....I'll be on my knees.

So Black Friday comes....

I hit the road at 6 am. Had to get tires on the car. And it was 17 degrees when I left the house. Nice.

Got the car dropped off and went to the Dunkin' Donuts next door. I did learn one thing. Anyone who says the word "Gubment" doesn't know what the fuck they are talking about.

I got a call from my niece and she wanted to hook up later. Got the car around 9, headed over and got it washed and headed out to meet her at Costco. Saw a lot of cool stuff and got some ideas, then headed to work.

It seemed that the longer I worked on Friday, the stupider I got. I had to do 2 reports 3 times. The I messed up 3 intakes. But they do say the way to learn the stuff is to make mistakes and correct em. If that's the case, I should know everything very soon.

Got home and crashed quickly cause we went shopping today.

Went down and got Chrissy and headed over to Sam's. Got a lot more ideas. (Robopet's are VERY cool) We then headed to the Harrisburg East Mall. There is a Bass Pro Shop in there, that's a very huge, very expensive store.

We saw the boat that we want. Unfortunately they're two different boats. The one I like is very sleek looking. The one Deb and Chrissy and Mike like is more conducive to fishing. Oh well, outvoted again.

We did a little more shopping, went back to Chrissy and Mike's and ate and then headed home. I just finshed watching Stanford come THIS CLOSE to upsetting Notre Dame, and then I wrote this.

Tomorrow? House rearranging for Xmas tree placement. Thrilling.

cya

Tires

Ordered some today. It turns out that Mike was able to help me get a decent value on a new set. I'll be getting them put on on Black Friday. Hope to hit the mall's while I'm waiting.

I put up a new blog today. Here it is I hope to get a few more pics for it in a few days.

Work is cruising right along. The house is pretty well caught up. so I've had some time to catch up on this stuff. And I got to post two days in a row.

And yes Cat, I must inform the world of my exciting life.

cya

Ongoing

The new job is very cool.

We're getting stuff together for the holidays, seems to be going pretty well.

I'll post when I can. Or if I ever have something to say. :)

Mazel Tov

Shabbat Shalom....and other Hebrew words that I don't completely understand.

I went to a Bar Mitzvah yesterday for Justin Dekelbaum. Deb deals a lot with Justin's father Larry and Grandpa Max. All lovely people by the way.

The event was in Potomac Md. So we had to get up early and drive. We got there with a few minutes to spare and went in to the temple service. It was 9 am. Not many people there, so I didn't think it would be too bad of a gig.

Time passed...

A LOT of time passed.

3 hours and 15 minutes later it was all over and young Justin was now a man. The service was actually more interesting than boring. With the small exception that I don't understand a word of Hebrew. But I'll stop kvetching.

I could never be a Jew. It's really a lot of work. The Torah's that were provided had an english translation. They say a few lines of prayer, have to bow left right then center, say a few more lines, bow, take 2 steps back. It's a lot of work.

Then there's all the acoutrements. They have a bag with a robe they have to wear. There's the standard Yarumulke (Jew Beanie).

Imagine how many people would show up at the local 1st Lutheran if you told them they needed special clothes and had to learn a language, as well as have a ton of money. :)

The service is interesting tho. They save money on an organist by doing the whole gig acapella. A lot of milling around and chit chat. Since I didn't know what I was doing I didn't really understand. My Jew guide (Deb) was separated from me upon entering the chapel.

So we went and had a nice catered, stand up lunch in the lobby. We talked to Larry and got some directions and headed to the mall.

We managed to kill a major chunk of time. Hit the Apple store (think Video IPod for me folks) and Sharper Image (Roboraptor!) to mention a few. Then headed out to the parking lot and caught a quick nap.

We went back to the temple around 7 and found the bar. Deb found a wine she REALLY liked and I was having Grey Goose and OJ. I see what all the fuss is about. This guy filled a glass up half with GG and it tasted like straight OJ, I shit you not. They had a sushi bar set up, a mashed potato bar, a mini cup of soup bar and a band in the lobby.

The kids had a room where they could make their own pixy stik art. They had 2 big projection screens that they could play video games on. I should mention that Justin and his family like to deep sea fish, so the theme of the evening's festivities was fish and the ocean. Both vid games were Sega Deep Sea Fishing 2003 or something like that. The kids also had a french fry and onion ring bar set up.

They then hustled us into the main event room (still in the temple, folks). I guess around 300 people in all. A large balloon archway covered the dance floor. The band had now moved inside. A 4 piece that covered jewish standards and cranked them up a bit, not bad, actually. Facing the bandstand at the other end of the dance floor was Justin's name in balloons and a Disc Jockey.

We sat with folks that work for Larry. The man has 3 businesses, Food Distribution, Restaurant and Catering. So naturally he catered his own event. The guy is a ball of energy, moving all over the place.

They started dancing crazy right away. (An open bar helps, folks) The tables were done with a tackle box full of gummy worms and candy fish. Each place had a fish shaped caribiner as a gift, and Deb wrangled a fish shaped pen. Now that I think of it, we could have gotten 2 more.

Anyway, the 1st course comes out. It looked like a fish, meat and chicken kabob. But when you started, you find out it's all fish. And very tasty.

They brought a red and white wine around to the tables. I preferred to refer to both as battery acid.

They had some kid games so the adults could get more lit. Then we heard "The Stations are open" Turns out there were about 10 courses total if you wanted. Chicken or Meat of some type in peppers and onions (very tasty), Chinese, Chicken breast, Prime Rib, Filet Mignon, etc. It was quite the spread.

We got desert, which was the coolest. They had a boat made out of chocolate with a chocolate sail. There was mousse inside the boat and it set on a "sea" of blue tasty stuff. In the sea were a few small candy fish and a gummy fish. Very neat.

I would be amiss to my regular readers if I didn't describe 2 VERY attractive women that were there. One, seated to my right, was the spitting image of Claudia Black. One to my left was a cross between Eva Longoria and Pat Benatar. Very nice.

We drove home and made it in exactly 2.5 hours. That's interesting, because I've always gone a different way to DC and it takes about an hour more. It's nice to know we can get down there, cause the mall we went to has shops on a par with King of Prussia.

Ok, enough from me. Sorry I've been so late posting, hope this makes up for it.

Cya

And.......

We're Back!

Two weeks. Lotsa memories. Lotsa good people.

I'll be setting up a website that folks from the class will contribute to. You'll be able to see a bunch of pics there. I'll have it up late in the week.

I love flying. But I hate the seats. From OKC to Chicago the guy in the seat was bigger than I was. Chicago to Harrisburg was a little better, but the seats still suck.

We went to the PSU game today with Darlene and Karen. 3rd largest crowd ever. Looking forward to next week. It should determine the Big 10 champion.

More stuff later.

Ooooooooooooooook..........

......lahoma.

Here we be. In sunny (and hot) Norman, Oklahoma.

I flew out of Harriburg (MDT) at 8 am on Sunday. I was told to be at the terminal 2 hours early, so I was. We got there at 6. At 6:15 I had checked my bags, gone thru security and was seated waiting for the flight.

Flew out on an Airbus. I was a little uncomfortable. No room for my arms. But I listened to the IRiver and it was fine.

Got to Ohare and found my gate and had an hour to spare. Hung out for a bit, Cat called and I picked her up a t-shirt. Then it was 11:55. I about shit cause it came up fast. Nobody moved. I kept looking at the board, It said everything was on time.

I waited....12:15.....12:30......12:50...... FINALLY they called us to board. After I got here and talked to Deb I realized that I had changed time zones. I am an idiot. :)

So I figure I'm heading down a jetway again. This time it's a Canadair jet. Well...I walk down steps to the tarmac. It's a 50 seater with the steps that fold down. COOL. Then I found my seat....NOT COOL. All the way in the back by the head, against the window. I like the window, but it was setup at a 5 year old's height. The seats are TINY.

The guy beside me was cool. He gets his laptop out before we take off. Fires it up in flight and I see the postal logo come up. So we have a chat about that. Turns out he was in Iraq and has the same views (roughly) as Billy does.

We landed and caught the NCED shuttle. The first thing you really notice coming out of the airport is that there are working oil wells right there. Then a little further you see that gas is about $2,25 a gallon. Nice.

I got in and unpacked. I've been going for 12 hours now. Got everything but the pooter set up. Then I realized that I had a bowl of cereal and a candy bar all day. And water, of course. Had to wait till 5 for food, but their food court here is excellent.

Chowed down and came back to the room. Set up the computer and called Deb to let her know I was here and to remind her to buy the winning lottery ticket for Wednesday ($340 mil?) Nice.

Then I called Chrissy and set up World of Warcraft and Ventrilo on the machine. Her and Mike got me situated and then we went out and killed stuff. Nice.

Watched some football and went to sleep. Yes, I know Penn State lost and I'm still pissed about officiating. Go to the 2nd quarter, the play that ends with 5:27 on the clock. Watch the guy go down and make your own spot on the ball, then play it and watch where the ref comes out. I hate to cry about it, because it was a great game, but they really did fuck us.

Day 1 started at 5:30 am. Got up and headed to class. Everything is one story down from me. We are lucky that our classrooms are in this building. A lot are in the building across the courtyard and others are off site. You have to look at the link in my previous post to check this place out. It is really nice.

We have 2 instructors. One is a semi-hyper female chatterbox. The other is a monotoned Notre Dame fan. (Yeah, redundant, I know) Plenty of breaks. Plenty of caffeine.

This was mostly introduction today, tomorrow we start doing stuff.

I went and worked out today. Only 10 minutes of aerobic workout, but 55 minutes of activity. Arms went a little numb once, but everything seemed fine. We'll see tomorrow.

I ate, came up to the room and got a shower, then went down for a 30 minute full body massage. My back has not felt this good in a LONG while. This is the first day I've made it thru without pain pills for a long time too.

Came back up and mailed Cat her T-shirt, then met a few classmates in the lounge for a nightcap.

Now I'm blogging to you......

Nice.

I'm Leavin....

....on a jet plane.

I head out to Oklahoma City tomorrow, then a short shuttle ride to the training facility.

Looking forward to it.

I'll get to blog a bit too.

cya

But you can call me.....

....Grandpa.

Looks like Toby and Melanie's wedding will be pushed up JUST A BIT. I called home tonight and Deb told me the good news.

On the work front? I got my plane tickets and advance today. My abstract came in from Penndot today. I got a phone call at 9:15 am (a.k.a. The Middle of the Night) telling me that all is well with my driving record. Take that, Cat!! :)

New laptop should be in this week. I have to find out if the training facility has broadband.

cya

P.S. Penn State is 5-0, Ohio State this week. If they win this week and stay healthy, there's no reason why they can't run the table.

Phase 1....Complete!

Doris gets her oats.

I passed my pretest. It was interesting, to say the least. I now have to wait for my driving info to come back from the state. They told me today that the two that they really hold you back for are DUI and Reckless Driving. I think I'm ok on that.

I've been scheduled into a one day classroom for a govt. license. Then the following week I'll have a 1 hour test. Then, if I get through all of that stuff, I get to go to Oklahoma for 2 weeks.

Right now I'm booked for the 31st of October, but they are trying to get me scheduled for the 15th.

I'll keep you posted.

cya

I....Had.....FUN!!!!

Big class reunion Saturday night.

After Penn State's comeback in the last 1:30 of the game, I was fired up for some fun.

Everyone had fun and was well behaved. The teacher didn't have to say anything to us at all!!!

I'll be putting up some photo's on the class blog later in the week.

I have my "pre" test tomorrow. So I'm hitting it early.

cya

Good things happen.....

....to bad people. I'm living proof!! :)

Have to go back to yesterday.

When there are problems at work, it's almost always during machine changeover.

We were setting up to run first class mail and equipment was kinda scarce. We set up our side and went over to the main side to finish up. The one end of the machine needed containers and the other end of the machine had an extra. So the guy I was working with took it.

The Extremly Gay Co-Worker (EGCW) decided that taking "his" spare container was offensive. Yelled at the guy I was working with and came to our end of the machine (the non-gay end). He took a container that was already labeled and drug it back to his side (gay) of the machine.

You don't do that.

Once a container is labeled in the P.O. it almost becomes kinda sacred. I've been in other areas of the building with no people around and not taken containers that were labeled. You just don't do it.

At this point, I lost it.

I was screaming at the top of my lungs, "You DON'T do that". EGCW was pretending he didn't hear me. The guy I was working with was yelling at him too. I went and got the container, drug it back and slammed it into another container about 3 feet away from this guy. Didn't phase him.

Then my hero, Brian, got involved.

He saw all of this shit unfold from the other side of the machine. Now, you have to understand that he is just a quiet, unassuming guy. He comes over, gets within 1 foot of EGCW's face...and just glares at him. Doesn't say a fucking word.

EGCW is like.....What?....What???....What did I do.

The beauty part is that it was a real release for me. This guy has to be experienced to be believed. He is always rude and demeaning. To have THREE people stand up to his shit was just a beautiful thing to behold.

Anyway....

Later on, one of the training people came up to me and said "I understand you got the Bulk Mail job."

I'm dumbfounded.

I wanted to bid on the job that was up this month, but the computer was down and I wasn't able to. So I tell the guy, after some discussion, that I'd love to have it but I wasn't aware of it.

I figure it's just a mistake and go home.

Then my friend in training sends me an email and tells me I have the bulk mail job. So I figure I better look into it.

It turns out that it's a job that was posted LAST month. 2 people have failed the test/turned it down. So now it's my turn.

A lot of hoops to jump thru. First, a pretest, just to prove I can do the training. Then a Govt. Drivers License test. Then 2 weeks in scenic Norman, Ok. for the actual training. THEN I actually get the job.

Minuses....it's relief pool. Which means I fill in for people's vacations and sick days and the like.

Pluses....it's zero lifting. And, when I'm not filling in for someone, it's......wait for it.......Monday thru Friday, Daylight.

Glory Hallelujah!! :)

I should consume alcohol....but I have shit to do tomorrow. So...

cya

Blippity Bloppity....

Just home from work.

I think I posted the other day that a co-worker told me there were 500 people who applied for the OIC position. A friend of mine told me tonight that that number is more like 8. At least I have a range to work with.

I actually did take a few pics with the palm at the game on Saturday. Nothing to brag about tho.

I have clients to see all week and my class reunion Saturday, so posts will be a little spotty. I'll try to get one or two in.

cya

I'm gonna hit you.....

....till candy comes out.

Got up and actually did some stuff around the house. Rolling along really well, then I thought, "Man, I know we're moving into fall but it's really getting dark early." This was around 4:30. Then it started raining, and I mean nasty ass HARD rain.

Then, of course, the power went out.

I shut everything off and went outside. Just sheets of rain coming in. Hung out for awhile and Deb came home. We went into town to eat. Passed a PP&L truck on the way in, so we figured the lights would be on when we got home.

They weren't.

So we figured we'd run a cable up and fire up the generator. I got it runnin' and the tv was firing up and then the generator just shut off. I guess I should have let it run for 5 minutes or so before putting a load on it. The pain in the ass part about this is that it takes the satellite so long to boot up.

Anyway, I went down, fired it up again and hooked up the tv. It took forever to boot. We watched for about 5 minutes....and then the power came on. So I had to shut off the generator and wait another "forever" for it to boot back up again.

So it did and we were finally able to shut off our brains and be sold foreign cars and mayonaisse.

PSU tomorrow. I should put a bunch of pics up soon.

Do you want it? Do you?

cya

Another day....

....off.

I hope this clears up soon. I hate using my sick days when I'm actually sick. :)

Working on the class blog. Replying to some email. Just getting my shit together and destressing a little.

So what are you up to?

cya

Under orders....

I'm being held at gunpoint to post. So I do so in the name of the Blog Posting Liberation Front. Fight the power.

Anyway. Home sick today. Ass problems that you really don't wanna know about. I've been immersed in getting ready for the class reunion and checking out some football.

Also. Been really, really tired again. So I slack off the pain pills, which helps. But then, despite the ambien, I'm waking up in the middle of the night in pain.

So. We continue.

bye

Apologies....

I thought mandatory evacuation meant. "You have to go, now, get on the bus" Evidentally, mandatory evacuation means. "You have to go, now, good luck!"

So the people left are primarily poor and...well...no other way to say it...black.

One thing we know for certain is that there will be more hurricane events like this. So here's what I say.

When the governor calls for mandatory evac, that's what it means. They will have the power to go to as many states as necessary and commandeer their buses. Police will go house to house and tell people it's time, can you drive? If yes, they get in their car and go. Their doors must be left unlocked so emergency teams know a house is vacant. If they can't drive, they can get on the bus that the police are providing.

If they resist officers can use any force necessary, and I mean any. Taser, 9mm, whatever it takes.

Police are being pulled out of search and rescue now to find and control looters. So, as far as I'm concerned, the looters are accessories to murder. If you stay behind in a situation like this your one of 3 things.

1) Stupid. The govt. will think for you in this instance. You can bitch about it, but at least you'll be alive to bitch.

2) Protecting Your Property. You won't have to. There won't be anyone there other than emergency crews.

3) Looting. Bad people. Should be shot anyway.

Now, I know people are looting now for survival. But I heard a report today that a woman was coming out of Walmart with a Dyson vacumn cleaner. That's not an essential, last time I heard.

On to other stuff

Go to Weezy and the Swish, Download Podcast 12 and go in 55 minutes. You can listen to the whole thing, but this is really funny.

Listened to The Rock and Roll Geek Show. Great interview with Jim Vallance. You don't know the name. But you've heard TONS of his songs.

Go to Adam Curry's Daily Source Code and download episode 231. Go into 22:55 and have some hair stand up on your neck. On me!!

Then check out this GREAT video for the band Ok,Go!

More than enough for tonite.

Cya

Katrina....

Category 5 storm expected to mess up New Orleans big time. They say the city will never be the same. We'll be hearing about this for months to come.

I hope it doesn't cut into the Jessica Simpson coverage too much.

I took my test today. I think I did good...that's not a good sign. Everytime I think I do good I fuck up. We'll see. Results in 4 to 6 weeks. I'm glad the P.O. doesn't do pregnancy tests.

cya

Since somebody....(finally).....asked.

I shall post.

It's been a screwed up month. I have tons to say but some of it I could get into legal trouble for.

So let's look forward, shall we?

I take a test tomorrow to get into the supervisor program at work. Wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes.

Cya

Alrighty then.....

.....flog me with that proverbial wet noodle.

I've been much amiss in posting lately. To be honest, I've had tons to do and have had an overwhelming feeling of tired the past few weeks. I feel like I'm starting to come out of it and I had to tell you first. Because you know I love you best of all.

Taking the car up today to get serviced. Cat is hooking up with me. I'm selling her some phones and we're gonna go out and do some stuff.

Other than that, I will try to do a piece on the funeral from hell and some of the other stuff you have missed.

BTW. My cousin Steve's wife died this week. She was in her 40's and had suffered from cancer for several years. A real nice lady and a real fighter. She will be missed on this planet.

cya

Shake your Lean White Meat

This is one of the best bands I've heard in a while. I LOVE the name and they have a very cool visual too.

It's a shame it's a Burger King commercial.

Ladies and Gentlemen....