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!