This is the game...

that moves as you play it...

I spent the whole week relaxing in my nice clean house with no wife. It was very nice. Don't tell her that though, or she'll get pissed. :)

Seriously. They went fishing in New York state and I stayed home. I did manage to get some things done around the house.

Friday I went to Knoebel's Grove with Cat and her husband and daughter. Went on a lot of rides and took a lot of pictures. Check here. I have to thank Cat for all of the "Babe Alerts". You guy viewers should too.

Started working on the trim in the back bedroom. That seems like it will come together soon.

I've been forced out to work on Saturday, but they didn't schedule us for Monday. So I guess I actually get to spend a Holiday with my family this summer. Go fig.

Cat said she would come down Friday. I spoke with my niece and she said that Shea Quinn and The Love Dogs are going to be in Hummelstown on Friday. Looks like we may head down there for a night of Rock and Roll. Anything to be different.

Enjoy.

They Paved Paradise.....

....put up a fucking house.

Right across my road. Looks like we'll get all of the traffic in and out because the end of the place is right at the living room. Ahh well. Fitzlandia may have to seal it's borders. We're hoping that no military action is necessary, but all options are on the table.

The Mrs and the kids leave for 1000 islands Saturday. I get to do my best Macaulay Kulkin impression.

cya

.....well.....

Sorry it's been so long.

I had a vacation. We got some things done, then my brother went back into the hospital and it was one of those "get everybody here" moments. His kidneys shut down. They've had him one different types of dialysis. It's been about 2 weeks. He's on a longer dialysis now. 12 to 14 hours a day. They hope that this will remove the toxins, but leave enough fluid in his body that his kidneys will start working on their own. They believe they shut down due to a blood clot.

Moral of the story, think very carefully before you have your stomach stapled.

I've been out of work for 3 days. I've been having some problems with pain in my legs. Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but the Dr. said that that may be a precursor to recurring heart problems. I find out more Monday.

I just got a curio cabinet from Paulette (thanks!!!) and finally got to meet her husband Tom and her dog, Nutsy. Her dog was very well behaved, so I shouldn't say that. Anyway, it's humid as hell out, but I have the central air set at 76 and it's almost cold in here. I love it.

We are going down to Harrisburg tomorrow, I'll see how much shopping I can do before I drop, which probably won't be much. We have to go to Sam's and probably Home Depot. I also need to return something to Best Buy.

I'll try to keep this up more. I'll be working on my class blog so I'll be in the area.

later

...All I Ever Wanted (pt's 2 thru 49)

So...The next day we got up and got ready to head out. We got showers and did our idiot check and started out to Foxwoods. It's really a beautiful place. We got some change and Deb played some slots. I quickly lost 10 bucks. Slots are not for me. We took a walk around the place (it's huge) and stopped and got some ice cream. She told me to go ahead and find the poker room and she would hang out and she would find me later. So off I went.

The poker room is HUUUGGE!!!

I walk all the way thru and have no idea what's going on, so I figure first thing is to get some chips. I pick up 60 bucks worth and ask where to find a table. They direct me to a kiosk that has a computer terminal. A woman is taking initials and typing them in and they show up on the wall on a projection screen. I had to wait less than 10 minutes and they opened up a table. Funny part was, I said "I'd like to get a low limit game"...she says, you want a NO limit game?" Ahhhhhhh

I sit down and start playing.....

Intrigued? More coming soon

...All I Ever Wanted.

So...away we go to sunny Beantown.

We headed out yesterday morning around 11:30. The drive up was pretty uneventful. We come up thru Scranton and over. Hit a little rough patch in Hartford and then it was smooth sailing right into Newton. Then I decided to miss the exit.

We didn't really have to be anywhere on time so we headed down the road and felt our way in the back way. It was kinda cool, we saw a lot of beautiful homes. Another thing that is interesting up here is that they have these little parks and walking areas scattered around.

We pulled into the hotel and checked in. As we were pulling our luggage in, Deb's boss pulled in in the airport shuttle. When you own the company, you get to fly in.

We got settled in and went to the hotel bar. Steve, a food broker, was there and we had a drink with him and a light dinner. Then off to bed.

Today I got up and went to breakfast with Deb, Rob (her boss)and Steve. They've got a great buffet with an omelet chef and I pigged out royally. Deb headed out and I took a walk along the Charles River.

I spent the better part of the morning watching tv, working on this laptop for a client and RELAXING. Some would say that it's boring, but I had a really nice day just not HAVING to do anything to a deadline.

Deb came back and we headed out. We were gonna go to a mall we were at the last time, but she said we were headed in the wrong direction, so I turned around. Then she got the map out and realized I was right. (Boy, If I had a nickel for...) We got off the road and just started heading around the back roads. More great houses. I said that these places are the dictionary definition of quaint.

Rob had told her about a restaurant called the Wayside Inn. We finally stumbled onto it passed it and went to turn around. There was a beautiful reproduction of a grist mill and we got out and walked around it a bit. I have some pics and will post later. Then we headed to the restaurant.

It turns out that it's the inn referred to in Longfellow's "Tales from a Wayside Inn". We ate in a period accurate dining room. Right down to the computerized cash register. :) Great meal, which I didn't think would happen since they were heavy on the history part.

They have a collection of letters on display and the one was to the owner of the in from the leader of the town banning certain residents from the bar. Accusing them of being, well, slackers. My, how time doesn't change. The cool part was that it was written on my birthday exactly 200 years ago. I know there's a joke in there somewhere, but I'm too tired to find it.

We headed back without incident and I took a nappy. And now I'm listening to Leno and writing to you.

Cya

Mommy!!!!

Today went pretty well. We mowed the back yard and I seemed to have enough gas in me to do that and throw a few things on the burn pile. I'm gonna give work a shot tomorrow and see what happens.

We got cleaned up and took the inlaws down to Chrissy and Mike's. She made her first "big" holiday meal all by herself. Did pretty good too. I spent a bit of time figuring out how to program her vcr remote to run the tv. The tv remote is MIA.

After eating we headed over to the local Giant to do some grocery shopping. Very big place. Then we took the kids back and headed up the road.

Happy Mommies day everybody.

cya

This is starting to suck....

I had to come home from work early Sunday. Haven't been in the last two days. Lifting those extremely heavy sacks did me in again. I go to the Dr. tomorrow to figure out what we're gonna do. I'll keep you posted.

Two more pieces of software to install and I can start the podcast.....should be ready by 2008.

The A/C guys were here tonight and finished up. Now we have central air. Yippee.

Talk to ya

ok...

here's the deal....

The machine is up and running. I realized at work tonight that I need to load Frontpage, Musicmatch and updated the site. I don't know when I can do that. I realize I've been slack here at the blog and I apologize. It seems like life has caught up and I've been really busy doing life stuff. :)

I saw Laura Swisher on a Wendy's commercial. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of it thru the summer. Ya Laura.

I will be around....we'll see ya.

Weekend Update

The refrigerator is wonderful...keep air exactly where it's supposed to be for the greater good of humanity. We've reassembled the kitchen quite well and learned a little bit about woodworking that will be employed in the coming months. My Podcasting rig is finally behaving like a real computer so I hope to launch podcasts this week. Start hitting fitzlandia.com for info, as well as the blogs. I am contmeplating moveing to another service, but this one serves us so well.

The little ones have set a load to the promised land. I will visit and deliver my blessing tomorrow. I have an early Dr. appt and a chunck of time to kill. Humor shall ensue.

later kiddies.

Reefer Madness

You always remember your first one. It was kinda clunky but it was SO cool. Then you got older and your tastes got more sophisticated. But it was still cool. Then it starts to get a little routine and you need something new.

Of course, I'm talking about refrigerators.

We FINALLY broke down and bought a new one. You have to understand. Deb bought the old one used, from her aunt, 24 years ago. USED dammit! I mean, it's really just an impending disaster waiting to happen. We've looked at new ones for several years and finally got one that we're happy with.

I'm a little pissed at Sears. They said they would deliver Friday (we ordered it the previous friday) and then called on Thursday and said it wouldn't be here till Monday. If I would have been awake I would have cussed them out and asked them to waive the delivery fee, but it didn't happen.

So today I have to drill a hole in the kitchen floor and run the water connection. We've been cleaning since 8am. Did I mention that 8am and I don't get along? Anyway, I'm all ready for bed and it's 11:30.....am.

I'll take some pics of the new unit and put them up.

There haven't been too many blogs lately. Partly because all hell's been breaking loose and partly because my machine has been a piece of shit. I've reinstalled XP twice in the last 3 weeks. I'm up and running with a minimal load. Hoping to make it thru 24 hours without a BSOD. I've had two, but that was before loading XP2, so I'm hoping it was just a "first release" problem.

I DO have my sound card back, so we're planning on a podcast this week....as soon as I get some files moved around and get musicmatch reloaded

cya

Alotta Stuff

Work, of course.

Taxes, suck...I need an extension.

Getting things installed....takes time.

Podcasting....staring back at me....taunting.

Training for work.....7 hours worth of videos and tests.

Waiting to see if I got jobs......nervewracking.

Computer consulting.....picking up nicely.

My own computer......keeps fucking crashing, part of the podcasting problem.....will probably call Redmond this evening.

Hopefully some things start breaking soon.

Healthwise, I think I'm much better off off of the pravachol. I'm up to walking 30 minutes a day with minor ill effects.

more stuff later

cya

stuff

I've got a ton of stuff worked up and a ton of stuff to do. I will really promise to try to do one by the end of the week.....get all yer friends to come over and give me a cyber kick in the butt.

Ill tell yah about Duh!...too.

cya

When the Rains Came...

There's a creek out back. There always is, but usually I can piss harder than the trickle of water running thru it. Today is a different story. I took a few pis of it and I'll post em.

Last night we used the gift cert that Paulette gave us and went to J.P. Edwards. Had a very cool meal and a few drinks. I won't bore you with the details, but it was very nice.

We did a little grocery shopping because they're talking flood here and the first thing to close is the Lewistown Narrows. So we nipped that one in the bud, didn't we Barney?

Then I kept setting up the studio area. It all works. It now does exactly what I need. Chrissy is here, so I hope to get her and the gang to do some voices later.

I'm updating fitzlandia.com too. Check it out.

Hot steamy podcasts soon too.

cya

www.fitzlandia.com

It's there.

Just type it in your little browser and you'll see......not much.

Just a holding page and a few links back to here.....that's where the podcasts will be based out of.....a permanent site that I own, so blogger can't kick me out in the middle of the night.

Things have been megasupercrazy here. I almost had a meltdown Saturday when I couldn't find a ton of my CD's. I've been working on 991's for the PO. That's the real world's equivalent of a resume done "Postal Style". An extreme pain in the ass. But I can finally decompress for a few days and do all of the other shit I have to do.

Here's something cool....Do you like old people or young people better? Harvard wants to know. Go here for the IAT test

So how's by you?

cya

A Dei in the ism

Looking at Deism.org it looks as tho my beliefs and those of the founding father are pretty much on in the same. It's nice to know that what you believe in has a name and maybe a few others who feel the same way as you do.
Check em out Hereespecially the bits about the founding fathers.

I'd like to get a bunch of people together so we could head down to Florida and kill Terri Schiavo, just so we could get this all over with. Maybe, if we coulda got the kid on the indian reservation then he would have done it. Looks like we'll never know. I personally think some people are bad. And those people should have access to high powered weapons and bullet proof vests and police cars and shotguns..

But I digress....got shot down for the Mifflintown gig. That sucks, but I knew it would happen......some other things should start opening up soon. I get my Freeburg interview Friday at noon. You know that won't be long.

I had a meeting today about the ASP program. It looks like I could get into that. Become a supervisor. Get an 11% pay raise withing 4 months or so.....not too shabby. Lots of stuff opening up. I'll grab something.

Gotta get the podcast up.......maybe over the weekend......keep em crossed.

cya

(machine is still behavin for now)

cya again

Stuff...P.O and Otherwise

I've got the 'ol online banking setup. I'm getting ready for another meeting this week on the ASP program (Supervising) and two documents to get ready for the 31st and a 7 tape video course to watch. Slow week.

Podcast Update

I've been shut down the past day or so because I got the Blue Screen errors again. I took Photoshop 7.0 off last night and defragged and it seems to be behaving. I hope to start getting some things done in the next day or so.

I've got some bumps written. I guess I'll have to do them myself if I wanna start this week because I never see Chris or Deb. I've figured out my routing problems, so I should be able to produce what I want to produce.

I've been having trouble with exercising. Just walking, but I'm losing breath and going numb. I'll be calling the Rehab today to see if they can give me some advice.

Back to it...

A Good Visit

I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned all ferkin' day. Anyway, the place looks great. Billy and Toby came out and we had dinner and a very nice visit.

It's Bill's birthday (grandpa). We got him some old DVD's and we're watching some old Red Skeleton shows. Pretty cool, Even have commercials.

Podcast Update

Chrissy said she'd do some bumpers for me. I will get them together and do something to get rolling as soon as we do it. Maybe even later tonight.

cya

AFUD

A Fucked Up day.

I went to see my brother in the hospital. It's so much fun watching people enjoying their morphine. My niece is back smoking again and I want to KICK HER ASS. If she would just be miserable all at once and get it over with she'd be a lot better.

I headed for work and realized I had NO GAS. So I had to run to the expensive gas station and get 5 bucks worth and then run back to work.

Then I found out that I didn't get the 1st job that I applied for. The contract technician one. So that sucked. Then I worked some overtime and headed downstairs. Then the two idiot women tried to talk to me so I had to don the work armor again.

Things got better, then i smacked my head on the machine and cut a nice gash on top of my head.

I finally got home, worked on the machine a bit and sent this to you guys. I'm setting up the browser for blogging now.

cya

Fitzlandia Podcast is Coming

Everybody who got a sunday paper probably saw the article on podcasting. I'm joining the fray.

I've been a busy little boy again. I've got a studio set up in the living room. There will be a before, during and after pic on the picblog before I go to bed. I'm pretty pleased.

I've got clients to see this week, but I'm hoping to do the first broadcast from Fitzlandia on Friday. We'll see how it goes.

I had a good meeting with Bobbie Reid today. She tore my 991 apart, which is a good thing. She did have kind things to say tho, which made me happy.

Back to setting up my machine. I've got a new keyboard (forced to get it, actually) that I want to try out. I've completely wiped this machine and am starting from scratch with XP. So far so good.

See ya soon kiddies.

So.......Much.......Stuff.......

It's been a really, REALLY hectic week. So here's a few things.

The Interview.

It went as good as it could have. 6 people interviewed for the job. I was the only one with zero postal management experience. I think that's a good thing. :) Anyway, I probably won't get it, but it was great experience for the next two interviews that I hope I get.

The Business.

Everybody needs work done. Yesterday. I've been goin' nuts doin' computer stuff. I just spent 7 hours at a guys house with a major problem on his win98 machine. I was ready to give up a couple of times. I hate it when the machine is going to win. I kept saying..."just let me try this....". And, eventually, we got almost everything back up AND hooked to his DSL line. Except for a pesky sound card that we can't seem to find the driver to. (Or the name of)

Today.

I had a typing test at 9 in the morning. So, of course, it snows. It wasn't bad, but I got around (maybe) 5 hours of sleep. I still hit 48 wpm, so that's not bad.

I gotta hit the rack....did anybody see the test on here today?? If not, you can go here or here for the real thing.

cya

FINALLY!!!!!! (updated)

I finally got an invite for a Gmail account. So, if you wanna contact me, you can use fitzlandia@gmail.com. It offers 1 GIG of storage, so send me big audio files....I need content to start the podcast, so if you know somebody who writes their own songs, tell em to upload them and give me permission to play them. I can walk them thru the open source thing because I'm getting a handle on it myself.

It turns out that Chrissy's grandmother died. It was either today or yesterday, so I'm not really sure on time frames. It's bad, but it's good because Billy is on his way home now as we speak. Now I gotta get him that canadian bus ticket. :)

I need a massive karma redirect to Crooked Hill Road on Wednesday around 1 pm. That's my big interview for the Postmaster job. I reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally want it.......really!

Putting a site meter on so we can see how many other people should be doing something else too.

cya

It's Been a Long Time....

...since I posted.

Sorry...but things are moving in about 18 different directions of UP and I'm just diggin' it. So here goes.

Work

Other than some stupid shit the other day, things are fan"fucking"tastic. I had an interview last Wednesday for a Contract Tech job. Basically a Contract Tech is a purchasing person for the P.O. The interview went pretty well. I have to take a typing test on Friday, but i've taken it before, it's a piece of cake.

THEN I get a phone call on Friday morning for an interview for one of the Postmaster jobs. I put in for Level 13, 16 and 18. I figure they may call me for the low one, but they call me for the LEVEL 18. That job is 4 miles from my house. Two of the people I would see the most I get along with great. Hell, the one girl Hi-Fived me when she found out I had an interview. I haven't been Hi-Fived in....well....I don't think ever. By a woman anyways.

Ipodding

Ipodding is the shit. I'm up to my ass in learning about new stuff and I love it. I did radio in college, and worked at a station after school, but I never got into the corporate "you have to do it our way" bullshit. Now, with I podding, you can suck and still have an audience.

It begs for me.

I am all set to go and should have some stuff up within 2 weeks.

Other Crap

There's lots of other crap. I have to start the search for the "son" now. And, as Cindy pointed out to me, I could very possibly be a grandfather.

Talking to "mom" alot and enjoying it. Maybe she'll let me post her nickname here sometime, at least.

I've got websites to update. Studio's to set up. Porn to watch. It's not very pretty, but somebody's gotta do it dammit. :)

Things will switch a bit....ill be updating more frequently when I get my temporary studio/office set up.

stay tuned.

Happiness is...

...belt fed weaponry.

I could have used some tonight. I knew everything was going well and something was gonna give, well, it did. I turns out that I'm not going to get the weekends off thing. There's a fine print deal that said I had to put a slip in saying I'd be off light duty in 6 months in order to bid.....well, I didn't do it. I have a couple of angles I'm gonna try to get it back, but chances are slim. I hoping it's just a brief karma repeal because so much good stuff is gonna start happening job wise...stay tuned.

On the baby front...talks continue. So that's another thing to stay optimistic about.

I could do a lot of stuff tonight, but I have a computer to order for Maggie tomorrow and a class to attend in the afternoon for the postal resume. So I'm gonna hit it.

BTW...my friend Paulette got the job and she reads this, so I think she ought to post a comment and apologize to everyone that she's denying me valuable weekend time with yall. (Actually, if it has to go to somebody, I couldn't pick anyone better than her)

cya

IT'S A BOY!!!!!

I found out about an hour ago that I had a son 25 years ago. It's taken me that long to get in touch with his mom. I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail here until she gives me the approval. I want to find him to pass along some of the family health history.

The mother called him "George" during the pregnancy. He was born September 9th, 1979. Now here is the weird part. My wife was born September 9th and I stopped drinking on September 9th, 1989. (But I'm back drinking now...thank you very much!)

I had a feeling that it would be a boy. That is how god deals with me usually. You see, there will be no more Fitzpatrick's. My brother and cousin had girls.

So as I get more info I'll fill you in.

I'm asking for multiple mojo from everyone. A lot of good stuff is happening this week. I finally have weekends off at work. I'm hoping I didn't exhaust all of my workplace karma, cause I have several other jobs that I'm trying to get. Plus, we have to start checking the adoption place to try to contact "George".

Send it to me people.....

I just thought.....I guess I have to get some cigars, huh?

HUUUUGE News Comin'

Probably the biggest news of my life. Hopefully I should have something by the end of the week.

I've been working on a "Postal Resume" for the last couple of days. There are a few jobs coming up that are higher rates of pay, better hours, etc. But that's not the big news, that's just why I haven't posted for awhile.

We went shopping on Saturday and I made the mistake of going to the Guitar Center in Harrisburg. I'm now approaching full gearslut mode and want to spend about 12 grand on music equipment. It won't happen, but it doesn't mean I still don't want to do it.

Shea Quinn is working there so I got a chance to catch up with him a little.

A word of advice. Never go to a music store on a Saturday. All the kids are there which is usually a pain. But I have to admit, the adults were worse.

Remember to keep checkin' back.

Huge stuff....really.....huge.....massive.

Super Bowl 39 and other stuff.

Patriots 24, Eagles 21. I was right on the point spread. I really hoped the Eagles would win, but usually the team that's been there recently wins. I mean, it's not like it's Dallas winning or anything.

The big story tomorrow will be the lack of Philadelphia's hurry up offense. I really think they could have had a chance if they would have saved some time.

On to other things.

Baby 81

Besides being a great name for a band. Did you hear about this? They found an infant from the tsunami in Sri Lanka. A bunch of people went into the maternity ward and started fighting over the baby right there. A guy said he would kill himself if he didn't get the child. Really bizarre.

Blue Eyed Six

Another great band name. In fact, I had a band with that name. I heard on the radio that they are doing a documentary on them. Here's a link to what it's all about.

Too Sexy Fitz

This was a piece of mail that came thru. It had two very hot pics of a brunette on the front. They were advertising pants and the headline was "Two Sexy Fits". Ok, I took some liberties with the title. But you all agree with me, don't you? :) The girl on the left is the one I'm talkin' about.

Iraq

There's preliminary information that the elections in Iraq may turn out like the invasion. Poorly planned and wrong headed. They may turn out to elect a government just like the one that their neighbors in Iran have. A religious one.

I found out that Billy is where the mess hall blew up about a month ago. I'm thinking that's a good thing cause their already on their toes.

Everybody have fun tonight...

(ok...I have to...)

Everybody Wang Chung tonight.

Cya

Beef Wellington...

Who's he???

This is an actual conversation I overheard at work. I wanted to tell the guy that he's a body builder or professional wrestler, but I didn't come up with it fast enough.

These guys pump quarters into these machines at work that have multi games on them. So they go to the quiz games. Then they can't answer 2/3rds of the questions. Very funny.

I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to talk about and I forgot all of it.

I don't remember if I mentioned Podcasting, and I'm too lazy to look at my old posts. I may start doing that. They say it's gonna be the new blog? I like the idea of doing my own el cheapo radio type show tho. It may happen. God knows I've got the gear to do it.

Coming into the weekend. Talk to yaz later.

Puffy Rules

I love Puffy AmiYumi. I'll repeat that quite a bit.

I'm thinking about podcasting. I'm gonna look into it, but I have all the gear to do it. I only have 50 projects that have to get done. Why not add another one. :)

Hope you kids the are hanging in there. Spring is on it's way.

Cya

Pokity Poke Poke Poke.

We just got back from the Burg. Deb had to get some tax forms. We picked up some supplies at Sam's.

We were going to use the Red Lobster gift card we got. But they told us it would be a two hour wait. In a word...Bullshit. We went across the street to the Colonial Diner and were seated in 5 minutes. Had an excellent Lemon Chicken and a Cannoli for desert.

We went up to Best Buy and I got a CD. I wanted to get two more, but they weren't in stock.

When we left the Diner it had started snowing. It continued the whole way home. There's a coating right now. We may get a little or a lot. I have no clue.

So it's pretty much like normal.

5

That's what it is outside, right now.

Been a pretty good week. Coming into a half decent weekend. They're playing "Strap On Baseball" on Stern,... don't ask.

Getting ready for a nice relaxing weekend and hopefully can get a few things done here as well.

Stay warm

Not as bad as we thought.

They were calling for over a foot of snow today. We might have gotten 5 or 6 inches. The east coast (New York, Boston) may get hammered, but we're ok. That means I get to watch the game on my crappy black and white 1 inch watchman at work instead of a color tv at home.

The Pacifica is AMAZING in snow. I have tried on two separate occasions to do doughnuts and I can't get it to spin. It just wants to stay stable and straight. But if there's a way to put it into a snowbank, I'm sure i'll find it.

I did the gym today and went to a clients house. She had emailed me (which I can't find) to tell me not to come over. I came back home and cleaned for awhile. We had some great chili for lunch then kept cleaning and washing clothes. We straightened out the bathroom a bit. Chrissy did an amazing job on the tub, really made it shine. Then we kicked back and watched "Sci-Fi Friday" and the kids got on W.O.W. I'm watching Battlefield Earth now and you're reading this.

Cya

Winter.....finally.

We got about 2 inches of snow today and they're expecting a "significant" amount Saturday and Sunday. It took long enough.

I need to either make tons of money doing this page or a sizeable stream of income from some other source besides work. I like doing this, in fact, there's a ton of stuff I can write on here, but I really don't have enough time in the day. I should charge a million dollars for subscriptions to the site...it's alot, but I only need ONE member.

Today is Black Thursday. Don't buy anything, send a message to King George that we are not amused.

Speaking of amusing, notice how there's a dirty bomb heading for Boston but the terror alert has remained unchanged. That's because it was a re-election device.

Ok. Outta here. Cya later.

A Visit From Royalty

Well, almost.

Laura Swisher stopped by and checked out my blog. That's very cool. Thanks Swish.

I'm finally getting my shit together after the holidays. I realized that things start getting screwed up before the holiday. I start losing track of everything and everything gets disorganized. Then, around the middle of January it starts coming back together.

I've been listening to a lot of hate speech radio lately. I can believe that people who listed to this warped logic enough can start to believe it. It's a good idea to find out how the enemy thinks, ya know.

Don't forget to boycott all goods and services on Inauguration day, or Black Thursday as I like to call it.

It took me 3 passes, but I finally got the router hooked up to the internet. And, as a plus, my old switch works with it. Now I can hold off until I get the wireless laptop to get the wireless hub.

Speaking of wireless, I picked up a set of wireless headphones the other day. They work clear across my house. It'll be nice when I'm wandering around at night.

They're starting to use the turnstiles at work. Remember, it's not safety, it's another level of control. They work with my badge, but I'm gonna stay away from them until I absolutely have to use them.

Lot's of little stuff happening. Keep lookin' in and I'll talk atcha later.

Cya

Kuwait Update

Pretty sure I told you that Billy, my stepson, was headed to Iraq. They moved his time up to this past Sunday evening instead of tomorrow. I chatted with him on Yahoo a few hours before he had to form up. I told him to message us as soon as he could.

It was a 17 hour ride on a cargo plane, he said it wasn't too bad. Anyway, there was a message on my Yahoo less than 24 hours after he left and I chatted with him the next night!

They have a tent set up as a computer lab that they can access pretty much anytime. He said that a lot of sites are blocked, but this one isn't. So I guess I have to be the voice of truth to our boys overseas. So pay attention...

I have the world's largest penis.

There will be more later.

Stay strong.

Cya

Ain't Nothin' But a Swish Thang, Baby.

We have a threat of ice tonight so, being the snow pussy that I am, I decided to stay home and let my co-worker's drive into ditches.

I was doing a little surfing and had the Tivo running in the background. I always record a show called "Unscrewed with Martin Sargent" on G4Techtv. I was very upset because I'm still recording the time slot, but the geniuses at G4 are putting other shows on which are being erased in a few seconds by me. A month or so back they basically screwed over most of the Techtv people with very few exceptions. One of the screwed from Unscrewed was Laura Swisher.

Let me describe Laura to you. If she never opened her mouth I'd probably fall in love with her anyway. Take a look at her gallery. But the thing that makes her irresistable is that she is INCREDIBLY funny.

They used to always do a gag on Unscrewed about "Laura's Blog", so naturally she didn't have one. Now that she's out auditioning, she has one. Score one for us little guys. Be shallow and petty with us Laura, we can take it. The blog is http://lauraswisher.blogspot.com. Go say hi.

Other than that, I'm just trying to get my sleep back so that I can get to the gym in the mornings. I got the generator started today so we shouldn't have to freeze if the power goes out. I've got some computer clients to go see this week. I almost hit a deer coming home from work the other day....2 feet from the car. Wonderful.

Hang in there kids...Swish honey. :)

cya

2005, Day One

Went over to the inlaws for some pork and sauerkraut, as is the tradition. Came home and VEGGED. It was nice not to do a damn thing for a change.

I was looking for phone stuff today. Trying to get Yahoo Messenger to work in my menu under IM. I couldn't do that, but I finally found the flashlight. It's hella cool.

In my travels I found a site with about 1500 wallpapers for cellphones. I also found THIS very cool site that is for anime/sci fi convention goers that dress up. Some of these costumes are INCREDIBLE. I highly reccommend taking a look.

A couple of great football games this weekend. Today's Michigan/Texas heartbreaker and the Boise State/Louisville squeaker the other nite. I'm currently watching Utah hand Pittsburgh it's ass. (Serve's 'em right for changing their name from Pitt):)

The kids are playing W.O.W. I'm thinking of firing up the XBox. You're reading this.

cya

A Brand Spankin' New Year

Happy New Year Everybody.

We arranged stuff in the kitchen all day. Chrissy went to a "shot to reroll" D&D party with Mike.

We took a break around 5 and took the inlaws up to Angelo's for dinner. Then they wanted to go to "Redneck Heaven" (WalMart). We came back and finished up the kitchen and sat down to watch the ball drop.

Deb was out in a minute. I woke her up at 11:59:50 to watch the ball drop, at 12:00:20 she was snoring again.

What an exciting life we lead. :)

Lookin' forward to the New Year. Hope you have a great one.

cya

A Little Cheezed

My laptop has been limping. I asked Santa for one for Xmas, but that's a pretty big order. It's the slowest machine in the house, but I use it the most. It's pretty reliable, but there's been one major problem that I thought would torpedo me. I've been having trouble with the power cord.

The cord is structured like this. It goes from the wall to a box, from the box to the laptop, about one inch away from the laptop there is a barrel and after that it plugs into the machine. Right at the little barrel, from bending so much, the wire is frayed and it hasn't been making contact very well. I've had to bend it and get it just so so the machine would power up and get it's battery charged.

Tonight it finally gave up the ghost. I figured I'd take 5 minutes and take the barrel off to see what kind of electronic gizmo was inside. Maybe I could get a replacement from "Le Shaque Du Radio". At worst, it would mean a new power converter from Dell. So I get my tools and plug and pry and dig.

Here's what I found.

1. A rubberized outer "barrel".
2. A hard plastic inner "barrel".
3. A small wrap of electrical tape.
4. The wire.

The only thing I could think of was that they put this thing on so the wire frays prematurely and you have to buy a power connector. I fixed it with about .1 cent of electrical tape. A new power supply, if I could get one, would probably run 30 or 40 bucks. If I couldn't find one, It would mean a new machine.

I understand things breaking, but I hate it when they design stuff to break on purpose. If you know someone that has that problem with a laptop, send 'em to this story.

BTW. 80,000 plus dead from the tsunami. They think it's gonna run over 100,000. Amazing.

Cya

Tourists to Fitzlandia

Got up and did a little personal grooming today, then Cat and her Daughter Katie came down from way up north. Since Santa has to pass Katie's place to get to mine, I don't know why he leaves some of her gifts here, but he does. Katie got a very cool ball and a computer game and a drawing set from Santa. We got her a Hello Kitty alarm clock, Hello Kitty nail polish and a Hello Kitty FM radio.

We sat and chewed the fat, drank coffee and watched Katie play ATV Off Road, Gran Tourismo 3 A-Spec and Karaoke Revolution. Katie is our local champ at Karaoke. I helped Cat get her new cell phone working. Deb worked at a funeral at the church and got home a little after noon. We had a lunch and hung out for a little more. I showed Cat all our Xmas presents, then they had to go.

I gave Cat an Alice Cooper poster I've had since high school. She's gonna hang it up in her classroom.

We headed out and I showed them the gym that I joined. They took a look and headed up the road, then I went in and kept getting back into the swing of working out. My right foot is sprained a little in the arch, other than that I feel pretty good.

Gonna hang and watch some tv and mess with the pooter.

Have good holidays.

Cya

The Big Easy and Tsunami Sunday

Big Easy Week that is. I have a few clients to see and a few gifts to wrap, but it's gonna be a nice relaxing week. Back to the gym tomorrow. We are cleaning out drawers and closets and trying to organize stuff a little better.

Big Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. So far the count is 23,000 plus dead. It came ashore in 6 countries, on the beach, at the height of tourist season. Just an incredible event. There is a 1000km gash in the middle of the ocean and one island was MOVED 100 ft. Some islands in the Seychelles are only 3ft above sea level. There is nothing on them now. Say a prayer, people.

We're hangin' out and playing games. Hope your having a great holiday.

Cya

The Halls Have Been Decked

What a fantastic day.

We went to church last night and Deb did the narration for the cantata. They did a great job. My complaint is that I'm used to my church when I was a kid. We sang a bunch of carols and you just don't get to sing that stuff like you did when you were in school. The congregation only sang two songs and one was "Peace on Earth", which I don't really consider a Christmas carol.

We came home and had some wine and cheese. Then the kids started wrapping and Deb and I cleaned. She did dishes and I tidied and vacumned. The kids hit the sack and I started wrapping and sent Deb to bed. I had about 2 hours worth to do with the Christmas carols going. It was nice cause I was in bed by 2:30, which is my normal time and some sort of record for Christmas eve.

We got up around 10 and the inlaws got here around 11. We started unwrapping, broke for lunch, unwrapped some more, broke for a phone call from Billy and Toby, kept unwrapping and finally finished around 4:30. Even then there were a few things we missed.

We went overboard, which is always fun to do. Just for highlights, Chrissy got a lot of "homesteading" stuff and a mp3 player. We got Mike "The Sims" and some other games. Deb got a mixer and a vacumn sealer. Bill got an air compressor and we got both of them a cell phone, which Betty hates. :) I got an Xbox with some accessories and a belt sander.

We took the compressor over to Bill's house, came back and straightened up the house and burned trash. The kids went to Chrissy's dad's. They came back and they're installing World of Warcraft on the upstairs machines. Deb is watching "White Christmas" and I'm typing to you.

I hope you all had a great Christmas. I have to work tomorrow and then I'm off for a week. I'll be doing a year end letter on here. I sent a lot of folks emails. I figure a brief "Merry Christmas" and a "Come to my website to read my boring family letter" is better than just spamming the letter to everyone who could care less.

cya

A Christmas Miracle

So, what is this miracle? Peace on Earth? A miraculous rescue? No, something even more amazing than that. Hershey's is finally making unwrapped Kisses for people who make the infamous Peanut Butter Blossom. Finally...proof that there is a god.

My holiday pic was at the end of this. This was only up for one day and one day only and, believe me, there are worse. If you want to see them, post a request in the response area with your email (if I don't know it) and I'll send it to you.

Cya

Good Tidings

After 2 days of sheer hell,we finally had the whole family here for eats today. Considering what a wreck the place was, it's a minor miracle that we got it done. We had about 25 people here. Everybody ate too much and some very cool gifts were exchanged.

Another reason it was a miracle we finished is that we went to Wally World last night to do the last minute shopping for today. Now this week we have to do the last minute shopping for Xmas day.

We're loading up at the Walmart and I see this Xmas tree. Completely decorated and all lit up. Slowly moving across the parking lot. Somebody has it on the back of their pickup truck.

I just finished chattin' with Billy. His brother is going down to see him on Xmas eve. He leaves for Iraq early January. Not looking forward to it, but I told him to keep his head down and the safety off.

We're heading down to Harrisburg tomorrow morning to kick off this week of shopping. I'll be talkin' to ya!

...Rigging up these Lights!!

We have a two day crush until ALL of Deb's family comes here. She has some sort of martyr complex I think. Her dad and mom and I installed a toilet upstairs today. We will be working here solidly for the next few days.

I will be able to wangle 3 days off of work, with holidays I only have to go in on the 26th.

I must go help fix the house. Listening to the Jethro Tull Xmas album.

Pray for me.

cya

They Always Come in 3's

The one you probably heard about...

"Dimebag" Darrell, guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan was gunned down by a crazed fan. Five people were killed at the show, several wounded. I got to see Pantera open for Black Sabbath. Instrumentally, they were very, very good.

The one you might have heard about...

David Brudnoy, talk show host at WBZ Boston died from AIDS related cancer. He was a 30 year veteran of the talk show format and a college professor. He gave his last show Wednesday from his death bed and died Thursday evening. It was very moving. I didn't listen to him alot, but garnered much information on him from the other hosts on the station. He had been fighting the disease for over 10 years. He was 64.

The one you probably didn't hear about...

Jillian Swartz, 13, died from an aggressive brain tumor earlier this week. I did not know her personally, but she danced for the Margaret McCann School of Dance, which I do production and graphics for. I know the amount of work the kids put in and how much fun they have. I know that she will be missed.

cya

Happy Hollandaise

Here's wishing you a Murry Chris Moose and a Hippo Ewe Deer.

I am FINALLY starting to feel better. Last thursday the Dr. took me off Zocor. By Saturday I was feeling significantly better. We did the dance recital over the weekend. I had enough energy to get thru it. I'm actually starting to think that I may get into Xmas this year after all.

So I start feeling better and Sunday I feel a cold coming on. Now I'm in the middle of it. I'm hitting it hard early so it will go away quick. I hope to get back exercising on Wednesday if I don't feel any worse today.

Lots happening. I'll try for an update in a few days.

cya

The Dead of Finter

All the leaves are off the trees, but it hasn't snowed yet. It's not Fall...It's not Winter...It's....FINTER!!!

Today was Thanksgiving. We went to Deb's Grandma's for lunch. Had a very nice time. Her uncle's mother was there. She isn't doing too well. Babbling and singing to herself...trouble remembering people. Tough to watch cause she's a nice lady.

We headed down to Newport and visited with my brother and nieces for awhile. Had another meal there too. I'm dinnered out for awhile.

Work is going ok. Chrissy got her memory yesterday and Mike helped her put it in. Looks to be running pretty good. I'd like to get a few sticks for my machine too.

We're watchin' Charlie Brown and I'm typin' to you.

cya

More Stuff

Went to the Dr. today. Took me off some meds, put me on some meds, took some blood, the usual. I got the wrong memory for Chrissy's computer and we have to send that back. They won't charge me restocking if we order the new stuff from them, so that's 25 bucks I don't have to spend.

Off to work.

cya

Stuff

Apparantly somebody saw my last post. Go here...I tried, but it's down.

Big assault in Iraq. Wonder why they didn't do it last week?

I've been sick the past few days. I go in for a carotid doppler tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll feel good enough to go to work.

later

Apologies

I'd like to apologize to the rest of the planet for our incapability of electing the smarter guy president. We have a disproportionately high number of stupid people in our country and, unfortunately, we allow them to vote.

Is Arafat dead? Isn't he? How are you doing in your office pool? :)

I went to the local Dr. today. My Cardio Dr. took me off of two meds and today is the first day without. He started me on an anti-anxiety pill too. My neck still bothers me, but I feel a little better. Saturday will tell the tale though, when we go to the game.

Onward

We are sooooo Fucked.

Kerry has a chance. However, mathematically, it's an uphill fight. We are so screwed if George wins. Chrissy wants to get a place in Canada, sounds good to me.

Oh well, Pennsylvania did it's part. I was very proud of our state. A shame we couldn't get it together in one or 2 other states. I think they're gonna call Wisconsin. Ohio, Iowa and New Mexico won't finish till tomorrow.

I give em a few more minutes then I'm going to bed.

Night all

Nailbiter

It's gonna be pretty close. I hope you all voted...

CNN has a great thing where you can punch in your zip code and look at the results for your area. As of 10:38, it's 58 percent Kerry, 41 percent Bush with 57 percent of the polls reporting. As of 10:30, some polls in Pennsylvania were not closed yet. One poll reported 300 people waiting to vote. I am really thrilled with the turnout, especially since that favors the Democrats.

My cath was uneventful. Bill and Betty came down with Deb and I to hang out. I had to wait almost 5 hours for them to do it. They put little 15in TV's on swing arms in the recovery area. That was very cool. They were doing a countdown on CNN till the polls closed and the time coincided with when they would let me get up and walk. I didn't even have to check my watch. There were no blockages. I probably won't be back to work till Sunday. I go see the Dr. tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out what the problem is.

We were coming home down 2nd street in Harrisburg and passed a construction site at the Dragonfly. There was a fold up barrier that decided to fall against the Pacifica just as I passed it. I guess god doesn't want me to have a nice vehicle. We exchanged information with the guy in charge and headed up the road. We stopped at The Glass Lounge to eat and headed home to watch the returns.

It's gonna be close. I think it will all boil down to Ohio. I'm praying for Kerry. Enjoy the returns.

cya

Vote

...for Kerry. And I promise, if you vote for him all of those commercials will go away.

I'll remember this election day on several levels. I have to be at the hospital for the cath at 12:30 tomorrow. If there's no problems, I'll be home early evening. If they have to stent or balloon, I will be there at least overnight. Just gimme a tv so I can watch the returns and I'll be happy.

I took pictures for the winter recital yesterday. I'll put up one or two when I get a chance.

I'll be lookin' for ya...

Problems Continued

I've been off work since Tuesday. I've had dizzyness and a heavy chest and numbness and neck pain and all sorts of problems. I finally browbeat the Cardio doctor into seeing me. It looks like that, while you're enjoying the election returns showing Kerry winning, I get to go to the hospital and have another Cardiac Cath.

Hopefully, if everything is clear, I can go back to work next Thursday. If they do a stint it will be a few weeks until I can go back.

The Red Sox won. Yippee. I don't believe in curses anyway. It's gonna be amazing. A Super Bowl champ, a World Series champ and a President from the same city in the same year.

I'll let you know stuff when I know stuff.

cya

Believe

Red Sox go to the World Series. Greatest come from behind in baseball history. All of that is sweet, but they did it against the Yankees, which makes it even sweeter. Right, Cat? :)

I'm off work again today...go into the Dr. on Saturday to try to get this straightened out. I will start up the exercise next week. One way or another. Weight has been pretty static since the hospital. I need to start losing some more to stay on the time table.

On Tuesday the electrician came to put in our new panels. The wiring looks 1000 percent better. He said that some of the wires were actually loose in the breakers. We could have had a fire at any time. Nice. I have some more insulation to remove and to move a few pieces and he will be back to start wiring some of the basement so we can move stuff.

Not much else to write. I'll be back atcha later.

2 days in a row

We had an interesting day. One drain in the sink was working and another wasn't. And, the dishwasher overflowed. I messed with it a little, but I'm no plumber, so we called my father-in-law. He came out and messed with it a little, but we finally decided to call Sears and have a tech come out. Turns out we've had the damn thing for 12 years. I didn't think it was that old.

We ripped out more ceiling slats downstairs and pulled out more insulation. Wrapped that up around 7 and headed up to Giant for some supplies. Deb and the kids are going up to the PA Grand Canyon tomorrow. I get to go to work.

The kids went up to Massachusetts to pick up a car that a friend bought. Turns out that it didn't have a radiator. They had to scramble and find one, then put it in and drive back. They're gonna be back later.

So I'm hangin' out watchin' The Screen Savers, and typin' to you.

cya

Update

Sorry I've haven't posted for awhile.

Last Wednesday at work I had some problems. It was pretty much all the symptoms of a heart attack. I managed to make it home and felt pretty weak. Got up the next morning and felt ok, but as soon as I started moving around I felt weak again.

I went to the Dr's office and they sent me to the emergency room. I stayed in the hospital overnite for observation and they gave me a stress test on Friday. It was a nuclear thing and they gave me a drug that artificially stressed me. I came home Friday, but they didn't let me go back to work till Tuesday. I had to go back in Monday for a resting test. The same radioisotope, but no treadmill or chemical.

We went to the PSU vs. Perdue game on Saturday. I had to walk nice and easy, but other than that I was fine. It was a pretty good game. 108,000 people were there, and they were very noisy.

There was some stupidity at work that I'm not gonna get into here. I don't think it was a factor, but it might have been. The doctor released me for the same type of work. I've been having trouble the last few days keeping up. I don't think I can keep doing it, but it may be something like a muscle pull or something. I go see the general practicioner on Monday.

We've been ripping out insulation today. We'll be doing that tomorrow too. The electrical guy will be here Tuesday to fix the meter and put in the new box.

I won't be posting as much as I had been, but I will pick it back up again at some point. I will try to do several a week tho, so keep checking in.

VP Debate

I thought it was pretty close. I think pretty close favors Edwards.

Two reasons. Edwards has been kind of hidden since accepting the VP role. This showed that he could hold his own. I heard the phrase "looks presidential" more than once too.

Also, and this may sound convoluted but I think it's valid, a strong performance by Cheney could hurt them. It gives creedence to the "Svengali theory". That Cheney really is the guy running the country. He actually blows Bush away when it comes to getting his point across.

It looks like we can use campaign paraphenalia at work. I saw a woman with a "Kerry/Edwards" T-shirt. The Bushies were extremely pissed. But they'll start wearing they're stuff too. And the game is on. :)

I had to sit on HPB and another person who will go nameless. Our section of the machine, when we set up, has the most stuff to do. The most containers to get, etc. HPB and the other have half of what we do and usually stand around and gab when we're finishing up our stuff. No problem with that, but.... They have one sack to get that's different.....they use maybe two a night. They come down and take the ones that we get for ourselves. Not today. I told both of them to go get they're own. I've been wanting to do it for awhile and didn't feel justified. Today, I went to get them, so I did. And I did.

First day at the gym. It went pretty good.

I gotta get some sleep people.

cya

Hey...

I've been really busy the past 5 days or so.

I've got about 80 percent of the basement ripped apart. Our furnace is in, the house is very comfy. We've got our fireplace, but they have to order some replacement logs. One of ours is cracked.

I went back to work today. I listened to the debates and thought that Kerry did everything he had to do. I didn't SEE them, but they're saying that George didn't come across well. This was supposed to be in his lap. I'm hearing that it wasn't.

I've got pics from everything and I'll try to post some at some point.

cya

Just my luck...

This will be very quick.

We worked in the basement all day. I managed to listen to Penn State lose while we were doing it. We were almost ready to stop and our power got weird. Long story short, we had an electrician and PP&L come out to get things back.

We're finally running and all getting showers...it's after 2.

I'll talk to you later.

Ivan...the Terrible (Pt 2)

Saturday we were up around 9. It was a long night and we had to get ready for the game. We had worked out with Toby last night that we’d pick him up where he works in Lewistown. We took a look at the damage, packed our stuff and headed out.

Less than a mile from the house they came across the radio saying that traffic was being let through the Lewistown narrows 20 cars at a time. This was due to partial flooding and mudslides. They also said that they were probably going to close the narrows later because of the rising waters. Deb and I decided that going to the game wasn’t the best thing to do.

We went into town and headed to the Weis store for some essentials. I managed, in a round about way, to contact Toby. When I explained the situation to him, he said “Christ, I better get my ass home!”

We headed back home by way of the inlaws place. They were still pumping out the basement with that coveted gas powered sump pump. We came back toward the house and made it about a mile from our place. There was a tree still across the road. Later on we found out that it split a pole in two and left the transformer on the ground. No wonder we didn’t have power.

We took the long way around, surveying the damage all over the place, and finally made it home. Mike was here, so we took to removing the two limbs from the oak tree. That took several hours. Chrissy was at a baby shower for her stepsister, she got home around 6 or so and her and Mike played on the tree. I took pictures.

We finished up toward dark and decided to wash up. Deb heated water on the grill and we mixed it with cold water in the bowl to take a bowl bath. I thought it would suck, but I felt pretty good afterward. It was very interesting rinsing off in the tub with a gallon jug of cold water. Lots of fun! Remember, yesterday was all the mucking around in the basement and I hadn’t cleaned up afterward.

We went into the local chinese restaurant and pigged out. We were all pretty goofy and it was after 9 when we sat down to eat. I called Cat and we tried to one up each other on the damage. They got hit pretty hard up her way too.

We came home and lit the candles and hung out for a bit listening to the radio, then everybody crashed. Pretty early too. We had a little sleepover in the living room, since the waterbeds were too cold (but not for the cat).

Tomorrow we clean.

I’ll continue this later. Heading out to the BOC/UFO show.

cya

Quick Update

Today was rehab. As soon as I walked in they told me that Louise called from Harrisburg. I'm not supposed to let my heart rate go over 100. I rode the bike yesterday and made a game out of NOT letting my heart rate drop below 100. So everything went back a notch today. I don't like it, but she'll explain it to me when she gets back from the conference.

This week has been relatively cool at work. EGCW is on light duty, so there is a lot less of his stress induction.

I go to see Blue Oyster Cult and UFO tomorrow near Phila. I'm going to be taking pics, so they will be going up after the Ivan pics do. During the day the furnace guys will be here. Probably won't post again till late Friday.

I'll get part 2 of the Ivan story up too.

cya

Ivan...the Terrible (Pt 1)

Friday was a rehab day for me. It was raining lightly. I was supposed to meet with the nutritionist after my workout. She was there and said to page her when I was done. They did, but they couldn’t locate her. Finally they found her and we rescheduled for Monday. I had managed to go down another pound.

I went home and started on the basement. I got a lot more done. A lot of things went into containers, which was a very good thing as it turned out. We took a break for dinner and did some more. The rain was picking up a bit.

We kept checking the Weather Channel because of the game Saturday. It looked like Ivan was moving really fast and would blow out of here by kickoff. Amy wasn’t able to go, she was going to Trish’s (Chrissy’s Stepsister’s) baby shower. But Toby was looking for someone to fill in. He wouldn’t know for sure until later in the evening.

Back to work in the basement for awhile. I got nice and dusty moving stuff. We knocked off with a feeling that we were on track for the furnace guys to come in. I went up and figured I’d get a shower in a bit. Deb went to bed. Chrissy was playing Baldur’s Gate and I was on the computer. The rain was picking up. Very hard at times.

Around midnight the power went out for about 5 seconds. Whew…dodged a bullet that time. At about 12:15 the power dropped again. You know the vroom it makes when it comes back up, right. It was “Bam….vroom…Bam…vroom…Bam…vroom…Bam…vroom….Bam…vroom…BAM”

After the fourth drop, I said out loud “This is not good”. And it wasn’t. There we were, no power. So Chris went for some candles and I went in to shut down Deb’s machine and turn off her power supply. We did that and I told Chris to come down with me so I could cut my machines off.

I sat down at the machine and did my thing and moved my foot about two inches to the right. (Me) “Fuck….FUCK…” (Chrissy) “What’s wrong?” (Me) “The damn basement’s flooding.”

I immediately go into panic mode and figure that I have to get the sump pump running. So I go out and WADE into the garage. Probably about 2 inches of water there. I find the power inverter and go get the car. BTW, I forgot to mention that we couldn’t burn all of the trash that we generated during the day. So we stacked it up in the garage. So I had to maneuver around that while doing all this stuff too. I get the inverter hooked up to the van and plug the pump in and it runs.

We start moving boxes off the floor. We had a lot of plastic containers, so we were pretty good on some stuff. We had extra plastic boxes and stacked stuff on top of them.

The pump didn’t sound right, so I took a look at it. It turns out that the inverter is quite powerful enough to run the pump. So we were fucked. The second time I opened the garage door, one of the containers in the back of the garage blew over from the change in air pressure. It was really blowing outside.

So, at this point, I naturally decide that I’m going to Wal-Mart to get an inverter. The river had been rising up that way, but I didn’t think it was too bad.

I’m starting to shake at this point, so the diet goes out the window. I eat a bunch of snack bars and head up the road. This begins to unfold as a bad TV movie. I head down toward the highway, 3.2 miles away. There is a tree branch hanging from a tree just down the road from the house. Of course, I don’t get the omen thing.

I keep going and have to weave around a tree covering half the road. I keep going and trees are down everywhere. At one point I see a power line on the road. I go a little further and there is a tree completely across the road that has been cut to allow one lane of traffic thru. A little further down there is a huge tree down. Past that there is a tree down on a house. I finally get to the highway and there are emergency vehicles all over the place. I tell a guy flagging that I want to go to Lewistown. He says, you’re not going anywhere. They’re closing down 22/322 and not letting anyone on the highway.

So I turn around and head back home. I have a guy in front of me that’s going pretty slow and I know he doesn’t know where all the debris is, so I pass him. He’s got a Bush bumper sticker on, so I know he’s pissed when he sees my Kerry sticker. I get ahead of him and stop at the trees that are down till he catches up. So he can see what’s going on.

I get to the point where the tree was down on my way in, and there is a borough truck there. The guy gets out and puts up a “Road Closed” sign. He comes back and says I can’t get thru. I tell him I was just through there 5 minutes ago. I take a look and another tree has fallen, and this one does the job completely.

So we turn around and head back. There is a little dirt road that I thought I’d be cute and take. I get back it about 100 yards and there’s a dead tree across the road. I think I can pivot it and move it out of the way. Since it’s old and dead. Well, it is pivoted on the road in such a way that I can’t get any leverage. This is a very narrow road and I had a hell of a time turning around. Mr Bush was at the end of the road and I followed him back to the highway. We got on the road that was the detour until recently. All along that road there are trees down partially blocking the road.

We head up toward the rendering plant, so far so good. I get about a mile from my house and there’s another tree across the road. The road is completely covered, but there is a vehicle width between a fence and the tree. Mr. Bush goes for it and makes it. I think about it a second and think, screw it, and I go. I slid a little, but I did make it around. I finally made it home. Resigned to a wet basement.

The wind is whipping a lot. We’re sitting in the living room and Deb is spooked a few times by “cracks” outside. A little after two, she calls me out and says, “Does that sound like a freight train?” It did, but I didn’t want to panic anybody, so I said don’t worry about it.

We sat up and fretted a bit, then finally went to bed.

I’ll continue this later.

cya

Aaaand....we're back!

This will be brief, I'll go into detail in a day or so.

We got spanked by Ivan. Basement flooded and trees down. Power was out from 12:10 am Saturday till about 6:15 Monday. We're slowly getting back to normal.

I've been getting systems up and running here. We're still sleeping in the living room tonight because the waterbeds aren't warm enough yet.

I'll get ya all caught up by the weekend.

cya

Vote for Kerry

I can't say it enough.

Deb was home today. I got up and Deb walked with me for a little. Then I finished up and did the weights.

I headed down to the burg and picked up a memory card at Best Buy. I'm running really tight on time, and the guy says he'll help me and goes to the computer. Then the phone rings and he spends 4 minutes with the person on the phone. That is wrong. I was still ok on time, so I didn't push it, but that really pisses me off.

Then I go up to pay. I use the credit card. Now, Deb and I messed up when we got them and signed each other's card. So this girl at the register is the first one to call me on it. Perfectly within her rights, but just bad timing. So I have to run out to the car, get the drivers license and then show it to her. I made it to work on time, but just barely.

We were a person short, so they brought down TQOTPS. This is one of those guys that has a problem with everything, the whole worlds out to get him, and he's gonna fuck 'em before they fuck him.

During our 1st rotation, he stays down for almost 50 minutes. It's supposed to be 30 minutes, maybe 40 at the outside. The next rotation he tries it again. I didn't let it happen. At 30 minutes I gave him 5 more. Then I went down and started clearing the machine. He wouldn't go up. He stayed down for 10 minutes. I didn't really care. He went up and got all full of himself and told Paulette that "I'm not coming down till 10". Problem is, we go to break at 5 of.

She tells me this when we switch. TQOTPS is talking to HPB the whole time, instead of coding. Then, when Paulette and I are talking, she stands near us trying to hear what we're saying. So I moved so I was facing away from her. Lots of fun at the PO.

I finished up the evening and headed home. I had to stop and get gas, then I had to stop at the store for some stuff. I finally got home and started writing this.

cya

Ignorance Is...?

God, what day is it. I had rehab today. It actually showed me up one pound. Which I don't understand, but I'm sure it's just temporary.

I had to go out to Wally World and pick up some stuff. Then I headed down to work.

When I'm punching in, there is this mail handler talking to another mail handler. He's saying "Yeah....Kerry's guilty of treason. He should be in jail. But for some reason, they didn't want to put him in."

I think it's amazing that people take a work of fiction that's been completely debunked and use it as their primary argument. I wondered to a friend of mine if it's actually painful to be that ignorant, or if there is really something to the "bliss" theory.

The rest of the day was ok. At the end, Evelyn, who was in my rotation, asked me if we had any overweight mail on my side of the machine. I said no. Five minutes later EGCW asks me the same thing, he's not in my rotation. I ignored him. It felt...right. :)

Came home and rebooted my xp machine from blue screen of death. I looks like SP2 installed ok. So far, so good.

Came upstairs and turned on The Weather Channel. Ivan is raising hell with the gulf coast. It's gonna be very interesting what the morning brings. And Jeanne is projected to hit the Atlantic Coast of Florida. What a mess.

Cat sent me an email saying that the bass player for Blue Oyster Cult has bolted and left them high and dry. Buck seems to be ok with it, except for the fact of little notice. I tried to send Buck a message for permission to use my camera at Keswick, but his mailbox was full. I'll try to resend tomorrow.

We're looking at heavy rain for the game in Happy Valley on Saturday. That should be fun.

Gotta go to bed.

cya

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday (Tuesday Edition)

I wanted to get up early today and go to a clients place to work on her machine. It turns out my back pain delays two days until it kicks in. So I got up and got a pill and went back to bed.

I finally got up and did my walk and exercise. I went down and checked my machine and found out I could get XP service pack 2. So I put it in and started installing it, then I went to work.

Work was relatively ok today. We had some mail sent down from upstairs and it all decided to drop into 2 sacks in the area I was working in. It was very annoying and bothered my back a little, so I took a pain pill. BLFH tried to give me a little shit when I was getting my pill, but I ignored her. We didn't get done completely, so that's kinda cool too.

I headed home.

Mike was here. He bought some chinese food for us, so I had some chicken and rice. We discussed the day, then I came in and watched "Unscrewed". Then I started typing this.

talk to ya later

These are you Children, see what you have done...

Got up and went to rehab. Lost another pound too. They're so proud of me up there. Two more guys started today. One of 'em is around my age. Louise went over some of the exercises with me at the end of my workout.

Headed home, got some lunch and headed to work. Work has been pretty benign lately, so we know that some shit is right around the corner.

We had a meeting today. At the end of the meeting, one of the gun nut assholes says "I want to say that today is a historic day. We're getting rid of the oppression of the Clinton administration..." And that's where I turned off. But the Pointy Headed Boss engaged the guy. So we had a political discussion on the workfloor, which is a BIG no-no. Nice to know that the gun nut postal workers can all go out and buy assault weapons now, huh?

An uneventful day. Came home and did this. I have a client to see tomorrow, so I'm wrappin' up.

cya

Not a Pelican Brief

It was a speedy day. Slept late and went into work. We got split up onto 2 machines. The whiners were on the other machine and we had a nice peaceful start to work. A bunch of daylight people stayed and they're pretty pleasant too.

Not much to report after that. I came home and watched a very good "Six Feet Under". Lots of story movement tonight.

Here's a website for y'all. Did you ever wonder what the condemned man's last meal was? Take a look here.

And I started typing this to all you good people.

Maybe I'll have more of a life later...till then...

cya

A Day of Rememberance

I didn’t get up till almost noon today. Chrissy went down to New Bloomfield for a memorial for her friend who died the other week. Deb and I started in on the basement.

We got a good chunk done. I can actually walk in my office now. We got most of the stuff in the middle area cleaned. Deb ripped out about half of the ceiling.

It’s a lot of fun to go over the old stuff. Found a couple of old pics that I wanna scan and put up.

I did my walk. Then I came in and started weights. We had a pizza delivered, so I took a break and ate. Then I did the rest of my exercises during the first half of the Penn State / Boston College game.

Penn State managed to lose 21 to 7. It’s still early in the season, so I’m not too worried. They seemed to have more gas left at the end of the game, but they just couldn’t get it done. I hope that they don’t let it affect them, We’re taking Toby and Amy up to the UCF game next week.

Chrissy told me that the thing she went to today was covered in the Harrisburg paper. Because they had a party instead of a funeral. You can try this link, if not, go to Pennlive.com and search “wilt”.

I’m watching a CNN thing on 911 and typing this to all you special people

cya

Runaround

Got up this morning and went into Two Sisters to do some photography for their website. I maintain their website as well. When I feel up to it, I'll add it to the link section. Paula and Betsy are a lot of fun. We always have a great time. I shot for about an hour and headed up to rehab. I got to do my full routine.

Then I headed back home. I was having trouble with some, well, a lot of the pics coming out too dark. So I adjusted what I had and burned them off and headed back into the shop. I figured out what the problem was reshot most of what we did, but it was worth it. I'll let you know when I post them.

I went into the store and got some salad and dressing, then I came home. My butt was really draggin', so I tried to take a little nap. Deb came home, then the 3 of us headed into Stop 35 for dinner. Picked up a lottery ticket and headed home.

I helped Deb fill out her food diary and then went online. Chrissy and I watched a movie called "Boondock Saints". It was pretty cool, a real shoot em up with religous overtones. I got to have a long chat with Cat while I was watching it. Even though she said it would be a short one.

Then I surfed for awhile and started this.

Talk to you later.

The Completion Backwards Principle

So....the two posts below are backwards. Sorry about that. That's what happens when you try to do stuff quick. Am I right people??

I went in and fixed a clients computer today. I got everything working except the damn Outlook Express. It works ok on their one machine, so I installed Eudora on the other machine. Go get Eudora. I've used it since the BBS days and never had ANY problems with it.

Came home and wanted to walk, but it was raining. I took a look out, and precisely at 12:30 the rain quit. Well, slowed down to a manageable trickle. I went out hoping to get an hour in. At 45 minutes, when I was in front of my house, the rain picked up again. I took it as a sign.

I went in and started my resistance training. I've decided to do everything on one day, 3 days a week. It went pretty good.

I threw the bike in the car and headed down to the Burg. I went in and picked some stuff out and picked out a seat and some tires. It should be done next week.

I went into work. Work was ok. Nothing major to report.

Headed home and got on my downstairs machine. Looks like the restore worked, but I'm having driver issues again. I guess I'm gonna have to do a wipe of the drive and start from scratch. I'm gonna procrastinate as much as possible tho.

Client to see tomorrow too. So I gotta go.

cya

Get it Up...

Got up and did an hour walking. I'm a little concerned that I can't get my heart rate up over 90. Ill be taking the bike down to get fixed tomorrow, maybe I can get the heart rate up over 90.

I went to work. Work was pretty benign, but I managed to make it through. I found out that there was a blow up between two guys on friday, but I didn't get the full skinny on it. I have some more in a day or 2.

I've been listening to DBF tapes from May 99. Sound pretty clunky, but pretty good in spots.

I got a client to see tomorrow, so that's about it.

You kids have fun.

cya

I posted yesterday, I promise.

The system shows that there were problems. I'm trying to get it to go up now, but it doesn't want to.

(For Paulette) fuck all you fuckin fukers.....i'm tired, i'm goin to bed.

Work wasn't too bad. My client cancelled on me today, so i gotta go see em tomorrow. Another early night.

Louise gave me some good strokes today. Very proud of my progress. Make me blush. :)

Gotta fix this and hit the rack. More later.

Cya

Two Days in One

Ok....another twofer.

I got up yesterday and went over to the inlaws. I had to do my walk before we ate. It was cool to have some different visual input. I had a few hills to go up, which worked out ok. I want to do a week of 1 hour walks before I start doing hills. Of course, if they don't approve it, I won't be doing it.

I got back to Bill and Betty's house and a bunch of the family was there. I was a little surprised because I thought it was just gonna be us. We had a nice picnic meal and gave Chrissy and Betty some gifts. It's kinda convenient. Chrissy's birthday was Friday, Betty's birthday is Tuesday and Deb's is Thursday.

I headed to work. I got an idea on the way down. I told you a while back that one day my back was so bad I couldn't get out of bed. I was trying to think of a way to give me some relief and I got an idea. We have things called Vertalifts. They are a hand pushed forklift that will lift one of our smaller containers. It raises the container on an arc up to 90 degrees. I got dirty looks from some of the evil ones as well as a few of the mailhandlers, but I went ahead and did it anyway.

Bonnie and Kathy (another one of the good ones) were in my rotation. They both loved it. It involves an extra step, but it doesn't seem to take more time. Both of the girls are short and have to lift high to get the sack into the aircraft container. This way, it goes into the lower container, then on the Vertalift, then you can stand upright and transfer the sack.

I couldn't have done this with the regular supervisor there, but there is a fill in guy who was working who is easy to get along with. He came up later and said I should put in a suggestion request to get permission to use it. I told Bonnie about the plan earlier in the night and said "It's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission", that's why I went ahead and did it.

We went on break and came back and, guess what?? The lift was gone. I don't know if EGCW or LBFH were responsible, or one of the mailhandlers. I didn't push it because I proved what I needed to prove and I had support from other workers. LBFH said something to Kathy at one point while she was walking away, it ended in "It's part of the job". I yelled back "It wasn't part of the job to do this for 6 fucking hours when we started". At a lower volume I said to Kathy next to me "...You stupid bitch".

So we had lots of nice tension all night. I let it roll off me. When I know I'm right, I can deal with a lot of stuff. We're also going to write a letter to the safety office. I'm gonna get a bunch of people to sign it.

I came home. The kids we're in the den so I actually got the living room for awhile. I've been really damn tired lately, so I went to bed early.

Woke up today around 9, but I didn't get up till Deb rousted me at 10:30. We straightened up the place for awhile and then put the meat on the grill. Chrissy was watching it but I had to put some hot dogs on. When I did, I closed the lid. She had the heat up too high and some of the stuff got burned, but I thought the sausages, which were burnt the worst, tasted pretty good.

We went down and worked on the basement for awhile and Billy showed up. So we hung out and talked for awhile. He mentioned that he was gonna get a digital camera and Deb suggested that we give him my old Nikon. So I did. He didn't want to take it, but I convinced him that I got more than enough use out of it and he should try it. If it dies, it's no big loss. I also got him set up with a blog. It's here, I'll put it in my links when he's got some posts on it.

The kids went down to Harrisburg to get some baby shower gifts at Babies 'R Us. Deb and I walked and then watched some tv.

The kids came home and showed us what they got. We're watching "Real Time with Bill Maher" and I'm doing this.

Now we're all caught up.

cya

WE ARE.....(pt 1)

PENN STATE.....dammit. :)

Game day. Season opener. Signal of fall and the start of all that is right with the world. Of course, I'm talking about football. But not your gay, european soccer kind of football. Not your overpriced, whiny american professional kind of football. No sir, I'm talking about your college football. Specifically your Penn State football.

I slept in today, thank god. I really needed it. I got up and did my walk. Came in and changed and we headed up the road. Chrissy, Mike and JoAnn weren't too hungover after they're party, so they had gone into Stop 35 (a local trucker diner) for breakfast/lunch. When they got back they said that traffic on the highway was backed up from the narrows almost all the way to Mifflintown exit. I wasn't too worried. We got on the highway a little before 2 and had a clear shot the whole way up to Happy Valley.

We parked in a different area than normal and we really like it. No major hills to deal with, just a gradual incline up to the stadium. We got up to the ticket window, which is right up by our gate and I held the tickets up in the air. Within 3 minutes we had them both sold. I didn't get much, but it was better than having 2 pieces of paper. Here's the deal though. We never saw either of the guys we sold them to. Weird, huh?

We headed up and watched PSU thoroughly trounce Akron 48 to 10. It was 48 to 3 up until about 6 minutes to go. They ran 4 different quarterbacks and had 2nd and 3rd string players in. All of the squads seem to be a cut above last years team.

Here's my notes. 2 tailbacks ran for over 100 yards. The second play from scrimmage was a 77 yard touchdown run by Tony Hunt, and they didn't look back. The first time for that since 93. Zack Mills threw a touchdown, ran for a touchdown, and caught a touchdown pass. That is very cool.

Again, you don't wanna throw a whole season of hopes on one game. But there was a palpable difference in this team from last year. They are more physical. The first half of football was about as perfect as you could ask for. At one point, for 7 posessions, there were 7 touchdowns. There was one point where Akron was threatening and I thought "Oh well, I guess they're gonna get 7." Last year, they would have. This year, they sucked it up and stopped them. They have energy. They have emotion. The defense was able to pick off a Heisman candidate and keep his longest pass completion to 15 yards. The offensive line dominated. It feels very nice to say that. The PSU recievers are trying something new this year called "catching the ball". It seems to go over well with the crowd.

The officials missed a few calls (It's a Penn State game, after all) :) But when your up by 40+ points, it doesn't bother you nearly as much.

I took a lot of pics, I'll put some on the photoblog tonight.

We went to Sam's afterward and found a backway to the parking lot we were in. We're gonna try to park there more often. Then we headed down and met the kids at Angelo's for some good eats. We then went back up to Giant on the other side of town and did our grocery shopping. We came home and put stuff away. Then I headed down here to do this.

BTW. I'm doing this on the XP machine downstairs. It seems to be behaving, but it didn't like my reboot a few days ago. So things are not 100% yet.

cya

Bentley's!...Ass!...Cut!

A very long, strange day.

I got up at 7:30 and went over to the car dealer. The replaced the dash, gave the car a wash and, to my surprise, we're able to inspect it. The inspection was set up in a weird way. I had to get it inspected twice in a year.

I headed over to Walmart to get a few things, then back to rehab.

Rehab was weird. Louise went over weights with me and I got to do the full workout, that part was ok. But... The gay guy I told you about a few weeks back? The guy that brought cake? He came in with a briefcase. Well...he sings for the girls that are there. He's got a fairly nice soprano voice. Then it comes out that he was a drag queen, and still is. Funny, funny stuff. I'm just shakin' my head. Besides, I know that, in a few months, I'll look a lot better in a dress than he does. :)

I came down here and picked up a prescription and got gas, then headed home. About 10 minutes after I got here, Mike got here. He worked on the van a bit while I worked on the basement. Then we got the chipper shredder out and couldn't get it started. I realized after a while that I was pretty tired, so I came up and laid down.

I got a few phone calls, one was Billy, the other was Toby. Billy said he'd stop out later in the evening. Toby did too, but he never showed. I heard Mike finally get the chipper started when I was talking to Billy. We ran some wood for a half hour or so and then came up and got showers.

Chrissy got home and was going crazy to get stuff ready for her friends. Then Deb finally got home. The kids have 5 tents set up in the backyard and a ton of alcohol. Billy showed up and we got to talk for a good hour or so. He left, but said he'd be back Monday. Things slowly degenerated outside and Deb and I came in a little after 11.

The funniest exchange I heard this evening...

"Hey man, check this out, you're really gonna love this CD."

"Why? Is it full of porn?"
So now I'm watching "Dinner For Five" and typing this. A tip of the hat to Faizon Love for tonight's title.

cya

Get Up, Stand Up...

I woke up around 9 to go lift the weights and walk. It was all I could do to get out of bed. My back was killin’ me. I took a pain pill and went back to bed.

I got back up around 11 and headed down to Newport to have lunch with Margaret. We had a great lunch and talked about some stuff for the show at Christmastime.

Bill Magill’s mom came in and she was with Vivian Drum. Mrs. Drum was married to the first minister I remember at the Presbyterian church in Newport. It was great to see them.

I had a large cappuccino. Here’s a bit of advice. If you haven’t had caffine for a few months, Don’t get a large cappuccino. I was vibrating all night. Hell, I still have a little buzz from it. This coffee cup is the size of a nice soup bowl. Incredible.

I got to work and saw that someone put another Bush sticker up on their locker. So I went to the supervisor and told him. I said “There’s a campaign sticker up in the locker room, can you get it taken down?” He says, “Who’s it for?” I said, “Who do you think?” He laughed. It appears that he’s a Kerry man, so I guess he’s not all bad. :)

Evidentally the guy works on tour 1 (overnight). I guess he came in and Sid talked to him. He got pretty pissed.

The RNC

Let’s sum up the whole think, ok? 911, 911, war on terror, 911, connected, war on terror.

I cannot wait for the debates, I think that Kerry has a chance to take this by double digits.

It turns out that Kerry got the last word in this news cycle and from what I understand he took the gloves off.

It’s about time.

They say he’s a strong closer. I hope so, for all our sakes.

Let me wrap this up with a few things. Both men have negatives. If you took Kerry’s and put them together you’d probably have a baseball, or maybe a softball. If you take Bush’s and put them together, you’d have a planet.

And I will never, NEVER, vote for anyone who wants to write biased language into the constitution. Nor would I vote for someone who wants to take women’s rights away with language in the constitution.

He’s goin’ down.

cya

I Told Ya...

Had to go into a client's office early today. They were having problems connecting to the net. I went to his machine (there are 3) and turned it on. I got on the net right away and connected to his email right away. I told him he just needs to hire me to be in the office. Just to be around the machines so they work. His secretary's machine has a little more complicated problem, so I have to go back next week and take care of that.

I stopped in to talk to Margaret, she's right next door. She had a headache and she gets doozy's. I hung out for a few minutes and we talked about basements and stuff like that. We're gonna hook up for lunch tomorrow, so I have to get some sleep here at some point. :)

I went up to rehab. It's the first time since last Wednesday that I did my whole machine routine. Dessa said that my heartrate was elevated. She was a little concerned, but I said I was pushing it a little too. So I guess I'll survive.

I came home, fixed lunch and started to watch tv when I heard "heloooo??" It was Mike. Since the kids are having a party on Friday, he came up to mow the lawn and fix the van. The van still has some problems, but he'll get it straightened out, I'm sure. I hooked him up with a walkman and headed to work.

At first break I saw the general clerk and asked her if she got my buck slip (english=note) to put me on the ODL (english=overtime desired list). She said yes, but she can't call me because the union took my name off. It turns out that if you don't sign up within 3 days after you return, you can't be on the list. This is that oncoming bullshit I told you about.

I was really cheezed and asked the supervisor for a steward. He starts with the 20 questions and says "Can I ask you what it's about?" My response was "It's about I NEED A UNION STEWARD". Never give the enemy any information, only the bare minimum.

I went up and talked with the steward. She explained that it was true and they were enforcing the contract. I understand that, but I said...How am I supposed to know about this?? Shouldn't my supervisor have asked me about the ODL as soon as I came back? They are the ones that pass the sheet around quarterly. It's their responsibility 4 times a year, I think it should be their responsibility in this situation. She agreed and said she'd talk to the head steward and get back to me tonight.

She didn't.

It's starting to not be funny. This is the third time that she's forgotten about me. I mean, tell me "I'll see you in 3 or 4 days." Just stick to your word. I think I have to make an impression on her.

I should, in all fairness, say that the supervisor came and apologized to me later. I graciously accepted.

The rest of the night went pretty well. At the end, this supervisor let us go early, but EGCW was setting up a manual ring and slamming skids on the floor. Passive aggressively trying to get our attention. It didn't work.

I came home and the kids were watching tv. I hung out a bit and remembered I tivoed "Father of the Pride". The paper sort of panned it, but I thought it was pretty funny. I thought it might be a little too risque for NBC, but good for them for putting in on.

Then I came downstairs to do this.

Now I gotta go

cya

A Twofer

Two days in one.

Yesterday I did the rehab thing. I was the only one there, it was kinda cool. They showed me some more stuff with the weights.

I came home and headed out to work. Work was ok. It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop, there will be some bullshit soon, it's just a matter of time.

I've been after people since last Thursday to take down a Bush sticker in the locker room. We're not allowed to have anything like that in the building. Well, after bugging and bugging, it finally came down.

After work I had to head over to Walmart to pick up some dumbbells (let the jokes begin!). So that took an hour out, then headed home.

I got home and had to hurry up and go to bed, I hate that. I had to get up early today to do my walking thing.

So I did the weights and the walk. I think I need a few more pounds on the barbell. I got 10's and I think 12's would be just about right.

I headed to work. Made a bunch of phone calls on the way. I'm having trouble reaching the furnace guy. Chrissy told me later that he called and said that he could be down here on Saturday. As long as it's in the morning, it'll be cool.

Work was quiet....too quiet.

I headed home and checked the tv. Looks like we lost the local channels. I guess we'll have to get them and lose the NY/LA channels. I hate that. I'd like to have all of them.

The RNC...sponsored by Republispew. (announcer) Try Republispew. The official spew of the Repubilcan Party. With 1/3 more bullshit than the average spew.

If somebody just stepped on the planet, they'd think that these people had a clue. They'd be wrong.

Yesterday, Dennis Hastert compared Bunnypants to Lincoln and Reagan TOO many times. Let me put it this way. If Lincoln was around today, he'd get so far from these Repubs it's not even funny. I don't think Lincoln would want to be associated with a group that wants to write bias into the constitution and take rights away from women.

Also. Too much 911. But then again, 911 and Afghanistan is all that Monkey Boy has.

I have no respect for John Mcain anymore. Bush bitch slapped him silly in the primaries 4 years ago and now he's his shill. I know there's party politics, but this is ridiculous.

Giuliani got some good ones off against Kerry. I think you have to sort of ignore the rhetoric. Here's the deal. Both candidates have they're negatives. But I think that George's outweigh Kerry's 15 or 20 to one. And that's not an exaggeration.

And their show of "diversity" is just a big lie. This is the party of the rich. They only care about the rich and gaining more wealth. Don't let them suck you in with statements of "morality".

Tonight I didn't get to hear a whole lot. I did hear Santorum interviewed though. When asked about the constitutional marriage amendment, he said that they're not "against" people. They're for marriage between a man and a woman. Give me a break.

I have a client to go see tomorrow. So I gotta wrap this.

cya