|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||||||||||
|
Skip Month I got an email this morning.
So there you go. Dad's surgery went as well as possible. They had decided to not mess around and had the whole prostate removed. Clean and neat. A few days in the hospital, and then home to toddle around recovering. He's good. Not healing as fast or as comfortably as possible (infections have prevented him from enjoying the last of the summer out on the property - too far from a hospital for comfort), but the doctors all seem satisfied. Heh. Just like us to go through something like this with the minimum of fuss and histrionics. Makes for a boring read, but I like it better this way. So much has been happening that I can barely type it all in. Con-Version came and went, as conventions do. By nearly all accounts it was a success, with the only problem being financial in nature. We had some sudden late expenses for AV equipment that we had not prepared for, which ate up all our potential profits. Well, we can pay all the bills, and that's important. In a way, the convention really sucked for me. I was running Con-Operations, which meant I way the busiest guy at the con (outside of our poor beleaguered registration folks - their planned computer network failed to perform as it had in the office so they could barely cope with all the workload). I spent so much time on my feet that I managed to pinch a nerve in both feet and I STILL don't have complete feeling back in both of my baby toes. Con-Version for me is my annual people-fest. A chance to race around and spend time with folks I haven't seen from the year before. Con-V is my place to shine - everyone knows me and I spend more time on stage or in front of people than not - and it does wonders for my ego, but I worked so hard I lost most of the fun. Not all the fun. I had enough to make it worth it, but it left me seriously burnt out. I didn't even want to talk about the con for over a week. But it was good. The guests all raved about how well they were treated and most promised to come back whenever we get around to inviting them again. A couple are planning on coming back next year anyway. The attendees were nearly all happy, and most of the complaints we heard we along the lines of 'Too many fun things happening at the same time!' Heh. So I'm all volunteered for next year's con as well. Sigh. At least this time I know what I did wrong, and it won't go the same way next year. Lost another poor soul at work. In fact, the turnover here has been ridiculous. One of the marketing folks left with another due to go in two weeks, as well as the guy who handled all our data entry. He's been replaced, but I had to do his job and mine for two weeks first. Now I'm the first to admit that I'm not always swamped at the office. Why some days are downright empty! But the data job is COMPLETELY full time. Not one spare second in the week and enough to occupy a dozen overtime hours a week. And it was around the same time as all of our fall assortments arrived, which meant lots of work for everyone, me included. We got through. Luckily, I had a vacation scheduled in the middle, which overlapped the new girl's arrival. I gave her a day of training and then vamoosed for over a week. She was still here when I got back, so I guess it didn't go too badly. Heh.
We had planned to go out to BC and spend a few days on the lake, but the forest fires ravaging the province made that impossible. The property wasn't in any danger, but the smoke from the fire down the lake was filling the air. Lisa's asthma couldn't take that sort of attack, so the entire province was a no-no. So we stayed home, but were careful to make sure that we actually did things, rather than sit in front of the GameCube the whole week. So, we spent a day at Sylvan Lake, riding the waterslides, an afternoon at Heritage Park, saw some of the competitions at Spruce Meadows, golfed (I hit a 57 for my first time! Yes, on nine holes, but still...), and generally enjoyed ourselves. Spent too much money of course, but we expected that. What else to tell you... I've been having there weird streaking dreams lately, like I'm living at my folks house and I have to get something from the front yard, but I'm completely naked and I have to race around the whole outside of the building and back sans clothing. I suspect it's because we sleep in the 'all-togethers' and instead of stumbling around to find a bathrobe or a pair of shorts in the dark without my contacts at 3 in the morning, I simply dart down the hallways to do my late-night business. And I know that Joel occupies the lower half of the house, and rarely surfaces between the hours of 10 and 7, but my bodily shyness combined with the urgings of my bladder make such trips small exercises in stealth and quickness. You know, every week for the last couple months, we've been having Johnny Cash afternoons in the office, where the Cool Marketing Guy would pop in his CDs and we'd spend the afternoon listening to Cash's cool, gravelly voice. Marketing Guy quit and took his CDs with him two days before Cash died. So we don't even have nay tunes to play as a memorial. Still. It's not like anyone will forget him. And John Ritter died too, just as the second season of his sitcom was about to open. I always liked him. I watched Three's Company all the time, as well as Hooperman, and 8 Simple Rules was a bright spot in last year's comedy mausoleum. Thanks John and John! We'll miss you both.
Read Operation: Find Don and her account of that day. Slim chance any of you will know him, but I don't mind passing the call on. Better than Spam emailing you all about it, anyway.
|
|
||||||||||||
Speaking
of vacation, we had a WONDERFUL time!
Here's
another 'Where Are They Now', prompted by a call-out on Sarah's