Saturday Pet Event

Unfortunately I have plans already this Saturday, or I would be heading down to Shirlington for Signature Theater's Open House. From 3 - 7 pm they are playing host to "Dog Days of Summer" in conjunction with AFH Rescue Foundation, which a friend of mine is very active in. There will be free pet portraits, a pet fashion show at 4:30, best trick contest, pet bakery and groomer, and more. So if you're looking for something fun to do, or looking to adopt a dog and have the money go to a good cause, check it out!

New Rick Springfield Album

Check out Rick's new album, Venus in Overdrive. Mine just arrived today!

Animal Update

Just a quick post to say my beloved dog is still hanging in there, plus I got news yesterday that I might not have to go to my conference for the whole time, which is a huge relief. Cause if she's still around, I don't want to be gone for an entire week. She actually had a great week--her appetite was good, no vomiting, taking walks around the block, etc. (It's sad when this constitutes a great week.)

In other animal news, Jeffro and I rescued a baby Cardinal a couple of weeks ago. It had fallen down the window well as it was learning to fly and got trapped. I went down into the well and got it out, much to the distress of the parent Cardinals who were chirping frantically. I called Animal Control to ask what to do, but they said this is the course of nature and there is not much to be done. So we couldn't really do much else to help, and eventually just got on with things and hoped for the best for this bird.

Yesterday, there was a baby cardinal in the backyard, clinging for dear life to a flower on my hydrangea plant. It managed to fly up to the fence, where its hovering parent met and fed it. It was such a sweet moment, and Jeffro pointed out it was probably the same bird from a few weeks ago. So, hopefully the bird will have a happy ending as he gets bigger and better at flying.

Unprofessionalism at Its Finest

Well, I had an interesting conclusion to my work week yesterday. We had been using a consultant for this past year to do some work for us. We treated him as part of the staff: he had an office, phone extension, email address, etc. And he had been given our member database, our leads, and some of our insider stories about "bad" members. We decided to let him go this week for many reasons, but it was supposedly an amicable parting, and he was ready to be let go. So mutual decision.

In any case, no one was told the terms of letting go: is he finishing out his contract year, or just completely out of the picture? Then I got an email from him about something work-related, so I figured he was finishing out the rest of his contract year. I later sent him a message asking him to contact one of our "problem members," which I called "problem member" in the email, which he promptly forwarded to said member with my phone number.

Talk about unprofessional, spiteful, mean, and fully setting ablaze the bridge with our organization. I was completely horrified, and the member of course called me two minutes later, indignant. Talk about embarrassing. (I guess that's why they say don't put anything in an email you wouldn't want getting back to the person, but you don't suspect that sort of thing with "trusted" coworkers.)

My boss is completely livid (as was I) and going to talk to the CEO to express her displeasure at the consultant's idiocy. The industry I work in is small and quite incestuous, so why would he want to piss us off it he wants to continue working in the industry? Our CEO knows everyone and is very well-liked. Why burn bridges when there was no malice to the letting go? Unbelievable. Needless to say, it was a two-glass-of-wine night last night.