2003-10-03 20:35:10

I was just sitting here in my office, eating Fritos, and trying to get my pen to stick in the ceiling tiles, when I had the novel idea of writing a blog. Now, I don’t know if you have noticed, but Fran seems to write a little more often than I do. Sometimes, it’s like pulling teeth for me to get the motivation and/or inspiration to sit down and write. Sometimes I just think that I don't have anything new and exciting going on and then I remember...

Fran gave me home brewing equipment for my birthday. I think that I am going to start my first batch tomorrow. I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject and getting some tips from home brewers that I know. I am going to try to make a red ale first. It has been a while since our last contest, so I thought it would be a good idea to hold a “Name the Beer Contest.” We will take submissions until the beer is brewed, bottled, and ready to go (about a month and a half). The winner will receive a six-pack of the beer that they named (keep in mind, it may suck pretty bad). I think this may be the best prize we have had yet on PatAndFran.com.

In other news, I survived the latest round of layoffs at Kojak. It has pretty much become an annual event here. I’d say the odds of me making it through 30 more of these and retiring from this company are slim to none. I feel sorry for the poor bastards that only had a couple of years left and got whacked. If you see a lot more 50-year-old guys turning tricks on the streets of Rochester, you know why.

I always go into “Super Caution Stealth Mode” when there are layoffs or “Workforce Adjustments,” as they have so cleverly been renamed. This means I just take my time and look both ways for disgruntled gun-wielding co-workers who are out for justice, every time I walk around work. You hear about it happening all the time. They just walked some fat bastard out the other day. He was jumping into people’s offices, fake shooting them, and then saying, “I’m just practicing for when I get layed off next week.” The point is, you never know how some nut job, who just lost his wife, house, and job, will react. That’s why I always recommend that you seek out the craziest, most unstable co-workers that you can find, and befriend them. If and when they snap, and they have you in their crosshairs, they might just turn the barrel the other way.

-Pat