We saw it coming, we just didn't know who it would affect. We found out yesterday morning when we arrived to work -- 41 people were let go. Good people. Good employees. Jessie. Damn this economy.

I was shocked at the number. We all knew they'd be trimming the fat soon, but I don't think anyone thought it would be so many. Not only jessie, but dave, darrel and tom. Four people I've kept a close working relationship with since I've been at tb. Four from creative were let go. I hear I missed the axe by a short hair. At this point there's no security. No reason to think you won't be next. Because right now it's all about "making numbers" and the big wigs at OMC happy. Talent and hard work are no longer a factor. You just do your job, hold your breath and keep your fingers crossed you never see a brown envelope on your desk come payday. Damn this economy.

As much as I feel bad for all the people let go, I feel the worst for j day. She's worked her ass off and gotten little respect in her position and as much as the situation sucks, I think it's truly a blessing in disguise. She'll land on her feet running and writing and my ten bucks say a hundred times happier than staying on. I'll be spending the next week or so helping her get a portfolio together online and assisting in any way I can. I think in the long run this truly will be the best kick in the ass she's ever had. I just hope she'll find something soon and I keep the job I have. Otherwise we're gonna be one boring-ass couple. :)

The people left are walking around like the survivors at omaha beach. Stunned and shocked at the situation and wondering "what's next?" When you take away a large group like that from a workplace it jacks with the chemistry. It's the first time it's really happened to our little "interactive creative circle". Dave and jessie made up a big part of that circle and with them gone I'm afraid it's simply not going to be the same anymore. I'll miss both you guys. :(

I don't care about work being fun anymore. After some hard thinking the past 24 hours, I've kicked it into survival mode. Do my job, bill the hours and leave the fun stuff for my time off. I simply can't afford to be let go. And I'll do whatever I can to make sure that doesn't happen.

Oh, and for another kick in the pants last night, how about this -- I got a letter informing me my mortgage is going up $150 a month come september. KICK ASS! So now, my INSURANCE is going up AND my MORTGAGE?!?! Someone explain to me how the hell that happens... I have a fixed rate mortgage and they're saying my estimated escrow based on next year is short and I have to make up an additional $1300.00 over a 12 month period. I'll be putting in a call to coldwell banker this morning and chewing someone out. This ain't gonna cut it.

Damn this economy.

Jessie got back from california last night around 9:30. As I was waiting in baggage claim, I realized how obvious it was the people cramming into the terminal were from los angeles. Lots of silicon and tanned people with facelifts. I image if two planes landed at the same time -- one from LA, and one from say... dayton, ohio. You'd have a pretty easy time figuring out who goes where. Funny how parts of the country work that way. I'm sure a plane from texas landing in another state would have the same effect on others.

I feel the evil infection of yet another sore throat rearing it's ugly head again. Dammit. Why the hell does this happen to me? Am I predisposed to live my life with a constant throat infection, or is it something I just haven't figured out yet? Either way, if it gets really bad this time I'll go see a throat doctor. Not the doc-in-the-box variety, but someone who can diagnose this chronic problem I have. I guess there are worse things I could have like chronic jock itch or the bacterial disease that makes you smell like a dead fish all the time. Lucky me.

Les is supposed to come into town today to work on a case in arlington. Too bad he couldn't come up last week -- I had more money to go do the fun stuff...

Where did the weekend go? I guess that's what happens when one of your two "stayin' up late nights" is wiped out at 5:30 on friday. Oh well, one less night of spending money.

Aside from the mountain of new business frustration, the rest of the weekend went pretty well. I spent saturday hangin' out at the pool with jeff and fig over at jeff's new apartment in las colinas. As expected, the pool was full of cheese -- both male and female varieties. We got a kick out of watching the meatheads and stripper wannabe's do their part to further shallow the gene pool. Too much sun for me.

Later that night todd joined the crowd and we met up at the blue goose to start out the night from hell. To make a long story short, greenville sucked and the west end crowd was worse. I know, I know... the west end. Sue me. We were looking for something different and we'll avoid that part of town like the plague next time.

Had to wrap up a few things at the office yesterday morning and finished up around noon. Headed north to play golf in denton with todd -- that was a mistake. Turns out their mower was broke and they're waiting on parts which are more than a week overdue. The grass was so high if you didn't hit your ball on the taller than normal fairway, good luck finding it. We felt jipped, so the pro shop comped up another round which we'll probably go play in a few weeks when they mow the damn course. Amazing concept.

Too many chiefs and not enough indians. Let me know when you're done wasting my time and pontificating "strategery" at the 11th hour when you could have done that a week ago. Maybe next time we can do this in the pencil stage instead.

Someone please tell me why this happens every SINGLE time I work on a new business pitch.

Finally. A house that feels more like a meat locker than a sauna. The repairman came out yesterday afternoon and fixed what appeared to be some burnt wiring in the outside unit. Some crud built up on the outside of the unit and caused it to overheat, killing the compressor in the process. Half and hour and $45 later -- problem solved. Glad that's over with.

Been eating like complete crap lately. Between the evil lunch propositions from people at work and the late night dinners, i've done my fair share of falling off the wagon this week. Speaking of which, jessie and I tried out Pei Wei asian dinner last night and were quite impressed. Come to find out there's a reason why the lettuce wraps taste so much like PF Chang's -- they're owned by them. At least at Pei Wei you don't have to wait 3 hours to get a table. I plan on eating better starting tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow, jessie leaves for LA. She'll be gone until tuesday and Les told me yesterday he's not coming up after all until maybe next week. Bummer. Turns out numbnuts turned his knee playing basketball and can't walk. Jury's still out on whether I believe him or not...

Day five of life in homeowner hell. Happy Contractors (what kind of gay name is that for a service company?) are coming out today sometime between 1:00 and 5:00 to take a look at the A/C. Don't you love that... just wait around for half the afternoon for us to show up, okay. Thanks. Buh-bye.

In other news, I've been upgrading the CD/MP3 collection quite a bit the past few weeks with a few trips to half price books and warehouse music. Between the ones I bought and the ones I ripped from jessie, I'd say I've got about 8 extra hours of itunes on the tibook. The new chili peppers, story, jeff buckley, a few other randoms and my favorite: the Road to Perdition soundtrack. Thomas Newman has a very unique sound that makes a good film even better. Next to John Williams, he's probably my favorite film composer. And while Road to Perdition is no American Beauty, it's pretty darn good. After listening to the CD a few times today I already want to see the film again.

Todd is officially moved in, but leaves for austin today on a business trip. He'll be gone most of the time during the weekdays, but is usually around on the weekends.

Contractors. The definition of slack-ass. I guess it's my time to deal with them. Oh, boy.

Called my home warranty office this morning as soon as they opened to get the 411 on the busted A/C. The nice lady on the phone informed me that it might not be today before they can come out..."excuse me?", I say...

"Well, the contract clearly states 48 hours, sir."

A broken dishwasher -- fine. A busted A/C unit in july should not be a 48 hour wait. I'm sure if dante were penning his inferno today, he would have created a special ring of hell for contractors.

If they don't call me by lunch to set up an appointment, I might start to get a little irritated.

It's so miserable in my house I don't even know why I'm here. Before I left last night, the thermostat read 91° and stayed that way. Never thought I'd be so anxious for a monday to come.

I guess if I'm gonna be hot it might as well be outside. Think I'll go play golf or do some yard work. Or maybe both...

I can't imagine what it must have been like for texans in the days before air conditioning. But, as luck would have it, I get to experience it first hand this weekend.

I came home to an unusually warm house yesterday and discovered my A/C unit had died sometime friday afternoon. After trying several times to get cold air blowing again, I surrendered and dug through my mortgage papers to find information on my home warranty that's supposed to cover things like this. Luckily, my warranty expires at the end of the month, so hopefully the entire unit is unsalvageable and I'll get a whole new system installed. The current unit has been here since the house was built in '86. One catch -- unless I want to pay an overtime fee of $125 an hour, I'll have to wait until monday. Great. What kind of assholes leave customers without A/C for an entire weekend in july???

So I'll see if I can get by with ceiling fans and cold beer until monday, but I really, really hope this doesn't turn out to be a major pain in the ass or the pocketbook. As pissed as I am to be without A/C I'm glad this is happening now while it's on the tail end of the warranty period instead of august.

As for the golf tournament, well that was a disappointment, too. We got rained out after 11 holes and the $64 I spent to play feels like a jip. Hopefully, we'll get a nine hole raincheck, but we'll have to wait until monday to see. We weren't really in contention to win, but it was fun anyway.

The bright spot for me came on hole #3 where I knocked a 5 wood on the par 3 green, hit the pin and bounced 4 feet from the hole. Luck was with me, I guess -- that's the hole where the first "closest to the pin" contest was held. My ball landed the closest and I won a $50 gift certificate to Mi Cocina. To quote the great carl spackler -- "so I got that going for me... which is good."

Caught a late showing of The Road to Perdition last night. Incredible movie. By far the best oscar bid this year. Go see it if you get a chance.

Off to help todd move-in today. Ten bucks says he tries to negotiate even more off this rent since the A/C is out... any takers?

As expected, Todd dodged the rent issue like a true salesman trying to negotiate a lower price than I had in mind. Irritating. Very irritating.

Thunderstorms rolled over the metroplex last night producing one of the more active lightning shows I've ever seen. Flashes of light lit up the sky and strands of lightning touched down in all directions. Quite a sight to see.

Luckily, the rain stayed in the clouds and we avoided another downpour. Good for the golf tournament today at 2:00. I'm on the same team as scott and lauri -- wonder how that happened? :) Up for grabs is a roundtrip ticket anywhere southwest flies for the team with the lowest round. Might as well go ahead give it to beth or brian... Oh well -- beats the hell out of t-shirts and targetbucks.

The week has gone by about as fast as Rosie O'Donell running a marathon. I haven't done much this week to be stressing me out, but I'm quite ready for friday.

Todd moves in this weekend for his six week stay -- I say six weeks because that's the timeline he's given me to find himself a house and move. I'm gonna hold him to it. As much as I like the guy (most of the time), I really don't want to have a roommate the rest of the year. I think that might be pushing it a bit...

So saturday is reserved for helping uno move. I'll have to spend some time clearing out the spare bedroom and find some storage space for the extra stuff he'll be keeping here for his stay. The rent subject has yet to come up (hoping HE would mention that before I had to...), but by saturday we should have something arranged.

Lunch with dave, justin and aaron brown yesterday at royal chopsticks. Sounds like RC and TB have a little too much in common these days. I feel his client and account service frustration. He works his ass off and hopefully he'll find something more fitting when the market turns around. There's a shitload of people waiting for that to happen, but with the deceptive asshole accountants in charge of big corporations who lie to make a stock profit aren't helping things much. They deserve whatever punishment they get from uncle sam.

In closing, here's something I would like to remind everyone: Learn to take a joke in stride. I've been doing it my entire life.. Whether it's taking shit for the yoda tattoo, the boba fett, my weight, my work, my mom... people LOVE to give me hell and I take it with a grain of salt. It's called personality. Also commonly known as "having a sense of humor". In my defense, I tend to be a smart-ass and like to joke around with others... Unfortunately, some people can't take a joke. They get their panties in a wad over a harmless joke or prank and breathe fire in disgust. Interesting response.

So just remember; in the future if me or someone you know takes the time to play a joke on you or give you hell about something -- take it in stride. I do.

<sigh> Back to work we go...

Yesterday was like a ghost town at work. A lot of people in the creative department took some vacation days this week to stretch the weekend out a little longer. Made the office a quiet, peaceful, unnerving place to work. One bright spot though was jim's nice parking space I took since he was out. Nice.

Everything else is SOS. I'm now officially the only blogger left on the planet who isn't using dynamic CGI to build my pages. I feel like the old ass art director who scoffed at the advent of computers and insisted that rubylith and letraset will never go away. Maybe one day...

I'm just about done with skaines.com. A few more pages and then I'll just be adding to it as I go. I shrunk the icons down (much better now) and got the rollovers to work. Now everything is jivin' like it should be. Next up: jessieday.com and the completion of srsigns.com.

Friday is the TB golf tournament and it looks like the turnout will be pretty low. That sucks. I'll be practicing until then in the ongoing effort to not make an ass of myself on the course. Wish me luck.