EBP & PTB

I actually went to work for most of the day yesterday. The damn snow was as high as a brontosaurus’s eye but I came in anyway. How INSANELY dedicated am I ?? I just felt like I’d used up my snow day back in January…plus my St Christopher’s medal stayed intact when I slipped it on , therefore I really had no reason to not come in. But then at about 11:30 my boss said that people were free to go early if they wanted because of the icky weather. Boy, for them to liberate the workers early...not unprecedented, but highly irregular. Perhaps a mandate was handed down from the governor? So anyways, I left at 2pm, caught a ride home w/ my bro-in-law, crashed at their casa and got a ride in this a.m. It was convenient up until I had to dig my car out this a.m. (I didn't hafta go anywhere, but Greg got me here early and I figured digging out before work would be better than doing so in the dark @ 5:30pm)
Tues night I flipped back and forth between the Westminster Kennel Club dog show (part II) and Gary Gulman on Comedy Central. Gary was my pick to win season 2 of Last Comic Standing...but he didn't win, and I kinda feel responsible. He's a g-d RIOT, and it was probably just my rooting for him that caused his defeat...my hearty support was somehow infected by my inherent shitty luck...and it jinxed the whole thing for him. Poor Gary. I just love him (and that's not the guilt talking). The guy had an hour long stand up special, and I think he spent about 3/4 of the time raving about cookies. What's not to love, right?? As if that wasn't sufficiently magnificent, he closed his set by publicly defending the song "Ice Ice Baby". So y'see it's more than just laughs for me, it's the profound contentment of finding a kindred soul. And laughs.

Ok .. speaking of guilty pleasure tuneage...I'm right this minute listening to Color Me Badd ("I Adore Mi Amor" to be specific). I never realized before this listen today that there is like a whole verse in Spanish. Hmm. Perhaps it was unfair of me to dismiss these gents as illiterate clods simply because they cannot spell "bad". They're kinda bending the rules by playing this one on the 80s Love Song station, though. Came out in '91 (as I'm sure you well know...)

Jumping back to the topic of Tues night TV though... I was very pleased that James, the English Springer Spaniel took home the Best-in-Show prize at the WKC dog show. There were several contenders I was not too keen on. First off the Dandie Dinmont Terrior--- Harry-Ethel Huxtable. Even worse than that ugly, there were TWO poodles (1 Toy, 1 Standard) up for Best in Show. I hear poodles are supposed to be extremely smart dogs... whatev, I don't care if they're MENSA smart, I hate poodles. They're like topiary-wearing rats. Ugh. James was cute though. Check it out, homes...





At lunch, on my way to the cafeteria to procure a meatloaf sammich from the vending machine (it was better than you're presuming it was!) I passed by our interim IT guy, and I reflected that it's too damn bad he's leaving us soon now that I've devised a great code name for him. We had an IT dude for years that I christened "Beans"...well originally, the nickname was "Greenbeans" but that became too syllabically cumbersome for me so I shortened it to "Beans" or the occasional "Beansie". Well, he left in...November, I think it was. Which bummed me out, 'cause I liked Beans, he let me mock & pester him and for me that is very crucial coworker criterion. Then they hired on a temp, and after a suitable mourning period for Beans, I realized that the IT Temp was commendably open to jest. But the pisser was, they were just keeping him on until they found a permanent hire. He applied for the job and was told he wasn't "qualified enough" for the gig (long term). Well they hired some bland (but sufficiently qualified) dude back in Jan, but the temp is still here. I presume they're in a transition period and he's just showing the permanent hire the ropes. Ideally, though the vacuous ninnies over at corporate finally realized that the IT post here really requires 2 people and they're coughing up the moolah to employ both of 'em. I highly doubt that though.

Anyways, about that code name... I don't say nickname, because while I always called Beans "Beans" I would never call this guy EBP to his face (just while IMing Robin & Laurel) because then I would have to explain it and that would embarrass me and/or him. He came around one day to do something to our PCs and I went around loitering while he sat at my desk and did his thing. He was there only briefly--less than 5minutes-- but when I reclaimed my chair it was inordinately warm. I mean, it was not your natural "Huh. Someone was just sitting in my chair." warm, it was a lot like sitting on a large hand warmer. Although that's now how I described it to Robin at the time. Because of course, I IMed her immediately. I was taken aback y'see -- I felt like I was witness to some new scientific phenomena. Anyways , (short story LONG) I was trying to convey the experience and I wrote to her "IT'S LIKE THE MAN WEARS ELECTRIC BLANKET PANTS!!" And a code name was born. Well, "Electric-Blanket-Pants" is obviously too damn long, so it was originally "EB Pants" (which, if I didn't know the backstory myself, I would take to mean Easter Bunny Pants. Which is cute. Although puzzling...) But that soon grew too unweildy, so we acronymized it--EBP. I wish they'd keep EBP on...his successor really seems like a snooze. I will probably have to refer to him by his actual name.

While on the topic of my juvenile code-naming of people... I saw the acronym PTB on a fax last week and it was an amusing blast-from-the-past por moi. Instantly I was taken back to junior year at CSC, where in our dorm lived the nefarious Psycho Tent Boy...well he sometimes lived in the dorm...sometimes in a tent outside the dorm...sometimes the tent was moved inside....in either setting, the psycho part applied. I used to refer to him as PTB ...not to his face...I think I generally avoided saying anything to his face if I recollect correctly...