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Living in Gin

Okay, so I get four email responses for my roommate ad today. All four seemed very interested in the room, so I responded to each of them with the times that I'm available to show the place this week.

Of those four, two never bothered to get back to me to set up a time to see the place or get directions.

One is scheduled to come tomorrow evening.

The other set up an appointment to see the place at 7:00 tonight. This guy also happened to be emailing from a large architecture firm in the Loop, so I got my hopes up that I might actually be able to share this place with another architect. When we set up the meeting time, I made a specific point to ask him to give me a call if he's running late or had to cancel at the last minute (after being stood up by somebody else last week).

After finishing up at the office, I raced home and spent the next hour cleaning the kitchen and bath, taking out the garbage, and removing all the junk that was piled up in the back room. I finished promptly at 6:54 PM, and then sat down to wait for this guy to show up... and waited and waited. It's now 7:38 PM as I write this, and no sign of anybody coming to see the apartment. No phone call, no voice mail message, no email to say he'd be running late or unable to make it.

What the fuck is wrong with people? If you can't even keep a simple commitment to show up at a given place at a given time, how the fuck am I supposed to trust you to pay your rent on time and not trash the place? Arrrgh... I fucking hate people.

Jan 23, 07 8:39 pm  · 
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SuperBeatledud

LIG, see 40oz. above....
problem solved.

"Alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson

Jan 23, 07 8:56 pm  · 
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liberty bell

Do you know, I lived in Arizona for 20 years and never saw a single scorpion. This morning I picked up a pile of dirty laundry and there was one on the floor. My sister says she kills a dozen a year in her house. I think the things are like cardinals: they thrive in suburban environments!

Next time I go out of town I am changing my outgoing voicemail message to say "I am out of town until Tuesday (so whatever your little crisis is don't bother me again until at least Wednesday morning)." I spent all yesterday on the phone trying to deal with two problems from across the country. Why are people so impatient? Whay when you say "I'm still on vacation" don't they respond with "Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt your vacation, let's just put it on hold until you get back."

Orhan good luck with your friend in these final days/hours. It is good to hear your story and I hope it isn't all too painful for you.

Jan 23, 07 10:10 pm  · 
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snooker

Lb...glad to have you back!

Jan 23, 07 10:18 pm  · 
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brian buchalski

sorry liberty bell, but there are no more vacations anymore...on the positive side, you are now allowed to post to archinect all day long while you're at the office so you might as well stay there for 168 hours per week

living in gin, i feel your pain. but consider this, if you worked in a traditional sales job such as real estate or insurance (financial advisors as they call them today) you'd be dealing with that bullshit on a daily basis. don't hesitate to double-book a showing since the odds are good that one of them won't show...and even if they both do then at least you can cover two prospect in one shot. hell, triple-book it if you can. also, it never hurts to call at the last minute to confirm.

Jan 23, 07 10:28 pm  · 
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brian buchalski

so it's what, the 3rd or 4th week of january and i find my self suddenly thinking the same thing that i think every year at this time...do poinsettias ever die? i'm ready for some new flowers.

and that must mean that it's almost time for the girl scout cookies. i'm not sure the name of them...but i absolutely love those peanut better ones that come in the orange boxes. not the peanut butter & chocolate ones (although those are good too) but the peanut butter & cookie ones...oh i can't wait

Jan 23, 07 10:32 pm  · 
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lb- how the heck did you work that out? I had to see one a couple times a year. I remember one time just sitting on the couch doing my homework, and one was crawling accross the wall. Eurrrch.

Don't forget to look in your shoes before you put them on.

Jan 23, 07 10:46 pm  · 
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liberty bell

rationalist, it is shocking, isn't it? I saw black widows, wolf spiders, 6" palo verde beetles, geckos, and horny toads regularly, plus occasional rattlesnakes, roadrunners, and those lizards with the capes, and one gila monster. Just never crossed paths with a scorpion, until today.

The desert smells amazing. I do miss that.

Jan 23, 07 10:56 pm  · 
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just got a really funny email spoof of the state of the union- now posted to news...

Tonight I volunteered to participate on neighborhood committee for a new BRT transit station that's being built half a mile from my current home. Not much input needed regarding the architecture since that's ready to go into cds, but there seems to be no landscape/urban design efforts for the bridge across the highway. So my first local political act will to help make the pedestrian experience of public transit a (little) better.

Jan 23, 07 10:59 pm  · 
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ooh, yeah, I love that creosote smell, particularly mixed with the thunderstorm smell around August. I saw the spiders, the lizards, the rattlers, and the roadrunners, but there also seemed to be a family of jackrabbits living in my neighborhood. We still irrigated, and every time our yard flooded, they were out running around.

Jan 23, 07 11:23 pm  · 
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speaking of bush related things, the times recently had this on offer, a song by randy newman about america and its place in history. he ain't my fav, but is offbeat funny nonetheless...

Jan 24, 07 5:52 am  · 
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farmer

Yesterday being a wintry sort of day and my body craving carbs and it being my turn to cook supper, and being fed up with my computer and having a desire to chop some vegetables I spent yesterday cooking a pea soup. The night before I soaked about 2 c. split dried yellow peas in water. I picked over the peas yesterday morning and changed the water on them and put them in a pot with a heavy bottom with almost 3 quarts of water and put them on to simmer with 3 chopped onions. I then chopped 2 med. potatoes, 2 carrots, 2 parsnips and a couple of slices off a med. size turnip. We had some ham left over from New Year's which had been in the freezer. My mother's recipe for pea soup is 1 1/4 c. dried split peas to 2 quarts water but I wanted to make a bigger soup. I simmered the peas and onions all day, than around 4 pm I put in the turnip, carrots and parsnips, and 4:15 I put in the diced potatoes and diced ham. The four of us had four big bowls full at 5 pm and two of us had seconds. The rest I froze for lunches later. After you put in the vegetables it thickens up quite a bit so twice I had to put in boiling water. I also had to add a bit of salt and lots of freshly ground pepper. We had it with tea biscuits and whole wheat bread. Very good.
And, of course, welcome back liberty bell. I enjoyed your evocations of the desert very much.

Jan 24, 07 8:15 am  · 
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liberty bell

I forgot about the tarantula a found as a kid too - put it in a sun tea jar and took it to 4th grade show and tell. Then let it go back to the desert, of course - I won't kill a spider, though I stomped that scorpion (a spider's cousin) in a millisecond.

Mmmm, farmer...snow on the ground here, I'm ready for a bowl of all-day-simmered carbs too! Apparently parsnips are a new wonder food. I love roots.

[rant warning]

Speaking of simmering, I am simmering to the boiling point in fury over the local Meridian Street Preservation Commission and their Chairwoman, who apparently doesn't understand how to pick up a phone and dial it. Between my partner, myself, and the client we must have called or emailed her at least 25 times in the last two months asking what the hold up was on our building permit. Finally the client and I ambushed her unannounced in her office last week, whereupon in 3 minutes of looking at the file she figured out we hadn't submitted the plans to her yet, which I thought the builder had done when he applied for the permit.

So here we are. If she had bothered to return a single one of my g**damned phone calls in the last two months we could have solved that problem in the one hour it ultimately took to send her a copy of the drawings. Instead my clients have lost two months of construction time and most likely now won't be in their house at Christmas.

Also, now we have to present to her commission again - because we added 10' to to the width of the addition, fine, I understand needing to resubmit after a change, but I have told my partner I don't think I can present because I am certain I won't be able to hold my temper in front of this woman. We are discounting our fee and furiously scrambling to try to make up for a loss in confidence on the part of the client and it is all because this local bureaucrat can't/won't return phone calls.

I understand the idea behind historic preservation, and support it for the most part, but when it inhibits homeowners' abilities to inhabit their own properties, and gets into nitpicky little things like whether a 3'x1' window on the back of the house is horizontal or vertical, with no concern for how its orientation impacts the use of the cabinetry on the interior, I feel that historic preservation commissions just turn into clubhouses for little dictators to wield the power they don't actually have in their real lives.

Jan 24, 07 9:53 am  · 
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snooker

I live and work in Preservation Alley. I understand just what your talking about Liberty. In fact I was looking at a trade magazine from
Traditional Building Magazine and I thought.....hummmm might be a good magazine to send to the Historical Commission of a local town
where I do a couple of projects a year.

Lunch and Learn Sessions Sponsored By:

Jeldwen
Specifing Wood Windows for Historical Renovation and Design.

Azek:
Substitute Materials: Changing Face of Trim Products

Marvin
Historic Windows

Think I might just cause a few heart attacks if this showed up in their
mailbox.

Jan 24, 07 11:05 am  · 
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liberty bell

vado have you set up your special Jan 25 paypal account so we archinecters can all gift you tomorrow?

Jan 24, 07 2:09 pm  · 
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treekiller

three cheers for vado!

hip hip hooray!

hip hip hooray!

hip hip hooray!

Jan 24, 07 3:18 pm  · 
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dia

Vado, where I am it is already your birthday. So start celebrating. It is also my beautiful partners birthday too.

Jan 24, 07 3:20 pm  · 
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abracadabra

vado, being ahead of the times, i celebrate your birthday now.

Jan 24, 07 4:34 pm  · 
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JMBarquero/squirrelly

haha, the pictures from the LA Archinector gathering.......

glad to see you guys have checked them out! I know DubK was concerned! hehe

Yes, is that paypal set up or what Vado??

Jan 24, 07 4:35 pm  · 
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vado retro

your birthday good wishes are enough payment. unless you can overnight me a girl with a garwondLer necklace :P

Jan 24, 07 4:45 pm  · 
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abracadabra

did you say gurl? i'm on ma way..

Jan 24, 07 4:48 pm  · 
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JMBarquero/squirrelly

is it ok if she's a Vinyl rubber blow-up doll??
be honest, you just want that garwondLer necklace so you can claim to have your "own garwondLer!"

haha

Jan 24, 07 5:52 pm  · 
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brian buchalski

happy birthday vado retro

...and speaking of historic preservation issues, i'll admit that i'm a bit surprised that my thread regarding the marcel breuer library has recieved such a positive response. the odd thing is that i don't know that i'm totally in love with the building and i'm certainly sympathetic to their programmatic & functionality concerns...but it's the argument for additional parking combined with those other library branches that they've built that i find irksome. strictly speaking i'm not in love with the idea of "preservation"...but i'd rather that public officials not move too quickly on such issues. i guess i'll call myself an "anti-demolitionist" for whatever that's worth because once it's gone, it's gone.

and i agree with liberty bell regarding the people who seem to be on preservation boards/commissions...although the intent & heart is in the proper place, it seems that these people do let the power go to their heads.

Jan 24, 07 6:54 pm  · 
 · 

I'm one class away from a Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation. Unfortunately, due to beaurocracy, I need to work for another three years before I can be admitted to the program, take that last class, and earn my Certificate. Anyway....

The more I've learned about preservation, the more I'm convinced that about 1/2 of preservation attempts are flat-out wrong. I'm a big advocate for adaptability as a part of sustainability. Not every house that belonged to someone moderately important in their community can/needs to become a house museum. Many times it needs to become a hotel or an apartment building, or an office, or even just a house with a few modern conveniences like plumbing that actually works and a washer/dryer combo, and I think that the portions of the preservation community who try to prevent a good old building from getting repurposed or updated so that it can avoid being demolished for another 25 years, are not living in the real world and have some misplaced ideals. I know how to do things their way now.... and I still think they're wrong.

Jan 24, 07 7:32 pm  · 
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liberty bell

It is exciting, isn't it, puddles? Seems a few of us are getting responses, and I'm all hopped up about this one, in part because I know those rich residents of Grosse Pointe won't bother building anything new that would be, in fifty years, of the caliber of a Breuer building, even a "mediocre" one.

The Paul Rudolph house that just bit the dust on Long Island a week or two ago made me heartsick - you know what kind of schlock is going to replace it. That's the same feeling I'm getting about the Breuer.

Sigh.

Jan 24, 07 9:15 pm  · 
 · 

i, unfortunately, sent mine from my work email. i can't see if i've been answered until the a.m. bummer.

Jan 24, 07 9:22 pm  · 
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snooker

Don't you wish people would be inspired. I didn't mention this earlier, but I live in an area where marcel designed a number of homes and commercial buildings, and institutional buildings. I did a number of years ago have the rare opportunity to visit one of the homes for cocktails with the owner who had the house built. Actually he had two houses built by marcel just next door to one another.
The first home he gave to the church which inturn turned it into apartments, then they sold it an it was remodeled by imports from California. It was on the market for awhile, however to my knowledge it has not sold.

The local high school designed by him has,been remodeled this past year, and I don't have alot of hope for it. It was done under the bullshit method of picking architects who have the most influence with the State.

Another one of his commerical buildings had a new building put up next door by Perkins and Will....and damn if it isn't a piece of garbage....with no respect for the building next door by marcel.

my heart goes out to the people of Grosse Pointe who actually use the library, cause they will certainly miss the old modern library.

Jan 24, 07 10:35 pm  · 
 · 
abracadabra

i was considering to send this to a certain librarian but then again i don't want to blow the efforts of the saner friends who are trying to warn the authorities in a much more adult way.

dear librarian,
i heard that you might tear down an ugly modernist building to build a whorehouse/library/parking structure combo for both sexes, so the surrounding community can learn from live action and collected works of great american pornography while eating hot dogs in their cars.

i am an architect of some reputable pleasure palaces and would like to be a part of this venture. i'd like to serve my country by bringing on the best fuck we can have and i know you are also interested in that orgical concept of community fuck-o-rama that is taking the country by storm.

do not listen to the people who are asking you to save the existing communist designed torture chamber looking eyesore, which doesn't even have parking for the horny citizens in your well fucking town.

please, and i mean pleeease do not save that building if you want to set an example for great american fuckout that is about come on your neighborhood (i am organ-ising it, by the way).

i might be getting a-head of my time but the new building should look like a preservative, sort of a nice word play on those terrorist preservationists that have been writing you un american save me & save me, letters.
god fucking bless the bloomingdales lingerie department.

your servant,
abrafuckcadabra


this is also justice done to page 69 of thread central. hellooo.

Jan 24, 07 10:50 pm  · 
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liberty bell

Justice done, indeed, abrafuckadabra.

Jan 24, 07 11:43 pm  · 
 · 

Nicely done abra...nicely done

Jan 24, 07 11:53 pm  · 
 · 

Well it seems I've started the new year with a "bang" with great emphasis on that. Two weeks ago whilst on a training course, I collapsed. When i hit the floor I managed to dislocate both my shoulders.

I was hospitalised for the remainder of the week, as they tried to figure out what happened to me. They released me days later, and I flew home.

On arrival I was rushed to the ER, and sedated so they could pop my right shoulder back in which the other doctors happened to miss. The prescribed a funny orthopedic contraption which i have to wear most of the day.

I've also been to the neurologist who did an EEG & MRI, and has some suspicisions about what happened. But that is yet to be confirmed. So far the diagnosis was that it was stress related.

So all in all I've done over a dozen x-rays of my head, chest and shoulders, 3 ct scans, 8 pints of blood with more to come. Sounds like fun and I wonder why I'm not glowing at night.

Can't drink for a couple weeks, nor drive or anything of the dark side of fun. Nonetheless I'm in great spirits.

Jan 25, 07 12:03 am  · 
 · 
WonderK

I would like to take this, my 2222nd post, to mention a few things.

architectnophilia. Why must you worry me like this. If I were anywhere near you I would come find you and give you a hug. A very, very gentle hug.

puddles, well done on the Breuer thread. It helped that you presented it to everyone so completely and thoroughly so as to make it easy for everyone to take action.

lb, glad to see you back. If I had seen a scorpion anywhere near my person I probably would have ended up on the floor much like dear our architectnophilia, except I'm sure he has a good reason whereas I am just a sissy.

Living in Gin, let me know if you want me to repost the apartment listing. It looked like you had some leads though.

I am glad everyone liked the LA photos. We had a great time. Honestly I've been in a funk ever since I returned from the sunnier side of the country though. Not sure why but I'm entirely uninspired. I might start a thread about it. If I find the energy.


......And may I officially be the first person to wish vado retro a Happy Birthday on his birthday (and diabase's partner). vado, I have no less than 3 good friends with birthdays today, too, so it's a good day to be born. These people have decided to celebrate their day by taking us to a strip club on Friday night. Yes, I'm going. vado, wanna come? ;o)

And THAT imagery is my lasting contribution to page 69.....

Jan 25, 07 12:20 am  · 
 · 

wonderK you have my eyes all misty now...thanks.

Jan 25, 07 12:41 am  · 
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vado retro

thanks wondlerk but i would never exploit the fairer sex in such a manner! other ways, yes. but not in that manner:P

Jan 25, 07 12:47 am  · 
 · 

lol that would definately fall under sexploitation

Jan 25, 07 1:05 am  · 
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brian buchalski

hmm...the breuer library might make an excellent strip club especially with its transparent lobby wall. that'd be so detroit too. from a professional's perspective, this library project is fraught with challenges...but from the standpoint of a student, i think something like this could make an excellent thesis project...almost makes me wish i was still in school...

vado- happy birthday. i used to think celebrating birthdays was bullshit but the older i get and the more i realize how much shit is out there conspiring to take us down...the more i appreciate just being alive for another year. definitely worth celebrating

architechnophilia- take it easy on those training courses. funny orthopedic contraptions may look cool but some of them make it difficult to type and post to archinect...and we need you posting to archinect.

everybody- thanks again for all the excellent efforts on behalf of the breuer building. all the responses are appreciated (at least by me). even the funny/stupid posts have a legitimacy in my opinion. the odd thing about the internet is that because of the often anonymous nature of it, even the bullshit statements have an honesty about them that is often lacking from public discourse because those are the statements that people often want to make but can't because of decorum et protocol, etc. i honestly wouldn't mind the library board being inundated with all the responses...even the edgy ones.

abra- loved your letter to the librarian. literally put the first honest smile on my face today. i wish i could write like you do.

Jan 25, 07 1:13 am  · 
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farmer

happy bobby burns day everyone

Jan 25, 07 3:38 am  · 
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and so we enter the 'me'-pages: the 70s.

Jan 25, 07 7:50 am  · 
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treekiller

I'm a kid of the 70's! (I'm thinking of a pearl jam song)

Jan 25, 07 9:44 am  · 
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treekiller

I'm a kid of the 70's! (I'm thinking of a pearl jam song)

Jan 25, 07 9:44 am  · 
 · 
Living in Gin

Another kid of the 70's checking in this morning (although I'll have to wait until Thread Central adds five more pages until we get to my actual birth year).

Speaking of birthdays, happy birthday Vado!

I have two people who seem very interested in my apartment, so I'm feeling slightly less stressed about it. Wish me luck, and stay tuned.

Jan 25, 07 9:54 am  · 
 · 
AP

happy birthday vado. what were you doing on this day 1970?

Jan 25, 07 10:13 am  · 
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JMBarquero/squirrelly

peeing his pampers! hahaha

Jan 25, 07 11:50 am  · 
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JMBarquero/squirrelly

and Im a 70s kid too....but only need 2 more pages for my birthyear!

Jan 25, 07 12:02 pm  · 
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vado retro

after thread central
(sung to the song after the goldrush by prelude...

well i dreamed i saw abracadabra coming
saying something about the fucking aia
there girls garwondLering and boys just wandering
and steven ward said hooray
there was a band playing through my ipod
and i felt i had to sneeze
look at thread central on the run
on page seventy
look at thread central on the run
on page seventy...

she was designing down in the basement
in a french country chateau
moved here from philly a couple of years ago
now she deals with rich folks bathrooms and feel like getting high
she heard something about indy that a friend had said and was convinced it was a lie...

on archinect
on archinect
the place was once fun
flyin garwondler's golden trunk
to a new home in the sun...

Jan 25, 07 12:08 pm  · 
 · 
AP

nowhere in that song did you answer my question, vado.

Jan 25, 07 1:30 pm  · 
 · 

I just saw this headline and had to click because you guys had been talking about it, and indeed, it turned out to be.... Bleep Save the Queen!

Jan 25, 07 2:12 pm  · 
 · 
Ms Beary

I am convinced that our new principal does absolutely nothing and is taking us for a ride. Everytime I walk by his desk he is staring at his e-mail inbox. He is supposed to be project manager on this project, but he spends maximum 10 minutes a day on it. Mostly telling me to do things I've already done or telling stupid stories trying to be funny. He is NEVER here so I end up taking the phone calls, answering the questions, putting out fires, and making the descisions that he might. I doubt any of the consultants even know he is the project manager.
He also calls in to state that he is "working from home today" but on what? Getting new work? No. Managing projects? No. Drafting? No. Redlining? No. Coordination? No.
He shows up at 10:00 most every day. Takes 2 hour lunches quite often, I know I've gone to lunch with him. It's 11:30 to 1:30.

Are these the kind of perks I can look forward to?

Ok, I'm grouchy because I have been putting in lots of extra hours getting ready for a submittal and I thought we were looking great for it. I asked for a day off tomorrow to hang with a friend who is going to be in town. Answer: No. WTF? We are going to do some extra work for the submittal and go above an beyond, and I need to be here to produce and coordinate said work.

Jan 25, 07 2:24 pm  · 
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Chili Davis

So, today is Vado's birthday, and tomorrow is Chili's!!!

Jan 25, 07 2:28 pm  · 
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FRO

I hear ya StrawB, I work for a guy like that. Maybe it's a Colorado thing, but I'd like to think not.

Take solace in the fact that he can find his Inbox without you helping him. OTOH, he is very flexible about me taking time off, but I don't think he ever comes in while I'm out of town....

Jan 25, 07 2:35 pm  · 
 · 

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