Survivor Twist and Job status

Well, it appears that the first positions I applied for are not gonna happen. They were looking for someone a level lower and $20-$25,000 a year cheaper. Oh well, their loss really. They'll have to keep me on at a much higher rate to train this cheaper person. The funny thing is that the spot in my group that is open was at the same level I am looking at. I'm not sure I understand the logic of "saving money" by hiring someone you're going to have to put through tons of training that will be able to do half the work I do, but that's probably why I'm not in management, eh?

There are many more positions available and the HR guy is setting me up for those. We are only looking at spots where I can come in at the top level. One of them is in a group run by a high school classmate. That might be kind of weird, any of you work for a friend or classmate before? Is it awkward?

What a great twist in Survivor last night. I totally love it when the one person no one is watching takes over the game and surprises the hell out of everyone. It was so cool. And stupid Terry, what is he thinking? He goes and wins the car (a 2007 GMC Yukon), now he has no chance of winning. Although, no one has ever won every single individual immunity challenge either and he's won all 4 so far and it doesn't appear that anyone left there can beat him at anything.

It's Friday, which means.... half day at work! I will be bugging out around noon and heading straight for the golf course since the weather is supposed to be crappy all weekend.

Have a great weekend.

Hockey Playoff Update

We won our 3rd straight playoff game last night, 4-1 over the purple team. We play them again Sunday night for the championship. We've won 9 of our last 10 games and are 15-5-1 on the season including playoffs. We've never been in the championship game before. Bad news is that 2 of our top forwards won't make the game Sunday.

It was a long night that started with our bowling banquet around 6pm. I drank a few beers until about 8:30 or so then went to hockey. I only drank miller lite so it was really like half water so I wasn't too drunk. Got to the rink in time to catch a fight in the game before us. 2 young guys, both new to the league, decided they'd had enough of the refs not calling anything so they squared off, dropped the gloves and helmets and started throwing punches. Pretty even fight and broken up pretty quickly. They're done in our league. There's a zero tolerance policy on fighting, they won't be allowed to play again. One of the guys was too good for our intermediate league anyway, dude played division 1 college hockey.

I didn't get home till 11:30 so I slept in this morning, didn't get to work till 8:00.

And of course, it's a beautiful day today, going to be about 67 and very sunny. This weekend will be mid 50's and raining so doesn't look good for golfing unless I can get out tomorrow afternoon. Probably have to go alone though, doesn't look like anyone can get the afternoon off. If anyone can and wants to play, let me know.

Job update

I had about an hour and a half interview with human resources for the permanent position yesterday. Turns out there are 3 positions available, one of which is for my current supervisor. I think it went very well. Being a consultant and constantly interviewing makes you a stronger interviewer even if it still is a pain in the ass.

I sold myself pretty well, answered all their canned questions thoroughly, and when it came down to money I didn't back down. I told him what my requirement was and told him I was worth every penny. He didn't choke or start crying or anything and I think he understood how much of a paycut I was willing to take. We'll see if I fit into their structure.

I guess there were 25 applicants and he's only interviewing 5 or 6 for 3 spots. One nice thing is that the position is tough to fill so they offer 3 weeks vacation to start instead of 2. Unfortunately that won't come till next April! I would get nothing for 90 days, which means my vacation to Disney in June would be unpaid. After that I would get 5 days to use in the first year. I can live with that. I get 0 days now, but of course I get paid a lot more to cover that...

So, I'm driving home afterwards and it's 75 and just beautiful out. We take the dogs for a walk. I wear shorts and a t-shirt all night, even with the house opened up. Then, around 10 I hear this wooshing sound from outside. Out of no where it gets really windy. Get up this morning and it's 36! High is only going to get to 50 or so. What the fuck, make up your mind already...

Ok, have a great Tuesday.

Hockey playoff update

We won our 2nd playoff game and with the purple team winning theirs the other 2 teams were eliminated setting us up to play purple on Wednesday in a meaningless game and then again Sunday in the championship.

I still can't believe we won last night. We outplayed them completely in the first period but couldn't push one across and then they scored on a rebound to take the lead. Then in the 2nd period, they scored a couple more times to take a 3-0 lead. It was not looking good.

Then with about 5 minutes left in the 2nd I got a pass at the point, took a slapshot which got blocked but the winger didn't know where the puck was so I picked it up and stepped around him. I caught site of a winger heading down the slot and fed him for a one timer which got us on the board finally. We ended the period down 3-1.

In the 3rd we reeled off 3 straight goals (I had 2 more assists) to take a 4-3 lead as we finally had the goalie rattled and our quick shift changes were finally wearing down the other team. Then we got a power play but we had a turnover which resulted in a guy getting loose and coming in on me. He got off a shot which our goalie stopped but I didn't get the rebound in time and he popped it in to tie it up at 4.

Very quickly though, we got the puck deep into their end. I took a pass at the left point and had a winger closing quickly so instead of shooting I gave him a head fake and stepped around him. To my amazement no one came out to stop me so I walked in closer and fired one just inside the left post to give us the lead back. A minute later my D partner launched a high lob pass from deep in our end that our center caught in stride at the other blue line and went in with a defenseman on his heels. He managed to pull away just enough to put a backhander under the goalie's arm for a 6-4 lead. We hung on at the end with their goalie pulled to take the win. We outscored them 5-1 in the 3rd period. We're really starting to wear teams down and take control at the end of games.

We play the other 2-0 team Wednesday night at 9:15pm then since the other two teams are 0-2 we're guaranteed to play them again Sunday for the championship.

Safety versus cash

I'm having an internal battle and while both sides are landing some clean shots there hasn't been a clear cut winner. As an independent consultant I make some pretty good money but there are some serious risks involved, like my client could let me go today and I'd have no income.

Now, I have very marketable skills as a Java architect/developer/mentor and I'm sure I would find another client the same day, there's still that risk.

In addition, there are some other things I don't have that a normal employee would have:

• No vacation time or sick leave to speak of so when I take a day off that's x hours times x dollars per that I don't get.
• I have to pay for my own life insurance and long term disability insurance. I don't bother with short term but many employers offer that too.
• Taxes on an LLC are ridiculous. I have to pay the 7.5% employers portion of FICA in addition to the 7.5% employee portion as well. Is that fair? I don't think so either.
• 401k? Yeah, right. I can put money into some IRA's or a SEP plan but company matching or anything like that? Nada.
• Luckily I get health insurance from Cdubya's employer or this wouldn't even be a question.

So, why am I thinking about all that. Well, my current client has several openings and I submitted my resume and have an interview with HR on Monday. Unfortunately in my research it appears they are not going to offer what I really would settle for. The big question is how do I put a number on all these benefits? I mean, can you monetize stability and security? What is that worth? $5k? $10k? I don't know and that's where I'm stuck.

I guess I will go through the process and see what the end result is. I was told by someone else that went down this path to state my salary requirements right up front because there is no negotiation. It could be that my requirements eliminate me right away but I do know that my number is in the range that they have.

All else fails, I continue doing what I'm doing. At 41 though, I'm thinking that if I ever want to be one of those "20 year" guys I better move quickly. Of course, if I had just stayed at Boeing in Seattle I'd be hitting my 20th year anniversary in October this year. Oh well.

Stupid Grass

Ok, now I love seeing a green golf course and leaves and flowers, etc... but man, mowing the lawn sucks. Especially in the early spring like this. It's wet and never quite gets completely dry and it grows about 3" a day once the sun comes out. I finally got around to it last night and it was so thick and wet my mower kept bogging down. So much for mulching.

Back to Whistling Straits again. Found on their website that on certain days you can play 8 people for the price of 5 so in 2 days I put together a group of 8 and made tee times for May 27th. It's Memorial Day weekend but we got lucky and everyone was available. Should be a great time. I'm looking forward to seeing the course a little more green and some leaves on the trees (like I said, I do like that).

Tonight is our golf league meeting too. Balderdash got me in to this league last year and I really enjoyed it. Lots of quirky guys and quirky games. Instead of longest drive they'll do something like closest drive to the 150 marker or most sand shots or something. That way everyone has a chance. They do 2 different ones each week. We also play cards. You get a card for every fairway you hit from the tee. I usually get about 2 cards. One of these nights I'm just going to hit wedge off every tee...
We start in 2 weeks, same night as bowling was (Wednesdays). Hockey ends next week too and it'll be a month or so before the summer season starts up again, so I can focus on golf for a little while.

Ok, that's it for now, I have work to do.

Kohler Cup

I'm pooped...

It all started last Wednesday night when Sazi, my epileptic border collie decided it would be a good idea to start having clustered seizures every 2 hours. That lasted on through Thursday afternoon when we took her to the vet where she got IV fluids and finally a shot of phenobarbital when it started again. We got very little sleep both nights. I stayed home Friday and made sure she was ok. She did seize in the morning at about 8:00 and then again at about 5pm. That was the end of it but she did more damage to her system and is struggling to walk even more than before. Her weight is part of the problem too as she's gone up to 65 lbs. She should be in the low 40's. The drugs she has to take make her lethargic and despite our long walks she continues to put on weight.

To make things a little harder on Cdubya this was my weekend to play in the Kohler Cup with Dr. Mike. It's a golf tournament up in Kohler, WI where we played Blackwolf Run - Meadow Valleys on Saturday and Whistling Straits - Irish Course. The 2004 PGA Championship was held on the Straits course there. We left early Saturday morning and got back around 6:30 last night. We spent Saturday night at the Horse and Plow, which is a pub at the American Club, having many different beers and a couple steaks. After that we grabbed a shuttle over to the Olive & Ash, a cigar bar not too far away. We relaxed on the leather sofa's smoking our stogies with a couple of Guinness watching the Paintball team championships on ESPN2.

Now, the golf... We started on Blackwolf Run. Not a bad course, but nothing that exciting. The last 5 holes are decent. I started out pretty good, parring the first 2 holes but then got in some thick crap on the par 3 and took a 6 then lost a ball on the next hole and it was pretty much over as we started drinking. Then I had my first cigar of the year at the turn and got pretty woozy. We staggered in in 57th place out of 67 with a net 77 (+5). Mike did have a birdie on the number 1 handicap hole and got 2 strokes so he had a net 1 on a par 4. We gave it right back with triple bogies on the next 2 holes of course. The weather was beautiful (70), couldn't have been any nicer. I got a nice sun burn on my arms and neck. I could have shot 200 and wouldn't have cared less.

Then Sunday morning arrived and with it a slight change in the weather as it was in the mid 40's, very overcast and 15 mph winds. By the time we teed off there was a threat of rain in the air and it was about 48 with the wind up to about 20. Later on it rained just a little bit for one hole and the sun actually came out later but the wind also increased to a steady 25 mph. It was nasty.

The Irish course at Whistling Straits must be played to be appreciated. It totally kicked our asses and we both had our worst rounds ever but I never lost the smile off my face. It is worth every penny to play this course. Don't even keep score, just enjoy the magic. I was giggling like a little school girl most of the time, it was just awesome. I don't know or care what position we finished in, it was a blast.

Here are some pictures.
First, this is the approach to number 18 at Blackwolf Run with the clubhouse in the background. You can tell it's nice weather, look at the guys wearing shorts on April 15th. Crazy...

This next shot is the 14th hole at Blackwolf Run. It is the "signature" hole. Couple things to note. The bridge on the river is actually a train car, pretty cool. The green is just past it. The other thing is the 2 fly fishermen in the river... Mike almost hit them with his tee shot. I had to laugh. Are you supposed to yell FORE to fishermen?

This is the from the 10th tee at the Irish Course. Isn't it just amazing? We started on the 9th hole in a shotgun start so this was our 2nd hole. I took about an eleventy thousand on 9 and was facing this tee shot on the next hole. I hooked it over the pond on the left and ran through the sand trap stopping in the shit about 3" past the sand. I chunked it about 20 yards into more shit then whacked one sideways about 4' before finally extracating myself from there and getting back to the fairway. Whew, nice 9.

This part of Wisconsin is completely flat. They actually had to import all this sand and dirt to build this. Pete Dye is a mean mother....

This is looking out over the Straits course towards Lake Michigan.


This par 3 is called Blindman's Bluff because you can't see the green. It's staight ahead but about 100' down in a hole surrounded by 1 bazillion sand traps. Here's Mike and another guy trying to see the green as the rain starts to fall. None of us were even close. I thought I hit a perfect shot and was 10 yards short in the sand.

Oh, there's the green...

My 2nd shot ended up in one of the bunkers past the green. You can see it to the right and above the guy on the green. Took me 2 more shots to get on the green.

Back on the front nine, this is number 1. Not enough to have 1,000 bunkers, they're also now adding sand castles to hit over...


Our last hole, number 8, a wicked par 5 dogleg right, having to carry 200 yards to carry a river on your 2nd shot. Mike and I both hit great drives. He then dunked 2 in the river while I missed the fairway left on the side of a hill just above a bunker. The wind at this point was so strong your ball would move on the green. I hit a full pitching wedge (my 115 club) into the wind 62 yards onto the green. Yes, it knocked off 50 yards from my shot. My only birdie putt of the day. Of course I three putted for bogey after Mike bet me a Guinness I'd still double bogey the hole. In his face!

I'd play this course again in a heartbeat. What a day. It was a hell of a walk too. We took our push carts and getting up those hills was pretty hard. I wish I had gotten another picture. Mike some how hit a shot that stopped at the very top of a dome shaped hill, he was way above everything looking like a billy goat. Pretty funny.

Here's the clubhouse.

Here's the pub upstairs.

Last one is looking out the pub window towards the Straits course.

Pitfalls of dating the Taller-Than-You Chick

I once dated a taller than me girl in high school. It's not easy and not all it's supposed to be.

I think Barney provides a keen insight into this particular dilemma.

Fighting the Gas Monster

No, I didn't have beans last night...

I'm talking about my wife's GMC Yukon getting about 16 mpg and costing us about $100 a month just for her to drive the 15 mile round trip to work. No big deal when gas was a buck and a quarter but nearing $3 it's getting sick.

So, after many reviews and even more test drives we pulled the trigger on a new car last night. It's a 2006 Lexus ES 330. We wanted something in the entry-luxury segment and this was the most luxurious one by far. Leather is so soft, everything is just so comfortable, it would be very easy to imagine a long trip in it. In addition to the heated seats it also has ventilated seats which means on those hot summer days you can crank a/c directly into your crotch. How great is that going to be? I can't wait for a hot day. I tested it out on our test drive Saturday in 50 degree weather and within 30 seconds I jumped off the seat.

The Lexus dealer had 7 of them left and are clearing out the '06's to make way for the '07's later this month so we got a very good deal. In addition to the gas savings (at least 10 mpg more) we're saving $100/month on our previous payments and it's only a 3 year lease (we don't keep our cars long).

We had a very hard time with the color though. Cdubya originally wanted white but I wasn't that crazy about it and after thinking about what it would be like with 2 feet of snow on the ground and no one being able to see you we were able to eliminate that one. We ended up picking a black garnet pearl. It is a very interesting color in that it looks different depending on the lighting. In the show room it looks almost black but outside in the sun it has a purple/chocolate tint to it and the pearl is just beautiful.

Here's a picture, not the right color obviously. We really had a hard time deciding but Lexus just won us over. Our salesman was top notch. No pressure, he made us feel like we were his most important customers ever and treated us with respect and patience throughout the process. In addition at Lexus each salesman handles everything the whole way through the process including financing so there's no handing you off to someone else.

We also test drove the following cars:

• Lexus IS 250 AWD - Too stiff for her but I loved it. 6 speed auto with paddle shifting on the steering wheel and man it goes.
• BMW 325xi - Again, I loved this baby but she didn't drive it correctly so there's no point in getting her something she'll ruin.
• Toyota Camry SE (2007, new one) - Came away going yeah, it's ok but here's how Toyota screws up. They give you one that looks cool from the outside (SE) and one that has all the good stuff on the inside (XLE) but not one that combines both. Besides, after riding in this and the Lexus back to back there is no way you can buy the Camry even for $5,000 less.
• Acura TL - This was what we were going to get. But when a dealership treats you like shit and then when you call them on it and they don't improve the offer you have to walk away. I love the TL too. It hauls ass and has every option under the sun but they wouldn't budge off MSRP and I will not pay that. The Lexus was listed $2,500 higher than the Acura but we got it for $1,000 less. And for Cdubya, she was all about the smooth ride and classic luxury feel of the Lexus.

We pick it up tomorrow after work. She's pretty excited but also a little blue about losing her "baby". She hasn't driven anything but a truck or suv since about 1992.

NCAA CHAMPS!

For the first time in the history of the NCAA, the Wisconsin men's hockey team joined the women's team in winning the NCAA championship Saturday night with a tense, hard fought 2-1 victory over Boston College.

It was a great game with BC taking the early lead off a ridiculous top shelf backhander to open the scoring. Robbie Earl tied it up in the 2nd after getting upended on a great hard check and instead of going off the ice, he recognized a scoring opportunity developing and skated hard to the net, getting there in time to tip in a pass.

In the 3rd period the Badgers got another power play and this time, after hitting the goalie in the chest twice earlier, senior defenseman Tom Gilbert rifled a wrist shot past the BC goalie for what turned out to be the winning goal.

There was quite a celebration and on the drive back from Milwaukee to Madison a group of about 30 cars drove out to great the team bus and escort them back to town. Then last night there was a huge pep rally that included the women's team too. It was pretty cool.

In a more important hockey game ;) we played our first playoff game last night and came away with a 4-2 victory. It might have been the fastest game we've played this season and we were short 4 guys so we only had 2 forward lines and 3 defensemen. I know I haven't been that tired in a long time. We got some fortunate breaks with at least 3 shots of theirs hitting a post. We also had some near misses as well.

No hockey for 2 weeks as we break for Easter. I'll be up in Kohler this weekend anyway, playing Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits in a 2-man best ball tourney with Dr. Mike.

One more game!

Saturday. 6pm CDT. Wisconsin/Boston College. NCAA Championship.

Wisconsin knocked off Maine 5-2 last night to join BC in the final (they beat North Dakota earlier in the day). And knocked off is literally what they did. They hammered Maine all over the ice and completely dominated the Black Bears. Their top 2 lines were unstoppable. I do believe Barry Melrose wants to have Ross Carlson's baby, as many times as he said he loved him. They played with the grit and determination it takes to win come playoff time and once again got stellar goaltending from Hobey Baker finalist Brian Elliott (even though he gave up 2 goals, his first after 3 straight playoff shutouts).

Bucky will look to join the women Badgers hockey team as national champs. Another interesting thing is the that local boy and captain Adam Burish will look to bring home a 2nd national championship to the Burish household after little sis Nikki did so with the women's team. I doubt there are too many families where more than one kid wins an NCAA championship.

Extrapolation

Is there anything more annoying than the insistence of announcers for baseball games to extrapolate out a player's stats for 2 games into what he would have for a season? Oh my, Turnbow has 3 saves so that would be 162 for a full season. Or JJ Hardy has 2 homers in 3 games, that would be 108 for the season.

How about this one? The Brewers are 3-0, that would mean they could go 162-0! Yay... shut up.

It is fairly amazing that they are 3-0 but look at who they were playing, the Pirates. Enough said.

Tonight begins the Frozen Four at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. First game pits North Dakota against Boston College at 2pm. The Badgers face Maine at 7pm (all times CDT). Games will be broadcast live on ESPN2. If you don't normally watch hockey or if you haven't seen a college game, give it a try. These kids can play. Winners face off for the title Saturday night at 6pm.

Masters starts today as well. Lots of complaining about the course getting lengthened again. That can only mean one thing. Record low scores. Tom Lehman is lucky just to be playing. Some jackass shot at his car in Augusta. I just don't get that. Did you have a big bet on Lehman in some other tourney and he let you down? If you're betting on Lehman you have some serious mental issues in the first place.

Last night was our final week of bowling that counted (fun night next week). I was back to being sucky again and couldn't care less. It's finally, almost, over.

With 62 degree temps yesterday I bolted at lunch and went to play 9 at Yahara with Dr. Mike. Greens were super slow. I continued to strike the ball pretty well, odd for this early in the season. I was 3 over after 6 holes but 4-putted for double bogey on the par 3 8th (from about 100 feet uphill) and then 3 putted for bogey on 9. Finished with a 43. Yahara is so weird. All the greens are sloped down from back to front and gigantic. The first putt I had on 8 was as far away from the hole as possible. I would have rather have missed the green. It was uphill, right to left break and 100 feet away. I couldn't get it within 20 feet of the hole. The greens were so soft that I was hitting 4 irons from 185 yards that stopped right where they landed.

Anyway, enjoy your Thursday.

Just what the doctor ordered

After one of my roughest weeks in quite a while, it was nice to finish it off with a pretty darn good weekend.

Saturday we golfed at Door Creek. Mostly I wanted to test out my cold weather gear to make sure I had the right mix for our upcoming outing at Whistling Straits over Easter weekend. It worked great, despite the 40 temp I felt comfortable and even managed to shoot an 88 (45-43). Stayed away from trouble except for 2 holes where I took a triple and a double. Other than that all pars and bogies. Could have been a lot better but the putting was pretty rough and I think I 3-putted for bogey 4 or 5 times.

Sunday was our final regular season hockey game. We were down 4-2 going into the 3rd and it didn't look good but we got 2 goals to tie it then scored a power play goal with 25 seconds left to win! That put us at 12-5-1 and then I found out later that the first place team had lost which gave us first place! The playoffs start next weekend.

The baseball season finally got underway last night with a 6 hour contest in Chicago. Needless to say we got a little rain yesterday. Luckily the Brewers have a roof because it's going to be nasty all day with rain and very high winds around 35 mph. I feel bad for those that will be out tailgating in about, hmm, it's 7:20, so about a little over an hour and a half.