Thunder of Wade

Sounds almost like a destination – and I guess I did a bit of traveling. Here’s the recap…

Friday before last, headed down to visit my folks. I stopped off at my sister’s new office – a cube farm like mine, but far less oppressive. And she’s got a window too. We were supposed to meet mom and dad for lunch after they picked up the christmas ham – but they got lost and were delayed. There’s some debate on who’s fault it is – and it’s better if we just leave that undefined.

Christmas with the folks was good – got some cool stuff and had fun. We did brave Walmart the day before christmas, which was scary – but otherwise good.

After christmas, we loaded up and headed to visit the rest of my extended family. My grandmother’s house was pretty well full once we had all gotten there and we got a little loud. My dad entertained the crew with magic tricks and we all had fun.

Also visited some of my mom’s family – my cousin just recently had a baby girl who’s just amazingly cute. Her eyes are this amazing blue – and wider then they could pull off in Village of the Dammed. It was a good thing, trust me.

My sister and I headed back on wednesday – she had to work. We were all pretty well scattered for New Year’s – I spent most of it watching movies – and saw a little of the Dick Clark special.

A few comments:

Ryan Seacrest got Dick Clark’s name wrong near the end – on national television.

Mariah Carrey was at her most sluttly. And she totally lip-synced. Whatever happened to the ultra-high-note Mariah we all loved?

Dick Clark… you know, I read somewhere that people were applauding his courage. I feel for the guy, but it was uncomfortable to watch him. Just my opinion.

And now I’m back to work…though I’m not really sure how to proceed. I got a lot of things wrapped up before the holidays and the boss is off today. Still, we never really slow down here…so I’m sure I’ve got something waiting for me in my email.

That’s it for now…later…

I went and gave blood again yesterday – and again, it took quite a while. I think I was there for about an hour and a half, most of that spent waiting. They were understaffed and didn’t anticipate the number of people coming in. I even saw one guy get all the way to the waiting area just before you give blood – and then he left. All that waiting, and he couldn’t wait a little longer – he was even next when the left.

Fortunatly, the guy that took my history also came over to help with the donatation area – and I didn’t have any problems getting the tubes filled, though a lady that was there did.

In other news…I tried the burger king Chicken Fries. Eh, they’re just chicken strips. And they tasted okay.

Also made a trip to the comic book store. While getting the latest issue of the Flash, I also picked up some dice for one of those DVD “Scene it” games that I’ve played recently. The dice that came with the game are too big and they don’t shake well in a person’s hand. So, we kept rolling the same number and catagory. I’ll need to paint/label one of them, but that’s minor. The 6 and 8 sided were for the game – the 20 was just for “coolness”. It harkens back to the days of dungons and dragons and getting better outcomes for rolling high numbers. I didn’t really play dungeons and dragons, but I’m geeky enough that I should have. Anyway, I saw a t-shirt that said, simply, “I roll twenties”. I thought it was funny, so I got myself a 20 sided die, just in case I need a little extra power or smarts. Or something, I’m not entirely sure why I bought it. Still, for an impulse buy, it only cost me 80 cents.

And last night while doing the laundry – the $#@#()* dryer vent fell off again. I did a little swearing and put it back on. So, my basement is warm, but that’s about it. Not even sure why I keep bothering – I should just replace the damn thing with a regular hose and be done with it.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. Time to get back to work…

It’s “Take your wookie to work day” again – this time, Chewie is sporting his new sweater.

Silly wookie.

In other news…a .5 liter coke bottle will not fit in my cup holder in my car. Coming into work, it leaped out of the protective confines of the cup holder and vaulted to the floorboards. It was still closed, fortunatly, but still annoying.
Again, no issues in opening it.

Finally, I had to call my sister last night. I got a christmas card that had glitter on it – and the glitter of course got on my hands. My sister has glitter, ummm… “issues” and she was the first one I thought to call to help get it off me. She suggested that I not touch anything and immediately scrub my hands. But by that point I had already touched the phone and the phone had touched my head – setting off a mock panic attack for both of us. It was pretty funny.

Well, that’s it for now…back to work.

In the news today we’ve got:

The NSA spying on America
The president apoligizing for the war
and the House voting to cut health and social programs.

Of those three, the apology upsets me the most. Mainly because it’s so empty. Do we really believe that he’s sorry? Do we really believe he’s taking responsiblity?

Nope. And the thing that really gets me is that he’s still not doing anything to end the war and bring our troups home – troups that shouldn’t have ever been deployed there.

I think that someone saying “I’m sorry,” by itself, isn’t saying much. People should follow an apology with an attempt to make things right. Repair what’s broken. He’s still doing the same things and making the same mistakes.

Along those lines, I saw a T-Shirt with a big “W” on it – the label was “Worst Ever”

In other news…my school has a new slogan that actually makes me vaguely interested in the sports teams. “Fear the Roo”. 🙂

In still other news… I had what I think was a cluster headache over the weekend that I mostly slept through. Woke up in the middle of the night having to pee and with a headache. Took care of what needed to be taken care of – then went back to sleep somehow. I woke up with a bit of a headache and that soon faded out to the sharp stabbing pain that only manifests when I cough. And today, that’s nearly gone too. I guess if I’m going to keep having these, at least I slept through this one.

That’s it for now – time to get back to work…

This morning, while I was getting into my car, I set my bottle of soda on the roof so that I could check to see if I needed to scrape my windshield or if I could just brush it off. Instead of putting my soda in the car – as I should have – I left it there and reached in to start the engine and get my scraper. The ice on the roof – with the vibrations of the engine – caused my plastic bottle of soda to fly off the roof, hit the ground, slide under the car next to mine and come to a rest in a snowbank.

So, I went around and picked it up – there was a lot of foam at the top, but the bottle was undamaged. And on the way to work, I sort of forgot about how shaken up it was and that I should be careful. I twisted off the cap at my desk and…

…nothing happened. It was fine. The soda must have settled down somehow during the car ride. Strangest thing.

Last evening, I went to get my car e-checked since my registration is due in January. And if I did it in 2005 to avoid the long lines, it would be free instead of the ususal $19.50

Now, I’m not sure how the line lenght is going to be differnt from year to year – but free is better than 20 bucks. There was no line when I pulled up and my car passed. Took maybe 7 minutes total and I was on the road with my certification in hand.

I had been a little concerned since there had been issues with the cars computer and the oxygen sensor, but they must have been electical ghosts and didn’t affect the tests.

This morning, I had to pass up a prime parking spot at work since some dufus had backed into their space – and done a poor job of it. This is one of the many things that annoy me. If you’re going to take the extra time to back into a space – do it well so that you don’t mess things up for anyone else. And frankly – you’re not Batman. You don’t need to fly screaming out of your parking space to chase down the bad guys. Get over yourself.

This past week, I’ve been taking a closer look at my phone bill. I was concerned about the amount I was paying for my local service and the plan I had wasn’t really what I needed. So, I called them up and looked for options. They couldn’t offer any savings on intraLATA calls and the unlimited residence service, even with all the extra stuff removed, was still over 20 bucks. I ended up saving 5 bucks, but I’ve got no features on my phone. Hell, if it was any simpler I’d be using bare copper wires or tin cans and string. And it’s still over 20 bucks + all the the federal fees and charges.

I’m strongly considering giving up on a land line entirely and going the cell phone route.

Now, before you get all up in arms – keep in mind that my biggest concern with those things has been the people that use them. I’d be getting a simple phone with a simple plan and using it primarly from home.

The very notion still makes me queasy, but the merger of SBC and AT&T doesn’t give me hope for better customer service or reduced prices.

And I guess that’s it for now. Have a good weekend and I’ll get back to work…

I had to make a trip to the supermarket last night to get supplies for the holiday party dessert I was making. As I headed toward the entrance, I heard/saw two people sitting just past the soda machines outside, having a smoke break. As I came past the machines and into their view, one of them threw a cigerette at me.

Now, I know that they were already throwing the cigerette when I came into view and they didn’t hit me – the cig landed between my steps. I shot them about half a glare since no damage was done and if I got really worked up every time someone did something stupid in my presence I’d be in jail now.

They shouting an “I’m sorry” as I walked on. I think one of them was still out there when I left after getting my few items.

And of course I forgot one thing I needed – so later that evening I walked down to the Circle K and picked it up – then walked back.

For those interested – the dessert I made is as follows.

27 Ho-ho’s
1 large package of Jello Chocolate Pudding (with three cups of milk)
24 crumbled shortbread cookies
1 full container of cool whip

Yeah, it’s evil, but I only make it once a year – so, it’s okay.

That’s it for now, gotta go do some work…

Well, I did it. I went to the mall again. There were some “items” that I didn’t get enough of – and I had to go back for more. I headed out right after work – hoping my slightly early exit strategy would shield me from the masses. It only partly worked.

I went to JC Penny’s and rightly surmised my “items” would be on the second floor. But if there was a pattern or an organizational scheme in place for the stuff there, I couldn’t find it. And as a result I had a difficult time finding my items. Once I did – I had to stand in line. That part went better than I expected, despite someone trying to place a catalog order. Hello? Isn’t that why you have a phone? Or the Internet?

Anyway, got through the line and headed to my car. And then things went horribly wrong. Every route I tried was backed up. And I’m reasonably familer with my area, so I know a lot of routes. After several attempts at a better route, I finally got myself on a straight shot and waited things out. I was lucky that I got gas beforehand – that’s all I’m saying.

Got home, got the incomplete present unwrapped and re-wrapped – then watched “the ring: two” again and played video games.

Also, one of my colleagues sent me a gift bag with Coca-cola, Doritos, and chocolate as a thank-you for helping her out with a variety of projects over the year. I gorged myself – it was excellent.

That’s it for now – time to get back to work…

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with my work boots. I think they’re comfortable and they say, “This is a guy that knows which end of a hammer to pick up,” – which I do.

However, they are fairly difficult to take off and put on – without almost totally undoing the laces. Which I didn’t do last night. And as I grabbed the heal to give them a good yank – the heal came unglued from the rest of the sole.

I managed to get the boot off – and I think I can re-glue the boot with some shoe-goo. Still, I’m bootless for the moment and had to wear shoes that are not suited for this kind of weather. Annoying.

Well, I guess I could keep typing about other non-important things, but I’ve got a meeting to go to…so, back to work…

Today, for lunch, I had Campbell’s Chunky soup, with sirloin burger and country vegetables – and brown rice. Anyone looking though my kitchen cabinets will find many more cans of this same soup – it’s something of a staple for me. Today, however, I was surprised by what I discovered.

In the middle of a bite, I bit down on something that I couldn’t immediately identify. Which is odd all by itself since I’m deeply familier with this soup and rice combo. It “felt” like I was biting into a piece of wood.

I spit it out and it sure looked like a small piece of wood on closer examination. It had grains and the texture and hardness were along the lines of wood – though there was a small hook-like protrusion on one side. Since I can’t imagine how wood would enter into the soup making process (except maybe a wooden crate with vegetables in it – though I would hope they have a filter for that sort of thing) – I studied it a little more carefully and decided it must have been the solid core of a carrot. It was the only vegetable that might have produced this unique shape – though the hardness was unusual.

I check the rest of the soup and discovered no other weird items. Still, it was damn odd and I’m going to see if I can get a picture.

That’s it for this update – though I will say that holiday shopping today wasn’t as bad as I feared. With the exception of Best Buy – it was worse than I expected.

Later…

The call to the landlord was successful – by the time I got home, the heat was back on and my apartment was toasty. Well, not toasty since I don’t keep it that warm in there, but still nice.

Christmas shopping is proceeding on pace – I’ve got my list of people to buy for and I think I’ll be able to knock it out this afternoon with a trip to a couple of stores.

Had a moment of swearing on the drive to work this week – a small section of road closed for no apparent reason. It’s not the first time this has happened on this stretch of road – nor is it the first time that I’ve gotten in the turning lane and then been trapped by other traffic when I didn’t seen the poorly positioned signs. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a Point A to Point B kinda guy – and I had to loop around past Point E to get to work. Annoying.

Let’s see…what else is going on? Well, we met the new VP on Friday – seems pretty cool. From his resume, he’s got a “rep” of sorts about downsizing companies – but from the brief talking to him, it sounds like he’s got some good plans and that he’s got the same kind of concerns for our processes that we have. So, should be cool.

I guess it’s time to start my deep breathing and non-stress shopping mantras. I’m…well, let’s just say I’m not good with crowds. I had joked about wearing a protective cup and carrying a sword, but I think instead I’m just going to play it cool. As the Jets would say:

“Just play it cool, boy. Real cool”

And on the disturbing note of me quoting West Side Story – I’m outta here…