(Ex) Employee #57935

Today marks the end of an era. After 17+ years, multiple job titles and one trans-continental transfer, I am no longer a Mutual of Omaha-Medicare employee. It was a really good run and I liked most of my co-workers over the years, but it was time for a move. I start my new job for a much smaller company tomorrow and expect all sorts of weirdness to come out of that. I've worked for a large corporation for so long that the little things that I take for granted aren't going to be the same. And some of that is a GOOD thing. I'll be posting more as I learn a little more about what I'll be doing and what they expect of me, but the one really cool thing is I'll be spending my first week at the annual company event at the Hotel Del Coronado. A hotel I've never been able to stay in because I am poor. Not "poor" poor, but definitely to "poor" to spend $400/night for a hotel. I plan on taking lots of pictures. And all of the soap.

Little Dog, Big Dog, Horse...

We took Lucy to the dog park to play with Sophie the boxer, and they found another friend to play with. Winston the mastiff made Lucy look delicate and petite. She's not, but Winston is a beast. He looked like a pony. An hour of play-time seems to have wiped her out. She hasn't moved in hours. Too bad she wasn't quite so sleepy at 6:30 this morning. I'm tempted to wake her up like she does me every morning, but that would just be petty and spiteful. Still tempted, though.

Cocktails First. Questions Later.

I took my brother Chris to Las Vegas for his 21st birthday this past weekend. Looking at the picture, you might not immediately notice the family resemblance, but he's been my brother since he was a couple weeks old and he's now 21. Geez, I'm old. If you can't tell, I'm the fat, bald white dude on the left. He's the one who actually looks 21. The showgirl was Eastern European of an undetermined age and hotter than the picture shows. Anyway, Chris had never been to Vegas and what better place is there to celebrate your 21st birthday? My 21st birtday was spent in a dive in Omaha, NE drinking $4.25 pitchers of whatever cheap beer was on tap. He spent his 21st birthday drinking a mojito at the Bellagio. $18 + tip. Damn! On the other hand, he had a total of four (4) drinks the entire weekend. One of which (martini) he didn't like and I had to finish. OK, I didn't "have" to finish it, but it was $10 worth of Kettle One and I hate to see a good martini go to waste. Turns out he didn't really want a "martini". What he thought he was ordering was a "margarita". Hell of a difference. I bought him a margarita at the Casino Royale ("$1 Michelob and/or Margarita") and he liked that much better. Said it tasted like a slushy. So, the 3+ drinks he had the entire weekend were probably the same number of drinks I had my first (legal) 15 minutes in a bar. And at least he got a good story to go with his 21st. I was the only one of my loser friends with a "job" when I turned 21, so I was doing all the "buying". Bastards. But that's 17 years of water under the bridge. I'm not bitter.

Sacramento Brewfest

Rachelle and I attended the Sacramento Brewfest this afternoon. We took light-rail downtown so we wouldn't have to worry about driving home. Good call, considering the large amounts of beer available. Technically, we were only supposed to get 10 drink coupons with our admission. Technically. We hadn't even gotten to the gate when a guy walking out asked if we were heading in. When we told him "hells, yeah!", he gave us his left-over drink coupons. Score! Add those extra coupons to the vendors who didn't actually "collect" the drink coupons when they gave us our beers and you've got one helluva beer fest. Anyway, the picture I've attached is of me and one of the "Sac City Rollers". Turns out Sacramento has a roller-derby team. Again, SCORE! Next derby is scheduled for May 19th, with a beer garden set up by Sacramento City Brewing Company. Might want to see if Ken's interested in a trip to Davis. Hey, it's only $17 at the door. FYI, this chick is wearing red fish-net stockings and roller skates. HOT! OK, not really "HOT", but pretty cool.

Civic Duty/New Gig

I've just spent the better part of the past two weeks doing my civic duty serving on a jury. Man, I would've thought all those hours watching "The People's Court" and "Judge Judy" would have given me an edge on deciding who was trustworthy and who was a lying weasel. Not so much. And Judge Ronald wasn't nearly as entertaining as Judge Judy. Lots less yelling at people. Anyway, not much exciting about the case. Sounded really juicy when we were going through the jury selection ("Assault with a Deadly Weapon"), but didn't turn out to be much. At least not much that we got to see. There were only a total of six witnesses, one of the victims didn't even show up and the one that did was only partially believable. All in all, four felony charges turned into three "not-guilty's" and one "guilty". Now I just need to figure out what to do with my $60 in juror pay (plus the $0.34/mile one way mileage). The $60 might be enough to fill the tank in my 4Runner. Maybe.

In other news, I gave my 21-day notice at work (it was going to be a full month, but I got stuck on a jury). I've been at the same company for 17 years this month, but it's time to move on. Mostly because they're closing my office, and if I don't "move on" the new tenants of our office space may not be too happy. The office isn't actually closing until February(ish), but I got an offer that I didn't want to turn down. The job is with a much smaller company that handles things in a much less corporate way. No real number of sick days, you keep track of your own vacation, actual I.T. support, etc. I don't even think I get a company I.D. badge or anything. The company's based in the San Diego area, but I'm not going to move. Rachelle still likes her job up here and we can actually afford to own a home in Orangevale. I guess I'll see how much I like travelling to SoCal on a fairly frequent basis.