Well, what a great party that turned out to be. :) I was pleased with the turnout (near 20) given the fact that I gave everyone about three days' notice. And everyone seemed to have a good time. Plus, folks just stuck around forever, which is always a good sign. I like it when people aren't so worried about time in the face of having a good time. :) Of course, I understand when people do have to go, and that's cool. But it makes me feel loved :) when people want to be around me, or at least pretend to just to use my place as a venue. :)

My costume was great (I went as my own dog, Kazak), and I was very impressed with all the other costumes, seriously--it was good work by all...a couple coworkers showed up too with a little crew of their own, which was great. I was happy about that. Of course, Little Red Riding Hood flashed me when i was putting beer in the fridge, so now I'm scarred (Ol' Red was a MALE)...actually, I didn't see much, thankfully, but what I did see was far too much...ah! Meanwhile, Kazak went as me, wearing an old basketball shirt that had my name on it. But, I neglected to move the shirt when I let him in the yard to use "the facilities," and he peed all over the shirt...dumbass me. :) Then, to prevent him from getting dirty, I had to cut the freakin' thing off him and throw it out...it was a junk shirt anyway, but I felt quite idiotic. :)

I am also happy that we evidently had enough food and snacks, because there isn't much left over...that's good. There is a nice amount of beer left over though...and like, three bags of ice (our icemaker isn't working yet, and I don't have my ice trays out here yet).

I was up until 6am or so because of the party, and so I was ready to just sleep and sleep and sleep. Around noon though, the little dog upstairs starting howling and crying and barking constantly. Separation anxiety, I'd guess. It just wouldn't shut up...but I was able to half-sleep through it and stayed in bed until about 2pm.

Since then, I've eaten a bit, walked the dog, watched "Kung Faux," which Troy was nice to lend me so I could bone up on my quotes from the show, which have been slacking..."Man, boss, you really wrecked shop, man!"

Throw dem bows! (I completely forgot that one)...

I also watched a couple minutes of the Northern Illinois game and uploaded the pictures from the party from my digital camera to my CPU...Hopefully that link works...you can check them out, if you care... :)

Ah well...now I'm just waiting to see what's going on tonight, if anything specifically. I've got no plans right now, but I'm sure SOMETHING will come up...and if not, I'll relax at home.

Ah yes, it is now actually even Friday (Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to my dad, who will never read this. :) ), so I'm safe to tell you all about the wonderful news we got at work on Tuesday. I have no qualms sharing it here, because, actually, it's very public domain. This is info as it was explained to me (and my coworkers) by my big boss man.

So apparently el presidente and his terrorism-hunting cohorts aren't doing so well and there's this re-election thing coming up, right? Well, time to take on an interesting effort to stir up some positive press.

We were told by the boss that, starting this week, we are losing 90 PERCENT of the advertising we run--all the offshore gambling ads, which basically is all of our ads.

The gov't is going after the offshore gaming business. They are going to take them down. Here's how it works: As you all may know, sports gambling is ILLEGAL in the U.S., except in Vegas. So, these sports gambling companies have found an interesting way around it--using the Internet to get U.S. customers via the grand ol' Internet. It's not illegal, technically, from what I know. Hell, Laz does it, and I would too, if I had money.

So, where does the gov't start in order to eliminate these fellas? Cut them off at the "source," where they advertise. That's where we come in. We've been subpoenaed by the feds in that we've run their ads. If we don't pull them from here on out, the belief is that we'll be charged with aiding and abetting (sp?) an illegal activity.

Now, we're not the only ones...some of the big boys in the biz have also been subpoenaed. The industry can only hope one of those big boys decides to fight this, because chances are, they'd win the case and we'd be able to run the ads again. Our little company though, cannot afford the legal hassle, obviously, that this would take.

The boss man says we're OK for the rest of the year (two months), and assured us there'd be no layoffs in that time. But, he was straightforward and said there could be problems next year if we can't run these ads and then can't replace the enormous chunk (and I mean enormous chunk) of revenue via other advertisers or sponsorships.

That means layoffs or worse. If there are layoffs, I think I'd probably be one of the ones to stick, given my place on the company ladder. But that would mean that I'd probably have to do the work of like, five people.

Obviously, this is getting the cart way ahead of the horse. But, it certainly makes for interesting thoughts...what to do next? Our supervisor said he wasn't sprucing up his resume, but that would be silly. It's good to be prepared, and sprucing up the resume doesn't mean looking for another job, just being prepared. I think this basically guarantees no raises at the end of the year now, which really, really, really sucks, but that's a personal assessment and could be wrong...who knows?

There's no job security terror alert yet, but it causes me to entertain the notions now...get an idea, ya know?

So, guess who I'm NOT voting for next time around if I have the chance...not that I would have anyway. :)

And I tried carving a pumpkin for the first time today since I was a kid and screwed up the top...so my pumpkin will look funny for those of you coming tomorrow...but my house will smell nice, as I have a bunch of Glade candle things... :)

No freakin' softball. Wow...there apparently was a tie in the standings, so they needed to play a tiebreaker game to determine the standings. Now, we wait until next week to play our playoff game(s), which is sadly too bad, given as nice as it is tonight. The nicest evening of the month, and I can't play softball. :) Ah well...it's good that I got more work done than I could have gotten done at work had we had softball, and now I'll go home and clean house and "decorate," as well as do some shopping in advance of the party tomorrow.

Did I mention I was having a Halloween party and those of you in the area should come? Well, I am. So you should come. Yeah...

I'm going home now, and I hope I get there by 7pm, because "Tru Calling" will be on. I have no desire to watch the show other than the fact that Eliza Dushku is the star. Yeah baby! :) Sadly, I think I'll miss it, because I need to get a pumpkin. Damn.

All right...later everyone.

Wow...I haven't posted since Tuesday. Well, that's OK...You guys don't want to hear about my menial every-day boredom anyway. :)

Tomorrow is party time! But first, tonight I have softball playoffs in Park Ridge...nice weather too. So hooray for that! I hope we play at 6 and have just one game, because I need to go home, buy a pumpkin and carve it (I currently have ONE Halloween decoration, and that is on loan from my mom. :) ) so that my place actually looks like Halloween somehow tomorrow. I also need to clean and reorganize things.

I "learned how to sew" yesterday, which really means in my family that my mom sewed and I watched, and then, because time did not permit my slowness, she sewed the rest of the part of my costume. We did a good job designing this thing, so I should look good. Now I need to buy face paint that hopefully comes off in the shower (without cold cream, or I'll need to buy that too). I'm going to need a lot of it, as I have to cover my face and neck, and I need to find some black stretchy gloves somewhere--K-mart here I come! I guess I should probably get some candy too, because I'm sure there will be kids trick-or-treating and stuff. I'm going to be answering the door a lot...maybe I'll just hang out on the back deck or leave the candy bowl out there for whoever is out there, and they can pass out the candy. Ah well...should be interesting.

I'm happy that folks are coming tomorrow...should be a good turnout, given the three days' notice. Don't forget to bring some snacky foods too, as not many people have said anything about that. Bags of chips, finger food-type stuff, I don't know...just stuff for people to snack on while downing their favorite alcohols. :)

I will tell you all later today about the work developments...I need to explain it, because it's not an EASY thing to explain if you don't know anything about the publishing business...which many of you do, but hey. Plus, I just don't want to type it out while I'm AT work...

Speaking of work...on I go...

Well, we had softball tonight and won (in the freezing, freezing cold) 13-10. I had an average day.

This did not make me feel better after we got some disconcerting and very shocking news at work that has many of us on edge. Unfortunately, I can say no specifics on such a thing until later in the week, but it's flat-out potentially very, very bad. Potentially.

We shall see...I'm not stressing over it yet, as who knows what might happen...once we all get a handle on things a bit better, then I can stress or not stress. :)

Oh yeah, and I got behind on the search engine thing over there. I'm so sorry. Anyway, I put a ton of them up...they're quite hilarious, in my opinion. :)

Now, strangely, I am tired. I think I'll go lay in bed and listen to some music. Hopefully I won't fall asleep though...which probably will happen.

Come to my Halloween party on Friday! Many people should be there! :)

The uncertainty of Halloween plans amongst my friends and relatives has driven me to stupidly take on a Halloween party to host at my place. I, like many others, have a costume in mind, but of course, I had nowhere to wear it. So, I decided that I'm going to host a shindig and hope that three days notice is enough time to get some people over...I mean, we'll just be hanging out and relaxing, basically. It's just a reason for people who haven't seen my new place to see it and to sit around and have a good time. Of course, one of the mottos I live by--"Come strong or don't come at all"--probably will be horribly violated by this party, given that I have three days to "plan" it...but hey, as long as folks have a good time, I'm cool with that.

Yesterday I planned to stay home and watch the "Monday Night Football" game in the peace and quiet of my home, since one of the teams I cover (Miami) was playing and had a storyline (Brian Griese playing) that I wanted to follow. After Griese went 6-for-6 to start, I got a phone call though and was on the phone for the rest of the game and then some. So I missed the performance. Again, I think I'm the worst sportswriter/fan on the face of the Earth--I watched none of what I hear was a great World Series and I don't watch one of the teams I cover on prime time...thank God for the Associated Press and ESPN though, as I now know Griese kicked ass.

This week/weekend ought to be interesting, as I have no idea what's going on. :) Tonight we have our season finale in Park Ridge softball, and then I have to NOT WATCH "24" because I'm a loyal friend who wants to wait to watch it with Luis tomorrow night--his first chance to watch it. Maybe I'll convince him to watch it tonight...we'll see. Thursday is Park Ridge softball playoffs. Otherwise, madness ensues, I guess. I need to get some black felt material for my costume and stop at my parents' to learn how to sew (which probably will just turn into my mom sewing it, b/c she won't have the patience to teach me or something)...I also have to buy some black face paint and make sure I have the proper outfit for my costume. So we'll see.

Now, I'm going to reheat the chicken and potatoes au gratin I made yesterday for dinner (I'm so "proud" of myself) and lunch today and eat them...off I go. :)

OK...dream time...actually, this one wasn't so vivid, so it'll be short.

I dreamt that, in a mixed "The Usual Suspects"/"Ocean's 11" fashion (though I haven't watched either movie in ages), I was part of a band of villains, including Benicio Del Toro and some famous actor whose name escapes me but he's got a new show on CBS where he pretends to be a bad guy to catch the bad guys or something (I haven't watched, I've just seen the damned promos so much because of football), and what's his face from "The Birdcage" as well as Hank Azaria in his "Birdcage" role. We were trying to steal circus animals that were being kept in a city park...we had an elaborate scheme during a presidential visit/motorcade near the park to distract the cops with Azaria and the other dude from "The Birdcage" dressed as older, nagging women who would act aloof and distract some officers while we loaded up all the animals in a moving van. Really smart...Lions and tigers and bears all together. I didn't really do anything other than observe...great job. :)

So we pulled it off and were sitting in our office (apparently, we have an office), which resembled the "newsroom" from my Kenosha TTV internship, waiting for them to call us to tell us if they'd pay the ransom. Azaria and what's his face were still dressed and acting like older, aloof, nagging women. But the cops came to the door and asked if we'd seen these circus animals...we said no. And it turns out that was just a distraction, because the cops stole them back. So we devised another scheme to get the animals again. At that point, I woke up.

Just flat-out bizarre...now I have plenty to do today...so I'm outta here. :)

A strange thing happened this morning (by "this morning," I mean Sunday morning)...this is a story about sweat--so if sweat grosses you out, discontinue reading...

I went to bed at 6am, which, with the time change became 5am, after my coworker's wedding and watching a movie with Gina. I slept quite well, as expected. Now, our apartment is a comfortable 67 degrees or so, so I huddled under my comforter in my typical sweats and a t-shirt sleepwear--same thing I do every night...I woke up at 11:30, as planned, but my neck and shoulders were soaked in sweat. Just those areas were sweaty. But I quickly realized that I was, by no means, warm, because the air in my room was, as previously stated, near 67 degrees or so, and my comforter isn't THAT warm. Nor was I having a nightmare (thus waking in a cold sweat)...it's like I just was sweating for no reason.

It was odd...I don't know if maybe my sweat glands were still operating after the wedding, during which I danced and danced and danced, and, as many of you have seen at dances in the past, lost plenty of sweat. I was just baffled, that's all, because it's never happened before. It was strange, I guess...so sue me. :)

Today I worked, of course, and I'm feeling quite tired at this point (12:45ish, Monday morning). Getting five hours of sleep after an evening of dancing at a wedding will do that to you. When I awaken later on Monday, I'll have plenty on my plate...bills to pay, SBC to call to set up my cellphone voice mail, laundry to pick up (our machines are still not hooked up...) at my parents' house and still some cleaning and whatnot to do. Otherwise, ha ha, tomorrow will be another fine resting day. :)