breath. I am just getting so incredibly bored on this project, it's making me a little ill. Oh well. I think what'll really make me ill is if I don't get my promotion and end up having to look at new jobs.

Posted by Michael at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What the hell...I moved down south so I wouldn't have to deal with the snow...oh well...

At least it's pretty.

Posted by Michael at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, while being very much like any other friday, other than the fact that I have NOTHING to do at work, was pretty boring. Scott left for Costa Rica today for vacation, and he's still waiting to hear about that job out in California, so I guess he's just going to have to wait until he gets back to see if they'll make him an offer. Melissa and I were talking about it and the general concensus was that they must have a fairly large HR department at the company, so perhaps it was taking a longer time period to make an offer. We'll see. I have my fingers crossed.

Today is the last day of the raise and promotion notification period. I was assured last week that my name was put into the mix for a promotion, but I don't know if that's really going to happen at this point. I am kind of leary about them not just coming out with the full disclosure, but we'll see. Hopefully I'll hear something this evening or on Monday.

Seeing as how Melissa is still in Florida, I don't have a whole lot planned for this weekend. I stopped by Jui-Jitsu to see if I couldn't get out of my contract with them, but that's really a no go for the time being. We're going to see how the company responds to my doctor's note. I have been thinking about going back to the classes, but it's a bit daunting at this point. We'll see how it all shakes out and what they do for me.

Posted by Michael at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, so the title may sound a little more promising than what I have actually heard, but things are looking up on the job front. There was a request put into the business owner here at my current assignement and I should be moved onto the "Bench" fairly soon. There is talk about putting me through project management training, so that would obviously be awesome. I don't know when that'll happen, but I figure that I should be pulled in the next 2-3 weeks. In addition to that good news, I should be hearing about my promotion, (was told by a VP that it all went very well for me) so hopefully that'll come through in the next day or so. Oooooo, and it's Tax Season...can't wait to see how much money I pull back from the US Gov. Probably not going to be all that much, but any little bit will be nice.

Speaking of which, Melissa is currently down in Boca with her family. We were down there for a wedding this past weekend where I took upwards of 600 pictures at the bequest of the bride. They came out pretty well and I was happy that I could help. Melissa's father is turning 70 at the end of the month, so she just decided to stay down there and hang out until they had that party, seeing as it wasn't something that she could miss. Unfortunatly, I won't be able to made it down there to celebrate as I can't really take any more time off and not to even mention the cost of flights.

This week, I plan on relaxing, finally sending back some Netflix that have been kicking around for about a month (doh!) and working a little bit on my Bimmer as there are a few things that I can take care of now that the paint is in such better shape.

This past weekend, I helped Melissa's father to clean up his BMW M3 for sale, and we did a pretty good job. I was dissapointed in that I forgot to bring my good pads for the Porter Cable and the job that we ended up with wasn't nearly as good as mine looked, but that's okay. He's selling it, not keeping it, so it just had to look good for the pictures.

Which I think we were able to do pretty well.

On Sunday, I got a call from my mother, and she informed me that Gus, our 11 year old Orange cat, had to be put to sleep. He had lost a bunch of weight (4 lbs.) and was getting sick all the time. Turns out that he had feline leukemia. Now the ominous task falls to my father to bring in the other four cats to have them tested. Hopefully they will all come back negative, but we're not so sure at this point. It would be devestating for my mother and father if all of the cats had to be put down. Leukemia is a virus that is transfered from animal to animal and allowing any of them that were infected to remain in the house would be a death sentence for the others. I just hope that Seven and Pud will be okay.

Posted by Michael at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last weekend, I finally used my Porter Cable to polish and wax my car and DAMN it looks good. I was shocked at the difference it made and it just makes me love my car even more than I did. Now if I could only track down that pesky oil leak. In good time...in good time.

Okay, well, that's enough car porn for now...

Tonight, Melissa and I are once again flying down to Florida. One of her friends is getting married on MONDAY of all days, so we're going to be going to that. I promised that I would go and take some pictures to make sure that they got some good candid shots of the wedding, so I'll be snapping away all night. Considering how I have a 6:00am flight the next morning, I don't think it's such a bad thing to be sober enough to take some good pictures.

I'm in the process of helping Melissa's father sell his M3. The car is in pretty good shape and could totally user a little bit of TLC as the exterior and the interior are both showing their age. The main thing about the car is that it's in tip top mechanical shape and has had all sorts of preventative maintenance. If I had the money, I would totally buy that car, fix it and turn it, or if I hadn't JUST gotten my car, I so would have gotten his. It's unfortunate that it's a stick shift, or maybe I could have talked my wonderful and beautiful girlfriend into getting it. :) I think I gotta push her into getting an Audi S4. Hehe...thinking it's going to be more like a Jetta VR6, which is nice too. :P

This Monday was the first day of the notification period at my job, so I have my fingers crossed that I'll finally hear about a promotion. I have a lunch meeting with my boss today at 1:00pm, so I'll find out there. EIther way it'll be a raise in pay...I'm just hoping that it's a larger raise than the 2% that would come without a promotion. We'll see and I'll know by the end of the day. I was talking to another co-worker the other night and he was saying that Senior Consultants at my company were being hired at around 85k-90k....somehow I don't think I'll be making that kind of jump in salary. I think that whatever the case is, I'm going to have to start looking around at some other options to get my salary in line with my true market value, because frankly, I'm not grossly underpaid for my experience level. Oh well.

Time to get some work done.

Posted by Michael at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Damn, another year has passed and I have to condition myself…once again…to write a different year in the date field when I write checks. Pain in the ass, but I suppose there are worse things.

I just got back from a vacation where I spent a week up at my parents place in NY and then another week down with Melissa in Boca. I was very much ready to leave my parents place and the cold of New York winters, and head down to the sunny warmth that is South Florida. When I was checking out airline prices, I found that it wasn’t really economical for me to take a flight up to New York and then down to Boca, so I just flew home to Atlanta and drove the 9.5 hours down to Florida. It really wasn’t all that bad a drive and only cost me around $80 in gas, so it was better than dropping $600 in plane tickets.

One of the better things that we were able to do while done in Florida was go to the final Dolphins game of the season at Joe Robbie (Dolphin’s Stadium). It was around 82 degrees, clear skies, 50% humidity and just wonderful. They lost….again, but that wasn’t so shocking. It was just nice to finally be in that stadium and see the game.

Melissa and I drove back up after the holiday was over and are now getting into the groove of the new year. It would be nice if we didn’t have to fly down to Boca again in two weeks, but one of Melissa’s friends is going to be getting married down in there on the 14th, so we’re going down yet again. This time I was able to use some of my frequent flier miles and get a free ticket down there, so it’ll really just make for a nice weekend in South Florida.

This weekend, I am going to utilize the random orbital polisher that my parents got me for Christmas and really do up the paint on my car. Going to take the time and do a really nice job touching up everything on the paint and make it like new. There is going to be some actual paint touch up to do, so that is pretty scary as I will have to use sandpaper on my paint after touching it up, but that’s what you have to do to really do a good job. I am looking forward to it and enjoying the time outside in the warm Atlanta sun. Can’t beat that.

Sunday marks the first day of the promotion and raise notification period of my job, so that’s pretty exciting too. Can’t wait to find out if I get a promotion, but I’ll write a bit more about that when I finally hear.

Anyway, it’s time to head home.

Posted by Michael at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)