Lunes Sopa de Letras

For my post title today, I decided to use my iGoogle translator.  I did this mostly to confound Jan.  She took a course in Spanish at the local JC about 20 years ago and has been lording it over me ever since that she can speak and understand the language from south of our border. The only thing is ... she can't.  She just has herself convinced that she can.  So, if she reads this post, I'll bet a loaf of marble rye that she can't decipher it.

I spent all weekend in the yard again, trying to make it look like something from Better Homes & Gardens, but I don't think I succeeded.  Sometimes I believe that trying to make the small patch of land surrounding my house look inviting is somewhat akin to trying to polish a turd. Anyway, before I turned in last night, I told Jan that I was glad to be going back to work on Monday so I could "rest up".  I expected her to giggle or something, but she just looked at me and said she wished I would stop using dusty old cliches in my conversation.  And while I was at it, to stop mixing my metaphors.  Well, this kind of took me aback, because I thought I had just made that saying up from scratch, plus I had to go run and look at the dictionary to make sure I knew what a metaphor was. Just once, I wish I could make up a word or a saying that nobody had ever heard before.  Like "you son-of-a-bitch". I wonder how old that saying is, and did the person who first uttered it get credit for it?  I'll bet he didn't.

Plus, work today didn't turn out to be any more restful than it was working in the yard this weekend.  Son-of-a bitch!  I had to go to a meeting in a building I'd last worked in about 5 years ago.  It was held in 32-14B/E-LL-W.  I remember hating this building when I worked there, because I always felt like I should be leaving a trail of bread crumbs or something behind me when I walked from the parking lot to my office so I could find my way out again at night.  So, I gave myself 45 minutes to find it, and I was still late because I kept getting turned around. And then they didn't even have doughnuts.

Speaking of work, today is my 6 month anniversary of this particular tour of duty.  I'm a hired gun, which at this point in my life, I kind of like.  The only problem with it is that I keep getting assigned to divisions within the company that are teetering on the brink of collapse. Personally, I don't mind, as long as I keep getting paid, but it means I work with a lot of grumpy people who walk around sideways like crabs all of the time because they're afraid they're going to be laid off.  Been there, done that.  In fact, it was 10 years ago this Spring that I was "laid off" from my career job, and I've had more jobs in the last decade than I did when I was in school.  I do feel some pity for these people though, because it has to be frightening to contemplate losing your job for the first time.  What they don't understand yet, it that it's not the end of the world.

And speaking of my blog (sorry, ran out of logical segways), today, April 19, marks one year that I have had my weblog.  I believe my first post was something about changing the sump pump in our basement, which sounds rather boring, but it was a big deal to me.  Changing out a sump pump in a driving rain storm is no task for the faint hearted.  In fact, I was so pleased with myself when I completed it, with no flooding, electrocutions and general fuck-ups that I ran around the basement whooping like an idiot.  And when Jan got home that evening, and I excitedly tried to tell her about it, all she could say was "that's nice".  I guess she had to be there.

And speaking of Jan, have you figured out what the post title says yet ... Seen-yor-ah?