So is spring here or not? Things are getting green, all the motorcycles are out, I'm hearing the "thud, thud" of subwoofers cruising around my neighborhood, but I checked the weather and they're calling for snow next week. Mother Nature can't seem to make up her mind. Isn't that just like a woman? It's not that hard. All I want to know is: Do I have to start shaving again or not?

This guy intrigues me. We need more inquiring minds like this, willing to go the extra mile for the sake of science.

Today's last phone call came at 5:45 pm. A little better than Friday. Too bad the purpose of the call was to ask if I could be in Virginia on Wednesday. Seriously. But hey, whatever the client wants. I just wish they'd cut it a little closer than 36 hours notice before I need to get on the plane. It makes me feel more important when I can serve their every whim.

Nothing will put you down for the count like a big bacon classic from Wendy's. I am right now learning that again for the 47th time. Why do I do this to myself? I know, I acted stupidly. But it sounded sooo good...

Everyone seems to feel the need to comment on the war. Personally, at this point I think everybody should just shut their mouths and start praying that this is all done quickly, with minimal damage and loss of life. But I guess I've just joined "everyone". Pardon my hypocrisy.

Work update:

6:05 pm - Just got another phone call. Why did I answer it, you ask. Good question. I'm asking myself the same thing. Reflex, I guess.

Today, in stark contrast to last week Friday, was the busiest Friday...ever. I would walk away from my desk for two minutes to go pick up a fax and come back to a message on my phone. I would call the person back and by the time I got off the phone again, there were 2 more messages waiting. Making progress was a losing battle. I got nothing accomplished. One of the people I talked to actually asked me if I'd be in on Saturday so they could call with questions. Yeah, right. I may be in tomorrow, but the only reason I'll be in is because it's the only time I can get things done because nobody calls. I will still get e-mails from nutso architects at 11:30 pm Friday night or 7:00 pm Sunday evening, but those can be more easily ignored.

Yeah, poor me. But fear not. I'm about to hit the gym and start my weekend so the funk will soon be lifted and I'll be back to my cheery self. I know it's boring when I write about work, but, quite frankly, that's the only thing that's going on in my life right now.

Uh oh. Gotta go. I just got another architect e-mail!

I'm back...at least physically. After spending a couple of days on the road, I am quite drained mentally. Do you know how intimidating and nerve-wracking it is to be in a meeting and be the youngest person there by about 15 years...and to have them peppering you with questions? It's all good though. I'm trying to be positive and look at it as a means to an end: my first ulcer. I'm hoping to have it fully developed by early summer.

I am officially a dork. I just bought a drafting board for my home. Can a deluxe slide rule be far behind?

Welcome back. I hope everyone had as great a weekend as I did. It's amazing what a little nice weather will do for the spirits. All the girls are running around with shorts on, anxious to finally get attention after all those hard hours spent laying in the tanning bed. All the guys are running around with their tongues on the ground, acting like they've never seen legs before. Spring is in the air.

I've been trying to decide what my favorite word is. Picking a favorite word is tough. I'm a big fan of tomfoolery and hooligan. I also really like several words combined into one like nonetheless and heretofore. Heretofore is pretty cool. That might be my favorite. I'll have to see what I can do about using it in conversation.

This has been the longest Friday afternoon...ever. Normally my Fridays are quite busy with phone calls and e-mails and such, but today has been remarkably dead. And I just can't bring myself to get started on anything major at 3:00 in the afternoon. So for the past couple of hours I have been digging up piddly stuff to do in an attempt to keep my sanity until I can leave my chair. For a while I just spaced out and stared. I know, that's bad and I do feel guilty about it, but sometimes you reach a point in the week where you hit a wall. I have reached that point.

I'm pretty sure the banjo is the coolest instrument out there. Now I'm not saying it's the most beautiful, because that has to go the piano. But as far as coolness goes, you can't do much better than a banjo, The only other instruments that come close are the harmonica and the tuba...and possibly the cow bell.

I am traveling too much. It was freaky enough when I started recognizing airport and airline employees and they started recognizing me. Yesterday a cab driver recognized me. I got in the cab and he said, "Hey, I've driven you before. You fly in from Pittsburgh, right?"

Whoa.

The survival instinct is a remarkable thing. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're scared to death. If you told me a year ago that I'd have to do what I do now, coordinate the mechanical design for a 500,000 sf medical research facility, I would have laughed. If you had told me that I'd actually be able to do it, I would have had you committed. Heck, if knew exactly what I was getting into when I took this job, I probably would have run scared. But now, four months into it and in too deep to run, I've found that my limited knowledge battered self-confidence were nothing a little prayer and some intense fear couldn't fix.

It's for time a little lesson on this new fangled thing we've got called the "Internet." I've talked to a few of you out there who apparently don't know what a hotlink is and are oblivious to the fact that I use them in my posts, so I'm going to give you a little lesson to bring you up to speed so you can unlock all the wonderful treasures of this blog. Okay, who am I kidding? This blog doesn't have any treasures. It's just a blog. But at least you won't be in the dark anymore.

The concept of the hotlink is actually quite simple. It's just link to another page, whether it's another post within this blog, an image within the blog, or some site outside of the blog. Not too hard is it? The hotlinks in my posts have a different color font like this. Now, if you put your cursor over the word and click on it, bingo! You're taken to the hamster for president campaign site. Let's try this one more time. Did you spot that one? It should have taken you to the professional cheese racing website.

Now that you've mastered this concept, you should be ready to enjoy this blog to it's fullest. Have a great day and happy surfing.

I'm beginning to think that maybe I haven't been sick at all. I've been feeling quite fatigued lately and having headaches like I get when I haven't eaten in 8 hours. So I've been trying to eat regularly. You know, starve a flu, feed a cold. Anyway, I've been eating well and I haven't been exercising because I've been too tired, yet when I stepped on the scale last weekend, I had dropped 5 pounds in one week. I don't get it. Getting my body to let go of a few pounds is like getting a fat guy to drop a doughnut. It just doesn't happen. So that's why I've come up with a new diagnosis: I've got a tapeworm.

I'm pretty sure I've got the most comfortable bed on the planet. Not only is the mattress in the Goldilocks tradition (not too hard, not too soft, just right), but I also splurged and got some of those higher threadcount sheets. And boy are they worth it. It doesn't get any better. Of course like anything in the world, there is a down side. In this case, it's that I can't get out of bed. It's bad enough that I'm not a morning person and it takes me about 3 hours to wake up, but having the most comfortable bed on earth makes it that much harder to get up in the morning. I have torture myself into getting up by kicking all the covers off until I'm lying there uncovered, curled up in a little ball, trying to stay warm. When I finally can't take it any more, I get up. It's a rough life.

Today as I was paying for my purchase at the grocery store, the bagger said to me, "Hey, I recognize you!" The guy didn't look familiar to me and he didn't get specific so I just said, "Yeah, I'm here quite a bit." He replied, "You might have heard of me then. They call me Mr. Giggles because I laugh a lot." And with that he did indeed giggle. I didn't know what to say to that, so I just smiled and walked away. Wow.

Forget about all that war stuff you're hearing about. The big news is that Sara is on the mend! That's right, I'm breathing with ease, I can stand for five whole minutes without getting lightheaded, and I'm finally feeling like myself again. The sun is shining and I'm done being a whiny, miserable crank.

And there was great rejoicing...

Sick Sara Update: My sinus pressure has gone down to the point where my ears no longer pop when I flex my jaw. I'm counting this as a major victory. I hoping to be able to breathe through my nose by the end of the week.

I am sick...again. How does this happen? I slept a lot last weekend and still I'm averaging around 5 tissues an hour. The pressure inside my head is so bad that I have to pop my ears to release some of it, like when you're in an airplane. Even my new mega-vitamin couldn't prevent this. Yeah, look and those ingredients, folks. This ain't no Flintstones chewable. But apparently 2500% of my daily allowance of thiamin isn't enough.