Everyone at work is required

Everyone at work is required to pick up a new badge under some new government rules, so I finally went to get mine yesterday. My picture is absolutely horrible. I smiled, they said “this is a non-smiling picture,” so I tried to smile without smiling. I look retarded. To top things off, they then cropped the photo so closely that my chin is almost cut off and it looks like I have hardly any hair. I showed it to Matt and Gavin, who both just started laughing (which was not, as it turned out, the response I was going for). I’m so annoyed that this is the photo I’m stuck with for the next umpteen years of my career. I know it’s just an ID badge, but when you have to wear it visibly around your neck every single day, there are a lot of people that end up seeing it.
Update: I forgot to add that according to my badge, my hair is now red. The girl behind the counter was going through the questions when she said “hair color…red?” I paused. “Seriously?” I said, “red? I’ve heard brown or blonde, but not red.” She looked at me. “No, my brother has red hair, your hair is definitely red.” I was puzzled. Not really wanting to get in an argument about my hair color, I said “ok, well, you put down whatever color you think is best.” So now according to NASA, I have red hair.
Annoyed.
It’s been a long week, though I’m not sure why, and I’ve grown progressively grumpier as the week has worn on, as my coworkers can probably attest. Today I’m feeling better though, because it’s Friday! And it’s a three-day weekend! And I have plans for Saturday and Sunday, but not much for Monday, when I plan to SIT. ON. MY. BUTT. It will also be nice to finally have downtime for the first time in a couple weeks.
I’m doing the Summertime Blues Triathlon on Sunday morning, which made me realize that my heart rate monitor is still not fixed (because this will be the third tri this summer that I’ll have done without a watch). I didn’t mail it in for battery replacement because I thought it would take too long; instead I’ve been sitting on it. That makes sense, eh? Heh. I’m contemplating buying a Garmin though. Thoughts on that are welcome.
I didn’t go to the Astros game last night, but they won anyway! This year’s wild card race is crazy. The Astros are only 2.5 games out of the lead, yet there are 4 teams ahead of them, and 3 more within 3 games behind them. I can’t remember ever seeing the wild card race this tightly clumped. It doesn’t bode well — whoever wins it will be the team that can string together the best streak, which is not-entirely-unrelated to whoever has the easiest schedule. I don’t know who that is, but with a series against the Mets, two more sets with the Cardinals, and lots of sets with the other wild card contenders (Phillies, Reds, Braves), it’s probably not the Astros.
I also read this morning that Brandon Backe is having Tommy John surgery. That’s never good.