That's about all I can say for today. It's Tuesday. The long weekend has passed and I expect that this "short" week will, like most 4-day workweeks, drag on forever. It was gray and rainy yesterday, it's gray and rainy today, and it's supposed to be gray and rainy tomorrow.*

I don't think I've mentioned them to you before, but a small outside company handles the Argonaut's behind-the-scenes website functionality. There's a pair of software programmers assigned to our account--Tootles and Smee. Tootles is the boss and he's got one of those good ol' boy faces you wouldn't be surprised to see in company with a tractor. It was a bit of a surprise to me to discover that he's a very talented programmer. I'm frequently guilty of being appearancist. (Made-up words are the best.)

The other one is my old buddy Smee. I worked with him for seven or eight years, back in the technology heyday of the 90s. he's another of the same kind--got a face you'd expect to see on a guy living on a street corner, and a brain the size of Jupiter. (Remember when "computer nerd" automatically generated an image of a weedy, bespectacled little runt?) He's going on vacation. Six days in the desert outside Moab to contemplate his ommm or something but before he left, he wanted to make sure we actually wanted what Gidget asked him for.

And now I'm wondering if I understand this company at all because it turns out that of all the Next Level Plan ideas that Gidget and I put forth to Jason and the rest of TeamChaos, one item has floated to the top. The blog. Jason wants us to move on the idea quick-quick-quick.

I don't know why. My original idea for a CEO blog (they're all the rage these days) limped to the nearest drain and swirled out of sight ten seconds later, but the overall blog concept seems to have inspired a wave of enthusiasm that, quite frankly, astonishes me.

I mean, I don't understand why they're excited about it, or why they want to move ahead with it instantly. In a company where three years of strenuous and deliberate effort finally produced a company newsletter as devoid of personality as a faded beige rock, they're all hot-to-trot for a blog?

Doesn't make sense to me. I only made Gidget include it in the Next Level Plan because I knew it was the kind of thing that's light-years ahead of the normal thinking around here and she'd been challenged to be "cutting edge."

I'm not sure, to this moment, whether or not any of the Argonuts actually understands what a blog is or that it's supposed to be, you know, entertaining and informative. (Shaddup. I mean a company blog should be.)

Looks like while Smee's off contemplating the whichness of what, I'm going to have to lay out some ideas and guidelines, so I'm ready to launch whenever he gets back and gets the sw (a .net drop-in of some kind) up and running.

When they finally hire a communications person, rules, regulations, and content will be his/her problem, but it doesn't look like we're all wanting to wait for that.

Anyhow, since I'm a big believer in "start as you mean to go on" I'm happy to start with some rules. (I love rules that other people have to follow.) If I have to manage this fool thing, there need to be some guidelines. (I wish, oh how I wish, "don't be terminally boring" could be Rule #1.)

I have to edit it, too. That's a scary thought.

I'm sitting here, shaking my head, and wondering what kind of world it is when I'm not only the go-to person for technology, but the Supreme Grammar Guru and Punctuation Princess? As you all know, my interest in good grammar is intermittent at most and what I think works best for punctuation is if I just throw a bunch in and you mentally put it wherever you'd most like to see it. I proofread only under pressure.

I wouldn't put me in charge of anything that requires attention to detail or timely follow-up is all I'm saying.

And also, while I'm still producing the Newsletter O'Faded Beige and working with Gidget to help her write her own resume-website**, I don't really have the time to take on another huge project.

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* I think my blood sugar must be down. I actually had a fabulous long weekend with much going and doing and frolicking.

** It's sad to say that I remember her as a great writer of marketing material but I'm not seeing that reflected in what she's writing these days. I don't know if she's selfconscious about this resume-website or just couldn't find the right angle to pull all of the info together, but the pages I've looked at for her have been a mess.

It's hard to find a polite way to say to a friend, "It's a mess," you know? Especially when what you really want to say is, "delete the entire file and start over.