This workplace thing is turning into a saga.  Today’s suprise du jour is a horrible, offensive rotting food smell.  I was lazy today and rode the elevator up to our office on the fourth floor, and the smell was in the elevator (but not on the first floor).  I thought, “Man, that’s nasty.  This’ll teach me not to use the stairs!”  Then, the elevator door opened on my floor.  And I gagged.

I’m mouth-breathing today, doing my best not to breathe - at all! - through my nose.   This is ridiculous.

Update:  Someone burned bacon in the microwave.  I don’t know what kind of bacon it was - because the smell o’ rot is still permeating the air.  But, mystery solved.

My officemates are cracking me up.  Our department takes up 2 floors of a 6-story building, my team (Design & Development) has most of the 4th floor.  This building is old.  Most of these folks are saying it should be torn down.  Because it’s old, some vital things just don’t work - like the heating and cooling systems (we’ve had several 90+ degree days INSIDE), building security, and sometimes the water (like for the last couple of days, we haven’t been able to use any water in our building because even drinking fountains are causing major sewer problems - yuck!). 

One of the developers has started keeping a list of all the “quirky” things about our building.  Here’s what he (and the rest of them - this thread has been passed around the office for the last half hour) have on the list so far:

• A/C dysfunction
• Water woes
• Rusty water when we do have it
• “Pock-ridden” parking lot
• Cockroaches (Yes - all over.  Even in the refrigerator!)
• Elevators that make you step up 8 full inches to get on your floor
• Flooding in the bathrooms
• Sticky-fingered visitors (security issues)
• Vagrants hiding in the bathrooms and sleeping at our managers’ desks (more security issues)

So, there’s this old guy who runs up the 6 flights of stairs in the building I work in.  He rides the elevator down to the basement and chats with whomever is riding with him, then he runs back up the stairs - again and again until his workout is done.  He’s been doing it for a long time.  He’s cute - very nice and slightly flirtatious (but not at all in an icky way).

He just got kicked out of the building for harassment.

This guy was shocked - very upset - when he found out what he’d been accused of.  He’d never intended to be anything but friendly, and would have immediately changed his “offensive” behavior had he been told he made anyone uncomfortable.  Because the two women who reported him were passive-agressive instead of direct, he’s gone.  No chance to explain or apologize (he’s nice enough, he’d want to) or try to make amends.  And the women are gloating.

I stayed home and am working from the dining room table today.  David is playing DDR and the floor, the chair I’m sitting in, the table, my computer - all are vibrating in rhythm with the songs David’s jumping around to.  =) 

In other news, we’ve joined Angie’s List and are busy getting electricians to come give us estimates.  We’ve got a long list of things we’d like to have done, but it turns out that electricians are pretty dang expensive.  We’ve narrowed the list down to three must-haves, but are still going to get estimates on the rest. 

The neat thing about Angie’s List (angieslist.com, if you don’t know about it) is that we can not only review what folks think about various contractors and the work they do (members leave reports on all the work they get done and all the companies they’ve dealt with), but we also get discounts when they do come to do the work.  And, turns out, if we mention that we saw them on Angie’s List, they’re really responsive.  Quick to do estimates, quick to schedule work.  It’s as if they’re teachers who are being observed by their principals - they’re on their best behavior because they know they’re going to be reviewed and critiqued, and that the report will be available for all the city to see. 

I feel…  powerful.  =)

That guy I posted the article about, Michael Haynes (lives in my neighborhood and got shot trying to break up a dog fight), is out of the hospital.  We just got this letter through our neighborhood association.

 Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Most of you know about Mr. Michael Haynes, 41, a father of five who lived on Tecumseh and 12th, who was shot trying to rescue a neighbor’s dog being attacked by a pit bull.

Sky Bank has set up a fund for Michael Haynes and his family. I am inviting you to contribute. If anyone deserves community support – it’s Michael Hayes. He did a brave and selfless act, and he even managed to keep it civil.

Donations for the Haynes family are being accepted by Sky Bank, where a special account has been set up. .

Checks should be made out to Michael Haynes Jr. and sent to:

Sky Bank
3824 Madison Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46227

Here’s the background:

The neighbor’s dog ran loose a lot, and the Haynes kids were playing with him. The Hayne’s dog was inside his house.

Although Michael Haynes had a job as account manager for Rent-a-Center, he did not have health insurance. His injuries included 2 bullets lodged under his arm, and another through his lung. Hospital costs are unknown at this time, but are expected to be quite expensive. Although he is now out of the hospital, doctors don’t know how long recovery will take or whether he will gain full use of his arm. The family is moving out of their $800/month home and will be staying with in-laws until the wife, Stacy can get a job. She was a stay-at-home mom.

About the incident itself — the whole time Haynes was trying to get the neighbor’s dog away from the pit bull, he was talking to the owner - “come on man, grab your dog”, the owner kept saying “can’t”, “yes you can, just grab his collar and pull”, “can’t”. Up to that point, Haynes had neither touched nor threatened the pit bull. But after getting nowhere and fearing for the dog’s life Haynes raised the rolling pin as if to strike the pit, which is when he was shot. At that point the dog owner yanked on the pit bull and took off. The other dog survived.

The Haynes’ had one more pay check coming after the incident, and that’s all the funds they have on which to live.

I like being part of a group like this.

Just got back from the Aukerman reunion.  It was fun - I love this group of people.  It’s a strange mix of generations - the family reunion involves the four Aukerman brothers and all their various offspring, so we’re up to three generations.  The brothers interact with merciless heckling and the telling and retelling of Aukerman classic jokes (the punchline of the one of the goodies is “Leo needs a new face!”, and a relatively new one goes like this: “Hey, what was the score?” “3 to 2″ “Who was winning?” “3, by 1!”).  There’s a point at which an awful joke really does become funny - and these guys keep me laughing.

One of the funniest moments of the reunion occurred while we were waiting at the lodge for the last set of us to arrive.  The kids had just finished a day full of swimming and running around outside, so they were tired and starting to get grouchy.  One of the cousins grabbed Chutes and Ladders and all 5 itty-bitties ran over to play.  After a while, they started fighting about the rules, so a mom brought out another game hoping to split them up.  Of course, when the kids saw Candyland, they all wanted to play the new game and the other was abandoned as boring.  The exasperated mom told them that half could play each game, and then they’d switch, but the kids weren’t having it.  They all sat down and grabbed pieces.  Mom looks at the oldest 2 kids and says, “One of you is going to have to go play Chutes and Ladders.”  When neither volunteered, she gave the oldest a meaningful look - whereupon the girl gets up, stomps about 5 feet away, then turns around and seethes.  She looks at the mom and says (amid breath-catches, as if she’d been sobbing), “If this is the manner in which I’m going to be treated, I’m never going to play again!”  This kid is 7.  It was hilarious!  The mom gave in and let the girl come back - immediately, the drama queen settled down and happily resumed bossing around the other kids.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my family (I only pulled out the camera at the very end because my sister-in-law was snapping so many pictures).