Happy Birthday Cake!

It used to be one of the great perks of working in an office environment that, at least once a month, someone was celebrating a birthday.

And, of course, birthdays mean birthday cake.

Unfortunately, there's been a thinning of the herd around this little corner of heaven . . . as, I suppose, there has been everywhere else since the advent of The ObamaNation.

But, I refuse to digress into another soapbox rant.

Why should I when I'm hopped-up on refined sugar?!

That's right, someone around here is marking a fairly significant birthday today. And, yours truly is celebrating!

Now, pass the ice cream . . .

Waiting . . .

Well, ye socks, today yours truly once again finds himself learning the lesson of patience.

This lesson plan seems to pop up an awful lot in the curriculum around this little corner of heaven.

Apparently, there was some sort of accident on I-4 that is delaying the delivery of a package to our office.

And, guess who gets to sit here to wait for its arrival?!?!

4-day work week a mixed blessing . . .

The groans that occasionally escaped from my file-laden desk today served as a reminder that we had eight fewer hours to accomplish the same amount of work this week.

I suppose the logical solution would be to come in here on Saturday and give said desk some much-needed relief.

But, no one has ever called me "Spock," so I'm still going to call it a weekend.

Hope ye socks enjoy yours!

Just breathe!

Wow! I don't know if it's just the holidays, or what.

But the madness that almost always accompanies the season seems to have kicked into particularly high gear this year.

Maybe, it's the economy?

I don't know.

Anyway, after my own online rant yesterday, and in light of all the meltdowns I encountered in the real world today, I'm encouraging all ye socks to just take a step back and BREATHE!

Who can it be, now?!

By way of a prelude, and at the risk of dating myself, I will admit the first album I ever bought with my own money was Men at Work's "Business as Usual."

Give me a break. It was the 1980s, and their video for "Who can it be, now?" was all the rage on MTV.

Yes, Junior, they used to actually play videos on MTV.

But, I digress.

So, today is the 10th of the month, a more-frantic-than-usual time for yours truly, as I have to mail out a big old batch of payables.

This had me working past the usual quitting time at the office. So, I had no one to run interference for me as certain individuals who shall remain nameless here kept calling on the phone or knocking on the door.

Now, I know I'm in a particularly cranky mood today, but I do have to wonder if these people do this every day after office hours and I'm just not there to be annoyed. Or, did they just see my lonely car parked outside and decide that they had struck upon an infrequent opportunity for extended holiday hours of annoyance?!

ARRGGHH!

Get out of my way, now I've gotta rush to the post office before they close!!

Check. Check. Double-check.

Wow, I am surprising myself today.

After all of yesterday's distractions in the office yesterday, I was sure I'd be playing "catch-up."

But, somehow, I managed to tie-up a lot of loose ends.

Dare I say that I'm actually enjoying a small sense of accomplishment?

Probably shouldn't push it.

In fact, maybe I should go over the checklist again to make sure I haven't overlooked anything . . .

Compliance is one thing . . .

Certification is something else altogether.

Our first real burst of autumn weather in this little corner of heaven had yours truly anxious to get the coffee pot a-goin' at the office this morning.

when I got there, I not only had a tough time trying to find a parking spot, but also found the java was already brewing.

And, there was a box of Kirspy Kreme donuts and a home-made loaf of banana bread (thanks to Valda!) waiting for me.

I forgot that the whole crew was going to be in the office this morning, undergoing OSHA certification.
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It was an all day affair, actually.

Having this many people in the office all day was highly unusual, and made it difficult to tackle ye olde work load. But, I suppose, tomorrow is indeed another day . . .

The office merry-go-round

It was moving day at the office today, dear socks.

I left my old dungeon to a move into a spacious new corner office with (what I hope will be) a lot more privacy, which should allow for greater concentration, etc.

The previous tenant has moved to more commodious digs, as well.

All of this was made possible thru the departure of a former co-worker. Heck of a way to go about doing this, but refer back to yesterday's post . . .

Anyway, moving 3 and a half desks, toting boxes, kicking up dust, trying to sort things out that haven't been moved in over 2 years . . . . I'm whipped.

TGIF!

Residential construction continues to slide

Well, the Federal Reserve disappointed a lot of people yesterday when they cut their prime rate by only 0.25%. I guess they were expecting twice that, 0.5%. But, this Fall has brought me to the belief that the sluggish housing market cannot be remedied by dropping rates.

To be sure, after their last cut back on 9/18, the industry index (symbol XHB) immediately jumped 5.2%. But, so what?! I mean, this is a bull market, so the increase was simply following the overall trend in its immediate response to a cut. The long term numbers of the fund tell the true story, the industry's stock value has dropped more than 50% since the index was created in February 2006.

There are too many negatives in residential construction right now to expect a Fed cut to turn things around!

The number one problem is record inventories of spec homes, the highest in nine years. If the builders can't sell them, they don't have the cash flow to build more.

The number two problem is the skittishness of lenders, skittishness that is justified given recent events. They are making things harder on would-be borrowers by demanding larger downpayments and tougher property appraisals. But, you can't fault them for taking these actions. They're protecting themselves.

In Florida, at least, it seems the solution to these two real problems is in the hands of the state legislature. They need to tackle the two-headed monster that is prohibiting people from buying up all those spec homes in the builders' inventory. Of course, I'm referring to the soaring cost of property insurance on the one hand, and our ridiculous property tax system on the other.

So far, the gutless wonders up in Tallahassee have failed us by not taking on these issues, generating lukewarm ballot measures that may not even be constitutional.

I assume the situation is the same in other states.

If we could get these state legislators to take action, it would have WAY more of an impact than a Fed rate cut. But, they're not going to do that until we socks in the dryer hold them to account!

Enough ranting. I've got leftover Halloween candy to eat . . .

Might we hear some wedding bells in the near future?

Sounds like it.

Congratulations to Dan and Debbie, who announced their engagement today.

No date has been set, yet. So, just be patient, ye socks! I'm sure the details will be forthcoming.

A Birthday and a Bon Voyage

Big doin's at the office today.

First off, it's the boss's birthday.

And, secondly, it's Cathy's last day. She's leaving for St. Thomas and St. Martin this weekend, and will then start a new job.


So, I'm hopefully optimistic that there may be some cake around here later today . . . or, at least some pizza, right?!

I just hope Linda and Becky don't embarrass us all with their usual party time shenanigans, dancing on the desks, swinging from the light fixtures, etc. . . but, if they do, I'm sure Yami will take pictures. So, tune in tomorrow for a complete report!

Back to work

Continuing in the attempt to re-establish normalcy around here, I went back to work for the first time in a week.

If I thought Mondays were a drag before . . .

Actually, the mundane little tasks were somewhat therapeutic.

But, the highlight of the day was going home this afternoon. To my own house. And, taking a nap in my own bed!