Making Like the Jeffersons....

...and moving on up! Thursday was a big day for me professionally, as it marked my 8th year with the firm. It was also promotion day, so I am now a senior manager, which now means that I am also allowed to work in an office. Luckily, I was assigned one on the 5th floor where I usually sit and where most of my teams sit. I moved all my things out of my usual cube and into the office last night. After a client meeting this morning, I came into the office (my office!) to do some work. After 8 years of life in the cubes, it is very weird to be sitting in an enclosed area, unable to turnaround or look over and talk to people. It's almost claustrophobic. I am considering what to put in my office as decoration and so far have only come up with lucky bamboo, but one measly stalk of vegetation does not make for good decor. We'll have to see if a trip to Pier 1 or Pottery Barn can give me any other ideas in how to spruce up an otherwise spartan office. I am also going to have to remember that I do have an office and not go directly to cube 5063 as I have been for the last 4 years!

Other than the new digs, here's what else is going on with me:

• My fantasy football team is now 2-1. Thanks much to the Atlanta Falcons for putting in a pathetic performance and coming up 20 points short of the expected fantasy points. Just like the Redskins last week (see below), I lost to a team that hasn't won in quite some time.
• I am now a Ravens fan (yes, officially...I posted it on Facebook). Returning to the Redskins will require the firing of Coach Zorn and a change in ownership, as well as a sincere apology from current ownership to the fans who have suffered through a decade of greed and mismanagement. We need a Robin Hood to steal the team away from this Prince John, and sadly, that savior won't come anytime soon. In the meantime, I'm going to change my allegiance to a team that has a coach who doesn't always look completely panicked/shocked to find himself on the sideline of a football field calling plays, doesn't immediately pull out big wads of cash to plug the holes that pop up in its roster and coaching staff, has a defense led by a half-rabid/half-genius player who doesn't give a crap that people think he might be getting too old, and that is familiar with the concept of winning, especially against a team that hasn't won in 2 years. Plus, I like purple.
• I am running the Army 10 Miler this Sunday despite logging no miles since the Navy 5 Miler a couple of weeks ago. I should be ok since I ran the Frederick Half with not much training either. After this weekend, it's the Baltimore half, the Race for the Cure 5k, and Marine Corps 10K. Here's hoping that my knees and lower back won't go on strike and abandon me on the course.

FF Week 1 Stats

Fall is here, which means that the weather is cooling off, my audits are starting to scramble into high gear since busy season is right around the corner (and so my stress level is starting to rapidly increase), but most importantly…FOOTBALL IS BACK!! I am not by any means a football expert, and everyone knows I am a total klutz and would be a danger to myself and others if I were to even try and play football, but I do love watching the NFL and playing God with my fantasy football team. I actually won this week (which is more than I can say for the ‘Skins), and posted 100+ points! That is a huge improvement over last year, when I picked a kicker and defense first. Before you conclude that I am total moron or Al Davis-level insane for picking those positions first, I just didn’t fully understand how the draft worked then and assumed that the system would fill each position in order (i.e. QB, WR, RB, etc). I learned my lesson, got up to speed on how it's supposed to be done this year, even did a mock draft, and ended up picking a pretty solid team…or at least it was this week!

In honor of the start of the regular season, here are my stats from fantasy football (and other randomness) for the week (well, technically, the last 4 weeks):

• Approx. points racked up in Week 1 of FF: 113
• Cowboys on my FF team: 0 (out of principle)
• Redskins on my FF team: 0 (out of a desire to win, for a change)
• Training sessions taught during this year’s instructor rotation program: 4
• Cities visited for training: 4
• Number of times I went to Capogiro in Philly last week for gelato: 2
• Flavors of gelato sampled at Capogiro: 4 (and no, I did not get 4 cups of gelato…there were 2 flavs in each small cup…I’m not that much of a fatty!)
• Staff who attended happy hour after training in Philly last week: 30
• Regrettable incidents that occurred during and after the Philly happy hour last week involving certain staff: You’ll never know (pleading the 5th here to protect the innocent)
• Cities I visited yesterday: 3 (started in Secaucus, then flew to Miami, then flew home to Baltimore)
• Mojitos consumed at dinner last night in Miami: 2
• Miles I ran last week: 0
• Miles I have to run at this Sunday’s race: 5
• Likelihood that my time is going to suck at this Sunday’s race: 99.9%

Holiday Weekend Update

The past couple of weeks have been spent mostly on the road, where I have been going to conferences or teaching. Somewhere along the way, I picked up a nasty head cold that I am only now getting over. The initial combination of bad cold and high fever made me think that I had caught the swine flu, but I don't think that's it since I'm better now without taking anything more than OTC cold and sinus meds and drinking gallons of hot tea. Things at work have been hectic, what with all the travelling and other commitments, it is challenging to prioritize things properly and ensure that it all gets done. The next couple of weeks will be more of the same, as I'll be teaching in Philly and New Jersey before heading to Miami for a day trip (sadly, it's for a business meeting, so no goofing off).

At least we got a 4 day holiday weekend to recharge a bit. Most of this weekend was spent with my family, since it was Dad's birthday. We had a few family meals together, including lunch at Kinkead's in DC. Mom invited a couple of Dad's friends, so our group of 7 covered most of the DC Restaurant Week menu that was still available. As an FYI, the mushroom ravioli, pistachio crusted salmon, and local peach cobbler are all exceptional. Dad's reaction to his lunch was a bit funny to watch. He said he enjoyed the meal (rare praise coming from him) but he initially thought that the portions were rather small. You have to understand that Chinese food is normally served family style, so if it doesn't come out on a big platter, he's going to think that something's wrong, or that it's just not going to be enough. Still, he realized afterwards that everything was portioned just right, so we weren't bursting at the seams when we left the restaurant. We stopped by Tivoli bakery on the way back and picked up a birthday cake for Dad before heading home.

Chris's friend Maddy was in town this weekend too, so I met up with her, her boyfriend and another friend on Friday night. They were hanging out in Adams Morgan, and it had been a while since I'd been down there. The last few times I went to DC on the weekends, it's been in the Dupont Circle area (i.e. Brickskeller, Buffalo Billiards, Lucky Bar, etc.), so it was nice to go down to AM again. We spent some time at Millie and Al's before wandering around to get some pizza and then heading to Bedrock Billiards where I rediscovered my love of foosball. I spent way too many hours dominating the foosball table and emasculating the boys at the KA house my sophomore/junior years, so while I was a bit rusty, I quickly regained my form and went on to win 2 out of 3 games that night. I was staying at my parents' house since I had to drop my car off the next day at the dealership in Rockville, so I ended up getting to their place around 4AM on Saturday morning. I was up at 7 to drop off the car and get a ride back with my dad. Although he questioned me about where the heck I was before getting in so late the previous night, he didn't do much digging or seem to notice that I had a slight hangover. We got back to the house around 8 and I went back to bed to sleep off the Guinness-induced achiness.

Sunday was pretty uneventful, with a trip to the Bethesda farmers market where I introduced Mom and Dad to the wonderful world of organic foods. They seemed to like the selection but were clearly appalled at the prices. We ended up getting some fruit from Toigo and breads from Atwaters and called it a day. I went home after lunch to do some much-needed cleaning and laundry and watched a few movies. Today was spent doing more of the same, plus packing. I made it up to Philly in just under 2 hours and have been prepping for tomorrow's class and working on some emails (will have to wait until tomorrow since for some reason I can't connect to our VPN from here). So, that's about it for Labor Day weekend 2009...lots of family, food, and relaxing, which is, I think, the purpose of the holiday.