Wah, wah, wah

Today on the pain scale is a respectable 5. Saturday was a 10. I think I'm making some improvement.

It was back to the grind today. I popped my muscle relaxers right before reaching the office and prayed that my desk wouldn't be too bad. Yeah, so much for that. I found out that they have taken one of EPOD's jobs away. And much to my dismay, it was given to Dave, the Eager Beaver project manager that I have butted heads with over and over again. This should be fun.

After this announcement was made, EPOD entered his characteristic doom and gloom phase. I'm surprised that he doesn't have his office packed up yet. He is such a freaking worry wart. Part of what drove management to take the job away from him is that this headquarters expansion project we've been on for the past six months is totally eating our lunch. We really just started trying to "dry in" the building and we're up to FIFTY plan changes so far. Some are small, some are enormous. And every plan change that comes up isn't necessarily formally documented - apparently, you can walk around the exterior of the building and find where the architect has drawn with a Sharpie what he wants us to do. Yeah, we're in the big time, baby!

This client is very well known in this area. His family is very wealthy and influential. He happens to be good friends with the president of my company. See where this is headed?

So while all this is going on, I finally got the LEED audit back from the project at my alma mater. To say that I'm disappointed would be a huge understatement. To get LEED certification on a project, you have to have a minimum of 26 points that you achieve through design and actual work on the project. Well, we're currently at 27 points and they are dicey at best. I can honestly say that everyone I've ever discussed the whole LEED process with believes that design is 80% of the success of getting a LEED-certified project, so it's not all us. I have three credits that are being questioned - two of the three are linked so that's a no-brainer. The other one will be simple to answer too. I just know that if we don't get this certification, I will be very, very disappointed. Very.

So enough beeyotching about work. We may have some home improvements coming in our future, depending on what kind of magic Cat Door can work on pricing it for us. You see, our bathroom has a corner "garden tub" and then a dinky shower stall. We have used the bathtub twice in the past 2.5 years. We use the shower every damn day. And frankly, we are sick of banging our elbows every day and I personally hate missing spots while shaving my legs because there's no room to bend over without receiving an anal douching. My idea is to remove the tub and put in a big, big shower with multiple heads and a bench seat in it. Of course, this isn't an easy thing because the tub is lodged in the corner between our two vanities - so this requires new vanity tops (so the shower glass can butt up to the vanities) and a glass block window to replace the regular window. I am thinking if I can get this project under $10K it will be a major miracle, especially since I want to have the luxury bath of a lifetime purchased at bargain basement prices. So stay tuned, because I'm sure at some point Cat Door and I will have some sort of fight about all this and we will stomp off to our respective corners and pout. Because that's what we do. On a funnier note, I came home tonight to find brochures covering my kitchen table with yellow Post-Its with his funny notes all over them, most of them with dollar signs all over and a "This is probably what you want but can't afford" on a few of them. And a sample of glass block, which could be used as a weapon if he keeps leaving cutesy notes.

The other interesting thing, and take note GMan and Maven, is that apparently Cat Door has also charmed Rufus. Rufus' typical daytime hangout is in our bedroom and bathroom - we close him up in there to prevent him from getting into trouble during the daytime. Cat Door lured him back into our bedroom last week using a cheese stick, and this morning apparently he didn't even need bait - Rufus just waddled on back into the inner sanctum after Cat Door was done showing the granite contractor the bathroom. I swear to God that there is something wrong with our dog.

And now, it's off to swim lessons. Wes the Hottie Hot called me last night and said that his last day working at the pool is Saturday, so can we squeeze in five lessons between now and then? Let's just say that I'm a tad bit irritated, especially as hot as it's supposed to be this week.

Enough beeyotching. I promise that I'll post pics of our trip tomorrow.