I am never driving outside the city again.

Or drive out to Frederick. That's what I was doing when I had a close encounter with a deer at 70+mph. Honestly, had it hit, I figure I'd be in really bad shape, if alive.

I've seen deer in the park. And a bear in Owings Mills! Deer out there too. I always think they are weird dogs at first.

Pancreatic cancer sucks.

Work continues to try to kill me. Though one guy gave me some scripts that make my life so much easier. I want to bake him cookies or something. I've been TRYING to write the scripts for ages, but simply haven't had the time. At all.

I won't get any sort of raise if I don't do my damned appraisal. Which, given some weeks my weekly reports read "read your damned email" because I'm too busy to even make notes on what I worked on that week..... yeah. So tomorrow, even if I have to tell the gods to fuck off, I will.

I'm tired.

Well, more "it could be a hell of a lot worse" news from work--they just announced that this year's raise pool is lowered from 3% to 2%, and if anyone deserves more than 2% raise this year, they'll have to go through a lot of hoops to get it. This doesn't bother me at all, really, I'm just glad we've got jobs and they don't anticipate any further mass (meaning more than ten or so people) reductions at this point.

Count me in the "happy to have a job" group! Here, here!

I got my review yesterday. Got an "outstanding" on every single item, and my boss wrote two paragraphs praising my work.

However, company did not meet milestones, and the board voted for a 50% cut in planned bonuses. Also, instead of a 5% raise pool, it's 3%.

With all of that, I am still damned grateful to have a job I love. I had to give my staff the same news yesterday, and the attitude there was the same. In the last 3 weeks, 3 of my director or VP-level friends have been laid off (at varioud companies, including Cisco and Grey Advertising).

ETA: I did use my boss's declaration of "I'm sorry we can't do more for you, 'cause you're so valuable, etc" speech as a lovely way to negotiate standard working-from-home days! I thought that was awesome enough, but apparently she got on the horn to IT, too, because they just delivered me a 20" LCD monitor, a port replicator, a keyboard and a mouse for me to set up my home office. It's very bittersweet, since the reason we have them on-hand is the recent lay-offs. :(

Oh, and aurelia, our local professional theatre has actually cancelled a show and is replacing it with dance and performance groups. I have no idea what that means for the in-house staff. Rochester is a hard market for theatre because it seems to be filled with way more people who want to perform than people who care about seeing performances. And the professional theatre looks to NYC to fill most acting and design slots, although it is possible to get work there as a local overhire. Something tells me no more overhire, though.

Wait, it's Thursday. Shit. I spent all day thinking it was Weds. The days are blurring together.

I somehow accidentally blocked megan walker

That's what they all say...

I somehow accidentally blocked megan walker-- how do I unbla=ock her?

At the top of her post, there should be an "unblock" link.

Could someone tell the kitten not to hang out in the litterbox??! I think I need to get him a cat house.

Thanks Hil- I didn't even notice that!

I'm all caught up on Friday Night Lights.

I'm working my way through Season 1 right now! So good!!! Even though I have to fast forward through some of the straight up football game shots. I have been bugging my dad so hard to watch it since it started. He played football in small town Texas. His dad was a high school football coach & principal. He would love it.

Or drive out to Frederick. That's what I was doing when I had a close encounter with a deer at 70+mph.

Stupid having a cute niece out there!!! I have to go out there Sunday. It's not really deer season though. I'm just glad I don't have to drive back and forth to Columbia every day. Fall & Spring you'd see dead deer on the offramps practically every day. I've seen deer here in the city, too, actually. And foxes and hawks. Very exciting.

If you think hitting a deer is bad... hit a moose. They weigh a whole lot more, AND they're so tall that they'll go through your windshield.

Plus, in their hearts they don't believe cars can hurt them. There were no cars around during the last Ice Age, so they haven't caught up in evolutionary terms yet....