Happy New Years 2008!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Years 2008!!!!!!!!!!

Best "Out of Office" Email Replies

I appreciate when people turn on the "Out of Office" feature in email to tell me why they're ingoring my emails for weeks on end...anyway, here are some good "Our of Office" replies:

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.

3. Sorry to have missed you, but I am at the doctor's having my brain and heart removed so I can be promoted to our management team.

4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from vacation. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first 10 words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.

6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again. (The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over.)

7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

8. Hi, I'm thinking about what you've just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.

9. I've run away to join a different circus.

10. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as 'Loretta' instead of 'Larry'

Tonight's Lesson Learned: Never trust a phone survey!

OMG...So I get a call, "I've from the Associated Press. Do you mind taking a short survey about recent stories in the news?"

"Sure!" I say. I'm smart, I watch the news. The questions awere about food safety, computer games, and my digital music habits....THAT'S NOT NEWS!!! That's a pop-culture survey (I was waiting for the Britney and Lindsey questions...)

(Remember he said, "short survey")
So...25 minutes later...YES, a "short" survey that took almost half an hour!!!

Oh yeah, a question about "draught (draft) keg beer." "What companies or brands do you think about when you think of draught (draft) beer?" Maybe, that's what took so long...listing all the companies and brands of beer: AnBusch, Miller, Coors, regional and local microbrews. Then the surveyer asks, "Why do you say Coors....?" Maybe, because Coors makes draught (draft) beer....
Why'd I take the survey? I figured I got nuthin better to do by myslef on a Wed night...

Lesson learned: Never trust a "short survey."

Pikes Peak Ascent

I did my first Pikes Peak Ascent. Not a stellar time, 5 hrs 23 min. But I got my jacket!!!

Certainly not the achivement of the weekend however, John "Bloody Z" did the full Pikes Peak Marathon on Sunday and JT "Browny" did the Leadville 100 on both days!!!

Time: 5:23:20 Ave Mile 24:18

The Police

I've been listening to The Police since I was around 8 or 9, when Roxanne came out. I've never got to see them live. I've seen Sting several times, and he'll do a couple of Police songs, but its not the same. Since they broke up after the "Synchronicity" tour, the only time they performed together was during Live Aid in 1986 (a couple of songs) and during this year's Grammy's. After the Grammy's, I really felt (hoped) they would get together and tour or put out some new stuff.

Well, The Police is on tour for the first time in 23 years. The last time they toured, I was 13 or 14 and they didn't come anywhere near where I could get to go.

The concert was awesome! It was just Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers; The Police. Since "Synchronicity" was such a produced album, they had background singers, other musicians, etc, during the 1983/84 tour. Not this time; this time it was just Sting, Stewart and Andy. And they sounded wonderful! And even if they messed up here and there, and they did, and we all knew it, we didn't care; we got to see The Police...live...and in concert.

Now they need to get back together and make a new record album...(I guess we say CD now-a-days, don't we...)

BTW, the band that opened was FictionPlane. They're pretty cool. They have an early Police mixed with U2 type of sound. My wife disagrees that they sound like The Police....at ALL...but I guess it because the lead singer is Joe Sumner, as in son of Gordon Sumner (aka Sting...)

St Baldrick's

St Baldrick's is a program to raise funds to fight children's cancer.

I'm gonna get my head shaved to support this worthy cause. Please visit the link and contribute if possible. If you see me, you're welcome to hand some change and say, "this is for the kids, so GET A HAIRCUT you hippie!!"

The head shaving takes place this Friday (6 Apr 07) at Armstrong Hall on the Colorado College Campus at 3:00 PM (1500 L)

St. Baldrick's began as a casual conversation between friends and has exploded into the world's biggest volunteer-driven fundraising program for childhood cancer! Events have taken place in 10 countries and 42 US states, raising over $20 million, and shaving mor than 26,000 heads.

My team: Bald Eagles (Colorado Springs)

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/team_info.html?TeamID=511

Me:

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/shavee_info.html?ShaveeID=17363

Venue Name:
Armstrong Hall, Colorado College
Event Date:
April 6, 2007
Address:
14 Cache La Poudre StColorado Springs, CO 80903

Church Split

The stories about the church in town that broke away from the denomination...yup, that was our church.

Rebecca and I will NOT be joining the rogue separatists. In the meantime, I think we're doing church in a coffee house or street corner somewhere...(not really, but not far off!!!)

http://www.koaa.com/news/view.asp?ID=7129

Old Friends

Today I got an email from an old friend from college (OK, SHE's not old, but you know what I mean!) That was a very pleasant surprise!

I've been having a pretty crappy time at work. I love my job, but work is busy right now.

I've got a great wife who puts up with me kicking her and yelling at the dog when I get home. (In the interest of full disclosure, I did NOT yell at the dog...)

But back to friends..I've been real lucky in the past several years to catch up with some old friends from college and high school. And today's email is another one of those "rays of sunshine" in my life.

And it made me realize that no matter what, I've got great friends. I've got my best friend, my wife; I've got friends that I see all the time; I've got friends I see every so often (certainly never often enough); friends I've moved away from but still keep in contact with; friends I've met once and still keep in touch with; and friends who real names I don't know! And I've got old friends who come out of nowhere...

Thanks friends, you definitely make life enjoyable!!!