Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Beach Blah Blah Blah

Hello all my Blogger buds. I am sneaking away for a few minutes to do a quickie post from vacationland. We are hanging out by the pool in Williamsburg for a while before doing dinner. Its been a great week so far.

I am not someone who can spend a lot of time sitting around a pool like that. Pool time is boring time. Gimme the beach any day. But the week has been busy so far so I don't mind the down time. Everyone else is OK with it but here I am, finagling some blog time. Can you say "YB is the oddball of the group" boy n girls? No prob. I'm usde to it.

I think it's a weird world at there resort places. The people are mostly family types. They walk around and the little kids follow like ducks. It's like there is the Papa duck, the Mama duck and all the little baby duck trailing along behind. The babies are always squaking and crying, the mama is always stopping and nipping their tail feathers to get them moving and the Papa ducks all have the big round bellies hanging down to the ground. Those are the people hanging out here.

Its a shame. lol

I noticed something funny (to me) on the way here. The road signs on the highway in VA all say "Speed Limit Enforced From Aircraft". If that isn't a license to just go as fast as you feel like, I don't know what is. Who believes that an aircraft is gonna get them a speeding ticket? No one, judging from the speeds people drive here.

We have had a full week so far. Been hitting the tennis courts every morning early. Playing golf, swimming, went to the beach for a day, done more shopping than I care for ever, sucked down some excellent wine and margaritas and generally just relaxed. It's been fun. I'll hate to go home except that I am kinda disgusted by the people here. Good thing I can keep that to myself like I do. Oh, did I just mention it here? oops. :P

So I hope all is well with youse blogger friends. I'll try to check up on you again later this week. No promises. Take care and... yada yada yada... a good day.

:)

Friday, June 22, 2007

Reality Check

Nicci's teenage boy broke up with his girlfriend recently. It was quite a shock to everyone. They have been dating for 1.5 years-ish and they seemed so perfect together. The perfect high school couple and all that jazz. But they are teenagers after all. Nicci loves the girlfriend and her family so she took it hard.

When it happened my first reaction was that he got distracted. Teen boys are easily distracted by their hormones. I've been there. It sounded familiar. He had been hanging with another girl who wasn't quite the looker as his girl, but she isn't quite the 'good girl' either. When I started to mention that I got the usual smack down. Nicci insists that her son isn't like typical boys. He's a 'good' boy. Never thinks about sex when it comes to girls. He is a nice boy. He doesn't have those nasty thoughts. She like to tell me that not every boy is like me. She says it like it's an insult. She points right at me and says "Not everyone is like you!"

Last night she spent hours with the boy who was having one of those teen freak-out-emotional-suicide episodes. He was distraught. He had a fling with one of his girlfriends best friends. He was feeling guilty and didn't know how to handle it.

I just wanted to say I told you so. Ha ha ha ha! He is like me.

I think that I am pretty normal and not everyone is like her. lol

The fling wasn't even with the one he's been hanging out with lately. That one has the pool and the house to herself all day and he spends all day there, innocently. Somehow they are always in the kitchen playing cards when the parents come home. Yeah

Some people need a reality check. Nicci being one of those. The boy is exceptionally popular, good looking, has everything going for him. He has girls chasing him constantly. His hormones are those of a 17 year old. Please.

Whatever.

Typical high school drama crap is all it is. I prefer to stay out of it. But I really want to say I told you so. Ha ha.

This brought to mind a pet peeve of mine. One thing that really bugs me is when someone tells me this: "I wasn't raised that way." Nicci says that a lot. Isn't that the dumbest thing you have ever heard? think about it. The only proper response to that is to ask "So that means you aren't able to think for yourself? You can only have the opinions of your parents?" I really despise that saying.

So vacation starts tomorrow. Tonight @ 4:00 ish actually. Nicci is feeling like she may not go since the boy is being a big crybaby. I wonder if I'd care or not? I'd do just fine without her there. I'd prefer she go but if she doesn't, cie le vie.

People are weird about stuff. To me, the boy freaking out isn't a big thing. Teens act retarded all the time. They can't help it. We all go through it. But whatever she decides won't affect me much. Just changes the dynamic.

OK, time to get the work done and get the heck out of here.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Have A Prune

Diet people say the weirdest things. Have you noticed that? Nicci has been doing the Atkins diet for a couple of weeks and now she's in that stage where, I think, she has forgotten what real food is like. Today she was going on about how great the diet, no carb, green tea with lemon is that she was sipping. She insisted it was better than the real thing. She also insisted that I should drink it.

Wrong.

Oh, and double wrong.

Diet people all start out either hating the diet foods and drinks or just barely tolerating them. Then they get used to them and suddenly they are "just as good as real food!" Read that again... "real food". They are not just as good. They are (mostly) not even real food. As a matter of fact they are pretty gross. If they were just as good as real food everyone in the U.S. would be sucking them down and no one would be fat. It's all relative. They get used to the taste and forget that they are eating and drinking nasty things. All in the name of vanity.

OK, sometimes it's a health kick. But let's be honest, mostly it's vanity. But none of that crappy Atkins stuff is as good as real food. Get real people.

I was contacted by another old school friend today/yesterday. I got the email this morning so I guess it's today. The Class of 81 site has them beating down my (email) doors now. 2 old friends in 2 weeks! Woo hoo.

Anyway, it was good to hear from him. He and I and my friend Robin were known as the 3 Robs. Rob, Robert and Robin. People called us that in high school. We hung together a lot so it was a natural thing, I guess. Hey, it was cool then! Gimme a break. At any rate, it was good to hear from him.

Such simpler times then, eh? Playing paper football in the lunch room. Wondering who the next girl I'd kiss would be. Living for the after school parties. Drive in movies on Friday nights. Co-Ed gym class. A little school work in between all of it. Funny how it seemed so hard to get by then. Now it seems like a cake walk. Guess thats all relative too.

So my vacation starts in 2 days. A little less than 2 work days, should anyone other than me be counting. Meritt asked what we are doing. We are headed to Williamsburg for a week. With a couple days thrown in there for Virginia Beach too. Nothing to do all week but vege, suck down good wine and margaritas, play golf, get burned on the beach and totally forget about work and the hometown. Just 2 more work days.

Today I get to host the first big meeting with the team I picked for my 'special project'. Whoopie. It will be pretty easy to plan the whole thing. The hard part is getting the people to but into it. It will require some odd hours for a few months. Extra workloads too. Thats the thing with managing things. You get to put in writing how things should work out. It's the workers that get the screws put to them. Basically this whole project has arisen because the curretn big cheeses totally screweed us up the past 2-3 years. Now we have to bail them out. But it's the laborers that get the real brunt of it all. I hate that.

Lisa just asked me if I wanted a prune. She read that a person should eat at least 5 prunes a day and started having prunes. I asked if that made her poop a lot. She said no, but it does give you bad gas. Thats what we need here. A lot of people eating prunes and farting all over the place.

Who goes around offering prunes as snacks?

I remember working with this older guy a few years ago. He would constantly walk up to you and give you a Halls Mentolyptus. (Spelling?) He acted like it was candy or a mint or something. I guess thats probably worse than a prune. At least a prune is good for you all the time. What good is a Halls if you don't have a cold? Plus, the breath! Blah.

Well, I'm late for a morning meeting. Typical. Morning meetings and end of the day meetings all bite. People should know better.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Quote Of The Day

My conversation with Jersey Girl:

JG: I was never considered adorable. I wasn't meant to be adorable.

YB: Yeah, what were you meant to be then?

JG: I'm aristocratic....elegant...

YB: ...Uh huh...

JG: And exceptionally arrogant.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Chinese For Breakfast

Anyone else having cold Chinese leftovers for breakfast? No? I feel bad for you then. I couldn't help myself. I have a fridge in my office and the leftovers from yesterday were there. I was going to have them for lunch but they kept calling to me and calling to me. So I ate them. :)

Cold Szechwan Chicken, extra spicy with a dollop of fried rice. Yum! Now I'll have stinky breath for a while. But I do carry Listerine breath strips so maybe not.

Cold Chinese is one of those things I love. I love a lot of strange things. Like sweet bologna & grape jelly sandwiches. SpaghettiOs. Cold pizza is better to me than fresh and hot. Smarties are still my favorite candy, by far. Pickled eggs and raisins on my salad. These are some of the things I get questioned about regularly. My things. Yum!

So Rene asked a good question on her blog Sunday. (Check it here.) Why are there some jobs that are considered 'mans jobs'. Well, my first reaction is that this concept is probably a left over from before women became more independant. Men invented the list of jobs they don't mind doing so that the jobs they hate are done by the women. How many men volunteer for house cleaning or grocery shopping? Not too many. But the guy thing is grilling and mowing grass. Even taking out trash, thats manly. It does seem odd these days.

Nicci and I are weird about the house chores. We fight over who gets to mow and who gets to shovel the snow. We both love doing those. I do all the laundry and the dishes. Even the dishes not done in the machine. We both cook. She paints walls and does remodeling stuff. I paint pictures on the walls. :)

I do take out the trash and do all the grilling. Those are the two things we are normal about. She owns the checkbook and all the financials. She won't even consider letting me touch the checkbook. (Shes smart.) I guess these days it's not so easy to stereotype those chores. Unless we are weirdos and the rest of the world is still locked in the 50's.

I was thinking this morning that dressing everyday is an annoying chore. I never plan on anything so when I get going in the a.m. I just grab whatever is available. I still hate going to the closet and deciding what I am wearing that day. Plus the quality of things is getting crappier all the time. I have a couple of Tommy Hilfiger things (gifts only) that are not very old and they are falling apart. The belt is less than 6 months old and it's almost wasted. Whats the point of getting something with someones name on it if it only lasts a short time? Soon I'll need to go to the store again. I dread that.

I hate to shop for stuff for me. Plus I don't ever get designer stuff. I go to J.C. Penneys and thats good enough. Fashion is something for other people.

Weekends are easy though. Denim shorts and whatever Yankee shirt in on top of the pile. Simple and uber-comfortable for me. lol

So the spastic new boss just left here. He is all hyped again about this project he assigned to me. He is a funny guy. I think he is almost as much in love with Starbuck's as I am. On second thought, probably more. You never see him without the largest size Starbuck's cup of coffe in his hand. Even in the afternoon he is sucking down caffeine of some sort. Yesterday I stopped by his office and he was opening a 20 oz. diet Pepsi. I asked him where his coffee was. He just said it was all gone.

He has no sense of humor either. He is all work. I joke with him and all I get are blank stares. One time he asked me where our planner was. (She was off for the day.) I said "She is out today." Then I leaned over and whispered to him "At least thats what she told me to tell you if you came looking for her." He just looked confused.

I thought it was at least mildly amusing. :)

Ok, time to get going. Hope everyone has some leftovers to start their day out properly. It worked for me.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Just A Few More Days

So I've been away for a few days. Not away from checking in on everyone. Just away from writing stuff. It's been way too busy for me to clear my head enough to post. Plus, sometimes I'm just lazy. :)

Let's keep that last part to ourselves, eh? Thanks.

Friday I missed work. Not in the sense that I missed being at work. Noooo, in the sense that I didn't make it in. You all know how I have been thinking about blowing off a day? Yeah, well the hot water in the house decided to stop working so along came my day off. Not a planned fun day. Just an annoying, wasted vacation day.

The worst part of a day like that is that I was mentally prepared for work. Not like I would have been if I had planned on being off. Instead of relaxing and doing fun stuff all day I was in work mode. I ended up cleaning and water-sealing the deck. Edging the property and sweeping everything up. Doing all the laundry. Recaulking a leaky spouting corner.Doing the grocery shopping and putting all that crap away (which is the worst part of grocery shopping). Then I did the dishes. Easiest job because I just started the washer and then unloaded it. lol

After all that, the dude came and (finally) fixed the water thing. Go figure. Why do they bother giving you approximate times when they should be arriving and then totally miss that time anyway? They should just tell you the truth up front.... "I'll be there whenever." That I get.

I had lunch with my friend Lindsey today. She got this soup at the chinese place that sounded good when she ordered it. Crab and seafood chowder. But when it came it was all white slimy stuff with itty-bitty tiny little chunks of some kind of meat in it. It was disgusting to look at. Then she tried it. It was worse to taste. I took her word for it.

This car passed us on the way back to work and it made me laugh. Then I felt a little sad. It was a honda thing with one of those loud, obnoxious mufflers on it. The ones that make the car sound like its burping. They are suckh a joke. They sound so stupid. Then I started thinking about how years ago getting cool sounding exhaust pipes was a totally different thing. Street rods when I was younger were true muscle cars. They had the sound of true street rods too. Now this little twerpy thing is what the world has come to. Its a litlle sad I think.

So I have to go to yet another meeting this afternoon. I have been put in charge of a "high-profile" project. (Those are the words of the new big cheese.) He decided that I need to be the one to run this new project. He said that there is no other bigger one for the department. Then everyone rolled their eyes at him.

Not me of course. He was looking at me.

But most people in the room know already that the new guy is way too gung-ho and that he hasn't teaken the time to learn the way things need to be done. He is one of those type who just jump in and start changing things as he sees fit. He just keeps plowing into things and we'll see how it all works out in the end. Me, I'm just gonna do the project and let him figure out which way it should.

Vacation starts after this week ends. The week will probably be a long one since I'm anticipating the vacation. But it's OK. At least there is something to look forward to. Everyday I'll be saying "Just a few more days. Just a few more days." Right now I have to ge see the new big cheese for a little bit. Blah.

Just a few more days....

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Working With Celebs

I think it's weird that people greet each other when they really aren't into it. I walked by a guy twice within 5 minutes this morning and both times he glanced at me, said, "How’s it goin?" and then walked past. He really didn't care how things were with me. Nor did he want to chat about how things are. But twice within 5 minutes he pretended he did.

OK, so he wasn't pretending. I get that. He was just being cordial. I just think it's weird that we greet each other all the time when most likely we don't care to. But people get all bent at what they perceive to be rude behavior or what they consider being slighted. If you don't greet people when they walk by, they get annoyed. Not all people but most.

Mostly for me, I am relieved when someone walks past and doesn't say anything. I'm not anti-social by any means. I just don't like faking things. An insincere greeting is like an insult. We aren't politicians or anything.



If I see that guy again and he says the same thing I am going to start talking a mile a minute about whatever I can think of. He asks a question, he's gonna get an answer. I wonder how that will go over? Maybe he'll get a new fake/insincere greeting after that. :)

I saw a pretty woman in the hallway and my first thought was, "She really looks like Molly Ringwald. Just sexier." She really resembles Molly. But she is a hotter version of her. No insult intended toward Molly at all. I always liked her a lot.



I’ve worked around a few celebrities. People who look like celebs anyway. Here we have Kevin, the scary cannibal guy from Sin City (See the post from 5/21).

We have Frank Costanza (only nicer).

We have the beefy version of Courteney Cox (See the post from 2/23).

At my last job there was a woman who looked exactly like James Brown. Sad but true. She looked a lot like him.

I'm hoping Roselyn starts working here soon.



What? C'mon, everyone knows that the little black dress is appropriate for the work environment. lol

So today I felt like calling in again. I start vacation the end of next week. Remember how I mentioned that I'd probably never get around to calling in before the vacation? I'm almost out of time. This is just one of those days when I am tired of everything, for no real reason. Funny thing is, I usually accomplish a lot on days like this.

Time for coffee. The elixer of life. Buh Bye!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

For Meritt

As requested by Meritt, here I am a senior in High School way back in 1981.





Sorry about the picture quality. It's the one posted on the class site. :)

Happy Anniversary

I have mean thoughts. A Lot. I'm sure (almost) everyone does. Even when they don't fess up to it. But I wonder just how many are too many? What is the limit before I am considered a big jerk? Am I a jerk if I always keep them to myself?

The thing is, I mostly have them when I am alone. Watching someone walk by, passing them in the halls, dealing with them at work. Being around people in grocery stores really brings the mean thoughts on. Doesn't seem to matter the situation. I just have thoughts that some would consider mean.

I consider them entertaining. :)

This morning I had a few already. Like, "I wonder how much more pants that size cost?" Or "I’m gonna learn to walk like that. Then I can be a cool dude too." and "How come that guy is wearing 5 layers of clothes? Maybe he’s terminally cold? Maybe I sholuld tell him that he would be warmer if something would fit rather than being 5 sizes too big."

That's my brain. The milder side of it at least. But I have a lot of nice thoughts too. Maybe thats the way to be OK. Balance. My personal balance? I just don't think about it too much.

Today is my anniversary. 8 years. I can't even begin to imagine how I made it 8 years. Nicci can't either. But the years just pass by and you don't even notice sometimes. I guess thats a good thing? Perhaps. Today is also two of my best friends anniversary. For those who don't remember the story, they planned their wedding the same day we did. We had a sunrise thing at a park in the mountains. Then they had theirs in the afternoon at a different park. It was a good day.

I'll have to to remind him that it's been 8 years. He probably won't be as freaked as I am. lol

In the card I got for Nicci I wrote that it has been 7 years in it. Ha ha ha! My math is bad, eh? I don't know where my head was. But we got a good laugh out of it. Duh!

I have some goober coming in this afternoon to talk about new filling machines. I really hate the first meetings for projects. The sales guys all act so phoney. And desperate. It's annoying. Plus I think I've already decided on the direction we should go. It's something I've been working on for a while. This guy is a little behind. It could be a tough time for him. :)

I recently found my high school class has a website. I signed up and wrote out some stuff on my profile. The pic from my high school days is so funny to see. I forgot that I had a lot of hair back then. Now, not so much. lol No beard either. I look like a little kid.

As a result of updating my profile I've heard from a classmate. She is someone I really, really liked a lot when we went to school together. It's been fun trading emails. We will be getting together someday again, I'm sure. For now getting reaquainted is cool.

The web is amazing, isn't it? It's so easy to find lost friends now.

These days really are different from way back then. Communication really is a breeze now. When I was in school, the cool new thing around was the portable calculator. They were new and very expensive. I heard of people paying $300 - $500 for them back then. There wasn't a pc anywhere to be seen. There was no idea or hint of The Web. No cell phones. How the hell did we survive?

How indeed.

Monday, June 11, 2007

West Coast Yankee

Check out this pic:




Aren't they adorable? Some of you will remember Grace. Thats her and Mia, dressed up, looking beautiful. There is no better dressing up, I don't think. lol

You see what a good influence I can be on people. Even way out in SoCal I spread the Yankee goodness.

So today is a rough one. Not much time to chat. Maybe not the rest of the day. We had an exceptionally full schedule for the day and then another department screwed us. Now we have an impossible schedule. But we'll make it possible. Thats what we do. :)

The weekend was great! Friday Lisa and I left early and I finally managed to find the elusive Birthday present. Thanks to Lisa and the both of us having such a stubborn attitude about not giving up. Yesterday I surprised Nicci with it. I stuck it into her underwear. So when she was getting ready to go out for her Birthday dinner, she found it. That was funny.

I also (finally) installed a big-ass flag pole in front of my house. Now I'm a masonry expert. Yeah, right! I actually wanted the pole for some time. I am very patriotic. Plus I have the coolest Yankee flag to fly under the start-n-stripes. What? So I'm a slave to my passions.

The real reason is this huge 9' flag I have it looks very cool flying.

But the Yankee flag is for real and when I'm not flying the huge flag it will be there.

Enough of this blabber. Gotta go earn some money.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Fly Me To The Moon

How can a day start out badly when you wake up singing Frank Sinatra'S Fly Me To The Moon? It can't. Thats all.

I love that song and when it pops into my head, especially in the a.m., I am smiling.

The update on Lisa'a car is interesting. The dealer we ended up taking it to called her late on Wednesday evening. They had 2 people stay late and get it done. They felt so bad about how she was treated that they got it done for her asap. The lady told Lisa that "no one should be treated like that, especially at a BMW facility". Neat. I saw it this morning. It is all clean and shiny and everything looks new.

The moral of the story? Don't take my recommendation on a dealership anymore. LOL

I'm thinking that this weekend I'm going to put up a flagpole. I always wanted one so recently I was wondering why I never just got one and installed it. I think I'll be doing that this weekend. Then I can fly my flags all the time. One USA flag and one Yankee flag. Can you tell the real motivation behind me wanting the pole? Uh huh.

Nicci decided to dop the Atkins Diet for a few weeks. She wants to drop a few pounds fast before we head out on vacation. Usually I laugh at diets but not the Atkins one. It gives me free reign to be a full time carnivore. I don't mind at all.

I see lots of grilling in my immediate future. Yum!

I saw this comic recently and it makes me smile.


Incidentally, what is happiness? I don't really know for sure. Here's what it is this morning at least:

-Its singing Fly Me To The Moon when everyone else is all grumpy and annoyed that the old machine is screwing up (again) and and may cost us a production run.
-Its that sweet alarm on the coffe pot telling me the Starbuck's is ready.
-It's Friday
-It's the awesome text messages from my special friend that make me miss her even more.
-It's the fact that the Yanks are starting to win more than lose recently.
-Its knowing that Peachy is somewhere, anywhere right now.

Thats this mornings happy thopughts.

I saw this one too and it really makes me laugh.



Now, I love Sheryl Crow. Shes been one of my faves for years. But I have to wonder about society today when we tend to ask celebrities their opinions about world stuff and take them as the ultimate authority on things. It's a stupid thing to think that this person, because they are famous, knows more about life and the world than we do. Isn't it odd that people do that?

I've been in the music circles. Not to the level of Sheryl Crow but let me tell you, the professional musicians I've known can give their opinions all they want but they sure aren't the type of people I can take seriously. Just because a movie star is in a movie, how does that make them more relevant than a person working, really working, for a living. To me its a silly notion.

So Sheryl, no. I'm gonna flush every time and use as much TP as I want. Blame it on your peers. Now, if you want to show me a few things about playing music, well, thats a different story. K?

Can you imagine going to Angelina Jolie for relationship advice? Or Britney Spears for parenting advice? Yeah, its like that.

So today I am going to try and get out in a sneaky way to find Nicci a birthday present. Sneaky because we car pooled today and she will never know that I managed to shop without her knowledge. Then I can surprise her. I love doing the sneaky surprise thing. It makes it so much more fun. I'm thinking jewelry of some kind. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Oookay, That Was Weird.....

One of the contractors doing some work in my area just weirded me out. I was talking to him and his partner about what they needed to accomplish and he reached out and cupped my chin in his hand. He smiled, slid his hand slowly down to the end of my chin and pinched it. Then he said, "Gettin a little gray there, eh?" Then we winked at me.

I stepped back stunned. I said, "Do I know you?" He said no. So I told him if wants to keep his fingers in good condition he won't do that again to me.

Fucktard just chuckled and went back to work.

Yuck.

Invasion Of Baltimore

Lisa and I invaded Baltimore yesterday. She had a bad tire on her BMW and decided it was time for a whole new set. So I recommended the dealership where I had service work done. They were awesome for me. So we took off the whole day expecting to hang together, do some shopping (remember I'm with Lisa here) and get some good lunch. The plan was to be home early afternoon after a pretty fun day together.

That was the plan.

We got to the dealership early. Before 8:00 a.m. Checked in and all that. Got them to look at a window that was starting to have troubles going up and down smoothly. Got the loaner car and headed to Starbuck's. We hung at Starbuck's for a while. Morning coffee and a munchie there is fun. There were a couple of women there chatting together that looked like fashion models. One of them was talking about her seperation and upcoming divorce. When I looked at her I thought, "Geez! What does the guy have going for him to give up such a beautiful woman?" She was stunning. I think I'd allow her to beat me daily if she was with me. I wouldn't even mind a little bit. :)

But anyway, we left Starbuck's and hit the Mall. Shopping with Lisa is an experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't been with a professional shopper. She tries on about 87 things per store. Then she goes to the next store and tries on another 87 things. We keep going until she is tired of it then she goes back and gets the stuff she wants. She always remembers what it was, where it was and where the best price was. Impressive.

The good part for me is that I get to check her out modeling all the stuff.

So we finally realized that it was 11:40. 40 minutes after we were supposed to get a call from the service guy to update us on her car's progress. Lisa calls them and I immediately see something is amiss. Turns out they didn't have the tires for her car. As she talked with them she got hotter and hotter. I was with her when she made the arrangements. She called for the appointment, had them transfer her to the parts department to verify that they had the tires, and then verified with the service guy again that she would be in yesterday. She did all that last Friday. Now they didn't have the tires.

These guys didn't realize that it's not a good idea to piss Lisa off.

So we left right away and went back to the dealer. The conversation got pretty heated. She had done all the things she needed to do and they still had screwed her around. But they promised to have the right tires asap, no later than 3:00. I asked how long it take to put them on. They said 2 hours. Huh? They mount and balance them and then road test the car to be sure they are on right. That meant we would be stranded there for the whole day now. So I suggested, rather strongly, that they should just take the tires from a car on the lot. Then replace them once their screw-up tires got in. They wouldn't do that. Naturally. Because it was our fault.

The whole time they kept insuinating that the whole mess was Lisa's fault. That she should have paid for the service before coming so they would have held the tires. I asked them if they really were serious. If they had lost their freakin minds saying something like that. They were serious. So I asked them if all their customers were supposed to do inventory control for them. I also reminde them of the time 2 summers ago that I made an appointment for exactly the same thing and just came in without incident. Never paid in advance.

Silence.

So we decide to get some lunch. Try to ease off the frustration. We went to this sushi place one of the dealerships receptionists recommended. We knew it might be trouble when we walk in and there are about 25 kids running around unsupervised. They were screaming and playing and one of them was beating on this big ass drum in the lobby. All unsupervised. No parents. They were all having hibachi and saki.

We waited for a long time and then walked into the dining area. Finally someone noticed us and seated us. Then she took our drink order and said someone would be right with us. After about 10 minutes we decided their sense of time wasn't quite like ours. When someone else came to see us she hardly spoke english and kept asking for our drink order. We told her that the other girl had taken the order. She said that girl won't get the drinks and that she had to. So I asked her if that kid would be banging on the drum the whole time we were there. She looked at me, looked toward the screaming, banging kid(s) and then said, "Wat chu want for drink?" So we told her to forget it and left.

We did manage to find another decent sushi place close by and had lunch. Not much to say about that one. It was average but uneventful.

We go back to the dealership and Lisa decided we should just go shop elsewhere until they update us. I agreed but wanted an update first. She didn't want to go back in but we did. They hadn't updated us earlier as promised so I wasn't confident that they ever would. When I finally tracked down the service guy he had more bad news. The tires wouldn't be arriving until 5:00 now. That meant we might be heading home after 7:00. Maybe.

I wanted to know if he was ever going to let us know stuff like that. Did he know what a phone was?

Lisa was more annoyed now. She asked if they had checked the window yet. Nope. They were just starting on it. She said "No they aren't. Get me my car." Service guy tried to talk he rout of it by saying he would finish the car tomorrow and deliver it to her but that was the wrong thing to do. She said, "Yeah right. I'm going to let someone from here drive my car that far, dogging it all the way. No, get me my car now!" (She lives about 52 miles away.)

Finally they get the car and we start to leave. They are still totally unapologetic. The service guy is like, "Your fault. Too bad for you." Big jerk-off. We then head to another dealer where they bend over backwards to help. The difference was like night and day. They didn't have a loaner car when we got there but they got us one. They had the tires and they set them aside to be done this morning. They were very nice, professional and concerned that they could help. Totally different from the place that, unfortunately, I had recommended.

Now Lisa has to trek back down the road this afternoon to pick up her car. The one that was supposed to be done early yesterday.

It's sad really. That we not only have to make appointments for service but now we have to make sure the dealerships have good inventory control too. It would never have occurred to me to make sure the parts needed were there. But Lisa made sure. It still didn't work out. Thats what makes the whole day even more frustrating. She covered her bases and they let her down. Then told her it was her fault.

At least we got to hang together all day and we weren't at work. :)

Monday, June 04, 2007

Blah Bliggety Blah

Weekend recap: It was quiet, a little lame and pretty OK. Thats about it.

I almost checked in on the blog world yesterday. That would be weird of me. The thing is, I got away from blogging on the weekends a while ago. I really don't know why either. It just happened. Yesterday I almost checked in.

Maybe its a trend. Maybe next weekend I'll even post a blurb.

The Yanks beat the sux twice this weekend. Should have been a sweep. But naturally they couldn't hold the lead, 3 times, in the second game. More and more this years team reminds me of the teams of the 80's. All kinds of potential but they just don't gel. Plus the pitching isn't up to par. But with all the injuries piling up I'm not so sure you can expect much more of them. *sigh*

I didn't think too much of the Yanks teams in the 80's but I sure did like life then. The 80's were the best, weren't they? Talk about fun. Plus the music was the best. Not like today. I miss those days. Life was less easy but it was much more fun. Always an adventure.

I really don't feel like posting today, as this boring post shows. I think I'll stop now and check out youse guys' stuff. Maybe after the coffee kicks in I'll be able to think better.

I'll get back to ya...........

Friday, June 01, 2007

Posers And Fat-Asses

Sometimes on the ride home I get behind this guy driving a newer Mustang GT convertible. He is quite possibly the slowest driver on the face of the planet. The road home is a cool semi-twisty two lane road that a car like that can handle with ease. Not just handle, but be very fun to drive. But nooooo, this dope drives like hes about 95 years old with bad eyesight and no where to go. He is a poser.

Posers like that should be driving old people cars. Not wasting the nicer sporty cars on their poser selves. He should have a big old 4 door Lincoln or something. One that you expect to be a slow-ass traffic blocker. Then it would seem a little better. That poor Mustang is probably so frustrated seeing that windy, fun road but not being allowed to run it like it was built to run.

There are lots of posers in the world. The ones who get the cool, sporty cars just for the look are just one example. Someday I hope to be someplace with that guy at the same time so I can tell him he needs to sell the Mustang and get a car more suited to his old man self.

I wanted to call in again today. It's like, once I started thinking about calling in a few weeks ago, it just won't leave my brain. Not that I have time to waste here at work. Not that I have anything special to do with a day off. Its just that I have the idea in my head and it won't quit. Maybe it will happen soon. Then I'll spend the day off feeling guilty about it. lol

Lisa isn't here today. Yesterday she had the same feeling about calling in. Maybe she did it. That means I can leave early for a little wine tasting before going home. Whee! (Unless she really is sick in which case it would suck for her.)

Jersey Girl is going to help me write my yearly evaluation today. She's really good at writing up stuff like that. She has her Masters in her field and really knows a thing or 3 about how to present things well. I never needed help with these things but if she is into it (and I get to hang with her for a while) I don't mind. Maybe the right word here and there will mean a few more pennies later? Hopefully.

Its been a shortened week but it sure feels like a long one. I can't wait for the day to end.

Nicci and I went to WalMart for some stuff last night after work. I've decided that I should start one of those "Lose Weight Fast" programs. People would lose weight easily if I'd just sign them up to walk through WalMart 2-3 times a week. Its very scary in there. Either all the big fat chunks in the area shop at WalMart exclusively or it is true about how Americans are getting too fat. Even young kids are way too heavy at WalMart. Made me even more determined to keep the weight off.

I shudder to think of what it must be like at Kmart.

My old friend G wrote the coolest song about how fat girls dress sexy. We were at a club watching a band (as always) and there were these two really heavy girls dancing right in front of our table. One had all spandex on. The worst part was the top only barely covered her giant boobs. Her belly hung way out and over the tight spandex pants. When I nudged G he picked up his glasses and looked at her, quickly threw them down again and screamed loudly. It was hilarious. Then he wrote a song about how fat girls always seem to dress sexy. We played that one in the band for a while. :)

Sorry, got a little sidetracked there.

I guess I'm not really politically correct, am I? I forgot that it's not "fat". It's "Heavy" or "Big" or Large". Silly me. Those terms are much better I suppose. They help the fat-asses forget that they really are fat-asses and then they can feel better about themselves. I guess I'm just one of those meanies who prefer to call an apple an apple. :)

'Cause you know, sometimes an apple is just an apple. Nothing else.