Obama in Connecticut

I received this tonight in my work e-mail and figured I'd share a little piece of it - seems like the beginning of an award-winning speech to me!


THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release October 23, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT SENATOR DODD FUNDRAISING DINNER

Stamford Hilton
Stamford, Connecticut

5:47 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, Connecticut! (Applause.) Hello, Stamford! (Applause.) It is good to be back in Connecticut. Thank you so much. Everybody, please have a seat -- have a seat. Relax for a second. I'm just warming up here. (Laughter.)

I'm going to talk a little bit about this guy in a second. Let me begin by just acknowledging some wonderful public servants who have just been serving their constituencies with great distinction for, in some cases, a lot of years.

First of all, Congressman John Larson is in the house. Where's John? There he is, John Larson. (Applause.) Congressman Chris Murphy. Chris. (Applause.) Congressman Jim Himes. (Applause.) Yes, sir. This is Jim's district, so he's got the home court advantage. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. (Applause.) And Mayor of Stamford, Dannel Malloy is in the house. (Applause.)

I can see this is a feisty crowd. (Applause.) What are you guys eating? (Laughter.) You don't know yet, huh? It's a surprise? All right.

My new office

My new office is located in an old clocktower building, hence the beautiful antique stairs (that nobody ever uses because we have an elevator taking us straight to the fourth floor).

Everything is clean and new (as opposed to flooded and water damaged like in Torrington). I started decorating slightly last week, but the Ivar bookcase is currently leaning up against the window frame since I forgot to buy the metal cross that supports it!

Eventually, the books will go on the bookcase and there will be more plants in the window (there are 3 right now, but since they're against a dark background you can hardly see them).

The last picture shows my actual work space. I had two computers, but mostly just use my laptop. The second computer I had to give away to a new reporter - I just kept the nice widescreen monitor for show!

Painting the closet

Once the new floors were in, it became obvious that our dirty old closet needed to have a fresh coat of paint before we put any items back in there. Still in the process of touching that up as well... and of course the trim around the door and the door itself will have to be painted white (the same white as all the other trim).

New floor pictures

You'll have to excuse the mess - we are still in the process of painting the trim that was removed and put up again. And we still haven't managed to bring the couch back into the living room - it's very heavy and it barely fits through the door and up the little entrance way.

I will post better pictures another day - maybe when the weekend arrives!

An update about work

It's been so long since I posted something on here, that I had to log in to the site all over again. Normally, Blogger remembers my password - I guess I passed the expiration date.

I've been a bit hesitant to blog about work. Not only have I been extremely busy getting us through a re-design and conversion from tabloid to broadsheet with all the template changes and system quirks that involves, but I've been busy interviewing people for open positions. I've hired two - now there's only one spot left. But it seems to be the hardest.

I've been reluctant to post something on here too because I know that anyone in my new office who decides to google my name plus "blog," or maybe just google my name, would eventually come across this blog. I'm not quite sure what is "safe" to blog about yet - being the boss and all.

But I guess I can say I've settled in to my new office a bit - kitty pictures are up on the wall behind me, bookcase and plants have been purchased at IKEA. I'm thinking of making curtains as well for my nice big window. The only problem? The ceilings are 12 foot tall.

On the home front, our floors are finally done. We got brand new ones after they ripped out the ones that didn't look too good, and our stove finally got hooked up again on Friday afternoon. Of course, the gas company says "anytime between noon and 4 p.m.," which turns into 5:30 p.m.... so I lost almost a whole day of work sitting here waiting for the gas guy. Oh well. I guess I'll have grounds for a BIG argument once the bill comes... Considering how much they are costing me, they should be paying me to sit here and wait...

I've got a pot of chili on the stove now and the antipasto squares just came out of the oven. Of course, with the floors now done, it means all those other home improvement projects we'd been putting off until the floors were done are now on the to-do list. Can of white trim paint, here I come!

Floors finally done

I got home today and voila! The floors are all done! No more strangers running in and out of our house at ungodly hours of the morning...

Still have to wait until Friday to have stove hooked up again since I didn't call the gas company early enough... oh well. At least by the weekend I'll be able to cook again!

Another flooring update

Did you think the floors looked good in the previous pictures? Oh well. We ripped them out and had to start all over again. They were defective (The edges of each piece kept sticking up).

The floors are now a little less done than what you saw in the pictures below, but they are nicer ones for the same price.

Of course, we weren't expecting it taking almost three weeks to complete... it's tough not having a stove hooked up. I guess I could have cooked some stuff on the George Forman or on the real grill - or in the Crock Pot or microwave for that matter. But I just haven't been home to even worry about it. Work is getting the best of me.

But with one week behind us after the redesign, things will hopefully calm down real soon. The beginning of last week, though, was awful - especially in terms of phone messages. I didn't even have time to listen to my messages before I had new ones, and as soon as I hung up, someone called again. "The crossword is missing." "Where is my cryptoquote?" "I can't find the index."

All in all, though, it went well.

Flooring update

After five days of having to get up at 8 a.m. to let the floor guy in, I am a bit disappointed to see that the floors still aren't done. Granted, we hit a bump in the road on the first day - our plywood underneath the particle board wasn't thick enough and made everything really bouncy. We had to add an extra half-inch of plywood before the floor could be laid down.

And the company only sent one guy to do the job. On the third day, he brought in his brother. But they are still not done.

The dining room is done but still needs all the trim re-attached. The living room is mostly done, but you can see the black "rug" area in the picture where the floor still has to go up to the railing. And the hallway needs its entire floor. And they haven't even ripped out the old floor in the kitchen!

So, not only have I been getting up at 8 a.m. every other day (Albie and I took turns), but I've had to go back to sleep with earplugs. We've also had the stove disconnected since Monday and cannot cook or use the oven. Can't wait until this is all over!

The toilet emergency

I was deep in sleep on Saturday morning when Albie comes bursting into the bedroom.
"Viiiiih-khan! Get up!" he yells in a panicked voice. "Get up, get up, get up!"

I jump out of bed and stand for a second in the dark, dizzy, trying to figure out what's going on. Albie grabs my shoulders and looks straight into my eyes.
"How do you turn the water off on the toilet?"

Immediately, I realize the severity of the situation. I rush into the bathroom. Halfway to the toilet, I notice my feet are already soaked in about an inch of water. Albie stops at the door, throwing down a ton of paper towels behind me.

I turn the little knob and the water stops. (All my plumming experience actually stems from incidents just like this one). Of course, there is still water everywhere - lots of water.

We start throwing old bath towels on the floor, then the hand towels. I refuse to use my nice, new towels. Even if we wash them later, I'm gonna know they've been in "toilet water."

Everything goes in the tub - for now. While Albie is wiping up the last of the water, I get to work on the toilet issue with a plunger and a bucket of hot water. A few minutes later, we are good to go.

We wipe down the whole bathroom to get the toilet smell out of it. I wash my hands, vigorously, and head back to bed. After all, it's only 11 a.m.

"At least I don't have to clean the bathroom today," I think as I slide back under my warm blanket. I mentally check it off my to-do list and fall back asleep.

You know you're the boss when...

You know you're the boss when...

• People stop talking as you walk down the hall.
• Reporters quickly close out of solitaire as you approach their desks.
• People older than you starts referring to you as ma'm.
• IT/tech people respond to your desperate calls for help within a few minutes instead of a few weeks.
• You can afford to buy lunch instead of make it.
• Your rearview mirror has a nice, laminated parking pass.
• It is up to you to decide whose name gets to be on the masthead.