Why is it ... when dealing with "dating services" like Yahoo Personals or Match.com ... guys will write to you for abit and then disappear. [I guess if a gal doesn't ask them out or start talking about sex, they lose interest. Geez!] Or, they'll give you their number and say "call me ... now". I'll give them my number and say a lady never calls a gent the "first time". Then I never hear from them ever again. Or they claim they called and I know damn well they didn't. Sigh! Dating standards have really soured over the years. Yah know. I feel if a chap is really interested in you then he'll make that first phone call and treat a lady with respect. Right?!? I mean, the chap wrote to me first, so he must be interested. Seems like there are lot of chaps out there who don't want to persue a gal and rather she do all the work. Well folks, that is not right. The few times I have persued a chap in the past [years ago] they turn around and treat me like crap. Now your probably thinking its the younger fella's who are behaving in this fashion. Yes and no! I'm talking about men my own age or five years older! Sad ... very sad. Sorry for the rant ... but I'm PMSing and needed to get this little angst off my chest. Okay ... I feel somewhat better now. Did I mention its bitterly cold outside and the wind just rips right through yah. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

As I sit here sipping a Caramel Apple Cider drink from Starbucks and reflect on the last two hectic weeks at work, as well as personal commitments. I'm thankful that I work for a corporation these days that really cares and supports its employees. Their not spitting out empty phrases ... they back up what they say with truth and action. Last time I made an entry things were fine and motoring along smoothly. On January 7th the other secretary in my office fell on ice while coming into work that morning. Your wondering ... is this a major concern. Yes ... it is when that secretary is 7 months preggers. In the early afternoon she left the office to rush to the hospital, as the labor process started to kick in. Not good. Doctors managed to stop that and the gals been on bed rest ever since then. So, in the meantime, I've been taking care of her executives. You would think this wouldn't be a problem and your right. Except that one of the executives is a f--king pain in the ass! Good thing he doesn't work in this office much and is on the road alot. Cause if he was I'd have chucked him out our 25th floor windows some time ago. Need I say more? I didn't think so. On the 10th there was a 2 hour meeting I had to attend regarding major office structural et al changes that will take place March thru May. While on the subject of work ... the big and unpleasant news happened on the morning of the 15th. I came into work and two of my co-workers are sitting in reception area with upset looks on their faces. Plus the doors are wide open and I hear all sorts of noices coming from our large conference room area. This does not bode well. What happened is that the "private executive" bathroom on the floor above us clogged up during the evening before from someones "large load". Basically the water from the toilet ran down threw airducts et al for 9 hours and really made a HUGE watery mess on five floors. Since we're right under the f--ker, we got the most water dumped on half of our office. Not a pretty sight. Especially with it running into our expensive datacenter. The cleanup and repair work went on thru yesterday. The combined two weeks I clocked in about 5 to 6 hours of "paid" overtime. Okay ... enough work talk and on to more interesting, fun stuff.

On January 11th I visited my good friend Katherine in CT. I took her out to lunch, we exchanged Xmas gifts, catch up on news and did some shopping. Her daughters were out and about, so I left their Xmas gifts under the Xmas tree in their livingroom. Had a fun chat with Katherine's brother Al. On the 12th I joined a friend in going to see "Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets". Its really good and the visuals are wonderful. Kenneth Brannagh is perfect as Gilderoy Lockhart. On the 7th and 9th I had sessions with my Personal Trainers. On the 16th I picked up two cool books regarding LOTRs The Two Towers. One is the "official movie guide" and the other is on "the making of the trilogy". Great shots and lots of neat information. Speaking of movies and such ... I read on Yahoo News that book five of the Harry Potter series is due out on June 21st. Its called "The Order of the Phoenix". Excellent! And lastly ... yesterday I went to an ex co-worker/acquaintance baby shower in Brooklyn. Had a very nice time, ate some free food and socialized. Those of you who live in the Northeast know its absolutely freezing outside. You bet winter is here and nothing like the last two mild ones we've had. This is the real thing!

I'd love to chat somemore ... need to work on answering some emails. Remember to keep rocking in the free world and get somebody to beat the crap out of that war-hungry f--ker in the White House. Ciao baby!

Hey All and a Happy New Year!

Had a really good weekend and did some cool stuff. On saturday I went up to do volunteer work at the Yonkers Ferret Shelter. At the train station in Yonkers I met up with a new aquaintance [Aliza] ... whom I've been chatting with thru one of the Yahoo Groups I belong too. Then we switched to emails. Anyhow, she adopted one of the furkids from the shelter [for her daughters b-day] I volunteer at and mentioned it online. Thats how we got to chatting via email. When Aliza showed up at the station she had her daughter Briana with her, plus little Vanilla peeking his head out of her shoulder satchel. Jumped into her car ... chatting the whole time ... drove to shelter. Aliza, Briana and Vanilla came in with me. It'd been two months since I'd been at shelter and it was good seeing Joanne and her pets. We talked for abit on a few topics before heading into the shelter area. Stayed in shelter area for 10 minutes while Aliza chat with Joanne about ferrets and I played with a few. The main group was out and about, scampering here and there just sniffing everything. Joanne mentioned that during December only one ferret was adopted and four were taken in. At 1:30pm Aliza left with her daughter and furkid. She's a cool, fun, interesting gal. We'll catch up on talk via email. I then got to work on my duties ... which included cleaning/filling up waterbottles, brushing furkids and cleaning their ears. Throughout all this I socialized with them, gave them belated Xmas gifts, as well as yummy treats. They were a happy bunch. This time Oliver, Emily and Big Willy were following me around. Their so sweet. Had a nice tea break with Joanne and gave her a large tin of my homemade cookies as a gift. Back in the shelter we put one group of fuzzies into their cages and took out next group. I brushed their fur and cleaned their little ears. While that group was playing I washed the floors, changed the poopy papers and cleaned out litterboxes. Then Joanne and I put that group away, as well as give them extra treats. Then it was time for me to change into clean clothes and head back to the train station. All in all ... a most enjoyable visit.

On Sunday I went with a friend to the cinema and enjoyed viewing LOTRs "The Two Towers". Saw the first LOTRs film [Fellowship of the Ring] a year ago and greatly enjoyed it. [Rewatched the film while on vacation in Cape May.] Even tho the films are 3 hours long, you don't mind or notice it due to it being so well directed and acted. The Tolkien trilogy is wonderful and I re-read it back in October/November. First time I read "The Hobbit" and LOTRs was back in the mid-1980s. These films are directed by Peter Jackson and he's assembled a brilliant cast to flesh out [well, not in Gollums case] the characters of Middle-Earth. Most of the filming takes place in New Zealand and what gorgeous scenery it is. Breathtaking! The special effects and fantastic computerized work are top notch. Some of my fav characters in the plots of "Fellowship of the Ring" and "Two Towers" are ... Aragorn, Faramir, Gandalf, Shadowfax [yes, the horse], Treebeard, Boromir, Elrond, Merry, Pippin, Gimli and Legolas. Yes, I know, I didn't mention Frodo. Oh well ... sorry about that ... he's not one of my fav Trilogy characters. Anyhow ... lots of amazing scenes in the second film ... especially the battle segments and Ents. Awesome! I highly recommend renting the first film in video or DVD format and then quickly go out to see the second film. You won't be disappointed, not at all.

The following tidbit regarding "ebay" was written by one of my co-workers [Rob Roberge]. I wanted to share it with you all. Enjoy!

**********************************************************************

I can't wait to get off this plane, run to a cab, and get to the hotel so I can log into ebay and see if my most recent bid is a winner. They say the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem. Well, with over 100 transactions under my belt and a collection of "stuff" that I can't even remember why I thought I needed most of it, I admit I may have an issue. But I have bought some things I needed (like these Bose QuietComfort headphones that prevent you from hearing the snores of the person seated next to you). Luckily, I've got some great deals and haven't run across any fakes or fraud. This I contribute to my rules. I'll share my rules with you, but with the understanding that I cannot be held legally responsible should you also become an ebay addict.

Rule No. 1 - Never bid or buy an item from a person that does not have at least 10 positive feedback points. Avoid them if they have any negative feedback at all. You should also read the feedback (you can learn a lot about the quality of their merchandise and shipping habits).

Rule No. 2 - Set a maximum amount you are willing to spend for an item (this should be something less than your annual salary) and NEVER EVER bid more than that amount. Sounds easy, but during the heat of battle you will be tempted to bid more just to win!

Rule No. 3 - Never bid on an item from a seller that will not accept online payments (Bidpay.com, Paypal.com, etc.). These online services go through a verification process and you can be reasonably sure of the seller's name and address. If they don't want to use one these payment services they most likely have something to hide or they don't know how to use a computer and you should avoid them in either case.

Rule No. 4 - Learn the art of "sniping". When you can "snipe" an item with a last second bid, you have mastered the surprise attack and will be victorious on more than your fair share of auctions. A really good sniper uses probing bids to discover the actual high bid of their competition but this is a topic for the advanced ebayer and not covered in my introductory course. Just understand that by placing your final bid at the very last possible moment, you prevent them from retaliating with a counter bid -- there is no "going once... going twice... sold" on ebay. When the auction clock has expired, it's over and the high bidder wins.

With our busy schedules, finding the time to shop in a real store can be tough. Online purchasing can really help, it can be fun, and best of all, you don't have to talk to a salesperson. But you do have to be careful of scams and the less than honest individuals who want your hard earned money. Well, I need to go surf and try to find a 12 step program to cure me of this addiction. Good luck and happy bidding!