I'm (Not) Your Boogie Man

I heard a K.C. and the Sunshine Band song yesterday. Remember them? It was the one where he repeats the line "I'm your boogie man, thats what I am...." about a thousand times. It made me laugh. Not just because I remember how people loved that crappy disco music, even though that still amazes me. It made me laugh because I started wondering how a boogie got to be a good thing? Aren't boogies nasty things?

When I was a kid calling someone a boogie eater was the ultimate insult. Being a boogie head was bad too. But that era, and probably still these days, dancing is boogying. (Is that spelled right???) Walking really fast is called boogying. Maybe other things are called boogying too. But to me, a boogie is something I don't care for.

Some things make me wonder.

There is a guy at work we call the boogyman. Nicci and I saw him in the grocery store a couple years ago. He stood right in the aisle and picked his nose and ate it. We were both really grossed out. To this day we call him the boogyman. He is a high level person here too. makes me smile every time I see him. But I never shake his hand.

Speaking of which, I went into the restroom yesterday to wash my hands. There was a guy there doing his thing and when he was done he turned around, said hello and walked out. No hand washing. That grossed me out too. He is another one I'll never shake hands with.

How did shaking hands become a thing anyway? Most of the time I avoid it. I think it's a weird thing to do. Especially when you know some guys shake hands with their privates and then don't wash up. No thanks.

So today will be an easy one. I'll be helping with physical work all day. I love days like that. The time flies by and I feel like something was accomplished. I think today has all the makings of a good one. Assuming of course that nothing breaks down.

Meritt posted something about the state fair she visited recently. (Click here to see the amazing statue she photographed. lol)It was a scary sight to me. Plus it reminded me of the first time I went to the fair here. I was all ready for some cool rides and some good food. Thats what I always called a fair where I'm from. Well, the food was great. The rides were scarce. The smell was the biggest thing there. That and all the goobers running around with their pigs and goats and cows.

I just stood many times staring at them in wonder. How does someone get so psyched about a snotty nosed, stinky assed cow? But they do. They even had 'prized chickens' there. I didn't get it. Prized chickens belong in KFC, not in a fair. Cows belong hidden away from view until they are ready for grilling. Goats? I dunno what the heck they are for. And pigs? I think hot dogs come from them so I won't say too much. Just keep them on a stinky farm way fro civilization please.

I guess I just don't get it. What do you think?

LOL

Time for coffee. Have a beauty day.

Quote Of The Day

*This quote is from a man of middle eastern descent. You have to imagine the accent.*



"That is what a suicide hotline is for? You would never see that in my country. They just let them do it and decrease the burden on regular society."





Guess I don't disagree with everything from the middle east. :)

Old Friends

It’s a morning for catching up with old friends. I managed to catch Peachy on chat today. It’s been forever. It was sweet! I also replied to my sweetie Rene’s email this morning. That is an amazing feat for me to accomplish. Emailing someone that is.

As a result of doing that email I managed to stop being a lazy ass and searched through a few dozen emails to find my high school friends email addresses. Then I added them to contacts. Now I really have no excuse for not emailing.

That may be bad since I suck at emailing regularly. One would think I’d be better since it is so easy. Have I mentioned how much I suck at emailing regularly? For no real reason? Yeah, I know………… Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence…………..

So I see a Yankee icon has left us. Scooter Rizzuto passed away Tuesday. He sure will be missed.





Maybe some day we'll see him again, playing on that Baseball diamond in the old corn field. Kevin Costner needs to get that thing built.

I hate to see the Yankee greats pass away. There just aren't many like that around anymore. With the exception of Jeter and Mo and Posada (and I include Bernie Williams in there) players like Rizutto and Dimaggio and Mantle are a thing of the past. It's sad really.

Plus, the guys from Rizutto's era weren't prima-donnas either.

Enough of that.

I'm feeling a little more like myself againg these past 2 days. The aftermath of the past week or 2 has gone by. I actually played Tennis well last night. So this morning feels OK so far. But I am headed to my first meeting so we'll see how it goes afterward. Be back soon.

Monday The 13th

I never believed in Friday the 13th stuff. I always have a great time on Friday the 13th. But I do believe in Monday the 13th. That is the true scary day.

I won't go into detail about my Monday the 13th horrors. Let's just leave it at this, I just finished up my Monday about 15 minutes ago.

I have been a bad blogger again this past week. I have tons of excuses but none that anyone wants to hear about. So forget about it and let's move on.

WalMart is a retard factory. I believe I have mentioned this before. Not only do the scariest people in the community shop there but they only hire retards and assholes to work there. The don't even have the courtesy to hire someone nice enough looking to take the edge off of their ineptitude and rudeness. They are ugly, annoying and stupid.

I was there for a quick stop yesterday. Had to get a few things and was in no mood for the place. Naturally the loser squad was on duty since I was in a hurry. I get to the entrance and the greeter smiled at me, all 3 teeth glinting yellow in the mood lighting I started by him and he tried to shake my hand. I was thinking "WTF?" He was an old guy who looked like he was homeless. I wasn't shaking his anything so I proceeded to walk on by. Then he starts talking to me, calling me Billy and asking me how I've been. So I stop and as nicely as I can manage I tell him he has the wrong person.

That didn't work out. He then starts talking about how he has known me all my life and how he misses visiting my family. He said the ones who live near D.C. he has lost touch with. *For the record - I have no relatives in D.C.* He then tells me he was best friends with my Dad but hasn't seen him in months. So I tell him that would be hard since my Dad has been dead since 1978. He then tells me I am wrong because he just talked with him this year and he looked healthy then. So I reiterate, "You have me mixed up with someone else. I have to go. I'm in a hurry."

That didn't work out. He just started telling me how he and my Dad were best friends for years and yada...yada.... So I interrupt him and politely say "YOU DO NOT KNOW ME!" NOW STOP BUGGING ME! And by the way, anyone named Billy has to be a fag so stop calling me that too."

He seemed shocked. But as I walked away I felt much better.

Then the stupid people in the aisles.... oy. How come people think it is OK to let their carts sit in the middle of the walkways while they walk halfway down the aisle shopping? A lot of those carts have screaming, snotty nosed, grimy kids hanging half out of them too. Not only do I not appreciate having to walk around their fat asses but I also have to squeeze past their loaded grocery carts with annoying germ infested brats hanging out breathing in my direction and some of them trying to grab me. Its better than the ones whose kids are running wild throught the store I guess. The ones grabbing one of everything and screaming "Mom! I HAVE to have this!" Those people need to leave those brats at home in their cages and keep them away from the human.

Next is the checkout girl. At first glance I thought I was out of the woods here. She was a young girl, cute and pleasant. But totally not into working at WalMarts. Yes, she said WalMarts. She also took her sweet old time with everything. She would take one item, look it over carefully and then scan it. Every item seemed to hold some fascination for her. It required a thorough inspection before being rung up. I only had 5 things but her way of doing things made me wonder. How long would I be there if I had done some serious shopping? A half day maybe? Then after the last thing was scanned she pretended I wasn't there anymore. She just stopped and started messing with her nails, not even looking at me, just looking at her nails. Leaned back against the register, looking down, fiddling with her nails, pretending that she was somewhere else. I swiped my card and had to try to get her attention twice before she finally looked up at me, looked at her screen and then with an impatient flourish, she hit the button that acknowledged my card.

Naturally I had to wait forever for the receipt. As I walked away she looked the opposite way and mumbled "Thanks for shopping at WalMarts."

It's never a smooth thing going there for anything. The retards are everywhere. But we all go there for the prices, eh? Yes, grocery shopping at WalMart is the new in-thing. It does save you money plus it gives some good blog material. I just have to wonder where they find the people they employ though.

Maybe KMart?

Still Here

It's been a hectic week here in YB land. Sorry for the silence Meritt. No, we haven't been drawn into the ex's mess. We know little since the boys involved aren't allowed to speak to anyone about it. Not even to each other and they live in the same house. lol The recurring theme is simply confusion. No one seems to know why this happened.

So I've been playing by myself for a few days. Keeping out of the drama. I hate drama anyway. I am a lucky one in that drama usually stays away from me. This is sorta on the periphery and I've managed to just keep moving along without too much involvement. Nicci is stressed but she is getting better.

The weekend was actually a good one. Mostly because no one bugged me a lot. This work week will be another rough one. Last week was the worst one scheduled yet so maybe this week will seem like an improvement. We'll see. But I just got a call about a problem so I already have to run. I will try to be back sometime today.

Wasted Weekend

I know that with a title like that one anyone reading is expecting some kind of wild stories about a partying weekend. Sorry to disappoint you. I really mean that the weekend was a waste. Nicci insisted in doing a house project and it took the whole weekend to finish. It was worse than being at work. So I feel like I had no weekend.

Her insistance also led to an epic fight. That was kind of a highlight though. It lasted well over an hour and a half Saturday morning and the aftermath never left us. The thing about fighting with me is this, I end up liking the fight. When I see someone is pissed and they have pissed me off good, I have the unique ability to enjoy making them even more pissed. I can escalate the thing to amazing proportions and enjoy it immensely. Thats where we ended up Saturday morning.

I am an ass at times. So be warned, don't piss me off. I return the favor ten-fold.

And the angrier you get the better I feel about it.

At least Saturday evening wasn't so bad. Some friends had a cook-out and we quit long enough to go. Got to see everyone, had some great food. It was nice. Fresh Tuna steaks, marinated and grilled are awesome. One guy had just gotten back from ocean fishing and brought giant amounts of Tuna he had caught. Done properly on the grill they were amazing.

So here I am on Monday morning staring at a week of annoyances. Already had to fix 2 major problems with the main equipment. It has cost us 12 hours in our weekly schedule that we don't have. Nice.

I'm almost guaranteed to be taking a day off this week. Work has become too hard to miss out on a weekend. Lisa's birthday is tomorrow and we will be doing something together. Maybe Wednesday I will blow off a day.

So I'm hoping that someone out there has a cool post for me to see this morning. I need a good smile to get me going. Heck, I haven't even had coffee yet and it's almost 9:00! See how this week has started?

Yeah, it's just like that. Blah!

Can I Get A Witness?

I remember when Oldsmobile was something to be proud of. Now it’s gone. I think it’s sad. I’ve been thinking this since Wednesday night. I was driving home after dinner with JG, music blaring some great 80’s tunes, feeling a little melancholy anyway thanks to the memories the music brings. Then I saw an Oldsmobile in front of me. I smiled. It wasn’t an old one. It was just an Olds. It made me think of how sad it is when things end.

I had an Olds. It was and still is the favorite car I have ever had. It was a 1978 Olds Delta 88. Big ass car, big ass engine, lots of fun to drive around. Total luxury and power and sucky gas mileage. But I adored it.

I would take it to the beach almost weekly. Alone or with friends, it didn’t matter. Most of the time in the evenings I would grab a 6-pack and sit on the hood of “The Old Girl” (her nickname) and watch the sunset. Most of those times I ended up sleeping there.

My friends would always call me and ask to borrow that car. Trips and shopping, whatever. It could hold a ton of stuff and still be comfortable. Plus it was safe. No one hitting that car would survive. But you might feel a little bump and maybe have to stop to see what happened. Lol

Now there are no more Oldsmobiles being made. Too bad. I think it is a bad reflection on the modern society that we can be so greedy that we destroy things like our car industry (ie: unions suck). But I don’t feel like going there right now so………..

The music that night was great. I heard old Journey, Springsteen, The Cult, Tom Petty, Grand Funk Railroad, The Scorpions, Def Leppard and a few more I probably forgot about. Almost every song brought back a specific memory or instance from the past. It was great.

I think it’s cool that we have to ability to reflect on our past sometimes. Songs can be triggers to moments we may have forgotten about. The GFR song that came on was Some Kind Of Wonderful. It reminded me of a time when some friends and I thought we’d start a band. The problem was that none of us ever played any instruments. I had 1 year of Viola lessons at that point but that was it. So we chose songs we could work on that hid stuff like not playing instruments. That song basically is singing with a Bass background. All I can say was that it was a good thing we couldn’t play instruments. We butchered the song pretty well without them. Who knows how bad it would have been adding more to it. Lol

But when I hears the song it took me right back to that nasty old broken down garage where we talked each other into believing we were going to be rock-n-roll superheroes. It was fun thinking about it.

EBay Is Dead

EBay is dead.

I just realized that I haven't checked out EBay for a few months now. I used to look it over daily. Now it's looking sad. Most of the vendors I watched have sent emails saying that EBay is unfair and it sucks. They closed their pages on the EBay site too. So they have their own sites now. But I don't feel like looking over several websites for junk. I like my junk to all come from the same place.

So EBay is dead and so are the vendors that leave EBay.

Today has been harsh. Very busy and chock full of issues. None of which I ever wanted to address in my lifetime. Mostly I expect to have a smooth, easy life. Forever. So hanging around here isn't something I ever wanted. I can't wait until my lottery tickets finally win. Then I can just kick back and laugh at these days.

I wonder how many references to winning the lottery are on blogs? Any blog. Bet there are a few.

I'll be leaving here shortly with Jersey Girl. We are headed to the Mediterranean Grill for some food and wine. She's fun to hang with and we have earned the trip. It hould be a fun dinner. Mostly I'm really into leaving a little early. lol (BTW, black satin matching set in case you were wondering.)

Today I was missing the old days of blogger again. It's just not the same anymore. Quyen left me a comment recently and it made my day. I thought she had quit long ago. It was good to hear from her. I miss the mornings with YoJ chats and the HNTs and the dozen comments per post. *sigh

Ok, time for Vino. Wish me luck. :)

Talk Is Cheap

I am getting really tired of 'corporate speak' or whatever they want to call it these days. The terms and catch phrases the management use bug me. I think most of that crap is made up so they actually sound more intelligent than they are. Then they can talk to their boss(es) and sound like they are being effective and really know what they are doing. Mostly they are just pushing the talented people around them hard enough to make themselves look effective.

I am sick of hearing about "thinking outside the box" and "taking ownership" and "Value Added". WTF does "Let's Interface" have to do with anything? And anyone "Touching My Base" will get a smack in the head. (Unless it's a case of sexual harrassment that I would like to happen.) Complaints that employees are not "being proactive" suck too. Mostly management really means that they have someone to blame for not thinking ahead for them when they throw that one around. How about this one, "problem space". It's a problem dorks! Not a space. And I still dont get the term "Robusticity". I think thats is a made up word.

I just want to work around people who speak english. lol

OK, got that off my chest. Thanks.

Not everyone is like that. I like the people who go about their business and get things done without trying to be more than they are. Those are the valuable employees. I get wary of people who like the flashy terms and mumbo-jumbo talk. Those are warning flags for me.

So these days have been flying by me. The around-the-clock schedule has been a bitch. More so for the operators. But it has made days just run together.

Nicci and I have been hitting the Tennis courts every day now. It's a good stress relief. Last night we had a little extra fun playing. We got a bunch of new tennis balls and when one of the old ones got mixed into the game somehow we would see who could be the first to hit it way out of the court. We planned on leaving all the old ones there wherever they landed. People with dogs love to get the old ones. What is strange about last night is that normally when a ball goes over the fence people will just walk by and not help you out by throwing it back in the court. Not so yesterday. Several people came by and threw the balls back in to us. It got ridiculous. We hit 6 out and got 4 returned. Usually we have to go run for them ourselves. Of course last night we didn't want them back. Go figure. I guess it was 'nice people walking through the park' day.

Unfortunately the work schedule has left me with precious little blog material. Just what is in my head. So lately this blog is lame-o. Soon I hope to be social and start living again. Then I can tell you all about the weird people and strange observations I usually have here. I'd love to talk about the Yanks too but I am too superstitous. When I talk about a game they lose the next one. So I won't do that until they win the Series. Then I'll mention them again. ;)

Like my title there says, I'm feeling cheap right now. So, see you later.

Assessing My Mental Health

I took a mental health day today. I put in for it Wednesday and on Thursday I knew I was going to need it. I did.

Now I'm trying to assess my mental health. It still seems a little loose. lol

But the day has been awesome. No one bugging me. No hassles from so-called superiors. No dorks making me worry for the human race. Alone with myself. Well, almost. Me and a nice Margarita. Nothing like a Cuervo Gold Margarita made just right. Ummmmm....

So I was wondering something. Why do people leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put their useless junk in the garage?


Have you ever wondered that? Around here you see it in every other house. The garage opens and there is no room in there for a car. One guy on our street has 3 cars and none go into the garage.

Personally I think that is mental.

I also wanna know why a Doctor calls what he does "practice". If he's practicing, I don't want him touching me. Get good, then call me.

I also wonder why I wonder about some things. :)

So soon I will be reunited with some high school buds. Maybe as soon as next weekend (or was it the weekend after that?). But the big reunion (all 5 of us) is happening later in August. I am kinda psyched about it. There have been a few emails passed back and forth about it so I know it's for real.

I stink at keeping up with people via email and other means but I am making an effort this time around. Considering that email is so simple you gotta wonder about a guy like me. But thats me.

I think the weekend will be odd. Nothing but free time. Those are dangerous times to be around Nicci. Usually she comes up with some annoying project to do. But this week she has been talking about getting a BMW again. Even surfing the net looking for one. Maybe we will finally get rid of that stinky old Scion and get the Beamer back. Well, not the Beamer. Another Beamer. You know what I mean. That would be a good project. Ler's wait and see, shall we? OK.

Well, gotta go now. My girls are waiting for me. You know, my WoW girls. They get impatient waiting so I gotta run. I'm feelin the love. lol

Great weekend to all. Who knows? Maybe I'll even blog over the weekend. Stranger things have happened. I'm here this evening so I guess you never know.

Super Premium Post

I just don't know the difference between Premium and Super Premium stuff. Anyone out there able to explain to me what the difference is? Maybe I don't even know what the difference between Premium and Regular stuff is. The ice cream place near us has "Super Premium" ice cream. Its good stuff but it doesn't seem any different than other ice cream. The sugar container beside my coffee pot at work is "Premium Sugar". The stuff I have at home is the same but it doesn't say it is Premium.

I guess modern advertising doesn't work on me. To me, if something says "Super Premium" I expect to notice a difference. Otherwise it just means "More Expensive".

I've noticed more and more station wagons on the road lately. Not just normal, every-day station wagons either. Mercedes and BMW wagons. This morning I saw a SAAB Station Wagon. Those cars can't be inexpensive. I'm not real sure why someone would spend so much on a station wagon. That normally will mean kids are in the thing. We all know what kids do to a car. If I had that kind of money I'd wait until the kids were older and then spend it on a nice car, not waste it on something for them to destroy.

I remember when I was a kid there were station wagons everywhere. It was very common. I guess the mini-van has replaced all those. Too bad too. I remember one of my friends parents had this huge Chevy wagon. It was white with wood grain on the sides. In the back there was this seat that folded down so it was out of the way when not needed but when it was upright it faced out the back window. We always begged and begged for the parents to lift that seat up so we could ride looking out the back. It was the coolest thing ever.

I remember the day my Dad found the wagon he wanted. He wasn't a fan of big cars and one day he found this 1967 Mercury Comet Station Wagon. It was baby blue with wood grain on the sides. It was considered a mid-size car I guess. But he absolutely loved that car. Talk about something making someone happy! It was funny for a while how he would keep suggesting we take a ride for no real reason. We did take a lot of rides that year.

It had this weird quirk too. The front passenger door sort of stuck half way when you opened it. It would get to a point, then stop and you would have to bump it a little and it would make this loud pop sound and open all the way. My Dad swore he'd never fix it. "Gives it something unique" he would always say. "No one elses car sounds like that." lol

After he was killed I remember feeling bad that the car went to someone else. He probably would have kept that thing forever. Then a few years later my friends and I were running around just outside of town when we came across an abandoned car that looked just like my Dad's old car. I was sure it was his so I tested the passenger side door. It was the car. The thing was sitting there all rusted and unkept. It brought tears to my eyes. Funny how that stuff happens, eh? If I knew where that thing was today I'd buy it and get it back into good shape.

Speaking of mini-vans, I saw one this morning that had lightening style racing stripes all along the sides. Why? It had all the mini-van stuff on it too. The shades on the windows where the baby sits, the baby-on-board yellow window thing, the bumper stickers about how their elemtary school kid was doing. But it had big old lightening stripes all over it. There's someone who's not quite buying into their lifestyle. Thats the impression I got.

Today I feel very introspective. The days are running together now and I'm feeling like I'm not going to put up with it much longer. I'm redoing my resume and will be sending it around everywhere. I think if I finally win the lottery I will build a Rita's near my house and just run that until I am too old. Then I won't have to deal with psychos like we have inherited at work this past 2 months. Besides, free Rita's every day sounds good.

And yes, I would make mine for free. RHIP you know. :)

Time to run.

Biting The Weiner Of Death

There is this sign above the urinals in the restroom that says "Lean = Less Waste". I'm thinking it's someone's weird sense of humor that made them post it in that particular location. I could see me doing that.

The weekend was pretty cool. We are up to about 2-2.5 hours of Tennis every morning now. I'm at the stage where I don't get tired any more. Just like the old days. OK, maybe just similar to the old days. No way I have the stamina I did when I was playing daily. Nicci and I have been playing on Wednesday evenings too but we've decided to start playing on Tuedsay and Thursday evening now instead of just Wednesdays. Maybe in a few months I'll start getting into some decent physical shape again.

I went to a baby shower yesterday. That was a first for me. Never been to one. But Nicci was there and she called and told me that most of the guys were there too, hanging out together. So I went. Out of curiousity I checked out the women stuff while I was there.

One conclusion I came to was that the goofy games they play have to be unique to those occasions. No way a regular party would ever see that happening. Women can not sit around playing guessing games the and clothes pins game at a regular party. Can they?

I also got a smile when the pregnant girl mentioned that she had forgotten her engagement ring at home. Then she corrected herself and said "Oops! I forgot, I don't have a ring." The father of the kid on the way just rolled his eyes. Different perspectives there, eh?

Jersey Girl is back from vacation. It was a quiet week without her here last week. Funny how you don't know when you'll miss someone until they aren't around. Then it's obvious (and sometimes too late).

Harry Potter.

I had to add that here just because the whole world around me is all about Harry Potter. Personally, had he gotten a decent name I might have read one of the books. But who wants to read about a guy named Harry? How can you take a guy named Harry seriously as a hero?

I felt KB cringe just now. lol

This post started being written first thing this morning. About 6:45 a.m. It is now 1:47 and its not done. Thats how my day has been. Someone out there find me a new job please. This one has started biting the weiner of death.

I was wondering something; how did the restroom start being called "The John"? I understand the can, the pisser, the pee house. All those. But the John? If my name were John I'd be a little upset about that.

OK, time to fix another problem. Hope everyone else is doing better than I am these days.

C'Ya!

Today Is The First Day......

....of the rest of your life. Ever heard that one? It's an oldie but a goodie. It's in my mind for a reason. Yesterday my boss told me that his boss warned him to "learn as much from ***(Persons name)*** about what they know and do it as fast as possible. Like, tomorrow."

In other words, squeeze all the info possible out of him today so they can fire him.

This is not knowledge I want nor need. So I am now stressed because the guy is a genuinely decent guy with family. He isn't right for his current position but still, all I can think of is his future. I wish I didn't know about it.

This morning I am meeting with him to get some info that I need should he not be here again. I do not look forward to it.

Other than that things are peachy. *sigh*

I did manage to find some Yoo Hoo last night. I have a craving for Yoo Hoo lately. So I brought a six pack in. I also have the craving for PB&J again but no luck this morning with the lunch room machines. They say ("They" is Terra btw, as I found out recently) that cravings only really last about 90 seconds. I think maybe They (not Terra of course, who is never wrong) is wrong this time. Once I crave a PB&J it sticks with me until I take care of it. Like a Big Mac attack. When it hits you have no choice but to get a Big Mac. It will ruin you for days until you do.

So how many have Big Mac attacks right now? Your welcome. ;)

A good friend asked me recently to come and help him finish some drywall and then painting. Normally I don't mind helping anyone with things. Especially good friends. The thing is, the one thing I hate most in the world to do is painting. It sucks! I can paint pictures all day long. Painting and trimming and all that just bites ass. So I'm stuck. I guess I'll help him out. The funny thing is his wife keeps telling me not to help. She is pissed because he wasted several weeks getting the project started and now when he has a deadline he is pushing to try and get it done. (They have a thing on Sunday.) I think it's funny the different views between men and women. lol

Lisa just made me think of something from my childhood. She mentioned butterscotch. I really don't care for butterscotch. I remember when I was a kid we rarely got candy of any kind. But at holidays the old folks would bring bags of candy and there was always butterscotch candies mixed in. They stayed there until the bitter end. And then after being desperate for some sweets, I would go ahead and suck on the butterscotch candy just because it was the last candy to be had. I hated almost every minute of it but it was candy. Isn't that hilarious? Kids!

These days it's still Smarties for me.

Ok, time to go have my meeting with the short-timer. Everyone wish him luck. I sure will be.

A Minor Annoyance

I have been noticing people here saying this a lot just before asking a question: "I have just a quick question...." or "Quick question....." or "Can I ask a quick question..." Then they ask a question.

Usually there is nothing quick about it either.

WTF does that mean anyway? How did it become so common? If someone is going to ask a question then they should just ask it. Why ask a question to ask a question? Plus, if they claim it's going to be quick, they should stop lying and make it quick. By the time they ask if they can ask the quick question they could have asked it and gotten started on a response. That would be quicker.

Get it?

"A quick question..." pffft!

Today

This morning I noticed something about myself. I am amused by any type of face a person has. If someone walks by me and is smiling I think thats pretty OK. If someone is frowning I am amused at them. In other words, I think it's Ok if someone is happy or sad as long as it makes me laugh. And it always does. No matter what I don't mind laughing at someone or with someone. I do both all the time. Every face is different and they all amuse me. If you are having a good day I am right there with you. If you are having a bad day I feel nothing but satisfaction somehow. Is that sociopathic? Maybe?

Whatever.

I noticed over the weekend that there are handicapped parking spaces at this State Park I like to go to. That may not sound like a big deal but the thing is the spaces are only beside this trail that winds up into the mountain. It is a 1.5 mile hike to some rocks overlooking a valley. The beginning of the trail warns you that the first .7 mile is all steep uphill.

So why are there handicapped parking spaces there? Unless there are now 4 wheel drive wheel chairs it is pretty much a waste. Actually none of the park is handicapped accessible. But they have those spaces anyway. I think the park planners are handicapped in the head.

Work really sucks lately. (Yes, I feel like bitching.) It was fun until the past month or so. We are literally working round the clock, 7 days a week. I sometimes have to actually look at a calendar to see what day it is. It's a weird thing to know what the number of the day is but not what spot in the week it is. This schedule will continue until early October. I wonder how many of us will break by then? I've been missing appointments and forgetting dates of pre-planned events. This is no way to spend a Summer.

And my darn Lotto tickets were broken again. Someday they won't be and then lookout, the world will be in trouble when I am free and turned loose to do whatever I want to. LOL

Until then, we'll survive somehow.

Not much else to say so far today. Uhmmm..... see ya?

PB and J For Breakfast

Have you ever had a craving that you just knew you couldn't fulfill right away? I did this morning. I really wanted a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. I love those. So I went to check out the machine in the cafeteria, just for the shits and grins (as Austin Powers would say) and there was one there! I was shocked. Plus the machine had been filled yesterday afternoon so the sandwich was pretty fresh. It was awesome! Talk about a good start to the day. :)

Normally I will make my own. I am picky about the jelly. Has to be Grape Welch's or Smucker's. No other. I don't care what PB it is. They are all the same to me. Usually I will get Peter Pan just because the label is cuter. Thats my whole manner of shopping. Whatever is cuter on the label. lol

So the day has started good. PB & J & Starbuck's. It's probably all down hill from here but right now I don't care.

Yesterday was such a long day. The work schedule was brutal. I woke up today thinking it had to be Thursday but then I remembered that just one day had passed. Thats when I realized just how long a day it had been. Those types of days wreck a week. Maybe I'll have to try and skip out on Friday. Yeah, thats the ticket. Friday off. Gotta work on that.

Our old lady neighbor, Old Sexy, was out again yesterday in her underwear. That is so funny. I will have to get a better pic of her so everyone knows what I am talking about. I posted one last Summer but it was a sneaky one from my phone. Wasn't real good. I'll get a better one soon. C'mon! I know you are all anxious to see a 93 year old woman walking around the yard in her lingere. Isn't everyone interested in stuff like that?

She's a strange old bird too. She comes out in her lingere with tree trimmers and butchers a side of one of her bushes/trees/shrubs. Whatever they are back there. Then she lets the stuff lay for a few days. Then she cleans it up and repeats the process. The shrubs are shrinking more and more. Plus, they are totally uneven and look funny. But I think its her new hobby. Butchering shrubs and trees. At that age any hobby is a good one, eh?

I have another craving lately. I feel like watching While You Were Sleeping. I know I haven't spoken about my one true love, Sandra Bullock, in a while. Not since she married beneath herself (in my opinion which doesn't count for anything). But I am missing her lately. I may have to break down and watch the movie again. Or maybe it's because her birthday is almost here again that it is coming to mind. Whatever the reason is, I have to admit that Sandy is still my fave.

*sigh*



Today is starting out OK. I'm not even scared yet. Wish me luck with the rest of the day.

Thanks.

Right back atcha. :)

Just Stopping By.....

Again, the new schedule at work won't allow me any play time on blogger. Imagine that! I do need to start again from home. Be back as soon as I can. xoxo

Blogging From Home

Hello blogger world. Here I am blogging from home. It's rare that I take time to blog from here but the internet at work has been miserable for two days. No blogs would load, so I couldn't even post. I'm not sure why the internet at work is so bad but it sure is.

So, for two days I've been blogger blind. I'm going to have to try and catch up with everyone.

The work thing has been crazy. WE are working round the clock. The directive is to get as much through the production schedule as we can. Shooting for 100% utilization of the equipment time. The problem there is that anyone knows that running equipment 100% of it's capabilities means you are 100% guaranteed to break it pretty good. I expect we will. Or we will break some of the people and they won't keep coming back. But the cheeses have dictated this so who am I to blow against the wind? They have been warned.

Otherwise I have been emailing back and forth with 3 old classmate now. It's amazing how things work out when you update your high school class site's webpage. I am totally psyched to meet up with them again. It will be a blast.

I'm thinking that I should start a new update spot here on YB. The Jersey Girl is giving me daily descriptions of her underwear emsemble. She wears the best sets and her descriptions are amazing. I'm not sure how she got started telling me this but I do not mind at all. But seeing as this is a family show here..... lol

OK, enough of this. I need to see what been going on, then check emails and then relax. Nice to be reconnected for a little though. :)

My Morning Experiences (So Far)

Hello Mr. Minivan driver. Yes, I know you have testosterone image levels when driving that thing. But do you have to try and race me when I'm going around you? You were doing 5 mph under the speed limit before I started to pass. Then you decided that I shouldn't be allowed to pass you and ended up going 15 mph over the speed limit, pretending you were a nice little sports car. You make no sense because your dingle is still the same size and it is still owned by the situation that put you in that minivan. Besides, I still left you in the dust. It would have been better for you not to have tried because I'm sure it was more emasculating after I easily moved by you. You should have stayed where you were instead of pretending to be something you are not. Have a nice day. :)

Good morning Ms. Baseball Poser person. Yes, I am wearing my Yankee colors again. And yes I am very proud of it. Yes, I believe you have seen me wearing a Yankee emblem on my shirts pretty often. I never leave home without something Yankee on me somewhere. So you are a red sux fan? Yes, I knew that. What's that you say? The sux aren't doing well this year? They kinda stink you say? Huh. Funny, I believe they are up in the division by 10 games. That tells me you are not really a fan, just a poser. I get you now. So go away and talk your uninformed, fair weather fandom crap to someone else today. Came back when you really know something about "your team". Thanks. Have a nice day.

Hey there Mr. Old School Good Guy to everyone. You came in late last night to check up on the equipment? Again? You are here early, concerned about it running well? You are the best, you know that? Never do I ever have to worry that you will let us down. You are no slacker. Hopefully the new guy you are training will be half as good as you are. I know you will be retiring in 2 years. You will be missed then. For now, we really appreciate you. Have a nice day.

Hello Mr. Coffee alarm. The Starbuck's Italian Roast is ready? I'm so very happy to hear that. I know it will be excellent as always. Thanks a lot once again.


LOL :)

Chunky Milk Anyone?

It sucks to have to grow up. So I try to avoid it at all costs. :)

What made me think of that this morning is yesterday's Tennis session. Nicci and I have been playing Tennis since our vacation. Every morning that we are off we play early, as soon as we are up and around. Yesterday I just didn't have it in me. I felt like my legs weighed about 200 lbs. each. I couldn't run. So I adlibbed.

I decided to start imitating the pros. Not their styles of play. Their noisy grunts. They make some obnoxious noises on the court. So I would imitate them. Nicci joined in too. It got pretty noisy on that court for a while.

Later I decided that I would play Tennis ballet. I made some awesome shots while doing ballet moves to hit the ball. Plus I looked stunning in my majestic poses and graceful when I moved so gently around the court.

Then I decided not to use my arm for shots. Only my wrist and hand moved. I actually held my own doing that. Of course, it was probably because Nicci was laughing too hard to hit the ball back by then. But I prefer to believe it was because I was so good. :)

Growning up is for sucks. Good thing the courts are deserted that time of morning, eh?

Meritt mentioned last week how my morning post sounded like I was grumpy. I reread it and thought it really did sound grumpy. The funny thing is, I wasn't feeling grumpy nor trying to be grumpy. I was mostly sarcastic. Nicci tells me all the time that she can't read me. She can't tell when I'm serious or being sarcastic or just what my mood really is. Maybe thats translating to blogging now? Hope not. Sorry Meritt.

We were researching something on our house over the weekend when we came across the original deed from 1954 when the house was built. There is a line in the deed that specifically excluded "colored people" from owning in the neighborhood. It says "No colored persons may reside in any lot except as servants." It is its own line in the legal mumbo-jumbo. Isn't that weird? I was shocked to see that. But those were the times back then.

Yuck! I just went to put a little milk in my morning coffee and big white chunks came out of the container. The date on it says to sell by July 5th. Guess they know their shelf life pretty well. So I went to the machines to get new milk and all the milk in them have the same expiration. Weird. Guess its non-dairy creamer for me this morning. Its almost enough to make a person skip morning coffee.

Almost. Calm down Meritt. Just almost. lol

This morning the new, big promotion will be presented to the department. I officially re-enter the world of supervision. Yay me. I'm not real hot on the managing people side of it. I quit that long ago. But it's a good group so I'll give it a whirl.

I tried hard to blog over the weekend again. I just can't do it. I have so many interesting things to talk about too. My brain is much sharper but I can't do it. I can read blogs but writing takes away from outside time and Baseball time. So I can't. I try. Maybe in the winter I can again. We'll see.

Coffee isn't bad today, minus the chunks. I do wonder what milk chunks taste like. Anyone else ever wonder that? Has anyone ever tried them? Maybe they are really yummy and we are all missing out. I like cottage cheese. Maybe it's similar? Someone try it and get back to me, OK? Thanks.

Time to go. Hasta la vista. :)

Quote Of The Day

I’m OK at those meetings because I know I am wearing very sexy underwear and I look fabulous in them.

They Say.....

I want to know who the "They" is when people say, "Well, They say that......." Have you heard someone say that? It's so annoying. They are experts on everything. They know all about what you need to do in every situation that ever comes up. The problem is, you can never meet They. No one really has met They. People just like to quote from They so they sound like an expert too.

Sheesh.

If I ever meet They I think I'll punch them in the nose for getting into my business so much all the time.

Yesterday was a weird day. My Aunt had her big family thing like every year. When I talked to her last week she said to come by around lunch time, like always. Then she called on Tuesday and changed the time to 4:00. Naturally we had plans at 5:00 already since we thought her thing would be done by then. Then she proceeds to tell me that both my brothers and their kids would be there. So I told her that was not sweetening the deal for me at all.

Have you noticed how people don't listen when you talk? Everyone knows that I don't care for my family all that much. Telling me that the whole annoying bunch will be in attandance somewhere is just cause for me to cancel on you. Duh.

But we went anyway. Luckily we had an excuse to leave early. It wasn't too bad but the truth is, I prefer to visit my Aunt & Uncle without all the losers hanging about. Makes for a better time.

I remember when I was younger we always would take blankets and walk to the school and watch fireworks. Every year I am reminded of those times. I hated doing that. I just didn't see the point in it. Uncomfortable and noisy and semi-interesting. Thats all I remembered from the years past. But every year we were forced to go again. I never go to the local fireworks displays anymore. Especially after seeing the real thing at the beach or in Washington D.C. Local shows are even less interesting now. I guess I just don't get it, eh?

But I am a very patriotic person. Don't get that wrong. Right now I have 12 flags displayed all over my house. I just don't get into some traditions, thats all. I pick and choose the ones I like. Don't we all?

Anyway, the visit was Ok. I met my youngest brother's kids for the first time. One is 9 now and the other is 5(?) I think. Yay. My favorite neice was there but she was acting like a spoiled 15 year old. All sulky and non-communicative. Apparently she wanted to do something else and was there instead. So she acted like a butt the whole time I was there. Teenagers are so emotional and silly sometimes. I remember those days. No one ever realized that the world revolved around me back then either. lol

Not much else to say about the holiday. It was a day off. That was cool. I didn't win the lottery so I came back to work. Not cool.

I bet I'm totally annoying at those things. I have so little interest in what is happening with most of that crew that my attention span is the size of a gnats. Many times people would repeat things to me so that I could respond. I'd have to ask what they were talking about a lot. My mind was always somewhere else. Like on when my next guitar lesson would be (ie: the person I was teaching to play). Or what new quest I'll be working on when I play WoW again. Or how come I wasn't born rich so I could hang with Paris Hilton. You know, simple little things that occupy all of us every now and then. Someone like me would bug me at a party. They didn't seem to notice.

At a regular party I am the opposite.

I realized some thing else yesterday. I miss seeing Peachy. I'm going to have to force my way into her busy schedule soon so I can get my fix. lol I do miss you a lot sometimes Peachy. :)



Ok, too many interruptions already. People here really want me to work for some reason.

He Didn't Know Who He Was Dealing With

I am struggling with getting back into the swing of the work week. You know how it is, having a week + off and then going back to work. Same old routines, same old issues, same crap. It's hard.

I enjoyed my vacation so much too. Tennis every day. Golf every other day. The pool and/or the beach every day. Totally a fun time. (With the minor issue of me being creeped out by all the gross people who inhabit those places.) It was so fun and then we came home. I got a little bummed so I knew exactly what to do. I bought lottery tickets. Even an extra one.

But they were broken.

So I am back at work, feeling the pain.

Yesterday was totally weird too. My boss comes to my office and chats for a while. Then he gets up and closes the door for a "private talk" (his words). I knew something werid was coming. They decided they need me to do something a little different. They are promoting me, more money, more responsibility... yada yada. They need to reorganize to make things better. I was thinking "Here we go again." These reorganization things almost never work. If they did then they would never do them again. Here they reorganize everything. The people, the responsibilities, the walls and rooms (I am not kidding). They need to reorganize the big cheeses and get some better ones. That would help.

So I will be promoted. Big fat hairy deal. Maybe I should be happy/proud/excited and all that. But to me it's just another day.

Later in the day they dissolved the Engineering department. Fired the big cheese engineer and spread his people around within the operations group. My 2 engineer friends broke the news to me after coming into my office and closing the door. Twice in the same day I had a closed door conversation. I usually have about 2 of those per decade.

It doesn't really affect me much. I just hope they know what they are doing.

I have to tell this story: While we were at the beach last week my friend's daughter Lindsey called. She was at another beach having a long weekend there. She started out by saying that she was calling before the cops called. Her Mom just laughed. You have to know Linds to know why she laughed. She is a very beautiful 20 year old who is also the most outspoken and non-bullshit taking person I've ever known. She is by far one of my favorite people in the world. Always has been.

Anyway, she tells this story about how her and her girlfriend were walking down the boardwalk and these drunk guys started hitting on them. They wouldn't take no for an answer either. They wouldn't leave them alone. One of them was apparently very obnoxious about it to the point where Linds asked him if they had whore tatooed on their foreheads or something. Then guy then spit on her.

Oops! He didn't know who he was dealing with.

Lindsey walked up to him and punched him hard in the eye. He then started to try and choke her so she kicked him in the crotch. When he went down she then proceeded to beat the crap out of him. The cops had to come by and get her off him. LOL

The cops had a hard time keeping the smiles off their faces. Lindsey is model material and she does not look capable of doing something like that. They were very amused. They just told her to move on but did take a report. Thats why she called her Mom.

She is so cool. That guy needed his friends to help him walk away. Bet he never saw that one coming. :)

OK, I guess I need to get going here. No motivation for me yet. Going to the coffee trough to try and find my motivation. Wish me luck.

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.

:)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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....

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!

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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...........

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.