Borrowed from Cubicle Jock.
1. BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
2. SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
3. ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard
4. SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
5. CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.
6. PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on.
7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation’s answer to the couch potato.
8. SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay
home with the kids.
9. STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
10.SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.
11.XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one’s workplace.
12.IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.
13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
14. ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly
inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
15. 404: Someone who’s clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message “404 Not Found,” meaning that the requested site could not be located.
16. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.
17. OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake).
18. WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.
19. CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a Cube Farm.
(an old one, but still a good one!)
A little boy goes to his dad and asks, ‘What is Politics?’
Dad says, ‘Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I am the head of the family, so call me The Prime Minister. Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government. We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People. The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we will call him the Future. Now think about that and see if it makes sense.’
So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said.
Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him.
He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parent’s room and finds his mother asleep.
Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny…
He gives up and goes back to bed.
The next morning, the little boy say’s to his father, ‘Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now. ‘
The father says, ‘Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.’
The little boy replies, ‘The Prime Minister is screwing the Working Class while the Government is sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit.’
The carpet was installed this week and it looks great!
The fridge is under the bar, the new heaters (not seen above, those are the old ones!) are installed, the trim is painted and will be installed soon, and we are picking up some new light fixtures for the laundry room.
Next major milestones…
(1) the bar needs a top, a shelving unit, flooring, and a light;
(2) the laundry room floor needs to be covered;
(3) storage room needs to be organized and finished painting
(4) the furniture and electronics will migrate downstairs
(5) A “Basement Bash” party!
The last of the materials arrive tomorrrow to finish the bar area.
The ceiling tiles are over 50% installed in the main room (this picture was taken before more were installed…)
And the carpeting arrives on Wednesday…
It is hard to believe this project is almost done, boy will we be happy!
The laundry room, with sheetrock.
The bar area, with sheetrock.
Then, we called in a ringer to help out…
The laundry room, after the taping/first round of crackfill.
The bar area, after the taping/first round of crackfill.
The walls are almost completely insulated now…
Here is where my new bar will be located…
And here I am at about 1:30 AM, contemplating the work for tomorrow… Vapour barrier the walls, and then the last of the sheetrock is arriving!
Of course, one of the issues with having kids and trying to do home renovations is – How do you keep them entertained??? Here is Natalie, playing on a blanket and surrounded by pillows in the storage room while we work at different things around her.
Here is Nadine, Aidan, and Natalie in the storage room, with Aidan showing off his handiwork…
Here is the third and final wall that needs to be erected, with attached glass sliding door. Bev installed it while I took the trailer to get inspected before the trip. What a pleasant surprise to come back and see that finished!
Tomorrow, more insulation, sheetrock, and mudding the other rooms…
Nadine worked her butt off to get that done in time for garbage day! Of course, today was garbage day, we had 12 bags at the curb, and I forgot to get a picture of it… oops!
As he started with finish work, Nadine and I ran the vapour barrier while Nanny Vin was Nanny 911!
Aidan helped Grampy unload the sheetrock from the truck… 
After everything was done, Bev and I went to work on installing the sheetrock. We have a room!
All the sheetrock is mildew resistant (hence the green finish). It is only a few dollars more for this type, and it is worth it for basements!(again, a bonus for mould and mildew allergies!)
Here is the master, inspecting the work of his apprentice…
It is midnight. Grampy left at about 10 PM, then Nadine and I finished up with taping and “mudding” the sheetrock walls.
Tomorrow, the last wall, the second coat of sheetrock “mud”, and more insulation and vapour barrier on the exterior walls!
Of course, then we needed to conscript the carpentry expert – Bev!
Stage 0 – Create shelving units in the shed, move everything into rubber containers and into the shed!
Stage 1 – A messy basement needs to be cleaned out…
Stage 2 – starting to get stuff cleaned out, the first wall is up and some of the walls are insulated. We decided on a 2″ styrofoam with strapping to gain some space on the walls (they are 1/2 as thick with this system, plus the styrofoam handles moisture a little better. With my mould and mildew allergies, this is a bonus! 
The styrofoam/strapping proved to be a problem at first, since we had trouble finding the right combination of cement nails that wouldn't split the strapping, but eventually, with the help of some pre-drilling, 3″ cement nails, and a BFH, we found a system. (BFH = BIG FREAKIN' HAMMER!)
Stage 3 – End of the first day of building and I am giving my aching feet a break while I contemplate tomorrow's work…
Stage 4 – Next day, Aidan wanted to help out, so he gets some quick lessons from dad on using a hammer…
Stage 5 – Then he starts on his own project! 
Stage 6 – End of the second day. Two walls created, two walls insulated.
Tomorrow, more insulation, then the drywall shows up… Fun, fun fun! (we are recruiting if anyone is interested in helping! (the pay sucks, the working conditions harsh, but you'll never work with better people!)
