WHOA . .. It's Draft Day!!!!

Today is DRAFT DAY. Fantasy Football draft day that is. He woke up at 4:30, thinking about drafting. I then of course was awake too. I just got done telling him that Fantasy Draft Day should be a holiday. No work, just a day of watching football movies such as Friday Night Lights, Any Given Sunday, Remember the Titans, etc. Eating barbecue and drinking beer! All to get pumped for the draft. Good luck to all drafters out there!!!

K.P.

Working Along Side of Hurricanes & Tropical Storms

We live in a part of the country that is affected by hurricanes and tropical storms. 99% of the time it is complete paradise, while the other 1% is wondering where in the hell a storm is going to go. Yesterday's ending statements during his calls consisted of something like this-"If I am not reachable by email or phone tomorrow, it is because we have no power due to the storm." Then at 5 p.m. you realize that this thing has turned into only a tropical storm and heading in a different direction, but you still have no idea EXACTLY where it is going to go. Around 7 p.m. last night we went up to our roof which is an observation deck to check out the scenery. I have included a few of "Ernesto's Wrath" pictures.

As of right now we are expecting some wind and rain starting this afternoon, so it could still be interesting regarding power.
We are lucky - knock, knock, that we have never in recorded history had a "direct" hit from a hurricane.

Dodging another bullet.......
K.P.

RSS+Blog Posts+Stealing=Bullshit

I read this article that was posted on Robert Scoble's weblog "Scobleizer" yesterday.

This is total and complete bullshit. I understand it to some degree, but something should be done about it. How about a piece of software that tracks copied content? Something. I know that with certain sites that you can subscribe to such as "My Blog Log" and "Feedburner" that you can get some statistics about who is reading your blog, who has subscribed to it and when they visited. There is however no way to tell, EASILY, (if you have a heavily read blog), who has copied your content.

I would just hope that people wouldn't be losers and come up with their OWN CONTENT!

Not that I am anything worth copying, but if somebody does, I may have to call Jack Bauer, on my red phone, that I have sitting right here next to me on the wall. Really.

K.P.

24 and Jack Bauer

Today I am taking a break from the usual topics to congratulate Kiefer Sutherland on his Emmy for playing Jack Bauer. I personally would just like to believe that he has always been Jack Bauer and has just been under this assumed name and life of Kiefer Sutherland for all of these years. 24 also won for "Best Drama Series."Click Here to see the big winners of the Emmy's this year!

I can't wait for this season to arrive! We have already watched and REWATCHED 1-4. We haven't watched 5 on television, as we like to watch them in the dvd, no commercials format!!
K.P.

All He Wants For Christmas

Ladies, all of your men want one of these for Christmas. How do you think that I got the link, he sent it to me! Your Christmas shopping is over!!!! (Well, for next year maybe or 2015) Even though we live in an area where we do not go over 35 mph - MAX, I am guessing that we will just get to places much faster. (Like a minute and a half) I could proably swing the 2 front seats on such short notice, those usually aren't included in the "base price."

So, "all he wants for Christmas" has turned into - "All he GETS for Christmas are the two front seats."

K.P.

Please Never Wear These Around Your Women

Ok, this is the most ridiculous thing that I have EVER seen. I was doing some research the other day I came upon these. I burst out with laughter. If I saw my honey bouncing around the house in these, I think that I would instantly pee my pants. Seriously. Who came up with this? I understand that kids may like them, but boys don't even think about wearing underwear like these until they are past the kid stage. The underwear alone are nice and all, but come on. I love how they put them on the male models too. The ripped abs, etc. This even makes it more amusing. This is SCREAMING the need for the fashion police.

Red and Blue lights flashing . . . .

K.P.

Back and Blogging

Well, the airport situations weren't nearly has bad as we thought they were going to be. (Previous Post) What a relief.

This was the BEST mini vacation that I have EVER had. I know that it was great for him. For the first time in years, we went someplace with no cell phones (no signal anyway), no land lines (in our cabin), and no computers. The ultimate in relaxing. Fresh air, fishing, hiking and exploring. What a great trip. It was hard to leave such a beautiful peaceful place. Waking up to crisp cool air on the front porch with our cups of coffee, breakfast cooked in an iron skillet and no emails to check!!!

He has been talking about this place for years, and now I understand what he was talking about. The constant sounds of waterfalls from the river while we were fishing, was the best bonus you could think of. I have included some pics of this magical place. I am so glad that he got the chance to relax with so much travel and business craziness coming up!!

K.P.

Mini Vacation

We are going on a mini vacation where there will be no computer access.


I will be gone from Thursday until Tuesday of next week. A little fishing, a little relaxing and beautiful surroundings.

I look forward to blogging when I get back!!!!

Offering Your First Born Child (that doesn't exist)

My honey via email today, offered our first born child in exchange for getting a specific speaker to appear. We have no children together, he doesn't have any children and we don't plan on having any children, so this is extremely funny. Given that, it makes it much easier to offer. He is an extremely honest business man and although that phrase taken lightly, it always seems to get people's ears open. Why is that? Would you actually want someone else's first born child? Does it show the pure need for that particular thing? Funny, because there really is no pure "need" for that thing. It is a WANT. Is a want worth offering your first born child for? Hmmmmm, can't really think of one off the top of my head. Good stuff though.

Ahhhhh, the things that happen prior to a conference.

K.P.

Airport Anxiety

On Thursday, all of the anticipated issues at the airport will finally be revealed. We are taking our first flight since all of the security changes have been made. Do we get there 2 hours early? 3 hours early? There seem to be some inconsistencies on this. I think it is a pretty big deal, too big to be having inconsistensices. They tell us what we can and can't bring. They forewarn us of longer security lines, but nobody can tell you when to get there. I have even gone to the website for the airport, which is still inconsistent. I am just going to guess 3 hours to be safe. I think that is what everyone is doing, which means 3 1/2 hours sounds better. My honey would prefer to be there 4 hours early ALL of the time. No, I am serious. Even 3 years ago. He has one of those "get to the airport 4 hours early or all hell will break loose" phobias. I think it is called "exorcistgettingtotheairportphobia." Never settled until he is actually at the gate - no matter how much time there is to spare. Anyway, it should be interesting. I am going to try to think of it as I am traveling at Christmas - except no gifts at the end the end of the journey. (Except a cigarette and eventually room service) (and vodka) I am hoping that all goes smoothly because we have some long cross country trips in September. We'll see.

Any advice?

K.P.

Talladega Nights!

Whether you are a Nascar fan or not (and we are not), all must see this movie!!!! Absolutely hilarious. And yes, much funnier than the previews! We were laughing out loud for over half of the movie. Definitely Will Farrell's best movie so far. Need an afternoon of laughs? Go see it!!!

K.P.

Learn to LOVE Fantasy Football

Give your fantasy football loving men all of the time that they need to do whatever stat researching they need to! This is my 3rd year in fantasy football and let me tell you - WHAT FUN!! I am the only woman in the league. (By the way, I have never finished less than 3rd.) I have always been a huge sports fan anyway, but this gives you the opportunity to enjoy any game that is being shown. During the season, my honey and I are permanently fixed on the couch with both of our laptops open to view real time stats. The closer it gets to the draft, the more excited we both get. We are spending about 2-3 hours a week on stats. Our draft is on August 31st. Beers, appetizers and 3-4 hours of drafting. We have a league of 12 teams. Most of them all tech guys. This makes it very interesting. :-) What fun. SO, get into it with them. Trust me if you weren't a football fan before - this gives it a WHOLE NEW MEANING. Trust me, they will love it more you enjoying it with them then if you are off in another room knitting or something.

If you are not a fan, and have NO desires to watch football - here are some rules:

1. NEVER walk up during a game and ask them what the players are doing.
2. NEVER comment on their uniform colors.
3. NEVER talk on the phone to your girlfriends in the same room that football is on in - that is like playing hip hop in church or something.
4. NEVER tell them you need to snuggle while watching football. This could end up badly. Elbow to the head or chest during an exciting interception.
5. NEVER tell them how cute the QB is.
6. NEVER comment on their tight pants - this may encourage your honey to get a pair. Would you even want to see your honey in a pair of those pants no mater what their body looked like?
7. You don't have to kneel on the living room floor, along with the football players on t.v., when a player gets hurt.
8. Do not invite your girlfriends over while football is on. The only way this would be ok, is if all were in beer advertising bikinis. Thongs preferably.
9. Do not schedule a visit with your family on a football day. They will never visit, they will eat and be in the family room glued to the t.v. It WILL result in an argument on the way home.
10. Do not ask them to watch the kids while you go shopping when football is on. The 1 yr old getting "passed" back in forth in the living room could happen.

Oh and 11 - Cheerleaders are HOT so just let them look. They are on t.v. They aren't going to jump through the screen.

All I have to say is "Let there be light!!!!!"

K.P.

I Was Reading . . .

I was reading Maryam Scoble's blog this morning and this just made me CRACK up. This one is for the ladies.

Nice Job!!

Please click hereto read her blog entry.

K.P.

Need to Carry a Laptop When Traveling?

WOW. That is pretty much all I can say. I feel worse now for people traveling to/from other countries than I did earlier. (last post)

Please Click Here to view more about the laptop ban.

Also Click here to view other items that may be banned.

K.P.

And You Thought Travel Was Bad Before

Well, hopefully everyone who reads this is up on current events/news. I woke up this moring to a frustrated man who was explaining to me, as I read my news feeds, exactly what they had said on the news regarding flights and airports. The foiled terrorist plots from London have just made our travel here much worse. I am not complaining about what they are trying to do for our safety - but come on. Why don't they just go to the source and handle this? I am proud to be an American, I am happy that they are trying to keep us safe, but I think that there are better ways to do it. All of our airports are turning out to be just like the airports in "those" countries.

A trip to San Francisco, before today, was 14 hours door to door for us. 14 hours. An hour allowed for security has now turned into 2 - perhaps longer. All carryons are being hand checked, especially if not neat. NOW, we can't carry on any lugguge - well that is if we want to be clean and smell nice. NO MORE liquids of ANY kind allowed on carry ons. So our 14 hour trip, just turned into a 16 hour trip - AT LEAST. You can check your luggage, which means that you have to have carry ons and checked luggage if you need to take laptops when you travel. Can you imagine what the immediate loss of checked luggage is going to be? We have 3 trips that require flights both halfway across country and across country in the next month and a half. This just made it much more difficult. Sure, you can take nothing with you, buy it all there and then leave it. But how about your colognes, perfumes, etc? Things that aren't cheap. Not to mention finding a decent drug store anywhere near where you stay in a downtown area, isn't the easiest thing to do either. You would then be forced to buy things from the gift shop, or Zoom machines that they have in the hotels now. Do you think they are stocked up and prepared for this scenario? I don't think so. I truly feel sorry for the men and women that have to travel out of the country for business right now. They have it much worse than us.

Please click here to read more.

K.P.

The Power of Running Late

Why is it that people constantly run late to scheduled calls? Do they think that you have nothing else to do? Do they think that they are more important than you are? Do they think that their time is more valuable than yours? I am starting to think yes to all. Situation - there is a call that really needs to be done today. You dial in, on time, and you have already been waiting 10 minutes. While you are waiting, you have to listen to the worst "on hold" music ever. You then get an email. This email usually goes something like this. " I apologize, I am running late. Can we move the call back a half an hour?" First of all, did they not realize 5 minutes before the scheduled call that they were running late? They could have let you know before you even dialed in. This happening once or twice is fine. It then becomes extremely rude. It affects the scheduling for the rest of the day. Yes, you can always say no you can't just "move the time", that you're going to have to reschedule but guess what - they aren't "available" any other times soon. The power of running late is obviously a strong one. They have you by the... anyway, if of any importance, and I believe that they know it. Knowing it is what made them feel that it was okay to run late for the call in the first place. Yes, things happen. Yes, things can change. I am just venting today.

:-)
K.P.

Taking my own advice

I took my own advice (earlier post) this weekend and we took a break. Although short, it was the best thing for him heading into a very busy month. For the first time, in awhile, there was no alarm, no phone calls to get to, no dog to deal with and no pressing email to check. We drove, therefore avoiding the often used stressful air travel. I think that he was in the best "morning mood" that I have seen in a year. Such a small thing, but it means so much. It is refreshing. The more refreshed he is, the more refreshed he will be with work and all will go much more smoothly. A simple medicine that is highly suggested!

K.P.

Why certain people are crabby during travel

So here is a typical trip for smokers who travel across country for business.

6 a.m. - Wake
7 a.m - Leave for airport - car service or rental car - can't smoke in car
7:45 a.m. - Get to airport - smoke cigarette before entering airport
8 a.m. - Get into airport - can't smoke in airport
10 a.m. - Get on flight - can't smoke on flight
2 p.m. - 1st stop - can't smoke in airport
2:30 p.m. - Get on 2nd flight - can't smoke on flight
5:30 p.m. - Land - can't smoke in airport
6:00 p.m. - Get out of airport, walk 50 ft from a door - now you can have a cigarette (whoops, you don't have a lighter)
6:15 p.m. - Car service or rental car - can't smoke in car
7:00 p.m. - Arrive at hotel - smoke a cigarette outside of hotel, 50 ft away from the door of course
7:15 p.m. - Check into room - hopefully you are booked in a hotel that allows smoking.

From 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., a 12 hour period of time, due to the laws or company policies, you are basically ALLOWED to smoke (if you don't want to take the chance of missing flights) 2-3 cigarettes. Ridiculous. Most airports don't even have a smoking lounge. After all of the security changes and earlier times that you need to be at airports, they still didn't even add lounges. Let's say that you have a flight delay of 2 hours and you have plenty of time to go back out of the airport to smoke a cigarette. You are basically screwed because you couldn't take a lighter with you through security. You threw it away before you went through security when you first got into the airport. Do do you think they sell lighters or matches in the airport? Of course not, that would defeat the purpose of allowing them through security in the first place. Basically you are screwed. This is when you start praying to the gods that someone outside in front, 50 feet away from the doors, still has one for you to use.

Comments?????

K.P.

Make them take a break . . . .

I am sure some of you are work-a-holics or live with a work-a-holic, and the point of the matter is - you have to take a break or make them take a break. I don't care how addicted to their job they are or how much they love it, they will ALWAYS reach a "burnt out" point. I think that it is up to us to make sure that they do take that much needed break every once in awhile. Now I know that is easier said than done, but no matter how often it is, it always helps. Take a long weekend, a week, a day, what ever you can do. Going someplace where email isn't even accessible, is an extra added bonus. This is coming from someone who encourages her tech guy to check email on the weekends. Why? Because I know that by him checking and responding to emails on the weekends helps to make the beginning of his week go MUCH smoother! We all know that Mondays are hell anyway, but try having 300-400 emails to go through on a Monday morning. (this also leads to several end of the day margaritas) Anyway, make them take a break. It will be good for them and you!

To see what else helps their work stresses, see the entry on 7/27. Therapy, pure therapy . . . .

K.P.

Things that make them upset . . . . Part 3

Not being ready for a call. Here's the situation....... You schedule phone calls just like appointments. You usually schedule them, on average, a week or so out. You also have to communicate with the other person to even schedule the phone call with them. 50 % of the time, THEY are requesting the call. Right? Yes, right - but somewhere, somehow, people schedule these calls and then come totally unprepared. Didn't we learn sometime around the age of 13 how to do summaries, talking points, etc? Will someone please explain why this arrogance is seemingly increasing?

It's real simple. Your hand and a writing instrument. Well, you do have to have a BRAIN to write something important down to talk about, maybe that is the problem. If you don't have the brain then use the hand and writing instrument to STAB yourself. It would save time. Anyway, we are still allowed to use writing instruments and this stuff called paper this day and age. Time is money. If you are going to use someone else's time (that is money) then at least just use the writing instrument to sign a check.

K.P.

10 Things NOT to do when . . . .

10 things NOT do to when he has calls scheduled at home.

1. Dishes. No matter how careful you are, something ALWAYS slips and makes the loudest noise possible.
2. Yell at the dog. No matter what they are doing! (Just let them pee on the floor.)
3. Put away groceries. Sounds like an easy and quiet enough task. NO. Normally we could juggle canned goods, but this one time, a can of something will slip out of your hand and fall. On your foot.
4. Slam a door. No matter what windows are open, and what cross breeze is happening - even though totally accidental - this gets you the look from hell.
5. Tell them what they should say. They are TOTALLY ignoring you. No matter how frustrated you are with what you are hearing, this eventually will lead to #6
6. Use some form of sign language. When really frustrated and they aren't listening to us, we start doing this form of sign language/win lose or draw thing to get their attention. They wouldn't understand it NOT on the phone much less when they are on it.
7. Cough or sneeze. No matter how sick, no matter what type of flu that you have, no matter that you feel like you are dying - take extra medicine.
8. Answer the cell phone in the room that they are having a conversation in. Ok, no matter how much good you are trying to do by quieting the loud annoying ringtone that you have set, you still have to talk to answer.
9. Have a conversation with the UPS guy. This seems to distract them, but is much less distracting than #10
10. Walk around naked. Totally distracting.

This may be the answer . . . . .

teleacoustics kiosk

K.P.